The use of English pronunciation websites for improving grade 10 students’ pronunciation = Sử dụng các trang web phát âm để cải thiện năng lực phát âm của học sinh lớp 10. M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI VĂN KHIẾT THE USE OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION WEBSITES FOR IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION (SỬ DỤNG CÁC TRANG WEB PHÁT ÂM ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN NĂNG LỰC PHÁT ÂM CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10) MA MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI - 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF DIAGRAMS AND CHARTS vii INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims of the study 3 Scope of the study Research questions/ Hypotheses Research methods Significance of the study Organizations of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Teaching pronunciation 1.2 Pronunciation as an aspect of communicative competence 1.2.1 Consonants and vowels 11 1.2.2 Word stress 11 1.3 Pronunciation websites 12 1.4 Theoretical background of technology and websites application 13 in language teaching 1.5 Advantages and disadvantages of using pronunciation websites 15 in pronunciation instruction 1.6 Websites evaluation 16 CHAPTER THE STUDY 2.1 The context of the study 21 2.2 Subjects 21 2.3 Variables 22 2.3.1 The independent variable 22 2.3.2 The dependent variable 22 2.3.3 Constant variables 23 2.4 Design of the study 23 2.5 Data collection instruments 24 2.5.1 Pre-tests and post-tests 24 2.5.2 Questionnaire 24 2.5.3 Observation and diaries 25 2.5.4 Lesson plans 25 2.6 Data collection procedure 26 2.7 Marking 29 2.8 Data analysis procedure 29 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 The one-tail t-test (one-sample t-test) 30 3.1.1 Control group 30 3.1.2 Experimental group 31 3.2 The two-tail t-test (two-sample t-test) 33 3.3 The questionnaire 35 3.4 Observation and diaries 36 3.5 Discussion 37 CONCLUSION Major findings of the research 38 Implications 39 Limitations 40 Suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX A - Pre-tests I APPENDIX B - Post-tests IV APPENDIX C - Students’ background survey questionnaire APPENDIX D - Questionnaire APPENDIX E - Students’ results of pre-tests and post-tests VIII XI XIII LIST OF ABBREVIATION MCQs: Multiple Choice Questions ESL: English as a Second Language EFL: English as a Foreign Language LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The table illustrates the research design adapted in this study Table 2: One-tail t-test for control group (Listening test) Table 3: One-tail t-test for control group (Speaking test) Table 4: One-tail t-test for experimental group (Listening test) Table 5: One-tail t-test for experimental group (Speaking test) Table 6: Two-tail t-test for control group and experimental group (Listening test) Table 7: Two-tail t-test for control group and experimental group (Speaking test) LIST OF DIAGRAMS AND CHARTS Diagram 1: The relationship between the key variables of this study Diagram 2: The flowchart shows in detail how the research was conducted INTRODUCTION Rationale More and more people desire to study abroad with the hope of being successful in the modern world Therefore, English is widely taught not only at schools, colleges or universities but also at many foreign language centers There are also hundreds of English teaching and learning programs on radio and television, especially thousands of websites for teaching and learning English available on the Internet However, students should be intelligent enough to adapt the most effective method to master the language so that they can have a good command of English in all four skills, especially speaking and listening in order to communicate successfully As a result, pronunciation is one of the most paramount aspect that needs emphasis for the ease of communication As a teacher trainer and a part-time teacher of English, the researcher is especially dedicated to the teaching of speaking and listening skills However, from his own experience of teaching as well as working as a teacher inspector, he noticed the poor pronunciation with incorrect word stress of many students They seem not to have problems with grammar, fluency or ideas, though, they have difficulties in pronouncing certain consonants, vowels and similar sounds in English, mainly the minimal pairs such as: /l/ and /n/, /s/ and /z/, /p/ and /b/, /i/ and /i:/ For example, nice /nais/, nine /nain/, night /nait/, light /lait/ are all pronounced /nai/ Besides, words and sentences are usually produced with wrong stress pattern or no stress at all The reason for this may firstly be due to geographical positions where they live, which belongs to the sociolinguistics Another explanation for this could lie in the introduction of Multiple Choice Exams for English, which surely have an influence on students’ learning style in which speaking, listening and pronunciation are never paid enough attention However, the root of the issues is believed to be the current technique of teaching pronunciation as well as the method of assessing Students are encouraged to learn the pronunciation by rules or sometimes listen to and imitate the teacher's pronunciation of single words and limited sentence drills and when assessing, paper tests with MCQs are employed Many teachers claim that the classes are too crowded (from 45-55) so they not have time to correct students’ pronunciation mistakes In addition, there is not a separate period for pronunciation instruction, just about 15 minutes for every periods, therefore they have to teach to the test, if not, their students will not get high scores in the exams and their reputation as well as their emulation titles will be lost When observing teachers’ lessons, the researcher found that many teachers have difficulties in producing good English, some even pronounce with wrong sounds or stress This may be due to the fact that they are not well-trained and qualified enough According to the results of the English Competence Survey Exams for English teachers in 2011, only 05 out of 389 high school teachers in Nam Dinh province got C1 (the requirement of the Ministry of Education and Training 5th level in the Common European Framework) The survey results also revealed that the teachers are particularly weak in listening and speaking skills, which surely affect their teaching of pronunciation The researcher has taken this matter into consideration a lot The students seem not eager to learn pronunciation and feel shy to correct their mistakes every time they are asked to Meanwhile, most them are really into surfing the Internet, to be more specific, they often spend hours signing in yahoo chat or facebook everyday, which inspires the researcher the idea of using websites for pronunciation instruction The websites include not only standard video clips that guide students to pronounce English sounds but they also provide a wide range of exercises, games, quizzes and activities with pictures and other illustrations, which are believed to attract the grade 10 students Besides, studying with websites can give students chances to listen again and practice the words, phrases, sentences at home which can not be done with conventional technique From the reasons mentioned above and with an aim to improving the students’ pronunciation, the researcher decided to a piece of experimental research on the impacts of pronunciation websites on the improvement of grade 10 students’ pronunciation of English consonants, vowels and word stress with a hope to change the situation Aims of the study The main objective of doing this research is to find out the more useful technique for improving students’ pronunciation as the current method where students learn the rules or repeat after the teacher and then pronunciation exercises on paper seems not efficient The research is to test whether the use of pronunciation websites can help improve students’ pronunciation significantly and whether it is more effective than conventional technique Scope of the study There are certainly various aspects of pronunciation such as vowels and consonants, stress, intonation, rhythm, assimilation, elision, linking, tones etc However, due to the limited time as well as the scope of this paper, the research deals with only two aspects of pronunciation: consonants and vowels, and word stress It is conducted with only 30 selected participants from class 10 Maths at Le Hong Phong Gifted High School in Nam Dinh Province within a period of weeks (two meetings a week, each meeting lasts 90 minutes) Research questions This study is guided by the following research questions To what extent does the use of pronunciation websites help class 10 Maths students at Le Hong Phong Gifted High School improve their pronunciation? Is the use of pronunciation websites more effective than conventional technique of teaching pronunciation to class 10 Maths students? How the students of class 10 Maths feel about the use of pronunciation websites for improving their pronunciation? Null hypothesis (Ho1): The use of pronunciation websites does not help improve class 10 Maths students’ pronunciation Null hypothesis (Ho2): The use of pronunciation websites is not more effective than conventional technique of teaching pronunciation to class 10 Maths students Null hypothesis (Ho3): Class 10 Maths students have negative attitudes towards the use of pronunciation websites Research methods The aims of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of using websites for students’ improvement in pronunciation, therefore an experimental design is applied In addition, the researcher made a careful selection of the subjects of the study and controlled other extraneous variables such as students’ gender, age, the teacher carrying out the lessons, teaching contents…, hence the study is a quasiexperiment in nature In this research, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyse the data Quantitative method: The range of mathematical and statistical techniques used to analyse data In this research, it is used to analyse the data collected from the pre-tests and post-tests to examine the interrelationships between variables, to see whether they are associated or correlated and if so how strong Then, conclusions are drawn from the results using inferential statistics It is also used to analyse data collected from the survey questionnaire to find out what are the students’ attitudes towards the use of pronunciation websites in pronunciation instruction Qualitative method: In this research, qualitative method is used to analyse the teacher’s observations, diaries and recordings Significance of the study Many Vietnamese teachers of English find it quite challenging to teach pronunciation to students, especially word stress and minimal pairs because students forget them easily and due to the lack of practice time Some even try to explain in Vietnamese how to pronounce the words and present them all the rules of word stress, still, they appear to be unable to digest As a result, using pronunciation websites to teach pronunciation to students discovered in this research is a really significant and effective technique for English teachers Not only teachers save time teaching and reading words to students but they also create positive atmosphere in the English classes, and the most important value is that students can make a lot of progress in their English pronunciation However, in comparison to the conventional technique, using the websites is not significantly more effective Therefore, it is advisable to take into consideration when to use websites and when to use conventional technique for pronunciation instruction Organization of the study This minor thesis is composed of five following parts and chapters: INTRODUCTION This part presents rationale, aims and scope of the study Research methods, questions, the significance and organization of the thesis are also discussed fully in this part CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter summarizes fundamental and theoretical backgrounds and concepts related to the topic of the study by earlier authors It deals with the importance of pronunciation in teaching and learning English as well as positive and negative attitudes, remarks and previous results of using websites in language instruction CHAPTER METHODOLOGY This chapter not only provides the setting of the study, the subjects and instruments for collecting data but also presents the data collection and data analysis procedures 54 Võ Đại Quang (2006) Lectures on Principles of Phonetics and Phonology CFL-VNUH (for internal distribution) 55 Vũ Thị Phương Thảo (2003) The Contribution of Multimedia Tools to EFL settings unfamiliar with technology Asian EFL Journal, pp.1-14 56 Warschauer, M (2000) The changing global economy and the future of English teaching TESOL Quarterly, 34(3), pp.511-535 57 Wikipedia (2012) Website Retrieved May 30th, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website 58 Yong, C (2004) How can I improve the pronunciation and intonation of the first year English majors to meet the demand of the new English curriculum? China’s Experimental centre for Educational action research in foreign languages teaching, Guyuan, Ningxia 46 APPENDICES APPENDIX A: PRE-TESTS LISTENING TEST I Consonants: Listen You will hear either sentence A or sentence B Tick the letter of the sentence you hear √A Do you want everything? B Do you wash everything? A They saved old bottles B They save old bottles A She loves each child B She loved each child A We’ll put it away B We’ve put it away A He spills everything B He spilled everything A Does she bring her card every day? B Does she bring her car every day? A What does “leave” mean? B What does “leaf” mean? A Who’ll ask you? B Who’d ask you? A We wash all of them B We watch all of them A He put the tickets away B He put the ticket away 10 A Is this the long road? B Is this the wrong road? II Vowels: Listen You will hear either sentence A or sentence B Tick the letter of the sentence you hear √A Did you bring the bat? B Did you bring the bait I A I prefer this test B I prefer this taste A It’s a good bet B It’s a good bit A It’s on the track B It’s on the truck A The men worked hard B The man worked hard A How you spell “scene”? B How you spell “sin”? A How you spell “luck”? B How you spell “lock”? A We used a map B We used a mop A Is John coming? B Is Joan coming? A Everybody left B Everybody laughed 10 A I ran to school every day B I run to school every day III Minimal pairs: Listen and tick (√) the sound you hear (2.0 points) leave live 11 art ought 21 stale style hill hell 12 caught cot 22 file foil head had 13 tore toe 23 right light bet bait 14 poor purr 24 peach beach sat sad 15 hope hop 25 pat bat ban bun 16 chose choose 26 hate eight had hard 17 darling dialing 27 worse verse carp cup 18 stare stay 28 sing thing look luke 19 bay boy 29 fizz fish 10 pull pool 20 fail fell 30 race rays II IV Word Stress (1.0 point) Listen In each word, one syllable is stressed more than the others Underline the stressed syllable in each word Example: Advertisement Pizza 11 Education 21 Geography Butcher 12 arrangement 22 anthropology Southern 13 political 23 communication Europe 14 information 24 successful Determine 15 photograph 25 activity Develop 16 economy Interpreter 17 photography Explanation 18 economic Television 19 Canadian 10 Luxury 20 Participating SPEAKING TEST Read aloud the dialogue with a partner Two University Students Meet A: Excuse me Where’s the library? B: It’s on the corner of Main Street and Selling Road A: Sorry, did you say Selling or Ceiling? B: Selling It’s directly ahead of you, about blocks A: Thanks I need to buy some books for my classes B: Oh, then you need the bookstore You can’t buy books at the library You can only borrow them there A: I guess I confused the words They’re different in my language B: I know how it is I get mixed up with Spanish words that sound like English words, but have different meanings A: Are you studying Spanish? B: Yes, it’s going to be my major What are you studying? A: I am studying English now, but my major will be economics III B: Really? My brother wanted to study economics He took the entrance exam for that department just last week A: Did you succeed? B: No, quite the opposite He failed A: That’s too bad B: Oh, it’s OK He would’ve had to study statistics, and he hated that idea Anyway, he changed his mind, and now he plans to study music A: That’s great! Does he want to compose or perform? B: Both He wants to compose and perform He arranges programs for musicians, but he also plays classical guitar A: Well, I wish him a lot of luck And good luck to you, too It was nice talking APPENDIX B: POST TESTS LISTENING TEST I Consonants: Listen You will hear either sentence A or sentence B Tick the letter of the sentence you hear √A What beautiful eyes! B What beautiful ice! A We’d be happy to help B We’ll be happy to help A I’ve shut the door B I’ll shut the door A Is she on your team? B Is he on your team? A Did you hang up the coat? B Did you hang up the coats? A We admired you B We admire you A How you spell “teethe”? B How you spell “teeth”? IV A Don’t forget the zinc B Don’t forget the sink A Whose van is it? B Whose fan is it? A Where’s my robe? B Where’s my rope? 10 A Everyone loves peas B Everyone loves peace II Vowels: Listen You will hear either sentence A or sentence B Tick the letter of the sentence you hear A I found the pine B I found the pin A Where are the beads? B Where are the beds? A The man’s cape fell to the floor B The man’s cap fell to the floor A Is that a new coat? B Is that a new cot? A Tell us about your plane B Tell us about your plan A Don’t feed the animals B Don’t fear the animals A I can make it B I can’t make it A When did you live here? B When did you leave here? A Can you see the hat? B Can you see the head? 10 A That’s his food B That’s his foot V III Listen and circle the words you hear heat hit 11 cart caught 21 mail mile eel ill 12 short shot 22 buy boy bet bat 13 caught coat 23 wrong long gel jail 14 walk work 24 pull bull bat bad 15 goat got 25 pet bet cat cut 16 boat boot 26 heart art hat heart 17 far fire 27 west vest cart cut 18 pair pay 28 sick thick full fool 19 sail soil 29 as ash 10 foot food 20 tail tell 30 hiss his IV Listen and underline the stressed syllable in each word (2.5 points) accident 11 calculator 21 electricity accompany 12 camera 22 elevator address 13 canada 23 government afternoon 14 capital 24 guarantee antibiotic 15 comfortable 25 immediately approximately 16 dangerous baby 17 December banana 18 delicious beautiful 19 deodorant 10 beginner 20 disappoint SPEAKING TEST Name: English Anna : Hi Jason, Sorry to bother you I have a question for you Jason : OK, what's up? VI Anna : I've been having a problem with my computer I know you're an engineer so I thought you might be able to help me Jason : I see What's the problem? Anna : I have a file that I can't open for some reason Jason : What type of file is it? Anna : It's a Word document I've been working on I need to finish it by tomorrow Jason : Were you able to open it before, on the computer you're using now? Anna : Yes, I was working on it last night and everything was fine, but this morning I couldn't open the file Jason : Do you think your computer might have a virus? Anna : No, I checked and there weren't any Jason : OK I'm not sure what's wrong If it's possible, email the file to me and I'll see if I can get it to open Anna : OK, I'll that when I get home Are you going to be around tonight? Jason : Yeah, I'll be home after 8PM Send it to me when you get a chance and I'll call you later VII APPENDIX C PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA (Phục vụ việc nghiên cứu dạy thực nghiệm phát âm cho học sinh lớp 10) Xin bạn vui lòng cung cấp cho thông tin cách trung thực xác Chúng tơi xin cam đoan với bạn tất thông tin nhằm mục đích phục vụ cho nghiên cứu giữ bí mật Họ tên: …………………………………….… Năm sinh: …………………………………….… Điện thoại bạn:……………………………của bố/mẹ bạn:…………………… Email: ……………………………………… … Facebook address: ………………………….…… Nickchat: ………………………………………… Học sinh lớp: ………………………………….… Trường: ……………………………………… … Xin bạn vui lòng đánh dấu tick (√) cạnh phương án trả lời điền thơng tin cịn trống cho câu hỏi Quê bạn đâu? TP Nam Định Mỹ Lộc Vụ Bản Ý Yên Xuân Trường Hải Hậu Nghĩa Hưng Nam Trực Trực Ninh Giao Thủy Chỉ biết chút Không biết Chỉ biết chút Khơng biết Tỉnh khác Bạn có biết sử dụng vi tính khơng? Thành thạo Bình thường Bạn có biết sử dụng Internet khơng? Thành thạo Bình thường Nhà bạn có máy vi tính laptop khơng? Có Khơng Nếu có, máy có kết nối với Internet khơng? Có Khơng Ở nhà, bạn có thường xuyên vào mạng không? Thường xuyên Thỉnh thoảng VIII Hiếm Không Bạn thường vào mạng thời gian tuần? Khoảng: ………….tiếng Bạn thường làm vào mạng? (bạn chọn nhiều 01 đáp án) Xem phim Đọc báo Nghe nhạc Chat Vào facebook Học tiếng Anh Làm việc khác (cụ thể: …………………………………………) Bạn có thích học tiếng Anh khơng? Rất thích Thích Khơng thích Ghét Bạn học tiếng Anh trang web chưa? Thường xuyên Thỉnh thoảng Hiếm Chưa Nếu từng, trang web nội dung gì? (bạn chọn 01 đáp án) Nghe Nói Đọc Ngữ pháp Từ vựng Phát âm Viết Nội dung khác: ………………………… Bạn có thích học tiếng Anh từ trang web khơng? Rất thích Thích Khơng thích Ghét 10 Bạn thường dành thời gian 01 tuần cho việc học tiếng Anh? Khoảng: …………tiếng 11 Việc học tiếng Anh nội dung sau khó khăn với bạn? (bạn chọn 01 đáp án) Nghe Nói Đọc Ngữ pháp Từ vựng Phát âm Viết Nội dung khác:………………… 12 Bạn muốn luyện tập thêm nội dung sau đây? (bạn chọn 01 đáp án) Nghe Nói Đọc Ngữ pháp Từ vựng Phát âm Viết Nội dung khác:………………… 13 Bạn nghĩ phát âm tiếng Anh mình? Rất tốt Tốt Bình thường 14 Bạn có muốn học thêm phát âm tiếng Anh không? Rất muốn Muốn Không muốn IX Không tốt Rất tệ 15 Nếu bạn học thêm tiếng Anh (phát âm) miễn phí bạn muốn học tiếng tuần? Khoảng: ……… tiếng Bạn học vào thời gian sau đây? Chiều thứ (4pm-5pm) Chiều thứ (4pm-5pm) Chiều thứ (2pm-4pm) Chiều thứ (2pm-4pm) Chiều thứ (4pm-5pm) Sáng chủ nhật (8am-10am) Chiều thứ (4pm-5pm) Xin chân thành cảm ơn bạn bớt chút thời gian để hoàn thành câu hỏi đây! X APPENDIX D STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE (English version) For each of the following items, indicate your response by circling the appropriate number (one number for each item only) Category Scale: SA = Strongly agree; A = Agree; N = Not sure; D = Disagree; AD = Strongly disagree S/N Items I like studying with the pronunciation websites (PW) I made great progress in pronunciation with the pronunciation websites SA A N D SD 5 The pronunciation websites are easy to use I have chance to hear authentic voice 5 5 5 I feel relaxed when practising with pronunciation websites I can learn new words when practising with pronunciation websites I can learn the pronunciation through pronunciation websites without teacher’s help I can test my pronunciation when practising with pronunciation websites XI STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE (Vietnamese version) Hãy thể quan điểm lời nói sau Khoanh trịn số thích hợp trống cho câu Mã kí hiệu: = Hoàn toàn đồng y; = Đồng y; = Không chắc; = Không đồng y; = Hồn tồn khơng đồng y Câu phát biểu Tơi thích học phát âm trang web Tôi tiến nhiều sau học phát âm trang web Các trang web học phát âm dễ sử dụng Tơi có hội nghe giọng người xứ Tôi cảm thấy thoải mái thư giãn học với trang web phát âm Tơi học thêm từ học phát âm với trang web 5 5 5 5 Tơi tự học phát âm qua trang web dạy phát âm mà không cần hướng dẫn giáo viên Tôi tự kiểm tra phát âm tiếng Anh học với trang web dạy phát âm XII APPENDIX E: PRE AND POST-TEST RESULTS EXPERIMENTAL GROUP No EXP EXP EXP EXP EXP EXP EXP EXP EXP EXP 10 EXP 11 EXP 12 EXP 13 EXP 14 EXP 15 know how to use the Internet Have a computer or laptop Have the Internet connection Listening Pre-test Speaking Pre-test Listening Post-test 001 8.5 8.25 9.75 X X X X X 002 6.5 7.5 8.25 X X X X X 003 7.5 7.75 9.25 X X X X 004 6.25 6.5 8.25 X X X X 005 5.5 7 8.5 X X X X X 006 5.75 6.25 9.25 9.75 X X X X X 007 6.75 6.5 7.75 X X X X X 008 5.5 X X X X 009 5.75 5.75 7.5 8.5 X X X X X 010 5.25 5.75 6.5 7.5 X X X X 011 4.75 5.75 7.25 9.25 X X X X 012 4.5 X X X X 013 5.25 7.75 7.75 X X X X X 014 5.5 4.75 X X X X X 015 5.25 7.25 X X X X Students’ code Speaking Post-test Know how to use a computer CONTROL GROUP XIII Female No CONTR CONTR CONTR CONTR CONTR CONTR CONTR CONTR CONTR CONTR 10 CONTR 11 CONTR 12 CONTR 13 CONTR 14 CONTR 15 know how to use the Internet Have a computer or laptop Have the Internet connection Speaking Pre-test Listening Post-test 001 8.25 8.5 9.5 X X X X X 002 7.25 9.25 X X X X X 003 7.5 9.25 X X X X 004 6.25 6.5 X X 0 005 6.25 7.5 8.25 X X X X 006 5.75 6.25 6.5 8.25 X X 0 007 5.75 7.5 8.5 X X 0 008 5.5 8.25 X X 0 009 6.25 6.5 8.25 X X X 0 010 5.5 5.75 7.75 X X 0 011 5.75 6.5 X X 0 012 5.75 4.75 7.25 8.5 X X X X 013 4.25 7.5 8.5 X X X X 014 5.25 4.5 6.25 X 0 0 015 4.25 6 X X X X Full name XIV Speaking Post-test Know how to use a computer Listening Pre-test Female 7.5 X