Pronunciation problems faced by first year english learners at mekong university pedagogical implications

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES NGUYỄN THỊ KIM BA PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS FACED BY FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH LEARNERS AT MEKONG UNIVERSITYPEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS A THESIS IN MASTER OF ARTS MAJOR: TESOL SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS SUPERVISOR TRƯƠNG HỚN HUY, M.A HOCHIMINH CITY - 2009 TABLE OF CONTENT Table of content i List of table v Certificate of originality vi Acknowledgement .vii Abstract viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.1.1 The role of pronunciation in spoken language 1.1.2 The pronunciation syllabus 1.1.2.1 The pronunciation syllabus for EFL learners in high schools and at universities 1.1.2.2 Pronunciation syllabus at Mekong University 1.1.2.3 The methodologies in teaching pronunciation at Mekong University 1.2 AIMS OF THE THESIS 2 4 1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 SOME VIEWS OF PRONUNCIATION 2.1.1 What is pronunciation? 2.1.2 What we mean by learning and teaching pronunciation? 2.1.3 Pronunciation components 2.1.4 The importance of pronunciation in EFL learning and teaching is reflected in the relationship between pronunciation and other language skills 10 2.1.5 Pronunciation in the ‘public’ style of speech 14 2.1.6 Patterns of simplification in ‘public’ style of speech 16 2 PRONUNCIATION AND INTELLIGIBILITY 18 2.2.1 What is intelligibility? 18 2.2.2 Intelligibility and communication: Factors affecting intelligibility 19 2.2.3 Factors in pronunciation affecting intelligibility 20 2.2.3.1 Learners’ characteristics 20 i 2.2.3.1.1 Learners’ age 20 2.2.3.1.2 Exposure to the target language 21 2.2.3.1.3 Personality factors 21 2.2.3.1.4 Learners’ aptitude and motivation 22 2.2.3.2 The role of learners’ native language 23 2.2.3.3 Target language’s linguistic factors 24 2.3 THEORY IN TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION 27 2.3.1 The communicative threshold level of pronunciation 27 2.3.2 The integration criteria in teaching pronunciation 28 2.4 AN OVERVIEW OF PRONUNCIATION ERRORS THAT NATIVE SPEAKERS OF VIETNAMESE MIGHT MAKE WHEN USING ENGLISH ORALLY 29 2.4.1 Problems related to segmental aspects 30 2.4.1.1 Consonants 30 2.4.1.2 Vowels 33 2.4.2 Problems related to suprasegmental aspects 34 2.5 CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING PRONUNCIATION ERRORS MADE BY EFL LEARNERS AT MEKONG UNIVERSITY IN USING ENGLISH ORALLY 35 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 37 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 37 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 37 3.3 DATA 37 3.4 MATERIALS AND INSTRUMENTS 38 3.4.1 Materials 38 3.4.2 Questionnaires 38 3.4.3 Tape recordings 38 3.5 THE INFORMANTS 39 3.6 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES 39 3.6.1 Questionnaires 39 3.6.2 The recordings of the informants’ speech 39 3.6.2.1 Steps before recordings the informants’ speech 40 3.6.2.2 The judges 40 3.6.2.3 Steps of assessing the informants’ reading aloud speech 40 3.7 DIAGNOSIS OF SPEECH SAMPLES 41 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULT AND DISCUSSION 43 ii 4.1 FINDINGS 43 4.1.1 Responses to questionnaires 43 4.1.2 Tape recordings 44 4.2 ANALYSIS OF THE PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS AND ERRORS THAT EFL LEARNERS AT MEKONG UNIVERSITY MADE 47 4.2.1 Pronunciation errors of English final consonants 47 4.2.1.1 Voiced and voiceless stops /b, d, g/ and /p, t, k/ 49 4.2.1.2 English fricatives 51 4.2.1.3 Grammar sounds 52 4.2.1.4 English affricates / t∫/ and /dჳ/ 54 4.2.2 Pronunciation errors of English problematic sounds 55 4.2.2.1 The stops /p/ and /t/ 55 4.2.2.2 The fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ 58 4.2.2.3 The fricative /∫/ and the affricates /t∫/ and /dჳ/ 61 4.2.3 Pronunciation errors of English lateral /l/ 64 4.2.4 Pronunciation errors of English clusters 67 4.2.4.1 Pronunciation errors of consonant clusters in initial and medial positions 67 4.2.4.2 Pronunciation errors of consonant clusters in final positions 67 4.2.5 Pronunciation errors of English weak forms and stress 69 4.2.6 Pronunciation errors of English vowels and spelling 71 4.2.7 Pronunciation errors in connected speech or ‘public style of speech 73 4.3 POSSIBLE CAUSES OF THE PRONUNCIATION ERRORS 74 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND TEACHING IMPLICATIONS 77 5.1 CONCLUSION 77 5.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING 78 5.2.1 Syllabus design 79 5.2.2 Materials 80 5.2.3 Techniques in teaching pronunciation 81 5.3 LIMITATIONS 84 5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS 84 BIBLIOGRAPHY 85 iii APPENDIX 1: Profile questionnaire - Students’ Background 87 APPENDIX 2: Reading-aloud passages used for recordings 90 APPENDIX 3: Student diagnostic profile sheet 92 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Summary of pronunciation mistakes and errors that the firstyear English majors at Mekong University made 44 Table 2: The pronunciation errors of voiced and voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/ and /b/, /d/, /g/ in final positions 50 Table 3: The pronunciation errors of past tense ending ‘–ed’ 53 Table 4: The pronunciation errors of plural count noun or third person singular present tense ending ‘-s’ or ‘-es’ 54 Table 5: The pronunciation errors of palato-alveolar affricates /t∫/ and /dჳ/in final positions 55 Table 6: The pronunciation errors of voiceless bilabial stop /p/ 56 Table 7: The pronunciation errors of voiceless dental stop /t/ 57 Table 8: The pronunciation errors of voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ 59 Table 9: The pronunciation errors of voiced interdental fricative /ð/ 60 Table 10: The pronunciation errors of voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /∫/ 61 Table 11: The pronunciation errors of palato-alveolar affricates /t∫/ and /dჳ/ 63 Table12: The pronunciation errors of medial and final dark /l/ and /l/ in clusters 66 Table 13: The pronunciation errors of consonant clusters 68 Table 14: Pronunciation errors of English weak forms and stress 70 Table 15: The pronunciation errors of English vowels and spelling 72 v CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS FACED BY FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH LEARNERS AT MEKONG UNIVERSITY- PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS In terms of the statement of Requirements for theses and Field study reports in masters’ programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, March 2009 NGUYEN THI KIM BA vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, my gratitude is to my supervisor, Mr Truong Hon Huy, for his instructions, suggestions, correction, proofreading and sympathy He offered me helpful comments for my thesis Next, I am so grateful to Ms To Minh Thanh, for her books and encouragement Finally, I am also grateful to my colleagues at Mekong University, who helped me judge the informants’ recordings, to the English majors at Mekong University (2007-2011) for their participations in answering the questions and recording the reading passages; and, last but not least, to my husband for understanding and support vii ABSTRACT Though English pronunciation is one of the important factors determining the intelligibility of English learners in oral communication, pronunciation ability seems to be a problem for first-year English learners at Mekong University Thus, this study was carried out to explore the pronunciation errors made by those learners that influence their intelligibility in using English orally The questionnaire and the recordings of students’ readings were used as the instruments for the research The two English-majored classes which include 68 students in their first-year at Mekong University were involved in answering the questionnaire to investigate the English learning background in high schools Then, only 23 students that were chosen randomly from the two classes took part in the recording of reading-aloud passages to identify their pronunciation errors Though the study cannot explore all pronunciation errors made by the firstyear English majors at Mekong University, it can obtain the possible ones when having the learners read the passages in the most comfortable way Since English and Vietnamese differ greatly, the pronunciation errors made by the informants of the study cover both segmental and suprasegmental levels First, segmental errors constitute 76.19% of the causes of intelligibility failure in which the errors in pronunciation of vowels occurred 23.03%, the errors in pronunciation of consonants occurred 47.59%, and the errors in pronunciation of consonant clusters occurred 5.57% Secondly, suprasegmental errors account for only 23.81% of the causes of intelligibility failure in which the rhythmic and stress errors occurred 14.37%, the errors involving thought group occurred 2.28%, and the errors involving the adjustments in connected speech occurred 7.16% In presenting incorrect variants to English sounds and patterns, the informants of the study made four processes: (1) replacement, (2) omission, (3) overpronunciation, (4) insertion and (5) inappropriate use of rhythm and stress Based on the findings, suggestions are given to syllabus, textbooks, and teaching methods In order to improve communicative competence and viii intelligibility of EFL learners at Mekong University, in particular, and in Vietnam, in general, it is essential that the teaching of pronunciation must be firstly improved ix integrate pronunciation teaching with broader level communicative activities in which learners can engage pronunciation rules in the process of exchanging meaningful information It is recommended that in designing the subjects in the whole four-year course at the university, pronunciation should be a part in every component of oral communication and reinforced in every semester For example, pronunciation should be included in the two skills: Listening and Speaking It means that some difficult sound patterns and issues in English pronunciation must be discussed and practiced simultaneously with listening and speaking activities in meaningful contexts However, syllabus design must be accompanied with the choosing of text books or materials 5.2.2 Materials Beside the use of text books for the two courses named General linguistics and Phonetics and Phonology taught in the second and the third year, there should be some more courses taught in the first year that could supply the basic practice for English sounds’ production and exposure to Vietnamese learners The suggested text books that could be used might be one of the following relevant books that give the practice of isolated sounds and sounds in connected speech: (1) Ship or Sheep written by Baker A (1978) (2) Pronunciation Plus written by Martins Hewings and Sharon Goldstein, introduced by Le Huy Lam (2007) (3) Well Said (2nd ed.) written by Linda Grant, introduced by Nguyen Thanh Yen (2003) (4) Sound Concepts written by Reed, M and Michaud, Ch (2005) However, the book that meets the need of mastering English pronunciation, training speech and improving the fluency and accuracy in using English and I would like to suggest is the last one - Sound Concepts This textbook takes into account many aspects of pronunciation, including the integration of all components of pronunciation within each chapter and the use of listening exercises after speaking exercises in order to allow learners’ production of a sound to facilitate 80 their perception Moreover, this book is very useful for both false beginners, who have multiple years of study, low productive activity and intermediates, who can produce more than they can comprehend Besides, there must be designed exercises for pronunciation accompanied very textbook used for Listening and Speaking 5.2.3 Techniques in teaching pronunciation To have better pronunciation teaching to students at Mekong University, teachers should take the following techniques into consideration: (1) Imitation and repetition: The teacher provides the model of sounds by uttering or playing tapes or videos Students listen to the teacher provided model and imitate it Then, students are given some more exercises for practicing the sounds (2) Visual aids: The description of how sounds are produced can be enhanced by using the charts of vocal apparatus of related sounds (3) Practice of stress shifts influenced by affixation with words that change in the place of stress when they are added by affixation Students need to be aware of the rules of stress and shift For example: Stress shift: photograph photography Sentence context: Looking at these photographs, I can tell that you are very good at photography (4) Reading aloud: speeches, dialogues and reading texts can help learners practice reading aloud When reading aloud they are asked to focus on stress, timing and intonation (5) Recording the learners’ production: it is the chance for learners listen to themselves and compare with native speakers It is a good way to imitate and correct the problematic pronunciation First, they listen to the tapes of native speakers in which there are sounds they want to practice Then, they will imitate and practice speaking for many times and recording their voice after all After that, they can listen to their own pronunciation and compare and adjust their 81 pronunciation in the way they want The first demonstration can be done with the help of the teacher For using the pronunciation errors as an effective way for teaching, the teacher should develop the two techniques: self-correction and self-monitoring to help learners achieve ‘carry-over’ pronunciation into ‘real-life’ of using English * Self-correction: is the ability of learners to correct themselves the mistakes in pronunciation This ability can be developed in both teaching and feedback that aim at making the students more and more independent of the pronunciation instructor In fact, the responsibility of correcting the mistakes will be shifted from the teacher to the students The ‘how’ teacher can contribute students’ selfcorrection ability is answered in Avery and Ehrlich (1995) that ‘When teaching the production of sounds or stress and intonation patterns, the teacher should involve as many senses as possible For example, with individual sounds, teachers should draw students attention to the feel of the parts of the mouth involved in the articulation, the sound of the new sound as compared to the students’ incorrect version, and the sight of their own visible articulators Once the student is capable of producing the correct form, the teacher must encourage them self-correction This means that rather than modeling the correct version of a mispronounce sound The teacher should simply ‘remind’ the student that a non-standard form has been used… Reminding can be done in one of the following ways: Repeat the incorrect sound using stress and intonation to suggest a questioning attitude Alternatively, the teacher could query the word containing the incorrect sound In this case, the teacher would say ‘he went what a friend?’ replacing the incorrect word with the question word ‘what’ The teacher could also repeat the student’s error, exaggerating the incorrect pronunciation in order to draw the students’ attention to it.’ * Self-monitoring: is another students’ ability which is important in deciding successful ‘carry-over’ Avery and Ehrlich (1995:218) gave the definition of self- 82 monitoring: “It has several facets that are related to the stages involved in mastering a new pronunciation point First of all, at the stage of attempting to produce a new form, self-monitoring is listening to determine how closely it approximates the target Secondly, at the stage of having learned to produce form in isolation, students can move to contextual pronunciation practice Here, self-monitoring involves listening to a taped sample of speech and identifying the appropriate and inappropriate form At last, in less controlled stage, more communicative practice It involves anticipating problem areas and determining whether the production has been accurate All of the above explanation implies that self-monitoring may vary according to a student’s overall language proficiency.” The techniques for developing self-monitoring are: ‘1 Have students determine the accuracy of their own production by using a ‘peg’ For example, in producing the /w/, the student should ask ‘Have I used both lips? Does it sound like a /v/ or /w/?’ After choral and individual practice of a form, have students tape their own speech, written from a written text Prior to taping, have them mark the text for breath groups, stressed and unstressed words, intonation patterns, linking, etc during the listening phase, have students replay the tape several times, focusing on one aspect of pronunciation only during each replay The teacher can then check the student’s monitoring by listening to the tape and complementing on the accuracy of the evaluation During more communicative activities, have students select one area of pronunciation to focus on (e.g speech of delivery) Have them judge their own performance and also have a partner or a class member judge their pronunciation accuracy Compare the two opinions In order to self-monitor outside the class, students must know areas of pronunciation to focus on They should establish priorities and work on one problem at a time, paying particular attention to this whenever they speak Peers in workplace can be asked to help them monitor specific problems.’ 83 5.3 Limitations There are some limitations in carrying the study First of all, the samples of current study was rather small (23 participants) and only concerned first-year at a university in Mekong Delta Thus, it cannot generalize the findings in the larger situation: the pronunciation errors in using English orally made by EFL students in Vietnam In other words, the pronunciation problems and errors in using English orally in Vietnamese context still need to be investigated more in further research Moreover, recording reading passages faced a lot of troubles Firstly, it required a lot of time, thus, the research can be only done with a limited number of participants Secondly, the conditions for sound recording were not perfectly Besides, the way to analyze the pronunciation errors by comparing between the students’ recordings and English native speakers’ model is not as realistic as having the native speakers judge the recordings of reading texts Therefore, the findings had some certain interferences 5.4 Recommendations The research has a certain result in helping teachers recognize students’ problems in learning English involving English pronunciation It also helps the learners know their pronunciation errors in helping themselves improve their pronunciation skills This study contributes to the view of more positive pronunciation at Mekong University with the hope that more researches will be carried out to investigate the methods to teach pronunciation more effectively Besides, a further research can be done on the syllabus design for better English learning and teaching 84 BIBLIOGRAPHY Avery, P and Ehrlich, S (1995) Teaching American English Pronunciation Oxford University Press Bowen, J.D (1972) Contextualizing Pronunciation Practice in the ESOL Classroom TESOL Quarterly, 06 (01) Bowen and Marks (1997) The Pronunciation Book Longman Brown, G (1990) Listen to Spoken English (2nd ed.) Longman Group UK Limited Celce-Murcia, M et al (1996) Teaching Pronunciation Cambridge University Press Clifford H Prator, J (1967) Manual of American English Pronunciation (revised edition) University of California Press Cook, Ann (2000) American Accent Training (2nded.) Matrix Press Kreidler, Ch W (1972) Teaching English Spelling and Pronunciation TESOL Quarterly 06 (03) Grant, L (Nguyễn Thành Yến giới thiệu năm 2002) Well Said – Pronunciation for Clear Communication (2nd ed.) NXB Tp.HCM 10 Hammer, J (1992) The Practice of English Language Teaching 11 Kelly, G (2000) How to Teach Pronunciation Longman: Pearson Education 12 Kenworthy, J (1992) Teaching English Pronunciation (6th impression) Longman 13 Kral, T (1993) Teacher Development: Making the Right Moves (selected articles from the English teaching forum (1989-1993)) 14 Murphy, J.M (1991) Oral Communication in TESOL – Integrating Speaking, Listening and Pronunciation TESOL Quarterly 25 (01) 15 Nunan, D (1999) Second Language Teaching and Learning Heinle and Heinle Publishers 85 16 Pennington, M.C and Richards, J.C (1986) Pronunciation Revisited TESOL Quarterly, 20 (02) 17 Reed, M and Michaud, Ch (2005) Sound Concepts – An integrated Pronunciation Course McGrawHill 18 Richards, J.C., the Platts (1992) Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics Longman Group UK Limited 19 Roach, P (1991) English Phonetics and Phonology _ A Practical Course (2nd ed.) Cambridge University Press 20 Robinett and Schachter (1983) Second Language Learning Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis and Related Aspects University of Michigan Press 21 Rogerson, P and Calbert, B.J (1995) Speaking Clearly CUP 22 Stevick, E.W (1978) Toward a Practical Philosophy of Pronunciation – Another View TESOL Quarterly 20 (02) 23 Wolfram, W and Johnson, R (1981) Phonological Analysis _Focus on American English The center for Applied Linguistics and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc 86 APPENDIX Profile questionnaire - Students’ Background Name: _ Age: Place of birth: _ Place of growing up: _ Sex: Male / Female Years of learning English: (How long have you learnt English?) a about one year b about three years c about years d more than years When did you start learning English? a years ago b years ago c _ years ago Have you learnt English continuously since then? a Yes b No If not, when did you stop learning English? Why? Where did you learn English? a at school b in English centers c by yourself Which aspects of English did you study the most in high school? a reading b listening c speaking d writing e grammar f pronunciation Which aspects of English did you spend little time learning in high school? a reading b listening c speaking d writing e grammar f pronunciation Which aspects of English did you spend no time learning in high school? 87 a reading b listening c speaking d writing e grammar f pronunciation What aspects of English were tested in the exams at high school? a reading b listening c speaking d writing e grammar f pronunciation Which language was used to give instructions in high school classrooms? a totally in English b totally in Vietnamese c half in English and half in Vietnamese d a little in Vietnamese and the rest in English e a little in English and the rest in Vietnamese 10 If you can evaluate you English ability, how well you are? a reading (1 very good, good, rather good, so-so, bad, very bad) b listening (1 very good, good, rather good, so-so, bad, very bad) c speaking (1 very good, good, rather good, so-so, bad, very bad) d writing (1 very good, good, rather good, so-so, bad, very bad) e grammar (1 very good, good, rather good, so-so, bad, very bad) f pronunciation (1 very good, good, rather good, so-so, bad, very bad) Students’ knowledge about English pronunciation 11 What does ‘pronunciation’ mean? 12 Did you learn pronunciation at high school? a Yes b No 13 How did you learn pronunciation? a by reading new words aloud b by practicing through games c by ‘extra’ exercises 88 14 Pronunciation of English is exactly what is written out (English spelling is the same as English sounds.) Do you agree or disagree? a.Yes b.No 15 Do you find it difficult to pronounce English words when seeing its spelling? a.Yes b.No 16 In class, can you realize your or your friends’ pronunciation mistakes when using English? a.always b.usually c sometimes 89 d seldom e never APPENDIX 2: READING-ALOUD PASSAGES USED FOR RECORDINGS Reading passage Have you ever watched young children practice the sounds of language they are learning? They imitate, repeat, and sing consonant and vowel combinations without effort For young children, learning to speak a language is natural and automatic No one would suspect that complex learning is occurring For adult learners, however, pronunciation of a new language is not automatic It presents an unusual challenge Why is pronunciation progress in adults more limited? Some researchers say the reasons are biological or physical Others say they are social or cultural Although many questions are still unanswered, it is important to realize two things about clear speaking First, pronunciation improvement may be difficult, but it is possible Second, adults can learn to communicate clearly in English without losing their accents or their identification with their native cultures Reading passage What makes you thin? Most people think that dieting is the answer, but researchers say that exercise is the best way to be thin In one study, thirty-two men who were sedentary were put on exercise program They walked, jogged and ran throughout the one-year program The first thing the study showed was that the men who had exercised the most lost the most weight The second thing the study revealed was that the men who lost the most weight ate more too The researchers theorize that fat people don’t really eat a lot Their problem is that they are inactive 90 Reading passage Hello, my name is _ I’m taking American Accent Training There’s a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible I should pick up on the American intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get is to practice all of the time I use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to I’ve been paying attention to pitch, too It’s like walking down a staircase I’ve been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that I’m easier to understand Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound good Well, what you think? Do I? 91 APPENDIX 3: Student diagnostic profile sheet Name: _ Age: _ Year of learning English: * Consonants and vowels: Consonants: Sounds involved Substitution Omission Articulation Clusters Insert vowel Omit consonant 92 Examples Vowels: Sounds involved Examples Articulation Substitution Reduction (not using schwa) * Stress and Rhythm: Word-level stress: Yes No / Examples Stress in words Use loudness and length Shift the stress dueing to suffixes Sentence-level stress: Yes No Stress every word Stress content words (strong) 93 Stress the last word in every sentence Linking: Yes No Vowel-to-vowel Consonant-to-consonant * Intonation: Statement Yes-no questions Wh-questions 94 ... CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS FACED BY FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH LEARNERS AT MEKONG UNIVERSITY- PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS. .. to explore the pronunciation errors made by firstyear English majors at Mekong University To explore the pronunciation errors that the learners at this school made in oral communication, it is... teaching English at Mekong University, I attempted to find out what are pronunciation errors EFL learners at Mekong University who major in English make 1.2 Aims of the thesis The research aims at