Using english pronunciation websites to improve students pronunciation an action research project at an english center in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LOAN USING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION WEBSITES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT AN ENGLISH CENTER IN HANOI Sử dụng trang web dạy phát âm tiếng Anh để cải thiện khả phát âm học sinh: nghiên cứu hành động trung tâm Anh ngữ Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LOAN USING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION WEBSITES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT AN ENGLISH CENTER IN HANOI Sử dụng trang web dạy phát âm tiếng Anh để cải thiện khả phát âm học sinh: nghiên cứu hành động trung tâm Anh ngữ Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Supervisor : Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, PhD Hanoi, 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has been accomplished with the support and encouragement of many people Hence, I hereby would like to express my appreciation to all of them In the first place, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, PhD for his valuable assistance and guidance throughout my research Also, I am greatly indebted to all professors and staffs of the Faculty of PostGraduate Studies for their meaningful lessons and precious support thanks to which I was able to overcome obstacles during the time my research was carried out Besides, I would like to give my whole-hearted thanks to the manager and students in class Movers in the center for their enthusiastic participation in my research Without their help, I would not have been able to complete this paper Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family whose support and encouragement have always been a great deal of motivation that has helped me to overcome all problems to complete my thesis Hanoi, Nguyễn Thị Loan i ABSTRACT This study investigated the potential role of pronunciation websites as a means to improve students‘ competence in pronunciation The research aimed to figure out whether the use of pronunciation instruction websites could help improve students‘ pronunciation and to identify students‘ attitude towards using these websites as well as the selected activities In order to accomplish these purposes, 15 students of class Movers at an English center in Hanoi were selected to participate in the study All the students came from the same linguistic background and they shared the same teacher and teaching contents Three data collection instruments were employed, namely pre-test/post-tests, questionnaire and class observation After months, the post-test and a questionnaire were administered The analysis of the data collected revealed that the students made progress in pronunciation by using pronunciation websites in teaching and learning pronunciation Results from the questionnaires and observation also reflected a completely positive attitude of students towards the use of these websites, and students claimed that the selected activities helped them have more fun and motivation in learning pronunciation On this basis, useful implications for teachers‘ preparation, classroom practices and future research were proposed ii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT .ii CONTENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS vi INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Research methods Organizations of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Pronunciation 1.1 Definition of pronunciation 1.2 The importance of pronunciation Pronunciation in language teaching 2.1 Pronunciation as an aspect of communicative competence 2.2 Approaches to teaching pronunciation 2.2.1 Intuitive- imitative approach 2.2.2 Analytic- linguistic approach 2.2.3 Bottom-up approach 10 2.2.4 Top-down approach 10 2.2.5 Integrated approach 10 2.3 Elements of pronunciation teaching 10 2.3.1 Consonant and vowel sounds 11 2.3.2 Word stress 11 Ideas on pronunciation teaching and learning 11 iii Pronunciation websites 13 Theoretical background of technology and websites application in language teaching 13 Advantages and disadvantages of using pronunciation websites in pronunciation teaching and learning 14 Websites evaluation 15 Summary of previous studies and the gap to carry the current research 18 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 20 The context of the study 20 Action research 20 2.1 Definition of action research 20 2.2 Types of action research 21 2.2.1 Individual teacher research 21 2.2.2 Collaborative action research model 22 2.2.3 The school wide action research 22 2.3 Action research model 23 2.4 The reasons of choosing action research for this study 25 2.4.1 A framework for change and improvement 26 2.4.2 A framework for a participative small scale study that can be evaluated 27 2.5 The potential pitfalls of doing action research 29 The participants of the study 29 Data collection instruments 30 4.1 Pre-test and post-test 30 4.2 Questionnaire 30 4.3 Observation 31 The research stages 31 PRE-INTERVENTION STAGE 31 5.1 Identifying the problem 31 INTERVENTION STAGE 32 5.2 Action planning 32 iv 5.2.1 Matching the symbols and the words (Appendix 5- Worksheet 1) 33 5.2.2 Running dictation (Appendix 5- Worksheet 2) 33 5.2.3 Silent mouthing 33 5.2.4 Minimal pair bingo (Appendix 5- Worksheet 3) 34 5.2.5 The tongue twisters game 34 5.2.6 Word hunters 35 5.2.7 Odd one out (Appendix 5- Worksheet 4) 35 5.2.8 Stress snap (Appendix 5- Worksheet 5) 36 5.3 Action taking 36 POST-INTERVENTION STAGE 38 5.4 Evaluating 38 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 39 The improvement of students‘ pronunciation by using the pronunciation instruction websites in teaching and learning pronunciation 39 1.1 Scores of pre-test and post-test 39 1.2 Pre-test and post-test analysis 42 The students‘ attitude towards the use of pronunciation instruction websites for improving pronunciation 43 The students‘ feelings about the activities applied to improve their pronunciation through pronunciation instruction using websites 45 Discussion 47 Reflection 48 CONCLUSION 50 Major findings of the research Error! Bookmark not defined Implications 51 Limitations of the study 51 Suggestions for further study 52 REFERENCES 53 APPENDICES I v LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS Figure Simple action research model 23 Figure Detailed action research model 24 Table 1: Scores of pre-test and post-test 39 Chart 1: Overall mean score of students‘ pre-test and post-test 40 Table 2: The percentage of students‘ scores 41 Chart 2: Scores of students‘ pre-test and post-test 41 Table 3: The results of students‘ questionnaire answers 44 Table 4: Students‘ evaluation of class activities 45 Table 5: Students‘ answer about their favourite activity used in the lessons 46 vi INTRODUCTION Statement of the problem and rationale of the study The last few decades have seen phenomenal growth in the demand for English It is now thought to be one of the crucial features for people‘s success in not only academic life but also in people‘s casual life In Vietnam, English has become increasingly important not only as a mean of global communication but also as bridge to mankind‘s knowledge Most of Vietnamese try to master English in order to communicate, gain knowledge and get better chances for their life Vietnamese children learn English quite early because their parents believe that the younger they are, the better they learn English To meet the demand of society, there are a lot of English centers for children opened in Hanoi- the capital of Vietnam English teachers always try to apply new methods and materials to help their students improve English Besides course books and other written resources, technology integrated language teaching provides a lot of materials for language learners as well Websites might be regarded as online teaching tools which can be very effective resources both for learners and teachers After teaching at some English centers in Hanoi for years and teaching the students as participants in this study for months, the researcher notices the poor pronunciation with incorrect word stress of many students Though they seem not to have problems with grammar, fluency or ideas, they have difficulties in pronouncing certain consonants, vowels and similar sounds in English Besides, words and sentences are usually produced with wrong stress pattern or no stress at all The researcher has taken this matter into consideration a lot The students seem not eager to learn pronunciation and feel difficult to correct their mistakes Meanwhile, most of them are really into surfing the Internet on computers or mobile phone to play games or watch films every day, 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 children Besides, using websites to study English pronunciation can give students chances to listen again and practice the words, phrases, sentences at home So far, there are some studies which have been conducted to discover the effectiveness of using technology in teaching English in general and in pronunciation aspect in particular For example, Nguyen Thi Kim Dung (2014) found out the challenges the teacher encountered in applying IT (MS Powerpoint) in teaching medical vocabulary terms to the second year students at Thanh Hoa medical college as well as provide suggestions to enhance effective utilization of MS Powerpoint here Besides, Tran Thi Tuyet Mai (2010) in other context, at Duy Tien C high school, worked on the effectiveness of using English traditional songs to improve students‘ pronunciation With the similar aspect, another study conducted named ―A study on using multimedia for teaching pronunciation to preintermediate students in Crazy Ones English center” (Trieu Ngoc Tuan, 2015) showed a variety of using multimedia and assessing their impacts in teaching pronunciation Actually, those studies were conducted with the participants who are high school and college students, have a long time to learn English and pronunciation as well Differently, the researcher would like to work on children aged from 8-10 at different English center where the researcher is working with the objective to enhance the students‘ pronunciation by using some websites; with these subjects, it is more concrete than the previous studies Aims and objectives of the study This research aims at using websites to motivate 8-10 year- old children in improving pronunciation at the chosen English center According to the aim, the researcher points out some main objectives as below: - Investigating how students in class Movers at the English center improve and social care London: Routledge Wong, R (1993) Pronunciation Myths and Facts Forum, 31, No 4, 45–46 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? Retrieved on May 24th, 2018 http://www.actionresearch.net/living/moira/Cao%20Yong.htm 58 from APPENDICES APPENDIX PRE-TEST & POST-TEST Read the words and sentences below I Vowels bee fish book soup here trainers egg salad bird 10 torch 11 tour 12 boy 13 bow 14 cap 15 bus 16 scarf 17 broccoli 18 canary 19 library 20 trousers II Consonants parrot ladybird tortoise dragonfly chase January coffee gloves scarf 10 drive 11 teeth 12 father 13 glass 14 magazine 15 shoes 16 usually 17 meat 18 night 19 angry 20 high 21 leaf 22 rabbit 23 water 24 yard III Sentences The glasses are next to the bag I‘ve got some sweets and a magazine What ccolour are her shoes? They are orange Have you got a torch? Yes, I have I He doesn‘t like butter or cheese There‘s a carpark, a shopping center and a swimming pool How much are the strawberries? 10 The‘re $50 II APPENDIX Comparison of students’ problem sounds and pre-test and post-test Coding: I = had improved, P = need practice Pre-test Students Points Problem (Total: 10) sounds S1 /ʊə/, Word Points stress (Total: problem 10) /ʒ/, /θ/, /i:/, syllable Word stress I words /eɪ/, /ə /, most Sounds P: /ʒ/, /θ/ /v/, all multi- /ɪ/ S2 Post-test P: /θ/, /ʤ/, I of /ɜ:/, /ɑ:/, multi- /eə/, /aɪ/, syllable /aʊ/, /ʧ/, words /i:/, /ɪ/, /ɜ:/ 7.5 /k/, /θ/, /ʤ/, /i:/, /ɪ/ S3 /eɪ/, /ə /, all multi- P: /eɪ/, /ə /, I /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, syllable /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, /ɑ:/, /eə/, words /ɑ:/, /θ/, /əʊ/, /ʧ/, /ʤ/ /k/, /θ/, /ʤ/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ŋ/, /i:/, /ɪ/ S4 /eɪ/, /ə /, all multi3 /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, syllable /ɑ:/, /eə/, words /əʊ/, /ʧ/, III P: /eɪ/, /ɜ:/, I 5.5 /ɔ:/, /ɑ:/, /ʧ/, /θ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/, /k/, /θ/, /ʤ/, /u:/, /i:/, /ɪ/ /z/, /ʃ/, /ŋ/, /u:/, /i:/, /ɪ/ S5 /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, all multi- P: /ʧ/, /i:/, I /ɒ/, /ɑ:/, syllable /ɪ/, /ʧ/, /i:/, /ɪ/, words /θ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/ /k/, /θ/, /ʤ/, /z/, /ʃ/ S6 /ɑ:/, 6.5 /ʧ/, most /i:/, /ɪ/, /k/, multisyllable /θ/, /ei/ P: /ʧ/, /θ/, I of /ei/ words S7 5.5 /ɔ:/, /ɒ/, all multi- P: /ɑ:/, /ʧ/, I /ɑ:/, /ʧ/, syllable /θ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/, /i:/, /ɪ/, /θ/, words 7.5 /j/ /ʤ/, /z/, /ʃ/, /j/, /k/ /i:/, /ɪ/, /æ/, most S8 /θ/, /ʤ/, multisyllable /ei/, /ð/ P: /æ/, /θ/, I of 8.5 /ð/ words S9 4.5 /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, all multi- P: /ʧ/, /θ/, I /ɒ/, /ɑ:/, syllable /ʤ/, /ʃ/, /i:/, /ʧ/, /i:/, /ɪ/, words /θ/, /ʤ/, /z/, 6.5 /ɪ/ /ʃ/, /ŋ/, /j/, /k/, /f/, /z/ S10 /eɪ/, /ə /, all multi/ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, syllable IV 6.5 P: /ʤ/, /ʃ/, I /u:/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /ʧ/, /θ/, /ʤ/, words /i:/, /ɪ/ /ʃ/, /u:/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /i:/, /ɪ/ /æ/, /l/, /n/, most S11 7.5 /ʤ/, /ʃ/, multi- /u:/, /ʊ/, /ð/, syllable /ə /, /ɜ:/, most /ʤ/, syllable 4.5 P: /θ/, /ʤ/, I 8.5 /ei/, /ð words /ei/, /ð/ S13 I of /i:/, /ɪ/, /æ/, multi/θ/, P: /ʤ/, /ʒ/ words /ʒ/ S12 of /ɔ:/, /ɒ/, all multi- P: /ʧ/, /i:/, I /ɑ:/, /ʧ/, syllable /ɪ/, /θ/, /ʤ/, /i:/, /ɪ/, /θ/, words /ʃ/ /ʤ/, /z/, /ʃ/, /j/, /k/, /ɜ:/ S14 /ɒ/, P: /θ/, /ð/, I /ɑ:/, all multi- /ʧ/, /θ/, /ð/, syllable /ʤ/, /z/, /ʃ/, words /ʤ/ 8.5 /ə /, /ɜ:/ /i:/, /ɪ/, /æ/, most S15 /θ/, /ʤ/, /ə multi/, /ɜ:/, /ð/, syllable /ʒ/ Mean P: /æ/, /θ/, I of /ʤ/, /ʒ/ words 5.57 7.4 V APPENDIX STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE Part 1: For each of the following items, indicate your response by circling the appropriate number (One number for each item only) Scale: SA= Strongly agree, A= Agree, N= Not sure, D= Disagree, SD= Strongly disagree S/N Items I like SA studying A N D SD with the progress in 5 5 5 pronunciation websites I made great pronunciation after studying with the pronunciation websites The pronunciation websites are easy to use at home I have chance to listen to the authentic voice I feel interested in practising pronunciation with the pronunciation websites I can learn new words when studying with the pronunciation websites I can learn pronunciation with with the pronunciation websites without teacher‘s help I can test my pronunciation when practising with with the pronunciation websites VI Part 2: For each of the following items, indicate your response by circling the appropriate number (One number for each item only) What you think of activities your teacher used in your pronunciation lessons? Scale: 1= Very interesting and useful 2= Interesting and useful 3= Rather interesting and useful 4= Uninteresting and useless Activities Matching the symbols and the words Running Dictation Silently mouthing 4 Minimal pairs bingo The tongue twisters game Word hunters Odd one out Stress snap Part 3: Indicate your response by circling the appropriate opption(s) (More than one option can be choosen) 10 Which activities you like most in pronunciation lessons? a Matching the symbols and the words b Running Dictation c Silently mouthing d Minimal pairs bingo e The tongue twisters game f Word hunters g Odd one out h Stress snap VII APPENDIX Teacher’s observation and anecdotal notes Date: February 25, 2018 Content: Phonetics symbols & Phonetics chart (Lesson 2) Activities applied: Matching the symbols and the words Students’ attendance: All 15 students were present Classroom atmosphere Relaxing and encouraging, sometimes boring Students’ participation and performance Participation: At first, some students were nevous and anxious when the teacher called them Next some others volunteered to take part in the activity Then Most of the students enjoyed the activity They were very attentive and activive when taking part in the activity Performance: Students had better pronunciation They were more aware of the sounds of the words and more careful when pronouncing them However, the minority of students still pronounced the diphtongs too short, which made the sounds not sound like two vowel sounds Many students still had problems with word stress and put more force on the last syllable However, the objective of this lesson was not word stress, teacher did not take time to correct them because there will be a specific lesson for word stress Teacher’s difficulties It was sometimes hard for the teacher to encourage some very timid and shy students to take part in the activity VIII APPENDIX MATERIALS FOR ACTIVITIES WORKSHEET 1- Matching the symbols and the words IX Key of Worksheet WORKSHEET 2- Running dictation List of the words used in this activity After the activity, these words are delivered to students to practise again heat bet full boot caught ship dead heart hill scooter awful pool bore dump shall man WORKSHEET 3- Minimal pairs bingo This is an example Students can write the words in different squares sheep foot born ten type heart shot bad sound short X head bone cup boot had tin food live hat boat but sand cap leave ship WORKSHEET 4- Odd one out (consonants) short-shot-sort blue- flew-blew go-cold-gold down-town-dove thing-thin-this ferry-very-vary big-pig-pin coat-goal-goat XI WORKSHEET 5- Stress snap XII APPENDIX Consent Form for Participants Involved in Research CERTIFICATION BY PARTICIPANT (Parents) I certify that I am at least 18 years old and that I am voluntarily giving my consent for my child to participate in the research project entitled: Using some websites to improve students' pronunciation: an action research project at an English center in Hanoi Being conducted at English center by: Nguyễn Thị Loan I certify that the objectives of the research, together with any risks to me associated with it, have been fully explained to me by: Nguyễn Thị Loan I have been informed that the information I provide will be kept confidential Signed:………………………………… Date………… Witness other than the researcher: ………………………………………… Date ……… Any queries about your child‘s participation in this project may be directed to the researcher (Nguyễn Thị Loan- Phone number: 01675755479- Email: nguyenloan8893@gmail.com XIII Consent Form for the Manager of the Center having Participants Involved in Research CERTIFICATION BY THE MANAGER OF THE CENTER I certify that I am at least 18 years old and that I am voluntarily giving my consent for my students in class Movers to participate in and for the teacher of Class Movers to conduct the research project entitled: Using some websites to improve students' pronunciation: an action research project at an English center in Hanoi Being conducted at English center by: Nguyễn Thị Loan I certify that the objectives of the research, together with any risks to me and my center associated with it, have been fully explained to me by: Nguyễn Thị Loan I have been informed that the information I provide will be kept confidential Signed:………………………………… Date………… Witness other than the researcher: ………………………………………… Date ……… Any queries about your students‘ participation and the information of the center in this project may be directed to the researcher (Nguyễn Thị Loan- Phone number: 01675755479- Email: nguyenloan8893@gmail.com XIV ... application of some pronunciation websites in teaching pronunciation to children in an English center in Hanoi The main purpose is to investigate whether these websites were effective to students? ??... using pronunciation websites in pronunciation teaching and learning There are certainly lots of advantages of using websites for pronunciation instruction First of all, students have chance to. .. through using these websites Research questions In a nutshell, the researcher is going to answer three following questions: To what extent does using pronunciation instruction websites in teaching and