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 RD - YEAR 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 RD - YEAR 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 rd pronunciation of the 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 rd : 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 Rationale Objectives of the study 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 2.1 Definition of shadowing 2.2 Significant features of using shadowing technique in learning and teaching pronunciation CHAPTER II RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Context of the study 2.2 The study 2.2.1 Participants 2.2.2 Data collection instruments 2.2.2.1 Questionnaire 2.2.2.2 Interviews 2.2.2.3 Pre-test and Post-test 2.2.2.4 Data presentation and analysis CHAPTER III FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Students’ general attitude towards using shadowing in learning pronunciation (Research Question 1) 3.1.1 Students’ attitude towards learning pronunciation through the project 3.1.2 Students’ attitude towards the attraction and motivation of the practice 3.1.3 Students’ attitude towards the content of the practice lessons 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 Students’ difficulties in doing the project 3.1.5 3.2 Teachers’ attitude towards the use of shadowing technique in improving the pronunciat of the students ( Research Question 2) 3.3 The effectiveness of the research (Research Question 3) 3.3.1 The overall descriptive data of the pre-test and the post-test: 3.3.2 Descriptive statistics of sections in the tests 3.3.3 One Sample T-test Results: 3.4 Discussion PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation and research experience Main findings Limitations of the study Suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDICES 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 rd- from the beginning of every program Therefore, 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 rd improve the pronunciation of the - year students at HUBT” was done on the situation of teaching pronunciation mainly the pronunciation of the individual sounds and words in English 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 PRE-TEACH WHILE-TEACH POST-TEACH 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 flood beach horse bed ……………………………………………………………………………………… 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 PRE-TEACH WHILE-TEACH POST-TEACH Practice 1/ Find the diphthongs in the following words Stay paid may slave XII climb Danger sign baker hide Shadow the words sky 2/ Tick the words that is with different vowel sounds and shadow all the words Clean Clay Hold Claim Beer 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 WARM UP PRE-TEACH XIII WHILE-TEACH POST-TEACH XIV 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 Cheap Shall Thought Discount 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 PRE-TEACH WHILE-TEACH XVI POST-TEACH Practice 1/ Find the voiced consonant sounds (+) and voiceless consonant sounds (-) at the end of the words Blank Live Lead Practice shadowing the words 2/ Listen and tick the words that you hear Back Frock Bus Card Pup 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 PRE-TEACH WHILE-TEACH POST-TEACH Practice 1/ Find the cluster in the following words Slim Flower Drive Books Practice shadowing the words 2/ Listen and tick the word you hear Desk Wick Tuck Bus Guest XIX 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 Underline the vowel sounds in these words: fall Consonants …………./4 Examples: my Underline the consonant sounds in these words: shop Consonant clusters…………… /4 Examples: black Underline the consonant clusters in these words: space Minimal pair: listen and tick the word you hear ……………./8 sick free closing ran sink vest vet pen Test (Post-test)……………… /20 Time allowance: Name: Group: Vowels ………… /4 Examples: excited Underline the vowel sounds in these words: run Consonants……………/4 Examples: sing Underline the consonant sounds in these words: fly Consonant clusters………… /4 XX Examples: play Underline the consonant clusters in these words Great Minimal pairs: listen and tick the words you hear ………… /8 veil vent think day beg send sun sin XXI ... firstly aimed at identifying their general attitudes towards learning English pronunciation, and towards using shadowing technique in teaching and learning pronunciation as the main focus of the study... convenience of teaching and learning pronunciation in listening lessons and also the use of shadowing technique in English language learning in order to build up the theoretical background for the. .. 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