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TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents page TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF CHARTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background 1.2 Purposes of the study 10 1.3 Scope of the study 10 1.4 Research questions 11 1.5 Significance of the study 11 1.6 Structure of the study 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12 2.1 Introduction 12 2.2 Background of pronunciation teaching 12 2.3 Current perspectives on teaching and learning pronunciation 14 2.4 Factors affecting pronunciation learning 17 2.4.1Native language 17 2.4.2 Age 18 2.4.3 Experience in studying English 19 2.4.4 Phonetic ability 20 2.4.5 Attitude and identity 20 2.4.6 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation 21 2.5 Contradictory principles 21 2.5.1 Nativeness principle 21 2.5.2 Intelligibility principle 22 2.6 Sound systems: English and Vietnamese 23 2.6.1 Consonants 24 2.6.2 Vowels 26 2.6.3 Stress 27 2.6.4 Rhythm 28 2.6.5 Intonation 30 2.7 Previous studies related to the studies 31 2.8 Summary 33 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 34 3.1 Introduction 34 3.2 Research approaches 34 3.3 Participants 35 3.4 Data collecting instruments 36 3.4.1 Close –ended questionnaire 36 3.4.2 Interviews 37 3.5 Data analysis 37 3.6 Procedure 38 3.6.1 Piloting the questionnaires 38 3.6.2 Administering the questionnaires 38 3.6.3 Interviewing participants 39 3.6.4 Analyzing collected data 39 3.6.5 Summary 39 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40 4.1 Introduction 40 4.2 The reliability statistics of data collected from questionnaires 40 4.3.1 Teachers‟ perceptions of teaching English pronunciation at high school 41 4.3.2 Teachers‟ perceptions of student‟s difficulties in learning pronunciation 48 4.3.3 Teachers‟ dealing with teaching pronunciation 58 4.3.4 Students‟ perceptions of learning English pronunciation at high school 60 4.3.5 Students‟ perceptions of their difficulties in learning pronunciation 66 4.3.6 Teachers‟ dealing with teaching pronunciation 75 4.4 Summary 78 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 79 5.1 Summary of the main findings 79 5.1.1 Teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of teaching and learning pronunciation in some high schools in Hue City 79 5.1.2 Difficulties faced by students in learning pronunciation 79 5.1.3 Teachers‟ dealing with teaching pronunciation 80 5.2 Implications 80 5.2.1 For teachers 81 5.2.2 For policy makers 84 5.2.3 For students 84 5.3 Limitations of the study 85 5.4 Recommendations for further study 85 REFERENCES 87 APPENDICES LIST OF ABRREVIATIONS EFL: ENGLISH AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE ESL: ENGLISH AS SECOND LANGUAGE NNSs: NON NATIVE SPEAKERS L2: SECOND LANGUAGE SPSS: STATISTICAL PACKAGE FOR THE SOCIAL SCIENCES LIST OF TABLES Table 3.6.1: The reliability statistics of data collected from piloting the two sets of questionnaires 38 Table 4.1: The reliability of the two sets of questionnaires 40 Table 4.2: Whole mean score of teachers‟ perceptions of teaching pronunciation 41 Table 4.3: Means score of teachers‟ perceptions of teaching pronunciation 42 Table 4.8: Mean score of teachers‟ perceptions of students‟ difficulties in learning pronunciation 48 Table 4.9: Mean score of teachers‟ perception of students‟ difficulties in pronouncing consonants 49 Table 4.12: Mean score of the students‟ difficulties in pronouncing vowels 52 Table 4.14: Mean score of students‟ difficulties in stress 53 Table 4.15: Mean score of students‟ difficulties in rhythm 54 Table 4.16: Mean score of students‟ difficulties in intonation 56 Table 4.17: Mean score of students‟ difficulties in time 57 Table 4.18: Mean score of the students‟ problem with class size 57 Table 4.19: Mean score of the ways teachers encourage students to learn pronunciation 58 Table 4.20: Whole mean score of teachers‟ ways of encouragement 59 Table 4.21: Mean score of teachers‟ methods of improving students‟ pronunciation 60 Table 4.22: Whole mean score of teachers‟ methods of improving students‟ pronunciation 60 Table 4.23: Whole mean score of students‟ perception of learning pronunciation 61 Table 4.24: Mean score of students‟ perception of learning English pronunciation at high school 61 Table 4.29: Whole mean score of students‟ difficulties in learning pronunciation 65 Table 4.30: Mean score of students‟ difficulties in consonants 67 Table 4.31: The mean score of students‟ difficulties in vowels 69 Table 4.33: Mean score students‟ difficulties in stress 71 Table 4.34: The mean score of students‟ difficulties in rhythm 72 Table 4.35: The mean score of students‟ difficulties in intonation 73 Table 4.36: The mean score of students‟ difficulties in time 74 Table 4.37: Mean score of the students‟ problem with class size 74 Table 4.38: Mean score of the ways teachers encourage students to learn pronunciation 76 Table 4.39: The whole mean score of teachers‟ ways of encouragement 76 Table 4.40: Mean score of teachers‟ methods of improving students‟ pronunciation 77 Table 4.41: The whole mean score of teachers‟ methods of improving students‟ pronunciation 78 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.4.Percentage of teachers‟ perception of the importance of teaching pronunciation 42 Chart4.5 Percentage of teachers‟ perception of the benefits of teaching pronunciation 44 Chart 4.6 Teachers‟ perception of the purpose of teaching pronunciation 45 Chart4.7 Percentage of teachers‟ perceptions of their interest in teaching pronunciation 47 Chart 4.10.Problems in pronouncing final voiceless & voiced stop consonants 50 Chart 4.11 Mispronouncing or even omitting the final consonant clusters 50 Chart4.13 Percentage of students‟ confusion between long and short vowels 52 Chart 4.25 Percentage of students‟ perceptions of the importance of learning pronunciation 62 Chart4.26 Percentage of students‟ perceptions of the benefits of learning pronunciation 63 Chart4.27 Percentage of students‟ perceptions of the purpose of learning pronunciation 64 Chart 4.28 Percentage of students‟ perceptions of their interest in learning pronunciation 65 Chart 4.32 Percentage of students‟ problem in distinguishing between long and short vowels 70 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation in some high schools in Hue city The sample of the study consists of 100 students and 20 teachers from three high schools The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews There are two sets of questionnaires; one for teachers and the other for students In addition, interviews were conducted with two groups: one group with ten teachers and the other group with10 students of grade 10 The findings revealed that both teachers and students had relatively positive perceptions of the teaching and learning pronunciation However, in spite of their strong perceptions of the importance and the benefits of teaching and learning pronunciation, they still showed their less interest in teaching and learning it However, it is noticeable that obtaining reasonable pronunciation is the purpose of most teachers and students The findings also indicate that both teachers and students shared the same view that students really had problem with consonants and vowels Stress, rhythm and intonation are also aspects of pronunciation that students had to confront with when learning pronunciation Regarding the teachers‟ ways of teaching pronunciation, the results show that teachers used positively different methods to encourage students to learn pronunciations as well as the methods teachers applied to help them improve their pronunciation On the basis of the findings, some suggestions were made for teachers, students and policy makers CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background Nowadays, along with the trend of globalization, English has become an international language Even now English is the world‟s primary vehicle for storming and transmitting information More and more countries consider English as a useful tool to communicate successfully with the world outside The realization of the importance of English highlights the necessity of Vietnam to have its people become better equipped with English performance As a result, teaching English has become a compulsory subject at schools for many years Most learners today have to learn English very early in their life Being regarded as a key to open the door to the future, good English skills are criteria for people who want to pursue their studies to higher level or search a scholarship for studying abroad Therefore, learning English has become a tendency to most people, especially, young people However, to achieve successful communication with native speakers, learners today not only have to master knowledge of linguistic competence but also have a good communicative competence Hence, according to Hayati (2008), it should be kept in mind that the main objective of the English class is to make the students capable of communicating in the language; accordingly, all efforts should be put on reinforcing communicative competence rather than linguistic competence Nevertheless, dealing with how to improve speaking skills, learners face the problem of pronunciation Learners need to have an intelligible pronunciation because Morley (1999) indicates that limited pronunciation skills can undermine learner‟s self confidence, restrict social interactions, and negatively influence estimations of a speaker‟s credibility and abilities Fraser (2000) considers pronunciation as most critical oral communication skill He explains that with good pronunciation, a speaker is intelligible despite other errors; with poor pronunciation a speaker can be very difficult to understand, despite accuracy in other areas Hence, intelligent pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence (Morley, 1991: 488) As a result, students often cite pronunciation as being very important priority for them (Willing, 1998, as cited in Fraser, 2000) However, pronunciation is also the aspect of language that is most difficult to acquire In Vietnam, despite realizing the importance of pronunciation, Vietnamese students still cannot acquire correct English pronunciation According to Fraser (2000), some people with “an ear for language” can “pick up” pronunciation effectively, the others may require a special training Unfortunately, the reality is that in most English courses, pronunciation is the aspect on which least time is spent In Vietnam, although many students are very good at vocabulary and grammar, listeners find it very hard to understand Vietnamese‟s speech The reason is that most of them cannot pronounce English words and sentences correctly They often pronounce them with equal stress, flat intonation and no rhythm at all Some students even not know how to form certain sounds in English Therefore, it is impossible for them to have genuine production of sounds and sentences Moreover, studies by Brown (1992), Claire (1993), Fraser (2000) and Yates (2001) indicated that many teachers tend to avoid dealing with pronunciation because they lack confidence, skills and knowledge Indeed, there are some reasons for teacher‟s lack of confidence, because many of them receive a little training in how to teach pronunciation, even if they have, their methods of teaching pronunciation are less than ideally effective In addition, in Vietnam teachers have to face with the large classes with more than forty students It means that teachers hardly have enough time to pay attention and give correction to every student‟ speaking performance in general and pronunciation in particular As a result, students are unable to identify their weak aspects Hence, teaching and learning English pronunciation has become the most serious challenge facing both teachers and students Until now, like in most of high schools in Vietnam, although both teachers and students in some high schools in Hue city have tried their best to teach and learn pronunciation effectively, the results have been far from satisfaction Obviously, pronunciation plays an important part in the successful communication It is clear that an individual‟s speech tells a listener far more than the way one is dressed, the car one drives or the hairstyle one wears (Derwing, 2003) Being aware of the importance of pronunciation, as a researcher and also a teacher I would like to carry out this research: “An investigation into the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation in grade 10 in some high schools in Hue city” with the hope that through this research we will understand more about the present situation of teaching and learning pronunciation in grade 10 in some high schools in Hue city, the problems teachers and students face as well as suggested solutions for these problems with the aim of improving students at grade 10 English pronunciation 1.2 Purposes of the study This study aims to investigate the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation to students in grade 10 in some high schools in Hue city Specifically, it aims: - To examine the perceptions of the teachers and students of the teaching and learning pronunciation - To find out what problems both teachers and students have in learning pronunciation - To study how teachers deal with teaching pronunciation - To suggest some suggestions for the problems that teachers and students have to face in teaching and learning pronunciation 1.3 Scope of the study This research will focus on the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation in grade 10 in some high schools in Hue city There is a wide range of aspects of teaching and learning pronunciation However, in this research, the researcher just focus on the teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of teaching and learning English pronunciation, the problems that teachers and students face in the process of teaching and learning, the ways teachers deal with teaching pronunciation as well as the suggested solutions to the problems that both teachers and students meet in the teaching and learning pronunciation 10 APPENDICES APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE (A) FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS (English version) The aim of this questionnaire is to help my research on teaching and learning English pronunciation at some high schools in Hue city Your cooperation with the study will be of great importance All the data collected in this questionnaire are only for purpose of study only not for any other purposes The researcher assures that all the information will be confidential with the hope that you will be willing to answer these questions accurately and honestly T- Full name (optional): The following statements are related to the perceptions of teachers and students of teaching and learning pronunciation, the difficulties students and students meet in teaching and learning pronunciation as well as the ways teachers deal with teaching pronunciation For each statement in this part, please tick (√) the box that is applicable to you using the following keys: Key 1: Strongly disagree; Key 2: Disagree; Key 3: Neutral; Key 4: Agree; Key 5: Strongly agree Ordinal Statement number Pronunciation is very important in my teaching English My students cannot pronoun exactly the words that contain the final voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/ & /k/ at the end of a word For example, “beat” may sound like “bee”; “plot” may sound “blot”; “tot” may sound “dot”; “cot” may sound “got” 94 My students often have a confusion of similar sounds: /b/&/p/ such as: pop & bop; /ʤ/ & / ð/ such as: knowledge & this My students know the concept of stress vaguely In teaching pronunciation, I use various interesting activities such as: game, film, picture… My students often mispronounce or even omit the final consonant clusters such as: book- books; bite- bites; stop- stopped I like teaching pronunciation My students find it difficult to distinguish /e/ vs /æ/ as in bet/bat; /Λ/ vs /a/ as in “cut” and “car” My students know vaguely the concept of rhythm 10 Teaching pronunciation helps my students develop speaking skill and be more confident in communication 11 My students only have 15 minutes to study pronunciation in each section of teaching pronunciation 12 I ask students to learn the phonetic alphabet 13 My students have confusion between /θ/ and /ð/ as in the minimal pairs: thigh/thy; ether/either; teeth/teethe 14 My students not have good intonation 15 My students have confusion between /ǝʊ/ vs /aʊ/ as in “bow” and “cow,” 16 I let students work in group work and pair work 95 rather than individual 17 Some students at the end of class cannot hear clearly teacher‟s voice 18 My students have confusion between long and short vowels such as /u:/ vs /ʊ / as in “pool” and “pull”; /i:/ vs /I/ as in “peak” and “pick”; /ǝ/ vs /ɜ: / as in “teacher” and “bird” 19 When reading a sentence, my students not know which words are stressed and which words are not stressed 20 My students often have problem in pronunciation between voiced and voiceless of the final stop consonants: /b/, /d/, /g/, vs /p/, /t/, /k/ such as: “cub” may sound “cup”; “fat” may sound “fad”; “back” may sound “bag” 21 Teacher cannot call all students in class to check and correct their pronunciation 22 I help students to be aware of intonation and sentence stress 23 My students pronounce all syllables whether stressed or unstressed of all the words in the sentence with a same amount of time 24 I never forget to praise and encourage students when they give right answers and never abuse or punish them when they make mistakes 25 My students have confusion between similar sounds such as /s/ and /∫/ as in sack/shack; /s/ and /z as in peace/peas 26 I sometimes use soft ware to teach students 96 pronunciation 27 My students are not familiar with the concept of intonation 28 My students have difficulties in recognizing the main stress of the long words 29 I ask students to learn the stress of new words 30 My students need to have a reasonable pronunciation 31 My students take a lot of time to listen and understand for the first time taking the activity 32 I work out sounds which cause students most problems in English 33 My students tend to ignore the stress patterns when they learn vocabulary THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! 97 APPENIX QUESTIONNAIRE (B) FOR ENGLISH STUDENTS (English version) The aim of this questionnaire is to help my research on teaching and learning English pronunciation at some high schools in Hue city Your cooperation with the study will be of great importance All the data collected in this questionnaire are only for purpose of study only not for any other purposes The researcher assures that all the information will be confidential with the hope that you will be willing to answer these questions accurately and honestly T- Full name (optional): The following statements are related to the perceptions of teachers and students of teaching and learning pronunciation, the difficulties students and students meet in teaching and learning pronunciation as well as the ways teachers deal with teaching pronunciation For each statement in this part, please tick (√) the box that is applicable to you using the following keys: Key 1: Strongly disagree; Key 2: Disagree; Key 3: Neutral; Key 4: Agree; Key 5: Strongly agree Ordinal Statement number Pronunciation is very important in my learning English I cannot pronoun exactly the words that contain the final voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/ & /k/ at the end of a word For example, “beat” may sound like “bee”; “plot” may sound “blot”; “tot” may sound “dot”; “cot” may sound “got” I often have a confusion of similar sounds: 98 /b/&/p/ such as: pop & bop; /ʤ/ & / ð/ such as: knowledge & this I know vaguely the concept of stress In teaching pronunciation, my teacher uses various interesting activities such as: game, film, picture… I often mispronounce or even omit the final consonant clusters such as: book- books; bitebites; stop- stopped I like learning pronunciation I find it difficult to distinguish /e/ vs /æ/ as in bet/bat; /Λ/ vs /a/ as in “cut” and “car” I know vaguely the concept of rhythm 10 Teaching pronunciation helps my students develop speaking skill and be more confident in communication 11 I only have 15 minutes to study pronunciation in each section of teaching pronunciation 12 My teacher asks me to learn the phonetic alphabet 13 I have confusion between /θ/ and /ð/ as in the minimal pairs: thigh/thy; ether/either; teeth/teethe 14 I not have good intonation 15 I have confusion between /ǝʊ/ vs /aʊ/ as in “bow” and “cow,” 16 My teacher lets me work in group work and pair work rather than individual 99 17 Some students at the end of class cannot hear clearly teacher‟s voice 18 I have confusion between long and short vowels such as /u:/ vs /ʊ / as in “pool” and “pull”; /i:/ vs /I/ as in “peak” and “pick”; /ǝ/ vs /ɜ: / as in “teacher” and “bird” 19 When reading a sentence, I not know which words are stressed and which words are not stressed 20 I often have problem in pronunciation between voiced and voiceless of the final stop consonants: /b/, /d/, /g/, vs /p/, /t/, /k/ such as: “cub” may sound “cup”; “fat” may sound “fad”; “back” may sound “bag” 21 My teacher cannot call all students in class to check and correct their pronunciation 22 My teacher helps me to be aware of intonation and sentence stress 23 I pronounce all syllables whether stressed or unstressed of all the words in the sentence with a same amount of time 24 My teacher never forgets to praise and encourage me when I give right answers and never abuse or punish me when I make mistakes 25 I have confusion between similar sounds such as /s/ and /∫/ as in sack/shack; /s/ and /z as in peace/peas 26 My teacher sometimes uses soft ware to teach me pronunciation 100 27 I am not familiar with the concept of intonation 28 I have difficulties in recognizing the main stress of the long words 29 My teacher asks me to learn the stress of new words 30 My teacher need to have a reasonable pronunciation 31 I take a lot of time to listen and understand for the first time taking the activity 32 My teacher works out sounds which cause me most problems in English 33 I tend to ignore the stress patterns when I learn vocabulary 101 APPENDIX TEACHERS’ INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (For teachers of grade 10) (English version) Do you think that teaching pronunciation is important in your teaching English? And why? What are the benefits of your teaching English pronunciation? What is your purpose of teaching pronunciation? Do you like teaching English pronunciation? And why? Do your students have difficulties in learning pronunciation? What consonants your students have difficulty in? What vowels your students have difficulty in? Do your students have difficulty in learning stress, rhythm and intonation? What are others factors that affect your students‟ learning pronunciation? 10 What you to encourage and improve your students‟ learning pronunciation? 102 CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN DÀNH CHO GIÁO VIÊN (Giáo viên dạy lớp 10) (Vietnamese version) Bạn có nghĩ việc dạy phát âm quan trong viêc dạy tiếng Anh bạn? Những lợi ích việc dạy phát âm cho học sinh bạn? Mục đích việc dạy phát âm bạn Bạn có thích dạy phát âm khơng? Tại sao? Học sinh bạn có gặp khó khăn việc học phát âm không? Những phụ âm mà học sinh bạn gặp khó khăn? Những nguyên âm mà học sinh bạn gặp khó khăn? Học sinh bạn có gặp khó khăn việc học âm nhấn, ngữ điệu nhịp điệu không? Những nhân tố khác ảnh hưởng đến việc học phát âm học sinh bạn? 10 Bạn làm để khuyến khích cải thiện việc học phát âm học sinh? 103 APPENDIX STUDENTS’ INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (For students of grade 10) (English version) Do you think that learning pronunciation is important in your learning English? And why? What are the benefits of learning English pronunciation? What is your purpose of learning pronunciation? Do you like learning English pronunciation? And why? Do you have difficulties in learning pronunciation? What consonants you have difficulty in? What vowels you have difficulty in? Do you have difficulty in learning stress, rhythm and intonation? What are others factors that affect your learning pronunciation? 10 What your teachers to encourage and improve you to learn pronunciation? 104 CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH (Học sinh lớp 10) (Vietnamese version) Bạn có nghĩ việc dạy phát âm quan trong viêc học tiếng Anh bạn? Những lợi ích việc học phát âm đem lại cho bạn? Mục đích việc học phát âm bạn gì? Bạn có thích học phát âm khơng? Tại sao? Bạn có gặp khó khăn việc học phát âm khơng? Những phụ âm mà bạn gặp khó khăn? Những nguyên âm mà bạn gặp khó khăn? Bạn có gặp khó khăn việc học âm nhấn, ngữ điệu nhịp điệu không? Những nhân tố khác ảnh hưởng đến việc học phát âm bạn? 10 Giáo viên bạn làm để khuyến khích cải thiện việc học phát âm học sinh? 105 APPENDIX THE RELIABILITY STATISTICS OF DATA COLLECTED FROM TEACHERS’ QUESTIONNAIRES RELIABILITY /VARIABLES=q1 q2 q3 q4 q5 q6 q7 q8 q9 q10 q11 q12 q13 q14 q15 q16 q17 q18 q19 q20 q21 q22 q23 q24 q25 q26 q27 q28 q29 q30 q31 q32 q33 /SCALE ('ALL VARIABLES') ALL /MODEL=ALPHA Reliability Scale: ALL VARIABLES Case Processing Summary Cases Valid Excluded a Total N % 20 100.0 0 20 100.0 a Listwise deletion based on all variables in the procedure Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha 770 N of Items 33 106 APPENDIX THE RELIABILITY STATISTICS OF DATA COLLECTED FROM TEACHERS’ QUESTIONNAIRES RELIABILITY/VARIABLES=q1 q2 q3 q4 q5 q6 q7 q8 q9 q10 q11 q12 q13 q14 q15 q16 q17 q18 q19 q20 q21 q22 q23 q24 q25 q26 q27 q28 q29 q30 q31 q32 q33 /SCALE ('ALL VARIABLES') ALL /MODEL=ALPHA Case Processing Summary Cases Valid a Excluded Total N % 100 100.0 0 100 100.0 a Listwise deletion based on all variables in the procedure Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 775 33 107 According to Kenworthy, J ( 1987 ), intelligibility is understood by a listener at a given time in a given situation That is, students are able to understand, accept and declare to be recognized meaningfully in oral communication According to Munro and Derwing (1999), the intelligibility principle recognizes that the communication is remarkably successful when foreign accents are noticeable or even strong, that there is no clear correlation between accent and understanding, and that certain types of pronunciation errors may have a disproportionate role in impairing comprehensibility Among these elements, sounds build up speech and others elements including stress, intonation and rhythm make up of the use of utterance And in successful communication all of these elements are necessary 108
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