A n investigation into the use of shadowing technique in listening lessons to improve the pronunciation of 3rd year students at HUBT (hanoi university of business and technology)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LAGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ************************* NGUYỄN THANH VÂN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF SHADOWING ECHNIQUE IN LISTENING LESSONS TO IMPROVE THE PRONUNCITION OF 3RDYEAR STUDENTS AT HUBT (HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY) (NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG THỦ THUẬT NGHE VÀ NHẮC LẠI ĐỒNG THỜI TRONG GIỜ HỌC NGHE ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN VIỆC PHÁT ÂM CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA TẠI ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LAGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ************************* NGUYỄN THANH VÂN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF SHADOWING ECHNIQUE IN LISTENING LESSONS TO IMPROVE THE PRONUNCITION OF 3RDYEAR STUDENTS AT HUBT (HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY) (NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG THỦ THUẬT NGHE VÀ NHẮC LẠI ĐỒNG THỜI TRONG GIỜ HỌC NGHE ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN VIỆC PHÁT ÂM CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA TẠI ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Ph D Dương Thu Mai HANOI – 2016 DECLARATION I certify that this minor thesis entitled “Using shadowing technique to improve the pronunciation of the 3rd year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology” is the study of my own research and the substance of this research has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution Hanoi, 2016 Nguyen Thanh Van i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great assistance in the completion of my research work In the first place, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Duong Thu Mai, Ph.D., who has provided me with insightful discussion, helpful comments, valuable support in the preparation and completion of this thesis Without her guidance and help, this work would not have been accomplished Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and staff of the department of Post- Graduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps Thanks to their lessons as well as needed helps, I could overcome enormous obstacles when doing the study I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues and the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology in contributing to the data collection presented in this study Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family for their encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis ii ABSTRACT Most second language learners encounters difficulties when listening and speaking in the target language For the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, the problem might be serious Because of their poor pronunciation even with basic sounds or words, the students found it difficult to say, speak and understand studying materials in English In order to solve the problem, students need to understand the pronunciation in terms of the basics elements and target the individual sounds As a result of this, this project was set out to help the students‟ pronunciation of the individual sounds in English The research was formulated as an action one which used a questionnaire, interviews and tests as research instruments to collect quantitative and qualitative about the students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes and the effectiveness of using shadowing technique in teaching and learning pronunciation As can be seen from the qualitative and quantitative data, difficulties, limitations and challenges still occurred during the research; however, to some extent, the students‟ pronunciation was also improved in terms of individual sounds and words Their positive attitude and results when using the technique to teach and improve the student‟s pronunciation in terms of individual sounds in the research might suggest the use of the new technique “shadowing” as one of the effective ways to teach and learn pronunciation in English iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS P: page L2: second language 3rd: third HUBT: Hanoi University of Business and Technology JSL: Japanese as the second language LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Classification of shadowing (cited in Tamai, 2005) Table 2: Information about the teacher participants Table 3: The reliability of the tests Table 5: The percentage of the participants with the range of scores Table 6: Frequency statistics of vowel sections Table 7: Frequency statistics of consonant sections Table 8: Frequency statistics of cluster sections Table 9: Frequency statistics of minimal pair sections Table 10: Overall descriptive statistics of the sections Table 11: One sample T test results LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Shadowing technique improves pronunciation Figure 3.2 Aspects of pronunciation that the technique of shadowing helped to improve Figure 3.3 Attraction and motivation of the practice Figure 3.4: The attitude towards the practice lessons Figure 3.5: The attitude to the total time for the practice and time delivery for each practice lesson Figure 3.6 Students’ difficulties iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Objectives of the study 3 Research questions The scope of the study Research methods Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW Pronunciation 1.1 Why is pronunciation important? 1.2 Definition of pronunciation 1.3 Factors that affect pronunciation learning 1.4 Different techniques used to teach pronunciation Shadowing 10 2.1 Definition of shadowing 10 2.2 Significant features of using shadowing technique in learning and teaching pronunciation 11 CHAPTER II RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 13 2.1 Context of the study 13 2.2 The study 15 2.2.1 Participants 15 2.2.2 Data collection instruments 16 2.2.2.1 Questionnaire 17 2.2.2.2 Interviews 19 2.2.2.3 Pre-test and Post-test 20 2.2.2.4 Data presentation and analysis 21 CHAPTER III FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 22 3.1 Students’ general attitude towards using shadowing in learning pronunciation (Research Question 1) 22 3.1.1 Students’ attitude towards learning pronunciation through the project 22 3.1.2 Students’ attitude towards the attraction and motivation of the practice 25 3.1.3 Students’ attitude towards the content of the practice lessons 25 v 3.1.4 Students’ attitude towards the amount of the total time for the practice and delivery of time for each target practice lessons 26 3.1.5 Students’ difficulties in doing the project 27 3.2 Teachers’ attitude towards the use of shadowing technique in improving the pronunciation of the students ( Research Question 2) 28 3.3 The effectiveness of the research (Research Question 3) 31 3.3.1 The overall descriptive data of the pre-test and the post-test: 31 3.3.2 Descriptive statistics of sections in the tests 33 3.3.3 One Sample T-test Results: 36 3.4 Discussion 36 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 Recapitulation and research experience 38 Main findings 38 Limitations of the study 39 Suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES I vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Pronunciation is definitely the first aspect that people can notice in second language learners when they speak any language in general and English in specific As Nation (2009) stated, “when some teachers and students complain about difficulties in speaking, they are often talking about pronunciation" (p.75) Pronunciation also “plays a very important role in learning a language” (Derwing and Munro, 2005), "having good pronunciation of the language can help in normal communication, particularly intelligibility" (Nation & Newton, 2009 p 75) Although the pronunciation of adult L2 learners cannot be native-like, it can be improved with constant exposure to L2 (Flege, 1988; Flege & Liu 2001; Riney 1998; Trofimovich 2006) Recently, shadowing has attracted much attention in the field of teaching and learning foreign languages Although shadowing was originally designed to train simultaneous interpreters, its effects on foreign language learning have been widely recognized and being used in classrooms The effectiveness of shadowing in classrooms has been investigated throughout the field on second language acquisition (Kuramoto & Matsuura (2002), Lambert (1992), Murphey (2001), Mochizuki (2006), Toda and Liu (2007), Tamai, (1992a, 1992b, 1997, 2001, 2005), Suzuki (2007)) For instance, Tamai (1997) compared shadowing and dictation, and concluded shadowing improved learners‟ listening proficiency faster than dictation Kuramoto (2002) reported the effectiveness of one type of shadowing activity, parallel reading (Tamai, 2005) Regarding the global trend in teaching and learning English pronunciation, recently in Vietnam, the problem of English pronunciation has been more and more increasingly noticed and solved Many studies can be taken in account such as that by Nguyen Tien Dung (2015) or Tweed (2012) and also the boom of English pronunciation courses via the social networking sites like Facebook as well as physical English centers throughout the country Mispronunciation is a major problem in learning English, because Vietnamese students often mix the pronunciation of their first language and English as second language, also more than often they mispronounce or even drop the ending sounds in English Problems may also come from the fact that when forming words, the sound of the same letter may vary At Hanoi University of Business and Technology (hereafter HUBT), a private university, English is a compulsory subject for all students of all faculties from the beginning of every program Therefore, 3rd-year students here have already been familiar with the obligation of studying English at university However, because of their poor pronunciation, they find listening and speaking periods the hardest moments in their foreign language study That is to say, they cannot understand what was said by teachers and other English speakers and vice versa There is a pressing need for them to learn correct pronunciation to make it possible for them to understand the listening materials as well as speak English better Even though they have been given opportunities to learn “listening and speaking” in English classes, their basic competence in listening and speaking were inferior to their reading and writing skills Incidentally, their mother tongue interference also creates some difficulties in learning to pronounce English intelligibly Furthermore, English teachers mostly focus on the students‟ vocabulary and still lack of the teaching facilities, which causes a fact that the students to be unable to speak in English Under the circumstances, at the Department of English- Hanoi University of Business and Technology, there has been an attempt in investigating and solving this issue Regarding the crucial aspect of pronunciation in English learning and the mentioned reasons, this action research entitled “Using shadowing technique to improve the pronunciation of the 3rd- year students at HUBT” was done on the situation of teaching pronunciation mainly the pronunciation of the individual sounds and words in English Students’ activities Teacher’s activities •Be introduced to the vowel sounds and Explain the requirement guided to practice the vowel sounds Determine the outcomes Week Vowel sounds •Listen to the sounds •Shadowing the sounds •Do practice exercises •Continue practicing the vowel sounds: Offer help if necessary •Listen to the target sounds Determine the outcome Week Vowel sounds •Shadow the target sounds •Do practice exercises •Be introduced and guided to practice the Introduce and help the students to •Practice the sounds Offer help if necessary Week •Listen to the sounds Determine the outcome •Shadow the sounds and words •Do practice exercises •Continue practicing the consonant Offer help if necessary sounds: Consonant •Listen to the consonant sounds and Week Make changes if necessary sounds words •Shadow the sounds and words Determine the outcome •Do practice exercises •Continue practicing the consonant cluster Offer help if necessary sounds: Consonant Week • Listen to the sounds and words Make changes if necessary sounds •Shadow the sounds and words Determine the outcome •Do practice exercises •Be introduced to the minimal pairs and Introduce the minimal pairs be guided to practice the minimal pairs Consonant Week •Listen to the minimal pairs Offer help if necessary cluster sounds •Shadow the minimal pairs Determine the outcome •Do practice exercises •Continue practicing the minimal pairs: Offer help if necessary •Listen to the minimal pairs Make changes if necessary Week Minimal pairs •Shadow the minimal pairs Determine the outcome •Do practice exercises •Continue practicing the minimal pairs: Offer help if necessary •Listen to the minimal pairs Make changes if necessary Week Minimal pairs •Shadow the minimal pairs Determine the outcome •Do practice exercises Time Target VII APPENDIX D: LESSON PLANS LESSON PLAN PRONUNCIATION 1: THE ALPHABET, IPA SYSTEM AND THE VOWEL SOUNDS IN ENGLISH DATE: LEVEL OF STUDENTS: PRE-INTER OR LOWER OBJECTIVES: BY THE END OF THIS LESSON, THE STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO: - Say the alphabet correctly and get familiar with the IPA system - Know the vowel sounds in English and pronounce them correctly - Have the notice of differences between long and short vowel sounds in English MATERIALS: Ship or Sheep textbook (Baker, 2001) TEACHING PRODEDURES STEPS WARM UP TEACHER‟S STUDENTS‟ ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES Review the alphabet and Listen and take note if introduce them to the IPA necessary system (Stand up and) say the Give the students some words words and let them say the words first PRE-TEACH Take the students go Listen and say the through the alphabet and alphabet and the words the words again and show again and try to them the correct SHADOW the alphabet pronunciation with the and the words help of the pronunciation VIII software and use SHADOWING technique to work out the problem Take notes of the Tell them the objectives of objectives of the lesson this lesson and move on WHILE-TEACH Show the students the list Take note of the of the vowel sounds and consonant sounds and the the way to pronounce ways to pronounce them them in English and work in English on the sounds Have them to practice the SHADOWING the sounds sounds using SHADOWING technique Take them on the practice of the vowel sounds in Practice the words words: dad, dead, dust, door, deep, dog, dirt, doctor Work on the hard sounds and words: „u‟ in bus, Stand up and say the butter, dust, flood, etc words and take note of the Distinguish the short and pronunciation if necessary long vowel sounds: sit/ seat; bitch/ beach; work/ worker; ship/ sheep; foot/ booth, etc Call some of the students to stand up and say the words again and fix the IX mistakes if necessary POST-TEACH Ask the students to see if Make question if they have any questions necessary Ask the students to practice the sounds and Take note of the the words again at home homework Thank you for their cooperation during the lesson Stand up and say „goodbye‟ Practice 1: 1/ Find the vowel sounds in these words and then shadow all the words: lie mom door back sing put tick wet thin band Shadow the sounds and words 2/ Listen and tick the words that is with different vowel sound and then shadow all the words dance car match tap flood food cool tooth beach teach depth sleep horse box born dorm bed help let lead ……………………………………………………………………………………… X LESSON PLAN PRONUNCIATION 2: THE DIPHTHONGS DATE: LEVEL OF STUDENTS: PRE-INTER OR LOWER OBJECTIVES: BY THE END OF THIS LESSON, THE STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO: - Know the diphthongs in English and pronounce them correctly - Pronounce the words having diphthongs correctly MATERIALS: TEACHING PRODEDURES STEPS WARM UP TEACHER‟S STUDENTS‟ ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES Review the vowel sounds Listen and take note if in English necessary Give the students some (Stand up and) say the words with diphthongs words and let them say the words first PRE-TEACH Take the students go Listen and say the through the diphthongs diphthongs and the words and the words again and again and try to show them the correct SHADOW the words pronunciation with the help of the pronunciation software and use SHADOWING technique to work out the problem Tell them the objectives of Take notes of the this lesson and move on XI objectives of the lesson WHILE-TEACH Show the students the list Take note of the of the diphthongs and the diphthongs and the ways way to pronounce them in to pronounce them in English and work on the English sounds Have them to practice the SHADOWING the sounds sounds using SHADOWING technique Take them on the practice SHADOWING the words of the vowel sounds in words Work on the hard sounds Stand up and say the Call some of the students words and take note of the to stand up and say the pronunciation if necessary words again and fix the mistakes if necessary POST-TEACH Ask the students to see if Make question if they have any questions necessary Ask the students to practice the sounds and Take note of the the words again at home homework Thank you for their cooperation during the lesson Stand up and say „goodbye‟ Practice 1/ Find the diphthongs in the following words Stay paid may slave XII climb Danger sign baker hide sky Shadow the words 2/ Tick the words that is with different vowel sounds and shadow all the words Clean think leave dean Clay play may key Hold bold stroll cold Claim blame crayon say Beer gear feet hear LESSON PLAN PRONUNCIATION 3: THE CONSONANT SOUNDS IN ENGLISH DATE: LEVEL OF STUDENTS: PRE-INTER OR LOWER OBJECTIVES: BY THE END OF THIS LESSON, THE STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO: - Know the consonant sounds in English and how to pronounce them correctly as individual sounds and in words MATERIALS: TEACHING PRODEDURES STEPS TEACHER‟S ACTIVITIES STUDENTS‟ ACTIVITIES WARM UP have trials with some words: dead/ dad; need/ lead; seat, sugar, think, this, native, laugh(f) Listen and take note if necessary Take the students go through the alphabet and the words again and show them the correct Listen and say the alphabet and the words again and try to SHADOW the alphabet PRE-TEACH XIII Stand up and say the words pronunciation with the help of the pronunciation software and use SHADOWING technique to work out the problem and the words Take notes of the Tell them the objectives of objectives of the lesson this lesson and move on WHILE-TEACH Show the students the list of the consonant sounds and the way to pronounce Take note of the consonant sounds and the ways to pronounce them them in English and work on the sounds in English Have them to practice the sounds using SHADOWING technique SHADOWING the sounds Take them on the practice SHADOWING the pairs of the consonant sounds in minimal pairs: POST-TEACH Work on the hard sounds Call some of the students to stand up and say the words again and fix the mistakes if necessary Stand up and say the words and take note of the pronunciation if necessary Ask the students to see if Make question if they have any questions Ask the students to practice the sounds and the words again at home Thank you for their cooperation during the lesson necessary XIV Take note of the homework Stand up and say „goodbye‟ PRACTICE: 1/ find the consonant sounds in the words and then shadow the words Link dorm print send men Thin big zebra sing chubby 2/ Listen and find out the word with different sounds of the bold letter Heat hat how hour hill Cheap cheat chin cherry chaos Shall shake chimney chemical English Thought thick the bathroom there Discount baker‟s queue receipt car Practice shadowing the words ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… LESSON PLAN PRONUNCIATION 4: THE CONSONANT SOUNDS VOICED AND VOICELESS SOUNDS AT THE END OF THE WORDS DATE: LEVEL OF STUDENTS: PRE-INTER OR LOWER OBJECTIVES: BY THE END OF THIS LESSON, THE STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO: - Know the consonant sounds in English and how to pronounce them correctly as individual sounds and in words - Know the differences between voiced and voiceless sounds and how to pronounce them at the end of the words MATERIALS: TEACHING PRODEDURES STEPS WARM UP TEACHER‟S STUDENTS‟ ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES Review the consonant Listen and take note if XV sounds in English necessary Ask the students to say some words with the (Stand up and )say the voiced and voiceless words sounds: PRE-TEACH Show them the correct Listen and say the words pronunciation with the and try to SHADOW the help of the pronunciation words software and use SHADOWING technique to work out the problem Tell them the objectives of Take notes of the WHILE-TEACH this lesson and move on objectives of the lesson Show the students the list Take note of the voiced of the voiced and and voiceless sounds and voiceless sounds and the the ways to pronounce way to pronounce them in them in English English and work on the sounds Have them to practice the SHADOWING the sounds sounds using SHADOWING technique Take them on the practice SHADOWING the pairs of the pairs of voiced and voiceless sounds in minimal pairs Work on the pairs of sounds such as: Stand up and say the Call some of the students words and take note of the XVI to stand up and say the pronunciation if necessary words again and fix the mistakes if necessary POST-TEACH Ask the students to see if Make question if they have any questions necessary Ask the students to practice the sounds and Take note of the the words again at home homework Thank you for their cooperation during the lesson Stand up and say „goodbye‟ Practice 1/ Find the voiced consonant sounds (+) and voiceless consonant sounds (-) at the end of the words Blank ten big laugh kill Live sing colleague college peace Lead wash teach goat sneeze Practice shadowing the words 2/ Listen and tick the words that you hear Back bag Clock clog Frock frog Price prize Bus buzz Write ride Card cart Cap cab Pup pub 10 Poppy bobby Practice shadowing the words XVII LESSON PLAN PRONUNCIATION 5: CLUSTERS IN ENGLISH DATE: LEVEL OF STUDENTS: PRE-INTER OR LOWER OBJECTIVES: BY THE END OF THIS LESSON, THE STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO: - Know the cluster sounds in English and how to pronounce them correctly MATERIALS: TEACHING PRODEDURES STEPS WARM UP TEACHER‟S STUDENTS‟ ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES Review the consonant Listen and take note if sounds in English necessary Ask the students to say PRE-TEACH some words with cluster (Stand up and )say the sounds words Show them the correct Listen and say the words pronunciation with the and try to SHADOW the help of the pronunciation words software and use SHADOWING technique to work out the problem Tell them the objectives of Take notes of the WHILE-TEACH this lesson and move on objectives of the lesson Show the students the list Take note of the cluster of the cluster sounds and sounds and the ways to the way to pronounce pronounce them in them in English and work English on the sounds XVIII Have them to practice the sounds using SHADOWING the sounds SHADOWING technique Take them on the practice of cluster sounds Work on the cluster sounds Stand up and say the Call some of the students words and take note of the to stand up and say the pronunciation if necessary words again and fix the mistakes if necessary POST-TEACH Ask the students to see if Make question if they have any questions necessary Ask the students to practice the sounds and Take note of the the words again at home homework Thank you for their cooperation during the lesson Stand up and say „goodbye‟ Practice 1/ Find the cluster in the following words Slim clay play snake Flower grass swear stick Drive watch afraid spark Books tilt train laughed Practice shadowing the words 2/ Listen and tick the word you hear Desk deck Mark Wick whisk Ark Tuck tusk Duck Bus bust Chess Guest guess 10 Coat XIX block crash skin dentist mask ask dusk chest coast APPENDIX E: (Adapted from Test of English Pronunciation (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and Ship and Sheep text book on English pronunciation (Baker, 2001) THE PRE-TEST AND THE POST-TEST Test (Pre-test) ………………/20 Time allowance: Name: Group: Vowels ………/4 Examples: job give good car Underline the vowel sounds in these words: fall learn way road Consonants …………./4 Examples: my top work this Underline the consonant sounds in these words: shop rob good leave Consonant clusters…………… /4 Examples: black drop trip queen Underline the consonant clusters in these words: space play climb strong Minimal pair: listen and tick the word you hear ……………./8 sick thick free three closing clothing ran rang sink sing vest west vet wet pen pan Test (Post-test)……………… /20 Time allowance: Name: Group: Vowels ………… /4 Examples: excited prepare ask supply Underline the vowel sounds in these words: run organize ethic leader Consonants……………/4 Examples: sing link relative carry Underline the consonant sounds in these words: fly greet free stopped Consonant clusters………… /4 XX Examples: play friend engagement smile Underline the consonant clusters in these words Great books advised split Minimal pairs: listen and tick the words you hear ………… /8 veil whale vent went think sink day they beg bag send sand sun sung sin sing XXI ... “Using shadowing technique to improve the pronunciation of the 3rd- year students at HUBT? ?? was done on the situation of teaching pronunciation mainly the pronunciation of the individual sounds and. .. part reviews some authors‟ viewpoints concerning with pronunciation learning and teaching, the convenience of teaching and learning pronunciation in listening lessons and also the use of shadowing. .. 3.1 Students? ?? general attitude towards using shadowing in learning pronunciation (Research Question 1) With the aim at investigating students? ?? general attitude towards using shadowing in learning