An investigation into the teaching of problematic connected speech in tieng anh 10 at gio linh high school in quang tri province

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGHUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- TRAN THI QUYNH TRANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING OF PROBLEMATIC CONNECTED SPEECH IN “TIENG A

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-

TRAN THI QUYNH TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING

OF PROBLEMATIC CONNECTED SPEECH

IN “TIENG ANH 12” AT GIO LINH HIGH SCHOOL

IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Dr TRAN VAN PHUOC

HUE, 2013

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

-

TRẦN THỊ QUỲNH TRANG

KHẢO SÁT VIỆC DẠY ÂM KẾT NỐI KHÓ TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 12

Ở TRƯỜNG THPT GIO LINH, TỈNH QUẢNG TRỊ

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP

DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH

MÃ SỐ: 60140111

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC:

PGS.TS TRẦN VĂN PHƯỚC

HUE, 2013

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is the result of my own research except as cited in the references The data and findings discussed in this thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere

Author

Tran Thi Quynh Trang

ABSTRACT

This study was concerned with the teaching of problematic connected speech

in “Tieng Anh 12” at Gio Linh High School in Quang Tri Province The aim of the

study is to understand the nature of connected speech and problems related to

connected speech The participants of the study were 100 twelfth form students and

8 English teachers at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province The main instrument of data collection consisted of questionnaires and recordings The findings showed the teachers‟ treatment in teaching connected speech and the problematic connected speech to twelfth form students Although both teachers and students had strong perceptions of the importance of connected speech, they still shared the same view that students had problems with aspects of connected speech such as “linking”, “contraction”, “elision” and “weakening” With the result, some suggestions made for teachers and students with the desire of helping improve the teaching connected speech as well as helping students communicate effectively

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the time for completing this thesis, I have received a great deal of help and encouragement from lectures in College of Foreign Languages, Hue University, teachers and students at Gio Linh High School in Quang Tri Province, family and friends Without their great assistance and encouragement, I could have been unable to fulfill my thesis

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Assoc Pro Dr Tran Van Phuoc, my supervisor His insightful comments, suggestions, continual encouragement and patience have helped me much in completing this thesis

Secondly, another sincere thanks goes to the principal, teachers and students

at Gio Linh High Shool in Quang Tri Province for their willing participation in the study Without their help in fulfilling the questionnaires and recordings, this thesis could not have been possible

Finally, I wish to express deep thanks to my beloved family and my friends All their love, support and encouragement gave me more strength and energy to complete this thesis sooner

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents Pages

SUB COVER PAGE i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii

ABSTRACT iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF CHARTS ix

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 The aims of the study 3

1.3 The objectives 3

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 The scope of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 The structure of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6 2.1 Theoretical background 6

2.1.1 The definition of pronunciation 6

2.1.2 Elements of pronunciation 6

2.1.2.1 Phonemes 7

2.1.2.1.1 Vowel sounds 7

2.1.2.1.2 Consonant sounds 7

2.1.2.2 Suprasegmental features 8

2.1.3 The definition of connected speech 8

2.1.3.1 Aspects of connected speech 9

2.1.3.1.1 Assimilation 9

2.1.3.1.2 Linking 10

2.1.3.1.3 Elision 10

2.1.3.1.4 Contractions 10

2.1.3.1.5 Weakening 11

2.1.3.2 The role of connected speech in understanding 11

2.1.4 Problematic connected speech 13

2.1.4.1 The definition of problematic connected speech 13

2.2.4.2 Classification of problematic connected speech to learners of English 13

2.1.5 Techniques of teaching connected speech 15

2.2 Previous studies related to the research 18

2.3 Chapter summary 20

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 Research design 21

3.2 Research methods 21

3.2.1 Participants 21

3.2.1.1 English teachers 22

3.2.1.2 Students 22

3.2.2 Data collection instruments 22

3.2.2.1 Questionnaires 22

3.2.2.2 Recordings 23

3.2.3 Data collection procedure 24

3.2.4 Data analysis instruments 24

3.3 Chapter summary 26

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 27

4.1 Teachers and students‟ perceptions towards teaching and learning connected speech at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province 27

4.2 Teachers and students‟ situation of teaching and learning problematic connected speech at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province 33

4.3 Teachers and students‟ solutions and suggestions for teaching and learning problematic connected speech 54

4.4 Summary 59

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 60

5.1 Conclusions 60

5.1.1 Teachers and students‟ perceptions towards teaching and learning connected speech at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province 60

5.1.2 Teachers and students‟ situation of teaching and learning problematic connected speech at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province 60

5.1.3 Teachers and students‟ solutions and suggestions for teaching and learning problematic connected speech 62

5.2 Implications 63

5.2.1 Implications for teachers 63

5.2.2 Implications for students 65

5.2.3 Implications for administrators 66

5.3 Limitations of the study 66

5.4 Suggestions for further study 67

REFERENCES 68

APPENDICES 72

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1 Information about the important factor in helping people understand

the content of communication 27 Chart 4.2 Information about standard pronunciation nowadays 28 Chart 4.3 Information about the influence of connected speech on the

communicative effect 30 Chart 4.4 Information about learning connected speech 31 Chart 4.5 Information about the importance of problematic connected speech 33 Chart 4.6 Information about time for teaching connected speech in class 45 Chart 4.7 Information about the techniques used for teaching connected speech

46 Chart 4.8 Information about the supporting activities used for teaching

connected speech 48 Chart 4.9 Information about dealing with mispronunciation 49 Chart 4.10 Information about the reasons for mispronunciation 50 Chart 4.11 Information about the difficulties in teaching /learning connected

speech 52 Chart 4.12 Information about auxiliary devices to teach/learn connected speech 56

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Information about understanding problematic connected speech 32

Table 4.2 Information about the problematic connected speech phenomena to

students on the basis of questionnaires 34 Table 4.3 Information about the problematic connected speech to students on the basis of recordings 36 Table 4.4 Information about the solutions to help students learning connected

speech 54 Table 4.5 Information about the ways to practice connected speech 55

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 The waveform of the phrase “both in” performed by a native speaker

25 Figure 3.2 The waveform of the phrase “both in” performed by a student 25 Figure 4.1 The waveform of the phrase “both in” made by the native speaker as

compared with that of the student 38Figure 4.2 The waveform of the phrase “they are on” made by the native speaker

as compared with that of the student 39Figure 4.3 The waveform of the phrase “Lucy and Andy” made by the native

speaker as compared with that of the student 40 Figure 4.4 The waveform of the word “together” made by the native speaker as

compared with that of the student 41 Figure 4.5 The waveform of the phrase “because he” made by the native speaker

as compared with that of the student 42 Figure 4.6 The waveform of the preposition “to”made by the native speaker as

compared with that of the student 43 Figure 4.7 The waveform of the auxiliary verb “are” made by the native speaker

as compared with that of the student 43

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, more and more countries use English as a bridge to communicate

or connect with the world outside In fact, it is used worldwide to communicate among 7 billion of the world population by the mid-year 2011, so it becomes the world‟s language spoken around the globe Especially, by the year 2015, there will

be a regional co-operative society in the Southeast Asia called ASEAN Community (AEC) The AEC is one of the three pillars (the other two being the ASEAN Security Community and the ASEAN Social-culture Community) that make up the ASEAN Community (Denis, 2007) The English language is agreed to serve as an official language amongst member nations that have a population of approximately

However, to achieve successful communication, learners today not only have

to master vocabulary, grammar, and practice listening, speaking, reading and writing, but also possess a good pronunciation It is because the pronunciation is the first and most important thing native speakers notice during a conversation Wong (1987) contends that even if the non-native speakers‟ vocabulary and grammar are excellent, if their pronunciation falls below a certain threshold level, they are unable

to communicate effectively Consequently, a good pronunciation of English will, patently, help us express our thoughts properly On the other hand, a poor

pronunciation of English will make other people misunderstand Gilbert (2008) asserts that “if they (learners) cannot be seen easily, they are cut off from conversation with native speakers” When mispronounced, a simplest word might prevent the speaker from communicating efficiently

It is the importance of pronunciation that the teaching and learning pronunciation are worth to be paid much attention Nowadays, teachers and students‟ perception of teaching and learning pronunciation has changed and get more progressive than before Pronunciation has been paid much attention to in the

textbooks It has been taught through a section labeled “language focus” in the

textbooks at upper secondary schools However, some teachers make few attempts

to teach pronunciation For them, grammar is the main target for students to get good marks in the exams Others say that the time is not enough to go through all parts In addition, some students claim that pronunciation is difficult and boring Many things make both teachers and students lack of patience in training pronunciation We, of course, cannot deny the considerable efforts of some teachers They have tried their best to teach as well as train students to have good pronunciation, the results have been far from satisfaction

The reality shows that teaching pronunciation in the English 12 textbook is the challenges for the teachers in Quang Tri province Although students mastered most

of the English individual vowel and consonant sounds from the last classes, they still feel difficult to understand and communicate fluently as native speakers This is easy to understand because Cohen (1977) emphasizes that teaching of segmental phonemes is not enough for intelligibility in communication In the English 12 textbook, even though students learn some features of connected speech such as weakening, linking, contraction, elision and so on, they cannot apply or connect sounds together in speech as naturally as native speakers As a result, after graduating, students cannot communicate effectively with the foreigners

From observing the teaching and learning at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province, I realize that teaching English pronunciation in the English 12 textbook still exists as a very big problem Moreover, that is also a serious problem

at many universities and colleges nowadays I should think, it is time to look back to examine the real situation of teaching English pronunciation to help students gain effect in communication Also, being aware of the very importance of connected

speech in natural communication setting a motivation for me to explore the

teaching of problematic connected speech in “Tieng Anh 12” at Gio Linh High School in Quang Tri Province with the desire to find out problems in teaching

connected speech in the English 12 textbook and propose the appropriate solutions

to improve students‟ communication competence

1.2 The aims of the study

My study aims to investigate the teaching of problematic connected speech in

“Tieng Anh 12” at Gio Linh High School in Quang Tri Province Specifically, it aims to:

- Understand the nature of connected speech and problems related to connected speech

- Help students overcome difficulties in communication due to the problematic connected speech

- Improve the teaching and training of problematic connected speech

1.3 The objectives

To gain the above aims, there are four objectives as follows:

- Identify problematic connected speech from survey and recorded speech

- Describe problematic connected speech

- Figure out how the teacher has taught problematic connected speech

- Suggest some solutions and implications for improving the teaching and learning problematic connected speech

1.4 Research questions

My study is carried out in order to seek for the answers for four questions:

1 What are teachers’ perceptions of teaching problematic connected speech?

2 What are the areas of the problematic connected speech in English 12 textbook?

3 How has the problematic connected speech been taught at Gio Linh High school

in Quang Tri?

4 What suggestions should be recommended to help teaching problematic

connected speech in the English 12 textbook more effectively?

1.5 The scope of the study

As I mentioned-above, this study focuses on examining English problematic connected speech in the English 12 textbook for students at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province Therefore, it is conducted with 100 grade 12 students and 8 English teachers at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province It mainly focuses

on aspects of connected speech such as “linking”, “elision”, “contraction”,

“weakening” in the English 12 textbook to find out the problematic connected speech to students Additionally, this study examines the situation of teaching problematic connected speech to grade 12 students at Gio Linh High school in Quang Tri as well as the ways teachers use to teach these sounds Finally, it recommends some suggested solutions to help teaching and learning problematic connected speech more effectively

1.6 Significance of the study

This study hopes to be significant for both teachers and students at Gio Linh High school in Quang Tri province in particular and in other areas in Vietnam in general Firstly, the study contributes to raise the awareness of the importance of connected speech in communicating among teachers and students so that they can put much effort in training pronunciation

Secondly, some aspects of problematic connected speech are found to help students overcome problems in connected speech in communication and to improve their pronunciation effectively It is hoped that the implications of this study will be useful to improve the teaching and learning pronunciation in grade 12 at Gio Linh High school in Quang Tri province

Finally, as a teacher has been teaching English in Quang Tri province, I also hope to gain many benefits from this study It will certainly help me understand the aspects of the problematic connected speech to students and find out the useful methods to teach pronunciation effectively as well as raise the students‟ communicative competence

1.7 The structure of the study

Apart from the Table of contents, references and appendices, this study consists of five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1, “Introduction” briefly introduces general information of the study

consisting of the rationale for the study, the aims of the study, the objectives of the study, the research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study and the structure of the thesis

Chapter 2, “Literature review and theoretical background” provides a brief

literature review and theoretical background for the matter of study

Chapter 3, “Methodology” describes the study subjects, presents data collection

instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis instruments

Chapter 4, “Findings and discussions” analyzes the data collected during the study

and reports the findings of the study to answer the research questions Concurrently, the researcher‟s opinions and reflections on them will be presented

Chapter 5, “Conclusion and implications” summarizes the results of the study,

draws some conclusions and implications for teachers and learners to improve teaching and learning problematic connected speech at Gio Linh High school in Quang Tri province and gives suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND 2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 The definition of pronunciation

The term pronunciation, in short, refers to the way a word of a language is spoken, the accepted standard of sound rhythm for words in a given language

(Zemanová, 2007) According to the Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics,

pronunciation is explained as “the way sounds are perceived by the hearer” (Richards, Platt, and Weber, 1992:296) Besides, pronunciation is defined as “the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced” (Oxford advanced learner‟s dictionary, 2005)

2.1.2 Elements of pronunciation

Kelly (2004:1) summarizes the elements of pronunciation as below

In details, the segmental features consist of vowel and consonant sounds, preferably phonemes, as well as syllables On the other hand, the suprasegmentals are comprised of stress in words, connected speech, rhythm, pitch, loudness, length,

Dipthongs

Short Long

quality, tone and intonation that play an essential and natural role in English speed production and perception

2.1.2.1 Phonemes

Phonemes are known as segments which are the different sounds within a language Using one sound rather than another can change the meaning of the word This principle gives us the total number of phonemes in a particular language Sounds may be voiced or unvoiced Phonemes consist of vowel sounds and consonant sounds

2.1.2.1.1 Vowel sounds

The vowel is one of the main parts in sound system of any language in the world According to Peter Roach (1983:10), vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips” Vowel sounds are all voiced Vowels in English are described in term of four factors: (i) the length

of the vowel, (ii) the level of the tongue, (iii) the part of the tongue and (iv) the degree of lip rounding There are 11 single vowels in English, including 5 long vowels and 6 short vowels (Roach, 1991, pp 27-36)

In addition to single vowels, English has a large number of diphthongs-sounds which consist of a movement from one vowel to another A vowel which remains constant and does not move is called a pure vowel, or single vowel In English, there are eight diphthongs

English vowel also has the kind of vowel called triphthong A triphthong is a movement from one vowel to another and then to a third They are produced rapidly and without interruption The triphthongs can be composed of the five closing

diphthongs described in the last section, with ə added at the end

2.1.2.1.2 Consonant sounds

According to Kelly (2000), “consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting

or diverting the air flown a variety of ways” Consonant sounds may be voiced or

unvoiced There are three ways of describing the consonant sounds: the manners of

articulations, the places of articulations and the force of articulation

The manners of articulations refers to the interaction between the various articulators and the airstream The manner of articulation are: plosive, fricative, affricate, nasal, lateral, approximant

Describing the consonant sounds in terms of the place of articulation gives more information about what the various articulators actually do

With regard to the force of articulation, the following terms are used: fortis or strong, and lenis or weak In spoken English, „fortis‟ happens to adequate with unvoiced sounds, which require a more forcefully expelled airstream than „lenis‟ sounds, which in English happen to be voiced Peter Roach stated that there are 24consonants in English Those are p, b, n m, f, v, t, d, k, g, θ, δ, s, z, l, ʒ, h, Ŋ, r, j, w, t∫, dʒ, ∫ Those consonants are classified based on the two above features

be quite hard to be consciously recognized and described Stress gives rhythm to speech Intonation is the way in which the pitch of the voice goes up and down in the course of utterance Utterance stress and intonation patterns are often linked to the communication of meaning

2.1.3 The definition of connected speech

In the book “New Ways in Teaching Connected Speech”, Brown (2012) defines clearly that connected speech is based on a set of rules used to modify pronunciations so that words connect and flow more smoothly in natural speech (hafta versus have to) Native speakers of English tend to feel that connected speech

is friendlier, more natural, more sympathetic, and more personal

In general, connected speech is the term we use to describe a series of techniques that enable us to speak English quickly, naturally and relaxed by joining

together words and sounds Connected speech helps to explain why written English

is so different from spoken English

2.1.3.1 Aspects of connected speech

There are a number of factors which contribute to the importance of connected speech Firstly, native speakers do not pause between each word, but move seamlessly from one word to the next To make the speech flow smoothly the way they pronounce the end and the beginning of some words can change depending on the sounds at the beginning and the end of those words Secondly, English is regarded as an extremely malleable language i.e not all syllables are equal Weak ones almost disappear and sometimes cannot be heard at all while strong syllables are stressed and lengthened As a result, sentences tend to be relatively “elastic”, words expand or contract according to their relative importance and there are certain important occurrences where words meet Word boundaries are “negotiated”

in certain ways: sometimes a linking sound is used, sometimes one sound merges with another, and sometimes a composite sound is used.(Kenworthy, 1987: p17) These are also referred to as assimilation, linking, elision, contractions and weakening

2.1.3.1.1 Assimilation

The term assimilation describes how sounds modify each other when they meet, usually across word boundaries, but within words too (Kelly, 2000) Another definition of Avery and Ehrlish (1992), the linking of consonants to consonants often causes a change on the place of articulation of the first consonant This is known as assimilation because the first consonant becomes more like the second one In other words, assimilation is the act of making two sounds in speech that are next to each other more similar to each other in certain ways

According to Roach (1987), there are two ways of direction change: regressive

assimilation and progressive assimilation Regressive assimilation is the phenomenon in which the phenomenon that comes first is affected by the one that

comes after it In contrast, progressive assimilation is the phenomenon in which the phenomenon that comes first affects the one that comes after it

There are three types of the main differences between consonants: Differences

in place of articulation, differences in manner of articulation, differences in voicing

In parallel with this, there is assimilation of place, of manner, and of voicing in consonants

2.1.3.1.2 Linking

In connected speech, words within the same phrase or sentence often blend Connecting groups of words together is referred to as linking (Peter Roach, 1987) When words are properly linked, there is a smooth transition from one word to the next without a break between them There are some types of linking as follow: Linking consonants to vowels

Linking consonants to consonants

Linking vowels to vowels

Linking vowels to semi-vowels

2.1.3.1.3 Elision

The term “elision” describes the leaving out or the disappearance of a sound in rapid speech (Gerald Kelly, 2000) As with assimilation, elision is typical of rapid, casual speech There are 2 types of elision: Elision of vowels and elision of consonants Producing elisions are something which foreigner learners do not need

to learn to do, but it is important for them to be aware that when native speakers of English talk to each other, quite a number of phonemes that the foreigner might expect to hear are not actually pronounced

2.1.3.1.4 Contractions

Also, according to (Gerald Kelly, 2000), contractions occur where two words combine to the extent that the two are pronounced as one word, or one syllable These have become conventionalized in written language Contractions are often seen in auxiliary verbs and some forms of the verb “be” Contractions always

involve the loss of the initial consonant of auxiliary verbs In written form, the

vowel is also lost

2.1.3.1.5 Weakening

There are a large number of words in English which can have a "full" form and

a "weak" form This is because English is a stress-timed language, and in trying to make the intervals between stress syllables equal, to give the phrase rhythm, we tend to swallow non-essential words

According to Roach (1983), almost all the words which have both a strong and weak form, belong to a category that may be called grammatical words These grammatical words are words such as auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc…, all of which are in certain circumstances pronounced in their strong forms but which are more frequently pronounced in their weak forms Thus, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries and articles are often lost, causing comprehension problems for students, particularly for those whose language is syllable-timed

Roach (1983) also stated that there are two main reasons to learn weak forms; firstly, most native speakers of English find an “all-strong-form” pronunciation unnatural and foreign sounding, something that most learners would wish to avoid Secondly, and more importantly, speakers who are not familiar with the use of weak forms are likely to have difficulty understanding speakers who do use weak forms; since practically all native speakers of British English use them, learners of the language need learn about these weak forms to help them to understand what they hear

2.1.3.2 The role of connected speech in understanding

It cannot be denied that, in daily language communication, the aspects of connected speech play an important role in helping people understand the content of communication Obviously, when speaking naturally, native speakers often link, shorten or omit words to make speech smoothly They do not pause between each word, but move seamlessly from one word to the next Kenworthy (1987) states that

if learners do not use these typical English features, or , even more crucially, if they use very different ways of linking words, then it can be very difficult for English listeners to identify the phrases in an utterance In other words, if learners do not use smooth transitions, this can make their speech sound very staccato and jerky When confronted by poor linking, listeners may have the feeling that they are „lost‟ in the stream of speech This causes unintelligibility in communication Therefore, to have success in communicating with others, it is recommended that you have good pronunciation because it really decides the success or failure of one‟s oral communication in the target language

To emphasize the role of connected speech in understanding, many researchers have also pointed out the benefit of it According to Morley (1991), limiting pronunciation skills can undermine a learner‟s self-confidence, limit social interaction, and negatively influence on the assessment of a speaker‟s credibility and abilities In the same line, Kelly (2004) has explained how pronunciation errors can inhibit successful communication The sum of the pronunciation errors committed by the learners are so seriously dangerous that they can lead to miscommunication or no communication at all Also, Jenkins (2004) claims that because conveying both locutionary and illocutionary force of utterances is totally within the ability of pronunciation, enhanced pronunciation will help learners be well understood in communication Furthermore, obviously, pronunciation competence has a close relation to speaking and listening skills The way people utter will affect their ability to understand what others say Though pronunciation is overlooked in the syllabus, material and even classroom activities, it does have an inseparable link to communicate through listening and speaking (Gilbert, 1984; Celce-Muria, 1987) To support the prominence of pronunciation, Hewings (2004:11) points out “Difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students fail

to get their message across, even when the correct words are being used, or they might fail to understand what is said to them” Therefore, the communication of those students cannot flow smoothly And successful communication cannot take place without correct pronunciation (Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin, 2000)

In summary, connected speech is not only important in our oral communication but also in other skills such as listening comprehension, spelling, grammar… It helps us communicate effectively, naturally and smoothly as native speakers and even understand each other With its importance, connected speech should not be put aside in language teaching but it must be paid much attention and

is an integral part of language learning

2.1.4 Problematic connected speech

2.1.4.1 The definition of problematic connected speech

Problematic connected speech in this study is aspects of connected speech that are considered to be difficult for learners when they learn the pronunciation of a foreign language These aspects are maybe linking, contraction, elision, weakening

Learners often find difficult to link sounds together naturally and smoothly as native speakers; or they cannot shorten a word or phrase by dropping one or more letters; they even cannot omit or disappear sounds in rapid speech; or cannot pronounce function words in their weak form

2.2.4.2 Classification of problematic connected speech to learners of English

For many reasons, learners of English can have some problems in connected speech as below:

Problem 1: Linking

It is quite difficult for learners of English to use linkage and Kenworthy (1987, p115) cites two reasons for this Firstly, there is no visual reminder of linkage and secondly, the rules for linkage are difficult for learners to remember and to put into practice In fact, even learners can master the rules of linkage, they cannot produce naturally and smoothly as native speakers In connected speech, words within the same phrase or sentence often blend together When two vowel sounds meet, speakers often link them in various ways Sometimes, a linking sound is used, sometimes, one sound merges with another, and sometimes, a composite sound is used

Vietnamese learners often fail to link words properly in connected speech They often delete the final consonant in a consonant cluster Consequently, they

will not link the words in speech together (Peter Avery & Susan Ehrlish, 1992)

Kenworthy (1987) shows that Arabic does not have linking glides and uses glottal stops to separate vowels from vowel, and vowel from consonant in consecutive words Also, in Arabic no word begins with a vowel-a glottal stop always precedes the vowel

Chinese learners often fail to link words Because of the problems with consonants, the borders between words are often poorly negotiated They also have

a tendency to use glottal stops in words beginning with vowels These two points conspire to make the speech sound very jerky

French learners tend to aspirate final /p, t, k/ and to release the tongue contact for final /b, d, g/ This tends to work against smooth linkage of abutting consonants

as in „I want to‟

According to Kenworthy (1987), if learners do not use the typical English features, or, even more crucially, if they use very different ways of linking words, then it can be very difficult for English listeners to identify the phrases in an utterance Linking strategies, their speech can sound quite staccato and it places a strain on the listener When confronted by poor linking, listeners may have the feeling that they are „lost‟ in the stream of speech This leads to failure in communication

Problem 2: Contraction

ESL students often avoid using contracted forms This is partly because of the

final consonant clusters that are created through contraction

Avery, P and Ehrlich, S.(1992) stated that students generally have difficulty with contractions Very often this is because contractions create difficult sound combination

According to them, Chinese and Vietnamese students often have difficulty with the contractions because of the difficult consonant clusters that are created

Thus, the pronunciation teacher should assure students that contractions are a

normal part of spoken English, and should provide practice in using them

Problem 3: Weakening

According to Kenworthy (1987), because of the lack of a schwa vowel, and because of the problems with the rhythmic and stress features of English, Japanese learners have difficulties in the use of weak forms of words

In short, linking, contraction, and weakening are problematic connected speech that learners of English often meet In fact, the reasons that cause these difficulties are the results of mispronouncing vowels, consonants, stress and intonation They are segmental and supra-segmental phonemes which play the important role in pronunciation and affect the aspects of connected speech Considering the problematic connected speech to learners of English in countries can make us easier

to see the problematic connected speech that Vietnamese learners often meet Such information is not only important in helping students to improve their production of spoken English, but also essential in helping students to improve their comprehension

2.1.5 Techniques of teaching connected speech

Some researchers suggest several activities and techniques for teaching connected speech to achieve learners‟ intelligibility

* Explanation:

Maniruzzaman (2008) suggests “teachers should spend a little amount of time for the explanation of how to produce sounds or use pronunciation patterns appropriately

* Drilling:

Drilling is considered one of the main methods of pronunciation practice in class The duty of learners is simply imitated and repeat what they hear in order to acquire the correct pronunciation Typically, according to Zeanová (2007), the teaching procedure is conducted from individual sounds first and then words including those sounds and gradually leading to phrases or structures

* Taping Students’ English

Another technique for improving learners‟ pronunciation is recording the learners‟ speech and then contrasting it with native models According to Kelly (2004), it is better to record learners‟ speech while they are in pronunciation practice tasks

Besides, Naiman Neil (1992, as cited in Avery, P and Ehrlich, S (1992), gives some activities provide communicative practice in these important aspects of English pronunciation

* Questionnaires and surveys

Many common contractions occur with questions in English such as:

How long‟ve you been looking for an apartment?

Where‟d‟ you live now?

Wheredja live before?

Students can make up questions commonly found in surveys and opinion pools and then follow through by actually conducting a survey either inside or outside the classroom These questionnaires will undoubtedly contain many common question contractions Be sure to practice these expressions in class before students conduct their own research

* Rhymalogues

In Improving Spoken English, Joan Morley uses “rhymalogues” as a way of practicing contractions and reduced expressions in a semi-communicative fashion For example, students can work in pairs or in groups with one member of the pair asking a question and the other providing a response

Q What did you do, Lou? (Whaddja do, Lou?)

A I lost my pen, Ben

Q Where did you go, Joe? (Wheredja go, Joe?)

A To the play, May

* Dialogues and role plays

Commonly reduced expressions such as „going to‟, „wanna‟, „hafta‟, „shoulda‟, and „coulda‟ can be practiced in dialogues and role plays It is often necessary to provide students with models of such dialogues When possible, these should be done with the students attempting to generate the dialogues and the teacher serving primarily as a resource person For example, words can be provided or generated to practice linking of final stop consonants (/p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/) with following vowels Students can construct dialogues which contain these words In addition, they should be instructed to use the example of „and‟, „or‟, „on‟, „in‟, „under‟,

„over‟, „of‟, and „about‟ in their dialogues so that the final stop consonants have to

be linked to the vowels that follow Thus, sentences such as the following could be

constructed:

I saw Bob in the bookstore

Did he buy that book about Atomic Energy?

No, I think he bought a book about an energetic athlete

question words (e.g „wheredja…?‟ „whendja…?‟)

The reduction of initial /h/ in the personal pronoun „he‟ can also be practiced by making twenty questions-type game about a famous male no longer living („Did‟ e….?‟) To avoid discussing only famous males, linking can be practiced by making the game about famous living females („Is she…?‟)

Douglas Jull in the article “teaching pronunciation: an inventory of techniques” (as cited in Avery, P and Ehrlich, S (1992), also designed some techniques to help students develop fluency

* Slow speech

Like a music teacher trying to assist a piano student in mastering a difficult passage, pronunciation teachers should at times encourage their students to say a sentence with a difficult combination of sounds slowly and accurately before working up to a more natural tempo

* English songs

Rixon (1992, as cited in Veronika Rosová, 2007) shows songs are a good way

to learn the features of connected speech The songs contain endless examples of weak syllables, helping to convince learners of the way English is pronounced

According to Richxon, songs help learners practice the described subject matters because they “provide real and „catchy‟ example of how whole phrase are pronounced often to the extent that students find it difficult to pick out individual words The music further emphasizes the „flow‟ of the words Moreover, songs, like other spoken texts, are full of contractions”

2.2 Previous studies related to the research

There are several studies related to teaching pronunciation For example, a study was carried out by Duong (2011) to investigate the errors in pronunciation ending sounds made by students at Phu Xuan University This study attempted to identify the problems relating to final consonant sounds and sound linking that the tenth-form students in Quang Nam encounter when listening and speaking English The study indicated that English final consonants sounds and sound linking were really difficult for them to perform Therefore, some suggestions for effective pronunciation strategies were put forward to help students get over the problems Another similar research was carried out by Luu (2011) to investigate the difficulties of Vietnamese EFL learners with English consonants The most problematic English consonants facing the students at Hung Vuong University were

examined With the information collected from questionnaires, Luu stated that the students had the most difficulty in pronouncing the English fricatives /∫/, /ʒ/ and the affricatives /t∫/, /dʒ/ among the English consonants surveyed The students have the trend to substitute Vietnamese sounds for the English sounds

A recent study of Trinh (2012) investigated the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation in grade 10 in some high schools in Hue city The study found out students‟ difficulties in learning pronunciation The result of this study shows that students had difficulties in pronouncing long and short vowels; final voiceless and voiced stop consonants Besides, Trinh added that students also had problems in learning stress, rhythm, intonation Finally, this study gave some ways that teachers deal with teaching pronunciation

Also, another recently study was carried out by Hong (2012) to investigate the application of teaching problematic consonants in “Tieng anh 11” at Quang Trach

No 3 high school in Quang Binh Hong conducted a study to find out the problematic consonants and consonant clusters in English 11 textbook to students and gave the strategies of teaching these sounds According to the survey, students showed the low level of competence of distinguishing the final consonants and consonant clusters They confuse the consonantal sounds and tried to replace them

by Vietnamese sound Moreover, they also omit the final sounds

Hoang (1965) emphasized that teachers of English should understand the sound system and other phonological features of both language English and Vietnamese so that they can help their learners operate their speech organs easily and properly In reality, possible difficulties in the Vietnamese learners‟ pronunciation not only come from some special features of English but also create

by their first language habits Therefore, teachers should try to find out common problems that their students may get and then apply suitable and useful techniques

to their teaching

There are many studies focusing on finding out difficult sounds to Vietnamese students in learning pronunciation such as vowels or consonants; however, these

studies only focus on individual sounds, they pay less attention to the aspects of connected speech This is also a very important factor helping students in communicating naturally and effectively Moreover, it has not had any studies that investigate into the teaching of problematic connected speech to students in my area (Quang Tri province) Therefore, this study is carried out to find out problematic connected speech to Gio Linh high school students in Quang Tri Province and give

useful suggestions to help students communicate effectively

2.3 Chapter summary

In conclusion, the researcher has reviewed the previous studies related to the research She showed the general look at elements of pronunciation as well as aspects of connected speech In addition, the role of connected speech in understanding is emphasized The definition of problematic connected speech and classification of problematic connected speech to learners of English are also stated Moreover, some techniques of teaching connected speech are given This literature review and theoretical background are a foundation for the researcher to do the study efficiently

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design

According to Condelli and Wrigley (1999:1) “the best research design is a mixed method design that integrates qualitative and quantitative research” Hence, this study combines the quantitative and qualitative methods as a main tool for investigating Quantitative data are information “gathered using those measures which lend themselves to being turned into numbers and statistics” as stated by Brown (1989, cited in Brown and Rodgers, 2002:248-249) Therefore, to affirm the results of what the researcher would like to study, the researcher needs to make statistics of the participants‟ ideas about the teaching and learning problematic connected speech The most popular way to collect this kind of data is questionnaires It helps the researcher save time and get a lot of information

On the other hand, according to Lynch (1992, as cited in Brown and Rodgers, 2002: 249), qualitative data can be defined as “information gathered using techniques that do not necessarily lend themselves to being turned into numbers and statistics” In the present study, it was collected through the recordings that can provide specific evidences of the students‟ actual pronunciation

Since each method has its advantages and disadvantages, the combination of quantitative and qualitative research tools was great benefit to study Based on two approaches, the researcher will present the analysis of the data collected from the questionnaires and recordings to describe the problematic connected speech, the situation and suggested solutions

3.2.1.1 English teachers

This group comprises 8 teachers who are teaching English at Gio Linh high school They play the role of controllers in leading pronunciation activities in class All teachers are well-trained from universities, major of English and English teaching Furthermore, all of them are experienced in language teaching Some teachers get over-standard level of teaching English Besides 8 teachers take part in this study, there is also a foreigner teacher, who has much experience in teaching English as a foreign language to Vietnamese learners, plays an important role in helping researchers to identify the problematic connected speech phenomena to students

3.2.1.2 Students

The second major participants of the study consist of 100 students - grade 12 at Gio Linh high school who helps the researcher find problematic connected speech and gain learners‟ feedback related to learning connected speech All students, which have the same level, are from the different areas of Quang Tri province They

were chosen at random from 12 classes

3.2.2 Data collection instruments

To answer the research questions in this study, two main instruments used to

obtain the reliable results were: (1) questionnaires and (2) recordings

3.2.2.1 Questionnaires

The data of the study were primarily collected by means of questionnaires because “ questionnaires are a good way of collecting certain types of information quickly and relatively cheaply as long as the subject are sufficiently disciplined to abandon questions that are superfluous to the main task (Bell, 1993:76) Researchers can give questionnaires directly to respondents who read the instructions and questions In addition, the participants in the survey are more likely

to feel that they can remain anonymous and thus may be more likely to express controversial opinions

The questionnaires in this study are developed based on the theoretical framework and the results of previous studies on pronunciation teaching and learning Two sets of questionnaire are given to two groups of participants: 8 English teachers and 100 grade 12 students There is a combination of both closed questions and open-ended questions in questionnaires The closed questions came in the form of multiple choice questions The open-ended questions give the respondents the opportunity to offer ideas freely The set of students‟ questionnaires

is translated into Vietnamese to ensure that all students at different levels can understand and complete the questionnaires as the purpose of the researcher The questionnaires are categorized into three clusters in order to find out the answers to four research questions The first category includes 6 items aiming to examine the teachers and students‟ perception of the teaching and learning connected speech In order to know more about the situation of teaching and learning connected speech in grade 12 at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province and the problematic connected speech to students, the second category includes 7 items The third category consists of 3 items aiming to explore some suggestions of teachers and students on teaching and learning problematic connected speech

The perceptions of teachers and students of

teaching and learning pronunciation

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The situation of teaching pronunciation

(problematic connected speech to students)

problematic connected speech that students encounter The time for recording is after class in their classroom

3.2.3 Data collection procedure

The study is conducted during the academic year 2012-2013 (from September

2012 to May 2013) The data are collected in following steps:

First of all, the researcher has an overview of the syllabus of English 12 course-books She examined the aspects of connected speech to teach

Next, she pilots recordings and two sets of questionnaires to 8 teachers and 20 students from Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri province to check the reliability of these instruments

Next, she administers the questionnaires For students at grade 12, the researcher gives careful instructions on each item of the questionnaire before they begin to answer By this way, the collected data will ensure to be clean and reliable With some abstract items in the questionnaires, the researcher explains them carefully for students to make sure all of them can understand it clearly The questionnaires for teachers are also handed out directly With this group, there are also some explanations if have

After that, she administers to do recordings to support for the questionnaires The corpus building is carried out in these stages:

Stage 1: The students are asked to listen to the text twice

Stage 2: The students are asked to read the text 3 times

Their performances are all tape-recorded

Finally, the results, the findings and implications were discussed

3.2.4 Data analysis instruments

All of the data collected from the questionnaires and recordings are analyzed based on the qualitative and quantitative methods Responses are converted into statistics and percentage This study also uses tables, charts and figures to illustrate the results of the analysis The recordings of students are identified carefully by a foreigner teacher and compare with the native speakers‟ version Along with this

part, the demonstration of the performance with the help of computer software

“Praat” to compare the sounds pronounced by students and native speaker In fact, according to a survey done 2011 , most of members of International Association for Forensic phonetics and acoustics agree that software Praat is the most reliable one out of the top ten In Vietnam, a group of authors in Ha Noi national university also research about using Praat software in studying phonetics In the wizard of this software, the sound wave is presented This is a basis to prove for connected speech phenomena in English and Vietnamese

Figure 3.1 The waveform of phrase “both in” performed by a native speaker

Figure 3.2 The waveform of phrase “both in” performed by a student

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

From the questionnaires, the researcher can get teachers and students‟ perceptions towards teaching and learning connected speech at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province

According to the aim of the questionnaire, students can choose more than one option Hence, the total number of options in some questions is different from the

number of participants (100 students and 8 teachers)

4.1 Teachers and students‟ perceptions towards teaching and learning

connected speech at Gio Linh high school in Quang Tri Province

4.1.1 The important factors in helping people understand the content of communication

Chart 4.1 Information about the important factors in helping people understand the content of communication

Pronunciation Grammar Vocabulary Others

As can be seen from Chart 4.1, a majority of the teachers (62.5%) chose

“Pronunciation” as the most important factor in helping people understand the content of communication of all, followed by “Vocabulary” (37.5%) No one chose

“Grammar”

With the same matter, students‟ perception was also reported in Chart 4.1 Up

to 48.4% students choose “Pronunciation” as the important factor in helping people

understanding the content of communication The “Vocabulary” factor (46.5%) approximates to the “Pronunciation” one whereas only 5% of students chose

“Grammar”

The result presented above reveals that teachers and students had the same opinion Both of them were aware of the importance of pronunciation in communication as I had expected Obviously, pronunciation helps people to communicate successfully which is considered the main aim of learning a second language If people have a good pronunciation, they can express their ideas and opinions in an understandable way Besides, it makes them more confident and naturally in communication This choice, therefore, can be considered to be similar

to Wong (1987) He indicated that even if the non-native speakers‟ vocabulary and grammar are excellent, if their pronunciation falls below a certain threshold level, they are unable to communicate effectively Hence, it is not surprising when both teachers and students highly appreciated the importance of pronunciation Moreover, for them, vocabulary is seen to be the second important factor after pronunciation This is easy to understand because if the speakers do not have enough knowledge about vocabulary to express, the listeners will not understand the content of communication This makes communication ineffectively

4.1.2 Standard pronunciation nowadays

Chart 4.2 Information about standard pronunciation nowadays

The result from Chart 4.2 reveals that 75% of teachers thought “standard and acceptable” is standard pronunciation nowadays, while 25% of them leaned towards

“non-standard but acceptable” There is no one choosing “standard but not understand” and “nonstandard – not acceptable”

Chart 4.2 also shows that up to 85% students thought “standard-acceptable” as standard pronunciation nowadays, followed by “non-standard but acceptable” (14%) Besides, in spite of very low percentage (1.0%), there were still some students choosing “standard-not understand”

In general, both teachers and students highly agreed that standard pronunciation nowadays is “standard and acceptable” In fact, the issue of Standard English also gives many arguments not only countries in the world but also in Vietnam In an article “A Second Look at the question of the ownership of English”, Pham Hoa Hiep (2010) indicated that although there are many variants of English in the world, only Standard English to native speakers is used widely in the mass media and is a kind of English used to communicate successfully To understand each other easily in communication, the speakers try to use standard or nearly standard English Also, in a scientific journal researching about “the issue of standard English and World Englishes” of a group of authors: Ton Nu Nhu Huong, Pham Hoa Hiep and Vo Thi Hoang Nguyen (College of Foreign Languages, Hue University): “Standard- acceptable” is considered to be an imperative need of learners of English at the present Because it helps students do tests in the exams, tests or complete a certain course Moreover, because Standard English is perceived

as useful at least for the target of learning in present time, teachers probably need to focus on teaching this kind in class Learners of English need to be taught using Standard English to communicate so that others can understand

4.1.3 The influence of connected speech on the communicative effect

Chart 4.3 Information about the influence of connected speech on the

communicative effect