Integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities an action research at hanoi tourism college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU HÀ INTEGRATION OF PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE INTO SPEAKING ACTIVITIES: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE Nghiên cứu hành động việc kết hợp kỹ phát âm hoạt động nói tiếng Anh sinh viên trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU HÀ INTEGRATION OF PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE INTO SPEAKING ACTIVITIES: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE Nghiên cứu hành động việc kết hợp kỹ phát âm hoạt động nói tiếng Anh sinh viên trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Associate Prof Vo Dai Quang, Ph.D HANOI – 2013 i STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY I, Trần Thị Thu Hà, certify that the thesis “Integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities: An Action Research at Hanoi Tourism College” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own, except otherwise is acknowledged Tran Thi Thu Ha Hanoi, 2013 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Vo Dai Quang, for his continuous assistance, guidance and critical comments at every stage of the study I also wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to all the lectures provided by all the teachers during the M.A course, who have helped me to fulfill this thesis Finally, I would like to thank my mother, my colleagues and my friends for their encouragement, understanding and kind-hearted assistance in completing this research iii ABSTRACT Speaking a second language involves different skills such as grammar, vocabulary, and so on Pronunciation plays a very important role in English Language Teaching This action research is an attempt to investigate the effects of the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities on the students‟ achievement in speaking skills and give some pedagogical implications for the nonmajor first year students at Hanoi Tourism College On integrating pronunciation into speaking activities in oral lessons, we have discovered that activities structured by integrating pronunciation practice can help to improve students‟ intelligibility and achievement in speaking performance In addition, some helpful techniques of integrating pronunciation into activities have been realized with a view to improve the quality of teaching the speaking skill iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF CHARTS ix PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale to the study Aims and objectives of the research Research questions for the study Scope of the research Significance of the research The design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Review of previous studies about integrating pronunciation into speaking activities 1.2 Pronunciation in English language teaching 1.2.1 What is pronunciation? 1.2.2 The importance of pronunciation in English language teaching 10 1.3 Speaking skill in English language teaching 10 1.3.1 What is speaking skill? 10 1.3.2 The importance of speaking skill in English language teaching 11 1.4 Factors affecting the integration of pronunciation into speaking activities 11 1.4.1 Teachers 12 1.4.2 Learners 13 v 1.4.3 Learning environment and text books 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 Current situation of English teaching and learning at Hanoi Tourism College 15 2.1.1 Students and Teachers 15 2.1.2 The teaching facilities and the teaching materials 17 2.1.3 Course and syllabus 17 2.2 An action research 18 2.3 Research hypothesis 19 2.4 Subjects 19 2.5 Data collection instruments and procedure 20 2.5.1 Audio-Recording 20 2.5.2 Classroom observation 21 2.6 Data analysis techniques and procedure 22 2.7 Data analysis 22 2.7.1 The Pre-Test 23 2.7.2 Intervention 29 2.7.3 The Post-Test 34 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 39 3.1 Finding and comments on this finding 39 3.1.1 Finding 39 3.1.2 Comments 39 3.2 Finding and comments on this finding 40 3.2.1 Finding 40 3.2.2 Comments 40 3.3 Finding and comments on this finding 40 3.3.1 Finding 40 3.3.2 Comments 41 PART C: CONCLUSION .42 Summary of the main points presented in the thesis 42 Concluding remarks on each of the thesis objectives 42 2.1 Concluding remarks on objective 42 vi 2.2 Concluding remarks on objective 43 Limitations of the study 44 Suggestions for future study 44 PART D: REFERENCES .45 PART E: APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: PRE-TEST I APPENDIX 2: MATERIALS USED IN THE SPEAKING LESSON WITH STRESS AT THE SUPRASEGMENTAL LEVEL IV APPENDIX 3: MATERIALS USED IN THE SPEAKING LESSON WITH RHYTHM AND INTONATION PATTERNS V APPENDIX 4: POST-TEST VII vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AMEP Adult Migrant English Program EFL/ESL English as a Foreign Language/ English as a second language ELT English Language Teaching HTC Hanoi Tourism College VNU Vietnam National University – Hanoi viii LIST OF TABLES Table Word stress Table Sentence stress: Conversation 1-Emphasizing added details Table Sentence stress: Conversation – Emphasizing important words Table Intonation: Conversation - Intonation in making suggestions Table Intonation: Conversation - Tones in new and old information Table Intonation: Conversation - High tone Table Word stress Table Sentence stress: Conversation - Emphasizing added details Table Sentence stress: Conversation - Emphasizing important words Table 10 Intonation: Conversation - Intonation in making suggestions Table 11 Intonation: Conversation - Tones in new and old information Table 12 Intonation: Conversation - High tone 42 PART C: CONCLUSION This part is devoted to summarizing the main points of the study, particularly the major findings of the research, presenting the limitations of the study and giving some suggestions for further research Summary of the main points presented in the thesis Integrating pronunciation practices into speaking activities is a very useful method with very sound ideas discussed in the literature However, there is a lack of discussions on the practical implementation of the integration pronunciation into speaking classes In addition, it seems that there have been very few studies on whether or not this kind of integration can be applicable to universities and colleges in Vietnam The above reasons inspired me to conduct this study to investigate the effects in the implementation the integration pronunciation practice into speaking activities This study is an attempt to improve speaking skill for students of Hanoi Tourism College by applying some teaching techniques which focus on suprasegmental features: stress, rhythm, and intonation To investigate the effects of the integration pronunciation practice into speaking activities to students at HTC, the researcher contrasted the theory of this kind of integration and her real teaching context The speaking activity used was role-play Data was collected from audiorecordings of the pre-test and post-test and observations which were implemented in English classes with twelve students at HTC Concluding remarks on each of the thesis objectives 2.1 Concluding remarks on objective For the first objective, the study investigates the effects of the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities on the students‟ achievement in speaking skills The integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities had positive effects on students‟ achievement As far as we know, successful communicative 43 performance depends on many factors ranging from one‟s command of the language being used such as grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation to other socio-cultural factors that involve in the interaction One of these factors is the speaker‟s considerable intelligibility which is achieved through suprasegmental aspects such as stress, rhythm and intonation Integrating pronunciation into speaking activities helps students not only speak English naturally with correct stress, rhythm and intonation patterns but interact to foreigners as fast as possible as well Moreover, from this integration, both teachers and students have more awareness about the importance of pronunciation in speaking Since then, they give appropriate strategies in teaching and learning English In addition, because Vietnamese and English are very different among these concepts, students should be paid much attention in the process of teaching pronunciation and speaking to have intelligibility and communicative success 2.2 Concluding remarks on objective On the second objective, the study aims at giving some possible pedagogical implications for further development As this kind of action research on integrating pronunciation into speaking activities is one of the first to be realized in my teaching situation in particular and in Vietnam in general, I suggest some pedagogical implications as below First of all, pronunciation training and implementing program really prove its effects in teaching speaking Whether this small scale action research within a limited time cannot represent a large number of population of students in general, statistic analysis results still strongly suggests the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities With the present speaking syllabus at HTC, the teachers can embed pronunciation practice into classroom activities and self-design activities for their speaking lessons However, while doing so, the teachers must pay attention to the time available for implementing activities To save time, the teachers can select tasks, activities in the course books and adapt with the pronunciation practice structures 44 In addition, the Faculty of English for Tourism needs to consider the benefits of pronunciation practice and decides to integrate the program in a more pronunciation practice structured syllabus In both solutions, the teachers should work together Pronunciation strategies are not only applied in teaching speaking but also other skills so that the students are more knowledgeable, confident and skillful to work in environment requiring English Furthermore, assessment of speaking should be of various types We can have individual assessment such as test or recording personally or group assessment such as group test or group recordings Moreover, the assessment should be going on the semester not only the end of term test Lastly, the size of classes in speaking lessons should be smaller to be sure that the students have enough space and time to practice speaking English the most effectively with correct pronunciation Limitations of the study Although the researcher made effort towards conducting this thesis, due to limited time, there undoubtedly exist some limitations At the first place, the scope of the study is relatively narrow, which focuses on suprasegmental features with very basic patterns in speaking activity, role-play It may be suitable for the students who are non-major in English at pre-intermediate level, but further training on these areas will be beyond their ability In addition, the number of subjects is small, which limits the representation to some extent The results of the thesis would be more convincible if the number of the subjects were larger Suggestions for future study This research only identified the effects in the implementation of the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities There should be studies on other aspects relating to the application of this approach to classrooms Following are some suggestions for future study - Is the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities more feasible with high ability students than the low ones in foreign language environment? - Does the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities have positive influences on listening, reading and writing skills? 45 PART D: REFERENCES Anderson-Hsieh, J., Johnson, R., & Koehler, K (1992) The relationship between native speaker judgements of nonnative pronunciation and deviance in segmentals, prosody and syllable structure Language Learning, 42, 529– 555 Bailey, K.M & Savage, L (1994) New ways in teaching speaking USA Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by principles: an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy New Jersey: Prentice Hall regents Burns, A & Claire, S (2003) Clearly speaking: Pronunciation in action for teachers National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research: Macquarie University, Sydney NSW 2109 Bygate, M (1987) Speaking Oxford: Oxford University Press Castillo, L (1990) L2 Pronunciation Pedagogy: Where have you been? Where are we headed? The Language Teacher, 14(10), 3-7 Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D M., & Goodwin, J M (1996) Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages New York: Cambridge University Press Cook, V (1996) Second Language Learning and Language Teaching London: Arnold 10 Davis, C (1999) Will the use of videos designed for the purpose of teaching English pronunciation improve the learners’ production of discrete sounds by at least 80% over a 12-week period? In Action Research Monographs Pennsylvania Action Research Network A Section 353 Project of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education ERIC Document [ED440 219] 46 11 Derwing, T M., Munro, M J., & Wiebe, G (1998) Evidence in favour of a broad framework for pronunciation instruction Language Learning, 48, 393410 12 Eli H (2006) Current Perspectives on Teaching the Four Skills TESOL QUARTERLY, 40(1), 115-116 13 Fraser, H (1999) ESL pronunciation teaching: Could it be more effective? Australian Language Matters, 7(4), 7-8 14 Fraser, H (2000a) Coordinating improvements in pronunciation teaching for adult learners of English as a second language Canberra: DETYA (Australia National Training Authority Adult Literacy Project) Retrieved October 31, 2004 15 Fraser, H (2001) Teaching pronunciation: A handbook for teachers and trainers Canberra: Department of Education Training and Youth Affairs 16 Harmer, J (1993) The practice of English language teaching New York, NY: Longman 17 Harmer, J (2007) The practice of English language teaching (4rd ed.) London: Longman 18 Hinofotis, F., & Baily, K (1980) American undergraduate reaction to the communication skills of foreign teaching assistants, TESOL “80: Building Bridges: Research and Practice in TESL”, Alexandria, V.A 19 Jones, R H., Rusman, R., & Evans, S (1994) Self-assessment of pronunciation by Chinese tertiary students In D Nunan, R Berry & V Berry (eds.), Language awareness in language education: Proceeding of the international language in education conference 1994, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong pp 169-180 20 Kemmis, S & McTaggart, R (eds) (1988) The Action Research Planner (2nd ed.) Geelong, Vic: Deakin University Press 47 21 Levis, J M & Grant, L (2003) Integrating Pronunciation into ESL/EFL Classrooms TESOL QUARTERLY, 12(2), 13-14 22 Morley, J (1991) The pronunciation component in teaching English to speakers of other languages TESOL Quarterly, 25(1), 51-74 23 Morley, J (1998) Trippingly on the tongue: Putting serious speech/ pronunciation instruction back in the TESOL equation ESL Magazine, issue January/ February, 20-23 24 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology: a textbook for Teachers New York: Prentice Hall 25 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 26 Wei, M (2006) A Literature review on strategies for teaching pronunciation Journal of Experiment Child Psychology, viewed August 2006 27 Wong, R (1993) Pronunciation Myths and Facts Forum, 31, No 4, 45–46 28 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? Report submitted to China’s Experimental centre for Educational action research in foreign languages teaching, June 25th, 2004, Guyuan, Ningxia I PART E: APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: PRE-TEST Word stress: Newspaper Interview Library Discover Research Conversation Emphasizing added details A: I hear you‟ve got a boat B: A small boat, yes (1) A: And a big house B: Well, it‟s quite big, I suppose (2) A: And you live in Hollywood B: Well, near Hollywood, yes (3) A: So you must be rich then? B: Well, quite rich I guess (4) Conversation Emphasizing important words A: Excuse me, I think you‟re in my seat (1) B: Sorry, but it says 7A on my boarding card (2) A: Oh, er … right … I asked for a window seat, you see … (3) B: Yeah, so did I what‟s your seat number? (4) A: Let‟s see … Oh it‟s 8A (5) B: So I guess you‟re in the seat behind me (6) A: Oh yes Sorry about that II Text Reading aloud: “Rhythm and punctuation” I can never guess the weather right If I wear a warm shirt, the weather‟s hot If I wear cool clothes, there‟s a cold wind When I don‟t take my umbrella, it rains If I take my umbrella, does it rain? Of course not! Then I leave it on the bus! Oh well We all have our weaknesses, I guess (Pronunciation in use – Mark Hancock) Text Rhythm and pauses A few years ago / I read in a newspaper/ that the staff at a library / in a small town in the west of England / had noticed / that the number of visitors to the library / was going down and down, / and the number of books they were borrowing / was going down even faster / They couldn‟t understand this, / so they decided to some research / to find out the reason / They interviewed people / and asked them to fill in questionnaires / and so on / And guess what they discovered / The reason was / simply / that everybody had read all the books already! (Pronunciation in use – Jonathan Marks (148-149)) Conversation Intonation in making suggestions A: What are we going to today? (1) B: I don‟t know Do you fancy going to the beach? (2) A: No, not really I don‟t think it‟s warm enough But we could go for a picnic in the country (3) B: Yes, that‟s a good idea Where shall we go? (4) A: Why don‟t we go to that place by the river? (5) You know, we went there with your friend from Spain B: Oh, yes, that‟ll be nice And how about inviting Diane and Peter? (6) A: Sure Do you think you could give them a ring? (7) I‟ll get some things ready B: OK (Lifeline pre-intermediate) III Conversation Tones in new and old information A: Let‟s get the Viewmaster It‟s really nice (1) B: But the Megavision is nicer (2) A: But the Viewmaster has a guarantee (3) B: They both have a guarantee (4) A: Anyway, the Megavision is too expensive (5) B: I know it‟s expensive, but it‟s better quality (6) A: They‟re both good quality (7) B: The Megavision has access to the internet (8) A: We have access to the internet on the computer (9) Conversation Continuing or finishing tones A: You know Angela? B: Yes (1) A: And you know her brother David? B: Uh huh (2) A: Well, you know he lives in Southside? B: Mmm… (3) A: Well, somebody broke into his house last night! B: Oh, really? (4) Conversation High tone A: So, how was your trip? B: Oh, it was quite nice C: What you mean, nice? It was brilliant! (1) IV A: Good hotel? B: Quite pleasant, yes C: Pleasant? (2) It was excellent! (3) Superb! A: How about the food? B: It was ok C: OK? (4) It was absolutely delicious! (5) A: And the scenery? B: Quite pretty C: It was amazing! (6) Beautiful! (7) APPENDIX 2: MATERIALS USED IN THE SPEAKING LESSON WITH STRESS AT THE SUPRASEGMENTAL LEVEL What’s your address? • • • • Are you married or single? • • • • • • • What was your job in Vietnam? • • • • • • • When did you come to Australia? • • • • • • • • V My mother’s a teacher • • • • • • APPENDIX 3: MATERIALS USED IN THE SPEAKING LESSON WITH RHYTHM AND INTONATION PATTERNS A: Everything OK? B: Oh look It‟s fine, but it‟s true, we were robbed That‟s why I had to go home early ‟cause our next door neighbour, Mavis, God love her, rang us to say that we‟d been robbed, so I rushed off And apparently these people robbed three or four houses before us How stupid of them Source: This is a short segment from part of a longer text in Brawn, P (2002) Listening to Australia Intermediate Sydney: NSW AMES Phrases everything OK oh look it‟s fine but it‟s true we were robbed that‟s why I had to go home early ‟cause our next door neighbour, Mavis God love her rang us to say that we‟d been robbed VI so I rushed off and apparently these people robbed three or four houses before us how stupid of them Syllable stress everything OK oh look it‟s fine but it‟s true we were robbed that‟s why I had to go home early ‟cause our next door neighbour, Mavis God love her rang us to say that we‟d been robbed so I rushed off and apparently these people robbed three or four houses before us how stupid of them Intonation contours everything OK? (rise) oh look (fall) it‟s fine (fall) but it‟s true (fall) we were robbed (fall) VII That‟s why I had to go home early (fall) ‟cause our next door neighbour, Mavis (fall) God love her (rise) rang us (rise) to say that we‟d been robbed (fall) so I rushed off (fall, rise) and apparently these people robbed three or four houses before us (fall) How stupid of them (fall) APPENDIX 4: POST-TEST Word stress: Unbelievable Amazingly Farmer Emergency Unconscious Conversation Emphasizing added details A: It‟s very quiet B: Too quiet (1) A: I think something‟s wrong (2) B: Very wrong (3) A: I don‟t like it (4) B: I don‟t like it at all (5) A: Let‟s get out of here (6) B: Let‟s get out fast! (7) Conversation Emphasizing important words A: I‟m sorry, but you must switch that off, sir (1) B: OK, just a minute VIII A: Switch it off now, please! (2) Text Reading aloud: “Rhythm and punctuation” And for Friday, well, another wintry day in all parts of the region Temperatures near freezing in many places, and along the coast, the wind will make it feel very cold indeed Inland, some snow on the hills, and there may be fog in the valleys If you‟re out and about driving, watch out for those icy roads! And for the weekend? Well, we‟re not expecting much change, I‟m afraid And that‟s from me Good night (Pronunciation in use – Mark Hancock) Text Rhythm and pauses This seems unbelievable / but it‟s a true story / in fact A farmer / was working in the fields / with his tractor / The tractor crashed / and he fell out / and landed on the ground / unconscious / As he fell, / his mobile phone / fell out of his pocket / Soon after, / a bird that was flying around the fields / saw the phone / and started pecking it / with its beak / Amazingly / it dialed the number 999 / and soon the emergency services arrived / to help the farmer (Pronunciation in use – Jonathan Marks (148-149)) Conversation Intonation in making suggestions A: Let‟s go out for a meal tonight (1) B: OK Where? (2) A: The Red Dragon? (3) B: Mmm We went there last time I‟d rather try somewhere different A: Well, what about trying that new Italian place near the station (4) – what‟s it called? IX B: Mario‟s Yes, people say it‟s pretty good Shall I book a table for nine o‟clock? (5) A: It‟s all right, I don‟t mind doing it Could you pass the phone book? (6) B: Here you are A: Thanks (Lifeline pre-intermediate) Conversation Tones in new and old information A: This one‟s nice (1) B: I know it‟s nice (2), but it‟s expensive (3) Conversation Continuing or finishing tones A: You know Max‟s grandfather died? (1) B: Oh (2) A: Yeah, terrible, isn‟t it? (3) Conversation High tone A: Jeremy is going to stay at the same hotel as us B: Oh great! (1) A: Anne‟s invited with us for a few days B: That‟ll be fun! (2) A: And Gail and Tim want to come on holiday with us B: That‟ll be fantastic! (3) ... Associate Prof Vo Dai Quang, Ph.D HANOI – 2013 i STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY I, Trần Thị Thu Hà, certify that the thesis ? ?Integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities: An Action. .. vocabulary, and so on Pronunciation plays a very important role in English Language Teaching This action research is an attempt to investigate the effects of the integration of pronunciation practice into. .. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU HÀ INTEGRATION OF PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE INTO SPEAKING