study on dificulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in language focus periods english 12

AIMS OF THE STUDY The aims of the study are as follows: - To find out the attitudes of teachers and learners towards in teaching and learning pronunciation at Nguyen Xuan On upper-second

CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY:

In recent years, English teaching plays an important role in the period of modernization and industrialization For the educational innovation, many considerable changes in teaching and learning English at high schools in Vietnam have been made

One of the most important goals of learning a foreign language is to communicate while oral communication of human beings bases on sounds If people do not pronounce correctly they will have many difficulties in exchanging ideas or sometimes it may lead

to the communication breakdown If one wants to get successful in communication, he

must be good at pronunciation Despite this fact, at the upper-secondary school level in Vietnam, in language teaching and learning, compared with vocabulary, grammar and language skills, pronunciation has so far been paid less attention to

Pronunciation is one of the three aspects of language, together with grammar and vocabulary It plays an important part in listening, and speaking skills, so developing students’ pronunciation is one of the most significant jobs for teachers Teaching methods are needed in teaching-learning process, especially in teaching pronunciation Method is created at the level of design in which the roles of teachers, learners and instructional material are specified The teachers should use appropriate techniques to teach There are many techniques in teaching pronunciation such as using songs, nursery rhymes, pictures, games and so on Teacher is supposed to be imaginative and creative in developing their teaching methods to create good atmosphere, improve the student’s pronunciation and make the English lesson more exciting In this way, the teacher has to be able to make interesting materials for the students in the process of teaching and they have to know how to apply it The teacher should be imaginative and creative in developing their teaching techniques to make the English lesson more exciting There are many ways of teaching English to students, but the most important aspect to teach English is building

their motivation to learn the language In other words, making them feel that they need English, and making them think that English is a very interesting subject to learn Teaching pronunciation is not an easy job There are many problems in teaching pronunciation Achievement learns the students in English teaching still very less The condition of students who are lack of vocabulary which will make them unable to say words during English teaching pronunciation and usually most of the students are not confident to use English in learning English

Based on phenomena above, the author wants to learn techniques are implemented by the English teacher in teaching pronunciation at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary school, finding the problems faced by the teacher in implementing the techniques and knowing how the teacher overcomes the problems

The author is interested in conducting a study on the method of teaching pronunciation applied by the English teachers at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary school In addition realizing that most of the students usually get difficulties in learning pronunciation, the author wants to learn the method in teaching pronunciation

So what are the difficulties in teaching and learning? How to find suitable methods to teach pronunciation? What should teachers do to teach pronunciation effectively? How should teachers make students become interested in learning pronunciation? These are burning questions for many teachers of English The answers to these questions will help teachers improve students’ pronunciation knowledge and help them to make progress in

communication For above reasons and phenomena, the author decide to conduct a

research dealing with the issues of “ A study on difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation in Language Focus periods — English 12”

Hopefully, the study will benefit teachers who want to be successful in the English pronunciation teaching

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The aims of the study are as follows:

- To find out the attitudes of teachers and learners towards in teaching and learning pronunciation at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary School

- To find out the difficulties and the causes of difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation

- To suggest some simple techniques and implications for improving teaching pronunciation sections in “Tieng Anh 12” at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary School

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In order to meet the aims of the study, the following research questions are generated:

1 What are the attitudes of teachers and students towards teaching and learning pronunciation?

2 What are the difficulties and the causes in teaching and learning pronunciation in Language Focus periods — English 12?

3 What teaching techniques can be used to improve teaching pronunciation for students at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary school?

1.4 METHODS OF THE STUDY

In order to fulfill the tasks as mentioned above, a certain data about the attitudes of

teachers and students as well as the difficulties and causes of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary school were collected and analyzed To collect data for the research, a survey questionnaire were delivered to 6 teachers and 100 grade 12 students at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary school Some observation and interviews with some teachers and students were also conducted for supplementary information After that, the results obtained from questionnaires and observation were discussed then some useful pronunciation teaching techniques were recommended

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

There are a number of difficulties in teaching and learning English at upper-secondary school However, this study is concerned with teaching and learning pronunciation in Language Focus periods - English 12 at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary school

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study hopes to make contribution to teaching pronunciation at high school level in Vietnam and the result of the study is considered to be useful for teachers and students at school Thus, this study will be an interesting reference material for any high school language teachers in Vietnam, especially for those who are in favor of improving their students’ pronunciation This research will help teachers and students identify their problems in teaching and learning pronunciation and self-improve their pronunciation

1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The research consists of the following chapters:

- Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter deals with rationale, aims, research questions, methods, scope, significance

and the organization of the study

- Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

It presents theoretical background with definition of pronunciation; the important of teaching and learning pronunciation; the teacher’s role in teaching pronunciation; factors affecting pronunciation learning, differences between English and Vietnamese; approaches, techniques and activities in teaching pronunciation; learning pronunciation; teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunciation Finally, a summary will be presented

- Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter will present an overview of the situation of teaching and learning at Nguyen Xuan On upper-secondary school; Research questions, Research methodology, Data analysis process and the Summary

- Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will present an overview; summarize major findings of the study Finally, the author provides some suggested techniques for teaching pronunciation in “Language Focus Periods” — English 12 and the Summary

- Chapter 5: CONCLUSION

This chapter provides the summary of the thesis, limitations and some suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2:

LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 DEFINITION OF PRONUNCIATION

The notion of pronunciation has been defined in many different ways by writers Generally speaking, pronunciation is simple defined as “the way in which a word is spoken” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992) or “the way in which a word

is usually pronounced” (Longman dictionary of contemporary English, 1978) In the book

“Pronunciation” published in 1994, Christiane Dalton and Barbara Seidlhofer (1994) consider pronunciation “as the pronunciation of significant sound” They look at the word

in two senses First, it is used as part of a code of a particular language That is the reason why English sounds are distinguished from sounds of other languages In this sense, pronunciation can be told as the production and reception of sounds of speech Second, sound is used to achieve meaning in contexts of use

Here the code combines with other factors to make communication possible In this sense pronunciation is referred to acts of speaking

In the scope of this study, the concept of pronunciation can be described as “a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted of generally understood” (American Heritage Dictionary,1992) or “may be said to conduct the sounds of the language or phonology; stress and rhythm; intonation; combination sounds; linkage of sound” (Ur,1996)

2.2 FEATURES OF PRONUNCIATION

Gerald Kelly (2000) points out main features of pronunciation including phonemes and suprasegmental features, in which consonants and vowels belong to phonemes, intonation and stress are two main parts of suprasegmental

Phonemes are units of sound, they are known as segments Suprasegmental features are features of speech which apply to groups of segments, or phonemes The features which

are important in English are stress, intonation, and how sounds change in connected speech The following diagram shows a breakdown of the main features of pronunciation:

Suprasegmental features

Diphthong Word stress Sentence

Features of pronunciation (Kelly, 2000: 1)

As seen from the diagram, pronunciation is a broad subject with the boundaries of

various items such as consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation This study is intended to

focus on two major features of pronunciation: intonation and stress are deeply investigated

Stress is the prominence with one part of a word or of a longer utterance is distinguished from other parts This can be understood like this: when an English word consists of more than one syllable, one of these syllables is made to stand out more than the others This is done by saying the syllables louder For instance, in such words as

“English”, “teacher”, and “student” the first syllables are stressed

Intonation is an important part that most teachers have to deal with when teaching connected speech, it refers to the way the voice “goes up and down in pitch” (Kelly, 2000: 86) when we are speaking It plays a vital role in helping people express their opinions, and understanding thought of others

In short, the word “pronunciation” is like a big umbrella covering various sub-items

as consonants, vowels, intonations, stress, etc With such big boundaries of items,

language teachers and learners have to think of how to master these key aspects,

7

especially stress and intonation, to be successful in teaching and learning pronunciation

2.3 THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PRONUNCIATION

In daily life, people spend much time listening and speaking: students speak and listen to their teachers, children speak and listen to their parents, and adults listen to the news on TV and radio Therefore, pronunciation is said to be the most important skill in teaching and learning English and in daily life

“A learner who constantly mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand A consideration

of learners’ pronunciation errors and of how these can inhibit successful communication

is a useful basis on which to assess why it is important to deal with pronunciation in the

class” Gerald Kelly (2000)

While saying about why it is important to teach pronunciation, Martin Hewings (2004) adds “Difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students fail to get their message across, even when the correct words are being used, or they might fail to

understand what is said to them.”

Sound is the core of the language so that is the reason why when teaching a language the first thing the teachers should do is to let the learners have chances to explore to the sounds of that language Moreover, communicative approach is considered

as the major language teaching in the twenty first century as what the learners really need after graduating is that they can communicate successfully in their work and their life That is the reason why pronunciation teaching has been paid more and more attention by

all the teachers

In language use, the pronunciation skill plays an integral part It consists of various types of listener’s knowledge: knowledge of phonology, vocabulary, and semantics of the language in use, culture of its people, his life experience in the topic, his ability to predict and respond It decides his understanding, content and attitudes towards

the speaker’s saying or utterance as well As a result, we will fail to communicate with others if we are bad at listening

What is more, we cannot develop speaking and listening skills unless we also develop pronunciation skills; to have a successful conversation, students must understand what is said to them Later, the ability to understand spoken English may become very important for listening to the radio, understanding foreign visitors, studying and so on In order to develop this ability, students need a lot of practice in pronunciation That is because students can acquire the language of “picking up” structures and vocabulary through listening to spoken English We should give students as much opportunity to listen to spoken English as possible because they do not have the language environment outside the classroom

Harmer (2000) argues that apart from their teacher’s accents and varieties, the learners should be prepared to hear different ones for the real world listening such as

telephone conversations, speeches, broadcast news, announcement, advertisement, etc

In reality, students’ poor pronunciation ability can cause communication breakdown Pronunciation skill, thus, is an indispensable part in EFL learning environment in Vietnam today In the current high school curriculum, pronunciation is an essential language skill that takes up 20% of the lesson’s content in English textbooks

To sum up, Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of language like syntax and vocabulary Speech is much more than pronunciation of course, but speech is impossible without it Correct pronunciation, in fact, is considered to be a prerequisite to develop the speaking skill That is why teaching pronunciation should occupy an important place in the study of any language

2.4 THE TEACHER’S ROLE IN TEACHING PRONUNCITION

Teachers as models of pronunciation carry a huge responsibility in their classrooms, they influence their learners either in positive or negative way and their main goal is to create a friendly and supportive atmosphere On the other hand, their practical proficiency is not sufficient since if the teacher can only exemplify pronunciation by his

or her own speech performance, the learners are left to work out what is significant for themselves Learners of a second language will not readily discern crucial phonological

distinctions (Dalton and Seidlhofer 1994)

On one hand, there are so called gifted learners that are able to pick up the pronunciation of the target language only by being exposed to it, but on the contrary many students, if not majority, need as explicit explanations as possible to be able to acquire and imitate difficult sounds when speaking Generally speaking they need a teacher who would draw their attention to how sounds should be pronounced and guide them in order to achieve intelligible pronunciation Thus, to succeed in a pronunciation program, the teacher plays an essential role The roles of the teacher and students can be derived in the following parts

2.4.1 Helping learners hear and perceive the model as exactly as possible

In this case, the teacher has a commission to provide appropriate input of the target sounds for students to hear Teacher needs to check that their students are hearing sounds according to the appropriate categories and help them develop new categories if necessary

2.4.2 Helping learners make sounds intelligible

As we know, some English sounds of English do not exist in the learners’ mother tongue Some learners may be able to mimic the target sounds if they are supplied models However, for those who lack an such ability, it is teachers’ duty to explain the way those difficult sounds are made and provide aids to help learners produce the new sounds intelligibly

2.4.3 Providing students with feedback of their pronunciation

It is common knowledge that students need to be told where they are standing, how much they have gained and what they need to improve because sometimes, students themselves can not know whether they are making mistakes or not The teacher must provide them with feedbacks on their performance

2.4.4 Pointing out what is going on

Sometimes, students may not realize what and how they are speaking, because speaking

is for the most part unconsciously controlled, students may miss something important or make mistakes in the way they produce a particular sequence of sounds, or put stress in

an incorrect place, leading to misunderstanding Therefore, it is the teachers’ role to specify the area that students have to pay attention to so as not to cause miscomprehension

2.4.5 Establishing priorities

It is very difficult to achieve native-like pronunciation Therefore, students need the instructions to tell them about what aspects they should master, what aspects they not to

be “perfect” Inevitably, when learning a foreign language, it is dealt if students master

every aspects of it However, as this is somehow unrealistic, students should learn to

satisfy at an accepted level of those aspects which are not vital The level at which students can feel satisfied at depends on different situations for different individuals 2.4.6 Devising activities

It is difficult for teachers to cover all activities in a limited time Moreover, learning

pronunciation is very complex, teachers should identify what exercises will be suitable for their students, what activities would bring them the best effect In devising them, however, it should be accepted that certain activities are more suitable to some students than others

2.4.7 Assessing progress

The teachers plays an important role in assessing progress Moreover, it is not easy for students to assess their own progress, so students need to know at what level they are in pronunciation Tests allocated at appropriate times will serve as a strong motivation for students When they look at their marks, they have a clear sense of how much they have gained Judging students’ pronunciation performance is very complicated However, this should be done accordingly

2.5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

There are many differences in the pronunciation between English and Vietnamese, so many authors have discussed this matter In this study, Doan Thien Thuat (2003), Nguyen Thien Giap (1997), Ha Cam Tam (2005), Nguyen Minh Tam (2000), O’Connor (1967), McNeil, D (1987), Hinst and Cristo, (1998) have been adopted The main differences between English and Vietnamese pronunciation presented hereafter: 2.5.1 Phonemes

A phoneme is defined as “ the smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning” (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000) Vietnamese has three types of phonemes: tones (sometimes referred to as fonemes), consonants, and vowels English phonemes consist of consonants and vowels; this language does not have lexical tones

In Vietnamese, a letter is often represented by the same phoneme (except / r / /ng, ngh/, /k/ (c, k) While in English, the same letter may represent different sounds

Besides, many words contain silent letters which may be at any positions in the word This feature is quite a challenge for Vietnamese students in learning pronunciation

2.5.2 Vowels

What is a vowel? A scientist answer would be that vowels are the core or ‘peak’ of the syllable In fact, as we have seen, a syllable can consist minimally of one vowel V) only, as in the word eye (V); alternative, the vowel in a given syllable can also a

surrounded on either or both sides by consonants (C), as in the words bray (CCV), ants

(VCCC), and pranks (CCVCCC) Another way of describing vowels is to define them

as sounds in which there is continual vibration of the vocal cords and the stream is allowed to escape from the mouth in an unobstructed manner, without any interruption (Phonetics and Phonology 2005.p.7-12)

When searching the vowel system between English and Vietnamese It should pay attention to the two features which exists in Vietnamese but it does not have in English

is medial of Vietnamese and tripthongs of English and in contrast Three out of seven short English vowels are absent in Vietnamese Vietnamese does not have vowel contrasts (minimal pairs) which means there is not discrimination between the short and long This is really a matter to Vietnamese students because they cannot pronounce some words correctly without looking at its pronunciation transcription in the dictionary

In articulating Vietnamese vowels, the tongue is generally higher than in the articulation

of the English approximates Thus, the Vietnamese vowel /i/ is much tense than the English /i/ The lengthening of the vowels is not phonemic in Vietnamese In contrast, all English vowels are phonetically diphthongized They are normally produced with less energy than Vietnamese vowels

2.5.3 Consonants

What is a consonant? A sound formed by the occlusion or near occlusion of the breath stream Consonants differ from vowels by the audible friction with which they are produced

A speech sound produced by occluding /p, b, t, d, k, g/, diverting /m, n, n/, or obstructing /f, v, s, z/ etc The flow of air from the lungs (opposed to vowel); a letter or other symbol representing r unusually representing a consonant sound (Nguyen Minh Tam 2000:89-90)

English has 24 consonants but there are only 22 in Vietnamese There are some phonemes in English but not in Vietnamese and vice versa In Vietnamese, a letter is often represented by the same phoneme In English, some phonemes seem to be represented by identical letters but different pronunciation Vietnamese in general is spoken with a staccato delivery Syllables and words are not linked together as in English but are clearly separated from each other Especially final consonant clusters cause the greatest difficulties for Vietnamese students

2.5.4 Stress

Learners make mistakes in the stress of words and rhythm of sentence, unlike many other

languages, English requires that one syllable in each word be stressed more than others The importance of putting the stress on the right syllable in English words cannot be underestimated; putting the stress on the wrong syllable is more likely to make a word unintelligible than is mispronouncing one of its sounds The results can be certainly attributed to the mother tongue interference For many students whose pronunciation are especially hard to understand, misplaced syllable stress is one of the main problems A change in the stress pattern of a word will change its sounds as well One word that is stressed differently would have different grammatical functions and different meanings For example, the word ‘subject’ has the stress on the first syllable when it is a noun, on

the second when it is a verb, and this makes a noticeable difference to the sound of the

vowels as well as the meanings of the words English speech rhythm is characterized by tone-units: a word or a group of words, which carries one central stressed syllable (other syllables, if there are any, are lightened) In English sentences, not all words are given equal emphasis Key words ( usually the words that contain new or important information) are stressed and pronounced more slowly and clearly than other words Take for example, the question “ Are you going to go to England?” If the focus of the question

is on where the listener will go, the sentence will sound something like “Ya gonna go to England”, the word “England” will be pronounced clearly with more emphasis If, in contrast, the emphasis is on who is going, the sentence would sound like “ Are you gonna

to England?” While students don’t necessarily need to learn to reduce the unimportant words in sentence, they should learn to stress key words Other words should receive less strength since they are only the words used to link the sentence together However Learners may stress on whatever word of a sentence, without the knowledge of which words should be stressed

Vietnamese is a basically monosyllabic language Unlike English - a polysyllabic language, most Vietnamese words have only one syllable And unstressed syllable do not occur in Vietnamese Even in compound nouns, each syllable has its own distinctive tone This is the reason why stress within words does not exist in Vietnamese

2.5.5 Intonation

Intonation, the rises and falls in tone that make the ‘tune’ of an utterance, is an

important aspect of pronunciation of English, often making a difference to meaning or implication Stress, for example, is most commonly indicated not by increased volume but by a slight rise in intonation

Intonation patterns in English sentences primarily indicate the degree of certainty of

an utterance, i.e whether is a statement, questions, or suggestion Most questions in

rising intonation, however, Wh-questions (who, what, where, when, why and how) and

with falling intonation It is important for students to learn these patterns not only in order to communicate meaning, but also in order to avoid unwitting sounding rude or indecisive

There are six tones in Vietnamese: level tone, falling lone (grave), rising tone (acute), broken tone (till), dot, and low-rising These ones are lexical; they change the meaning of words, just as changing one of the segmental phonemes (consonants and vowels) in English can change the meaning of a word

In English, on the other hand, intonation plays a much greater part A statement can be made into question by using intonation without changing the word order, which is not possible in Vietnamese

That is the reason why Vietnamese learners, while studying English, do not pay much attention to learning English intonation, as they are not aware of the importance of using correct intonation

In conclusion, Vietnamese and English sound systems are different A teacher

of English should take all these differences into consideration in order to make the learning and the teaching process more effective

2.6 APPROACHES, TECHNIQUES AND ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

2.6.1 Approaches in teaching Pronunciation

In the book “Teaching pronunciation” (Celce-Murcia M., et al., 1996), the authors point out two general approaches to the teaching of pronunciation in the modern time, namely intuitive-imitative approach and analytic-linguistic approach

An intuitive-imitative approach depends on “the learners’ ability to listen to and imitate the rhythms and sounds of the target language without the intervention of any explicit information” This means the teaching of pronunciation depends largely on the teacher’s turning on and rewinding a cassette player (or another instrument), and the main activities in the class are listening and repeating In this approach, the teacher has no responsibility to explain how sounds are formed or produced and the learners do their main task of listening and imitating, and it is expected that learners will gradually gain pronunciation competence

Meanwhile, an analytic-linguistic approach “utilizes information and tools such as a phonetic alphabet, articulator descriptions, charts of the vocal apparatus and other aids to supplement listening, imitation, and production” (Celce-Murcia M., et al., 1996) In this approach, learners are given explanation as well as training on how to form particular sounds of the target language Between these two approaches, there is no scale on whether which one is better Choosing to apply which approach into teaching pronunciation depends on teachers themselves and the level of learners To do well with these two approaches, it is a need for both teachers and learners to fulfill knowledge of

articulator system such as consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation, etc In this study,

the author considers the use of both approaches to gain best effect in teaching and learning pronunciation

2.6.2 Techniques and activities

Pronunciation is never an end in itself, thus to receive expected result in teaching and learning pronunciation, teachers have made use of a great deal of techniques It may be taught in isolation or in combination with language skills of speaking, listening, reading

or writing

Teaching pronunciation can be divided into three main stages: presentation stage, practice stage and production stage Each stage has its own aims and activities

a) Presentation stage:

Presentation stage aims at preparing students with everything necessary for the lesson It

is an important stage The purpose of this stage is to help students acquire new pronunciation knowledge This can be achieved through using suitable techniques as followed:

- Using real situation

- Listing relative rules

- Using conversation

- Using games

- Using songs or poems

- Using visual aids

These activities may give students a chance to get some knowledge which helps them

to follow the lesson Therefore, when choosing an activity, the teacher should consider factors such as: The time, the material is available or not, the interests of the class and the

teacher, the place where the work is being carried out, the nature and the content of the lesson itself If one of these factors is ignored, the whole process of the activity can be failed

b) Practice stage:

Practice is seen as the frequency device to create familiarity and confidence with the new language, and a measuring stick for accuracy This stage is typically divided into two sections: controlled and freer practice There are many techniques for students to practice pronunciation components Students need to practice both speaking and writing so we have techniques for both oral practice and written practice:

- Listening and repeating individual words

- Listening and repeating phrases

- Listening and repeating sentences

- Listening and repeating conversation

- Odd one out (multiple choice)

- Imitating a series of words, phrases or sentences which have the same pronunciation pattern

- Grouping words, phrases or sentences

- Transcribing phonetically words, phrases, sentence or conversation

- Doing the listening exercises

2.7.1 Students’ roles in learning pronunciation

The learners’ roles are not only to pay attention to what they are doing in the classes or

to be active participants of the learning process but also they need to be able to observe

their progress In other words, what all /earners need to do is respond (Kenworthy 1990)

to the teacher otherwise no progress or slight improvements will become evident Therefore, there is no double that u/timately success in pronunciation will depend on how much effort the learner puts into it and whether the students is willing to take responsibility for his or her own learning (Kenworthy 1990)

Learmers’ willingness to be responsible for their own learning and to take action goes hand in hand with factors influencing learners’ pronunciation learning

In addition, students also have some following roles: Firstly, they have to perceive the model as exactly as they can If cannot acquire it, they will not be able to pronounce the model correctly Students need to respond as much and as well as they can to the recognition, with repetition activities because "practice makes perfect" Finally, teachers should correction of their pronunciation mistakes

2 7.2 Factors affecting learning pronunciation

The teaching pronunciation, according to David Nunan (1991), has always been dealt with from a rather different perspective from other language skills The influence of the first language seems to be much greater in relation to pronunciation in contrast with the acquisition of morphology and syntax

Kenworthy (1997) identifies six principle factors affecting pronunciation learning These are as follow:

2.7.2.1 The native language

The native language plays an important role in learning to pronounce English as it is clearly seen that a foreign accent is influenced by some of the sound characteristics of the learner's native language These can be used to distinguish between the native speakers and non native speakers (untrained as well as trained speakers) Due to the role of native language, there has been a great deal of research on the differences between sound systems of English and other languages in terms of sound system as well as problems, difficulties the learners face when studying English According to Kenworthy, (1992):

"To put it very crudely, the more differences there are, the more difficulties the learners will have in pronouncing English.”

2.7.2.2 The age factor

It is commonly assumed that people can pronounce a foreign language like a native if they start learning it as a child and vice versa even though the adults have a good knowledge of English or they live in the countries where the language is a native one This leads to a question that whether there is an age-related limit on the mastery of pronunciation There have been many studies on this question and the results are conflicting because these studies have assessed pronunciation in different ways and it is extremely difficult to control other factors which may be involved such as ability, motivation or opportunity to use and to hear the language

2.7.2.3 Amount of exposure

Another factor is the amount of exposure to English the learner receives Some people view this as a matter of whether the learner is living in an English-speaking country or not This means that the learner surrounded by English will have more advantages than who is not living in an English-speaking environment However, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of how much exposure to English a learner has received, and of what kind Moreover, it is not merely exposure that matters, but how the learners respond to the opportunities to listen and use English Based on some recent studies, it seems that amount of exposure is not a necessary factor but a contributory factor for the development of pronunciation skills

2.7.2.4 Phonetic ability

Some researchers demonstrate that some people are able to imitate sounds more

accurately than others These abilities are innate, so this factor seems to be out of the

teacher's control What the teacher can do is to investigate the abilities of the learners and provide a variety of tasks so that something will suit the needs and ability of each learner 2.7.2.5 Attitudes and identity

It has been shown that factors such as a person’s ‘sense of identity’ and feelings of

“group affiliation’ are strong determiners of the acquisition of accurate pronunciation of a foreign language In many studies of attitude and motivation in language learning, it has been shown that those learners who show positive feelings towards the speakers of the new language tend to develop more accurate, native-like accents

2.7.2.6 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation

We know that motivation is an important factor which determines the people's participation in every activity especially in language teaching and learning Motivation makes people more active in learning The more motivated the people are, the greater the cognitive process is The learner's attitude towards the language they are learning or going to learn also affects the process of learning pronunciation Their positive attitudes will help students a lot in learning this language, including learning its pronunciation 2.8 TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PRONUNCIATION

Both teachers and students encounter various problem in the process of teaching and learning pronunciation These problems do not only arise from the nature of pronunciation itself, but from various subjective and objective factors In the light of the previous and current studies, some major problems that teachers and learners face

in teaching and learning pronunciation are:

- The nature of pronunciation

According to Nunan (1991), the problem of acquiring the phonology of a second or a foreign language presents a formidable challenge to any theory of second language acquisition In teaching and learning pronunciation, the biggest problem that most of the English teachers and students complain come from nature of pronunciation English pronunciation itself contains so many complicated factors and invisible rules

In the light of this problem, Doff A (1988) listed some common problems that learners often make when they speak English The first is difficulties in pronouncing

sounds which do not exist in the students’ own language The second is the problems with similar sounds that often cause learners’ confusion The third is difficulties in pronouncing consonant clusters And the last problem mainly comes from English stress and intonation Students seem to have a tendency to give all syllables equal

stress and “flat” intonation

- Class setting

A lot of problem in teaching and learning pronunciation come from class setting such

as classroom size, quality of the teaching staff, teaching and learning equipment Firstly,

a large class causes difficulty in teaching pronunciation At high school, on average, there are over 40 students per class With such a high student-teacher ratio, it is impossible to make sure that the teacher could carry out successful teaching techniques and activities, and the learner is not able to listen and receive what the teacher is saying The quality of teaching staff is also a big problem Most teachers of English are non-native speakers, and a few of them can have a native-like pronunciation As a result, the language input that students receive every day is from non-native people Therefore, it is impossible to require student to achieve perfect pronunciation

- Teaching model

According to Kelly (2000), in the part, the model of teaching English pronunciation was “received pronunciation”, the pronunciation of people in the southwest England Today, there are a vast number of English: American English, Australian English, etc

Thus, it is difficult for teachers to choose what model to teach In fact, each teacher often

cannot produce a “perfect” accent without being affected by his own language This fact sometimes causes both teachers and students problems in teaching and learning pronunciation Some teachers do not feel confident with their own voice and students do not know what input language is perfect to receive

- Intelligibility

Beside factors from the nature of pronunciation, class setting, etc, teaching and learning pronunciation involves in its own problem that Kenworthy (1987) calls it as

“intelligibility” He defines “intelligibility” as “being understood by a listener at a given time in a given situation” This means that intelligibility is affected by a number of

factors: the speaker, the listener, the time, and the situation This also means that teaching

and learning pronunciation depends on many factors, causing many problem for both

teachers and students

In conclusion, in this chapter, some theoretical backgrounds relating to teaching and learning pronunciation have been pointed out These factors are the pronunciation concepts and their features Factors relating to pronunciation teaching and learning as the importance, the problems, techniques and activities have been also given It cannot be denied that pronunciation and teaching pronunciation is an important part to conduct in any language course It is even more important for those who are or will be teachers of the language Methods of teaching pronunciation are various with different elements of pronunciation What are the attitudes of teachers and learners towards teaching and learning pronunciation? Do teachers and learners have any problems in teaching and learning? What techniques should be used to teach pronunciation? These questions will

be discussed in next chapters of the study

CHAPTER 3:

METHODOLOGY 3.1 OVERVIEW

This chapter describes the methods of conducting the research including the research approach, subjects of the study, data collection instruments and data collection procedure

as well as data analysis Besides, it presents the characteristics of the participants and the instruments for gathering data

3.2 THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY

The study was conducted in an upper secondary school which was founded in 1946 and

situated near the centre of Dien Chau Town, and with the staff of good, energetic and

enthusiastic teachers The school is famous for its teaching and learning achievements So

it has been known as one of the leading choice of parents and students when they finish the secondary school The school has 39 classes with more than 100 teachers of 12

different subjects and 1,950 students Each year, the school enrolls more than 600 new

comers from many villages in the district

Similar to any other school, students of grade 10; 11 and 12 are learning the three syllabuses published by the Ministry of Education in 2006 which are regarded as updated but very difficult ones

At school, all students when pass the entrance exam to the school have to study English

as one of the compulsory subjects During the process of learning English at school, students use three English textbooks (English 10, English 11, English 12) focusing on four skills including reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus part The language focus comprises two major parts: pronunciation and grammar Normally, students start learning pronunciation when they study English 10 However, at grade 10th, students only learn some vowels and simple consonants At grade 11th, students continue to study complex consonants And at grade 12", students start to be familiar with stress and intonation exercises However, it is only one small part in the Language

Focus lessons About 10 to 15 minutes are spent for Pronunciation in each unit There are

16 units in the text book and they focus on eight components of Pronunciation:

Grammatical endings, Stress, Weak and strong forms, Contractions, Rhythm, Elision,

Linking and Intonation There are two main activities of practicing: Listen and repeat individual words and Practice reading sentences

The difficulties in teaching and learning English come firstly from students In general, students in the school differ in their level of language proficiency Most students coming from the centre of the town and nearly have been learning English since grade 6, a small number of students started in grade 3 to 5 The rest coming from the rural areas where there are very difficult situations for living and learning

Although most students started learning English at the early age, many of them have low proficiency of English because of their wrong attitudes to English learning, laziness

as well as the shortage of time for English Besides this, all the new syllabuses of other subjects which are considered difficult and overloaded have greatly affected students’ learning English

As for the staff of English teachers, the school has 9 English teachers consisting of 2 males and 7 females and age from 28 to 54 One has just finished an MA course, one is following MA course, 4 graduated from the Foreign Language Department of Vinh University, 3 from in-service centre in Vinh city and the other 2 from Hanoi national university

In terms of language teaching method, the teachers at Nguyen Xuan On Upper Secondary School are familiar with the new teaching method and most of them have a great desire to acquire knowledge of communicative competence to apply in teaching English

3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN

Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were chosen to deal with the data in this research However, the researcher used the quantitative approach to collect the data for this study The questionnaires are used in order to get information from the participants

because qualitative research is considered as generally examining people’s words, actions

in narrative or descriptive ways more closely representing the situation as experienced by the participants (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994) The purpose of qualitative research is to discover the participants’ perspectives through their feelings, thoughts, beliefs, ideas and actions in natural situations The qualitative research in which interviews and class observations are employed allows the author to report the data results in words rather than numbers

3.4 SUBJECTS OF THE STUDY

3.4.1 The teachers

The subjects of the study are six (out of nine) teachers of English who have been teaching English 12 (The rest three teachers are two teachers who have not taught English 12 yet and the author) All of them are experienced in teaching English 12 They age from 30 to

54 All of the teachers have BA degree, one of whom studied English at Hanoi national university and the other five from the Foreign Language Department of Vinh University 3.4.2 The learners

There are about 500 students of grade 12 in my school Most of the students have learnt English for at least 7 years, since they were at grade 6 Some of them have learnt English since they were in primary school The number is different due to the difference

of learning conditions among city, town, township and rural area They are using “Tieng Anh 12” as their official English textbook at present Some students study English more deeply to take the exam to university In general, the majority of the students like learning English and have a good general knowledge of English The survey questionnaires for students was conducted among quite a large number of 12" form students at Nguyen Xuan On Upper secondary school There are 100 students who are involved in the survey To get the findings, the author randomly chose 50 students learning at class 12 C9 and 50 at class 12 Cl0.They were asked to fill in the questionnaire

3.5 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS

Questionnaires and class observations would help the researcher collect the main data

for the study Besides, informal interviews with the teachers were conducted so as to

obtain more information

Questionnaires: In order to collect reliable and comprehensive data, two questionnaires were designed: one for teachers and one for students They are both open- ended and closed-ended questions

Questionnaire A (see Appendix 1) consisting of 11 questions was delivered to 6 teachers Five first questions are aimed at finding out the attitudes of teachers and learners towards the teaching and learning pronunciation The next three questions are aimed at finding out the levels of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation and the causes of difficulties The four last questions are aimed at finding out the frequency of using different techniques and activities in teaching and learning pronunciation All questions were written in English

Questionnaire B (see Appendix 2) including 11 questions was designed for 100 students of 12 with the aim of eliciting the students’ attitudes towards pronunciation sections in “Tieng Anh 12” All the questions were translated into Vietnamese to enable the students to understand and give the exact information

The teachers were given 30 minutes and the students were given 45 minutes to finish their answers The purposes, requirements of collecting data were clearly explained to both teachers and students before they answered the questions in the questionnaires Class observation: This is a very important method to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire Class observation provided supplementary data on the real situation of teaching and learning English listening

The class observation was conducted (with 6 pronunciation lessons of 6 teachers) in order to gather further information and to witness the reality in which the teachers used techniques in the pronunciation teaching process Then, the result of the observation would be compared with the result of the questionnaire The author acted as a non-

then transcribed and analyzed to evaluate pronunciation teaching in the classroom The author attended 6 pronunciation lessons during three weeks and each lesson lasted 15 minutes

Interview: In addition to the questionnaires and class observation, the author will

interview some teachers to get their ideas about the research issues Therefore, the author will know more useful information beside the questionnaire An unstructured interview is

more like a natural conversation between the interviewer and the interviewee; thus

teachers would discuss more about the items raised in the questionnaire freely and truly This technique supported and confirmed the data results collected from the questionnaires

There are three questions in the interview The first question is about the attitude of the teachers and learners towards the teaching and learning pronunciation The second question is about the causes of difficulties The third question is the favorite activities

in teaching and learning pronunciation Two teachers and 14 students (one student in

each class was chosen randomly in 14 different classes, six have mark from 8 to 10, six have mark from 6 to 8, two have mark below 6) were invited to the interview

The questions for students were in Vietnamese This was to guarantee the truthfulness

of the information because most of students are not good enough at English to reply in English The teachers and students were interviewed and information was taken notes at the place of the interview

3.6 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE

The study was conducted in the first term of the school year 2012-2013 (from September

2012 to December, 2012) At the beginning of the first term, two sets of questionnaires were given to the teachers and the students who agreed to participate in the research After two days, these questionnaires were collected The information from these questionnaires were then summarized and presented in the form of statistics For the following two weeks, the author carried out some classroom observations The observations during six English lessons including one in reading, one in writing, one in

listening, one in speaking and two in language focus periods At each session, the researcher took field notes on what happened when the students learned pronunciation Finally, when the information from the survey questionnaires and classroom observations

were collected and analyzed, structured interviews were carried out

The data collected from three different resources were read through to obtain a sense of the overall data They were then analyzed both descriptively and interpretatively The initial sorting-out process was writing findings in the form of reflective notes and summaries of field notes The information was then displayed in forms of tables and figures while qualitative data from the open-ended questionnaire items, classroom observations and interviews were presented by quoting relevant responses from the respondents

3.7 DATA ANALYSIS

Data collected from three different sources were categorized into (a) teachers and

students' attitudes towards pronunciation learning and teaching at Nguyen Xuan On upper secondary school, (b) the difficulties and the causes in teaching and learning pronunciation (c) the ways of using different techniques in teaching pronunciation The data were categorized this way is easy for the author to find the answers to the research questions The quantitative data were presented in the form of charts while qualitative data from the interview and class observation were presented by quoting relevant responses from the respondents

3.8 RESEARCH PROCEDURES

To sum up, the procedures of the research includes the following steps:

1 Collecting data through questionnaires, interviews and class observation

Clarifying the data into intended groups

Doing statistical calculation

Describing the collected data presented in tables and figures

Generalizing and giving comments and evaluations

3.9 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

The reliability of the research laid in the consistency of the data gained from the questionnaires, interviews and class observations The results collected from the questionnaires are similar to the information gained from the interviews with the teachers and students investigated as well as the results of classroom observations performed by the researcher

Besides, the study is valid because it gave the author accurate results of the reality

of teaching pronunciation sections in "Tieng Anh 12" and teachers! problems in teaching pronunciation In other words, the research truly measured what was intended to measure and the research results are truthful

3.10 SUMMARY

In brief, with the combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods through three different instruments: two survey questionnaires, interview and class observation with the purpose of achieving triangulation and more reliable, valid data In the next chapter, chapter 4, the author will present the data analysis, discussion and the implications for teaching and learning English pronunciation in English 12

CHAPTER 4:

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 OVERVIEW

This chapter focuses on the analysis of data collected mainly from the questionnaires to

both teachers and students, the informal interviews conducted with teachers and the class

observations The findings are presented systematically along with the researcher’s explanations and evaluation aiming at studying the current situation of teaching pronunciation sections in “Tieng Anh 12”, exploring teachers’ problems in teaching pronunciation, finding out the solutions and then presenting some suggested techniques for teaching pronunciation in: Language Focus Periods” — English 12

4.2 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.2.1 The reality of teaching pronunciation at Upper Secondary Schools in Nghe An 4.2.1.1 The teachers and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning pronunciation

The beginning of the questionnaires focused on finding the information about teachers’ and students’ opinions on pronunciation sections

4.2.1.1.1 Questionnaires

a The most necessary aspect in English for students

Grammar

@ Pronunciation

Chart 1: The most necessary aspect in English for students

Assuming that the consideration of the teachers’ and students’ attitude towards teaching and learning pronunciation would be beneficial to the research, at the outset,

these factors were surveyed The results, shown in below, reflect that grammar is the

most concerning aspect in learning English at high school Surprisingly, only 15% of the teachers think that pronunciation is the most necessary for their students They always pay much attention and time and energy on grammar In contrast, teaching and learning pronunciation as well as developing listening, speaking or reading skills do not receive enough attention to

b The role of pronunciation in teaching and learning English

32

Chart 2: The role of pronunciation in teaching and learning English

The results collected from the chart 2 showed that there is a high level of agreement about the significance of pronunciation in teaching and learning English All teachers and students agree that pronunciation is very important and important in teaching and learning English Remarkably, none of the teachers and students thinks that teaching and learning pronunciation unimportant It means that pronunciation should be taught and

learnt

Actually, most teachers and students perceived the role of teaching and learning pronunciation They agreed that improving their teaching resulted in effective pronunciation lessons for students

c The aims of teaching and learning pronunciation

To assist students to communicate better 100% 100%

To presents students with the knowledge about | 29% 30%

To assist students distinguish the differences | 32% 20%

between English and Vietnamese

Table 1: The aims of teaching and learning pronunciation

It can be seen clearly that there is a similarity between the teachers and students’ purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation All the teachers (100%) agree that teaching pronunciation is to assist students to communicate better and the most purpose

of learning pronunciation is also to communicate better 48% of the teachers and 53% of the students think that teaching and learning pronunciation is to get better results in the exam 32% of the teachers and 20 % of the students think that teaching and learning pronunciation is to distinguish the differences between English and Vietnamese

d The attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation

The teaching and learning of pronunciation is an integral part in EFL curriculums

in general and at high school curriculums in particular The attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation is thoughtfully perceived by teachers of English at Nguyen Xuan

On upper secondary school via the figure below

@ Interesting

= Neutral

@ Not very interesting

34

Chart 3: The attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation

As can be seen from the chart, there is a strong agreement of the teachers and students about the attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation Most of the teachers (98%) and almost all the students (90%) find teaching and learning pronunciation very interesting and interesting In their viewpoint, teaching and learning pronunciation should

be given more attention so that their students could develop their ability in speaking and listening to foreigners, communicate with other people from different countries when they entered their real life in the near future One teacher argued that “Jf your students desire to talk to foreigners, they will need to understand what is spoken first It means that students should be equipped with good pronunciation So it is very significant for teachers to master pronunciation teaching” Another teacher strongly agreed that “Only when students can listen to others, can they communicate effectively”

Meanwhile, 2% of the teachers and 8% of the students did not place a strong emphasis on the role of pronunciation teaching and learning at high school They are neutral with it When being asked for a further explanation, some of them thought that it was more important to develop other skills more than pronunciation lessons Then pronunciation teaching and learning is not really necessary There are no teachers and only 2% of the students considers it as not very interesting or not interesting

Actually, most teachers and students perceived the value of pronunciation in teaching process They agreed that improving their teaching and learning resulted in effective pronunciation lessons