Luận văn the reality of teaching and learning pronunciaton at quynh coi high school in thai binh

DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS CILAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 14 Scope of the study 1.5 Metho

THAI BINH: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

(Thực trạng dậy và học ngữ âm tại trường PTTH Quỳnh Côi, Thái

Bình: vân đề và giải pháp)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology

Code: 601410 Supervisor: TỪ THỊ MINH THÚY

Hanoi, December 2010

DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CILAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

1.2 Aims of the study

1.3 Research questions

14 Scope of the study

1.5 Methods of the study

L.6 Significance of the study

1.7 Design of the study

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.3.3.2 Techniques and activities 2.4 Leaming pronunciation

2.4.1 Factors affecting learning pronuneiation

2.4.2 Students’ roles in learning pronunciation

2.5 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning promunciation CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Description of the setting

3.1.1 Description of the school

3.1.2 Description of the course

3.3 Rescarch methods 17

4.2.1 Teaching, learning materials and curriculum 26

4.2.2 Students’ activities and their mistakes in producing stress and intonation

7

4.2.3 Teachers? approaches and techniques used in caching pronunciation 27 4.3 Interviews and discussions 29

CIIAPTER FIVE: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE DATA al

Rescarch question L: What is the present situation of teaching and learning

Research question two: Whal art teachers® and suxlenls” problems in teaching and lenrning pronuneiation? 32 Research question 3: What teaching techniques can be used to improve teaching

Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for students

Appendix 3: Classroom observation sheet

Appendix 4: Interview questions and transcription

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, with the rapid pace af integration and globalization, English becomes a golden key to open th: door of many ficlds such as commerce, communication, scicnee and technology throughout the world, Therefore, to meet the demand of the society, it is

very Te

y to teach Engtish in schools at all levels And the highest targel is lo get well in communication, If one wants to get successful in communication, he aust be good at prormneiatior: “a threshold level of promneiation in English such that ifa given,

nornalive speaker's pronunciation falls below this level, he or she will nat be able to

s on the traditional notions of prommctation, minimal pairs, drills and short conversations, The growing emphasis on communicative approaches for the teaching of English has placed higher demands for correct

pronunciation Despite this fet, al the upper

language teaching and learning, compared with vocabulary, grammar and language skills, pronunciation has so far been paid less attention to In the official textbooks used for

ondary school level in Vistnarn, in

teaching Fnglish at high school level, there are a few exercises {or pronunciation practice

To make the matter worse, all important English exams at schools as well as the entrance exam to universities are always in written form so most teachers as well as students have

little molivalion Lo teach and lo lear pronuncia!

ion, As a result, students are aflen shy and unconfident to speak in English And that is the reason why the effectiveness of teaching pronunciation still remains one of the most widely problematic subjects in the ficld of language teaching,

Coping with this pressing fact, as a language teacher teaching English at Quynh Coi

high school (QCHS), the author always thinks of some burning questions: in language teaching umd learning, whal is the present situation of teaching and lemming pronunciation at high school Jevel in QCHS? What are the problems teachers and students face in teaching and learning pronunciation? Llow to find suitable methods to

should teachers make students become interested in learning pronunciation? ‘The answers

to these questions will help Iangnage teachers improve their students’ promumviation as well as help them make progress in cflective communivation, For tbe above reasons, the author decides to carry out the study entitled: “The reality off teaching and learning pronunciation at Quytih Coi high school: prablews and solutions”

1.2 Aims of the study

‘The main purpose of this study is to discover the reality of teaching and learning promunciation at Quytih Coi high school, especially to find oul problems thal teachers and students often have in prommneiation lessons The writer also hopes to make some feasible solutions that can help the English teachers overcome those problems and improve students’ pronunciation,

1.3 Rescarch questions

‘The above aims of the study can be realized by answering the following research questions

(1) What is the present situation of teaching and learning pronunciation at QCHS?

(2) Which problems do the teachers and students at QCIIS face in pronunciation

lessons?

(3) What teaching techniques can be used to improve teaching pronunciation for

students at QCHS?

1.4 Scape of the stully

As a case study, this study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning two

aspects of English pronunciation: stress and intonation for the 12" form students at

Quynh Coi high school The subjects of the study arc 12" form students those are familiar with learning pronunciation for two years at high school Moreover, stress and intonation are twa major aspecis af pranenciation introduced in the official textbook used

by the 12!" form students Other characteristics of English promunciation would not be deeply investigated in this research,

1.5 Methods of the study

In order to fulfill the tasks mentioned above, both qualitative and quantitative methods are selected for this case study, involving the following instruments: survey

questionnaizes, classroom observations and interviews, Firstly, the survey questionnaires were delivered fo both teachers and students to investigate the reality of teaching and learning prenmnciation al QCHS, Then, some classroom observations and interviews with some English tcachers have becn also conducted to get supplementary information Finally, the results obtained trom questionnaires, observations and interviews have bem discussed and analyzed Lo with a hope for providing language teacher with some feasible teaching techniques to work successfully with their

1.7 Design of the study

This thesis consists of six main chaplers:

Chapter one is the INTRODUCTION including the rationalzs, the aims, the scope, the research questions, the methods, the significance and the design of the research It expresses the reason why the author decided to choose firs study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study

Chapter two is the LIVERATURE REVIEW It starts with theoretical issues on

pronunciation concepis, foaturzs of pronunciation, importance, problems, approaches, techniques and activities, as well as teachers’ roles in teaching pronunciation It also covers such factors in learning pronunciation as students’ motivation, other subjective and objective factors, and students’ roles, Problems in teaching and lewning

pronunciation are in the last part of the LITERATURE REVIEW.

the setting and the participants It also presents how data was collected through the roscarch methods and research procedures,

Chapter four is the PRESENTATION OF THE DATA, in which the outcomes of the collected data are presented, A summary of the results and a general narrative description is also provided

Chapter five is the ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE DATA, In this chapter, collected data is analysed and findings is explained

Chapter six is the CONCLUSIONS ANT) RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter

shows what the author learnt fiom the study It also includes some recommendations tor other teachers and for further study

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Pronunciation concepts

‘The noton of pronunciation has been detined in many different ways by writers Generally speaking, pronunciation is simply defined as “the way in which a word is spoken” (Oxford Advanced Learer’s Eneyclopedic, 1992) or “the way in whieh a word

is usually pronounced” (Longman dictionary of contemporary English, 1978) In the book “Pronunciation” published in 1994, Christians Dalton and Harbara Seiđlhofer (1994;3) consider prommciation “as the production of significant sound” They look at the word in two senses First, it is used as part of a code of a particular language ‘That is the reason why English sounds are distinguished from sounds of other languages In this sonse, pronunciation can be told as the production and rseaplion of sounds af specch

Second, sound is used to achieve meaning in contexts of use Here the code combines with other factors to make communication possible Tn this sense prommciation is referred with reference to acts of speaking,

In the scope of this study, the concept of promnnoiation can be described as “a way of speaking 4 word, especially a way that ts accopted or generally understood? (American Heritage Dictionary, 1992) or “tay be said to conclude the sounds of the language or phonology, stress and zhythm; intonation; combination sounds; linkage of sound” (Ur, 1996)

2.2 Features of pronunctation

Gerald Kelly (2000) points out main features of pronunciation including phonemes and suprasegmental features, in which consonants and vowels belong to phonemes, intonalion anil slross arc two Tain parts of suprasogrnental Phonemas aré unils of sound, they are known as segments Suprasegmental f2atures are features of speech whuch apply

to groups of segments, or phonemes ‘The features which are important in Unglish are stress, intonation, and how sounds change in cotmcoted speceh, The following diagram

shows a brcakdown of the main features of promuneiation:

Features of pranunciation (Kelly, 2000:1)

As seen from the diagram, pronunciation is a broad subject with the boundaries of

various items such as consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation, ‘This study is intended to

understood like this: when an English word consists of more than one syllable, one of

these syllables is made fo stand out more than the others ‘This is done by saying the

syllable louder For instance, in such words as “English”, “eacher”, and “student” the

first syllables are stressed,

Intonation is an important part that most teachers have to deal with when teaching

connected specch, it refers to the way the voice “pocs up and down in pitch” (Kelly,

2000: 86) when we are speaking It plays a vital role in helping people express their

opinions, and understanding thought of others

In short, the word “prommialion” is like a big wnbrella covering various sub-ilerns

as consonants, vowels, intonations, stress, etc With such big boundaries of items,

language teachers and learnets have to think of how to master these key aspects

especially stress and intonation, to be succcssful in teaching and Icarning pronunoiation

2.3 Teaching pronunciation

2.3.1 The importance of teaching/ learning pronunciation and a “paradox”

2.3.1.1 The importance of teaching and earning pronunciation

Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of language like syntax and vocabulary, Some people may argue that speech is obviously much more significant than

pronunciation However, specch vanmot exist wilhoul prommialion Corrool

pronunciation, in fact, is considered to be a prerequisite lo develop the speaking skill

‘That is why teaching pronunciation should occupy an important place in the study of any language

According to Gerald Kelly (2000), prommeiation “involves far more than individual sounds” including word stress, sentence stress, intonation, and word linking, All of these

miluon core af the language, When toaching

the sound of spokon English Sound is the

a language, the first and foremost thing teachers should do is to let learners have chances

to expose themselves to the sounds of that language ‘That is the reason why more and

more teachers pay much attention to teaching pronimciation to their students

Considering the importance of communication in general and pronmeiation in particular, Gerald Kelly confirms “a learner who constantly mispronounces a range of phoncmos can be extremely difficull for a speaker from another language cowmmmily ta understand A consideration of leamers’ pronunciation exrors and of how these can inhibit successfull communication is a useful basis on which to assess why it is important

to deal with pronunciation in the class” (2000:11)

Sharing the same ideas with Kelly, Martin Hewings (2004;10) adds “difficulties

with pronunciation might mean that students fail to get their message across, even when

the correct words are boing used, or they might fail 10 undorstand wal is said to (hern,” The inaccurate use of suprasegmetal elements, such as tiess or intonation, can also cause problems, Lrrors in pronunciation can lead to a problem of reception, or comprehension

of the insaning or fametion of an utterance, even worse, they can alfeet the perecived tons

or mood of an utterance Moreover, it is obvious that good prommeciation serves as a strong motivation for language learners Most language learners show considerable enthusiasm for pronunciation as they consider it as a good way to show that they are competent in the language Once they have obtained adequate pronmeiation competence, they gradually build up strong confidence for themselves and are ready to learn new things without hesitation,

2.3.1.2 A “paradox”

be negated, Regrettably, teaching and learning pronunciation has not received appropriate allention as expsoled and Gerald Kelly call this facl a nave “a paradox” (Kelly, 2000: 1)

II tends lo sufltr from being uegleetcd This may not bs teachers’ Lack of interest or motivation in pronunciation The main reason comes ftom their teaching experience and confidence, “feeling of doubl as lo học to leach” (Kelly, 2000:13) In spite of the facl thal both teacher and students are keen on pronunciation, they often take grammar or vocabulary precedence over pronunciation for granted If it is not neglected, “it tends to

h Live Lo a, particular proble

strategically planned” (Kelly, 2000:13) This is the most popular problem in pronunciation lessons ‘teachers only deal with pronmnciation when if comes to be

1 Ul has arisen in the classrour rather than being

problematic There is no lesson plan, no strategy in teaching and learning pronunciation Most teachers often prepare lesson plan for teaching grammar, vocabulary, but pronunciation Yet pronunciation work can, and should, be planed for, too Teachers should rogard features of promumeiation

s inlogral ta language ømalysis and lesson

planning

‘This paradox arises ftom both the nature of pronunciation itself from the teaching

staf as well as from the learncrs themselves However, lo deal with this problem, as

language teachers, teachers need to have a good grounding in theoretical knowledge Furthermore, in order to teach pronunciation successfilly, teachers should be practically skilled in classrooms, and they need lo have good ideas, approaches, techniques, as well

as classroom activities

2.3.2 Leachers’ roles in teaching pronunciation

Mastering a forcign language promuncialion is nol something immpossibl: as far as

the student and the teacher participate together in the total learning process Thus, to succeed in a pronunciation program, the teacher plays an essential role Kenworthy

(1987) and Hoang Van Van, et al (2006) shared the similar ideas about teachers’ roles in the teaching and learning proumnciation process, in which, teachers aie responsible for:

* Helping learners to hear:

The teacher has a mission to provide approptiate input of the target sounds for learners to hear, ‘Teacher needs to check that their students are hearing sounds according

to the appropriate calzgeries and help thew develop new catageri

5 if necessary,

© Helping learners to make sounds

TLis truc that some English sounds do not exist in the learners’ mother tongue

Some learners may be able to imitate the target sounds if they are provided models Llowaver, for those who lack such an ability, it is teachers” duty to explain the way those

on their performance

® — Pointing out what is going on:

In many cases, leamers fail to realize what and how they are speaking, as speaking is far toosl parts unconsciously controtled, Icarners amy sometimes make

mistakes in the way dey produce a particular sequence of sounds, or pul sire

incorrect place, leading to misunderstanding, It is the teachers’ role to specify the area

$ in an

that learners have Lo pay attention Lo so as nol, lo cause miscomprehension

* Establishing priorities:

Native-like pronunciation is nat casy lo achieve Therofore, learncrs need a guide

to tell them about what aspects they should master, what aspects they not need to be

“perfect” Inevitably, when learning a foreign language, it is dealt if learners master every aspect of it However, as this is somehow umealistic, leamers should Jeam to satisfy at an

accepted level of those aspects which are not vital ‘he evel at which leamers can feel

activitics are more suilable to some students than others.

* Assessing progress:

An important role of teacher is Lo assess progress, Tearnors need ta know al wha level they are in promuneiation Tests allocated at appropriate times will serve as a strong motivation for students, When they look at their marks, they have a clear senss of how much they have gained, Judging loamors’ pronunciation porformmec is very complicated However, this should be done accordingly

2.3.3 Approaches, techniques and activities in teaching pronunciation

2.3.3.1 Approuches in teaching pronunciation

In the book “Teaching pronunciation” (Celce-Murcia M., et al, 1996; 2), the authors point out two general approaches to the teaching of pronunciation in the modern time, namely intuitive-imitative approach and analytic-linguistic approach

An intuitive-imitative approach depends on “the leamers’ ability to Hsten to and imitate the thythms and sounds of the target language without the intervention of any explicit information” This means the toaching of pronunciation depends largely on the teacher’s tuming on and rewinding a cassette player (or another instrument), and the main activities in the class are listening and repeating In this approach, the teacher has no responsibility to cxplain how sounds are formed ot produced and the Ieamers do their main task of listening and imitating, and it is expected that learners will gradually gain

pronunciation competence

Meanwhile, an analytic-linguistic approach “utilizes information and tools such as a phonetic alphabet, articulator descriptions charts of the vocal apparatus and other aids to

supplement listening, imitation, and production” (Celce-Murcia M., et al, 1996: 2) In

this approach, lcamers arc given explanation as well as training on how to form particular sounds of the target langage Between these two approaches, there is no scale on whether which ono is heifer Choosing to apply which approach into caching pronunciation depends on teachers themselves and the level of leamars To do well with these two approaches, if is a need for both teachers and learners to fulfill knowledge of articulator system such as consonants, vowels, stress, and intoreition,

the author considers the use of both approaches to gain best effect in teaching and

© Drilling

One of the main ways in which promnciation is practiced in the classroom is through drilfing In its most basic form, drilling simply invalves th teacher saying a

word or a structure, and getting class to repeat it

© Listen and imitate”

‘The pronunciation of the target language is provided by the teacher or tape

rocorders, language labs, cle sludenls arc to listen to a sequence of sounds or senlonees

and repeat it

© Phonetic training:

This technique makes use of articulator descriptions, articulator diagrams and a phonetic alphabet, Leamers are provided with basic theoretical knowledge about how sounds are formed ‘they are also aided by the teacher to make germine sound production,

© Minimal pair drills

‘These relate to words which differ ftom each other only one phoneme Normally, students arc allowed to listen to the tape and distinguish between the two sounds This type of activities is particularly usetul to teach sounds which causes difficulties for learners or sounds that are mismatched

© Contextualized minimal patr:

In this technique, the teacher establishes the setting and present key vocabulary; students are then trained to respond to a sentence stem with the appropriate meaningful

© Reading aloudrectation:

Students are provided with @ passage or scripts and then read aloud, focusing on

slress, timing and intonation This activity is often done with lexis such as pocrns,

rhymes, song Iyries, etc

© Recording of learners’ production

‘This technique can use audio-tape, videotapes of rehearsed and spontaneous

© Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by afftxation:

Base on nile of generative phonology, used with intermediate or advanced learners

‘The teachers point ont the rule-based nature of vowel and stress shifts in etymologically rolaled words lo raise awarcness; sentences and shorl texts that contain both number of a pair may be provide as oral practice material such as; PHOtograph and phoTOgraphy

2.4 Learning pronunciation

2.4.1 Factors affecting learning prowunciation

Aocording to Josne Kơnworthy (1987), thera arc many firclors affecting learning Promnciation, inckuding the native Tanguage, the age factor, Ihe amount of exposure, phonetic ability, attitude and identity

The native tangnage: it is inevitable that learners’ native language has a great impact on their ability of pronouncing English The “forcign accent” is therefore casy to

identity.

13

The age factor; it is often assumed that the younger a person starts learning a foreign language, the better he is at pronouncing it and he has a greater chance of having amitivetike accent

The amount of exposure: people who live in the country where the targel language is spoken and is surrounded by an English-speaking environment may have some advantages over some who do Tol

Phonetic ability: researches have shown that some people naturally have a “better ear” for a foreign language than others

Altitude and identity: rosulls from many stuties have shown (hat losrners who have a positive attitude towards speakers of a foreign language tend to have a more native-like pronunciation

2.4.2 Students’ roles tn earning pronunciation

It is essential that in order to learn a language, motivation plays a vital role, The same thing happens to learning pronunciation If students really care much about their pronunciation, they will become more caulious aboul their speaking, and grarhally build

up good pronunciation

In teaching and learning pronunciation, 1f teachers play the roles of a “speech coach’, students themselves necd to involve in this process as touch as possible in order

to get good :esults It is necessary for students to satisty some demands, Firstly, they need

to perceive the model as exactly as they can Secondly, they need to response as much as and as well as possible Lo the recognition, the imitation and ropetilion aclivilics Tastly, beside the help of the teachers, students should do self-correction of their pronunciation mistakes

2.5 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunctatton

Both teachers and students encounter various problems in the process of teaching and Isaming prommeiation These problems do not only arise from the nature of pronunciation itself, but from various subjective and objective factors In the light of the previous and current studies, some major problems that teachers and learners face in teaching and learning pronunciation are:

The nature of pronunciation

According to Nunan (1991), the problem of aequiring the phonology of a second

or a foreign language presents a formidable challenge to any theory of second language acquisition, In teaching and learning pronunciation, the biggest! problom thal most of the English teachers and students complain come from nature of pronunciation, English pronunciation itself contains so many complicated factors and invisible mules

Tn the Fight of this problem, Doff A (1988) listed some common problems thal leamers often make when they speak English The first is difficulties in pronouncing, sounds which do not exist in the students’ own language t'he second is the problems

wilh similar sounds that oflon cause Icarners’ confusion The third is difficulties in

pronouncing consonant clusters, And the last problem mainly comes trom English stress and intonation Students seem to have a tendency to give all syllables equal stress and

average, there are over 50) students per class With such a high student-teacher ratio, it is

impossible Lo 1uake sure that the teacher could carry out successful teaching Lcchniques and activities, and the leamer is not able to listen and receive what the teacher is saying

‘The quality of teaching staff is also a big problem Most teachers of English are non- nalive speakers, and a few of thom can have a wative-like prounreialion Às a rosul, the language input that students receive every day is from non-native people, Therefore, it is

impossible to require students to achieve perfect pronunciation

Teaching model

According to Kelly (2000), in the past, the model of teaching English promneiation was “received prommeiation”, the pronounciation of people in the southwest England Today, there is a vast number of English American English, Australian English, ete, Thus, it is difficult for teachers to choose what model to teach In fact, each teacher often cannot prodrice a “perfact” accent without being affboicd by his

teachers and students

Tn sonelusion, in this chapter, some theoretical backgrounds relating to ts

Shing and Icarning pronunciation have been pointed out These factors arc the pronmneiation concepts and their features Factors relating to pronunciation teaching and learning as the importance, the problems, techmiques and activities have been also given Tt cannot be

denied that promunciation and teaching promunciation is an important part te conduct in

any language course It is even more important for those who are or will be teachers of the language Methods of icaching prommeiation arc various with different clememis of

pronunciation What are the attitudes of teachers and leamers towards teaching and

learning pronunciation? Do teachers and learners have any problems in teaching and learning? What Lechniques should be nsed lo leach promuncialion? These questions will

be discussed in next chapters of the study,

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Description of the setting

3.1.1 Description of the school

To get the aims fbr this study, the author chose Quynh Coi high school as a case to carty out the investigation,

Located in Thai Bi, Quyih Cai high school has Leen known as ont of the leading choice of parents and students when they finish the secondary school, The school has 36 classes with 90 teachers and 1,800 students Each year, the school enrolls more than 600 new comers

3.1.2 Description of the course

At school, all students when pass the entrance exam to the school have to study Tinglish as one of the compulsory subjects During the process of learning English at school, students use three English textbooks (English 10, English 11, English 12) focusing on four skills including reading, speaking, listening, writing and Tanguage focus parl The language focus comprises twa mejor parts: pronunciation and grammar Normally, students start learning pronunciation when they study English 10 Ilowever, at grade 10th, students only learn some vowels and simple consonanls, Al giade Hh, students continue to study complex consonanis And at

grade 12°, students start to be familiar with stress and intonation exercises That is

the reason why stress and intonation are two major aspects of pronunciation chosen in

this investigation:

3.2 Subjects

‘The subjects of this study comprised 10 teachers and 55 12""-form students at

QCHS All English teachers w:

27 to 60 years old, and have taught English for more than 2 years They graduated from both regular and in-service training With those teachers who have taught

invited to participate in this study They are from

English for many years, they have teaching experience, but were not well trained, They mainly graduated fiom colleges, even in-service training, With younger teachers, they graduated from many different universities state and non-state universitics Thoy are fall of motivation, but lack of teaching expericnee Tn general, these teachers are good at teaching grammar and do not feel contident to deal with

easy for the author to get their consent to participate in the research

4.3 Research methads

As mentioned previously, the researcher chose a mixed-method approach to data collection, niilizing triangulation to measure a troad variety of variables in the arch Necessary data was galhored diraclly from the teachers and studonts

participating in the research in several ways:

Questionnaires; In order to collect reliable and comprehensive data, two questionnaires were designed; onc for teachers and one for studenls, They are both open-ended and close-ended questions

Teacher questionnaire (Appendix 1): one survey questionnaire with 8

achors to gol their idgas of promurwialion Le

questions was designed for the ng and leaning reality, problems ficed by their students and some recommendations to improve learning promuneiation reality at school ‘To get this aim, the questionnaire is

categorized into the following groups:

* Problems faced by teachars in teaching promuneiation; and

© Teachers’ recommendations of techniques to improve students’ pronunciation.

Student questionnaire (Appendix 2): another survey questionnaire with 8 questions was designed for students including the following categories

* Students’ attitude towards leaming pronunciation, especially stress and

intonation;

* Students’ problems in learning pronunciation; and

* Students’ expectations in learning prormmeiation

In-depth classroom observations: Six informal classroom observations during

regular classroom sessions were used as an additional data source, The observations were carried out for two weeks during the couse of the study to get more practical information about teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning pronunciation, and difficulties as well as techniques used in pronunciation lessons During th: process of observations, the author focused on some aspects taking in class as:

® ‘Teaching and learning materials used in class;

® Students" activities and their mistakes in producing pronunciation; and

* Teachers’ approaches and techniques used in teaching pronunciation

Interviews and discussions (Appendix 3): after collecting data ftom the survey

questionnaires and classroom obscrvations, the author uscd the post interview in order

to get the indepth discussion about techniques used to improve students’

Pronunciation Because il is Loo difficull for the researcher to conduct long interviews with all teachers, the researcher randomly selected 5/10 teachers for interviews They were willing to express deeply their opinions, and ideas about teaching techniques

3.2.3 Data collection procedures

The study was conducted in the first tonm of the school ycar 2010-2011 (from

September 2010 to December, 2010) At the beginning of the first term, two sets of

questionmaires wers given Lo Uke leachers and the students who agreed to participate

in the research, After two days, these questionnaires were collected The information from these questionnaires were then summarized and presented in the form of slatisties, For (hs following two weeks, tho author curried oul, some elassroam obscrvations, The observations during six English lessons ineluding onc in reading, one in writing, one in listening, one in speaking and two in language focus periods At

19

zach session, the researcher took field notes on what happened when the students learned pronunciation, Hinally, when the formation from the survey questionnaires and classroom observations were collovted and anulyzed, structared inforviews were carried oul

The data collected fiom three different resources were read through to obtain a seme of the overall data They ware then analyzed both descriptively and interpretatively, The initial sorting-oul process was writing findings in the form of reflective notes and summaries of field notes ‘The information was then displayed in forms of tables and figures whils quatitative data rom the open-ended questionnaire

items, classroom observations and interviews were presented by quoting relevant responses from the respondents

CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF THE DATA

‘This part, the information from collected data was presented in accordance with the category of data collection instruments

4.1 Survey questionnaires

4.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning

pronunciation

Assuming that the consideration of the teachers’ and students’ attitude towards

teaching and learning pronunciation would be beneficial to the research, at the outset, these factors were surveyed The results, shown in below, reflect that grammar is the most conceming aspect in learning English at high school Surprisingly, only 10% of the teachers think that pronunciation is the most necessary for their students They always

pay much attention and time and energy on grammar In contrast, teaching and learning

pronunciation as well as developing listening, speaking or reading skills do not receive

enough attention to

Chart 1: Teachers’ and students’ attitude towards teaching

and learning pronuciation

60%;

Grammar BVocabulay Pronunciation

From the chart 2, we can see an pessimistic reality of students’ level in learning

pronunciation at Quynh Coi high school Being asked about this, all the teachers said that students” level is not equal, however; it is not good as expected 60% teachers said that

their students’ level at pronunciation is at average; and even 30% of the students get

under average level None of the teachers evaluate their students” level at pronunciation is

good or excellent

4.1.3 Pronunciation teaching and learning time

Chart 3 presents time that teachers and students spend on teaching and learning pronunciation One more time teachers and students share the same ideas about the fact that too little time is on pronunciation 80% of the teachers and 43% of the students said that they did not have time to spend on teaching and learning pronunciation in one

teaching session (45 minutes); 20% of the teachers and 32% of the students spend less

than 20 minutes on teaching pronunciation None of the teachers and a very small number

of the students teach and learn pronunciation for more than 20 minutes

The overall results indicate that the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation at

Quynh Coi high school is not positive as expected Although both teachers and students are very optimistic towards teaching and learning pronunciation, students’ level is not good as well as time spent on teaching pronunciation is limited during one normal

teaching session,

Chart 4 shows that both the teachers and the students face many problems during

the process of teaching and learning pronunciation The biggest problem that both

teachers and students face comes from the nature of pronunciation The next two factors

preventing students from gaining good pronunciation are teaching time and students”

competence 27% of the teachers and 22% of the students said that they do not have

enough time on pronunciation 20% of the teachers considered that their students” competence in pronunciation is too low 22% students also agreed with that idea Class setting is the next factor that 20% teachers chose It is clear that quality of teaching staff

k 3

is not good enough to come over all the difficulties in teaching pronunciation In contrast,

only 1% of the students agreed with this The smallest factor that both teachers and

students think that causing problem in teaching and learning pronunciation is students”

From the chart above, most of the teachers (50%) and students (53%) think that

stress is the biggest difficulty in teaching and learning pronunciation The second is

intonation: 30% of the teachers and 22% of the students think that intonation causes

trouble Meanwhile, little of the teachers meet any difficulties in teaching consonants and vowels