An investigation into teaching linking sounds to improve listening skill to first year english major students at tien giang university

All of these 10 teachers have many problems in teaching pronunciations, especially in teaching linking sounds to first year English major students.. From surveying and observing from the

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales

Nowadays, more and more countries consider English as a useful tool to communicate successfully with the world outside Therefore, learning English has become a tendency to most people, both old and young ones It even becomes a compulsory subject in most school in Vietnam

Nevertheless, having successful conversation requires learners to have not only knowledge of linguistic competence but also good pronunciation Morley (1999) stated that limiting pronunciation skills could undermine learners‟ self-confidence, and restrict social interactions Fraser (2000) confirms pronunciation as most critical communication skill Therefore, intelligent pronunciation is an essential component

of communication competence (Morley, 1991:488) However, pronunciation is also one of the most difficult aspects to acquire

In Vietnam, in spite of recognizing the importance of pronunciation, Vietnamese students still cannot have correct pronunciation Brown (1992), Claire (1993), Fraser (2000), conducted the studies and Yates (2001) indicated that several teachers tend to avoid dealing with pronunciation because they lack confidence, skills and knowledge As a result, students cannot pronounce English words and sentences correctly even though they are good at vocabulary and grammar Moreover, Vietnamese teachers have to deal with the class of more than forty students It is impossible to say that the teachers can pay attention to all students‟ speaking performance in general and pronunciation in particular Hence, teaching and learning English pronunciation has become one of the most serious issues for both teachers and students

Like almost schools in Vietnam, the effect of teaching and learning pronunciation at Tien Giang University have been far from the satisfaction even though both teachers and students have tried their best Pronunciation has been becoming a separated aspect in teaching Nowadays, the teachers and students‟

perception of teaching pronunciation has changed dramatically It is paid attention more than before However, getting a good effect is not a simple task for any teacher in my school Actually, there are only 10 teachers teaching listening and speaking among 24 teachers in English faculty at Tien Giang University All of these 10 teachers have many problems in teaching pronunciations, especially in teaching linking sounds to first year English major students These problems have occurred from many reasons The first belongs to the teachers and students‟ perception According to the teachers‟ point, although teaching pronunciation is the main task, they still make little attempt to teach it For them, vocabulary and grammar are the main needs for their students to get marks in the examinations than any other aspects Others stated that they do not have enough time and available materials to teach pronunciation separately From the students‟ view, pronunciation

is the second thing they want to learn after vocabulary For them, vocabulary is the most important factor in helping them improve listening skill The second one is the students‟ effort Tien Giang is still influenced from the countryside where people are still shy and passive in dealing with foreign languages As a result, students cannot hear anything from the native speakers or even the recordings even though they have learned a little bit of knowledge of linking sounds This affects seriously

in their communication, both in their learning process and later life

From surveying and observing from the teaching and learning at Tien Giang University, I realize that my students‟ listening skill has almost several problems in aspects of connected speech It belongs to linking sounds They cannot hear anything when I give them the pretest containing linking sounds In addition, some

of them said that they have never known what linking sounds are This, perhaps is occurred not only at Tien Giang University but also at any another college or university

It is time to look for the solutions for this situation of teaching English pronunciation so that our students can get effect in their listening In addition, this is

the main motivation to tempt me to conduct a research entitled “An investigation

into teaching linking sounds to improve listening skill to First year English major students at Tien Giang University”

1.2 Research aim

My research aims to investigate the teaching of linking sounds, one of the aspects of connected speech, to improve First year English major students‟ listening skill at Tien Giang University

Particularly, it also aims to:

- Investigate the practice of teaching and learning linking sounds at Tien Giang so that it could bring many benefits for both teachers and students To teachers, this study can help them have a good outlook in teaching pronunciation, especially teaching linking sounds To students, this study brings them a good way to improve their listening skill through learning how the sound can link together

- Search the best ways to teach linking sounds more effectively to improve students‟ listening skill

1.3 Research questions

In order to achieve the purposes mentioned above, the research seeks the answer to the following questions:

1 What are the teachers and students‟ perceptions about teaching linking sounds

at Tien Giang University?

2 How is the practice of teaching and learning linking sounds at Tien Giang University?

3 Which techniques should the teachers apply to teach linking sounds effectively to improve students‟ listening skill?

1.4 The scope of the study

This study is conducted with 100 first year English major students and 10 English teachers who have been teaching listening and speaking at Tien Giang

sounds such as linking a consonant to a consonant, a consonant to a vowel and a vowel to a vowel It mainly investigates the practice of teaching linking sounds to First year English major students at Tien Giang University as well as the ways the teachers apply to teach these sounds Finally, it requires some solutions to help teaching and learning linking sounds effectively

1.5 Significance of the study

This study is hopefully significant for both teachers and students at Tien Giang University in particular and in other parts of Vietnam in general Firstly, the study can raise the awareness of the importance of linking sounds in listening among teachers and students so that pronunciation training should be paid more attention Secondly, students can have a good chance to listen well through identifying some problematic sounds in the way that sounds can link together I hope that the implication from the study can be useful to improve first year English students‟ listening skill at Tien Giang University Finally, I also hope to gain many benefits from this study It possibly helps me understand more what linking sounds cause problems to my students and how to solve them effectively In addition, it can help

me find out the suitable techniques to teach three parts of linking sounds more effectively in particular and other aspects of pronunciation in general

1.6 The structure of the study

This study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction – provides the reasons for choosing this study The

research purposes, research questions, scope of the study, as well as the structure of the study are also included in this chapter

Chapter 2: Literature review and theoretical background, provides a brief literature

review and theoretical background for the study

Chapter 3: Methodology, describes the research approach, subjects, data collection

and analysis

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion, analyzes the data collected during the study

and report the findings of the study Accordingly, the researcher‟s opinions and reflections on them will be presented

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications, summarizes the findings and offer

implications for the study as well as suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter first briefly reviews previous studies related to the study Secondly, the role of teaching some aspects of connected speech to improve listening skill will be then presented Next, the perspective on improving listening skill through linking sounds instruction is mentioned Finally, a comparison and contrast of the sound systems between English and Vietnamese is also included in this chapter

2.1 PREVIOUS STUDIES RELATED TO THE TOPIC

Among the studies of the teaching and learning English language skill, the issues of teaching and learning listening have been especially concerned by many researchers and educators Among many factors affecting listening, linking sounds

is regarded as one of the aspects of connected speech that cause the big challenges

to our students Due to being one of the aspects of connected speech, the influence

of linking sounds has the relationship with other aspects

Rost (2001) confirmed the effects of connected speech to English teaching in his article He thought, “The pronunciation of certain syllable – timed languages, such as English sound unclear due to the present of linking, assimilation or reduced forms.”

Although the primary research and literature dealing with reduced forms is found in Rosa – ESL Teachers‟ Perspectives on Reduced Forms Instruction pronunciation texts, it is obvious that the presence of reduced forms or connected speech affects not only the pronunciation of second language learners, but also the listening comprehension of learners Many texts on listening seem to focus on listening strategies Yet, it seems that strategies may be too broad to focus on when the very comprehension of natural spoken language may be the true challenge (Norris, 1995)

Avery and Ehrlich (1992) deal directly with „connected speech‟ and the ways

in which it is pronounced, yet follow this focus with the following conclusion:

“…when our ESL students use „wanna‟, „gonna‟ and „dunno‟, they often sound unnatural…we should probably not insist on having our students produce these forms until their spoken English is fairly advanced We should, however, introduce these forms for recognition to even basic students as they appear frequently in spoken English”, (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992 : 89)

Some researchers like Brown (1977), Underwood (1989) and Ur (1984) have advocated the importance of teaching reduced form The research aims to explore the effects of reduced form instruction on overall listening comprehension…

Based on Rosa (2002), when perceptual accuracy of the input diminishes, the challenge of listening comprehension will increase According to Field (2008), normal speech flows containing simplified patterns such as contraction, elision, deletion, assimilation, and linking can pose challenges to L2 listeners

Brown and Hilferty (2007) confirmed that the instruction of reduced forms helped improve listening comprehension for EFL students in China In addition, Brown and Kondo-Brown (2007) supported teaching reduced forms in that they are

a real part of language and they are essential to better understanding of spoken English

In addition, Norris (1995) conducted a study on Japanese students‟ awareness

of reduced forms by introducing the 20 common forms in Weinstain‟s “Waddaya Say?” in order to find out whether teaching reduced forms will have a positive impact on listening comprehension Dictation and cloze exercises were used as main activities Moreover, Norris enabled his students to get as much exposure as possible by assigning them to listen to natural English, such as listening to journals

At the end of this two-year study, he observed that students‟ listening comprehension had improved a lot

A similar study was done by Brown and Hilferty (1986), who looked into the effectiveness of teaching reduced forms on L2 listening comprehension by making a

comparison between a treatment group that was exposed to reduced forms instruction, and a control group which worked on minimal pairs practice rather than reduced forms To test the progress and compare these groups, three measures were utilized: the Bowen Integrative Grammar Test, a norm-referenced multiple-choice listening test, and reduced-forms dictations The results revealed that the treatment group‟s post-test score was higher than the control group‟s on all three measures Rosa‟s paper (2002), which the survey used in the current study was taken from, has revealed valuable data regarding ESL teachers‟ feeling about “reduced forms instruction” Rosa (2002) carried out a study of ESL teachers‟ attitudes on reduced form teaching at the University of Hawaii in Manoa About 52 surveys were distributed to ESL instructors in Oahu In terms of teachers‟ familiarity with reduced forms, she concluded that teachers consider themselves very or somewhat familiar with the role of reduced forms in spoken English In addition, it has been revealed that teachers spend little time on teaching these forms When they teach these forms, they prefer teaching them in a context with common examples rather than through the system of linguistic rules and constraints Almost all teachers considered teaching reduced forms to be helpful in improving students‟ listening comprehension; on the contrary, most of them usually spend only 10% or less of a typical class Almost all of the participants reported that their students seemed somewhat or very interested in reduced form teaching There are more than 42% percent of all the participants considered that their limited focus on reduced form instruction is a result of lack of time and materials

Henrichsen (1984) investigated the effect of “sandhi-variation” on listening comprehension He looked into the interaction between absence and presence of

“sandhi-variation” and learners‟ level of proficiency The participants of his study were 65 college students of three distinct proficiency levels; a first group (low level group) whose mean score was 69.63 on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), a second group (high group) whose mean score was 78.00 on the MTELP, and a third group (native speakers) taking courses in linguistics and

Aquil (2012) discovered the difficulties of Cairen Arabic in connected speech learning He attempted various teaching techniques to address the learners' problem

in listening First, insufficient or unfamiliar vocabulary was considered the probable cause However, this did not solve the problem because neither did knowledge of English vocabulary, nor exposure to new words, seemed to help Then, he resorted

to phonology and syntax and explained to the learners the syntactic structures the utterances contained and the phonological alternations He also tried phonological explanation of general rules of assimilation and reduction, in addition to constant exposure to the sound of the words and connected forms; but nothing changed Finally, he turned to pronunciation drills and listening discrimination and identification tasks were attempted In the discrimination task, learners were asked

to discriminate between two utterances and report whether the utterances were the same or different Regardless of the type of technique and frequency and duration of exposure to any one technique, the identification of connected utterances was rarely realized

A valuable book written by James Dean Brown & Kimi Kondo Brown describes completely about the perspectives on teaching connected speech to second language learners A study of 32 Chinese graduated EFL students by Brown and Hilfery (pp.56-57) suggests the value of explicit connected speech instruction An experimental group of 16 students who received mini-lessons on reduced forms for four weeks on an intensive basis performed better on a dictation and grammar exercise than a control group receiving traditional instruction However, a pre-test/post-test study of 20Japanese business persons that got just seven 30-minute lessons on 69 reduced forms for one month revealed no significant improvement in terms of TOEIC listening scores (p 63)

Rogerson (pp 87-91) explores the attitudes of 45 ESL instructors towards reduced form instruction Over half the respondents considered reduced forms “very important” and most reported explicitly teaching them in mini-lessons Cahill (pp.108 – 110) then describes one way to teach reduced forms through choral response, cloze dialogs, and dictations Varden (pp 129-165) next outlines a

phonetic software package, which visually displays speech patterns Unfortunately,

no empirical evidence of how this might help students monitor their speech is offered

A 1979 study by Hasegawa (pp 173-187) shows how casual speech differs from fast speech Toda (pp 189-190) then debunks the myth that Japanese speakers always speak formally or politely She also challenges the notion that listening skills invariably precede production skills, asserting that, “ from a pedagogical point of view, perceptual acquisition does not have to strictly precede acquisition of speech production” (p 201) After this, Hirata (pp 234-243) argues for the teaching words with subtle vowel/consonant contrasts in connected sentences rather than in isolation

In a word, the above foreign researchers have contributed a significant part to improve listening through teaching some aspects of connected speech

In Vietnam, this field has also been paid attention to A study of Trinh Vinh Hien shows that the linguistic features are language barrier to learners The liaison, the linking of the first word and the word coming right after which begins with a vowel, is claimed by 73.7% of the students to be the most common obstruction in listening since the students are used to hearing each separate word by unit in a sentence and slow stream of listening Hence, they misunderstand the linking words

or they have no idea of the meaning delivered Another problem in listening is the elision of a sound or exactly a syllable in a word These kinds of features may be encountered when the message is spoken at such a rapid speed mood that the sentences uttered cannot be spoken word by word Thus, students cannot recognize the words that they hear Liaison and elision, as Yagang (1994) think, are difficulties which listener often face while listening Normally, they get used to the written words that organized orderly in a textbook Thus, in the stream of speech, students find it hard to recognize separate words

Nevertheless, the issues of teaching linking sounds have not been conducted directly much in the world in general and in Vietnamese situation in particular Hence, I myself find it essential to conduct this study

2.2 OVERVIEW OF LINKING SOUNDS:

Linking sounds is one of the typical aspects of connected speech Hence, the study of linking sounds related closely to the studies of connected speech before

2.2.1 Overview of connected speech

2.2.1.1 What is connected speech?

Connected speech forms are the spontaneous pronunciation changes in adjacent words or sounds spoken at a natural speed (Weinstein, 2001)

Connected speech consists of a flow of sounds, which are modified by a system of simplifications (Underhill, 1994)

Connected speech is a phenomenon in spoken language that collectively includes phonological processes such as reduction, elision, intrusion, assimilation, and contraction Several research studies have shown that connected speech instruction can help learners to more easily comprehend rapid speech used by native speakers (e.g., Brown & Hilferty, 2006; Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996; Matsuzawa, 2006)

Brown and Kondo-Brown (2006a) define connected speech as an “analysis of the continuous chains in normal spoken language and conversation as compared with the typical linguistic analysis of individual phonemes analyzed in isolation” (p 284) Brown and Kondo-Brown (2006a) mention that connected speech makes up

“a very real part” (p 5) of the spoken language and occurs in “all levels of speech” (p 5) from casual to even very formal levels

Connected speech, also commonly referred to as reduced speech or variation, involves the contracted forms, reductions, elisions, and liaisons used by native speakers in their oral speech

sandhi-Crystal (1980, p 81) defines connected speech as:

A term used by linguists to refer to spoken language when analyzed as a continuous sequence, as in normal utterances and conversations Its significance lies

in the contrast implied with studies of linguistic units seen in isolation, such as an individual sound, word or phrase, which was the subject matter of traditional linguistic enquiry

2.2.2 Overview of linking sounds

2.2.2.1 What is linking sounds?

When people speak English naturally, they tend to link words together This activity helps you to identify the sounds that link certain words, and to practice pronouncing phrases like this more naturally In spoken English, we often add extra sounds between words to link our words together As a result, when you listen to a continuous stream of sound in English, it can be very difficult to identify the individual words This occurred by linking sounds

The term linking is used in two different ways Quite often it is synonymous with what we have called connected speech phenomena in general because they all

act together to create units larger than the single word In this study, however, I use

a definition of linking which is more specific: it applies only to what happens at word-boundaries where either two vowels or a consonant and a vowel meet”

(Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1994, 123)

The words in phrases or thought groups are usually linked together The consonant that finishes one word connects to the sound at the beginning of the next word” (S Miller, 2000, p 45)

We say the words in the phrase smoothly, connecting the sound of the last word to the beginning sound of the next word without stopping after each word.” (G Orion, 1997, p 53)

Native English speakers generally speak by linking words and almost never break the individual words apart unless they slow down These spoken connections

can be represented in phonetic transcriptions So the first consideration of connected speech is the linking between words

2.2.2.2 Aspects of linking sounds

Linking takes the following forms:

* V + V: insertion of /y/ and /w/ glides

* VC + V: the consonant is shared by both syllables  ( V - C – V)

* CC + V: Resyllabification  C + CV

* Identical consonants: articulation as one, lengthened consonant

* C (stop) + C (stop or affricate): The initial stop consonant is unreleased

In this study, I mainly focus on three aspects happened with the word boundaries

a Linking between vowels and vowels

One word ends with vowel and the next word begins with a vowel, speakers never pause between the words In other hand, if two vowels are next to each other and have 2 sounds, use a soft “y” or “w” sound to connect them

A final vowel sound of a word is normally joined with the initial vowel sound

of the next word using an extra or intrusive sound

/ w / sound is occurred after a final round vowel sound such as /ʊ/ or / u: /

Ex: two apples

/ j / sound is occurred after a final spread vowel sound such as / ɪ/ or / i: /

Ex: be in ; my application

/ r / sound is occurred after a final vowel sound such as / ə / or /ɔ: / , / a:/

Ex: law and; Is Amanda in

* Insertion of a /y/ glide following /iy/,

/ey/, /ay/, and /y/, either word internally or between words

– Word internally

being; staying; crying; toying

– Between words

be able; stay up; try out; Roy Adams

b Linking between consonants and vowels

When a word ends in a consonant and the next words begin with a vowel, there

is a connection between the final consonant to the next vowel

In VC + V linking sequences, the consonant “straddles” both syllables and words: – Keep out  kee - pout

– dream on  drea - mon

– bend over  ben - dover

– drag on  dra – gon

This pattern applies to the final consonant sounds of words

Ex: have an

/hæv/ /ən / /hævən/

It also applies to the initial vowel sound of words

Ex: Tell him

/tel/ /im/

c Linking sounds between consonant and consonant

When the final consonant of one word is the same as the first consonant of the following word, pronounce the consonant only once Do not pause between the sounds, but just lengthen the sound a bit or say it with a little bit more energy

2.2.2.3 Why is linking sounds important?

- Linking helps your overall fluency You will be easier to understand, and your listeners will react more positively to your speech if you link sounds” (Reed & Michaud, 2006 : 44)

- Linking sounds is an aspect of correct pronunciation at the allophonic level (Trammell, 1993)

- It is also a marker of native-like speech (Hieke, 1987)

- Furthermore, linking sounds become a crucial element in imitating correct word-stress, which is required for native-like rhythm and intonation patterns at the phrase level (Trammell, 1993)

- Finally, it is an important factor for listening comprehension

2.2.2.4 The effect of linking sounds in listening comprehension

Listening is a process affected by the character of the listener, the speaker, the content of the message, and any visual support that accompanies the message (Brown & Yule, 1983) Among many suggestions as to the causes of the difficulty

in understanding spoken English, the researchers seem to agree on the idea that connected speech forms are the main cause

The influence of connected speech on listening has been investigated in several studies (Brown & Hilferty, 1986a, 1986b, 2006; Henrichsen, 1984; Ito, 2006a) Formerly, these studies also show how reduced forms in connected speech can interfere with listening comprehension Henrichsen (1984) hypothesized that reduced forms in listening input would decrease the saliency of the words and, therefore, make comprehension more difficult for ESL learners This hypothesis was supported by results showing that both high and low level ESL learners scored significantly lower on a test where the examinees had to write down the citation form of the words in a sentence being said in reduced forms

Pronunciation is really important in listening comprehension Hence, Gilbert (1995: 1) believed that the skills of listening comprehension and pronunciation are interdependent If the learners can not hear well, they are easy to be cut off from the language in general and even from the native speakers in particular

Wong (1987) points out that even when the non – native speakers‟ vocabulary and grammar are excellent, if their pronunciation falls below a certain threshold level, they are unable to communicate effectively and efficiently In addition, Nooteboom (1983) suggested that speech production is affected by speech perception and stresses the need of pronunciation in both listening and speaking According to Yagang (1994), the problems in listening were accompanied with the four following factors: the message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting Likewise, the problems were believed to cause by the speech rate, vocabulary and pronunciation (Higgins, 1995) Thus, being an aspect of pronunciation, linking sounds is really a barrier to learners‟ listening A research conducted by Trinh Vinh Hien showed that there are over 73, 7% of the students to

be the most common obstruction in listening since the students are used to hearing each separate word by unit in a sentence and slow stream of listening Hence, they misunderstand the linking words or they have no idea of the meaning delivered

2.2.3 Contrastive analysis between English sounds and Vietnamese sounds 2.2.3.1 Consonants in English and Vietnamese

2.2.3.1.1 English consonants

There are 24 consonants in the English consonant system Most of these consonants in English can be used as the initial, middle and final consonants These sounds confused Vietnamese learners in learning, especially in linking sounds together

Here is the table for English consonants:

2.2.3.1.2 Vietnamese consonants

In Vietnamese, consonants are classified into 22 initial consonants and 6 final consonants according to the positions of the consonant in a word In the initial consonant system, most sounds are not considerably different from English sounds in terms of pronunciation However, it is necessary to mention some differences here Unlike the English consonant system, for instance, there is

no affricate in Vietnamese The Vietnamese /ť/ is aspirated and sounds as if both /t/ and /h/ are involved and connected respectively but immediately, and found only in the initial position These features of Vietnamese consonants

should be considered when teaching pronunciation because they perhaps affect the pronouncing of English sounds

As can be seen from the table, although Vietnamese has final consonant, the students are not familiar with pronouncing them Therefore, sound omission in

ending sounds become more frequent than others It is easy to understand why

ending sounds were omitted so frequently because in Vietnamese, speakers do not have to pronounce the ending As a result, the Vietnamese students always get

problem with learning linking sounds They tend to pronounce separate words

instead of linking sounds between the words together

2.2.3.2 Some similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese

The distinctive similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese consonants under study are as follows:

- Both consonant systems have fricatives

- Unlike English, Vietnamese consonant system does not include any affricate sounds

- Vietnamese consonants are found in the initial or final positions of a

word, but the final consonants are never heard The English consonants under investigation are often heard and pronounced in three positions: initial, medial and final

2.2.3.3 Syllable Structure in English and Vietnamese

2.2.3.3.1 Syllable Structure in English

a) A minimum syllables would be a single vowel in isolation, some syllables have an onset, e.g “car” [kA:], “see” [si:]

b) Syllables may have no onset but have a coda, e.g „am‟ [æm], „ease‟ [i:z]

c) Some syllables have onset and coda, e.g „sun‟ [s n], „bad‟ [b&

2.2.3.3.2 Syllable Structure in Vietnamese

In general, there is no pronouncing of final consonants and no linking sounds articulated in Vietnamese They may tend to delete the final sounds and may forget to connect words in natural speech Therefore, the teaching and learning linking sounds faced many big problems To overcome these problems, it

is required that the teachers should find the suitable methods so that the teaching and learning linking sounds become more effective

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methods of conducting the research including the research approach, methods of data collection and data analysis In addition, it presents the characteristics of the participants and the instruments for gathering data

Nevertheless, the qualitative approach is blamed for its subjectivity Thus, the quantitative approach was also employed to support the study The questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data in this approach

10 teachers, there are two foreign teachers who assisted the researcher a lot in identifying the problems of Tien Giang‟ s students in learning linking sounds

3.2.2 Students

This group consists of 100 students of first year English major students at Tien Giang University They were chosen randomly from three classes The questionnaires were given to all of them to fill in The researcher decided to select students of first years as most of them have difficulties with linking sounds in listening session Thus, finding out problems and suggested solutions for teaching and learning linking sounds of first year major students can bring both teachers and students confidence and experience in the following terms for second, third or even final year students

3.3 Data collecting instruments

To answer the research question in this study, two main instruments are used

to obtain the reliable results are questionnaires and recording

3.3.1 Questionnaires

Bell (1993: 76) considers the use of questionnaire as “a good way of collecting certain types of information quickly and relatively cheaply” Furthermore, the questionnaire enables the researchers to collect data from a large number of participants Therefore, the questionnaire was used to gather information from both teachers and students

Questionnaire A (see Appendix 1) was designed for 10 EFL teachers including

20 closed and opened ended questions The set of questions aimed to get teachers‟ perception of teaching linking sounds, their problems during the teaching process and how they solve these difficulties

Questionnaire B (see Appendix 2) was designed for 100 students of first years English major including also 20 closed and ended questions The questionnaires were translated into Vietnamese to make sure of the correct information To get the participating of all students, the researcher makes an effort to convince them about

their contribution as well as their advantage of better listening lessons in future Therefore, 100% questionnaires were collected fully

3.3.2 Recordings

To support more for the questionnaires, recordings are used The aim of the recordings is to identify which aspects of linking sounds that Tien Giang University‟s students have The content of recordings is a short passage cited from a website: www.listenaminute.com The voices of 15 students are recorded Students will listen 3 time with the printed text, and then, they are asked to read the text After the recordings, the researcher has the foreigner identified and transmitted the problematic sounds in linking that students encounter

3.4 Data analysis

All of data from the questionnaires and recordings are analyzed relying on the qualitative and quantitative methods This study concludes tables, charts, and figures to illustrate the results of analysis Additionally, the recordings were carefully identified by a foreigner

With the help of the software “Praat”, the researcher can compare the sounds pronounced by students and native speakers This software is considered as a reliable instrument in analyzing data, especially comparing the sounds On the wizard of this software, the sound waves are shown

3.4.1 Procedures

The research was carried out in the following steps:

1 Piloting the questionnaires and recordings

2 Administering the questionnaires

3 Administering the recordings from the students

4 Analyzing collected data

5 Synthesizing data

3.4.1.1 Piloting the questionnaires and recordings

The researcher pilots the recordings to 15 students and 2 sets of questionnaires

to 10 teachers from Tien Giang University to check the reliability of the questionnaires and each item included

3.4.1.2 Administering the questionnaires

For students in first years, the researcher gave careful instructions on each item

of the questionnaires before participants began to answer With some abstract items

in the questionnaires, the researcher explained carefully to make sure that all participants could understand the questionnaires clearly

3.4.1.3 Administering the recordings

This process is carried out with two steps:

Step 1: The students are asked to listen the text three times

Step 2: The students are asked to read the printed text

3.4.1.4 Analyzing the collected data

The results form collected data were shown in tables and charts Basing on the results, the researcher would give some suggestion for problems that students meet

in learning pronunciation

3.5 Chapter summary

In general, this chapter has presented the approaches that the researcher applied in collecting data such as questionnaire and recording Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are undertaken This chapter also presents the procedure of the research and analyzes the collected data

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The previous chapter presented the research methodology of the study This chapter discusses the findings The data were gathered from the questionnaires for teachers, students and recordings from the students The collected data are interpreted and presented in tables and charts The chapter begins with presenting data regarding the perceptions of teachers and students of teaching and learning linking sounds at Tien Giang University Then, the data can help me know more about the practice of teaching and learning linking sounds at Tien Giang Some solutions to improve listening skill through teaching linking sounds will be mentioned at the end

4.1 Teachers and students’ perceptions toward teaching and learning linking sounds at Tien Giang University in Tien Giang province

4.1.1 Factor plays an important role in helping learners improve listening

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Teachers Students

As it can be seen in the chart, most teachers (44,4 %) chose pronunciation as the important factor in helping learners listen well Also, the teachers chose vocabulary as the second important one with the same percentage of 44,4 % , followed by grammar (11,2%) No one chose others This can be inferred that

Figure 4.1.1: Factors plays an importance role in helping learners

improve listening

teachers have the positive perception about the importance of pronunciation in improving listening skill

With the same matter, students‟ perception was also reported in this chart The result reveals that most of students had the same opinion with their teachers Up to 49,1 % students chose pronunciation as the most important thing in improving their listening process The approximation of vocabulary factors is about 45,6%, and is followed by grammar (8%) Meanwhile, there is only 2,7% choosing others for improving listening

Briefly, teachers and students have a common perception Both of them also consider pronunciation as the first important thing in their listening It is obvious that knowing the correct pronunciation can help learners easily in listening In addition, vocabulary is considered the second significant factor after pronunciation

It is easy to understand that if the listeners have enough vocabulary of listening section, they can understand and listen really well

4.1.2 Role of linking sounds in learning listening comprehension

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Yes No Neutral

Teachers Students

The result from the chart 4.1.2 reveals that up to 100% of teachers agree linking sounds is helpful in teaching listening comprehension while There is 0% choosing no and neutral

Figure 4.1.2: Role of linking sounds in learning listening comprehension

However, the students have a little bit difference in their perception with 93% belonging to agreement of linking sounds as a significant element learning listening comprehension Nevertheless, there are still 7 % of students feeling it hard to consider linking sounds as a necessary factor in their listening learning

All of the evidences above have proved that teaching and learning linking sounds are really significant in the listening process With the assistance of linking sounds, the teachers can help the students have more ways to listen better Also, the students can be more confident in their listening

4.1.3 The influence of linking sounds on the listening effect

As shown in Figure 4.1.3, a large number of teachers with 90% believed that linking sounds has an effect on the listening whilst there was only 1 teachers (corresponding with 10% ) think that linking sounds has the most influence There

is 0% corresponding of no one believes linking sounds does not influence or normally influence in listening process

With the same matter, students‟ awareness seems to be a little difference There are up to 65% relying on the influence of linking sounds in listening and followed by 29% of those who believed linking sounds has the most influence on

-20 0 20 40 60 80 100

Teachers Students

Figure 4.1.3: The influence of linking sounds on the listening effect

the listening effect There are 9% of them expressing a normal attitude toward this issue

The evidences above reveal that most of the teachers and students appreciate the importance of linking sounds in teaching and learning listening Only a few ones seem to be vague In fact, if the learners have no knowledge of linking sounds, the unintelligibility becomes a barrier to learners in the case of linking a consonant to a consonant, a consonant to a vowel and a vowel to a vowel

Actually, there is no research relating to the role of linking sounds in improving listening at Tien Giang University up to the time of the research Therefore, the results can be considered as the good news for both teachers and students here I hope that the teaching and learning pronunciation, especially linking sounds, will be paid much attention to in a near future

4.1.4 Definitions of linking sounds

As can be seen from the chart, many teachers ( with percentage of 34,8%) at Tien Giang University referred linking sounds as the linking between the final consonant in a word with the beginning vowel of the next word There are 26,1% of teachers defining linking sounds is the connection of the final consonant of a word

Figure 4.1.4: Definitions of linking sounds

to the beginning consonant to the next word, following by 21,7 % of who those think linking sounds is the connection of sounds that are naturally linked in speech

to make communication effective and natural However, there are not much teachers defining linking sounds as a connection between a final vowel of a word with a beginning vowel of the next word Thus, the percentage of these people are only

17,4%

When being asked about the definition of linking sounds, a majority of students (up to 75%) answer that linking sounds is the connection between the consonant and the vowel Besides, 25% of students understand linking sounds as the connection of sounds Meanwhile, 0% of students considers linking as the connection between consonant to consonant and vowel to vowel

From the collected information above, it is possible to state that the teaching and learning linking sounds at Tien Giang University is still not common The evidence showed that most of the teachers and students consider linking sounds as only the connection between consonant and vowel However, this is only one of the aspects of linking sounds To get a better listening, students need to learn as much

as necessary all aspects of linking sounds, especially consonant to vowel, consonant

to consonant, and vowel to vowel If the students have enough knowledge of linking sounds, they can be confident enough to their listening lesson

4.1.5 Understanding of teaching and learning linking sounds

Figure 4.1.5: Understanding of teaching and learning linking sounds

0 50 100

Teachers

Teachers Students

On being asked about “the what” in teaching linking sounds, most of the teachers answer “they often teach linking between consonant and vowel” with total 40,5% 17,5% of teachers express their experience in teaching consonant to consonant, and followed by 15% of teachers refer teaching the connection between vowel to vowel to other aspects of linking sounds

With the same question, up to 89% of students admitted learning linking

sounds means learning how to make sounds between a consonant to a vowel The rest with 11% answered they learn how to make sounds between consonants to consonants None paid attention to the connection between a vowel and a vowel or even they have no idea for “others” choice

The results showed that both teachers and students of Tien Giang University pay much attention to the linking between a consonant to a vowel than any other aspects On the other hand, it can be referred that the connection between a consonant and a vowel becomes rather familiar to them when asking about linking sounds However, the teaching and learning pronunciation at Tien Giang University

is not a strong point This is the reason the researcher conducts the research to investigate some better methods to help pronunciation teaching more effective

4.1.6 Teachers and students’ viewpoints of teaching linking sounds in listening session

Through the question “ before

teaching listening, do you often teach

three aspects of linking sounds such as

linking between a consonant to a

consonant, a consonant to a vowel and

a vowel to a vowel?”, the researcher

had received the responses

summarizing in the Figure 4.1.6:

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Students Teachers

Figure 4.1.6: Teachers and students’ viewpoints of

It can be seen from the figure that the number of teachers “ frequently” teach linking sounds before listening was not considerable, only 10% A considerable numbers of teachers (50%) “Usually” did that Meanwhile, nearly half of teachers (40%) stated that they “sometimes” teach linking sounds in listening time

Being asked the same question, more than half of the students with 54% answered that their teachers “sometimes” perform knowledge of linking sounds in class About 24% of students said that their teachers “usually” did that, following by 22% of students who thought that their teachers “rarely” mentioned about linking sounds in listening time

Concerning teachers and students‟ perception about teaching linking sounds, the information collected from the questionnaires showed that teaching pronunciation in general and teaching linking sounds in particular is not popular in Tien Giang University Many teachers neglected to teach linking sounds Nevertheless, to get good listening, students not only need vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation is the most important one Actually, pronunciation is extremely hard for students to achieve Therefore, it is believed that if the teachers have their own motivation in teaching pronunciation and they can apply many different ways to encourage students to learn pronunciation successfully, this can motivate students to learn pronunciation well

4.2 The situation of teaching linking sounds to Tien Giang First year major students at Tien Giang University

4.2.1 The frequency of teaching linking sounds at Tien Giang University

In the same matter, when being asked about their teachers‟ frequency in teaching linking sounds in listening session, most of the students ( with 50%) answered that their teachers “sometimes” did that There were 38% of students choosing the “usually” answer However, the numbers of teachers that “usually” applied the knowledge of linking sounds in listening were not considerable, only 12%

It can be seen that the EFL teachers at Tien Giang have not preferred the frequency of linking sounds in teaching listening yet Without this frequency, it is impossible for students to listen well Linking sounds is not all for students to listen but it can help students recognize the flow of the speech that the speakers have Thus, to find the best ways in teaching linking sound effectively to improve students‟ listening, the EFL teachers should both identify the frequency of this teaching and overcome some factors affect their teaching process

Table 4.2.1: The frequency of teaching linking sounds at Tien Giang University

4.2.2 Time for teaching linking sounds in class

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Teachers Students

Figure 4.2.2: Time for teaching linking sounds in class

As the result shown in the table, 50% of teachers claimed that they spent 5 –

10 minutes to teach linking sounds With the same percentage, however, 50% of the rest only save 5 minutes in teaching linking sounds

With the same statement, the researcher investigated 100 students of first year English major students Up to 60% of students stated that their teachers spent 5 – 10 minutes on teaching linking sounds Besides, 40% of students indicated that their teachers had less than 5 minutes in this process There is 0% of students choosing

“more than 5 minutes” answer or “10 – 15 minutes” answer

From the result above, it can be seen that both teachers and students have not paid much attention to teaching and learning linking sounds in class yet With the time from 5 to 10 minutes, or even less than 5 minutes, how can a teacher interfere with all aspects of linking sounds in the listening session? Furthermore, with the time like that, do the students identify what linking sounds is? Therefore, the teachers should have more time on teaching and organizing more practicing for students so that linking sounds becomes really helpful in teaching, especially in improving students‟ listening

>5mins 10-15 5-10 <5mins

4.2.3 Teaching linking sounds

0 50 100

Chart 4.2.3

Teachers 9,1 75,5 5,5 10 Students 6,1 85,7 8,2 0

C-C C-V V-V All

Figure 4.2.3: Teaching linking sound

As can be seen from the table, up to 75,5% of teachers have ever taught the linking

a consonant to a vowel Besides, 9,1% of teachers indicated that they have taught linking a consonant to a consonant in their class, and 10% of teachers said that they have taught all aspects above of linking sounds Nevertheless, there are a few one with 5,5% confirmed that they have ever done with linking a vowel and a vowel

With the same question, the data from the students‟ questionnaires has a little bit difference Like teachers‟ opinion, most of the students confirmed that up to 85,7% of EFL teachers have taught linking sounds a consonant to a vowel In addition, 8,2 % of students said that they are accustomed to linking of a vowel and a vowel since their teachers have ever taught in listening class Others with percentage of 6,1 % agreed that their teachers have introduced the knowledge of linking a consonant to a consonant However, 0% of students affirmed that their teacher have ever taught all of aspects of linking sounds mentioned above

It is obvious that both teachers and students at Tien Giang University become rather familiar with the linking a consonant to a vowel This sounds good because this kind of linking can help students recognize the flow of the speech when the native speakers give the input However, to listen more effectively, it is necessary to combine all of other aspects With teachers, to have more ways to teach listening

effectively, combining all aspects of connected speech in general and of linking sounds in particular are always suggested The result from the chart showed that the exploration of linking sounds aspects has not been made yet Thus, the researcher hopes that this study can bring some certain benefits to the teaching pronunciation

at Tien Giang University

4.2.4 Situations to apply into teaching linking sounds

01020304050

Chart 4.2.4

TeachersStudents

Figure 4.2.4: Situation to apply into teaching linking sounds

Looking at chart 4.2.4, it can be seen that most of teachers (36,8%) used “daily conversation” as a supporting situation to teach linking sounds This is considered

to be a good one for students in practicing listening and speaking Meanwhile, 31,6% of teachers instructed their students to practice in “daily communication” This kind of activity is really helpful because it can make students practice listening

in natural way In addition, 21,1% of teachers who have ever applied “context” in their teaching Besides, 10,5% of teachers stated that discourse was really useful to teach linking sounds None gave the ideas for the “others” choice

As for students, a large number of students agreed that most of teachers (41,3%) applied “daily conversation” in the classroom, followed by 27,3% of

“discourse” In addition, 19,8% of students answered that their teachers have ever used “daily communication” in teaching linking sounds Besides, 11,6% of students