Rationale to the study
As a teacher of English at present and a long- term learner of English in the past as well, I can see that pronunciation is one of the most important part for language learners Pronunciation is the key element for the learners to understand what others talk to them, and to communicate successfully with other people Many learners of English language have major difficulties with English pronunciation even after years of learning the language This often results in them facing difficulties in areas such as finding employment (Fraser, 2000a) The fault which most severely impairs the communication process in EFL/ESL learners is pronunciation, not vocabulary or grammar (Hinofotis & Baily, 1980) Davis (1999) stated that an area of concern and one of the top priorities of ESL students after completing elementary English courses is pronunciation For these reason, it is very important for them to quickly learn how to pronounce sounds, words, sentences as well as stress, intonation exactly Terrible pronunciation leads to occasional misunderstanding Therefore, words and sentences must be repeated due to serious errors in pronunciation (still sounds like steel and ship sounds like sheep), word accent (words are frequently accented on the wrong syllable, e.g., “content” meaning “pleased, satisfied” versus “content” “that which is contained”), and sentence pitch (statements have the „melody‟ of questions, etc.) The student needs to know that improving pronunciation may have greater significance and importance as it supports some aspects like listening comprehension, spelling, reading, and grammar (Wong, 1993) Many studies have shown the strong links between precise pronunciation and speaking well However, teaching pronunciation in university or college is not really effective or nearly neglected during the process of teaching, whereas four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) are the main emphasis
While English is really important in almost every field of our life such as: economy, technology, science, education, trade, tourism and etc…, there are much more difficulties in teaching and learning English especially in teaching and learning pronunciation At Hanoi Tourism College in particular, difficulties come from inconvenient working conditions like not well-equipped devices, low level students and too large classes, as a result, it‟s hard for students to study
In addition, the popular method here is that teachers pronounce new words and students repeat them during speaking periods However, the disadvantage is the pronunciation of teachers may not be really exact or repetition of students is not the same as what they hear from teachers Therefore, the best way to help students to pronounce a word exactly and be able to apply the proper pronunciation to speaking is to teach them how to pronounce a word with phonetic and stress.
Aims and objectives of the research
This study is aimed to enhance the quality of English pronunciation of the first year students of non-major English at Hanoi Tourism College
The first and foremost objective of the study is by virtue of the students In addition, the research is expected to use as a source of reference for teachers of English on the teaching of speaking skills, especially for those who care pronunciation, one of the important elements which help to deal with listening and speaking
To be more specific, in realizing the study, the main objectives are:
- To investigate the effects of the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities on the students‟ achievement in speaking skills
- To give some pedagogical implications for further development.
Research questions for the study
The purpose of the study is to find the answers to the following research questions:
1 What are the effects of integrating pronunciation into speaking activities on students‟ achievement?
2 What are possible pedagogical implications for further development?
Scope of the research
This research focuses on studying the effectiveness of integrating pronunciation into speaking activities to improve English pronunciation of the first year students of non-major English at Hanoi Tourism College In my research, I just focus on suprasegmentals of pronunciation including stress, rhythm and intonation in role – playing activity in speaking lessons.
Significance of the research
The findings of the thesis will be useful not only to the researcher but also to teachers and students of HTC They will contribute to the quality of teaching and learning pronunciation and speaking at HTC
Also, with good and intelligible pronunciation, the students‟ self-confidence will be increased and enables them to better understand their instructors, follow the news on TV or the radio more easily, or join English conversations, class discussions, role-plays, etc.
The design of the study
The study is divided into three parts, which are presented as follows
Part A is the introduction, which states the rationale to the study, the aims and objectives, research questions and the scope as well as the significance and design of the study
Part B, including three chapters, reports on the main contents of the study:
Chapter one – Literature review - presents an overview of theoretical issues of pronunciation discussed and analyzed by prominent and high-qualified ELT experts and researchers The focus is exclusively devoted to pronunciation and speaking
Chapter two – Methodology – describes how we have carried out the study of the Faculty of Foreign Languages for Tourism at Hanoi Tourism College Sub steps in this process consist of observing the learning situation, collecting data, analyzing data and summarizing findings
Chapter three – Findings and Discussions – deal with the summary, the findings as well as the comments for each finding
Part C is the conclusion where we summarize all the main contents of the study, give remarks on objectives, limitations of current research and show suggestions for further studies
Besides, there are also appendixes in which supplementary materials and list of references are provided.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Review of previous studies about integrating pronunciation into speaking activities 5 1.2 Pronunciation in English language teaching
There have been various arguments and support for the integration of pronunciation practice into oral communication Morley (1998) stated that pronunciation plays an important role in overall communicative competence Yong
(2004) suggested that from the traditional ways of learning English, students neglected the basic knowledge of speaking This may have been enough to meet the demands of English in the years when we had less communication with foreign countries However, oral communication began to be more important when they arrived in this century with extended forms of communication with Western countries Yong (2004) asserted that understanding by reading or writing would no longer be sufficient for the development of the economy and that communicating face to face personally or through the internet needed to be understood
The central issue of pronunciation teaching is how to help students speak accurately and fluently in speaking classes One aspect of this issue is what should be taught in class Earlier teaching approaches focused on the segmental features of pronunciation, while more recent approaches have emphasized supra-segmental features such as sentence rhythm and intonation However, this debate has never reached a conclusion The growing trend in today‟s pronunciation curriculum design is to integrate both the most important segmentals and suprasegmentals appropriately in one course Another aspect of the issue is how to teach effectively
Along with the development of instruction approaches, traditional teaching methods and techniques have been advocated or challenged during different times while new methods and techniques have been created A more balanced view today, as represented by Celce - Murcia et al., (1996), is to use traditional pronunciation techniques as a starting point of class and later have students move to more communicative classroom tasks
In recent years, there has been a greater emphasis on teaching competent pronunciation, especially in ESL/EFL classrooms This is due to the increasing realization that poor pronunciation can cause serious problems for learners, such as communication breakdowns, anxiety, and discrimination (Morley, 1998) Yet English pronunciation is neglected in classrooms throughout the world today, including Asia One of the reasons that it is neglected or ignored is because not many English pronunciation teaching strategies or techniques are available to teachers in the classroom (Wei, 2006)
Fraser (1999) added that in the quest for effective teaching, it is worth diagnosing carefully the nature of the difficulties that may be encountered There is a significant skill component for learners Pronunciation is not just a cognitive
„knowing-that‟, it is also a physical „knowing-how‟, similar to playing a sport or musical instrument Learners need motivation and time to really practise pronunciation It is worth spending class time discussing with learners their own ideas about what is involved in learning pronunciation
Jones, Rusman, and Evans (1994) found that students with prior exposure to phonological rules and principles, although they do not always produce more accurate pronunciation, seem to be better equipped to assess their own speech and to be more aware of their particular problems Concurrently, there was a shift from specific linguistic competencies to broader communicative competencies as goals for teachers and students (Morley, 1991) Morley states the need for the integration of pronunciation with oral communication, with more emphasis from segmentals to suprasegmental, more emphasis on individual learner needs, and meaningful task- based practice and introducing peer correction and group interaction (Castillo,
1990) Research has shown that teaching phonemes is not enough for intelligibility in communication With the emphasis on meaningful communication and Morley‟s
(1991, p 488) premise that “intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence”, teachers should include pronunciation in their speaking courses and expect students to do well in them
Besides, Levis and Grant (2003) also did a research of integrating pronunciation into ESL/EFL classrooms In their research, they emphasized that teachers have to find effective ways to integrate pronunciation into oral – oriented classes in the purpose of good communication They gave 3 principles to “promote the integration of pronunciation in ways that link features of speech with their communicative functions rather than ways that promote non-contextualized or irrelevant work on the sound system” These principles are: Aim for a Primary Though Not Exclusive Focus on Suprasegmentals, Maintain a Central Focus on Speaking in the Class and Pronunciation Instruction Should Fit the Constraints of the Speaking Task Also, they suggested 4 activities (a) word clarity in public speaking, (b) thought groups in storytelling, (c) intonation in conversation, and (d) focus in comparisons, three first of which help pronunciation features to be incorporated into speaking tasks intended to aid students develop oral communication skills They showed the conclusion as follow
We have shown ways in which effective use of pronunciation features is crucial for effective spoken communication Words must be recognized if listeners are to process speech Speech is processed more easily if speakers chunk information in expected ways
Intonation is essential to management of conversational goals Important cues about given and new information and about categories being contrasted with a topic are signaled by sentence focus (19)
However, those researches above have just shown challenges and solution for integrating pronunciation into oral activities, but not find whether it meets teachers‟ abilities and students‟ awareness in particular
1.2 Pronunciation in English language teaching
Pronunciation refers to the phonology of the language – or the meaningful perception and production of the sounds of that language and how they impact on the listener (Burns and Claire, 2003, p.5) Similarly, the AMEP Fact Sheets shows that Pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning
Pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds The habit of producing a sound is acquired by repeating it over and over again and by being corrected when it is pronounced wrongly Learning to pronounce a second language means building up new pronunciation habits and overcoming the bias of the first language (Cook,
Pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning It includes attention to the particular sounds of a language (segments), aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality) and, in its broadest definition, attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related to the way we speak a language A broad definition of pronunciation includes both suprasegmental and segmental features
Although these different aspects of pronunciation are treated in isolation here, it is important to remember that they all work in combination when we speak, and are therefore usually best learned as an integral part of spoken language
According to Gilakjani (2011), Pronunciation is viewed as a sub-skill of speaking Fraser (2000a) explains that being able to speak English includes a number of sub-skills of which pronunciation is by far the most important (other sub- skills of speaking include vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatics) She argues that
“with good pronunciation, a speaker is intelligible despite other errors; with poor pronunciation, understanding a speaker will be very difficult, despite accuracy in other areas” (Fraser, 2000a, p 7)
Traditional approaches to pronunciation have often focused on segmental aspects, largely because these relate in some way to letters in writing, and are therefore the easiest to notice and work on More recent approaches to pronunciation, however, have suggested that the suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation may have the most effect on intelligibility for some speakers Harmer
Speaking skill in English language teaching
Speaking is one of the most important skills in learning foreign languages
Bailey and Savage (1991: vii) say “for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill because of the desire to communicate with others, often face-to-face and in real time” Ur (1996) considers speaking intuitively the most important of the four skills: people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak
According to Brown and Yule‟s (1983:127), speaking skill consists of short, fragmentary utterance, in a range of pronunciation There is often a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another and speakers usually use non-specific references Brown (1994:45) defined that speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information When participating in communicative activities, the speaker should choose the correct vocabulary to describe the things they want to say about, to rephrase or emphasize words to clarify the description to produce the expected pattern of specific discourse situations
1.3.2 The importance of speaking skill in English language teaching
Without question, language is a very important means of communication which can help people to exchange information, show ideas, wishes and desires
However, to express those thoughts and transfer that information exactly and easy to understand, we need to consider speaking skill a significant part Especially, it is very necessary for teachers and learners to master this skill Bygate, M (1987:5) emphasizes that speaking “is also a medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is particularly conductive for learning” Nunan (1991:279) also maintains that effectiveness in an oral conversation is evaluated by the competence to carry out a conversation in the target language This competence depends on both students‟ ability and chances to practice at class If they do not have opportunities to show themselves through speaking, they cannot develop language ability and even lose all interest It is more essential in speaking class that both the teachers and students pay much attention in organizing and carrying out positive activities, otherwise, the speaking class can be regarded as a dead class Brown, G and Yule,
G (1992:256) point out that speaking plays an important role in a very transactional intention, that is, to make clear what they want to say When speaking well, learners will have more capacity to learn other skills such as listening, reading and writing
In addition, speaking also helps them to open their mind to the large world
To sum up, speaking skill, besides listening, reading and writing skills, plays a vital role in language teaching.
Factors affecting the integration of pronunciation into speaking activities
It is obviously that any choice of a method of teaching needs favorable conditions for effective application We can consider some factors affecting the integration of pronunciation into speaking activities as follows:
Because teachers are trained to teach students and play a main role in a class, their beliefs are very important in guiding learners to study They are directly in relation to the instruction, content and process of teaching students When they believe strongly in the effectiveness of a particular approach or method of teaching and try to carry out it in classroom, they will be confident to use that
In addition, teachers‟ attitudes are also very important in teaching In classroom, teachers play roles as instructors, consultants, supervisors, communicators and controllers, so their attitudes have much influence on teaching and learning processes and the results of them after the course
Although we know very clearly that pronunciation is very important in speaking, it is usually neglected in oral activities Teachers‟ attitudes and beliefs about this matter will help learners be better in communication
Besides attitudes and beliefs, teachers‟ qualities and personalities play a vital part in teaching learners It is very difficult for students to gain enough knowledge if their teachers do not have enough Levis, J M & Grant, L (2003) states that
“Approaches favoring the integration of pronunciation into oral communication have been espoused for more than 10 years, but teachers have received little clear direction about how to accomplish this integration” They also show two frameworks “In classes devoted to pronunciation, for example, teachers apply the framework usually by moving from controlled pronunciation practice to less structured, communicative speaking practice” and “In courses devoted to speaking or oral communication, teachers apply the framework by moving in the opposite direction, starting with less structured speaking practice and perhaps moving into pronunciation” However, teachers often do vice converse or “address pronunciation unsystematically” Therefore, it can be seen that teachers always need to enhance their qualities in knowledge and teaching method
Motivation often performs two important characters in second language learning process; it firstly arouses people‟s interest and secondly helps people keep their enthusiasm Language learners‟ motivation is basically originated from goals of various kinds and needs It is regarded as the fulfillment of the goals and needs
When learners have high motivation, they will learn harder, which help them have more chance in having a good job, high position or status
Levis, J M & Grant, L (2003) also maintain that “even when teachers want to teach pronunciation communicatively, they have little sense of how to weave it effectively into a listening and speaking or all-skills course so that it consists of more than ad hoc corrections, but does not take up so much time that the communicative goals of the course are neglected” From that, we can conclude that learners‟ attitudes and beliefs affect how they approach their learning
Pronunciation is considered one of the most important things in speaking fluently
Therefore, learners should have right attitudes and beliefs in learning this, which will aid them to feel confident in communicating with foreigners and have more chances in the world market
Inaccurate pronunciation and having no ideas when speaking to foreigners are main reasons which make learners feel worried and unconfident in communication Language anxiety is one of the characteristics which have a relationship with learning process The more anxious students feel, the less their result in learning is With anxiety, learners may have difficulties in making normal conversations or expressing spontaneous reactions When they have confidence, they will speak English freely After that, teachers can discover their mistakes in pronunciation, which helps them to improve speaking skill quickly Therefore, teachers should pay more attention in encouraging learners to speak and creating a comfortable atmosphere in speaking classroom
1.4.3 Learning environment and text books
The learning environment can greatly influence on their academic performance The learning environment can be seen as physical conditions, such as class size, chairs, desks, tables, lights, boards, computer and projectors Physical conditions really affect students‟ learning and their attitudes towards the subject matter With enough equipment to serve the learning, learners will have more interest in training pronunciation and speaking
In addition, text books and teaching aids can be considered important resources Talking about the challenges of integrating pronunciation into speaking activities, Levis, J M & Grant, L (2003) say that “existing textbooks offer two primary avenues for integrating pronunciation and speaking instruction On the one hand, although current pronunciation-based texts include communicative activities, most are organized around pronunciation features and are not suitable as primary texts in oral communication courses On the other hand, a striking feature of many speaking-based or integrated-skills texts is the absence of explicit, sustained focus on pronunciation” It can be drawn that improving text books is a very vital thing to help learners overcome the difficulties in pronunciation as well as speaking.
METHODOLOGY
Current situation of English teaching and learning at Hanoi Tourism College
This part discusses the characteristics of students at HTC, who have great influence on the process of teaching and learning Most of them are both male and female coming from different parts – from big cities to rural and mountainous areas of Vietnam Their English learning used to focus on reading and writing but not listening and speaking, thus they had very little chance to speak English From the experience of teaching, I find the fact that some fresh students appear to be better ones in class, but they are only good at grammar They can do written grammar exercises accurately, but they are unable to speak English in everyday conversations It can be acknowledged that most of them find the college learning completely different from that at their schools After one semester at the college, they are now getting acquainted with the new learning environment However, there are still several difficulties for pronunciation teaching and learning in speaking activities
Firstly, the age factor has a direct effect on pronunciation learning We commonly assume that if someone pronounces a second language like a native, they probably started learning it as a child In contrary, if a person does not begin to learn English until adulthood, they will never have a native like accent even though they are good at other aspects of language The fact that most of the students here did not start learning English until they went to high school means that it is very difficult for them to perfect their English pronunciation
Secondly, the dissimilarities between English and Vietnamese concepts of stress, tonality cause quite many problems for students The problem is that in the case of my class, Vietnamese is students‟ mother tongue or first language The intonation patterns of Vietnamese are mostly decided by the six fixed tones while variations to the degree of falling, rising, rising – falling and falling – rising in English depend on communicative functions and attitudinal meanings of intonation (Tench, 1996) This makes it difficult for my students to employ the desired degrees of pitch movement, either greater or lesser than neutral forms In addition, the Vietnamese students‟ own dialects are very varied, which causes them many difficulties The Northern usually have problems with spelling such as mistakes between “s” and “x”, “l” and “n”, so on Besides, students coming from the Central Vietnam find it difficult to change their pitch in neutral conversations
From that, it is obvious that to speak English intelligibly, Vietnamese students have to overcome a great variety of difficulties That asks them to try their best to both improve their pronunciation and make them have more chances to speaking English
In the teaching and learning renovation, the teacher always plays a very important role At HTC, there are 17 teachers of English, who were all trained in universities in Hanoi, Vietnam (Hanoi University or University of Languages and International Studies, VNU) They are from 25 to 50 years of age 2 of them are experienced teachers who have devoted 15 - 20 years of their life to the development of the Faculty and the grown-up of generations of teachers Others are young teachers who are friendly, active, knowledgeable and full of enthusiasm for teaching 16 of them have completed an MA program and one is doing an MA program All teachers here are non-native speakers and some of them have had opportunities to go to some English speaking countries Sometimes, they have chances to speak and work with native speakers and join professional development events
2.1.2 The teaching facilities and the teaching materials
Classroom arrangement: At HTC, all of the classrooms are designed for lecture lessons It means that the seating is arranged orderly in front of teachers, and the blackboard Most of the English lessons are conducted in such a fixed condition, which prevents teachers from making a change in adopting new methods in language teaching Moreover, the classes are too small for the number of students in each
The class size: The size of almost English classes is big with around 50 and even 60 in each
The teaching aids: There are a few classrooms equipped with projector, but they are rarely used for English classes Therefore, it is difficult for teachers to apply new method using information technology to language teaching However, there are many cassette players which can be used enough for many classes at the same time
The materials: The current English teaching textbooks are Lifeline Elementary and Lifeline Pre-intermediate The English materials for reference and for self-study are very few in the library at HTC Almost all the materials are about tourism
The time allocation for the whole English course at HTC depends on their majors In this study, I just mention the Basic English course implemented in the two first semesters By the end of the first year, students are supposed to reach pre- intermediate level The core book was mentioned above The syllabus is designed to include 150 periods and 75 periods per semester Within this limited timetable, the content covered includes grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and the four skills
In terms of teaching speaking skill, it is integrated with listening skill and pronunciation as the instruction of the textbook within three periods per week As students are non-majors in English and the teaching focus is required to be on reading, students are given very little time to speak and pronunciation receives a restricted zone for being realized
According to evaluating the English progression of students at HTC, students have to do two written tests: one mid-term and one final written test The aim of these tests is mainly to test the students‟ grammatical and lexical knowledge and their reading comprehension skill There has not been an oral test for assessing their speaking and pronunciation.
An action research
Action research is aimed at changing things, which helps teachers self-reflect their practice and make their teaching better Kemmis & McTaggart (1988) provides the following definition of action research:
“A group activity” and “a form of collective self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of the own social or educational practices, as well as their understanding of these practices and the situations in which these practices are carried out.”
A review of action research frameworks reveals several common features and several formulas for an action research proposed Below are the seven steps in the action research cycle adapted from Nunan (1992):
Initiation: Describe the problem and area of focus
Preliminary investigation: Collecting baseline data through observation and recording classroom interaction
Intervention: Describe the strategies or innovation to be implemented
Evaluation: Describe the data to be collected, data analysis, and findings
Dissemination: Report the results by running workshop or presenting a paper
Follow – up: Investigate alternative methods
This research will be carried out in the form of an action research, using mainly teacher‟s logs and diary, and tape recordings Simply described, the research is aimed at discovering the challenges, effects as well as implications of the integration pronunciation practice into speaking activities, specifically, in the context of role - plays Cohen et al (2007) said that action research is practical research used to “bridge the gap between research and practice” Clearly speaking, action research has its application in different social fields, and with its essential feature of involving the testing out of ideas in practice as a means of improvement in social conditions and increasing knowledge Therefore, it has grown to a strong tendency of classroom practice Action research helps us be able to put theories into practices and we can see advantages and disadvantages immediately It is small scale, contextualized, localized, and aimed at discovering, developing, or monitoring changes to practice (Wallace, 1998).
Research hypothesis
This research is carried out to test the hypothesis following: integrating pronunciation into speaking activities is very useful to enhance the intelligibility and confidence of students in communication and help teachers to have the best technique to teach speaking skill.
Subjects
The subjects of the study are all non - major English students from HTC In the first year, all students, except for students of Faculty of Foreign Languages for Tourism, learn with the same course book – Lifeline: Pre-intermediate Among the two classes I was in charge of during the second semester of the academic year 2012-2013, twelve students from one stronger group (based on their first semester results) were chosen to participate in the study There are three reasons for my choice of subjects Firstly, this selection was based on the restricted scope of the study which focuses on the suprasegmentals, especially stress, rhythm and intonation, in role-playing activity Secondly, it was the feasibility of the study, which depends much on whether the students‟ pronunciation in speaking activity is improvable over a two-month period of time In addition, I would like to choose first - year students during the second semester but not the first semester to know how their pronunciation is after learning one semester
Twelve students chosen are at the age of 18 to 20, five boys and seven girls, one third live in Hanoi and the rest come from various provinces in Vietnam Their level of proficiency in English can be roughly attributed to pre-intermediate Most of the students from the city shows to be better because they have chance to come and study at the foreign language center where they can practice speaking English while those from rural areas reveal to be slow and shy Some of their most difficulties are the lack of background knowledge, the ability of speaking English intelligibly and confidently, and the new experience of learning They are at mixed level of English speaking competence; a few of them (about 2) are relatively good in pronunciation 5 of them are at the average and can pronounce some words exactly The last five are very bad and cannot pronounce any word accurately They seem to pause most of the time in role-plays and even scared when asked to speak.
Data collection instruments and procedure
The results of the study were developed on the basis of empirical data collected via audio-recording and observation The stage of data collection has been carried out during the second semester of the first year
In this study, I mainly used the instrument of audio-recording to collect the needed information In speaking lessons, I apply the way of integrating pronunciation practice into speaking activities by asking students to carry out the role-plays after they listen to conversations The pre-test and post-test intervention design student speaking skills were conducted in 3 cycles:
Cycle 1 - In the first cycle, selected students were asked to take a small test of pronouncing 5 words (more than two syllables) chosen from the role-playing conversation in text 4 (see appendix) of the textbook “Pronunciation in use” by Jonathan Marks and orally role-playing 8 conversations chosen by the teacher from different sources which have tape recorded without preparation I would like to test their pronunciation in word stress first because it is the basis of any high level pronunciation All their pronouncing words and conversations were recorded and analyzed by the teacher
Cycle 2 - The teacher listened to their tapes again to find out their problem in pronunciation and give them oral or written feedback After that, basing on their issues with pronunciation including stress, rhythm and intonation, the teacher applied different kinds of techniques in teaching pronunciation into role-playing activities at speaking classes
Cycle 3 - Students were asked to take the test again with other five words and conversations but same topics All their pronouncing words and conversations were recorded and analysed by the teacher
The final results were expressed through their improvement of pronunciation in role-playing activities
According to Nunan (1992), observation is of great value as a means of doing research “because language classrooms are specifically constituted to bring about learning, it is not unreasonable to collect data about what goes on there” All the observation notes and diary contribute to the analysis of my teaching context as well as students‟ pronunciation errors that prevent them from being communicatively intelligible.
Data analysis techniques and procedure
In terms of quantitative analysis, the data collected directly from audio scripts on the basis of comparing and contrasting students‟ production of suprasegmentals with words from the book “Pronunciation In Use” by Jonathan Marks and the modal patterns in the book “Pronunciation In Use” by Mark Hancock, “Pronunciation In Use” by Jonathan Marks and “Lifeline Pre- Intermediate” by Tom Hutchinson was used to discover students‟ level in pronunciation and speaking before and after implementing the integration pronunciation practice into speaking activities Moreover, teacher‟s logs and diary of the improvement of students‟ pronunciation also help contribute to the analysis of data The results are provided in the form of tables and graphs or charts, which give the information about what really happened in the classes of speaking and how they proceeded
According to qualitative analysis, the data collected from the observation notes and diary also are useful sources to triangulate the validity and reliability of the data Therefore, I will combine the results of the interpretation of data form audio scripts and my understanding of the process of integrating English pronunciation into speaking activities Upon this basis, some implications and suggestions for the integration English pronunciation practice into speaking activities were given.
Data analysis
The study strictly follows the general steps of action research and three cycles in the instruments mentioned above During the first two weeks, along with each unit including grammar, vocabulary and the four skills, I took notes about students‟ pronunciation problems with all mistakes in spelling as well as in using suprasegmentals in the classes of speaking integrated with listening and pronunciation The initial observation results reveal that although they completed a half of the Basic English course, they have basic knowledge of the alphabet spelling but not that of the whole English sound system, especially suprasegmental features such as stress, rhythm and intonation
In the third week of the semester, twelve students took part in a small oral test in which they were given five words to practice pronouncing them individually as well as short conversations to practice speaking them in pairs or groups These modal words and conversations were taken from the book “Pronunciation in Use” by Mark Hancock, Cambridge University Press (2003); “Pronunciation in Use” by Jonathan Marks, Cambridge University Press (2003); and “Lifeline Pre- Intermediate” by Tom Hutchinson, Oxford University Press (2002) The last book was chosen by the Faculty to be the core book for teaching all skills during the first two semesters The first two books were chosen by the teacher to be used as extra materials to help students develop their pronunciation in speaking activities The audio scripts of these words and conversations were used as the standard tool for the analysis of the students‟ pronunciation (see appendix) Their speaking was recorded and then compared to the modal patterns of pronunciation aspects such as stress (words and sentences), rhythm and intonation The first five words focus on word stress and the result is reported in table 1 below
As can be seen from table 1 above, a large number of students did not mark the correct stress in pronouncing words given In these five words, I just focus on words with two and three syllables which are not very difficult The surprising thing is the mistakes students made did not depend on the length of syllables, but the familiarity For example, only a quarter of students could put the exact stress on the word 3 which has just two syllables and is not very familiar with them while the other nine tended to speak very clearly but not true Word 5 had the most students‟ correct stress positions Another finding from the data is that precise stresses were restricted within some better students (students 4, 5 and 10) Others seem to have awareness of stress in words but just with familiar ones
Table 2 Sentence stress: Conversation 1-Emphasizing added details
Table 3 Sentence stress: Conversation 2 – Emphasizing important words
As far as we can see from the two tables above, in general, the majority of students did not show exactly the correct stress positions of conversations while role-playing Conversation 1 is about stress of emphasizing added details, which implies that all the added detail words will receive sentence stress However, it seemed to be difficult for students to define where the added details were
Therefore, the longer the sentence was, the more mistakes students made For example, only two students could mark all the stresses in the right place in sentence
2 and while others tended to speak with more stresses than required as in the modals or misplaced the stresses Sentence 1 and 3 of the conversation had the most students‟ correct stress positions Like the result of the table 1, correct stresses were focused in some better students (students 4 and 10) Conversation 2 focuses on stress of important words in sentences Similarly, the students seemed to be confused when speaking long sentences Only two students were correct with the last sentence (6) while the fifth one have the most precise stress patterns In addition, from my observation about the result of word stress and sentence stress, even though students who are very good at word stress made mistakes with sentence stress because they did not recognize the added details or important words
Chart 1: Text 3: Rhythm and punctuation
Chart 2: Text 4: Rhythm and pauses
Looking at the two charts above, it is obvious that a large number of students had difficulties with rhythm in English Text 3 emphasizes the rhythm and punctuation and Text 4 focuses on rhythm and pauses There were some factors affecting students‟ pronunciation, in which stress is the most difficult one for students to have good rhythm With the mistake of misplaced stress, there were 8 students with the shorter text (text 3) and the number increased 3 ones with the longer text (text 4) Mistakes with punctuation and syllable-timed rhythm were also common with 7 students pausing not at punctuation marks in the text (commas and stop) and 5 students having syllable-timed rhythm not so exactly as the required one In addition, the division of the modal text 4 into thought groups indicated that students either used more pauses than required (that is, their divisions were short with the speech flow broken into inappropriately small pieces) or less pauses than in the modal (that is, their divisions were long with some thought groups broken in between) These mistakes sound to be normal with students speaking English as the second language, but they are really dangerous if they are not aware of correcting them gradually It is the reason why the students were difficult to speak English naturally and fluently
Table 4 Intonation: Conversation 5 - Intonation in making suggestions
Conversation 5 focuses on the basic intonation pattern: rising and falling in statements, Wh-questions and Yes/No questions It can be seen from the table above that the majority of students did not use the correct patterns Wh-questions gained a large number of students who pronounced correctly (at least 7 among 10 students using the required falling for sentences 1, 4, 5 and 6), then statements achieved 7 students with correct pattern (sentence 3), however, when making suggestions by Yes/No questions, students made more mistakes (only 2 and 1 students correct for sentence 2 and 7, respectively) Furthermore, when observing their pronunciation, I discovered that students usually spoke English following the way they thought, but not the way they learnt
Table 5 Intonation: Conversation 6 - Tones in new and old information
In conversations, it is very often for people to refer back to something they said before and in this case, the voice normally goes up at the end (Hancock, 2003:
122) However, most of the students did not employ the appropriate intonation pattern of rising tune as these repetitions of information in the form of statements (sentences 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9) In contrary, a big number of students showed the falling tune correctly in the rest of the sentences with the “new” information
Chart 3 Intonation: Conversation 7 - Continuing or finishing tones
Looking at the chart, we can see very clearly the comparison between the correct and incorrect patterns of students in four modal sentences within a short conversation Not many students were aware of the continuing tone when doing the role-play as a sign for supporting and encouraging the partner to go on with his/ her story At least 58% of the students had the in correct patterns (falling in sentence 1,
2, 3 and rising in sentence 4 while the tone of the modals was vice converse)
Table 6 Intonation: Conversation 8 - High tone
Table 6 indicates the way changed their pitch when role-playing a conversation in which people gave their opinion about something with very strong adjectives such as excellent or brilliant In general, the majority of student did not realize the value of intonation in expressing the speaker‟s attitude However, surprisingly, 100% of students had the incorrect patterns in sentence 1 and 3 The conversation had quite many high tones, but the students tended to turn down their voice at these position Sentence 4 had the biggest number of correct patterns because it was an expression with OK? at the end, which might be very familiar with them For the rest of high tones, students put the falling tune in most of the circumstances
Through the first data analyses, the two general conclusions can be drawn about the sources of the students‟ pronunciation problems when it was integrated into speaking activities, role-playing Firstly, there is a big gap between the students‟ awareness of the suprasegmental aspects of English pronunciation and their practices about them in speaking activities After learning English one semester, they have a little knowledge about word stress and have awareness to put stress on words However, word stress and sentence stress are different, so the majority of students are not good at putting correct stress position on sentences of conversation Besides, although they are introduced about other suprasegmental features such as rhythm and intonation in the program of semester 1, they only can gain correct patterns in individual sentences In conversations, they are completely confused, so rhythm and intonation seem to be neglected except for some better students Secondly, students‟ mother tongue also affects their speaking English greatly, especially intonation and rhythm in conversations Vietnamese rhythm is syllable-timed, so as a habit, they speak English with no tone and stress
With the assumption that focusing on suprasegmentals of English pronunciation would greatly improve my students‟ intelligibility and enhance their performance, I adapted and applied some basic and simple techniques proposed by phoneticians such as Peter Norton and Jeannette McGregor shown in the book
“Clearly speaking: pronunciation in action for teachers” by Anne Burns and Stephanie Claire, Macquarie University (1999) According to the book “Lifeline pre-intermediate”, pronunciation is taught with speaking and listening and divided into different parts such as stress, intonation, linking word, so on Therefore, in this intervention, I adapted and taught the integration pronunciation practices into speaking activities for my students basing on presentations of Peter Norton and Jeannette McGregor with two lessons “Stress at the suprasegmental level” and
2.7.2.1 Speaking lesson with stress at the suprasegmental level
Although my students learned English for one semester, through their tape, I find that they are still like beginners Therefore, in this lesson, I work with beginner learners to introduce:
- Syllable stress at the suprasegmental level across whole utterances
- Typical stress patterns in short, familiar and personally relevant questions
Referring to the board, I remind the learners of the words pronunciation and stress I confirm with them that stress refers to syllable sounds that are “long and loud” or “the important words” I write the sentence What’s his address? On the board, and the class identifies the number of syllables (four) and which ones are stressed
I clap my hand with the important words and the learners practice this pattern by repeating it after me
I show the learners green cards with short questions written on them and orange cards marked with dotted stress patterns I first demonstrate the activity, using the question How old is your mother? I ask three learners holding orange cards to pronounce their stress patterns to see if they correspond with my question card: How old is your mother? The second and third learners I ask have a stress pattern matching my question
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Finding 1 and comments on this finding
With the part of stress, it can be seen that students made great improvement on word and sentence stress Students find it easier to put the exact stress on short and familiar words and sentences during interactive dialogues With expressions which are longer or contain adverbs and strong adjectives, they tend to make more mistakes According to teacher‟s observation, the naturally students speak, the more mistakes with stress they make They are aware of putting stresses on words and sentences separately; however, it seems to be very difficult for them to put the correct stress on sentences of conversations naturally If they try to do that, their fluency is affected
Stress is not the new issue in teaching English; however, it is always the biggest problem in students‟ pronunciation It is clearly that students have awareness and ability of putting stress, but they do not really have enough time and chances to do that Therefore, to help students interact to each other fluently and naturally with correct stresses, teachers need to create more natural speaking English environment in and out classes.
Finding 2 and comments on this finding
Rhythm can generally be said to receive the least improvement due to several factors preventing students from achieving the appropriate patterns I am really surprised when most of the students said that they had never been introduced or taught on the aspect of rhythm in speaking a language until they entered HTC
However, although rhythm was mentioned in the last semester, they achieved very little Besides, rhythm is combined between stressed and unstressed syllables, which is greatly difficult for them to produce speech with strong and weak forms, reduced forms, ellipses, linking, etc Speaking utterances like a sequence of separately pronounced words seems easier for students to put the correct stress pattern than doing it like natural connected speech
Rhythm is rarely mentioned in English lessons for non - majors, so it becomes the new issue to them That students may pronounce words with appropriate stress pattern does not mean they can make good rhythm Moreover, students‟ mother tongue also has big influence on their rhythm in English From getting to know to speaking fluently is a long process, so students need more practices after intervention and more detailed guiding about the differences between English and mother tongue from teachers.
Finding 3 and comments on this finding
Together with stress and rhythm, intonation is also an aspect trained in this study In comparison with those two other aspects mentioned, intonation gained the most improvement Since the study focuses on the very basic patterns of intonation in common functions such as making suggestions, continuing and finishing, the tunes for practice were only rising and falling In those tunes, falling tune in Wh- questions for asking, statements for suggestion and rising tune in Y/N questions for checking information were quite easy for students to apply in their conversations
However, there are mistakes unchanged from the pre-test to post-test: students still made more mistakes with rising tune patterns For example, the high tone in giving opinion with strong adjectives such as great, fun, fantastic, etc., saw the least improvement in performance In addition, teacher‟s observation reveals that the students tend to use the tone not high enough to express what they really mean
Because these patterns of intonation are basic, it is not very difficult for students to gain much improvement after intervention However, to help them put correctly on more complex intonation patterns, teachers need to train them more and more on this aspect Besides, students‟ intonation is usually made as a habit, so they have to self-train to have exact intonation consciously
Last of all, the students‟ spoken English interaction has been dramatically improved Thanks to training lessons about stress, rhythm and intonation, along with useful techniques, they have developed a habit of using as well as responding to suprasegmental features in their speaking Although there are mistakes which need improving, students start to succeed in producing utterances naturally and fluently with correct stress, rhythm and intonation patterns
This part is devoted to summarizing the main points of the study, particularly the major findings of the research, presenting the limitations of the study and giving some suggestions for further research.
Summary of the main points presented in the thesis
Integrating pronunciation practices into speaking activities is a very useful method with very sound ideas discussed in the literature However, there is a lack of discussions on the practical implementation of the integration pronunciation into speaking classes In addition, it seems that there have been very few studies on whether or not this kind of integration can be applicable to universities and colleges in Vietnam The above reasons inspired me to conduct this study to investigate the effects in the implementation the integration pronunciation practice into speaking activities
This study is an attempt to improve speaking skill for students of Hanoi Tourism College by applying some teaching techniques which focus on suprasegmental features: stress, rhythm, and intonation To investigate the effects of the integration pronunciation practice into speaking activities to students at HTC, the researcher contrasted the theory of this kind of integration and her real teaching context The speaking activity used was role-play Data was collected from audio- recordings of the pre-test and post-test and observations which were implemented in English classes with twelve students at HTC.
Concluding remarks on each of the thesis objectives
For the first objective, the study investigates the effects of the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities on the students‟ achievement in speaking skills
The integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities had positive performance depends on many factors ranging from one‟s command of the language being used such as grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation to other socio-cultural factors that involve in the interaction One of these factors is the speaker‟s considerable intelligibility which is achieved through suprasegmental aspects such as stress, rhythm and intonation Integrating pronunciation into speaking activities helps students not only speak English naturally with correct stress, rhythm and intonation patterns but interact to foreigners as fast as possible as well Moreover, from this integration, both teachers and students have more awareness about the importance of pronunciation in speaking Since then, they give appropriate strategies in teaching and learning English In addition, because Vietnamese and English are very different among these concepts, students should be paid much attention in the process of teaching pronunciation and speaking to have intelligibility and communicative success
On the second objective, the study aims at giving some possible pedagogical implications for further development As this kind of action research on integrating pronunciation into speaking activities is one of the first to be realized in my teaching situation in particular and in Vietnam in general, I suggest some pedagogical implications as below
First of all, pronunciation training and implementing program really prove its effects in teaching speaking Whether this small scale action research within a limited time cannot represent a large number of population of students in general, statistic analysis results still strongly suggests the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities With the present speaking syllabus at HTC, the teachers can embed pronunciation practice into classroom activities and self-design activities for their speaking lessons
However, while doing so, the teachers must pay attention to the time available for implementing activities To save time, the teachers can select tasks, activities in the course books and adapt with the pronunciation practice structures
In addition, the Faculty of English for Tourism needs to consider the benefits of pronunciation practice and decides to integrate the program in a more pronunciation practice structured syllabus In both solutions, the teachers should work together
Pronunciation strategies are not only applied in teaching speaking but also other skills so that the students are more knowledgeable, confident and skillful to work in environment requiring English
Furthermore, assessment of speaking should be of various types We can have individual assessment such as test or recording personally or group assessment such as group test or group recordings Moreover, the assessment should be going on the semester not only the end of term test
Lastly, the size of classes in speaking lessons should be smaller to be sure that the students have enough space and time to practice speaking English the most effectively with correct pronunciation.
Limitations of the study
Although the researcher made effort towards conducting this thesis, due to limited time, there undoubtedly exist some limitations At the first place, the scope of the study is relatively narrow, which focuses on suprasegmental features with very basic patterns in speaking activity, role-play It may be suitable for the students who are non-major in English at pre-intermediate level, but further training on these areas will be beyond their ability In addition, the number of subjects is small, which limits the representation to some extent The results of the thesis would be more convincible if the number of the subjects were larger.
Suggestions for future study
This research only identified the effects in the implementation of the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities There should be studies on other aspects relating to the application of this approach to classrooms
Following are some suggestions for future study
- Is the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities more feasible with high ability students than the low ones in foreign language environment?
- Does the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities have positive influences on listening, reading and writing skills?
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APPENDIX 1: PRE-TEST Word stress:
A: I hear you‟ve got a boat
B: A small boat, yes (1) A: And a big house
B: Well, it‟s quite big, I suppose (2) A: And you live in Hollywood
B: Well, near Hollywood, yes (3) A: So you must be rich then?
A: Excuse me, I think you‟re in my seat (1) B: Sorry, but it says 7A on my boarding card (2) A: Oh, er … right … I asked for a window seat, you see … (3) B: Yeah, so did I what‟s your seat number? (4)
A: Let‟s see … Oh it‟s 8A (5) B: So I guess you‟re in the seat behind me (6) A: Oh yes Sorry about that
Text 3 Reading aloud: “Rhythm and punctuation”
I can never guess the weather right If I wear a warm shirt, the weather‟s hot If I wear cool clothes, there‟s a cold wind When I don‟t take my umbrella, it rains If I take my umbrella, does it rain? Of course not! Then I leave it on the bus! Oh well
We all have our weaknesses, I guess
(Pronunciation in use – Mark Hancock) Text 4 Rhythm and pauses
A few years ago / I read in a newspaper/ that the staff at a library / in a small town in the west of England / had noticed / that the number of visitors to the library / was going down and down, / and the number of books they were borrowing / was going down even faster / They couldn‟t understand this, / so they decided to do some research / to find out the reason / They interviewed people / and asked them to fill in questionnaires / and so on / And guess what they discovered / The reason was / simply / that everybody had read all the books already!
(Pronunciation in use – Jonathan Marks (148-149))
Conversation 5 Intonation in making suggestions
A: What are we going to do today? (1) B: I don‟t know Do you fancy going to the beach? (2)
A: No, not really I don‟t think it‟s warm enough But we could go for a picnic in the country (3)
B: Yes, that‟s a good idea Where shall we go? (4)
A: Why don‟t we go to that place by the river? (5) You know, we went there with your friend from Spain
B: Oh, yes, that‟ll be nice And how about inviting Diane and Peter? (6) A: Sure Do you think you could give them a ring? (7) I‟ll get some things ready
Conversation 6 Tones in new and old information
A: Let‟s get the Viewmaster It‟s really nice (1) B: But the Megavision is nicer (2)
A: But the Viewmaster has a guarantee (3) B: They both have a guarantee (4)
A: Anyway, the Megavision is too expensive (5) B: I know it‟s expensive, but it‟s better quality (6) A: They‟re both good quality (7)
B: The Megavision has access to the internet (8) A: We have access to the internet on the computer (9)
Conversation 7 Continuing or finishing tones
B: Yes (1) A: And you know her brother David?
B: Uh huh (2) A: Well, you know he lives in Southside?
B: Mmm… (3) A: Well, somebody broke into his house last night!
A: So, how was your trip?
B: Oh, it was quite nice
C: What do you mean, nice? It was brilliant! (1)
C: Pleasant? (2) It was excellent! (3) Superb!
C: OK? (4) It was absolutely delicious! (5) A: And the scenery?
APPENDIX 2: MATERIALS USED IN THE SPEAKING LESSON WITH
STRESS AT THE SUPRASEGMENTAL LEVEL
Are you married or single?
What was your job in Vietnam?
When did you come to Australia?
APPENDIX 3: MATERIALS USED IN THE SPEAKING LESSON WITH
B: Oh look It‟s fine, but it‟s true, we were robbed That‟s why I had to go home early ‟cause our next door neighbour, Mavis, God love her, rang us to say that we‟d been robbed, so I rushed off And apparently these people robbed three or four houses before us How stupid of them
Source: This is a short segment from part of a longer text in Brawn, P (2002) Listening to Australia Intermediate
Phrases everything OK oh look it‟s fine but it‟s true we were robbed that‟s why I had to go home early
‟cause our next door neighbour, Mavis God love her rang us to say that we‟d been robbed so I rushed off and apparently these people robbed three or four houses before us how stupid of them
Syllable stress everything OK oh look it‟s fine but it‟s true we were robbed that‟s why I had to go home early
‟cause our next door neighbour, Mavis God love her rang us to say that we‟d been robbed so I rushed off and apparently these people robbed three or four houses before us how stupid of them
Intonation contours everything OK? (rise) oh look (fall) it‟s fine (fall) but it‟s true (fall) we were robbed (fall)
That‟s why I had to go home early (fall)
‟cause our next door neighbour, Mavis (fall) God love her (rise) rang us (rise) to say that we‟d been robbed (fall) so I rushed off (fall, rise) and apparently these people robbed three or four houses before us (fall) How stupid of them (fall)
APPENDIX 4: POST-TEST Word stress:
B: Too quiet (1) A: I think something‟s wrong (2) B: Very wrong (3)
A: I don‟t like it (4) B: I don‟t like it at all (5) A: Let‟s get out of here (6) B: Let‟s get out fast! (7)
A: I‟m sorry, but you must switch that off, sir (1) B: OK, just a minute
A: Switch it off now, please! (2)
Text 3 Reading aloud: “Rhythm and punctuation”
And for Friday, well, another wintry day in all parts of the region Temperatures near freezing in many places, and along the coast, the wind will make it feel very cold indeed Inland, some snow on the hills, and there may be fog in the valleys If you‟re out and about driving, watch out for those icy roads! And for the weekend?
Well, we‟re not expecting much change, I‟m afraid And that‟s from me Good night
(Pronunciation in use – Mark Hancock)
This seems unbelievable / but it‟s a true story / in fact A farmer / was working in the fields / with his tractor / The tractor crashed / and he fell out / and landed on the ground / unconscious / As he fell, / his mobile phone / fell out of his pocket /
Soon after, / a bird that was flying around the fields / saw the phone / and started pecking it / with its beak / Amazingly / it dialed the number 999 / and soon the emergency services arrived / to help the farmer
(Pronunciation in use – Jonathan Marks (148-149))
Conversation 5 Intonation in making suggestions
A: Let‟s go out for a meal tonight (1) B: OK Where? (2)
A: The Red Dragon? (3) B: Mmm We went there last time I‟d rather try somewhere different
A: Well, what about trying that new Italian place near the station (4) – what‟s it called?