An investigation into the 11th graders'' difficulties in learning English pronuciation at Thanh Chuong 3 high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY VO THI HUONG LY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE 11th GRADERS' DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AT THANH CHUONG HIGH SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION NGHE AN - 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY VO THI HUONG LY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE 11th GRADERS' DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AT THANH CHUONG HIGH SCHOOL Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 60.14.01.11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: NGUYEN GIA VIET Ph.D NGHE AN - 2014 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published elsewhere Author Vo Thi Huong Ly i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to give my thank to many people who directly and indirectly help me in accomplishing this research First of all, I would like to thank Dr Nguyen Gia Viet for his kind help and valuable advice that he provided me throughout my thesis Without his help, my thesis may not be completed Secondly, I would like to thank all of the teachers from Thanh Chuong high school and all accounting students at Thanh Chuong high school for their enthusiastic participation and helpful contribution to my research I also would like to give my thank to my beloved family and friends who support me, encourage and help me all the time I my research Vo Thi Huong Ly ABSTRACT ii This master thesis deals with the importance of teaching pronunciation of the English language at high schools As the global character of English language is strengthened every day, the only knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary is not sufficient as the importance of being able to lead an intelligible and effective communication plays a great role as well Therefore, this master thesis aims at finding out some of the ways which can make an improvement in terms of teaching pronunciation in English lessons iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES .vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Purpose of the Study 1.3 Scope of the Study 1.4 The research questions 1.5 Research methodology 1.6 Setting and background 1.7 Outline of the Study CHAPTER THEORICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Role of pronunciation in communicative competence and in foreign language learning 2.2 Approaches to pronunciation teaching –pronunciation teaching Methodologies 2.3 Factors affecting pronunciation learning 10 2.3.1 The native language 10 2.3.2 The age 11 2.3.3 Phonetic ability 12 2.3.4 Attitudes and identity 12 2.3.5 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation .12 2.4 Differences in the sound systems between English and Vietnamese 13 2.4.1 Phonemes 13 2.4.2 Vowels .13 2.4.3 Consonants 13 2.4.4 Stress 14 2.4.5 Intonation 15 2.4.6 Linking sounds 15 2.5 Common English pronunciation problems encountered by Vietnamese learners .18 2.5.1 Vowel problems 18 2.5.2 Consonant problems 21 2.5.3 Stress, rhythm and intonation problems 23 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .25 3.1 Methodology 25 3.1.1 The research questions .25 3.1.2 Method orientation 25 3.1.3 The characteristics of a case study 26 3.1.4 The participants 28 3.1.5 The instruments 28 3.1.6 Data analysis process 31 iv 3.2 Conclusion 31 CHAPTER DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 32 4.1 Data analysis: 32 4.1.1 Questionnaires 32 4.1.2 Interview: Students’ difficulties in learning English pronunciation as experienced by teachers at Thanh Chuong high school 42 4.1.3 Classroom observation .48 4.2 Conclusion 53 CHAPTER RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS .54 5.1 Summary of the findings 54 5.2 Suggestions for pronunciation teaching in high schools 56 5.2.1 Amount of Exposure 56 5.2.2 Attitudes and motivation 56 5.2.3 Suggested teaching techniques 57 5.3 Conclusion 67 5.3.1 Conclusion of the study .67 5.3.2 Limitations of the study .67 5.3.3 Suggestions for further studies 68 REFERENCES 69 APPENDIX 72 v LIST OF TABLES Pages Table 4.1 Students’ general attitude towards learning English 32 Table 4.2 Students’ awareness of the importance of learning English pronunciation .35 Table 4.3 Students’evaluationon difficulties in learning English pronunciation .37 Table 4.4 Students’ awareness of the concepts of stress, intonation and rhythm 39 Table 4.5 Students evaluation on difficulties in learning English intonation 41 vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale English has become a language for global communication these days In this common trend, English in Vietnam has become one of the important, compulsory subjects at schools, from primary school to high school system No longer are students merely required to master English grammar and vocabulary to sit for a test, they are now studying English to develop their own communicative skills, of which intelligible pronunciation plays a crucial part With poor pronunciation, students have problems either making themselves understood or understanding others Therefore, there should be the appropriate attention to teaching and learning pronunciation Despite realizing the importance of English pronunciation, Vietnamese students still can not acquire correctly The main reason is that the traditional teaching laid the emphasis on grammar Many students can not pronounce English words and sentences correctly They often pronounce them with equal stress, flat intonation and no rhythm at all English pronunciation seems to have become the most serious problem that students face when they learn English This is happening in most upper secondary schools in Vietnam except for foreign language specializing schools Situated in a remote area in Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province, Thanh Chuong high school is far weaker than other schools regarding students' English proficiency at English And if some students are said to be good at English, it means they are good at English grammar Most of them find it hard to express themselves orally If anyone can, he has problems in pronouncing English words and sentences In the English lessons, only must stand up whereas the ones carrying the unstressed syllables still sit down as quickly as possible After doing the first word as example, the teacher starts writing down different multi-syllable words on the board to conduct the game At the end of the game, the half getting most correct answers in the word stress are the winners + Three Readings for sentence stress In order to help students distinguish the two languages Vietnamese and English in terms of sentence stress, the activity named Three Readings which is based on the idea of Underhill (1994) can be conducted In this activity, the teacher can read aloud the same sentence three times in three different ways of marking sentence stress For example, a Shakespearian verse can be used to demonstrate three readings “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” The first time, the sentence is read aloud without any stress or changes in intonation so that each syllable is given the same length, volume and pitch Students then can give comments on that way of speaking or give their own ways of producing the sentence After that the sentence is read for the second time again, with deliberately wrong stress to get students‟ feedback A rose BY aNY oTHER name WOULD smell AS sweet In the third time, the sentence is read aloud with the stress put in the places which seem natural a ROSE by Any OTHER NAME would SMELL as SWEET The teacher then can discuss with his students as a whole group about the role of stress and rhythm in English and how to make it sounds more natural in English The visual contrasts of the utterance“Pronunciation is Important” by Prator and Robinett (1985) can be useful to help students 63 memorize the differences between the two languages Pronunciation is important (modified from Prator and Robinett‟s fourth edition of Manual of American English Pronunciation, 1985) In the above illustrations, the English rhythm is composed of adults (stressed syllables) and children (unstressed syllables), which suggests that English has different syllable length and weight; by contrast, the Vietnamese utterance is composed of soldiers (each soldier represents a syllable), which suggests that Vietnamese has the same length and weight in all words of a sentence Through the illustrations, it is easy for the students to perceive the difference between English and Vietnamese in terms of sentence stress and rhythm + Backward buildup: (P Avery and S Erhlich (1992)) or Back-chaining (D Adrian (1988) With over longer utterances, we can develop our students’ fluency and improve linking and intonation by backward buildup The technique involves starting with the final word of a sentence and adding to it the preceding words, one at a time For example: I can’t understand anything you are saying Will be built up from the back-word: Saying Are saying You are saying Anything you are saying Understand anything you are saying Can’t understand anything you are saying I can’t understand anything you are saying 64 Penny Ur (1991) has also suggested some following techniques that may help to improve students’ English pronunciation: - Imitation of teacher or recorded model of sounds, words and sentences - recording of learner’s speech, contrasted with native model - systematic explanation and instruction ( including details of the structure and movement of parts of the mouth) - imitation drills: repetition of sounds, words and sentences - Choral repetition of drills - varied repetition of drills.( varied speed, volume and mood) - learning by heart of sentences, rhymes and jingles - jazz-chants - tongue twisters - self-correction through listening to recording of own speech + Songs for stress, intonation and rhythm In many English classes, songs have been effectively used as a motivating teaching tool In pronunciation lessons, songs can also contribute to enhancing students‟ interest and motivation in learning and practicing stress, intonation, rhythm as well as English sounds As Balbina Ebong & Marta J Sabbadini, (2006) argued that teachers should let students practice pronunciation through songs “Songs are authentic and easily accessible examples of spoken English… the rhymes in songs provide listeners with repetition of similar sounds… they can be motivating for students keen to repeatedly listen to and imitate their musical heroes.” The choice of songs should be based on students‟ tastes and the applicability of designing effective tasks Such songs with simple lyrics as “Girls you are my love” (Pink boy) or “Papa” (Paul Anka) can be useful for students‟ practice The teacher can make use of the song lyrics with different activities such as lyrics correction 65 or gap fillings (see Appendix ) To illustrate, in lyrics correction, students are given lyrics of the songs with some changed words which refer to the minimal pairs they need to practice After listening to the songs and correcting the wrong words, students can enjoy themselves by singing along with the recorder (see Appendix 3) In order to practice rhythm, stress and intonation, the teacher can choose Jazz chants from the website http://www.teflvideos.com and some folk songs from the website http://www.manythings.org/songs The activities to practice suprasegmentals through songs can be more interesting when being combined with students‟ clapping hands at stressed syllables For example, the teacher can ask his students to sing and clap their hands at stressed syllables which are underlined Jazz Chants I have terrible sense of direction I never know which way to go This way or that way I never know which way to go In short, in the modern time, the teachers of English are put in great advantages with various accessible teaching resources online and offline What techniques should be used in the class time, one more time to say, depends on the content of the lesson, the students‟ learning styles and learning strategies Obviously, such motivating activities take time for preparation Hence, the teachers need to raise their responsibilities and love for teaching and for their students so that they can present the language with different effective methods In this part, I did make effort looking for different teaching techniques which seem to be applicable, interesting and meaningful for a pronunciation lesson Hopefully, they could find the 66 teachers of English at my school as well as the teachers of other schools whose passion is for teaching English pronunciation 5.3 Conclusion 5.3.1 Conclusion of the study In conclusion, the study provides insightful information concerning the difficulties in learning pronunciation met by 11th gradera at Thanh Chuong High school In general, the analysis of the difficulties and the causes is very useful for both teachers and students at our school Especially, the study provides the teachers with a number of suggested techniques to teach pronunciation more interestingly From that, they could find the best way to teach pronunciation effectively After all, mastering English pronunciation is a long way The knowledge and practice cannot be enough Therefore, it is important that teachers of English should make their students aware of their pronunciation and provide resources as well as clear guides to help them constantly correct and self study to improve their pronunciation 5.3.2 Limitations of the study Although great efforts have been made in order to provide an insight into the difficulties in learning English pronunciation at Thanh Chuong high school and look for possible teaching techniques to facilitate the 11 th graders' pronunciation learning, mistakes and limitation are unavoidable in this study The participants of the study were chosen for their accessibility to the researcher Therefore, the results are not intended to be generalized for all English major students Moreover, the assessments of the students‟ pronunciation performance are mainly conducted by the teachers without any formal measurements Sometimes, the researcher finds it difficult to identify and set limits to what can still be regarded as correct pronunciation when taking notes and assessing the students‟ pronunciation Therefore, the assessment given in the research findings may be subjective Another limitation might come from 67 the research instruments That questionnaire may not bring about full answers from students threats the reliability of the research 5.3.3 Suggestions for further studies There are some recommendations which could help to improve other studies of this language filed in the future First, it is much better if the assessments of students‟ pronunciation are conducted by other professional raters beside the researcher Second, some more research could look at the effectiveness of some particular teaching techniques in motivating students' pronunciation learning An experimental research should be carried out to check students' improvement after the pronunciation lesson In the final words, the author herself finds this study very useful for her own teaching of English pronunciation Moreover, it would be interesting to carry out deeper investigation in students‟ pronunciation self-learning and practicing to see what improvements have been made during the course 68 REFERENCES A Vietnamese authors Nguyen, Thien Giap (1997) Dan Luan Ngon Ngu Hoc Nha xuat ban Giao duc Ha, Cam Tam (2005) Common Pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English Journal of Science Foreign Languages, T.XX1, No.1, 2005, p 35-46 Doan, Thien Thuat (2003) Ngu am Tieng Viet Nha xuat ban Giao duc B English authors Asher, J J (1977) Learning Another Language Through Actions; Complete Teachers‟ Guidebook Pajaro Press Avery, P and Erhlich, S (1992) Teaching American English Pronunciation Oxford University Press Balbina, E & Marta, J S (2006) Developing pronunciation through songs.Retrieved August 27th, 2008 from www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/developing-pronunciationthrouh-songs Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D And Goodwin, J (1996) Teaching Pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cohen, A.D., D Larson-Freeman & E Tarone (1991) The contribution of SLA theories and research to teaching language A paper presented at the Regional Language Centre Seminar on Language Acquisition and the Second/Foreign Language Classroom Singapore, April 22-26 Dauer, R M (1993) Accurate English: A complete course in pronunciation New Jersy: Prentice-Hall, Inc 69 Doff, A (1988) Teaching English Cambridge University Press Gilbert, J B (1993) Clear speech: Pronunciation and listening comprehension in North American English 2nd Ed Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Gilbert, J B (1994) Intonation: A navigation guide for the listener (and gadgets to help teach it) In J Morley (Ed.), Pronunciation pedagogy and theory Bloomington: TESOL, Inc 10 Hinst and Cristo (1998) The Pronunciation Component in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages 11 Kenworthy, J (1987) Teaching English Pronunciation Longman 12 Krashen, S D & Terrel, T D (1983) The natural approach Hayward, CA: Alemany Press 13 Mc Donough, J and Mc Donough, S (1997) Research Method for ELT London: Arnold 14 McNeil, D (1987) Some characteristic aspects of Vietnamese English pronunciation' and “Teaching pronunciation to Vietnamese students” A Program Support Group Research 15 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology Prentice Hall International (UK) ltd 16 O‟Connor, J.D & Fletcher, C (1967) Better English Pronunciation Cambridge University Press 17 Pennington, M.C (1996) Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach London: Longman 18 Prator, C., & Robinet, B (1985) Manual of American English Pronunication 4th Ed 19 New York: Holt, Reinehart and Winston 70 20 Sebastine C (2009) Problems of teaching English pronunciation in Igboland: The solution African Journal of Education and Developmental Studies Vol 6., No 1, September, 2009 21 Tay, M M E (1986) Creative phonics Singapore: Pan Pacific Publications Pte Ltd 22 Teaching pronunciation with Jazz chants (2009) Retrieved June 27th, 2009 from http://metamexico.ning.com/video/teaching-pronunciation-with 23 Underhill, A (1994) Sounds Foundations Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann English Language Teaching 71 APPENDIX Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students: We compose this survey questionnaire in order to investigate your difficulties in learning pronunciation All information on the survey will be used for completing the thesis titled “An investigation into the 11th graders’difficulties in learning English pronunciation at Chuong high school” We make sure that your names will not appear in any circumstances Thank you very much for your collaboration ( Chúng soạn câu hỏi thăm dị để điều tra quan khó khăn bạn việc học phát âm môn tiếng Anh Tất thông tin câu hỏi sử dụng để hồn thành luận văn có nhan đề “Điều tra khó khăn học sinh 11 học phát âm tiếng Anh trườngThanh Chương 3” Chúng đảm bảo tên bạn khơng xuất trường hợp Rất cảm ơn bạn hợp tác với chúng tôi.) Name: Class: Age: Sex: number: Bạn có thích học tiếng Anh khơng? Vì sao( Đưa ý kiến) A thích B thích C khơng thích D Vừa thích vừa khơng (bình thường) Bạn có nghĩ học tiếng Anh quan trọng khơng? Vì sao? A Rất quan trọng B Quan trọng C Khơng quan trọng D Bình thường Bạn có nghĩ học phat âm tiếng Anh quan trọng khơng? Vì (ý kiến riêng bạn) A Rất quan trọng B Quan trọng C Không quan trọng D Bình thường Theo bạn học phát âm tiếng Anh có khó khơng? (cho ý kiến) A Rất khó B Khá khó C Bình thường D Rất dễ Đối với bạn phát âm nguyên âm tiếng Anh có khó khơng, có lấy ví dụ A Rất khó B Khá khó C Bình thường D dễ Trong phụ âm tiếng Anh phụ âm bạn cảm thấy khó phát âm? ( bỏ đấu tick ô bên cạnh) p s m b z n f θ ŋ v ð l k ʃ r g ɜ w t tʃ h ʈ̬ dɜ j d Các bạn có hiểu khái niệm " stress, intonation, rhythm" không: A Hiểu rõ B Khá rõ B Khỗng rõ C Không hiểu Đối với bạn "stress" tiếng Anh có khó khơng? A Rất khó B.khơng khó C Rất dễ Đối với bạn "rhythm" tiếng Anh có khó khơng? A Rất khó B.khơng khó C Rất dễ 10 Khi nói tiếng Anh bạn có nghĩ ngữ điệu "intonation" khó khơng? A Rất khó B.khơng khó C Rất dễ (bạn cho vài ý kiến riêng vấn đề trên) Appendix 2: Questions for interviewing teachers Do you find that your students have difficulties in learning English pronunciation? In your opinion, what are the main problems that students often meet when they learn English pronunciation? Do your students have difficulties when they learn English vowels? What are they? Do your students have difficulties when they learn English consonants? What are they ? Do your students have problems with English consonant clusters? How they often make mistakes? Do your students often make stress mistakes? If yes, how? Do your students often make rhythm and intonation mistakes? If yes, how? Can you think of the possible reasons for these difficulties? What can you in your lessons to help your students overcome these difficulties? Do you think that your methods are effective? Appendix 3: Song Papa (Paul Anka) Everyday my papa would work To try to make ends meet/ meat To see that we would eat/ate Keep those shoes upon my feet/fed Every night my papa would take me And tuck me in my bed/bad Kiss me on my head/hat After all my prayers were said/sad And there were years Of sadness and of tears/tea Through it all Together we were strong We were strong Times were rough But Papa he was tough Mama stood beside him all along Growing up with them was easy The time had flew on by The years began to fly They aged and so did I And I could tell That mama she wasn't well Papa knew and deep down so did she So did she When she died Papa broke down and he cried And all he could say was, "God, why her? Take me!" Everyday he sat there sleeping in a rocking chair He never went upstairs Because she wasn't there Then one day my Papa said, "Son, I'm proud of how you've grown" He said, "Go out and make it on your own Don't worry I'm O.K alone." He said, "There are things that you must do" He said, "There's places you must see" And his eyes were sad as he As he said goodbye to me Every time I kess my children Papa's words ring true He said, "Children live through you Let them grow! They'll leave you, too" I remember every word Papa used to say I kiss my kids and pray That they'll think of me Oh how I pray They will think of me That way Someday ... learning English pronunciation met by the 11th grade at Thanh Chuong high school entitled: ? ?An investigation into the 11th graders? ?difficulties in learning English pronunciation at Chuong high school? ??...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY VO THI HUONG LY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE 11th GRADERS'' DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AT THANH CHUONG HIGH SCHOOL Field: Theory... statement into a question or an exclamation Meanwhile in English, 23 intonation plays a very important role in changing the meaning of a sentence With different intonation, the meaning of an utterance