The role of basic pronunciation knowledge in the teaching and learning of english at information technology college ho chi minh city

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNVERSITY· HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES *** THE ROLE OF BASIC PROtlUtiCIATIOti KtiOWLEDCi Itl THE TEACHltlG AtiD LEARtlltiG OF EtlGLlSH AT ItiFORMATIOti TECHtiOLOGY COLLEGE HO CHI MltlH CITY A thesis submitte d in a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the de gree of Ma ster of Arts (T ESOL) Submitted by HA THA NH BICH LOAN 1/Htvlh ~ '; ·{ ~ Y H HV tl " , , ~ 11 _ - LA 27 _ i \i.'QI; ,m·.i ' " " _ Supervisor NGUYEN HUYNH DAT, M.A Ho C hi Mi nh C ity, Nove mbe r 2005 STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP I certify that this the sis e ntitled: " The Role of Basic Pronunciation Knowtedg« ill Teaching I alld Learn illg of English at Information Technology College - Yo Chi Millh City '_' _ I is my own work This thesis has not been submitte d for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution Ho Chi Minh City, November 14, 2005 ~~L~~ Ha Th anh Bich Loan ACKNOWLEDGEMENTJ I would first like to gratefully acknowledge the ge nerous ass ista nce give n to me by my thesis supervisor , Mr Nguyen Huynh Oat, M.A., over the peri od of re searching and writin g of this thesis He gav e me good questions to help me think throu gh my problems and proofread my chapters I would particularly like to thank Ms Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam , who help ed me for the software of phonet ic symbols and provided me some invalu able mater ials for re feren ce My since res t thank s are for Ms Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thu , with whom I have had the opportunity to discuss pronun ciation, and all the stude nts parti cipating in the study for their coo pe tion Finally, I wish to thank my husband , Que , for all his help and e ncourageme nt Ha Thanh Bich Loan II ABSTRACT Everyo ne agrees that learn ers of different mother tongues ve different pro nunciation proble ms Pronu nciation problem s of Vie tnamese learn ers have bee n cla rified by research; howe ve r, very little research has been done to det e rmine lea rners' concerns, needs and motivation for improving the ir pron unciation, which is the ke y to de fine what and how to teach or instruct Thus, the aim of this study is to ascertain the need s of the learn ers and to investigate their concern and motivation toward s improv ing pronunciation A questionnaire was administered to collec t the data from 11 stude nts at Information Technology College - Ho Chi Minh City Statistical analyses show that the students are awa re of the importance or role of pro nunciation in ora l co mmunica tion and have a strong desire to improve their pronunciation Besides, altho ugh most of them have le arned English since they were in grade six at seconda ry schoo l, they have many pronunci ation problem s that are due to their lack of basic knowled ge of pronuncia tion and little practice The res ults also suggest that the y prefer bein g dep end ent on their teacher in learn ing and improving their pronu nciation The majo rity of the stude nts have instrumen tal motivation and positive attitudes toward s learnin g English iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of ta bles viii List of figure s ix Abbrev iations x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIO N 1 Th e Probl em I 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Re se arch qu e stions 1.4 Re se arch methodology 1.5 Hypoth e se s 1.6 Variables an d opera tional de finitions 1.7 Significa nce of the research 1.8 Th e scope of the research 1.9 De fin ition s of te rms 1.10 O rga nization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: BACK GROUND TO TH E STUDY _.•.•.•.•.•._.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•._ 10 1DESCRIPTION OF TH E ENGLISH SY LLA BUS FO R STUDENTS AT ITC 10 2.1 A brie f description 10 iv 2.1.2 English te aching and le arn ing at ITC 11 2.2 SUMMARy 12 CHAPTE R 3: LIT ERATURE REVIEW • • •.•.• •.•.•.•.•.•.•.• 13 3.1 THEOR ETICAL BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH 13 ' I I Th e Importance f pronunciat ion.In ora I commumcation 13 1? acq uismon - Pronunciation 17 1.3 Fac tors that affect pronun ciation acquisition 18 1.3 Mother tongue 18 3.1.3.2 Age 19 3.1.3.3 Amount of exposure to English I9 1.3.4 Innate phonetic ability 20 1.3.5 Le arne r' s attitudes 21 3.1.3.6 Learn er' s motivation 21 3.2 PREVIOUS STUDIES ABOUT PRONUN CIATION TEACHING AND LEA RNING 23 3.2 The goa l of good pronunciation : Intelli gibility 23 3.2.2 The interfer en ce of mother tong ue 25 3.2.2.1 Types of errors about pronunciation 25 3.2.2.2 Sources of errors 27 3.2.2.3 Vietn ame se spea ke rs' types of errors 27 3.2.2.4 The sources of Vietnamese learners' errors : Differen ce s bet ween two systems of phone mes 29 3.2.3 The importance of comparing and contras ting Ll and L2 31 3.2.4 Contrastive analysis of syllable structures between English and Vietname se 32 3.2.5 What and how to teach · v 3.2.6 Correcting pronunciation mistakes 54 3.2.7 Th e rol e of self e valuation and self-monitoring 56 3.3 SUMMARy 60 Chapter 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY _._._._.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•._._._._ _ 61 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 61 4.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 62 2.1 Subje cts 63 2.2 Instruments: qu e stionnaire 64 4.2.3 Dat a co llection procedure s 66 SUMMARy 66 Chapter 5: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS _._._._._._ _._._._ •.•.-._._ 67 5.1 RESPONSES TO SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 67 5.1.1 THE STUDENTS ' PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS 67 5.1.1 Th e fre que ncy of havin g pronunciati on problems in oral communicati on 67 5.1.1 Ba sic skills for pronunciation 68 5.1.2 THE STUDENTS ' OPINIONS ABOUT IMPROVEMENT OF PRONUNCIATION 70 5.1 2.1 Th e students ' self-assessment a bo ut their own pronunciati on ability 71 5.1.2.2 The stude nts ' ne eds to le arn basic knowledge ab out pronunciati on 71 5.1.2.3 The students' reasons for learning Engli sh 72 5.1 2.4 Th e students ' co nce rn for pronunciati on 75 5.2 FINDINGS 77 5.3 SUMMARy 78 vi Chapter 6: IMPLICAnONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS •.•.•.•.•.• 79 6.1 IMPLICAT IONS 79 RECOM MEND ATIONS 84 6.2.1 Le arne r need a na lysis 84 6.2.2 Wh at to te ach 86 6.2.3 How to teach 90 6.3 SUMMARy 94 CONCLUSION 95 BIBLI OG RAPHY 97 APPE NDIX I Que stionn aire (in Vietnam e se ) APPEN DIX Que stionna ire (in Eng lish tran slat ion) APPEN DIX Som e use ful websites for learning and practicing Eng lish pronunciati on APPEND IX V VIII A copy of some typical units from the book "English pronunciation in use " VII IX LIST OF TABLES Tabl e 3.1 Vietnamese speakers' types of errors 28 Table 3.2 Chart of Vietnamese conso nant phonemes 29 Table 3.3 Chart of English consonant phonemes 30 Table 3.4 A typical structure of an English syllable 33 Table 3.5 Different structures of English syllables 34 Table 3.6 Vietnamese syllable structure 35 Table 3.7 Different structures of Vietnamese syllables 36 Table 3.8 English and Vietnamese syllable structures 36 Table 3.9 Syllable boundaries of English and Vietnamese 38 Table 3.10 A comparison of English stress and Vietname se tone 40 Table 3.11 Steps for pronunciation teaching 52 Table 4.1 Summary of sample characteristics 63 Table 5.1 Frequen cy of having pronunciation problems in speaking and listenin g Tabl e 5.2 Frequency of using a dictionary f or looking up phonetic transcription Table 5.3 68 69 The ability to read the phonetic transcription in dictionary 69 Table 5.4 Table 5.5 Frequen cy of having problems with word stres s Self-a ssessment of English pronunciation ability 70 71 Tabl e 5.6 Influence of pronunciation on listening and speaking 72 Table 5.7 Need to learn basic knowledge of English pronunciati on 73 Table 5.8 The students' choice about the way to improve their pronunciati on 74 Table 5.9 Reason f or learning English 75 Tabl e 5.10 Variety of response level 76 Tabl e 11 Students ' moti vation 76 viii Pronunciation Page Please choose an option: • • • • • • Li sten t n a word Materials Needs Analysis Planning Materials S t r a teg ies • Testinj; • F u r th e r Planning CILL Home A -Z Index Dictionary Exercises Grammar Help Listening Listen to a word Ty pe yo ur word phrase o r sente nce in the bo x the n cl ick th e 'L iste n' button Yo u w ill need to wa it a w hile for the se rve r to c reate th e te xt -to- spee ch ti ll' Please he pat ient listen Pro n u n c iat io n Reading Search.this.page Search CILL Speaking Vocabulary What's New Writing ELC Home I Materials • T he Sou nd s of Briti sh Eng lis h in the IP A (Internat ion al Ph on emic A lpha be t) c rt • If';\ Ty pewri ter - fo r typin g wo rds a nd se ntences in IPA sy m bo ls • Exerc ise o n wo rd s conta ining th e vowe l so unds /iI Ii:/ lei an d le:' suc h as hit heat bet and bat • Exe rc ise o n Fina l co nsona nt so und s • Exerc ise o n I II I \y! a nd I I'I • l xcrc isc o n 11'/ , l vi , 'th' an d l si • So und ing out i, e a nd a: so und s • PronunciationTipofthe [lay (if yo u a re not in C IL L yo u w ill need a spec ial font to see thi s) • V ideo Prog ram s o n Pronun c iat ion from C hi ne se I Jnivershy • V_o) u:L gull mouth ImauOI knife (nal fl Note: There may be more than one -i, Ii - - ' e before or after the V (See Uni ts 24 25.) Rem ember that letters are not the same as so unds For exampl e, the co nsona nt lett ers \X' ,m d Y are not consonant sounds if they com e after the vowel sound in the syllabl e e.g saw, sa)' Th ey ar e part of the vowel sound In some accents, for example South East English, th e sam e is tru e for th e co nso nant lett er R Here are some more examples Th ey ar e wor ds of one syllable and they all have the pattern CV how th aul law 1]::1:1 pay IpeJ! w hy IWilll car Ika :1 hair th eill '.!-I t : I!I I Some people use th e word syllable to talk about the part s of a w ritten word But in th is hook the word syllable is used to talk abou t the pronunciation of words, not the writing For examp le in writing we can divide 'chocolate' into thr ee parts like this: cho-co -late But wh en we S:l)' (h e word, we pronounce only two syllables, like this: chocolate IIJ nk l;>tf (The dot sho ws wh ere tl»: tw o syllab les are divided.) A num ber of oth er words may be pron oun ced with [ewer syllab les th an in writing Listen to these exa mples chocolate f' IJnk.l;>tl different f' dl Lr ilnll interesting f'lO.lr;>s tl lJ l genera l f' d3en plJ comfortab le f'k "mLt :J ,b;>1J secretary f' sek.r;l.lrJI The rst syllable in these words has the same thr ee sounds, but in the oppos ite OHle r: kit chen f' kltS- 101 - chicken {'tJl k.lll/ If a sentence has similar-so unding syllabl es like this in it, it maybe difficult to say These sentences are ca lled 'tongue-twisters' Listen to th is exa mple Richard checked the chicken in the kitchen Note: You can find more about syllables in Units 24 to 27 - - - - - - - - - - _._ _._ - -Orr'() ~ ; ' : le ' e r (n]) orce sim,iar-sl.)lInding (adj) : Irinh II! ngl1y C lai : ngh e g i6 n g /t ~~n.~ t~ - - - _ _ Exercises 21.1 Write th ese words in the correct column dad cook ttt:Iftt pa ssenger sister syllable docto r teacher o fficer ' grandfather unLle I syllables syllables _-j - tW" f- 21.2 Look at : hese one-syllable words Write C where there is a consonant sou nd There may be one before V, af ter V or in both places n ee V c high E XAMPl.ES eyes v thr ou gh e Ve • V laugh ~ Y Y bo ught 21 V two V youth key V weigh da y V 10 rhyme V - - V The spell ing changes if you change the order of sounds in these one-syllable words from OJ to Vc Write th e missing words EXA MPl.E ev ve Ib :1 = /':;:V = leldJ In:wl = I;JUnJ = o wn Iperi = lelpl = ape It i:1 = tea Ii:tl Im eI! = ma y lemil = g il =aid Id eri = Ise ll = = _ Ie 151 = ace - - - - 21.4 :':Ii] , 21.5 II - ' - - - Read the text aloud Reco rd your voice if you can Then listen to the recording Did you say the same number of syllables in the underlined words as on the record ing? Listen to the se tongue-twisters How many syllables are there in each ? Write the number Then listen again and repeat ExAr-fl'LE She sells sea shells on the sea shore = ::: The fat cat sat on th e vet's wet hat = - - - - - -