The following questionnaire is conducted to investigate issues relating to the pronunciation of the first year students at the English Department
APPENDICES Appendix 1: QUESTIONNAIRE The following questionnaire is conducted to investigate issues relating to the pronunciation of the first year students at the English Department, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Please tick the most appropriate options according to you. Part 1: Personal Information 1. What is your name? ………………………………………………… 2. When did you begin studying English? a. Since primary school b. From grade 6-9 c. From grade 10-12 d. From grade 6-12 3. Which English curriculum did you follow at your secondary school? a. Three-year b. Seven-year c. Pilot program (7 years) 4. Did you study in an English specialized secondary school? a. Yes b. No Part 2: Pronunciation learning at secondary schools 5. How often did you listen to authentic English at your secondary school? a. No time b. < 20 mins/week c. 20- 45 mins/week d. 45-60 mins/week 6. How do you judge the pronunciation of your Vietnamese teachers of English at your secondary school? a. poor b. average c. good d. excellent (native-like) 7. How often were you taught English pronunciation in the class when you were at your secondary school? a. Less than 20 minutes per week I b. From 20-45 minutes per week c. More than 45 minutes per week d. There was no pronunciation lesson but the teacher taught the pronunciation of new words and corrected students’ pronunciation mistakes during the lesson. (If yes, how long approximately? .) 8. When you look up new words in the dictionary, what did you often do? a. looked at its meaning only b. looked at its pronunciation and meaning, then pronounced it in mind c. looked at its pronunciation and meaning, then pronounced it aloud Part 3: Attitude and problems with English pronunciation 9. How important is pronunciation do you think? a. Not important b. Important 10. What make pronunciation difficult for you? a. There are sounds and phonetic rules that do no exist in Vietnamese. b. My local dialect affects me badly. c. My phonetic ability is not good d. Nobody corrects my pronunciation for me. e. I have no one to practice speaking English with. f. Your own problem:………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your help!!! II Appendix 2: PRETEST (MOCK SPEAKING TEST 1) Part one: Read aloud the following passage: Another feature of many leisure activities is the introduction to a whole new social work, providing companionship with other like-minded people. New friends can be made through joining a music club, for instance. And social relationship can be strengthened through a share interest in football. The media opens up this experience to everyone who wants to participate, even if they don’t play. An essential aspect of leisure is that we can pick hobbies to suit our personality, our needs and our wallet, and we can drop them at any time. This control is crucial, as people benefit from feeling that they’re making their own decisions. That’s one reason why children need to choose their own hobbies, instead of having them imposed by their parents. (Time to waste, Objective IELTS, Intermediate, Teacher’ book, p.47) Part two: Work in pairs and discuss the following topic (Students picked up one among the topics given) 1. The best way to travel is by bicycle. To what extend do you agree with this statement? 2. Money is the most important thing in life. Discuss with your partner about this. 3. Shopping is a waste of time and money. To what extend do you agree with this statement? 4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of tourism. 5. Using nicknames to chat on the Internet has some advantages and disadvantages. Discuss with your partner about this. III Appendix 3: POSTTEST (MOCK SPEAKING TEST 2) Part one: Read aloud the following passage: Another feature of many leisure activities is the introduction to a whole new social work, providing companionship with other like-minded people. New friends can be made through joining a music club, for instance. And social relationship can be strengthened through a share interest in football. The media opens up this experience to everyone who wants to participate, even if they don’t play. An essential aspect of leisure is that we can pick hobbies to suit our personality, our needs and our wallet, and we can drop them at any time. This control is crucial, as people benefit from feeling that they’re making their own decisions. That’s one reason why children need to choose their own hobbies, instead of having them imposed by their parents. (Time to waste, Objective IELTS, Intermediate, Teacher’ book, p.47) Part two: Work in pairs and discuss the following topic (Students picked up one among the topics given) 1. How many ways can students earn money to support themselves? Discuss with your partner about this. 2. Money is not important, yet for young people, it is all. Discuss with your partner about this. 3. Going on a diet is necessary to maintain good health. Discuss with your partner about this. 4. What can we do to protect the nation’s places of interest? 5. Shopping is a waste of time and money. To what extend do you agree with this statement? IV Appendix 3: READING PASSAGES PASSAGE 1: JOB SATISFACTION Over the years, the development of different theories of management and different approached to organization has affected the way we view motivation. In the 19 th century, the writer Federick Taylor put forward the theory that workers were only interested in making money. In contrast, in the early 20 th century, researchers found that people went to work to satisfy a range of different needs, and not simply for financial reward. One need, in particular, was emphasized – the social need. An early study done on a coal-mining company, for instance, showed that people generally were happier and worked more productively if they were able to work in teams. (Job satisfaction, Objective IELTS, Intermediate, Teacher’ book, p.47) PASSAGE 2: GLOBAL WARMING If global warming really starts to accelerate in the second half of this century, as many scientists expect, the area of warm air will be much larger during the summer than it is now. The impact on the jet stream will be that it will be located further north. The British Isles will then become dry, with an almost complete lack of rain. So there’s a pretty unpleasant change in prospect. (Global warming, Objective IELTS, Intermediate, Teacher’ book, p.60) V PASSAGE 3: FOREST The Forest Service is responsible for the forests on public lands in the United States. It supervises almost seventy-eight million hectares of forests, grasslands, rivers and lakes. It is an agency of the Department of Agriculture. The first is the threat of fire and fuel. This year, forest fires have burned more than three million hectares of land. That is almost two times as much as the ten-year average. Fires are a natural part of forest growth, but they can also threaten lives and property. (Practise your listening skills – p.275) PASSAGE 4: QUEUING There is one sport at which the British are always the world champions. Nobody can beat them at the noble art of queuing. The British actually look forward to spending their weekends in a queue, waiting for a shop to open or waiting for a parking space at the furniture superstore. If you ever decide to visit Britain, you will need to know some of the basic rules of the sport. First of all, remember that you only need one person to make a queue. If you are alone at a bus stop, for example, don’t look to relaxed. Make sure that you are in the queue and look optimistically to your right. If you want to keep your place in the queu, never leave a space between you and the person in front, otherwise the person behind you will ask, “Are you in the queue?” (meaning “Don’t you know how to queue properly?”) (Inside Out – Pre-intermediate, p.90) VI . APPENDICES Appendix 1: QUESTIONNAIRE The following questionnaire is conducted to investigate. problem:………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your help!!! II Appendix 2: PRETEST (MOCK SPEAKING TEST 1) Part one: Read aloud the following