research on shadowing methods to improve interpretation skill for the fourth year student at hou

Based on the situation of 4th year students at Hanoi Open University, they always have difficulties in listening to English during the interpretation process.... In Terms of RealityThe t

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI

KHOA TIẾNG ANH

Nhóm ngành: Ngôn Ngữ Anh Chủ nhiệm đề tài: Ngô Thị Hạnh, Trần Thị Duyên, Nguyễn Thị Bình

Giảng viên hướng dẫn: ThS Lê Thị (nh Tuy)t

Hà Nội, 2022

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM KHOA TIẾNG ANH Độc lập - Tự do – Hạnh phúc

ĐỀ CƯƠNG CHI TIẾT NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC SINH VIÊN

ĐỀ TÀI: Research on shadowing methods to improve interpretation

skill for the fourth-year student at HOU

I THÔNG TIN CHUNG:

- Tên đề tài: Research on shadowing methods to improve interpretation skill for

fourth-year students at HOU

- Sinh viên thực hiện:

II PHẦN THUYẾT MINH:

1 The Research Topic's Urgency and Novelty

1 The Research Topic's Urgency and Novelty

English has become the international language for all the nations to exchange ideas, sharetheir own culture and cooperate with others in every field in life In that situation, a lot ofconferences, workshops, seminars,v.v are organized to exchange information, technology,and cooperating for peace and development between nations require interpretation Theinterpretation is an activity that is going on all time With the useful help of interpreters,our wide world becomes closer Especially, the development of scientific technology,artificial intelligence is threatening the role of interpreters Based on the situation of 4thyear students at Hanoi Open University, they always have difficulties in listening toEnglish during the interpretation process

This study will provide shadowing methods to improve interpretation skill for fourth-yearstudents at HOU.

2 Overview of Research

The research is mainly targeted at students and people who want to improve theirinterpretation skills Setting specific goals for identifying the situation and approaches toenhance abilities as well as conducting a large-scale survey of most of Hanoi OpenUniversity's majored, students The study will be carried out for at least 4 months, withthe objective of integrating student perspectives via a series of questionnaires Theresearch will then closely analyze the results from the survey and suggest some effectivesolutions to limited challenges based on the basic information obtained

3 Purpose and Scope of the Study:

3.1 Research’s Goal:

To find out the problems that the fourth-year students English major in HOU faced intranslating English into Vietnamese It is also an attempt to unfold the factors that causethese problems and to give some recommendations to overcome them

3.2 The Study's Scope:

Due to the small scale of the study and the limitation of time, this study only focuses oninvestigating the difficulties in translating English into Vietnamese of a group of 45fourth-year students at HOU

4 Methodology of Research

To achieve the goal of the study, the main method is quantitative data analysis Data isgathered through a survey questionnaire then analyzed to ensure the quantitativeproperties of the study

5 Contributions of Research

5.1 In Terms of Scientifically

•

5.2 In Terms of Reality

The topic investigated the current situation of English - Vietnamese interpretation skills

of students at Hanoi Open University, thereby evaluating and proposing solutions,especially the Shadowing method, to help students improve their interpretation skill aftergraduation, meet the needs of future employers, create a solid premise for the younggeneration - who will hold the country's destiny in their hands

6 The Primary Point

The study aimed to find out common errors in interpretation, factors affecting the process

of English - Vietnamese interpretations of 4th year students at Hanoi Open University andsolutions

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

3 Scope of the Study

4 Research Questions

5 Significance of the Study

6 Methods of the Study

7 Design of the Study

1.4 The Meaning and Purpose of Shadowing

CHAPTER 2: Common Errors in Shadowing

2.1 Methodology

2.1.1 Research Participants

2.1.2 The Objective of the Survey

2.1.3 Design of the Questionnaires

2.2 Results and Discussion

CHAPTER 3 : DATA COLLECTION AND STATISTICS

3.1 The actually current situation of students' English speaking ability: English major

in 4th year of Hanoi Open University.

The reality of teaching and learning English in Vietnam demonstrates that universitystudents' ability to speak English is a source of concern, as many of them have studiedEnglish for many years but are still unable to communicate effectively in this language.One of the most difficult aspects of English for beginners is sentence pronunciation andintonation So far, there are many effective methods for learning foreign languages, one

of which is "shadowing," a method that is not new but is not widely used in Vietnam One

of the most effective practical methods for improving foreign language learners' listeningand speaking abilities is shadowing This method assists foreign language learners ingrasping the method and accurately simulating the language's pronunciation, intonation,and so on This article discusses the current state of English-speaking abilities amonguniversity students majoring in translation and interpretation, as well as the reasons for it.The author wishes to understand the effect of the shadowing technique on improvingstudents' English pronunciation through an action study on the application of thistechnique to students Finally, the author makes some recommendations for using theshadowing technique in teaching and learning English, particularly for improvingtranslation skills

3.2 Statistical analysis of the results from the questionnaire

According to a pre-experiment questionnaire survey of 100 4th year students from HanoiOpen University's English Department, 83.8% of students are aware of the shadowingmethod and believe that English speaking skills are very important The remaining 16.2%are unaware of this method

According to the results of the survey, 63.5% of students only shadow occasionally Only17.6% of students believe in regular practice The others are rarely or never used

After practicing shadowing techniques with 100 4th year students from Hanoi OpenUniversity's English Department, a questionnaire survey revealed that 50% of thembelieve that learners must have a certain level to use shadowing techniques.

52.1% of students believe it is critical to select the appropriate listening material forthemselves The material chosen should be video or audio spoken by native speakers (be

it a movie, lecture, reality show, or the textbook material itself)

66.2 % of students said the shadowing technique is beneficial and that their Englishpronunciation has greatly improved.

( Learners can aim for correct pronunciation when performing the shadowing technique.When practicing repetition and trying to imitate the same English sounds, learners arealso training their bodies to get used to making these sounds, from which they canbuildEnglish accents are close to native accents

The intonation when speaking the language of the learners can be significantly improved

by the shadowing technique Prosody includes intonation, stress, loudness variations,pausing, and rhythm

The shadowing technique helps learners increase their ability to speak fluently.Shadowing helps to create connections in the brain when establishing sounds, words, andsentences quickly and accurately, so this technique helps learners form better reflexeswhen speaking.)

The shadowing technique has increased the confidence and interest of 93.3% of students

in speaking English

As a result, the shadowing exercise is confirmed to be available positive impact on theimprovement of students' English speaking and interpreting skills

3.3 Analysis from students' Shadowing exercises

After completing the survey and collecting data, I evaluated the results of the exercisesperformed by the 100 subjects who took part in the experiment After four weeks ofpractice, each student submitted 20 recordings of speaking shadowing The following is asummary of the pronunciation errors that students make when speaking English, asdetermined by the comparative analysis method:

3.3.1 Ending sounds

Due to the habit of speaking Vietnamese without tail sounds, many learners often skip thepronunciation of words For example, the word "like" is pronounced /la / instead of /la k/.ɪ ɪ

In Vietnamese, there are no words that end in /d/, /b/ or /g/ So a "hard habit" ofVietnamese people is that whenever one of these three sounds at the end of a word, it will

be pronounced /t/, /p/ and /g/ respectively For example, "rob" would be pronounced

"rốp"; “trade” will be pronounced as “tr)t”; and the word dog will be pronounced “đóc.”The final “th” sounds like “breath” is read as “bờ rét”; ending "f" like "if" is read as "íp";

“six” is read as “xích”

3.3.2 Vietnameseization of English sounds

One of the other habits that should be avoided by Vietnamese students isVietnameseization of English, that is, using Vietnamese sounds to replace English soundswith similar pronunciation

Here are some sounds that are often improperly Vietnameseized:

/e / is often pronounced as “ây” For example, say /se / is pronounced “xây”ɪ ɪ

/ə / is often pronounced as a “ô” For example, home /hə m/ is pronounced “hôm”ʊ ʊ/ð/ is often pronounced “d” or “ đ” For example, that /ðæt/ is pronounced “dát” or “đát”/θ/ is often pronounced as “th” For example, think /θ ŋk/ is pronounced “thinh”ɪ/t / is often pronounced as ch For example, chat /t æt/ is pronounced “chát”ʃ ʃ

/ / is often pronounced as s For example, should / d/ is pronounced as “sút”ʃ ʃʊ

Other wind sounds like / /, /d / are pronounced as d For example, television / tel v n/ʒ ʒ ˈ ɪ ɪʒ

is pronounced “tê lê vi dừn”

3.3.3 Linking sounds

Most of the subjects in this study forgot to connect the last syllable of the word beforewith the first syllable of the word behind; for example, with phrases that need to beconnected like "have a" or "like it," students often read them fragmentarily, showing alack of naturalness when pronouncing

3.3.4 Intonation

English has treble and bass as well Changes in tone and rhythm when speaking can alterthe meaning of a sentence and reveal the speaker's mood If you do not use intonationwhen speaking, the listener will become "ambiguous," not understanding your feelings

and attitudes Speaking without intonation will make your speech sound very unnatural inmany cases

3.3.5 Stress

English, like Vietnamese, has accents When there are two or more syllables in a word,one of them is always stressed Consider speaking a Vietnamese sentence without anyaccents; this is how foreigners feel when they hear a stress-free English sentence

The lack of stress or incorrect stress in English makes their pronunciation very difficultand confusing for listeners Typically, in the students' practice, there are some stresserrors, such as the fact that the word "record" is a 2-syllable word When it is a noun, thestress will fall on the first syllable, and when it is a verb, the stress will fall on the secondsyllable But most students put stress on the second syllable

3.4 Results of speaking test

The author analyzed the test scores of a group of students before and after applying theshadowing technique to study the effect of the exercise on English speaking andtranslation skills Students' presentations are graded using four criteria: fluency,vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation The author places a premium on pronouncingwords correctly (focusing on emphasis) This criterion is carefully recorded and analyzedbecause it involves sounds (pronunciation of vowels, consonants, and intonation) in thestudent's presentation The author noticed a significant improvement in the classpresentation Each student took a speaking test before and after the course

Pre-shadowing Stressed words Participant 1 % Participant 2 % Participant 3 %

participants could have shadowed more than half of the original listening the first timearound The number of stressed words that participants could shadow increaseddramatically during the final round of listening during the pre-shadowing session.There are still 96 stressed words in the post-shadowing However, we can see that thenumber of repeat students has increased dramatically as compared to before adopting theshadowing technique.

This reveals that the shadowing technique has a considerable influence on fourth-yearEnglish Department students at Ha Noi Open University when they learn and practice it

CHAPTER 4: SOME SUGGESTIONS ON APPLYING SHADOWING TECHNIQUE

4.1 Object should apply Shadowing technique

Learners do not necessarily have to reach a certain level of English to be able to apply Learners can completely start from zero when applying Shadowing technique

Looking for ways to learn English effectively? Shadow technique can be one of the

most effective techniques you could ever encounter Using shadow techniques to

learn English can help you with your memory, accent, and stress points.

The shadowing technique is very straightforward To shadow, something is to imitate it In English, this means paying attention to someone else’s speech before attempting to mimic their sounds

It’s sometimes referred to as the “listen and repeat method,” but the concepts are the same After listening to the audio, you should summarize what you heard There are numerous advantages to this, which we will discuss in more detail later

We advise using the shadow technique because it has always helped people speak more clearly

4.2 Suggested procedure for practicing the Shadowing technique by yourself

4.2.1 Stimulating the brain with sound

Shadowing allows you to train your articulators to produce sounds more

accurately In a real conversation, you have to organize your ideas, find the right words and formulate phrases But by imitating someone else’s speech, you can just focus on the sounds of the language

Active learning: This is the best way You just need to arrange a reasonable time Sit down at the table and actively participate in English speaking activities.Short Time: Practicing speaking English can be stressful Therefore, you should only do this for a short time, 10 to 15 minutes a day is reasonable

Select a piece of audio: Find a short piece of audio (max 5 minutes) with just one person speaking It doesn’t have to be a native speaker, but they should be proficient

4.2.2 Study on transcript

Shadow the audio with a transcript This is the easier version of shadowing:

speaking with the audio while also reading a transcript This helps you to see the words as you’re repeating them If you’re a beginner or lower-intermediate Englishlearner, this is a great option for you

Do not be concerned if you cannot understand the audio you are listening to because the purpose of shadowing is to practice the sounds Shadowing is merely amethod for enhancing your verbal abilities and delivery

You will naturally pick up some new words along the way, but this is not the goal

of shadowing

4.2.3 Listen and practice each sentence