integrating pronunciation elements into listening lessons for first-year students in backan community college = kết hợp các yếu tố phát âm trong giờ học nghe cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất trường cao đẳng cộng đồng bắc kạn

ĐẶNG HOÀNG ÁNH INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INTO LISTENING LESSONS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN BACKAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE.. ĐẶNG HOÀNG ÁNH INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INTO

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

……… ***………

ĐẶNG HOÀNG ÁNH

INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INTO LISTENING

LESSONS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN BACKAN

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

KẾT HỢP CÁC YẾU TỐ PHÁT ÂM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN

NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG CỘNG ĐỒNG BẮC KAN

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Code: 60-14-10

HÀ NỘI, 2011

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

……… ***………

ĐẶNG HOÀNG ÁNH

INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INTO LISTENING

LESSONS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN BACKAN

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

KẾT HỢP CÁC YẾU TỐ PHÁT ÂM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN

NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG CỘNG ĐỒNG BẮC KAN

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Code: 60-14-10

Supervisor: Dr Lê Văn Canh

HÀ NỘI, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENT

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT Error! Bookmark not defined ABSTRACT Error! Bookmark not defined.i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

PREFACE iError! Bookmark not defined TABLE OF CONTENT……… …v

LIST OF TABLES Error! Bookmark not defined.i LIST OF FIGURES ix

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale to the Study 2

1.2 Objectives of the Study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 The scope of the study 3

1.5 Organization of the Study 3

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 4

2.1 Some main features of pronunciation teaching 4

2.1.1 The importance of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching 4

2.1.2 Models of pronunciation 5

2.1.3 Intelligibility 7

2.2 Approaches of the teaching of pronunciation 8

2.2.1 Bottom-up and top-down approach 8

2.2.2 Intuitive-imitative and Analytic-linguistic approach 9

2.2.3 Communicative approach 9

2.2.4 An integrated approach Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3 Integrating pronunciation into listening Error! Bookmark not defined 2.4 Empirical research on the integration of pronunciation into listening Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1 The context of the study Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2 Subjects 15

3.3 Instruments 16

3.3.1 The tests 16

3 3.2 Questionnaires 16

3.4 Data Collection Procedure 17

3.4.1 Treatment 17

3.4.1 The tests 19

3.4.3 Questionnaires 19

CHAPTER 4 PRESENTATION AND THE ANALYSIS OF RESULTS Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1 Results and analysis Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1.1 Results from the pretest and six progress tests Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1.2 Results from the pretest and post test 26

4.1.3 Results from the students’ questionnaires 27

4.2 Discussion Error! Bookmark not defined 4.2.1 The students’ scores in pronunciation tests Error! Bookmark not defined 4.2.2 The questionnaires 34

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 35

5.1 Major findings 35

5.2 Limitations of the Study 36

5.3 Recommendations for Future Research 36

5.4 Conclusion 37

REFERENCES 38 APPENDIX……….I

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale to the Study

To many learners, learning English is very difficult because of many differences between it and Vietnamese Pronunciation is considered as one of the most difficult one The approaches

to teaching pronunciation have been changed according to the EFL teaching methodological changes However, EFL teachers still face up with many problems in finding ways to teach pronunciation effectively In terms of an integrated approach to teaching English, many researchers have agreed with the views of integrating pronunciation into all the areas of language work The study was conducted to seek the answers to which extent the integration

of pronunciation elements into listening lessons affects the improvement of L2 learners’ pronunciation in an English classroom in Vietnam

2 Objectives of the Study

The research has two main objectives:

1 To examine the extent to which integrating pronunciation elements into listening lessons improve L2 learners’ pronunciation

2 To examine the attitudes of Vietnamese learners of English about the integration of pronunciation elements into listening lessons

3 Research questions

The researcher aims at answering the two research questions:

lessons to students’ pronunciation?

b What are the students’ attitudes toward and perceptions of the integration of pronunciation elements into listening lessons?

4 The scope of the study

This is an action research with a focused group of 45 students in Backan Community College

5 Organization of the Study

Chapter 1 includes the objectives, the scope, and the significance of the study.Chapter 2 provides a review of the literature on the approaches to pronunciation teaching Chapter 3 presents the research methodology and the instruments used to collect data Chapter 4 presents the results of the study, along with analysis and discussion of the data Chapter 5 offers a summary of the findings of the study, conclusions, and suggestions for future research

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Some main features of pronunciation teaching

2.1.1 The importance of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching

Communication is the most important component of any human society The role of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching in second/foreign language learning has been acknowledged by many researchers All the researchers have an agreement on the role of the teaching of pronunciation and encourage teachers to play the role as facilitators in students’ pronunciation learning

2.1.2 Models of pronunciation

Even the diversity of how English is pronounced is real but what is common to all speakers of English (the commonality) is much greater Thus, it is believed that the ultimate target of both the teaching and the learning of ESL pronunciation would be an intelligible accent Because There is no problem in allowing a distance exist between what is presented to the learner (model) and an acceptable achieved performance by the learner’ ( Brown,1994, p 40) Thus, teachers must choose the appropriate materials for pronunciation teaching to help students to

be understood by varieties of listeners

2.1.3 Intelligibility

It can be seen that teaching pronunciation should aim at an understandable pronunciation rather than a perfect model So, the overall aim is for learners to develop spoken English that will serve their individual needs and allow them to form a positive image of themselves as

speakers of a foreign language

2.2 Approaches of the teaching of pronunciation

Approaches to the teaching of pronunciation have changed throughout the recent history of language teaching The most important change is the movement from an emphasis on the accurate production of individual speech sound to the concentration more on the broader,

communicative aspects of connected speech There are different approaches of pronunciation teaching such as bottom-up and top-down approach by Dalton (2003); Intuitive-Imitative and analytic-linguistic approach by Murcia (1996); Communicative approach or integrated approach by later researchers

2.2.1 Bottom-up and top-down approach

In the book “Teaching pronunciation” Dalton compared the two main approaches to pronunciation teaching: the bottom-up and top-down approach In the bottom-up approach, teachers start with articulations of individual sounds and then focus on intonation In the top-down approach, teachers work with patterns of intonation and add individual sounds if required Most important, he emphasized that the choice of the approach depends on the learning purposes and the stages

2.2.2 Intuitive-imitative and Analytic-linguistic approach

Celce-Murcia (1996) presents two general approaches to the teaching of pronunciation including the intuitive- imitative approach and the analytic-linguistic approach An Intuitive-Imitative approach is related to the capacity of the learners in listening and imitating the rhythms and sounds of the language and no explicit information is intervened The quality of phonograph records, tape records and language labs in the mid-twentieth century, and more recently of audio-videocassettes and compact disc are considered to be good models for learners The second approach is believed to complement the first approach Teachers use information and tools such as alphabet, articulatory descriptions, charts of the vocal apparatus, contrastive information and other supplementary materials to provide explicit information to the learners and attention to the sounds and rhythm

2.2.3 Communicative approach

The researcher would go along with the views that pronunciation should be integrated into listening and speaking skills development And teachers should identify and deal with their

learners´ immediate pronunciation needs regarding the aural-oral activities of the language course

2.3 Integrating pronunciation into listening

With regard to the integration of pronunciation elements into listening, most researchers deal with how and why the teaching affects students’ improvement of pronunciation It can be concluded that most researchers supported the integration of pronunciation into listening for the following advantages: the authentic materials for pronunciation practice, the development

of the students’ awareness of elements of connected speech and the contribution to the noticing process which supports students in pronunciation learning process

2.4 Empirical research on the integration of pronunciation into listening

There has been very little research on the integration of pronunciation into listening Knowledge of how the approach can be applied in an ESL setting is still limited No research has evaluated the use of this approach in an ESL classroom in the context of Vietnam Thus, the aim of this study is to fill this major research gap

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the context of the study, the subjects of the study, the procedure of data collection

3.1 The context of the study

Backan Community College is a local public college located in the North of Vietnam The number of students in each class remains about 45-70 students The classroom for English lessons is not equipped with multimedia facilities The teachers only used cassette players for listening lessons

3.2 Subjects

The subjects of this study were originally 45 first-year students in Backan College of Community They were on average 20 years old All were in Department of Education of Backan Community College

3.3 Instruments

Two research tools were used in this study: the tests( pre-test, post-test and progress tests) and the questionnaires

3.3.1 The pronunciation tests

There are three kind of test including the pre-test, post-test and progress test The tests were designed by the researcher The pre-test was administrated to measure the students’ ability of pronunciation performance before the intervention The post-test was designed with the selected words and sentences from the pronunciation practice during twelve weeks in order to measure the students’ ability of pronunciation performance after the intervention The six progress tests contained the words and sentences from the ones practiced during two previous weeks (Week 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12)

3 3.2 Questionnaires

The questionnaires were administrated to get more information about their attitudes of the treatment and their perception of its effects on their improvement of pronunciation The

questionnaire includes three main parts

3.4 Data Collection Procedure

3.4.1 Treatment

The treatment was a series of 24 pronunciation practice lessons The aim of the treatments is

to raise the awareness of students in the two pronunciation elements consisting of stress and intonation

3.4.2 The tests

The pretest was administrated to the students at the second week of the second semester The teacher collected the pretest for the score analysis After 12 weeks of treatment, the post test was given to check the extent to which the students improve their ability in producing stress and intonation.During the 12 weeks of treatment, there were six tests which aim at exploring how the scores changed after 12 weeks The tests were administrated after every two week (Week 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12)

3.4.3 Questionnaires

The questionnaires were delivered to the students after the intervention The researcher collected the data for further analysis

CHAPTER 4 PRESENTATION AND THE ANALYSIS OF RESULTS

The scores of the pre-test, the post-test and six progress tests were analyzed by calculating mean and standard deviation with the help of the SPSS program

4.1 Results and analysis

The researcher presented the results from the pronunciation tests (the pretest, six progress tests and the post test)and compared the scores to find the differences of the scores to prove the improvement of the students Results from the students’ questionnaires were used to explore the attitudes of the students toward the intervention

4.2.1 The students’ scores in pronunciation tests

It can be concluded that the scores of the students changed after the intervention From the results in the pre-test and the post-test, there were great changes in the students’ scores Moreover, the scores of students changed after each progress tests After every two weeks, it can be seen that the difference of students’ scores seemed to be gradually greater In conclusion, the scores of the students in 12 weeks of intervention were proved statistically to increase gradually as being compared with their scores before the intervention It can be seen that the improvement of students’ performance in pronunciation was caused by the intervention in which the pronunciation elements were integrated into listening lessons

4.2.3 The questionnaires

The positive responses to questions about the importance of pronunciation learning in general and the studying of stress and intonation in particular showed that students mostly realize their importance In addition, analysis of students’ questionnaires revealed positive attitudes towards the integration of pronunciation elements into listening lessons Moreover, some