Luận văn a study on activities to increase motivation to learn pronunciation for the first year english major students at hanam teachers' training college

A STUDY ON ACTIVITLES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION TO LEARN PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST — YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE QNGIITTÈN CỬU CAC IIOAT DONG NITAM TAN

A STUDY ON ACTIVITLES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION TO LEARN

PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST — YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HANAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE

(QNGIITTÈN CỬU CAC IIOAT DONG NITAM TANG CUGNG IDUNG TITU TI9c

PHAT AM TIENG ANH CHO SINH VIEN NAM THU NHẬT HE CAO DANG

THING ANLL'TALTRUGNG CAO DANG SU’ PHAM LIA NAM )

M.A Minor Programme ‘Thesis

Field: English Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

HANOT - 2010

TRINH PHƯƠNG LIEN

A STUDY ON ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION TO LEARN

PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST — YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HANAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE

(NGHIEN CUU CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÄM TĂNG CƯỜNG HỨNG THỦ HỌC

PHAT AM TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT HỆ CAO ĐĂNG

'TIỀNG ANH TAI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐĂNG SƯ PHAM HÀ NAM)

Field: ENGLISIL METIODOLOGY Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: NGUYEN HUYEN MINH, M.A

HANGI - 2010

1 Rationale of the study

2 Statement of the problem

3 Purpose of the study

4, Research questions

S Method of the study

6 Significance of the study

7 Definition of terms

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Researches infa pronunciation teaching

1.1.1 Approaches to pronunciation teaching

1.12 Teaching Pronunciation: Segmentals or Suprasegmentals?

1.1.3 Faclars affect pronunciation Icarning and Icaching English

1.2 Rescarches into motivation in teaching and learning

1.2.1 Role of motivation fo students’ leaning

1.2.2 Factors affect sLudents’ motivation

1.2.3 Framework to increase and sustain students’ motivation

1.3 Researches int the ways to motivate students In pronunciation lessons

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context of the study

2.2 Participants of the study

2.3.5 The students’ journals

2.3.6 Teacher’s observations and ancedotal notes

CHAPTER 3: DATA PRESENTATION

3.1 Prommeiation orientation and diagnostic test

3.2 The students’ journals

4.1.2.2 Analysis and findings

4.1.3 The students’ journals

4.1.4, Teacher’s observations and anecdotal notes

4.2 Discussion

4.2.1 The Toles of motivating activiliss

4.2.2, Factors influencing the students’ motivation and pertormance

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale pf the study

In the process of globalization, the ability to communicate in English plays an important role in fostering the development of the whole nation in general and of Phu Ly city - La Nam provinee in particular, In order to comumunicate well in English, onc advantagcous point is to have an intelligible promunciation

Towever, from the first day of my career as a Leacher, I faced a disitlusion to find (hal the first-year English major students at Hanam Teachers’ Training College had serious problems in pronuneiation, They muspronounced many words, paid very little attention to stress, intonation and rhythm ‘Iherefore, it is my desire to improve the situation of the students’ pronunciation I registered to teach the subject “Practical Pronunciation” with the coursebook “Ship or Sheep” by Ann Baker (1997) After the first courses, I was delighted to

witness certain improvements in students’ pronuncialion Towever, il seemed to me thal my

students were not very motivated in the course and their efforts faded quickly after the examination ‘This fact dawned on me that my teaching was not inleresting and motivating enough, From the experience of the previous cour

ro aught, they orily learn what [hoy arc intercstod in

‘The researchers also added that students are unlikely to be very successful at learmmg anything unless they enjoy the process

Reing urged by the situation and motivated by the idea of finding interesting tools ta teach pronunciation in an effective and systematic way, 1 would like to avail myself of this

opportunity to conduct a research on activities to motivate first-year English major students at

Hamar Teachers’ Training College to learn promuneiation

office workers specializing in English for joint-venture companics in the industrial zones in the provinoe, raining some wal: interpreters and translators to work in the Middlc-Fasl countries in Asia, With the above aims, it is required that students nmst have an intelligible pronunciation

However, as a teacher of English at Hanam Teachers’ Training College, I found that students had serious problems with English pronunciation Most of them come from rural arcas of Thanh Tim, Binh Lac, Kim Bang, Ly Nhan, whers there is no cmphasis on learning pronunciation Therefore, it is easy to find that students have so many problems with

pronunciation Moreover, in my previous courses of teaching pronunciation, | realized that my

students seemed not to be highly motivated in learning with activilics in the courscbook

From the cuzront situation of Hanam Teachers’ Training College, | would like to conduct

a tesearch on activities to motivate first-year English major students at Hanam Teachers’

Training Colloge to Ivarn pronunciation

3 Purpose of the study

‘This research is designed to bring a new air into the promunciation class of the first-year English major studenls al Hanam Teachers’ Training College In genzral, the purposes of this study are:

| to seek activities to motivate the first-year English major students at ITanam Teachers’

Training Colloge to barn pronunciation

+ to have empirical evidence of motivating activities on learning pronunciation of the

first-year inglish major students at [anam ‘Teachers’ ‘Training College

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5 Method of the study

The method employed in this study is an action research, using a number of instruments

as questionnaire, the students’ journals, teacher’s anecdotal notes, along with diagnostic test, posttest and final oral examination to collect data

6 Significance of the study

Despite the fact that pronunciation plays an important role in learning a foreign language,

so far there have been few researches on the ways to motivate students to study pronunciation

compared to other skills such as speaking, listening, writing and reading The study suggests

motivating activities in teaching pronunciation to facilitate the students’ learning process Therefore, this study contributes to enriching the researches on strategies to promote students

to learn promunciation The results of this study will be of much benefit to both teachers and

students of English

7 Definition of terms

* Motivation

Among many definitions of motivation stands out Gardner’s one (1985)

“Motivation refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the

language plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language” Gardner (1985, p 10)

% Imtelligibility

“Intelligibility may be broadly defined as the extent to which a speaker's message is actually understood by a listener” (Munro & Derwing 1999, p 289)

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Researches inta pronunciation teaching

1.1.1 Approaches to pronunciation teaching

The approaches lo pronunciation leaching have swung in and oul af favor through the years in the hislory Two general approaches to the (caching of pronunciation described by Celee-Murcia et al (1996) have been adopted by many researchers, which are intuitive- imitative approach and analytical-linguistic approach

An intuitive-imitative approach assumes that students will develop acccptable

pronunciation and speaking skills when exposed to the target language through accurate inodels This approach relics heavily upon imitation and repetition, without any expticil information provided by the teacher The early method of promuneiation training called Direct Method, which gained acceptance in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was formed from obscrvations of children allaining their first language In this method, students would fisien

and imitate a modcl of the targct language that was spoken by the teacher (and later by

recordings) (Celce Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996) From the late 1960s and the early 1980s, there was # decline in explicit pronunciation teaching with [he invention of the Janguage lab During this time intuitive-imitative approach was more popular in the pronunciation training with ‘lotal Physical Response by Asher’s (1977) and Natural Approach by Krashen and Terrzi's (1983) In Total Physical Response, sludents would begin to speak when they were ready and they were expected to make errors in the initial stage The main initiat focus of Natural Approach was listening, which gave students the

still adopt this view but it is still needed to further investigate if the method has the

persuasive foundation

An analytic-linguistic approach reeognises the importance of an explicit intervention of

pronunciation pedagogy in language acquisition The approach employs a variety of pedagogical aids inchiding phonemic chart, contrastive exercises and articulatory descriptions

In this approach, students arc given cxplicit information about how to produce the sounds and

thythms of the target language ‘his approach was developed to complement rather than

replace the intuitive-imitative approach In the 1890s, Tlenry Sweet, Wilhelm Vietor and Paul Passy the creators and developers of the Intemational Phoustic Alphabet (IPA), led a movement in language teaching that was generally called the Reform Movement These phoneticians had groat influcnes on the (saching of pronunciation with their contrilmtion to the development of a system for deseribing and analysing the sound systems of languages Th 1940s and 1950s witnessed a noticeable movement emphasized on explicit instruction of phonetics with Andiolinguism in the United States and the Oral approach in Britain These two methodologics competed with the Direct Mcthod by relying on a recording or the teacher

to model the target language followed by the students’ repetition of that language However, trachers also drew from their knowledges of phonolics and for the first time usod simplificd charts of the IPA and articulatory models in the classroom The audiolinguism relied much on drilling sound contrasts and minimal pairs, with very little attention to intonation and

The 1980s witness

d the significant shi wilh discourse bascd communicative approach with the ultimate goal was communication The communicative approach dealt with tasks that focus on meaning, using activities such as role play, problem solving and games in a relaxed and supportive classroom nvirormnenl By focusing more on active communication, it bas been recognised that pronunciation competence below a cartain threshold caused tutintelligible, even for the most grammatically and lexically advanced students (Ibnofitis & Bailey, 1980) Tochrique uscd to tcach pronunciation included listening and imitating, phonetic training, minimal pairs drilling in context, visual aids, reading aloud, recording the students’ production with more focus on suprasegmental aspects of promuneiation It can be

scen that the comnmunicative approach sccms to be a more balance approach, with the focus on

both fluency and accuracy The approach perhaps has characteristics of bath intuitive-imitative approach and analytical-linguistic approach,

1.1.2 Teaching Pronunciation: Segmentals or Suprasegmentals?

The calegorivation of pronunciation inlo sogments (discrete sounds), anid suprasogments (features that organive slrcams of specch into meaningful units such as stress, rhythm, intonation, linking, assimilation and deletion) is accepted by many researchers (Kelly,

2003; Kenworthy, 1987; Celce-Murcia et al., 1996, Morley, 1999)

The tradition debate rclating to which featwcs of pronunciation - scgments or suprasegments - should be focused on in teaching promnciation has still been hold, A brief Toviow of the debalos between sogmunls and suprascgmonts is presented as following,

Teaching segmental features started with a concentration on phonetic alphabets during

the Reform Movement (Celce-Murcia et al, 1996) Phonetic training was used in order to

help learners establish good speech habils, Minimal pair drills were used extensively to distinguish phonemes in listoning pravtice and oral production (Cclec-Murcia ct al., 1996) However, affer Anderson-Hsich introduced the researches on “Teaching suprasegmentals to

Porminglon’s rascarch (Ponninglon, 1994, p 95) assorted thai learners approachad new vatucs

Rx phonolugical foalures gradually and piceemecal, rather Ula as the outcome oa rapid shift Brazil (1994, p 3) commented that segmentals and suprasegmentals are interdependent because “the work students do in one area supports and reinforces the work they do in the other”, Jenkins (2004) regardless of a fow studics (Gass & Varonis, 1983; Derwing & Munro,

2001, 2002), argned that most studies conducted to investigate the problem with

communication scenario betwoon native spoakers and non-mitive spoakers, where mative speakers serve as the judges to examine non-native speakers’ intelligibility However,

according to Jenkins (2004), interactions among non-native speakers and non-native speakers,

which are very commen in Ihe wortd communication loday, have revealed umintclligibilily as a problem at the segmental level ofa major portion rather than at the suprascgmental level, Rost

(1990, p 50) also pointed out, “most mishearings can be identified as occurring at a segmental

level”, Jenkins (2004) further suspected some researchers’ altitude of wholesale transferring native speakers corpus data to the English teaching realn of the “corpus syndrome,”

‘Therefore Jenkins strongly suggested the need of a more systematic training of individual sogmental features and a relum to Ihe forgotten minimal pair drills,

In conclusion, the findings favor for suprasegments can only be suggestive rather than conclusive to advocate suprasegments over the segments Intelligible prommeiation cannot

have one without the other Therefor, we would strongly attach {

importance of both segments and suprasegments in order to teach promunciation mote effectively, Final decisions

of which priority we should choose in our pedagogical implementation - suprasegments or segments oF thc balance balween lwo components - sccm to fill back on cach teacher in their own context, Along with that, perhaps teachers are also the people who have to find out the appropriate methods that transfer their belief of pronunciation teaching into relevant and absorbable lessons to bring the best benefits to their students and enable their students to communicate with intelligible prommnciation

phonetic abilily of student, attilude and identity of student, motivation and concern for youd proumeiation of studenls He also str

sed that # concern for good prommeialion on the parl

of the teacher can instil a similar concern among the students, ftom which the teacher’s role can be seen quite important Of the above factors, motivation and concer toward students” pronunciation play a very important role in order to get a good pronunciation, Other

researchers as Suter (1976), Celce Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin (1996) considered that

motivation and concer for good promameiation affect pronunciation accuracy

According to Bowen (1972), the suecess of pronunciation instruction depended greatly

on motivating ths learner by integrating pronunciation with the elements of instruction, which might be accomplished by vontextuatizing the pronunciation lesson He considered motivation

as a powerful factor influcncing, the improvement of Icamncrs’ pronunciation The researcher also believed that successful prommeiation teaching is directly related to having motivated Jearners anit mening falty contextualized pronunciation instruction

1.2 Resvarches inte motivation in teaching and learning,

1.2.1 Role of motivation to students’ learning

‘There are the elosc Telalionship belwoen learning and motivation Many rescarches have proved that motivation affects learmng In the TESOL field, Brown (1987, p 114) stated that motivation is a key to learning another language Oxford & Shearin (1994, p.12) persuaded that “motivation is considered by many ta be one of the main determining factors in st

ess in developing a second or foreign language”

Ina similar way, Domyei (2001, p 1) corroborated the previous assertion and added that “skills to motivate Jearners are crucial for language teachers.”

1.2.2, Factors affect students’ motivation

Many researchers have pointed out that the construct of motivation is not a single entity but a multi-factorial onc Among the rescarchers in this issue stands out Domnyei’s extended

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motivational framework (2005) Dornyei (2005, p 11 1) analyzed the second language learning

motivation within a framework of three levels, which are

> Language level

® Tearner level

> Learning situation level Language level involves factors related to the second language, such as the culture, the community as well as the practical values and benefits connected with the second language

learning Learner level relates to leamer personal characteristics in the process of sceond

language learning, which are self-efficacy, self-confidence, need for achievement, causal allributions, the perecived szcond language compelonces and goal orientations and so forth Learning situation level consists of three aspects, which are cowsse-specific motivational components such as syllabus, teacher materials, teaching tasks, teacher-specific motivational components such as leacher’s persowlily, behaviors and teaching styles, group-specific

motivational componcnts such as the group dynamics of the learner group

1.2.3 Framework to increase and sustain students’ motivation

Tr order to increase and sustain students’ motivation, some steps are required

The first step is to create the basic motivational conditions According to Dornyei (2001,

p 120} teacher behavior is a powerful “motivating tool” in ereating the basic motivational conditions, Moreover, a pleasant ard supportive classraom atmosphere and a cohzsive learner group with appropriate group norms are also elements to create the basic motivational

conditions

The second step is to generate titial motivation This can be done by ines

sing the Jearner’s goal-orientedness, making the curriculum relevant for the learners, creating realistic

learner belief

The next step is to maintain motivation According lo Demyci (2001), there are five

areas to maintain motivation:

> Setting “proximal subgoals”

> Improving the quality oflcarning cxpericnee

> Increasing learner’s self-confidence

} Creating learner autonomy

> Promoting self motivating learner strategies

the last step is to encourage students’ positive self-evaluation by providing students

motivational feodback from teacher, inerzi

sing learner satisfaction with rewards and grad:

1.3 Researches inta the ways to motivate sludents in pronunciation lessons

According to Kenworthy (1987), there are some ways that can help to motivate students

trough the fact

‘that interlooufors are to face serious problems m communication without good pronunciation

of the language In case the speaker mispronounce a word, ar wrongly use the rhythm, inlomation of his intended uticraness, the Tisloner may have diffienitics in recogniving and understanding the conveyed message, or in other words, cnecunter the probloms of reception

In Kelly’s viewpoint, a speaker can hardly be understandable to people if he consistently mnispronounce a ange of words or pul stress wrongly The s juaion gels worse if misunderstanding makes each other confused, embarrassed or annoyed, Therefore, good pronunciation helps to consolidate speakers’ confidence and leads to mutual comprehension in commumeation Sharing the same idea, websile www.anlimoon.cam posted an article “first impressions” saying that pronunciation is the first and the biggest thing that people notice when someone is speaking

“When you first meet a person, da you think that they will notice your poor vocabulary

or bad grammar? Probably not! They pay aliention to your pronunciation You can live

without advanced vocabulary ax you can use simple words to say what you want to say You

can also live without advanced grammar as you can use simple grammar structures instead

But there is no such ting as “simple pronunciation” Your pronunciation eveates the first

impression Therefore, itis one of the first things that you should learn.”

'Thuø, in order to motivate students to lean pronunciation, the teacher should help to make sturlonts understand the imporlanee of pronunciation

students lo learn becausz if the goals are very general or uucalist

disappoint and get soon bored with learning process, Moreover, McMillan and Forsyth (1991) suggested that making students” learning goals in line with their existing needs may be a good strategy to motivate students, because in this way, students can sce the value and relevance of the course to their development

Thirdly, in order to mativats studznts t learn prommeiation, lachor should show the great concem for the students” pronunciation and their progress Tt is thought that if the teacher continuously and consistently emphasizes on the need for good pronunciation from leamers, gradually the leamzrs tend la develup a similar concern for Iheir own pronunciation, And this

will help to improve the students’ pronunciation, One of the most important tasks of the teacher to show the great concer for the students’ pronunciation is by devising useful and

ibolivating activiliss for shidonts to Ioarn and practise pronunciation This is not an casy bul

rewarding task Therefore, teacher nmust be able to identify what exercises will benefit students

most, what types of activities will engage students most in the class

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Context of the sturly

Being a small city in the south of Hanoi capital, the demand for learning English in Hamam scom to be tat as high as in olhor big citics becanss the limited wambor of joint-

venture and forcign-funded companies here Hawever the role of English in Hanam is paid more and more attention now when English is considered as one factor to attract more investment into Hanam Therefore, from 2006 [lanam Teachers* Training College opened the classes for students majoring in English Up to now, there have been four classes major in English With the main purpose of training students with high commmnicative ability and competence in Rnglish, teaching and ourning prorumeiation play an important rols in the college’s training process, However, the students at Hanam Teachers’ Training College are quite different ftom students in big cities such as anoi or lo Chi Minh City Frankly, they lave more difficultics in camming English than students in big cities in lors of ability and condition For most students, studying in Hanam is in the last choice when they fail in the entrance examinations to university elsewhere Some students choose to study in Hanam because of their finance and health condition Morcovar, almost all students hore ome from mal areas of Hanam such as Kim Bang, Ly Nhin, Thanh Liém, Binh Luc, where they get used to passive ways of leaming, which is embedded deeply in their mind from primary school

lo high school Last but not Ieasl, English learning cnvironment in Hanar is not favorable Even when some of the students have great interest and want to improve their English, it is difficult for them to find good places 10 learn English The nmmber of English centers in Hanam is still limited with low qualily of teachers and Isaruing fuvilities Morsover rnst students still have very limited access to Intemet to find resources for studying For many students, even students majoring in English at Llanam ‘Teachers’ ‘Training College, they have never had a chance to mect forcigners Resowress of r2ferenes books in the college are also limited These internal and external constraints in leamers and environment make the quality and motivation to learn English here quite low

The study was conducted in 9 weeks fiom the 26" of September, 2009 to the 27" of November, 2009, with 5 periods per learning session, | learning session per week.

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2.2 Participants of the study

The participants of this study were seleeted on the basis of convenience I would be in charge of teaching the subject “Practical Pronunciation” for the first-year students of English class KI3A al Hanam Toachors’ Training Collage, which consisting of 34 siurfenis, with 32

female and 2 male students ranging front 18 to 22 years of age All of thon had teamed English for at least 3 years, They had to take the English test with the same format trom the Ministry of Education in the entrance exam to the college However, their marks for English in the entrance cxam were not high, in which the highest for English is 7.5 and the lowest is 3 Most of them come from rural areas in the province In general, their grammar and reading are somprehensibi bơi their pronunciation is not good

2.3 Instruments

In order to obtain in-depth, rich information, the study used a variety of research instruments and sources of data, inchding diagnostic lest, questionnaire, the sinđenis" journals, classroom obscrvation and teacher’s ancedotal notes, posttest and final oral cxamination

2.3.1 Diagnostic test

Al the beginning of the course, participants were required to lake purl in a diagnostic test,

in which they would read aloud some sentences containing minimat pairs, a passage, which I took from the website effortiessenglishclub.com and a conversation, which 1 adapted ftom the book “Test Your Prommeiation” by Michacl Vaughan (2002) The sentences, the passage and the conversations were selected tom the recourses that had audio recordings, so that I could assess the students’ performance by comparing the students’ pronunciation with the

students’ problems in pronunciation in order that I would pay more attention to their problems

‘The results of the diagnostic test were also used in comparison with the results of the posttest and final oral exarninalion 1a reveal improvernents (hal studsnls made during the course of pronunciation with motivating activities (Appendix 3)

2.3.2 Post test

The day before the end of the course, I asked the students to carry out the posttest, in which they would do the diagnostic test again, with the aim to find out how they had improved afler the course, The posttest had the same design and contant as Ihe diagnostic test

2.3.3 Final aral examination

The researcher would use final oral examination test on pronunciation as a combination to evaluate the efféctiveness of motivating tools on the studcnfs” pronunciation The examination took place two wecks after the course The examination had the same foun

as the diagnostic test but the contents were different (Appendix 4)

2.3.5 The students’ journals

‘The students were required to write joumals every week to reflect on what they had learned in the ofass ant pressrted their understanding of the aspects of English pronnmciation The journals were collected by the researcher at the end of the course and the reflection part in the journals was used to investigate the stndents’ attitudes and issues in the course (Appendix

a

2.3.6, Teacher’ s observations and aucedotal notes

‘The researcher carried out classroom observation in order to take notes of changes in the

cher alse

students’ attitude, motivation, interest and improvement in the course The re

retlected on the teaching and learning process after each lesson (Appendix 8)

CHAPTER 3: DATA PRESENTATION

In the pronunciation course, 1 applied some activities so that the pronunciation lessons would be more interesting and effsctive

3.1 Pronunciation orientation and diagnostic test

1 spenl (he firs! day carrying oul pronunciation oricntation and diagnostic test [tried to create a ftiendly and comfortable atmosphere in the class, After the introduction, we discussed the students’ experience in learning pronmnciation so far It was revealed that they learnt almost nothing about prouunciation bcfore execpt some written tests of word stress and odd — one — out sounds, which were boring and hard for them ‘Ihen we discussed about the imporlanee of promumeiation im communicalion and in their falas career Aller thal ths students did the diagnostic test in groups of 5, Our class had the first Jesson on Saturday because on that day there were many vacant classrooms, so that we could conduct fo record in

7 rooms for 7 groups of 5 in a quiet environment Fach group would gather in one room thal [ prepared beforchand, I distributed cach group with one handout of the diagnostic test, which they would record individually 1 instructed them fo use the recorder that I prepared While one member of the group did the diagnostic lest, other mamihers of the group would listen and play the role of Feedback Director and write their comments on the problems relating to

‘vowels, consonants, word sires, sentence stress, rhythm and intonation that their friend made Aller all of the five members of the group finished recording the diagnostic test and (heir critical ftiends finished their comments, the group would exchange the comments among the members, in which each member would receive the comments ftom 4 other members Then the group would dis

for a while before coming back to their classroom at assigned time to listen to the model on the tape to compare their reading to their speaking of native speakers and then fill in the self-assessment of pronunciation I reassured them that they would not be

sont forms T would

marked based on this assessinant form T would photocopy their asse

keep one set and give back to the students one set so that they can work to overcome their problems of pronunciation that they self-reflected and track their improvement, While the students were recorded rcading the diagnostic test, I went to all the rooms to monitor and give

a help when necessary After all groups came back to the classroom, | colfected the recordings

fr Rmther investigation of the difficulties that the students faced The next lesson, T pointed out the common errors and mistakes in the students” pronuneiation and then provided them the plan of the study in the comse

3.2 The students' journats

Guidance and basic knowledge of pronunciation, inchuling Erglish vowels, consonants, stress, rhythm and simple intonation are really needed for the students to make them autonomous learners of English pronunciation during the course and even after the course, To

be able to sclfmonitor, Icamers nmst be aware of the phonological featurcs and patterns underlying the second language (Morley, 1994) in order to equip the students with the knowledge of pronunciation, along wilh the tsacher’s lectures and discussion in the class, T required the students to write journals every week, in which the students reflected on what they had Jeamt in the class that week and their understanding of aspects of pronunciation (Appendix 7)

3.3, Dictation usage

It is common to see that most students use dictionaries just to look for the meaning of a word My students raroly use dictionaries to chack ils prommaiation and stress Even when some of them try to look for prommnciation of words in dictionaries, they do not succeed in pronounce words correctly because of their wrong articulation of the consonants and vowels

Therefore, the cncouragemient and instmetion on the use of dictionaries

ere combined in my teaching of basic articulation of vowel and consonant sounds The habit of using dictionaries effectively can hetp the students have better pronunciation of individual words and have better control and more responsibility in tearing pronunciation

organiscd some simplc games such as Bingo or tonguc twister, the following arc some

Make up stories

Afisr the students understood the articulation of individual sounds, and got some more practise on the sounds T asked thorn to work in groups of live to make up a story or a dislogue which contained at least 7 words with the sound they had practised The aim in this activity

was that 1 wanted the students to review the sound in context and be creative

Quickest minimal pairs

Minimal pair practice is often boring for students, However, in order to create more motivating atmosphere in practising minimal pairs, | organised a game to review the sounds thai the students Imd just lsarni, T divided the studunts into two Learns and cxplained the rules, T would write one word on the backboard The task of the players in two teams was to call out minimal pair of the word on the backboard In order to score points for their team, students had Lo stand up, call out ioinital pairs and sit down quickly, The student wha stood up and spoke out one minimal pair of that word and sat down quickest scored points tor their team,

Teaching word stress:

Syllable identification:

In my teaching, | realized that the students had difficulties in counting out the syllables,

‘Therefore before teaching word stress, | had some review for syllables (rstly J introduced the definition of syllable in a simmpls way, Then we worked as a whole class lo count out the number of syllables in some words, Next I asked the students to work in pairs taking tums pronouncing polysyllabic words while ths partner counted the syllables on their finger Finally

1 organized a game on syllables, which I bascd on the idea of Fiseliler (2004) I divided the class into 4 teams and handed out each team a worksheet containing spaces for filling in with

slress

Word stress pattern

After a brief review of the stress pattems that the students had learnt in high schools, I arranged a group competition in the class to provide more examples of the stress pattems, I divided the class into 6 groups and asked the proups to write down cxamples for word stress

patterns within 5 minutes In this activity i asked the students not to use dictionaries 1 realized

thal the students cooperalcd and thoroughly doluted, Some of them tried Lo raad aloud words with stress on different syllables for their friends to consider before writing down the examples

“Oh” language

After the game, the class practisod thc “Oh” language with the comet word stress patter that they had just written down in this activity the students would replace unstressed

syllables with “oh? i soft voice and stressed syllables with “OH” im a stronger and louder

manner This way of practice word stress brought a Jot of Jangh and happy faces to my students And It is found that the student were fluent in “Oh” language very quickly,

Run &Tick

When all students were aware of the word stress patterns, I organized one fun game call

“tun &tick” which attracted the students a lot First I drew the stress pattem on the blackboard Thon T divided the class into two teams, T explained lo them thal thoy wors going lo hear sore words, Their task was to run to the blackboard as quickly as possible and use chalk to tick at the appropriate stress pattem of the word I found that this activity created much of fim in the class and stulonis wore very excited to participate

Stand up — Sit down

Ons game that I organised to review word stress before teaching sentence stress is called

“stand up sit down’, In this game, | divided the class in half, with students belonging to two tables in a row competed with each other 1 wrote multisyllable words on the blackboard, Hach

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student mm one table represented one syllable The student represented the syllable which carried stress must stand up The students carrying the unstressed syllables still sat down At the end of the game, the half got most correct answers in word stress is the winner

‘Teaching sentence stress, Intonation:

‘Therefore | chose a Shakespearian verse to demonstrate three readings

“A Tose by any other narng would smell as sweel”

The first time 1 read the sentence without any stress or changes int intonation so that cach syllable is given the same length, volume and pitch Then | elicited the students’ comments on thal way of speaking and askod thom if'in English poople pul stress on every word they speak like that,

‘The sacond time 1 read the same sentence again, deliberately stressing wrong to get the

students’ feedback:

Arose BY aNY oT HER name WOULD smell AS sweet

In the third time, the sentence was read aloud with the stress was put where it seemed

nahural

a ROSE by ANy OTHer NAME would SMELL as SWEET

‘Then we discussed as the whole class the role of stress and rhythm in Linglish and how to make il sound more walural in Frglish

Lalso used visual contrasts of the utterance: “Pronunciation is important” which I based

on the illustration of Prator and Robinett, 1985 to help the students remember better the differences between two languages

Syllable-Timed Rhythm Stress — ‘timed Rhythm

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After that, we nh ‘nd pracised the eases thal cary atess in the sentence,

Talking hands

Onc game that aroused the students” interest is the game talking hands, which is bascd on ths

idea of Laroy (1995) In this game, the students have to listen to rhythm pattems of some

simple ullerances in order to ty to identify dhe meaning of the message To make iL more inleresting, I told Ihe student hal in some (ribes in the world, people use drums to transinil a limited number of messages over long distances, It is somehow the same as in English; rhythm can be recognized and understood in some way Then I introduced the game of talking hands,

in which the students would usc the clapping of the hands to transmit mcanings Fist I made a

list of some simple utterances such as: Hello, Nice to meet you, | am glad to see you, How are

you?, Good moming lo you, Good evening, Sit down, Wonderfil, Oh dear! Next 1 asked the students to put correct stress in the utterances by drawing symbols of stressed and unstressed syllables under the ufterances with o indicating unstressed syllables and 0 indicating stressed ones For sxample 00 represented “hello”, 0000 tepresented “nice to meet you”, Then T clapped some rhythms and asked the students to call out the utterance After they practised clapping these utterances in pairs, ¡ divided the class into two tribes and chose voluntarily a chief for each tribe and a number of ‘drummers’ The rest of the class are villagers who will overhear the message The chiets stood at two ends of the classroom, The drummers stood along two ways leading to the chiefs, One chief ordered his ‘drummer’ to transmit a message

¢ reaches the chicf al the other end of the classroom, The second chief says, “The chief ffom the other village is saying “Good moming to you”, for example If this is tight, the drummers and villagers clap

to another drusroer who then transits if lo another one, unt) thie me

“Wonderful? or anolher expression of praise If the interpretation is wrong, they clap ‘Oh

dear!’ and make a sad face The second chief answers the message in the same way It is found

Another solivity thal I applied in the course is called dip reading” This activity halpod

to develop the students’ awareness of articulation and lip movements and facial expression, as well as body language, which work as clues to find out the meaning of uterances I used scenes from the cartoon “Tarzan” with the first conversation between Jane and Tarzan and secnes from the movie “My Fair Lady” (1964) because it is suitable to my students’ level First | played the scenes with the sound off and asked the students to work in groups of 5 tried

to find out what the speaker is saying by watching the lip movornonts and body tanguage of the speaker After several times, I elicited the answers ftom the students and replayed the scenes with sound so that the students could check their understanding ‘L’hen the best group in understanding {

in their participation and mid-term marks Mercover, cach member of the group would lave chance to pick up a lucky number At the end of the course, the teacher would announce the lucky numbers ‘he students who had the Incky numbers would recsive small gifts from the

teacher Tl was observed that the students tied their bes! to pronounce sounds, stress and

intonation as accurately as they could when they participated in the competitive role play

games,

3.5 Songs

Applying songs to motivate students to learn speaking and listening skills have been used in many English classes, In addition, songs can also be used effectively in pronunciation

sons to incroase sladonts’ motivation and improve students’ pronunciation of comwmeted

rhythm as woll as English sounds, As Batbina Ebong & Marta J Sabbađini, (2006) argued that teachers should let students practise pronunciation through songs According to Balbina Balbina Ebong & Marta J Sabbadini, “songs are authentte and easily

accessible examples of spoken English The rhymes in songs provide listeners with repetition

of similar sounds They can be motivating for students keen to repeatedly listen to and imitate

their musical heroes”

Therefore in the pronunciation couse, I used songs to motivate students to practise particular sounds, minimal pairs, stress, rhythm and intonation As for the selection of the kind

of mmsie for practise pronunciation, T chose pop songs, jaz chants, folk songs and group- singing, songs that native English speakers sing The choices of songs were bascd on the popularity of the song fo the students’ tastes and the applicability of designing efifective tasks

In order to practise minimal pairs, 1 delivered the handout in which the lyric of the song had some changed words, ‘I'he changed words and the origin words contain minimal pairs that

the students need to practise Then T asked the students ta listen to the song, correet the wrong

words and sing the song again

In order to practise rhythm, stress, intonation and comnected speech, I chose Jazz chants fiom the website hitp:‘/wwwteflvidcos.com and some folk songs from the website

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http:/Avww.manythings.org/songs The activities to practise suprasegmentals through songs

were combined with the students clapping hands at stressed syllables

(Appendix 9)

I found that the students loved pop songs, jazz chants and folk songs very much

because they are very easy to follow and sing along with attractive rhythm The last day before

the end of the course, I organized a karaoke English contest, in which the winner would

receive a special gift from me It was exciting and we had a very friendly and relaxed

atmosphere

3.6 Software

Currently, there are quite a lot of softwares on pronunciation in the market, which can

help leamers facilitate their learning, After searching on pronunciation softwares, I decided to

take use of two popular softwares, which are “Pronunciation Power” and “Real — Time Pitch

Program” in the teaching One big advantage of the software “Pronunciation Power” is that the

students can observe the movement of lips, tongue, and air flow clearly, which helps students

imitate the sounds more correctly and with much more ease

The second software I use is the software “Real — Time Pitch Program” For this

software, students would use it at the final stage of practising sentence stress and intonation

after activities in the coursebook By using this software, students can practise the stress, intonation effectively Along with using the softwares in the class, I encouraged the students

to self-study pronunciation with these softwares at home

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This action research was conducted to determine whether or not activities on

pronunciation help to increase the students’ intelligibility and motivation in learning

pronunciation at Hanam Teachers’ Training College The action research was paced on a nine-

week schedule This chapter presents the results of all data gathered throughout the research

The information reported in this chapter was derived from both quantitative and qualitative methods The quantitative results reported in this chapter were derived from participant scores

of pretest, posttests, the final oral examination and the questionnaire The qualitative results

reported in this chapter were derived from the analysis of the researcher’s observation and the

students” journals

4.1 Results

4.1.1 Diagnostic test, posttest and final oral examination

After I had the data of the diagnostic test, posttest and final oral examination, the data

were rounded up, turned from 100-point scale into 10-point scale and graphed to find out the

changes in the students’ pronunciation The data of students’ scores in the diagnostic test,

post-test and final oral examination were shown in the following figure 4.1

Figure 4.1 Students’ scores in the diagnostic test, the posttest and the final oral examination

Overall scores of the students

It was found out that the overall scores of the students changed a lot in the diagnostic test, posttest and final examination In the diagnostic test, the mode was 4, while in posttest the mode was 7 and in the final examination, it was 6 Ihe average scores in the diagnostic test, in

the posttest, in the final oral cxaminalion were

7, 5.8 and 53 respectively The stondard deviation was 0.9 in the diagnostic test, 1.3 in [he postles! and 1,1 in (he final oral cxaminalion The results indicated that the students’ pronunciation improved to some extent, most remarkable in the posttest but the students still need mmch more practice to master English pronunciation

In the resoarcher”s anzcdofal notes in tests and examination, it revealed that after the conrs¢ the sludenis showed much improvement in pronouncing consonant sounds although some needed fiuther practice, With the habit of using dictionary and motivating activities, the problem of word stress seemed to be solved quite successfully when the number of the students put comcet slress on words tnarcased considerably However, sonlơnec stress and intonation were still the problems for many students and they necded much more practice on

these aspects

4.1.2, Questionnaire

4.1.2.1 Arcas of investigation

‘The following areas of investigation are covered by the questionnaire:

4.1.2.2 Analysis and findings

The last day of class included a final questionmare that students filled in, which was then compared to the questionnaire that the students filled in before the course (Appendix 1)

In general, the stutkents” responses aller the course were more positive than thase before the commse (Appendix 2)

In terms of the importance of pronunciation, majority of the students strongly agree

or agree that pronunciation is very helpful and should be taught, with the percentage of 91.18% before the course and of 97.06% after the course More specific, 76.47% of the students strongly agree or agree that pronunciation is important for their future job before the conrse compared to 94.18% after the course The mumber of ths students who did not appreciate the role of pronmnciation in their future job is small both before the course 8.82% and after the course 2.94%, ‘The other minority of the students gave no idea on the issue with 14.71% before the course and 0% afler the course As for confidenes in spcaking English that their pronunciation bring about, before the course, only 11.66% of the students strongly agreed

or agreed that their pronunciation made them confident in speaking English, 26.47% expressed

no opinion, and 61.77% strongly disagreed or disagrced thal (heir pronunciation rude therm confident in speaking English After the course, 47.06% strongly agreed or agreed that their

pronunciation made them confident in speaking English, 23.53% still showed reserved attitude

when not providing the answers, only 29.41% of the students strongly disagreed or disagreed that their pronunciation made them confident in speaking English,

The findings showed that the stidents were positive in learning pronunciation, They also had quite high awareness of the importance of pronmeiation in their falure job Afler ths

course, a significantly increased number of the students responded that their pronunciation made them confident in speaking lnglish

Interest und motivation in Jearning pronunciation were measured with 5 questions

3, 5, 7, 8, and 10, It is found out that the students’ interest and motivation toward learning pronunciation had many changes when comparing responses before and after the course Responding to the question 3, before the course, only 23,53% of the students strongly agreed

or agreed that learning pronunciation is enjoyable, but after the course the number went up to