USING VIDEOS TO IMPROVE EFL VIETNAMESE LEARNER’S ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRẦ N NGUYỄN NHƯ QUỲNH USING VIDEOS TO IMPROVE EFL VIETNAMESE LEARNER’S ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60140111 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: Nguyen Gia Viet, Ph.D Nghệ An, 2017 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I herein declare that the thesis is my own work and that it has not been submitted for any other purposes before Works of others that are used in the thesis are properly cited and acknowledged Tran Nguyen Nhu Quynh ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to many people, from whom I have received valuable contributions for the completion of this work First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Mr Nguyen Gia Viet, Ph.D for his valuable support, guidance and timely, encouragement while I was doing this research Without his guidance, comment, and suggestions during all phases of the work, my thesis would still be far from completed Secondly, I would also like to express my gratitude to all lecturers and staff of the Department of Foreign Languages, Vinh University who supply me with the good conditions to conduct this thesis and finish this TESOL M.A cohort In addition, my special thanks also go to the non-English major students of grade 11th in Le Quy Don High School for their willingness to complete the survey questionnaire Without their help, this project could not been a success Last but not least, my warmest thanks go to my beloved family, my colleagues, my friends for their kindness, helpful supports and useful encouragements ABSTRACT In learning English, Pronunciation is an important skill because a word being pronounced incorrectly or wrong intonation may lead to misunderstanding from listeners Most of EFL Vietnamese learners have difficulties in pronouncing the words correctly in English The National University Entrance Exam delivered annually does not test oral and aural competencies of the prospective English language teachers As they not expected to have these skills, students automatically not focus on listening comprehension and pronunciation aspects of the target language, which leads to lose one of the components of an effective communication In order to eradicate this problem, this study aims to investigate the audiovisual method which means using videos to improve EFF Vietnamese learners’ English pronunciation The data were collected mainly through survey questionnaires, interview and tests Questionnaires are administered to 60 participants of the two non-major English classes whose ages 17, and then analyzed by means of descriptive statistics These learners were pretested through a number of pre-designed words which be rated in terms of pronunciation accuracy Based on the results of the pre-test, two groups, one as the experimental group and the other as control group, were formed Then, traditional method (drill) will be used for the control group in pronunciation practice Meanwhile, videos will be used to get the experiment group practice After three months, the two groups were posttested through similar in format and material to the pre-test The score of the participants demonstrated that experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of the average accuracy gains Finally, it was concluded that videos can lead to higher accuracy in improving EFL Vietnamese’s English Pronunciation TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Rationale 2Research Questions The Objective of the study Significance of the study Scope of the Study 6Methodology CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW3 A The Nature of Pronunciation 1) The definition of Pronunciation3 2) Definition of consonant 2.1 Place of Articulation 2.2 Manner of Articulation 2.3 Manners of Interference 3) Consonant in English Phonology 3.1 English sound class 3.2 Consonants 4) Teaching Pronunciation 4.1 The objective of teaching pronunciation 4.2 The problems of teaching pronunciation for EFL Vietnamese learners 4.3 Methods and techniques of teching pronunciation B The Nature of Audio-visual aids Kinds of Audio-visual aids The Advantages of using Audio-visual aids CHAPTER THREE METHODOLODY A The setting and the subject of the Research Time and place of the Research The subject of the Research B Action Research Definition of Action Research The steps in Action Research The procedure of Action Research 3.1 Indentify a problem area 3.2 Planing the action C Method of Research D Research Instruments Pretest Questionnaire Treatment Posttest E Data Collection Procedure F Data Analysis CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A Research Findings Cycle 1)Questionnaire A 2)Interview 3)Pre-test 4)Planning 5)Action 6)Observation 7)Reflection Cycle 1) Revised Plan 2) Action 3) Posttest 4) Questionnaire B 5) Observation 6) Reflection 7) Interview B Discussion 1) Videos are able to improve Students’ pronunciation ability 2) Videos are able to improve Students’ perception C Hypothesis testing CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION A Conclusion B Implication C Suggestion 1) For the teachers 2) For the institutions 3) For other researchers REFERENCES APPENDIX A PRETEST APPENDIX B POSTTEST APPENDIX C DATA COLLECTION FROM PRETEST AND POSTTEST APPENDIX D THE CYCLE1 TEST APPENDIX E QUESTIONNAIRE A APPENDIX F QUESTIONNAIRE B APPENDIX G ENGLISH PHONETIC SYMBOLS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale English has been accepted as the dominant means of communication, both written and spoken in most of the world And because of the internet, the world becomes smaller and smaller so English learning is also every important to Vietnamese learners During daily communications, we often find some misunderstandings being caused by inappropriate pronunciation Sometimes such mispronunciation is significant and we should pay close attention to the problem I decided I would try to tackle the teaching of pronunciation in order to help my students with their English pronunciation and in turn they would be the best model for their future students as well According to A.G Gimson “All language are spoken and begun with ears Once a known professor notes that at speaking language a person should know exactly one hundred percent of its phonetics, ninety percent of its grammar and ten percent of the vocabulary may be sufficient” It seems obvious to me that phonetics constitutes the basic of all other aspects of language The students should first of all learn to hear the sounds accurately and listen to them closely and carefully The more and hear the differences between the various sound of English language, the better they will articulate them To this end, students should undergo ear-training and constant listening to English native speakers or some equally good models Then they should imitate they should heard, using their background knowledge to make the proper adjustment of their speech organs to reproduce the sound correctly Wrong practice does not only waste time and effort but also creative had habits, which will be extremely difficult to eliminate 10 When speaking a foreign language, say English, pronunciation is of great importance If you cannot pronounce correctly you are not able to make yourself understood A language is a tool of communication but bad pronunciation can never be a good tool of communication For the reasons above, I have decided to this research named “ Using Videos to Improve EFL Vietnamese Learner’s English Pronunciation” I hope that this study will be helpful for Vietnamese teachers and students in some ways to find appropriate approaches to help students improve their pronunciation Research questions Does the use of videos help students improve English pronunciation? What perceptions students have about using videos to help them improve pronunciation in English classes? The Objectives of the Study For the reasons mentioned above, the study aims of this thesis to examine whether or not the audiovisual (videos) method can improve English pronunciation ability of EFL Vietnamese Learners and to identify what students’ perceptions are when videos are used as a teaching learning media in pronunciation practice Significance of the Study This study is significant in many ways Firstly, if the results are positive, this can encourage English teachers to use audio visual in teaching English pronunciation Secondly, EFL Vietnamese learners are easy to get more experience or use videos as an effective way to improve English pronunciation Next, it also helps EFL Vietnamese learners to learn English pronunciation easily or ensure that audio visual can be interesting in teaching English pronunciation 78 Appendix D The Cycle test John is living in a small house in the countryside with his mother He has no brothers and sisters From the window of his own room, he could see his school through the green leaves of the trees if he wants to pull them to one side He doesn’t have any friends, so he feels very unhappy However, he believes that if he could become adult quickly he wouldn’t have to go to school If he could choose, he would love to become a famous man during his life But he is not yet a man and he must still shut up and what he is told Although he might run away from school and make his way to another country in a ship, it is not long until he will no longer be a boy He starts to grin and goes down to the pool for a swim 79 Appendix E QUESTIONNAIRE A Survey Questionnaire for Students This questionnaire is designed to collect information for the study on “Using videos to improve EFL Vietnamese Learners’ English Pronunciation” Your assistance in completing the following items is highly appreciated You can be certain that this is for research purpose only and that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Part 1: Personal Details Your gender : Male  Female  Your age: ……………… How long have you been learning English? ……………… Part 2: Please put a tick in the appropriate box to show how much you agree with the following statements: Statement Good English Pronunciation is promoted through regular opportunities for you to understand native speaker clearly Pay attention on pronunciation and stress can help native speakers understand you more EFL Vietnamese learners of all ages can develop or improve their English pronunciation Your teacher only teaches LKS ( a handbook containing materials and student worksheets) by explaining the materials and doing exercise on the handbook Your teacher teaches pronunciation by dictating and drilling Total Agre No Disag ly e t ree agree sur e □ □ □ □ Totall y disagr ee □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ 80 Your teacher never other methods to teach Pronunciation Your teacher did not focus on teaching pronunciation and give clearly explanation I often have problem in pronouncing a final consonant and put right stress in the right syllable\word You find English and English pronunciation interested but you have lack of self –motivation so you give up to find other sources to practice Lack of time to practice pronunciation is the good reason for bad pronunciation □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ 1 Wrong methods of self-study and wrong teaching methods of teachers can lead to incorrect pronunciation □ □ □ □ □ You often have a habit of pronouncing the □ sounds of English like the sounds of Vietnamese When you see the words is not familiar □ and you try to look it up in the dictionary, you can read and pronounce the word correctly by looking at the symbols Appendix F □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ 1 QUESTIONNAIRE B Survey Questionnaire for Students This questionnaire is designed to collect information for the study on “Using videos to improve EFL Vietnamese Learners’ English Pronunciation” Your assistance in completing the following items is highly appreciated You can be certain that this is for research purpose only and that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Part 1: Personal Details Your gender : Male  Female  81 Your age: ……………… How long have you been learning English? ……………… Part 2: Please put a tick in the appropriate box to show how much you agree with the following statements: Statement I think using videos to improve English pronunciation is an eventually effective way Videos are promoted through activities which give opportunities to learn how to use correct the move of the lips and the tongue I love to learn pronunciation by videos because it’s easy to remember I feel confident to speak English now because my English pronunciation has completely improved a lot after the treatment I knew more about the English sound system especially the final consonants I make fewer mistakes in pronouncing six final consonant (/s/, /z/, /l/, /ð/, /f/, /v/) I’m not afraid of reading aloud in front of the class I found a good method so that I can continue to improve my English pronunciation without teacher’s help You get rid of pronouncing the sounds of English like the sounds of Vietnamese When you see the words is not familiar and you try to look it up in the dictionary, you can read and pronounce the word correctly by looking at the symbols Total Agre No Disag ly e t ree agree sur e □ □ □ □ Totall y disagr ee □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ 82 Appendix G English Phonetic Symbols Given the complexity of sound-spelling correspondences in English, it would be difficult to use the Roman alphabet to symbolize English sounds Some problems would arise when English spelling system is used to represent sound English Pronunciation has distinctive sound classes It is divided into two basic groups: segmental and suprasegmental In the segmental group there are vowels, diphthongs and consonants In suprasegmental group there are stress and intonation Table 1: English Phonetic Symbols 83 Consonants Consonant are sound whose articulation involves a significant obstruction to airflow in the vocal tract In this discussion about consonant, the researcher will refer to three basic characteristics: a) Place of articulation In English, there are six places in the mouth where the airstream is obstructed in the formation of consonants (1) Bilabial (both lips) Bilabial sounds are made with two lips coming together and touching momentarily The obstruction of the airstream thus occurs at the lips The phonetic symbols for these three sounds are the same as the English letters The 84 sounds /p/, /b/, and /m/ are referred to as bilabial sounds because the two (bi-) lips (-labial) are involved in their production Picture 1: Bilabial (2) Labiodentals (lower lip and upper teeth) The labiodentals sounds are made with the top of the teeth touching the bottom lip Therefore in this case of two sounds, the obstruction of the airstream occurs not because the two lips come together but because the bottom lip and the top teeth come together The sounds /f/ and /v/ are referred to as labiodentals sounds because the lips (labio) and the teeth (dental) are involved in their production Picture : Labiodental (3) Dental/dental fricative (tip of the tongue and the teeth) 85 Dental sounds are obstruction of the airstream occurs because the tip of the tongue is between the teeth or just behind the teeth The phonetic symbols for these sounds are not the same as the English letters The th as in word “think” is represented by the symbol /θ/ and th as in the word “those” is represented by the symbol /ð/ The sounds /θ/ and /ð/ are referred to as interdental sounds because the tongue is placed between (inter) the teeth (dental) Picture 3: Dental (4) Alveolar Alveolar sounds are made with the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth just behind the upper teeth The place of articulation is the alveolar ridge The sounds /t/, /d/, /n/, /s/, and /z/ are referred to as alveolar sounds because the tongue either touches or approaches the alveolar ridge in their production 86 Picture 4: Alveolar (5) Alveopalatal Alveopalatal sounds are made with the blade of the tongue approaching of the hard palate just behind the tooth ridge The phonetic symbols of these sounds are not the same as the English letters The final sound of “wish” is represented by the symbol /∫/ and the final sound of “beige” is represented by the symbol /ʒ/ Picture Alveopalatal (6) Velar Velar sounds occur when the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum (soft palate), as in “cool” and the final consonants in “back”, “bag”, and “bang” Voicing and nasality distinguish these further 87 Picture Velar b) Manner of articulation: the way in which the airstream is obstructed Manner of articulation refers to the way in which the obstruction of the air stream, which characterizes all consonants, is achieved At the different places of articulation in the mouth, there are several basic ways that the air stream can be obstructed (1) Stop (complete obstruction of the airstream) A stop is a sound that involves complete closure of the oral cavity (Giegerich, 1992:19) The articulators come so close together that no air can escape between them Stops are found in words like “tie”, “die”, “pie”, “buy”, “my”, “night”, etc [- continuant] pea, tea, key, buy, die, guy, my bilabi voicele pal ss voiced b labiodent interdent alveola alveopalat velar als al al tr d Table 2: The stop consonants of English (2) Continuant k g 88 Continuants are the opposite of stops where the airstream is not totally blocked in the oral cavity, so it can escape continuously through the mouth The consonants in “sea”, “zoo”, “lie”, “you”, “thigh”, etc are continuants [+ continuant] Rye, lie, you, woo, thigh, thy, sea, zoo, all vowels (3) Sonorants A sonorant is a sound whose phonetic content is predominantly made up by the sound waves produced by its voicing Sonorants are characterized by “periodic acoustic energy” It can be assumed that there are no voiceless sonorants because the removal of voicing from a sonorant makes it non-distinct from other members of this set and practically inaudible The consonants in “my”, “nigh”, “rye”, “lie” and all vowels are sonorants [+ sonorant] My, nigh, lie, rye, you, woo, all vowels (4) Obstruent Obstruent articulation involves an obstruction of the air stream that produces a phonetic effect independent of voicing In a word such as “tie”, for example, the initial stop is audible although it is voiceless, and it is distinct from the equally voiceless stop in “pie” Similarly, the consonants in “sue” and “zoo” are obstruent It follows from this definition that obstruent can typically occur in voiced and voiceless variants 89 [- sonorant] pea, tea, key, buy, die, guy, thigh, sue, thy, zoo (5) Fricatives Some consonants in English not involve a complete stoppage of the airstream but rather a partial obstruction This partial obstruction results from the lips or the tongue coming close to some part of the upper mouth These consonants are called fricatives because the close approximation of the articulations causes turbulence or friction in airflow The initial sounds of “fan” and “van”; “think” and “those”; “sip” and “zip” and the final sounds of “wish” and “beige” are all fricatives Table 3: The Fricatives Consonants of English Bilabi Labiodent interden alveol alveopala Velar voicele al ss voiced (6) fals θtal sar ∫tal v ð z ʒ Affricates There are two complex consonant sounds in English, /t∫/ as in “chain” and/dЗ/ as in “judge” Each is a combination of a stop followed immediately by a fricative and they are referred to as affricates Table 4: The Affricatives Consonant Bilabia Labiodenta Interdent Alveola Alveopala Velar l ls al r tal 90 (7) Nasals All of the consonant sounds discussed above are made with air passing through the mouth Nasal sounds, on the other hand, are made with air passing through the nose Air is blocked in the mouth in the same way as it is for stop consonants However, the soft palate is lowered, allowing air to escape through the nose Table 5: The Nasal Consonant (8) Bilabi Labiodenta interdent alveol alveopalat Vela mal ls al al nar ηr Liquids The initial sounds of “rip” and “lip” are called liquids because in the pronunciation of the sounds, then air passes through the mouth in a fluid manner (9) Glides (semi-vowels) Other consonant sounds of English produced with little turbulence in the airstream are the initial sounds of the word “wet” and “yet” The phonetic symbols for these sounds are identical to the English letters /w/ and /j/ The two sounds are called semi-vowels because they are made with a relatively wide opening in the mouth In pronunciation of /w/, the lips are rounded and, at the same time, the back of the tongue approaches the soft palate In the pronunciation of /j/, the blade of the tongue approaches the hard palate c) Voicing: whether there is vibration of the vocal cords 91 The initial sound of word zoo and sue are identical in the term of place of articulation and manner of articulation (fricatives) However, they differ in terms of voicing The /s/ is a voiceless sound and /z/ is voiced sound The vibration that is heard with the voiced sounds is caused by the vocal cords Sounds made with the vibrating vocal cords are voiced and sounds made with no vibration of the vocal cords are voiceless The vocal cords are bands of muscle attached to the walls of the larynx When they are close together, the air passing form the lungs into the mouth cause them vibrate When they are apart the passing through air causes no vibration There are eight fricative sounds in English; four of these are voiced and four others are voiceless Table 6: Classification of Fricatives in Terms of Voicing labiodental Interdental alveolar Voiceless f θ s Voiced ð z v Alveopalatal ∫ The stop consonants also come in voiced/voiceless pairs With stop consonants, however, it is a little more difficult to feel the vibration of the vocal cords that accompanies voicing Table 7: Classification of Stops in Terms of Voicing Bilabial Alveolar Velar Voiceless p (pay) t (tell) k (coat) voiced b (buy) d (dent) g (gold) 92 The two affricates of English are made at the same place of articulation but are distinguished in terms of voicing The affricate /t∫/ as in ‘chair’ is voiceless and / dʒ / as in “judge” is voiced Table 8: Classification of Affricates in Terms of Voicing Alveopalatal Voiceless t∫ Voiced ʤ Below is the consonant chart that combines all the three aspects of articulation in one chart Table 9: Classification of English Consonant Bilab Stops Voicele pial Voiced ss b Fricative Voicele s ss Voiced Affricati Voicele ves ss Labiode Dent Alveol Alveopal Velar ntal tar al atal d k g f θ s ∫ v ð z ʒ ʧ ... on the effectiveness of using audio visual (videos) to develop EFL Vietnamese Learner’s English pronunciation The researcher wants to make an effort to improve Vietnamese EFL Learners’ six final... teaching English pronunciation Secondly, EFL Vietnamese learners are easy to get more experience or use videos as an effective way to improve English pronunciation Next, it also helps EFL Vietnamese. .. a tool of communication but bad pronunciation can never be a good tool of communication For the reasons above, I have decided to this research named “ Using Videos to Improve EFL Vietnamese Learner’s