One of the complaints teachers and learners of English make about English pronunciation is that they have trouble dealing with pronunciation which is considered one of the most compli[r]
(1)NGUYỄN TRÍ DŨNG*, NGUYỄN THỊ BIÊN** *Học viện Khoa học Quân sự, braveman20083@gmail.com **Học viện Khoa học Quân sự, bien_khanh2008@yahoo.com
Ngày nhận bài: 06/6/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 14/6/2018; ngày duyệt đăng: 20/6/2018
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the complaints teachers and learners of English make about English pronunciation is that they have trouble dealing with pronunciation which is considered one of the most complicated but significant features of second language teaching and learning Indeed, good pronunciation can promote language learning whereas poor pronunciation can result in a great hindrance in the second language learning Many learners, though, seek to master native-like pronunciation and want to speak English accurately and fluently, they have trouble with pronunciation on account of a wide range of influencing elements
Brown (2007) states that the influencing elements of pronunciation not only include
CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN DẠY VÀ HỌC PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH
TÓM TẮT
Phát âm giống người ngữ nhiệm vụ quan trọng phức tạp người dạy người học Do đặc tính phức tạp ngơn ngữ, phát âm xem kỹ cần trọng nhiều việc giảng dạy ngôn ngữ trường học sở đào tạo Trong phạm vi báo này, người viết nhấn mạnh tầm quan trọng phát âm tiếng Anh Bên cạnh đó, dựa số nghiên cứu lý thuyết liên quan phát âm, người viết phân loại yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến trình dạy học phát âm tiếng Anh, đồng thời đưa số đề xuất nhằm cải thiện chất lượng dạy học phát âm
Từ khoá:dạy học phát âm, ngôn ngữ địa, phát âm
phonetic symbols and rules, but also involve the articulation of individual sounds and the distinctive features of sounds like voice and aspiration, voice-setting features and stress, intonation, and rhythm Meanwhile, Pennington and Richards (1996) points out that there are a range of elements that should be considered as part of pronunciation, such as native language interference, age influence, etc So as to, therefore, make pronunciation teaching and learning effective, it would be worthwhile to take these elements into account
(2)elements of English pronunciation acquisition are categorized into two domains named as internal and external ones
2 THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH PRONOUNCIATION
Learning a language means dealing with the performance of sounds, utterances, and words properly and precisely One of the general goals in the second language learning (L2), perhaps the most important one, is speaking the target language as accurately and fluently as native speakers
When people communicate in English, the very first thing to be noticed, which can make a good impression on our language competence, is the way in which English is pronounced Indeed, poor and incomprehensible pronunciation will surely result in unpleasantness and misunderstanding for both speakers and listeners What’s more, it is apparent that limited pronunciation skills will lessen learners’ self-confidence and lead to negative influence for learners to estimate their credibility and abilities (Morley, 1998)
Lund (2003, p.16) argues that pronunciation is the only aspect of language calling for a close interaction between the cognitive and physiological processes In acquiring new sounds we are also coping with a complex reorganizing of the articulatory processes Good English pronunciation will make oneself easily understood; contrarily, poor English pronunciation may confuse people and result in unpleasant conversations and misunderstandings even when someone uses advanced English grammar or vocabulary
Pronunciation has an important social value, which is relevant to prestige, such as intelligence, professional competence, persuasiveness, diligence, and social privilege Pronunciation can provide information about the speaker’s geographical and social origin, and in most cases it is the most salient characteristic of non-native
Pronunciation, in addition, is vocalized in communication and can be considered as a kind of culture In the process of communicating, the speaker’s expression, describing or explaining can build up their individual cultural space modus vivendi, which the cultural space contains the system and hierarchy of values and the individual world view
In conclusion, pronunciation in general and English pronunciation in particular plays a very important part in English language teaching and learning Its importance has been recognized by many learners, teachers and researchers, but it should be noted that language learners always have difficulties with pronunciation In fact, there are a lot of researchers who have made contribution to seek the elements affecting pronunciation teaching and learning from various perspectives such as physiology, psychology and linguistics
3 PREVIOUS STUDIES ON ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND LEARNING
Kenworthy (1997) states that the history of teaching English pronunciation is known as a study in extremes Some teaching approaches such as the Reformed Method and Audio-lingual focused on pronunciation and considered them as a pinnacle of the English teaching and learning process, while others such as the cognitive movement and early communicative language teaching seemed to ignore pronunciation
(3)and Paul Passay who developed the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) They advocated the notions and practices suggesting that learners should be given phonetic training to set up good speech habits and the spoken form of a language and should be taught first
In 1940s and 1950s, teachers used both Audio-lingual and Oral approaches their pronunciation teaching classrooms in which the IPA and charts demonstrating the articulation of sounds were exploited They also applied the minimal pair drill which using words that differ by a single sound in the same position In addition, in the 1960s, the Cognitive Approach, which used sound color charts and Fidel word charts, were introduced (The Fidel is known as a set of rectangle charts organized along articulatory lines and presenting all the possible spelling patterns for each sound in the language using the color code Sounds are seen in the same color and the same location on each rectangle) In the color word charts, the words which are grouped semantically in a way allowing teachers to silently dictate or tap out phrases, are then practised orally or written down as a dictation This silent way seemed to have a special focus on teaching pronunciation, and many language educators agree that the principle of sound-color correspondence, which the silent way invoked, provided learners with an “inner resource to be used” (Nation and Newton, 2009)
The Communicative Approach took hold in the 1980s and is currently dominant in language teaching According to Cele-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin (1996), the primary purpose of language is communication, the use of language to communicate should be central in all classroom instructions Cenoz (1999) claims that pronunciation has traditionally been taught with a goal of “speaking like a native speaker, but this is not practical In fact, it is a recipe for discouragement of both teachers and students This has been referred to “the perfection trap” A more practical approach is to aim to “listener-friendly pronunciation”
Currently, the following techniques and practice materials are being used to teach pronunciation: Listen and Repeat (a technique from the Direct Method, e.g., She sells seashells on the seashore), Phonetic Training (a technique from the Reform Movement, e.g., using the correct IPA symbols when identifying the correct vowel: leg [e] – lag [æ], Minimal Pair Drills (a technique introduced during Audio-lingual area, e.g., beg-bag/ ten-tan, and Recording of learners’ production Morley (1998) supports the idea of critical listening; that is to say, it is ideal if learners can listen to recordings of their own voices, and especially if they can be recorded saying similar things several times, and then listen again to see if they can pick the various pronunciation
4 ELEMENTS AFFECTING THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND LEARNING AMONG ADULT LEARNERS
Based on reviewing previous studies and theories about pronunciation teaching and learning, the article will categorize the influencing elements of English pronunciation teaching and learning into two areas: internal and external.
4.1 Internal elements 4.1.1 Age
Widely recognized by many researchers, age is known as an element of great importance in SLA field There is general consensus that the younger the better when acquiring a new language and the more accurate their pronunciation will be in the target language Biologically, it has determined the period of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond the period language, learning is increasingly difficult to acquire
(4)age, they cannot obtain a better pronunciation than those who learn a foreign language at a proper age If a learner begins to speak a second language before the age of six, there will be little or no accent If the learner begins to speak it between at the age of 7-11, the learner is likely to have a slight accent If the learner begins to speak after the age of 12, the learner almost always has an accent (Nation and Newton, 2009, p.78)
4.1.2 Brain
It seems that children have an advantage over adults in language learning A child’s brain is plastic to compare with an adult’s, but after nine years old the brain is growing mature and some functions are assigned to left and right hemispheres and it will be difficult to approach native-like pronunciation
Some researchers and neurologists have claimed that there is a strong relationship between language learning and lateralization Lenneberg (1997) hypothesizes that lateralization is a slow process, and it begins at the age of about two and will be completed when reaching puberty Before two years old, the brain has not developed but after puberty it develops so much and will lose its plasticity and finish the lateralization of the language function
However, some researchers hold the opponent point indicating that plasticity survives puberty even till to twenties; they still have the possibility to achieve native-like pronunciation (Lund, 2003)
4.1.3 Ear-perception
Ear perception is always ignored by many people during the process of teaching and learning pronunciation There is a common sense that different people have different levels of hearing abilities (Hamers, 1994) Some people have a better ear capacity for language learning than
easily discriminate two sounds more accurately and be able to imitate different sounds better than others and lead to their pronunciation approach to native speakers
It is noteworthy that ear capacity relates to learners’ age That is to say, learners may gradually lose some of their abilities when they grow older, and it might be difficult for them to pronounce the target language with a native or native-like accent
4.1.4 Aptitude
Some learners, indeed, have an aptitude for language learning and seem to acquire a better pronunciation than others According to Carroll (1992), four traits constitute language aptitude, namely, phonetic coding ability, grammatical sensitivity, inductive language learning ability and memory The first trait refers to “the capacity to discriminate and code foreign sounds which can be recalled” Grammatical sensitivity concerns “the ability to analyze language and figure out rules” Inductive language learning ability relates to “the capacity to pick up language through exposure” The last component, memory, involves “the amount of rote learning activity needed to internalize something” (Cele-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996, p.17)
In reality, aptitude plays a essential part in learners’ pronunciation development Though many people have language aptitude ability, its degree is variable Some people have more ability but some have less It, however, does not mean that learners who have higher aptitude will be successful while others will not (Cele-Murcia, Briton, & Goodwin, 1996)
4.1.5 Personality (extraversion and introversion)
(5)characteristic plays a positive role in learning native-like pronunciation; meanwhile, introversive one does not Learners, who are sociable, courageous, talkative and like to make friends, tend to express themselves and take part in activities actively Therefore, they have more opportunities to use the target language and improve their pronunciation In contrast, a typical introverted person who is shy and likes to stay alone and prefers reading books to talking with people, cannot find any opportunities to speak the target language and practise their pronunciation
4.1.6 Attitude, motivation and identity
Pronunciation learning is also affected by learners’ learning identity and attitude According to Buranavityawut (2000), the accuracy of learners’ pronunciation is like a person’s sense of identity Each learner has a distinct attitude toward the target language and the target language community, which can support or hinder the development of pronunciation skills
If a learner has some prejudices or a negative attitude to the target language, it will have a bad influence on his/her language learning For example, some people not believe that it is necessary to learn a second language, and they think language learning will influence the learners’ cultural development in a negative way, and their culture will be imposed on the target language community Contrarily, if a learner has a positive attitude and open mind for the target language or target culture, it will promote her/his pronunciation development easily and accurately and have a native-like accent (Cenoz and Garcia Lecumberri, 1999)
Motivation is seen as one of the key elements that influence the rate and success of language learning (Dornyei, 1998) Motivation is described as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action It is said that high learning motivation can facilitate language learning and lower learning motivation can influence language learning rate
There seems to be an intimate relation between motivation and attitude According to Gardner and Lambert (1992), motivation can be divided into two basic types, which are instrumental and integrative motivation The former relates to the utilitarian gains such as getting a better job, going to a good university, passing an exam The latter involves positive attitudes toward the target language and target language community Carroll (1992) claims that instrumental motivation and integrative motivation can promote language learning
4.1.7 Individual efforts and goal setting For many EFL and ESL learners, classrooms are the only learning setting for L2 learning However, teaching never causes learning, but creates the conditions in which learning can occur Therefore, individual efforts become a crucial factor for L2 learning Having good pronunciation is not easy for many learners and it needs persistence and a long time to practise, just like making muscles The more time learners spend in pronunciation, the better pronunciation they will get
Most studies demonstrated that L2 learners’ goal is to produce and perceive the native-like speakers Nation and Newton (2009) argues that there continues to be a debate about whether the model for foreign language learners should be a native speaker or non-native speaker, and if it is an English native speaker, it should be British or American or some other regional pronunciation Therefore, we should bear in mind that good pronunciation does not mean perfect American or British accent but sounds native-like and intelligible pronunciation
4.2 External elements 4.2.1 Native language
(6)That is to say, learner’s first language is a significant factor to account for foreign accents and influence the pronunciation of the target language It often relates to interference from the mother tongue to errors in aspiration, stress, and intonation in the target language For instance, Chinese is a tone language while English is highly stressed language
Brown (2007) points out all learners had experiences that they met a great difficulty in understanding what foreigners said This is not because of their lack of knowledge of vocabulary, language structures or grammar, but the sounds they produced seems peculiar and their voice rose and fell in unexpected places
Most teachers’ experiences and studies show that the learners’ first language has a major influence on learning the sound system of another language (Nation and Newton, 2009) That is to say, every language in the world has different varieties and accents “Needless to say, learners of a language speak the target language in a different way; sometimes slightly different and sometimes highly different rather than native speakers do, which we call foreign accents, the nature of which is determined to a large extent by a learner’s native language” (Avery & Ehrlich, 1997, p.18)
4.2.2 Exposure
It is not easy to define exposure (Brown, 2007) Generally, it relates to the length of time that the learners live in a target language environment It does not matter the place or country the learners stay, but depends on how much they use English in their daily life The more time they spend in listening and speaking English, the better their English pronunciation will be According to Krashen (1992), learners acquire a L2 primarily from input, which learners receive a large amount
However, it does not simply mean that learners who live in the target language country will have good native-like pronunciation On one hand, the key point is whether the learners grasp every opportunity to use the target language and take full advantage of the environment If the learners live in an English-speaking country, then the learners will have many opportunities to listen to and use English since they are surrounded by the English speaking environment On the other hand, it should bear in mind that there are many people who live in an English speaking country, but spend much time with a non-English speaking environment or stick to their native speaking groups For this reason, it is not merely exposure that matters, but how the learners respond to the opportunities (Senel, 2006)
4.2.3 Education elements
Educational system is an implicit but indispensable element for L2 learning It is affected by national social politics, economic development and national traditions If a country implements positive educational policies or creates a good learning environment, the learners will benefit greatly from it Good educational conditions can provide learners with opportunities to contact the target language or the target language community
It seems that if learners live in a non-English speaking country, there will be no advantage for them because they not have opportunities to use the target language in a real environment, except their classrooms and they are only exposed to focused-listening On one hand, schools should provide space and conditions for students to practise On the other hand, teachers should encourage students to practise and create opportunities for them to practise (Cele-Murcia, Briton, and Goodwin (1996)
(7)burden will fall more on the teachers to provide an adequate model of the target language, and to ascertain that students have opportunities outside the class (e.g, in the language laboratory or foreign language learning centers) to experience samples of the authentic oral discourse of native speakers (Cele-Murcia, Briton, and Goodwin, 1996, p.17)
Teachers’ teaching methods have a big influence on learners’ capability to absorb knowledge from the teachers (Kenworthy, 1997) Good teaching methods can inspire learners greatly during their learning process They seem to be excited to take lessons rather than them reluctantly On the contrary, poor teaching methods may discourage or depress learners That is to say, teachers’ performance in class plays a decisive part in learners’ learning
Many EFL teachers think pronunciation is too complicated and difficult to teach and ignore the importance of teaching students good pronunciation There is a fact that, however, the students’ pronunciation mostly depends on the teachers’ pronunciation Therefore, it is important and necessary that teachers should improve their pronunciation first
Apart from teacher-related elements, other objectives ones such as classroom facilities, curriculum, etc may affect pronunciation teaching and learning (Brown, 2007) Indeed, teachers find hard to deliver their lectures if the teaching-supported facilities not work properly and learners might feel depressed as a result of this interruption Furthermore, learners may get confused if the curriculum is not suitable for their levels which might be too difficult or too easy
5 SUGGESTION FOR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND LEARNING
It is very necessary for teachers and learners of English to identify and deal with the elements
affecting the English pronunciation teaching and learning In reality, teachers play a crucial role in students’ learning because pronunciation is one of the significant aspects of foreign language teaching It must be also borne in mind that teachers are the models for their students Thus, first of all, they should have good pronunciation; otherwise they can mislead their students That is to say, the teachers should spend more time on teaching pronunciation
Besides, during the pronunciation teaching, teachers should always come up with different teaching methods that are suitable for different groups of students who might differ in age, aptitude, personality, and motivation Also, teachers should take much notice of how to help learners overcome the influences of their mother tongue which may take a long time to be improved Creating opportunities for learners to increase their exposure to English pronunciation should be teachers’ regular job
In the overall process of pronunciation teaching, it is difficult to teach without practice, but students may feel bored and depressed for drilling an individual sound for a long time Therefore, it is important to combine practice pronunciation exercises with more interesting ones Apart from equipping learners with knowledge, teachers should help students establish an appropriate goal of pronunciation and try to improve their learning motivation, which are important parts in language teaching