Luận văn a study on using multimedia for teaching pronunciation to pre intermediate students in crazy ones english center

ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to find out strategies applying multimedia into teaching, pronunciation for pre-intermediate students at Crazy Ones English Center CORC.. opinions on th

NGIUEN CUU VLEC SU DUNG DA PHUONG TIEN TRONG VLEC GLANG

DAY PHAT AM CHO HOC VIEN TRINH DO PRE-INTERMEDIATE TAT

'TRUNG TÂM ANH NGU CRAZY ONES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

: English Teaching Methodology : 60140111

HANOI —2015

NGIUEN CUU VLEC SU DUNG DA PHUONG TIEN TRONG VLEC GLANG DAY PHAT AM CHO HQC VIEN TRINH DO PRE-INTERMEDIATE TAT

'TRUNG TÂM ANH NGU CRAZY ONES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

Supervisor : TRAN THI THU HIEN, PhD

HANOI - 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, T would like Lo express my gralefulness to my supervisor, Dr Tran

Thị Thu Hiển, leewrer of Faculty of English, VNU University of Language & International Studies for her enthusiastic instruction, and invaluable supervision throughoul my assigrmner,

Secondly, | would like to send my thanks to my lecturers and the staff at Post-Graduate Faculty, VNU University of Language & Intemational Studies for all their kind guide and help

‘Thirdly, my thanks aiso go to all the teachers and the manager of Crazy Ones Center for their willing help and enthusiasm cooperation

Finally yet importantly, I would like to give our special thanks to my family who have been interminably encouraging and facilitating me to fulfill this

assignment

Hà Nội, 2015

Triệu Ngọc Tuân

ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to find out strategies applying multimedia into teaching, pronunciation for pre-intermediate students at Crazy Ones English Center (CORC) The author finds ont all students believed in the importance of pronunciation in communicating Llowever, they did not satisfy with the prommeiation lessons because of its tedious activities and lack of practicing opporiunilies Moreover, despite using multimedia in teaching pronunciation, teachers did not prepare well because of their insufficient diversity of multimedia tools and effective activities Based on the findings, a number of implications were given with the hope of promoting the teaching and learning pronunciation at COEC

in particular and at other Linglish training centers in general

Reasons why students do not like pronunciation activities 19

Students! errors in producing sounds 20

Students! stress on corrective stressed syllables

Students! linking sounds performance 22

Aspecis of pronunciation te be taught al Crazy Ones English 24

Center

Students! interes! in pronunciation lessons 28

Students’ opinions on effective factors in studying 29

pronunciation

Students! opinions on the benefits and degree of changes they 30 have made after using multimedia in learning pronunciation

Comparison of students' pronunciation of English sounds in the pre- 30

test and the post-test

Students’ stress on corrective stressed syllables 31 Comparison of students’ pronunciation of English rhytlon m the pre- 31

test and the post-test

Comparison of students' pronunciation of linglish intonation inthe 32

pre-test and the post-test

Comparison of students! pronunciation of English linking sounds at 33

the pre-test and the post-test

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CORC Cmuy Ones English Center

12 Second Language

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Methods of the study

Scope of the Study cscccsssssceseeeienivtstenessensnee

Significance of the study

Organi pn of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

11 Pronunciation Teaching

LLL Definition of prominciation esseves ses ceeessvuveseinee

1.1.2 The role of promunciation in language teaching

1.1.3, Aspects gƒ pronunciation in language (eaching

1.1.4 .Approaches in promamciatian (eaching

1.2, Multimedia

1.2.1 Definition of Multimedia

1.2.2 Multimedia in language learning

1.2.3 Multimedia in teaching English pronunciation

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Action research

2.1.1 Definition

2.1.2 Why action research was chosen for this study? occu seseeo.14

2.2 Context oŸ fhc swdy àeceeneeneeree sen L9

222 PAVECIPARS occ cà ccccthenHgnheerdsiamdrerairriioTOỶ

2.2.3 Multimedia used in Crazy Ones English Center "¬¬ ened 6

CHAPTER 3: THE SUDY cằằ neo TBE

1 Reoapitulation qH HH H011 1.01100100001110 g11eecee Seo 3Ô

3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 37 REFERENCES

Appendix 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS IN PRE-

Appendix 2: QUESTIONNALRES FOR STUDENTS LN POST —

Appendix IEMI-STRUCTURAL, INTERVIEW QUESTIONS VI

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Jnglish has been taught in Vietnam for ages; however, teaching speaking

skill is still one of the biggest problems to both English teachers and educators

Despite the important requirement of English in schooling and working, a huge number of Vietnamese students cannot pronounce English properly This also

happens to Pre-intermediate learners at Crazy Ones English Center (CORC) who are

confident in their knowledge of granunar and have learnt some basic prommeiation rules Because of their poor pronunciation, they usually feel unconfident when

communicating, as well as gel difficulty in listening and speaking When learning

English speaking, continuous practicing pronunciation without success loads to a

result that both students and teachers become disheartened and they even tend to

reduce training prommeialion al class Studonls, therefore, think thal it is no worth

leaming and borme, of leaming pronunciation However, Judy (2008:1) reports in

her book that “a teacher can help overcome this psychological barrier and other

challenges by thinking of the goal of pronunciation instruction nol us helping students to sound like native speakers but as helping them ta learn the core

elements of spoken English so that they can be easily understood by athers.”

Therefore, that it is a duty for teachers to find out a more effective way of teaching

pronunciation

Moreover, in the very recent time, more and more modem technologies, like projectors, computers animation, videos, Powerpoint, Webpages, software are used

in teaching Using multimedia which is an alternative method to teach

pronunciation could be more effective to help students engage the lesson and dispel

the [ear of learning sounds in the very tradilional way instead The researcher together with his colleagues teaching at Crazy Ones Center have also made a lat of

allempis using these updated techniques to help students Lo leam pronunciation

effortless and cffectively They have equipped one projector in cach class and one laptop for each teacher

Although teachers at Crazy Ones Center have been using these techniques at class, there has been no research on teaching pronunciation in this specific place Furthermore, students scom to be negative in learning and they are nol engaged in the lesson Therefore, it is a need for the researcher to investigate and provide some feasible and effective ways of teaching pronunciation using multimedia

2 Aims of the study

This research aims at using multimedia to motivate pre-intermediate students

in learning pronunciation at Crazy Ones English Center

According to the aim, the researcher points out some main objectives as bellow:

- To investigate the students and teachers’ attitude toward pronunciation

learning and using mullimedia i pronunciation

- To apply multimedia in pronunciation learning and assess the impacts of

snultimedia in helping the students learning pronunciation

3 Research question

This study is supposed to answer these questions

(1) What do teachers and students at Crasy Qnex English Center think

about prominciation learning and using multimedia in pronunciation? (2) What are the effects of using multimedia in helping students at Crazp Ones Rnglish Center in learning pronunciation?

4 Methods of the study

This study emplays both qualitative and quantitative methods To reach the aim of

the study, the researcher intends (o carry out an action research al Cravy Oncs English

Center

5 Scope of the Study

This study focuses on using multimedia for teaching pronunciation to Pre-

iy

Intermediate students in Crazy Ones English Center All of the efforts to teach students at other levels and/or at other Linglish centers and institutions with different

techniques are out of he scope of the study

6 Significance of the study

Pronunciation has often been used to evaluate the cohesion and fluency of

speakers Whether sitling for an exam assessing speaking skill or participating in a job interviews, candidates who can speak cohesively and fluently take advantages Good pronunciation is important for people who want to improve their speaking

skill Moreover, they cart also understand others more easily and vice versa

Llowever, to be good at learning pronunciation is very difficult for students The research was carried out to find out the applicability of multimedia in teaching and learning Frylish pronunciation 1o help students al Cravy Ones English Cenler improve their speaking skill and confidence while communicating in English The

author hopes that the results of the study could contribute for the English center in

{caching and learning English pronuneialion Besides, he also hopes that this study

could be a useful reference for both teachers and students in finding an innovative

way to achieve students” progress int Bnglish pronunciation field

7 Organization uf the study

This study includes three parts:

Part A: Introduction introduces the rationale for the research, the aims of the study, research questions, the methods, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study

Part B: Development includes three chapters, reports on the main contents of

the sludy Chapter 1 reviews necessary theories and studies related to Ihe topic of the research ‘hen, chapter 2 shows the methodology of the study Finally, in

chapter 3, the study has been cared oul at the Crazy Oues English Center is

deseribed.

Part C: Conclusion deals with the recapitulation as well as the limitations and

suggestions for further studies.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Pronunciation Teaching

LLL Definition of pronunciation

"Pronunciation" is defined as" the way in which a word or language is

pronounced” (Macmillan Dictionary, 2009)

The role of pronunciation in language teaching

#rom the late 1960s to 1980s, pronunciation teaching was not considered as

auch important because it was not admitted as a part of communicative competence

(Penning & Richards, 1986) Tn the waditional language teaching, leamers

usually learnt speaking and improved pronunciation ability themselves Although

the communicative language teaching had been finally the cutting edge,

pronuncialion instruction were ollen ignored

However, later researchers point out the change of view to pronunciation

From the middle of 1980s, Pronunciation had been put in to its! significance to communicative language instruclion more than just part of linguistie (Grant, 1995; Pennington & Richards, 1986) Morley (1991: 488) claims, "Intel-ligible

pronunciation is an essential component of communicative competence" Tn another

soscarch, Isaacs (2009:2) emphasizes the importance of pronunciation teaching as

"the prominence in the structural approach to teaching (audiolingualism)"

1.1.3 Aspects of pronunciation in language teaching

When discussing about pronunciation, people often talk about sounds and rules of making sounds, however pronunciation contains much more than just the phonemes, they arc: stress, intonation, linking, rhythm

The smallest segments of sounds called phonemes There are forty-four

phonemes divided into: vowels and consonants.

Vowels arc sounds that are produced when the airstream is voiced and is not

obstructed but is shaped by the tongue and lips

Consonanis are sounds (hal, when produced, obstruct somchow the airflow

Jn addition, teaching pronunciation can become unproductive if teaching

“individual sounds without establishing some basic understanding of the English

system of rhythm and melody” (Gilberl, 2008-30) He builds up the “English

prosody” in order to obtain the L2's rhythm then “make it easier for students to pronounce L2 sounds.” Ilis “Prosedy Pyramid performs “peak”, “stress”, “focus

word”, and “thought group” From top to bottom He dignify the “éhought group”

because it supports the listeners understand the speakers more effortless

When speaking fast and unconsciously, English people often use linking

According to BBC Learning English "7inking is a way of joining the pronunciation

of two words so that they are easy te say and flow together smoothly."

Pronouncing sounds individually is different from pronouncmg sounds in a

phrase or a senferice Besides, there are always important or information words

which tend to be in swong form and less important word or structural words which

tend lo be in weak form when making ullerances These structural words will be changed into schwa sounds and are not pronounced clearly Understanding weak

form and practicing it can help leamers improve not only their fluent spealring but

also listeninys capacity “Depending on the environments in which they are found,

vowels become schwa in unstressed syllables, phonemes are dropped, phonemes are added, and phonemes are changed to become more like the phonemes around

them.” (Brown, 2012:3)

Standard pronunciation is continously in discussing like what kind of Tnglish pronunciation should we teach students Teachers need to notice leaners

about the slandard accenl using connected speech The standard accer here car be

British English or American English because these types of accent can describe the

connected speech the best Arthur (2001:1) affirmed: “those two ‘traditional’

Standard Englishes i.e British Siandard English, and American Standard English}

co-exist with many other Englishes in the UK, the US, and elsewhere as part of a world English” or with a range of ‘world Lnglishes’ and further Standard

Englishes have begun to assert themselves more potenily than before, in for

example Australia (AusSH), Canada (Can SE), and the Philippines (PhiISE)”

In teaching pronunciation, Wharton & Race (1999:28) insist on the

importance of Ihe correcl intonalion because “inappropriate intonation may mean

that they ‘give the wrong message’ when they speak”

Vurthermore, Brown (2012) affirms that “Learning the Phonemes of English

Ts Not Enough? and “Learning the phonemes of English ix only the first step to

learning clear pronunciation The phonemes are just the basic units, and if teachers never show students haw the basic units fil together, the students will continue io

sound foreign.” Tn adchlion, the solution is to leach commecled speech in order to

help ESL/EFL utilize pronunciation smoother in daily speech

One more thing is that leamers need to identify the strong form and weak

form, especially the schwa sound When they pay raure allention to the weak form

they can speak faster, more natwally and understand the conversation more easily

In daily conversation, the given phonemes can change dus to the context suzowded, the purpose of spcakers or the influence of phonemes nearby The

problem here is that leamers cannot realize this phenomenon and as a result, they

cammot understand the ullerance corselly TL happens more oflen in informal or

casual speech in everyday conversation, in particularly in reduction phrase of American English For example, native speakers say “gividame” instead of “give it

to me™ or “wanna go?” instead of “do you want to go” “In casual situation, we are

sometimes less careful with pronunciation and grammar” (Mojsin, 2009:115) so

that we have to be more careful with informal spoken English

Some learners have an erroneous idea that it is a good way of speaking Sask

to be a fluent speaker, They even do not know when to pause in a sentence It is necessary to notice that speaking fast is not always the fluency but the correct pauses Zclhicr (1994: 46-47) explains thal “pauses provide additional lime during

which the final output can be planned and programmed This hypothesis explains some common observations, such as when a speaker thinks a long time before

providing a very quick, clear, and well-constructed reply On the other hand, il can

also be observed that sometimes, a speaker begins to reply at once, and then has to stop or retrace his steps to clarify his message In this case, the hypothesisproposes

that “speech has raced ahead of cognitive activity” and thal the pause reflects the

time needed for the cognitive planning process to catch up.” In another word, we can understand that speakers have to know how to use rhythm, how to use sentence

stresses and pauses correctly

1.1.4, Approaches in pronunciation teaching

According to Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996:2), there have been

two basic approaches in teaching pronunciation Ibrough lhe yoars: the Intsitive-

Imitative Approach and the Analvtic- Linguistic Approach

The Intuitive-Imitative Approach: This approach uses a model of sounds

for the standard for learners to lisler and repeal, Learners can imitate the sounds

from a various type of multimedia such as audio, CD players, videos

The Analytic-Linguistic Approach: This approaclt analyves pronunciation

in the scemental level (using phonctic chart, articulator descriptions .} to help

leamers understand the use of pronunciation ‘Teacher mainly utilize the Analytic

Linguistic Approaches lo add supplement to The Tntuilive-Imitative Approaches

Yates (2002:1) suggests that top-down and bottom-up approaches can be usefull in teaching pronunciation with different purpose of teaching

Bottom-up Approach: Teachers have students listen to individual sounds or

phonemes to decode the meaning of what they hear They also need to work with stress, intonation, and rhythm

Top-down Approach: Teachers have students listen to the overall mearing

of what they hear, use their background knowledge of the topic to create

expectations about what it must all mean

The later approach, integrated approach, cmphasizes its effective integration 6Ÿ pronunoiation instruction (Levis & Grant, 2003)

Integrated Approach: This approach has been used by many researchers who need to apply it for teaching difficult sounds (Yong, Lin, Lianxia & Yinying, 2012) The purpose of the teachers for using this approach can be getting students motivated, engaged, and interesied in learning pronunciation This approach contains a combination a good practice of using animation, performance crill, training of pronunciation, visual and kinetic coordination In summary, it motivates sturlents to gel knowledge and skilled by practicing and solving problems

1.2 Multimedia

121 Definition of Multimedia

TDue lo the development of morderm technology , mulumecdia provides the

use of multimedia software and internet which are very powerful in communication today In gemeral, multimedia is a very popular term in the domain of computers

which refers to ihe “present text, graphics, video, animation and sound in an

integrated way” (Webopedia, 2006) However, multimedia is not only used in

computer fields but also in so many others Banerji and Ghosh (2010:2) mention about multimedia that almost people have Uhought about its definilion so Far

When used as a noun, ‘uraitinedia’ refers to all the tcchnology and devicces for

couununication of information It means the combined use of several forms of

audio and visual media such as text, graphics, andio, animation and video For

example, when we say ‘telephone conuumicaion technology is evolving inlo

multimedia such as videophone’ it is used as noun When used as an adjective, the

term ‘sultimedia’ describes presentations involving the use of several media

simullancously For cxample, when we say ‘a zultimedia presentation for the cÈass

it is used os an adjective

1.2.2 Multimedia in language learning

Ta this study, Ihe author would like to apply mulled am learning

pronunciation sơ that he focuses on the educational multimedia Multimedia

lcaming, as in SEG’s definition (2008:1), refers to “the delivering instruction

including visual and auditory information for students to construct knowledge” In

fact, many researchers show the numerous of bencfils of multimedia i teachomg To

emphasize the essentiality of application of Multimedia Technology in English

communication teaching, Chirag (2013: 117) point out seven effects: (i) To sow

students’ sludying arouses; (ii) To improve slucents’ oral skill, (4) To help student

understand and gam knowledge about Western culture; (iv) ‘Io get a better cause in teaching: (v) to set up a better interaction between teachers and students; (wi) To

make a context for language teaching purpose; (vii) To make content of lessons

more flexible

In terms of cognitive theary of multimedia learning as described by Mayer

(2005: 46-47), iL is casier for students to leam from mullimedia than words

individual Earlier, Brown (2000:122) stated that “most successful learners utilize

both visual and auditory input” and he continued to emphasize “slight preferences

one way or the other may distinguish one learner from another, an important factor

(for classroom instruction.” ‘that means to the leamers with communicative purpose,

teachers should use visual aids with “visual input” and “auditory impuf” Lo mstruct them about the lesson,

In his research, Desai (201317) finds that “Computer Multimedia” is

suilable in tcaching Frghsh according to three lypes ol’ learners “in Enghsh

irrespective”, those are “Gender of the students”, “Urban and Rural area”, and

“irrespective of Level of IQ” Ile also concludes that “Computer Multimedia” is

better than the “iraditional teaching method” in helping students practicing and

leaming English because when using this new method “they have the potentiality to motivate, to reinforce, to inform, to guide, to assist, to enhance retention, etc.”

Tr recommending the using of Information and cormmunication lechnologies,

Wharton & Race (1999:62-71) give the full advice in five tips: “flelping learners to get started with e-mail’; “Setting up computer conferencing ;“Choosing computer- aided packages”; “Designing computer-delivered assessment elements"; “Giving

learners feedback using e-mail” They claim that it is vory uscful for students with thier self-study and “they can receive a great deal of useful feedback from each other, in the comfort and privacy of a seat al a coraputer terminal.” Togelher with that, teachers can give feedback to students by email ina very convenient way,

1.23 Multimedia in teaching English pronunciation

In the developing of the information technology, students have been more

familiar in using computer for the learning purpose and many cducators have found the extensive of taking its advantages in teaching Besides, practicing time in oral

skills at class is often limited so that shiđeris do not satisfy with the minified time

of drill Su (2008:102), in his study, finds that pronunciation sollware helps solving the problems of time lacking effectively Some other advantages of using software

in learning that he shows are the students will not face with being “blamed”, “made afraid’, oc “embarrassed” when learning However it would be better to be

“complimentary” between the real teachers and the computer Le suggests that

teachers should prepare well to apply pronunciation software; and, otherwise, not

only computers but teachers should give feedback to students’ mistakes because they prefer teachers to “indicate their mistakes, and tell them how to correct their promunciation”

Leaming pronunciation can be boring Therefore, Por & Fong (2011; 245)

think that using multimedia “makes learning pronunciation effective and a fun

experience” They, then, believe if will improve students’ prommetation ability and

lcaming motivation, However, to do so, Zahra (2001:256) recommends a good

computer training for students must be done

Poor pronunalion cart lead to the misunderstanding between the speakers and listeners ‘this happens with both beginners and advanced leamers Wharton &

Race (1999:29) give a suggestion on how to teach pronunciation to help students

overcome the pronunciation mistakes by using recording lool They believe thal by this listening to students’ recording teacher can easily find out their mistakes and difficulties in order to enhance their speaking ability Having the same thought that

ll

recording can helps students in learning pronunciation, Lane & Brown (2010:12)

show that homework is easily taken by “short recordings of either spontaneous

speech or a controlled warm-up exercise followed by a freer speaking task”

Feedback and instruction can be sent easily by teacher sending email or even “live

or recorded feedback” They also propose that the feedback can be employed into

“peer feedback Activities” at class

One of three modes of practice is given in pronunciation teaching by Morley

(1991: 509) is “Jmitative Speaking Practice” which contains “self-access audio-

and/or videotaped materials” for intermediate to advanced students This mode of

practice concentrates on the fixed pronunciation/accent of the speakers in the videos

and needs “contextualized practice”

Based on the Plass and Jones’ (2005) model connecting the theories of

second language acquisition and the cognitive theory of multimedia leaming,

Quynh (2009; 3) propose another model which enhances the speaking skills in

It is noticed from her application that this type of her video dnill has a

limitation to the level of students This practice will not suitable for the beginners

because they would get a lot of difficulties in understanding the content of the clips and, most of all, would feel depressive in presenting and imitating the long speech

TL is, of course, beneficial to the intermediale to advanced learners who will be

excited about discovering new information in the clips and expressing themselves in

the “face to face class”.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1, Action research

2.4.1 Definition

Bassey (1998: 93) describes ‘action research as an enquiry which is carried

aut in order to understand, (o evaluate and then io change, in order in improve

educational practice’

Winter and Munn-Giddings’s (2001: 8) state about action research as a‘‘study

of a social situation carried out by those involved in that situation in order to

improve both their practice and the quality of their understanding’, captures the essence of the philosophy underlying the action research approach.”

2.1.2 Why action research was chosen for this study?

Action research provides better practice than theory for teachers to apply into

a specific class or course so that to develop the teaching and learning in a particular

class room, teachers oreducatianal practitioners should make an antion research In

another word, it is paticipatory reseach which requires teachers take an impact into teaching in order to make an positive results ‘he results are most profitable for the

aim of the environment of the study instead of only observing or analysing Besides,

each class has its own issue depending on the level of students, what the students

enquire to get, the ages of students, students’ motivation or the purpose of their

learning To develop the teaching and learning, teacher needs to make a research to

find oul the problens (what is exaclly the problem that teachers should care about)

in their classroom then make an action to sovle the issues Using action research,

teachers could apply the practice inlo a real classroom conlinuously im order to

enhance their teaching which sooner or later they have to make

The author of this study has the purpose of enhancing his own students’

learning in pronunciation withoul the arabition of straithenimg out the issuc of the

whole educational system ‘Ihe study is made to identify what happens at his classroom in prommeiation course and make a decision on how to improve

professional practices The authour totally believes that the change of English

14

pronunciation training could assist the students’ improvement It concludes questions to test his idea about teaching practices and systematic approachso as to grasp more about leaminys progress

2.2 Context of the study

2.2.1 Crazy Ones English Center

Crazy Ones, a young English Center in Hanoi, was founded in the early of

2013 Tis main duty 1s 1o train the communicalive skalls to young students from universities in [lanoi (mostly from the ages of 18 to 27) The students at the centers are students who have leamt English from high school and urriversily but they have difficultics in communicating in English, especially poor pronunciation, The class at this center contains a small number of students at about fifteen for each ‘The classroom is well equipped with comfortable (eacking and learning, convemences (air conditional, Jorge learning classroom ) multimedia device (computers, microphone, projector, screen )

The prommeiation course is nine weeks long Students study two lessons per

week Each lesson lasts for two hours On the first three weeks, students study the

segmental elements, that is vowels and consonants On the last six weeks, they

study the super-segmental level containing stress, intonation, linking

2.2.2 Participants

The participants of this study were 30 pre-intermediate students who have

learnt basic pronuncialion al Crazy Ones English center for three weeks They are

from the ages of 18 to 27 They are 23 females and 7 males There are 3 female

teachers for the survey questionnaires from the ages of 24 to 28 at Crazy Ones

nghsh center All the teachers and students come from dillerent paris of Vieinam,

but living in Hanoi

Although all students have leamt the basic pronunciation mules, they have difficulty in pronouncing fluently, especially at the sentence level Tor example,

they often ignore the stress and intonation when communicating Most of thom have not learnt pronunciation at school and lack of practicing opportunity,

2.23 Multimedia used in Crazy Ones English Center

Although there are good multimedia devices supported, they are used very little They just sometimes show Powerpoint on the screen, play the CD or just organize some games, English songs Not all the advantages of multimedia are inserted Understanding this, leaders and teachers at this center are trying to employ

mullimedia ito leaching pronunciation more effectively

There were two questionnaires for students (on week 2 and 9) TL aimed to

collect students' information and their attitude at leaming pronunciation then to

compare the result of the pre-test aril (he post-test to see ther progress

"Semi-structural interview

One semi-structural interview was conducted for teachers on week 2 It was a collecting data from teachers to find their opinion about the important degree of multimedia tools to teaching pronunciation and solutions improve students! performance when using them

* Pre-test & Post-test

The researcher conducted a pre-test and a post-test by using audio recording software (audacity) in order to find out students’ pronunciation errors and examine

their improvement aller applying multimedia in learning and leaching,

There were two recording tests to evaluate the promunciation ability of

students ‘The author also used the data for analyzing the progress of students ‘The

first test was given to students on the week 2 and the second one was taken on the

week 9 The first recording test is to find cut students' pronunciation errors in

pronouncing sounds, stress, rhythm, word linking and intonation ‘Ihe second on is

to assess the effectiveness of using multimedia in teaching promunciation.

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 The research stages

PRE-INTERVENTION STAGE

3.11 Identifving the problem

Before the study was conducted, the author had observed his own classroom

and seen a Jot of problems from his students at pronunciation course at Crazy Ones Tnglish center They had difficulty in understanding and identifying sounds in

English distinguishing from ther mother tongue They tended to pronounce the

same way they spoke in their mother tongue

At that time, he also realized that the students were inactive with the class

achivilies They spont time on listening to teachers’ guide more than pracheig with:

friends or enhancing their own speaking skills Many students did not have the correction from teachers for their pronunciation They seemed to be bored and dissatistied because they just sat still and repeal aller teacher's voiee or audio One

or two students fell asleep during reading the text on screen or listening to teachers’ explanation

3.1.1.1 Questionnaires for students

‘The survey questionnaires were conducted by asking 30 students to give the answers for 5 questions on the prepared papers Their identity was not shown on the

In the first three questions (see appendix 1), 73% of the students said that ihey did not like learning pronunciation 100% of the students were aware of dhe importance role of learning pronunciation 90% students chose "important" and

10% of them chose “ “very anportant" However, all students agreed thal learmng

pronunciation was not casy Most of the students (70%) thought it was vory difficult

to lear pronunciation Another amount is from those who stated that it was quite

difficult, counted for 23.3% The last amount comes from 6.7% who said learning

promungialion was difficult

b Reasons why students do not like pronunciation ac

‘Lou much new words thal students do nol know the promuucialion 3 136

The content of the lessons is not interesting 16 727

Teacher's pronunciation is not clear enongh oO

Teacher does not give clear examples to clarify the lessons Sĩ

‘Teacher gives lille chance of praclicing for sludenls 100 Teacher does not provide enough means illustrating for the promunciation lessons 8 364

Table 1: Reasons why students do not like prominciation activities

The main reason that makes students dislike pronunciation learning “ihe

activities are poor” (90.9%) ‘The second majority of uninterested attitude to the

promunciation activities is 72.2% from the students who believed that the content of

the lessons was rio interesting, 22.7% of the students said that they were not

motivated to learn 13.6% of them stated that they did mot know how to pronounce

of a large mimber of new words 9.1% of the students wished that they would have

auore tine of pronunciation practicing and feedback from teacher

Vortunately, none of the students reported that their teachers’ pronunciation

was unclear The reason for students not enjoying the activities is that teachers did

not give clear examples to clarify the lessons, However, this reason was only about

9.1%, All students (100%) thought that the reason effects their pronunciation

learning negatively is that teachers gave little chance for them to practice 36.4% of

them thought that their teacher did not provide cnongh The last reasons come from

27.3% students who said that they needed more care from the teacher Apart from

the options listed, some students added thal i would be better if leacher should

listen to most of students then correct and give feedback to them Besides, they

wished to have more interesting activities with sounds and images in order to avoid

distracting so thal they could join m and by the way learn promumeiation Some gave

19

opinions that they necded more interaction between students and teacher and students with each other themselves

Pronowicing /ae/ sound wrngly 24 | 80%

Omitting final consonant clusters 25 | 33%

Mispronomcing between lang and short vowel 26| 87%

Ironotaicbng fi/ sound wrongly 21| 70%

Pronouncing /bl’ consonant cluster wrongh 3| 27%

Đronoancing ‘pr’ consonant cluster wrongly 14 | 47%

Prononneing ‘br’ consonant cluster wrongly 13 | 43%

Table 2: Students’ errors in producing sounds

ina very difficult consonant ‘6, counted for 73% of the students Many of them did

not know when to pronounce /i:/ so that they made the sound /ju:/ instead The next

chisters of consonants are /bl/, /pr/ and /br/ which were pronounced in Vietnamese

way by adding schwa sound like /bol’, ‘par/ and /ber’,

10 Qoa0d0a 10 33%

Table 3: Students‘ stress on corrective stressed syllables

As can be seen from table 3, many students did not give the correct stress The

most correct sentence stress they made was from the very short sentence (sentence 1 and 11) with the number of only 40% students

c Rhython

Table 4 Stadents! rhythm

The biggest problem when students mad:

students did not give the correct sentence stress,

Table 5: Susdents' intonation

As can be seen from table 5, most of the students produced covreet ilonation with:

falling intonation of statement sentences 90% of the studeuts made correct falling intonation

in sentence 1 and 11 Ilowever, they had difficulty in identifying, intonation from listing

sentence The lowest number of students (53'

listing sentence 4

1) wha had correct intonation came from