An action research on the use of continuous feedback to improve the first year students' pronunciation at the english department, college of foreign languages, vietnam national university, hanoi part 1

An action research on the use of continuous feedback to improve the first year students' pronunciation at the english department, college of foreign languages, vietnam national university, hanoi

Appendix 1: QUESTIONNAIRE

The following questionnaire is conducted to investigate issues relating to thepronunciation of the first year students at the English Department, College of ForeignLanguages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Please tick the most appropriate options according to you.

Part 1: Personal Information

1 What is your name?

………2 When did you begin studying English?a Since primary

b From grade 6-9 c From grade 10-12 d From grade 6-12

3 Which English curriculum did you follow at your secondary school?

a Three-year b Seven-year c Pilot program (7 years)4 Did you study in an English specialized secondary school?

Part 2: Pronunciation learning at secondary schools

5 How often did you listen to authentic English at your secondary school?

a No time b < 20 mins/week c 20- 45 mins/week d 45-60 mins/week6 How do you judge the pronunciation of your Vietnamese teachers of English at yoursecondary school?

a poor b average c good d excellent (native-like)7 How often were you taught English pronunciation in the class when you were at yoursecondary school?

a Less than 20 minutes per week

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b From 20-45 minutes per weekc More than 45 minutes per week

d There was no pronunciation lesson but the teacher taught the pronunciation of newwords and corrected students’ pronunciation mistakes during the lesson (If yes, how longapproximately? )

8 When you look up new words in the dictionary, what did you often do?a looked at its meaning only

b looked at its pronunciation and meaning, then pronounced it in mindc looked at its pronunciation and meaning, then pronounced it aloud

Part 3: Attitude and problems with English pronunciation

9 How important is pronunciation do you think?a Not important b Important

10 What make pronunciation difficult for you?

a There are sounds and phonetic rules that do no exist in Vietnamese.b My local dialect affects me badly.

c My phonetic ability is not good

d Nobody corrects my pronunciation for me e I have no one to practice speaking English with.

f Your own problem:………

Thank you very much for your help!!!II

Appendix 2: PRETEST (MOCK SPEAKING TEST 1)Part one: Read aloud the following passage:

Another feature of many leisure activities is the introduction to a whole new social work,providing companionship with other like-minded people New friends can be madethrough joining a music club, for instance And social relationship can be strengthenedthrough a share interest in football The media opens up this experience to everyone whowants to participate, even if they don’t play.

An essential aspect of leisure is that we can pick hobbies to suit our personality, our needsand our wallet, and we can drop them at any time This control is crucial, as peoplebenefit from feeling that they’re making their own decisions That’s one reason whychildren need to choose their own hobbies, instead of having them imposed by theirparents

(Time to waste, Objective IELTS, Intermediate, Teacher’ book, p.47)

Part two: Work in pairs and discuss the following topic(Students picked up one among the topics given)

1 The best way to travel is by bicycle To what extend do you agree with this statement?2 Money is the most important thing in life Discuss with your partner about this.

3 Shopping is a waste of time and money To what extend do you agree with thisstatement?

4 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of tourism.

5 Using nicknames to chat on the Internet has some advantages and disadvantages.Discuss with your partner about this.

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Appendix 3: POSTTEST(MOCK SPEAKING TEST 2)Part one: Read aloud the following passage:

Another feature of many leisure activities is the introduction to a whole new social work,providing companionship with other like-minded people New friends can be madethrough joining a music club, for instance And social relationship can be strengthenedthrough a share interest in football The media opens up this experience to everyone whowants to participate, even if they don’t play.

An essential aspect of leisure is that we can pick hobbies to suit our personality, our needsand our wallet, and we can drop them at any time This control is crucial, as peoplebenefit from feeling that they’re making their own decisions That’s one reason whychildren need to choose their own hobbies, instead of having them imposed by theirparents

(Time to waste, Objective IELTS, Intermediate, Teacher’ book, p.47)

Part two: Work in pairs and discuss the following topic(Students picked up one among the topics given)

1 How many ways can students earn money to support themselves? Discuss with yourpartner about this.

2 Money is not important, yet for young people, it is all Discuss with your partner aboutthis.

3 Going on a diet is necessary to maintain good health Discuss with your partner aboutthis

4 What can we do to protect the nation’s places of interest?

5 Shopping is a waste of time and money To what extend do you agree with thisstatement?

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Appendix 3: READING PASSAGES

PASSAGE 1: JOB SATISFACTION

Over the years, the development of different theories of management and differentapproached to organization has affected the way we view motivation In the 19th century,the writer Federick Taylor put forward the theory that workers were only interested inmaking money In contrast, in the early 20th century, researchers found that people went towork to satisfy a range of different needs, and not simply for financial reward One need,in particular, was emphasized – the social need An early study done on a coal-miningcompany, for instance, showed that people generally were happier and worked moreproductively if they were able to work in teams.

(Job satisfaction, Objective IELTS, Intermediate, Teacher’ book, p.47)

PASSAGE 2: GLOBAL WARMING

If global warming really starts to accelerate in the second half of this century, as manyscientists expect, the area of warm air will be much larger during the summer than it isnow The impact on the jet stream will be that it will be located further north The BritishIsles will then become dry, with an almost complete lack of rain So there’s a prettyunpleasant change in prospect.

(Global warming, Objective IELTS, Intermediate, Teacher’ book, p.60)

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PASSAGE 3: FOREST

The Forest Service is responsible for the forests on public lands in the United States Itsupervises almost seventy-eight million hectares of forests, grasslands, rivers and lakes Itis an agency of the Department of Agriculture.

The first is the threat of fire and fuel This year, forest fires have burned more than threemillion hectares of land That is almost two times as much as the ten-year average Firesare a natural part of forest growth, but they can also threaten lives and property.

(Practise your listening skills – p.275)

PASSAGE 4: QUEUING

There is one sport at which the British are always the world champions Nobody can beatthem at the noble art of queuing The British actually look forward to spending theirweekends in a queue, waiting for a shop to open or waiting for a parking space at thefurniture superstore.

If you ever decide to visit Britain, you will need to know some of the basic rules of thesport First of all, remember that you only need one person to make a queue If you arealone at a bus stop, for example, don’t look to relaxed Make sure that you are in thequeue and look optimistically to your right If you want to keep your place in the queu,never leave a space between you and the person in front, otherwise the person behind youwill ask, “Are you in the queue?” (meaning “Don’t you know how to queue properly?”)(Inside Out – Pre-intermediate, p.90)

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