Teaching the consonants s and z to majored english sstudents at nha trang teachers college problems and solutions

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Tiêu đề	Teaching the Consonants s and z to Majored English Students at Nha Trang Teachers College: Problems and Solutions
Tác giả	Vũ Thị Lan Phương
Người hướng dẫn	Lê Hoàng Dũng, Ph.D.
Trường học	Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities
Chuyên ngành	English Linguistics and Literature
Thể loại	Thesis
Năm xuất bản	2011
Thành phố	Ho Chi Minh City

Định dạng
Số trang	135
Dung lượng	1,37 MB

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Cấu trúc

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION (18)
- 1.1 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE (18)
- 1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY (20)
- 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS (20)
- 1.4 LIMITATION (21)
- 1.5 DELIMITATION (21)
- 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY (21)
Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW (23)
- 2.1 ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE /s/ AND /z/AS SEGMENTS (24)
  - 2.1.1 English /s/ and /z/ as segments (24)
  - 2.1.2 Vietnamese /s/ and /z/ as segments (25)
  - 2.1.3 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese /s/ and/z/, hypothetical pronunciation problems related to /s/ and /z/ as segments (26)
    2.1.3.1 Similarities between English and Vietnamese /s/ and/z/ as segments ........................... 9 2.1.3.2 Differences and hypothetical pronunciation problems related to /s/ and (26)
- 2.2 ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE /s/ AND /z/ IN THE SUPRA-SEGMENTAL ASPECTS (29)
  - 2.2.1 English and Vietnamese syllable structures and distribution of /s/ and /z/ (29)
    2.2.1.1 English syllable structure and distribution of /s/ and /z/ (29)
    2.2.1.2 Vietnamese syllable structure and distribution of /s/ and /z/ (39)
    2.2.1.3 Hypothetical pronunciation problems related to /s/ and /z/ in the supra- (41)
- 2.3 TEACHING THE TWO ENGLISH ALVEOLAR FRICATIVES /s/ AND /z/ (44)
  - 2.3.1 Possibilities of pronunciation training (44)
  - 2.3.2 Principles in pronunciation teaching (45)
  - 2.3.3 Techniques in English pronunciation teaching (46)
  - 2.3.4 Previous studies related to teaching and learning the English sounds (0)
Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY (54)
- 3.1 RESEARCH METHOD (54)
- 3.2 RESEARCH SITE (54)
- 3.3 RESEARCH SUBJECTS (55)
  - 3.3.1 Teachers (0)
  - 3.3.2 Students (0)
- 3.4 INSTRUMENTS (56)
  - 3.4.1 Questionnaires (56)
    3.4.1.1 Questionnaire to teacher respondents (56)
    3.4.1.2 Questionnaire to student respondents (58)
  - 3.4.2 Test (60)
    3.4.2.1 Part A of the test (Sound recognition) – Written part (60)
    3.4.2.2 Part B of the test (Sound production) – Recording (61)
- 3.5 COLLECTION OF DATA (62)
- 3.6 TREATEMENT OF DATA (63)
Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS (64)
- 4.1 RESULTS FROM THE TWO QUESTIONNAIRES (64)
  - 4.1.1 Personal information (0)
  - 4.1.2 Viewpoint of the importance of English pronunciation teaching and learning (65)
  - 4.1.3 Interest in pronunciation classes (66)
  - 4.1.4 Activities in pronunciation classes (66)
  - 4.1.5 Pronunciation problems related to English /s/ and /z/ as segments (68)
    4.1.6.1 Pronunciation problems related to English /s/ and /z/ at final (0)
    4.1.6.2 Production of final the sounds /s/ and /z/ at word-finally position of regular plural nouns, third-person singular present-tense verb, possessive, the combination of the contraction form of “is” or “has” (0)
  - 4.1.7 Ways to overcome the pronunciation problems related to /s/ and /z/ (72)
  - 4.1.8 Importance of correct pronunciation of /s/ and /z/ in students’ (73)
  - 4.1.9 Attitudes towards learning pronunciation of the alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/ in class (75)
- 4.2 RESULTS FROM THE TEST (76)
  - 4.2.1 Results from Part A (Sound recognition) (76)
  - 4.2.2 Results from Part B (Sound production) (77)
    4.2.2.1 Omission of the final /s/ or /z/ (77)
    4.2.2.2 Mispronunciation of the voiceless /s/ (78)
    4.2.2.3 Mispronunciation of the voiced /z/ (78)
    4.2.2.4 Mispronunciation of /s/ and /z/ (78)
    4.2.2.5 Problems in pronouncing consonant clusters containing /s/ or /z/ (79)
- 4.3 Findings (80)
  - 4.3.1 Testing the six hypothetical pronunciation problems (0)
    4.3.1.1 Testing the first hypothetical pronunciation problem (80)
    4.3.1.2 Testing the second hypothetical pronunciation problem (81)
    4.3.1.3 Testing the third hypothetical pronunciation problem (81)
    4.3.1.4 Testing the fourth hypothetical pronunciation problem (81)
    4.3.1.5 Testing the fifth hypothetical pronunciation problem (82)
    4.3.1.6 Testing the sixth hypothetical pronunciation problem (0)
  - 4.3.2 Student respondents’ recognition of the two English consonants /s/ and /z/ (0)
  - 4.3.3 Student respondents’ recognition of the two English consonants /s/ and /z/ (0)
Chapter 5 SUGGESTIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND (84)
- 5.1. SUGGESTIONS (84)
  - 5.1.1 Getting students to employ correct articulators (84)
  - 5.1.2 Distinguishing the voiceless /s/ from the voiced /z/ (85)
  - 5.1.3 Reminding the students of the final /s/ and /z/ (0)
  - 5.1.4 Distinguishing respectively /s/ from /S/ (89)
  - 5.1.5 Distinguishing respectively /z/ from /S/ (91)
  - 5.1.6 Teaching /s/ and /z/ in separate sentences (92)
  - 5.1.7 Dealing with consonant clusters including /s/ or /z/ 76 5.1.8 Using games to arouse students’ interest 78 (93)
- 5.2 RECOMMENDATONS (95)
  - 5.2.1 Recommendation to the teachers at NTTC 78 5.2.2 Recommendation to the students at NTTC 78 (95)
- 5.3 CONCLUSION (96)
Appendix 1: Summary of items in 2 sets of questionnaires and in 2 parts of the test (0)
Appendix 2: Students’ questionnaire (in English) (0)
Appendix 3: Students’ questionnaire (in Vietnamese) (0)
Appendix 4: Teachers’ questionnaire (in English) (0)
Appendix 5: Teachers’ questionnaire (in Vietnamese) (0)
Appendix 6: Test (0)
Appendix 7: Test answer keys (0)
Appendix 8: Test CD (0)
Appendix 9: Answer key to the bingo sheet (0)
Appendix 10: Pronunciation problems of all kinds related to /s/ and /z/ as a guide to suggestions in (0)

Nội dung

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

Many Vietnamese students majoring in English at Nha Trang Teachers College (NTTC) excel in grammar but struggle with pronunciation, which hampers effective oral communication Despite teachers’ best efforts to improve their students’ English pronunciation, many students still pronounce words incorrectly, leading to difficulties in face-to-face interactions Enhancing pronunciation skills is essential for students to communicate confidently and naturally in English.

English pronunciation is a mandatory four-credit subject in the three-year college curriculum for students majoring in English After completing the first two semesters, students are expected to master English pronunciation during their first year at NTTC, which is essential for enhancing listening and speaking skills Developing good English pronunciation is a primary goal for English majors, as it significantly contributes to their overall language proficiency and communication abilities.

NTTC's graduates majoring in English primarily become teachers at primary and junior high schools in Khanh Hoa province, serving as oral models for young learners High-quality English pronunciation from these teachers significantly benefits students' pronunciation development However, my five years of experience teaching English at NTTC have shown that poor teacher pronunciation can negatively influence students, leading them to adopt incorrect pronunciation patterns Consequently, ensuring accurate English pronunciation among NTTC students majoring in English is essential to promote effective language learning and prevent the habitual acquisition of errors.

NTTC students’ pronunciation challenges often stem from significant differences between English and Vietnamese sound systems Vietnamese primarily uses final consonants as stops, which are often implosive or unreleased, leading learners to omit English final /s/ and /z/ sounds For example, they may pronounce “rice” as /raI/ instead of /raIs/ or “please” as /pli;/ instead of /pli;z/ Additionally, students struggle to distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonants, especially the “s” sound in plural forms and third-person singular verbs, resulting in similar pronunciations for these sounds Vietnamese’s lack of consonant clusters further complicates pronunciation, causing learners to delete or simplify consonant clusters in English, making it particularly difficult to accurately produce the voiceless /s/ and voiced /z/ sounds, despite their presence in Vietnamese phonemes.

1 A cluster is “a sequence of two or more consonants” (Richards et al, 1992, p.19)

2 A phoneme is “the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words

(a)The English words pan and ban differ only in their initial sound: pan begins with /p/ and ban with /b/

Many students at NTTC struggle with distinguishing between similar English sounds, such as pronouncing "strong" as /trON/ instead of /strON/ or "pleased" as /pli;/ instead of the correct /pli;zd/ They often substitute a voiceless /s/ for a voiced /z/, leading to mispronunciations like "design" as /dI

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