Luận văn a study on the effects of using phoneme grapheme correspondence method on sound recognition ability of efl 10th grade students at quoc oai high school and their attitudes

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI THOM A STUDY ON TIIE EFFECTS OF USING PITONEME-GRAPITE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI THOM

A STUDY ON TIIE EFFECTS OF USING PITONEME-GRAPITEME

CORRESPONDENCE METHOD ON SOUND RECOGNITION ABILITY OF EFL 10™-GRADE STUDENTS AT QUOC OAI HIGH

SCHOOL AND THEIR ATTITUDES (Nghiên cứu hiệu quá của việc áp dụng phương pháp liên hệ giữa chữ

viết và phát âm tới khâ năng nhận biết âm tương ứng trong tiếng Anh

của học sinh lớp 10 THPT Quốc Oai và thái dộ của học sinh dối với

phương pháp này)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodolugy Code: 60140111

Tlanoi, 2016

A STUDY ON TIE EFFECTS OF USING PIIONEME-GRAPIIEME

CORRESPONDENCE METHOD ON SOUND RECOGNITION

ABILITY OF EFL 10""-GRADE STUDENTS AT QUOC OAI HIGH

SCIIOOL AND THEIR ATTITUDES (Nghiên cứu hiệu quả của việc áp dụng phương nháp liên hệ giữa chữ

viết và phát âm tới khä năng nhận biết âm tương ứng trong tiếng Anh

của học sinh lớp 10 THPT Quốc Oai và thái độ của học sinh đổi với

phương phap này)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Nguyén Dire oat, Ph.D

Hanoi, 2016

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A Study on the Effects of Using Phoneme-

Grapheme Correspondence Method on Sound Recognition Ability of EFL 10-

Grade Students at Quoc Oai High School and Their Attitudes” is entirely the result

of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of

Ans al the Facully of Post-Graduate Studies, Universily of Languages and

Intemational Studies, Victuam National University, Hanoi, and that this thesis has not

been submitted for any other degrees

Hà nội,2016

Nguyen Thị Tham

invaluable supervision throughout the writing of the thesis

Secondly, my thanks also go to all lecturors and the staff of Faculty of Post-Graduate

Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National

University, Hanoi for their useful lectures, materials, guidance and onthusiasm during

my course

A special thank would also go to all the students at Quoc Oai high school who took

part in the research, Without their parlicipation and cooperation, T would not be able to

complete this research paper

Last but not least, my deep appreciation and gratitude to my beloved family, especially

my parents, my husband and my little daughter for their encouragement, inspiration and unconditional love, which enormously helped me towards the completion of my

research.

ABSTRACT This minor thesis was carried out with an attempt to investigate the effects of Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence Method on sound recognition ability of EFL

10"-grade students at Quoc Oai High Schoo! and their attitudes ‘The research design

used in the study was a quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent group

design including one experimental group and one contral group A total of 75 10°-

grade students took part in the study The instruments used for the study were a 20- multiple-choice-item test in phonetics and a questionnaire The results obtained from the analyzed data show thal Phoncme-Grapheme Correspondence method had a significant effect on the improvement in students’ sound recognition ability

Furthermore, students show positive attitudes towards this method.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1,1 Rationale and statement uf the problem wel

4

1.3 Research questions

1.4, Significance of the StUdY cscsccsesisensimsnstinieniieeneene eee

LG Research method kh nh th me Xneeseseooe

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

21.2 Role of pronunciation in language learning - 6

2.1.3 Approaches to teaching pronunciation - - 7

2.1.3.2, The analytic-linguistic approaeh 8

21.4, Techniques of testing pronunciation - - 9

2.1.5 Definition uf “Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence” - 10

21.6 Vietnamese — English sotd sysiefS "-

247 Definition of “attitede” cà ciecoenenienrer 13

21.8 The role of attitude in second language learning 13

2.2 Previous research works and the necd for this study ¬

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3,1 Researck dcsign: Quasi-cxpcrimental 1

3.2, Setting of the Study cuc oinnnennnoeerirrree sassao TẾ

322 Papululion oƒ the SíHlÿ cài coeceesee -

3.31 Documenf reyeardl, căcieiireeierrree 18

3.3.3 Pre and post tests and test validity - - a 3.4, Data collection proecdure noi „38

CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

44.1 The students’ sound recognition ability seen 4.1.1.1 Calculation between two mean scores and standard deviations 25

4.1.2, Students’ attitudes towards Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence method 28

4.4.2.1 Part I: Students’ perceptions on sound recognition «se se 28

4.1.2.2 Partil: Students’ attitudes towards Phoneme-Grapheme

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.2 Lãmftations and supgcstions for further study saasao 34 5.3 Suggestions for teachers and studenfs .-

REFERENCES XE th như Hi tre "1

APPENDICES

APPINDIX I (a): The sample of the lesson plan for the conventional method

APPENDIX I (b): The sample of the lesson plan for the Phoneme-Grapheme

Correspondence methodl ào ni nrrerrerre

APPENDIX II (a): QUESTIONNAIRE (English)

APPENDIX TI (b): BANG CAU HOT (Vietnamese)

APPENDIX III (a): Pre-test

APPIINDIX IH (b): Post-test

APPENDIX TV: Correlation reliability of the test

APPENDIX V (a): Test results of the experirnental group

APPENDIX V (b): Test results of the control group

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Non-randomized control-group pretest posttest design «seo LỆ

Table 3.2 T-test: The pre-test mean scores of the experiment group and the control

` nhai "—

Table 3.5 Specifications of the pro-tost .assessssessnesnesneeestnnaeintn sao, 22

Table 4.1 The pre-test and post-lesl mean scores and standard deviation of students’

scores in the experimental arơup and the controÏ group ~ T8

Table 4.2 t-Test: The post-test mean scores of the experiment group and the cantral

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Features of Tinglish Pronunoiation

Figure 4.1 The pre-test and post-test mean scores of the experiment group and the

Figure 4.2 Students’ perceptions on sound recognition - - 38

Figure 4.3 Students’ general percepltons aboul Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence

CHAPTER ONE: INFRODUCTION

‘This initial chapter will introduce the rationale, the aims and the research questions, the significance of the study, together with the scope and methodology applied in the study More importantly, the clearest organization of the research is also given in this

chapter

1.1 Rationale and statement of the problem

Tt can be said that English, an effective means of international communication, has

become firmly established as the second langunge in Vielnam, overwhelming French

and Chinese Especially, joining the World ‘Trade Organization has helped Vietnam

attract a considerable number of foreign businesses; the government thus has attached

imporlance to teaching and Iearning Fnglish for commumicalive purposes To

communicate effectively, accurate pronunciation is one of requirements students need

to fulfil Pronouncing incorrectly can result in communication breakdown Being aware of the importance of prouunciation in communication, the authors of the new Lnglish textbook for high-school students added pronunciation part in each unit, beside lessons on grammar, four English macro skills, namely listening, speaking,

reading and writing

Pronunciation parts in new English 10 textbook are about vowels and consonants

After one year teaching English 10 at Quoc Oai high school, the researcher found out

that 10“.grade students had difficulties in recognizing English sounds because in

Vietnamese, each sound is represented by one word; whereas, each English sound can

be represeted by a number of letters They don’l know when a letler or a combination

of letters is pronounced as this sound and when as another sound As a result, when

doing phonetic exercises, they usually guess the answers With the conventional

teaching techniques, leachers introduce phonemes wilh their phonetic symbols,

describe how to make these sounds, give some examples and then let students practice some sentences with these sounds, With that teaching method, svadents can pronounce

anew word only when its phonetic transcription 18 provided and il is quile difficult lo

guess the pronunciation of a new word

Due to the importance of pronunciation in communication and the poor sound

recognition ability of students, the rescarcher decided to mitroduce

Phonome-Grapheme Correspondence method to students ‘the present study, “A Study on the

Effects of Using Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence Method on Sound

Recognition Ability of EFL 10-Grade Students at Quoc Oai High School and Their

Attitudes”, is an attempt to examine whether using Phoneme-Grapheme

Correspondence method leads to better sound recognition ability compared to the

conventional method or not Furthermore, the study aimed to find oul the students”

attitudes towards using this method

1.2, Aims of the study

‘This study aims to,

- investigate the effects of using Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence Method on sound recognition ability of 10"-grade studerts al Quoc Oai high school,

- find out students’ attitudes towards using this method,

1.3 Research questions

‘The study aims at answering the following questions

- To what extent does Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence method help to

improve sound recognition ability of 10“ grade students at Quoc Oai High School?

- What are the students’ attitudes towards Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence

method?

14, Significance of the study

This study provides an insight into the cffects of using Phoneme-Graphome Correspondences method on EFL high-school students’ sound recognition ability as well as their allitudes towards using this method TL is hoped that the resulls of this research can be regarded as a source of reference for educational administrators to make adjustments to the content of pronunciation part In addition, the findings can help teachers consider whether lo use Phoncme-Grapherne Corespondences method to teach pronunciation, Moreover, this study will be much beneficial to students who wonder if using Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences method to improve their pronunciation ability Lastly, this paper will serve as a good reference for those who

want to have a clearer view of applying Phoneme-Gropheme Correspondences method,

1.5 Scope of the study

The research was carried out on the 10"-grade students at Quoc ai high school Due

to lime constraints, the research was limited to investigating the effects of Phoneme-

Grapheme Correspondence method on the students’ English vowel sound recognition ability Other aspects of English pronunciation such as dipthongs, consonants,

Trfenalion would not, be investigated

1.6, Research method

The method used in this sludy is quasi-cxperimental research According to Arikunte (2002, as cited in Hidayat, 2014), experimental research is the way to find a causal relationship (relationship clause) between the two factors that are deliberately caused

by the researcher by reducing or setting, aside other factors that interfore; therefore, this kind of research is suitable for this study, in which the effects of using Phoneme- Grapheme Correspondence method on students’ sound recognition ability are

investigated

1.7 Organization of the study

The study is divided into ive chapters as lollows:

Chapter one, INTRODUCTION, introduces the rationale for the research, the aims, the research questions, the significance of the study the scope of the study, the

research method, and the organization of the study

Chapter two, LITERATURE REVIEW, reviews the literature relevant to the study

This chapter slants wilh theoretical issues on pronunciation, respectively the definition,

the role of pronunciation in language learning, approaches to teaching pronunciation and techniques of testing pronunciation In this chapter, the researcher also mentions

the defination of Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondenee and points oul the differences

between English and Vietnamese in terms of sound systems The definition of attitude

as well as the role of attitude in second language learning are also mentioned in this

chapter Last but not least, the previous research works on this issue and the need for this study are also included

Chapter three, METHODOLOGY, describes in detail the research methadalogy The research design is shown, followed by an introduction of the settings of the research It also presents instruments employed in this paper to collect the data, namely

questionnaires, and pronunciation (ests Tn addition, this chapter is comprised of data

collection procedures and data analysis methods

Chapter four, RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION, presents the results and discussions of (he collected data

Chapter five, CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AKD SUGGESTIONS, provides the

conclusions, as well as presents limitations of the research It also makes suggestions

for further research im (he same fiekd and suggestions for leachers and students.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides readers with the relevant literature of the study by presenting some key concepts which are necessary to understand the issues mentioned in the paper more clearly, as well as the review of the previous studies related to the topic of

the paper

2.1 Theoretical Background

211 Definition of “pronunciation”

The notion of “pronunciation” has been defined by a number of scholars Oxford

Advanced Learner's Hnglish Dictionary gives an easy-to-understand definition that

prommeiation is “the way in which a language or a particular word ar sound is

pronounced” Trask (1996) also provided a similar definition that “pronunciation” is

“the manner in which speech sounds, especially connected sequences, are articulated

by individual speakers or by speakers generally” (p 291) Both definitions clearly point out that pronunciation is a way of producing language, word or sound, However,

Kristina et al (2006, as cited in Pratiwi, 2010) added an element when defining this

term According to them, pronunciation entails not only the production but also the reception of speech sounds and the achievement of the meaning, Murphy (2003) shared the same idea and gave a convincing explanation that

Though most of us think in terms of speech production, the Longman Dictionary of

Applied Linguistics emphasizes “the way sounds are perceived by the hearer” io define

pronunciation (Richards, Plalt, and Weber, 1992, p 296) An emphasis on hearcrs*

perceptions is especially relevant How we pronounce words, phrases, and sentences

comununicates to others considerable information about who we are, and what we are

like, as people

(p 112)

Tn conclusion, pronumeiation is Lac way {o pronounce an intelligible speech sound

Regarding the features that constitute the production of sounds in English, Gilakjani

(2012) stated that prommciation is comprised of features at two levels, namely

segmenial (uicro) one and supra-segmonial Gnacro) one He also provided a clear

illustration as in the following Figure

Phonemes (Sound differences an "

within a language) Linking Intonation Stress

——

Consonant Vowel Sentence Word

In the curriculum of the textbook English 10 (basic), segmental features are the major

focus for pronunciation teaching However, in the limitation of this study, only single

vowel sounds in English are researched

2.1.2 Role of pronunciation in language learning

According to Kelly (2000), it is crucial that a language learner have a good

pronunciation of that language No matter how well non-native speakers control

grammar and vocabulary of that language, they will not be able to communicate orally

if their pronunciation is not comprehensible

Firstly, one of the factors that have strong influence on speaking ability is

pronunciation Speakers will fail to get their message across if they mispronounce a

number of words, which may result in breakdown in communication

On the other hand, listening ability will become worse on account of bad

pronunciation When a leamer has already stuck to the wrong way of pronouncing

particular speech sounds, it is unlikely for him/her to recognize the authentic

pronunciation of native speakers

Wong (1993) also pointed out that promunciation has a relationship with grammar on the grounds that the former can convey grammatical information thanks to rhythm and

intonation

‘As indicated above, it can be concladsd that like grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation is of great importance for language leaming Acquiring good

prommoiaiiom is very helpful for those who are learning foreign languages

The place of pronunciation teaching in the ESL/EFL classroom has changed

dramatically in various language teaching methods According to Prater and Celce-

Murcia (1979, as ciled in To Thu Huong, ed ai, 2011), in the grammar-tanslation

method, very little or no aftention is given to pronunciation: as a result, learners

became “deaf and dumb” in the target language In another method, namely the audio-

lingual method, greal importance is atlached to pronuncialion from the begining, whereas, in spite of the great time and effort made to achieve native-like

prommeiation, the results were often dissatisfied Nowadays, when the dominant

teaching method is the communicative language teaching, whose goal is to enable

leamers to be “communicatively competent” (Celce-Murcia et al, 1995, as cited in ‘To Thu Huong, et al, 2011: 29), pronunciation becomes more and more crucial Accurate

pronunciation is regarded az a must for language learner to communicate successfully

‘As a result, teachers should pay more attention to teaching pronunciation, In contrast,

in many language courses, the teaching of prommeciation was neglected on account of a

theory that teaching prommciation in the classroom had little imfluence on pronunciation proficiency (Suter & Purcell, 1980, as cited in Varasarin, 2007) Both

teachers and learners tended to lake grammar and vocabulary precedence over

pronunciation for granted Fortunately, these days, that belief has not been popular, teaching and learning pronunciation has undergone a considerable change to become

an indispensable element completing not only communication competence bul discourse, sociolinguistics and strategic competence as well (Morley, 1994, as cited in Khoa Anh Viet, ef al, 2010)

2.1.8 Approaches to teaching pronunciation

In the history of foreign language teaching, Kelly (1969, as cited in Khoa Anh Viet, ef

al, 2010) regarded pronunciation as “the Cinderella of language teaching” He pointed

out that the research of grammar and vocabulary had been paid much more attention

than that of pronunciation Not until the early 20" century was teaching pronunciation researched systematically

In the field of modem language teaching, there exist two general approaches to the teaching of pronunciation, namely intuitive-imitative approach and analytic-linguistic

approach (Celce-Mureia, et al, 1996)

2.1.3.1 The intuitive-imitative approach

The intuitive-imitative approach depends on the “leamers’ ability to listen to and

imitate the rhythms and sounds of the target Iamguage without ihe intervention of any

explicit information” (Celce-Murcia, et al, 1996, 2) This means that the teacher’s

turning on and rewinding a cassette player (or any other instrument) play an important

role in the teaching of pronunciation, and the main activities in the class are Hatening

and repeating, Of course, in order to do this, the supply of authentic materials as well

as recording devices to use is a must during the lesson The teacher is not responsible for explaining how to form or produce a specific sound Learners do their main task of listening and imitating, and it is expected that they will gradually gain pronunciation

competence

Jones and Evans (1995, as cited in Nguyen ‘Thi Mo, 2008) suggested that this approach

be adopted at the beginning of teaching pronunciation for the following reasons

“Firstly, it constitutes a more holistic approach in which, from the outset, different

clements of pronunciation are seen as inlegraled Secondly, it gives studonts a chance

to experience pronunciation on intuitive and communicative levels before moving on

to 4 more analytical exploration of specific elements of phonology Finally, work in

voice quality cam help students te improve their image when they speak English, and thus increase their confidence’ (p 8)

2.1.3.2 The analytic-linguistic approach

In contrast, the analytic-linguistic approach “utilizes information and tools such az a phonetic alphabet, articulator descriptions, charts of the vocal apparatus and other aids

to supplement isiening, imitation, and production” (Celec-Murcia, ef al, 1996: 2) This

approach directly provides information for learners and turns their attention to the rhythms and sounds of the target language In this approach, learners are given clear explanations about how to form particular sounds of the targct language

Of the two approaches mentioned above, it is very difficult to regard which one as the better one because each approach treats pronunciation teaching in another way Choosing which approach depends on specific teaching contexts and level of leamers

In this study, the researcher applied the Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence method

to help students recognize sounds from letters of the words It can be said that this method is a part of analyzing sounds; therefore, il belongs to the analylic-lingnistic

approach

2A Techniques of testing pronunciation

In the article “Yechniques of testing pronunciation”, Ahmed (2007) gave a

classification of pronunciation tests but in a broader way According to him, there are two kinds Lo tes, lamers’ pronuncialion proficiency, mmcly sound production lesls and sound recognition ones

Sound production tests

According to Ahmed (2007), “sound production is the testing of pupil’s ability to distinguish between contrastive sounds but it does not mean testing his ability to pronounce English accurately.” (p 16}

Sound production tests are composed of scored interviews, highly structured speech

2

samples and paper-and-pencil tests of pronunciation (Ahmed, 20:

Sound recognition tests

Almed (2007) slaled thal teachers can use some techniques, such as sound to

phonemic symbols, minimal pairs of words, and sound to pictures to test their

students’ abilily Lo recognize the sound segmens (p 20)

Celco-Muroia, ef af (1996) said that testing pronunciation has been given little attention One reason for that issue is that “pronunciation involves not only the

application of velevanl rules (e.g, when —s endings are pronounced /s/, 4, tr /2, or

when word-internal palatalization of stops and fricatives occurs) but also perception

and production” (p 341) These authors also mentioned three techniques which can be

employed to evaluate pronunciation

The first technique, Diagnostic evaluation, is composed of diagnosing perception and diagnosing production in the classroom This kind of lechnique can serve as a means

of determining a leamer’s level of pronunciation proficiency, which is usually useful

$

when teachers want to determine whether a learner can undertake a certam task or

place a leamer in the class which is suitable for his level of pronunciation proficiency

With this technique, leamers will do such exercises as distinguishing vowels /

consonants or identifying word stress

The second technique is called Ongoing evaluation with feedback The purposes of

this leckmique are lo enable teachers to determine the progress students are making to

make any changes in their curriculum or methodology if necessary as well as to give

feedback om learners’ progress There are two forms of this technique, namely self-

moniloring and corrcelion

Classroom testing is also a popular kind of evaluating pronunciation proficiency This

assessment can be carried out in different period of time during the prormmeciation

course Lo evaluate the progress learners make in a specific issue which has just been

taught Like the first technique, classroom testing includes perception test and

production test

In high schools in Victnam, students’ pronunciation is usually assessed with sound recognition paper-tests ‘hese tests focus on the students’ ability to recognize the sound segments or word stress The most popular kind of pronunciation tests is in form

of multiple choice in which there are four options in each question Regarding phonetic part, students are asked to find the word whose underlined part is pronounced

differently from that of the others

21.5 Definition of “Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence”

To have a better understanding of this term, af first, il is nese

ry lo be aware of the

cloments that constitute this correspondence, namely grapheme and phoneme

‘A phoneme refers to a linguistic unit within the spoken language Phonemes can

Tepresen a group of sounds or one single unit of specch which constructs a single

abstract unit opposed to a physical unit (Yonas ef af, 1981) According to John and Nancy (2011), a phoneme “does not carry meaning on its own, but different phonemes aller the meaning of a worl” (p 350) For example, if we change the first phoneme in the word wall from Aw/ to //, the meaning of the word, as well as its part of speech,

changes completely.

‘A geapheme 1s the physical representation of a phoneme presented in written or printed format (John & Nancy, 2011) In Lnglish, a grapheme may be a single letter or

a combination of letters For example, in the word book, the grapheme 6 represents the

phoneme /b/, vo [or 2ý and k [or (kể

Phoneme-Grapheme Carrespondence is “the relationship between a graphemme and

the phoneme(s) it represents.” (John & Naney, 2011:350) For example, the grapheme s

represents the phoneme /s/ in the word sea and the phoneme /f/ in the word sugar This correspondence is often referred to as a knowledge of the alphabetic principle and is

defined as distinctive graphical representation of letters used to symbolize each

phoneme or specch sound in oral language (Yonas et al, 1981)

Daria and Alan (1996) stated that

Learning the Phoncme-Grapherne Correspondences necessary wo begin to phontctically decode words involves at least three distinct skills: the ability to (a) recognize and distinguish between letters, (b) process phonological information, and (c) associate specific letters with specific sounds (p 259)

According lo Adams (1994), “phortica is the systom of caching reading that builds ot

the alphabetic principle, a system of which a ventral component is the teaching of correspondences between letter or groups of letters and their pronunciations” (p.50);

therefore, Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence is a vital constituonl of phonics

imethod in particular and in pronunciation learning in general

Regarding the advantages of leaming phonics, many studies of the National Reading

Panel (as exted in Johnson, 2011) found out that this method improved students’ word-

reading ability Beginning readers leaming reading through phonics would have phonemic awareness and showed an increased ability ta sound out words with regular

spelling Moreover, phonies can give a slarting paint ia improve students’ spelling

ability because they can use phonics instructions to break down a word in their mind

when they prepare to write it (Pancare, 2011} Davis (2011) also concluded that

phonies helped siudents become more familiar with syllable structure For exampls,

students will be aware that a closed syllable will end in a consonant and have a short

vowel, while an open syllable will end in a vowel that makes a long sound Lastly,

phonies provides students a useful tool to recognize and sound out unfamiliar words,

therefore helping build students’ confidence (Pancare, 2011)

11

On the contrary, there exist some disadvantages of phonics method Kirstly, a study conducted by Marsha et al (2003, as cited in Johnson, 2011) gave a conclusion that an

overemphasis on phonics could have a negative impact on students’ understanding

words as well as texts Thanks to phonics method, students were able to correctly

pronounce words but had no idea what those words or the text itself meant

2.1.6 Vietnamese — English sound systems

It is obvious that almost all leamers have problems in learning a foreign language In this case, many of Fnglish foreign learners have difficulties in pronuricialion learning process on account of some factors In the book “Teaching Hnglish pronunciation”, Kenwarthy (1987) pointed out that there were six factors that had influence on one’s pronunciation learning, mamely native language, age, amount af exposure, phonetic ability, attitude and identity, and motivation and concern for good prommetation

As a result, it can be said that mother tongue is an important factor in learning to pronounce a forcign language Avery and Ehrlich (1992) claimed that “the nature of a

3 They also gave a clear explanation of how the sound system of the native language foreign accent is determined to a large extent by a learner’s native language” (p

influences leamers’ pronunciation of a foreign language First of all, leamers may have trouble when they encounter sounds in English that are not part of the sound inventory

of the learners’ native language Secondly, leamers will find it difficult when the mules

for combining sounds into words are different in their native language Lastly, learners

can transfer the patterns of stress and intonation, which determine the overall rhythm

and melody of a laniguage from the native language into the second language Tn brief,

the more different the native language and the foreign one are, the more <hificult it is for leamers to lean pronunciation

For many Viclnamese sludents, learning English pronunciation is considered to be

hard work One of the reasons for that matter is that there are a lot of differences in

sound system between Vietnamese and English Among those differences is that “the Vietnamese alphabet is phonetic, with a one-to-one correspondence of sound Lo Teller

or letter combination” (Center for Applied Linguistics, 1981:2) while in English, this

correspondence can be “one-to-many” (Trevor, 2013: 210) Take the following

grapheme “a” as an illustration: it can be pronounced as /se/ in “back”, /e/ in “many” or

12

Jaf in “arrive” and so on To solve this problem, some linguists proposed a list of Phoneme-Grapherne Correspondence rules to help learners who study Frglish as a forcign language, especially those at beginner level

21.7 Definition of “attitude”

Ajzan (1988) stated that attitude is “a disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably

to an object, person, institution, or event” (p 3)

According to Allport (1954), “an attimde is a mental and neural state of readiness,

organized through experience, exerting as directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with whioh it is related” (p 45}

Wender (1991, as cited in Atel & Mumir, 2009:33) gave a broader definition of the

concept “attitudes” Ile states that the term “attitudes” includes three components

namely, cognitive, affective and behavioural A cognitive component is comprised of

the belicis and ideas or options about the object of ihe atlilude The affective one is

made up of the feelings and emotions that one has towards an object, ‘likes’ or

‘dislikes’, ‘with’ or ‘against Finally, the behavioural component refers to one's

consisling actions or behavioural inlenlions, mdicating the expectation of future

behavior towards an object

To sum up, alliiude is a mental and neural slate, expressing the incividual’s responses toan object, a person, a thing or an event

‘The questionnaire for this study deals with on all of the three components of attitude It related to students’ perceptions of sound recognition as well as their feelings and beliefs of phoneme-grapheme correspondence method It also helped to find out

students” expectations of the use of this new method in the future

21.8 The role of attitude in second language learning

Altitudes and leaming go hand in hand According to Ismet (2005), attitude is one of

“the determinants of success in RFT learning” (p 29)

In fact, attitudes play an important role in students’ second language learning Depending on the leamers’ attitudes, learning language can be a source of enrichment

or a sourse of resentment (Lightbrown & Spada, 1999) Positive alliludes towards second language is beneficial to second language learners because positive attitudes

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help to create motivation to achieve success in acquiring that language (Holmes, 1992:345), whereas, negative attitudes towards the foreign language and group, which

often comes from stereatypes, can impede the leaming of that language (Brown,

2000)

From the studies into leamers’ attitudes to second language learning, it can be

concluded that Íearrmers'h allitudes are of importance 1m secorxd language

acquisition Consequently, sccond language teachers need to take leamors’ attitudes

into consideration

2.2 Previous research works and the need for this study

There have been a small number of researchers conducting research into Phoneme-

Grapheme Correspondence up to now

Christensen and Bowey (2005) carried out a research to compare the efficacy of two decoding, skill-based programs, namely explicit orthographic and grapheme-phoneme correspondence, to an implicit phonics program They drew out the conclusion that children in the grapheme-phoneme correspondence program consistently spelled

transfer words better than children in the implicit phonics ane, moreover, the former

consistently read words more quickly than the latter

After doing a research into the effects of computer-assisted Phoneme-Grapheme

Correspondence training in the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children, Mentzer (et

al., 2013) concluded that for some DHA children, phonological processing skills were

boosted relatively more by Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence training

However, no other research, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, has allernpied

to find out the effects of using Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence on EFL high

school students’ sound recognition ability

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

In the following part, the researcher provides a detailed description of the research

methodology Details of the research design, the settings, the instruments employed in

this paper, the procedures of data collection and data analysis are given below

3.1 Research design: Quasi-experimental

The current study adopts the quasi-cxperimental rescarch design, which is spovifically Imown as pretest-posttest non-equivalent group design Conceming this kind of research, Singh and Bajpai (2008) described uhal “this design is oflen used in classroom experiments when experimental and control groups are such naturally assembled groups as intact classes, which may be similar” (p 284) The researcher did the real-time experiment for the present study, where it was difficult, to use randomization for the selection of samples for experimentation, as a result, the researcher took the help of the quasi-experimental design study instead of true- experimental one

‘Yo carry out the study, two classes which the researcher was in charge of teaching English were selected One class was assigned to serve as an experimental group (Phoueme-Grapheme Correspondence method) and the other class as a control group (conventional method) The experimental design of the present study is presented as follows

Oy pre-test 0; post-test X treatment - no treatment

The mentioned design was [followed i the process of experiment with the aim of stadying the effects of using Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence method on sound recognition ability Pretests were administered before the application of the

experimental and control treatments and posttests at the end of the treatment period

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Gain scores would be compared and subjected to a test of significance of the difference between two means

In this study, the researcher used an experimental research: therefore, variables need to

be taken into consideration Variables are defined as “the conditions or characteristics that the experimenter manipulates, controls, or observes” (Singh & Bajpai, 2008:266) There exist two types of variables, namely independent and dependent variables The independent variable of this study is the use of Phoncme-Grapheme Correspondenes method; the dependent variable the students’ achievement in sound recognition ability,

which is incheated in their score of the tests

3.2 Setting of the study

the former is 15 mirutes In each pronunciation part, teachers are required to introduce

students a minimal pair of sounds and then help them practice these sounds

individually as well as in complete sentences

3.2.2, Population of the study

According to Best and Kahn (1995), population is any group of individuals that has

one or more characteristics im common thal are of interest to the researcher The

population of the study consists of all 10%-grade students at Quoc Oai hinh school in

the academic year of 2015-2016

The 10".grade sludents al Quoc Oai high school studied Fnglish formally for seven

‘years in primary and junior high school When attending high school, they faced up with a lot of problems in the new English learning style in high school, which requires

not only vocabulary, grammar, four skills but pronunciation as well, As a result,

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teachers needed to help them to get acquainted with the new learning style and make progress

Taking their language competence into consideration, their English proficiency levels were reportedly at the pre-intermediate level, moreover, most of them seemed interested in leaming English and quite hard-working

3.23 Sample of the study

William (1999) defined sampling as “the process of selecting units (such as people and organizations) (rom # population of inleresl so that by studying the sample, you can farrly generalize your result to the population from which the units are chosen” (p 41)

In this study, the researcher chose two intact classes 10A7 and 10A8 as sample of the study The students participating in the study are 75 non-English major students at the age of 15

To carry out the experiment, class 1047 was randomly assigned to serve as a control group (38 students) while lass 1 0A8 as an expormnental group (37 students)

‘Yo check whether these two groups were at the same level of Linglish proficiency or not, the researcher used their results in the pre-test and t-test calculation

The Experimental Group | The Control Group

difference belween mean scores of pre-lesl between the experimental group and the

control group These two groups were considered to have equivalont proficioney in English

Besides, the researcher was in charge of teaching English for students in Uiese two

classes, which made it more convenient to conduct the research

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Moreover, to ensure that extraneous variables which could affect the result of the study

were controlled, the researcher tack some following steps

The first step was related to the cantrol of Hawthorne Effect There is a tendency that

there will be differences if the students are aware that they are in an experiment As a result, the researcher did not inform the students in the experimental group of the new

teaching method, which made them believe (hat they were having their normal lessons

Secondly, the rescarcher ensured that students were not allowed to discuss with their

partners in both pre-test and post-test The students did the tests on their own, not

asking othera

3.3 Data collection instruments

Tm this rescarch, he researcher used various icchniques lo collect the quaniilative data

‘The techniques of collectg dated used were questionnaire and pronunciation tests Both instruments were finished in class In detail, the techniques of collecting data are

as follows

3.31 Document research

For each lesson, the researcher prepared a lesson plan, The vowels the researcher taught in the lessons were selected from English 10 textbook Bach lesson plan was

designed for use in teaching a class for 15 minutes The samples of the lesson plans for

the conventional method (wilh ropotition drills) and the phoneme-grapheme correspondence method appeared as Appendices I (a) and (b) respectively

The conventional less ms followed the typical pattem usec by Leachers in the school,

with an introduction to the sounds, description of how to pronounce them Then students listened to the teacher and repeated some words consisting of those sounds Finally, students were asked to practice some sentences including the target sounds

‘The following Table provided an example of a lesson with the conventional method of

hit bit kick heat beat repeat

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© Practice these sentences

1 Is he coming to the cinema?

We'll miss the beginning of the film

1s it an interesting film, Jim?

kỳ

The beans and the meat were quite cheap

He's going to leave here for the Green Mountains

Would you like to have meat, peas and cheese?

Table 3.3 The conventional method

The new method, the Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence method, as an example

shawn in Table 3.4, was used in this research This method aimed at helpmg students

recognize sounds more easily based on the Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence rules

The researcher spent 15 minutes to teach pronunciation part as in the curriculum The

twacher-resvarclicr started (he Tesson with the new method by mtroducing the sounds,

describing how to pronounce them, and then providing them some common Phoneme-

Grapheme Correspondence rules of those sounds Students alsa had opportunities to

practice pronouncing words which were examples of cach Phoneme-Grapheme

Correspondence rule Lastly, students did some exercises related to these sounds

others |busy business building spstem

1, Cirele all the /:/ sounds and underline all the /1/ sounds

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‘The Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence rules used m this method are taken from the book English Prominciation in use — Hlementary by Marks (2007) In my opinion, this

book is very suitable for students to learn pronunciation at early steps

332 Questionnaire

According to Gillham (2000), questiounaire is regarded as the most appropriate

research instrument for gathering information concerning the attitudes of the

respondents because of the three following reasons Firstly, as the respondents want to

romain anonymous, information from questionnaire can be confidential IL is hoped

that people will undoubtedly feel freer in an anonymous style of responding Secondly,

a questionnaire is easy to administer, enabling the researcher to survey a large number

of respondents Thirdly, the respondents can complete the questionnaire whenever iL is

towards timed-reading activity

Part T includes two slalemenls lo investigate sludents’ general pereeplion of sound

recognition ability

Part TT is about sludents’ attitudes towards Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence

method This part is composed of 3 scotions

In section 1, there are 3 statements to find out how students feel when they are taught

with Phoneine-Grapheme Correspondence method

Section 2 helps the researcher collect information about student’s beliefs in the effects

of using Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence method

Seclion 3 is students’ expectation of the usc of Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence

method in the future.

In this questiounaire, there are closed questions scored on a Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) so that the responses could readily be quantified and analyzed

Due to students’ low level of English proficiency, the questionnaire distributed to students was written in Viemamese (See Appendices II (a) and (b))

3.3.3 Pre and post tests and test validity

The quantitative data was collected by using pre and post tests, each of which is

comprised of 20 items (See Appendices TIT (a) and (b) respevtively)

During the research program, the participants were asked to do two pronunciation

tests: pretest (before the treatment took place) and posttest (after the treatment took

place) The pre-post Losi design helps the researcher make inference on the effects of

the treatment by looking at the difference between the pre-test and post-test results

The test items were used for both pretest and posttest, however, the items were reshuffled during the posttest

‘The test items were taken from exercises in the book L/nglish Pronunciation in use

Elementary by Marks (2007) It is the book that the Phoneme-Grapheme

Correspondence rules used in this method are taken from

In pre and post tests, students were required to choose the correct phonemic symbols

for the underlined part of the given wards

Validity of the tests

Hatch and Farhady (1982) stated that “validity is the extent to which an instrument

really measures (he objective lo be measured and suitable with the criteria” (p 250) A

test can be considered to be valid if it can prociscly measure the quality of the test There are four types of validity: face validity content validity, construct validity and

empirical or ontcnonrelaled validity Tn this sludy, 1o measure whother the test has

good validity or not, the researcher used content validity

Content validity is regarded as “the extent to which the test measures a representative

sanple of the subject matter content” (Hatch & Farhady, 1982:251) Tt is mended to

know whether the test items well reflect what will be covered The test items used in

this study were adapted from the materials that had been taught to the students in the

experimental group; consequently, they contain a representative sample of the course,

‘The composition of the pre-test items was shown in the following table

According to Shohamy (1985), reliability refers to whether the test is consistent in its

score and gives us an indication of how accurale the test scores arc A lest is

considered to be reliable when the score gained by the examinees is constant whenever and by whomever the test is conducted To determine the reliability of this instrument,

a trial testing of the instrument was done using a sample of 2$ 10“ grade students in

class 10A12 at Quoc Oai high school

The internal consistency reliabilily estimale was determined using split-half teckmque

Fustly, the researcher assigned odd numbered items to onc half of the test and even numbered items to the other Therefore, each half consisted of 10 items

Secondly, the correlation of scores between the (wo halves was calculated by usinyg the Pearson x formula In Excel, the calculated r of 0.68 was obtained (See Appendix IV) Lastly, the researcher used Spearman-Brown formula to test the reliability for the total

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