An application of games and other stimulating activities in teaching pronunciation Áp dụng trò chơi và các hoạt động mang tính khích lệ khác trong việc dạy phá

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ scores in diagnostic test and final test Chart 2: The role of pronunciation in language learning Chart 3: The influence of pronunciation on speaking and

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of charts vi

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 3

5 Design of the study 3

DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Pronunciation 4

1.1.1 Definition of pronunciation 4

1.1.2 The importance of pronunciation 4

1.2 Pronunciation in language teaching 5

1.2.1 The status of pronunciation in current language teaching 5

1.2.2 Elements of pronunciation teaching 7

1.2.3 Current ideas on pronunciation teaching and learning 8

1.2.4 Teachers‟ roles 10

1.2.5 Learners‟ roles 10

1.3 The use of games and other communicative activities in pronunciation teaching 11

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13

2.1 Context of the study 13

2.2 Participants of the study 14

2.3 Activities applied in the course 14

2.4 Instruments 18

2.4.1 Diagnostic test 19

2.4.2 Final oral examination 19

2.4.3 Questionnaire 19

2.4.4 Teacher‟s notes 20

CHAPTER 3: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 21

3.1 Quantitative results 21

3.1.1 Scores in diagnostic test and final oral exam 21

3.1.2 Responses to the questionnaire 22

3.2 Qualitative results - Teacher‟s notes and observations 31

3.2.1 Diagnostic Test Analysis 31

3.2.2 The researcher‟s observations during class time throughout the course 322

3.3 Discussion 34

3.3.1 The effectiveness of games and other stimulating activities 34

3.3.2 Some disadvantages of the use of games and other stimulating activities 35 CONCLUSION 37

1 Conclusion 37

2 Implications 38

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 39

REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ scores in diagnostic test and final test

Chart 2: The role of pronunciation in language learning

Chart 3: The influence of pronunciation on speaking and listening

Chart 4: Students‟ evaluation of their own pronunciation

Chart 5: Students‟ evaluation of the difficulty of pronunciation

Chart 6: Students‟ interest in learning pronunciation

Chart 7: Students‟ effort in learning pronunciation

Chart 8: Students‟ self-studying time

Chart 9: Students‟ evaluation of pronunciation lessons

Chart 10: Students‟ evaluation of the effectiveness of pronunciation lessons Chart 11: Students‟ evaluation of class activities

Chart 12: Students‟ preference of activities inside class

Chart 13: Students‟ preference of activities outside class

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

It is undeniable that English has become a language of global communication thanks to its contribution to different fields of our life such as: science, technology, aviation, diplomacy and so on No one can deny that the rapid expansion of information technologies and the spread of globalization have led to an explosion in the demand for English worldwide

English is now taught throughout of Vietnam in different levels of education from primary schools to universities because it serves as an international language and as a mean to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries In fact, more and more people desire to know and master English in order to keep them up-to-date with the global development As a result, English is taught not only at schools and universities but also at many foreign language centres, on radio, television and even via the internet However, both teaching and learning of English are still far from being satisfaction One main problem is that most Vietnamese learners are rather good at English writtenly but not orally Many of them have a good command of grammar and vocabulary, which promises very high marks in written tests, but cannot communicate successfully with foreigners The reason lies in the imbalanced development of four language skills In most schools and universities (except those whose major is English), teachers focus too much on reading and writing rather than speaking and listening

of which pronunciation is a good foundation Thus, students do not often have English competence, especially in oral communication

In the present context of teaching and learning English at English Department, HANU, speaking and listening are very important for first year students because they establish a firm base for students‟ further development, especially in interpreting skills In recent years, the department has taken teaching and learning pronunciation into consideration because it is a paramount feature of speaking and listening

Being a teacher of English in general, and pronunciation in particular at English Department, HANU, I am well aware of the importance of pronunciation to

help my students improve these skills, but like other teachers, I have faced many difficulties in creating motivation so that students are eager to practise in and out of their classes After two years teaching pronunciation separately from speaking to first year students, we have realized that the class time is not enough for our students to have great improvement However, just few students are motivated and spend time self-studying Thus, even though we have tried our best in class, our students still have a lot of problems in pronunciation, which badly affects their speaking and listening skills

We have questioned ourselves about how to motivate our students to maximize their time of practising in class and even outside class, which leads to the use of games and other stimulating activities We have tried activities collected from different sources, which seems to bring about great effect However, we just have the feeling but not a specific study on how effective they are Therefore, I have conducted an action research on the application of games and other activities in teaching pronunciation to first year students at English Department, HANU in order

to investigate the effectiveness and to help other teachers choose suitable activities for their classes

2 Objectives of the study

The study is aimed at:

 Finding out their advantages and disadvantages

 Helping pronunciation teachers choose suitable activities for their classes Thus, this thesis is to answer two research questions:

 How effective is the use of games and some other stimulating activities?

 What are students‟ attitude towards the use of games and some other stimulating activities?

3 Scope of the study

To create motivation for students in pronunciation classes, teachers at English Department, HANU, have applied a lot of games and activities However, the researcher in this study only focuses on and analyzes some typical ones (which will be presented in the following parts) and then suggests some effective activities that teachers can introduce to students so that they have more practice outside class

There are 10 first year classes which consist of 250 students who have to take pronunciation as a compulsory subject; however, this action research was carried out in only two classes of which the researcher was in charge Thus, the questionnaire was delivered to only 50 participants Additionally, the study was conducted in only 12 of the total 32 weeks of pronunciation teaching

4 Methods of the study

Action research is the method employed in this study To achieve the aims mentioned above, the researcher has used a number of instruments to collect data for analysis which include a questionnaire distributed before the term started and after it ended, teachers‟ observation and notes, an oral diagnostic test, and end-of-term test

5 Design of the study

This minor thesis is composed of three parts

Part 1, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, aims, scope, methods and design of the study

Part 2, DEVELOPMENT, is divided into three chapters

Chapter 1, Literature Review, presents relevant concepts to pronunciation and pronunciation teaching

Chapter 2, Methodology, involves the information about context, participants and instruments of the study

Chapter 3: Data Presentation, Analysis and Discussion, focuses on data analysis to show students‟ point of view towards pronunciation and the effectiveness of different activities

Part 3, CONLUSION, summarizes some major findings, provide implications for pronunciation teaching, limitation of the study and suggestions for further research

DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Pronunciation

1.1.1 Definition of pronunciation

There are various ways to define pronunciation Macmillan Dictionary gives

an easy-to-understand definition, that is “the way in which a word or language is pronounced”

Similarly, Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary defines pronunciation as the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced or the way

in which a particular person pronounces the words of a language

More specifically, pronunciation can be understood as one of the three explanations given in the http://www.thefreedictionary.com:

 The act or manner of pronouncing words; utterance of speech

 A way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood

 A graphic representation of the way a word is spoken, using phonetic symbols

According to Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre, pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning It includes attention to the particular sounds of a language (segments), aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality) and, in its broadest definition, attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related to the way we speak a language

It is obvious that the four sources above do not have the same way to define pronunciation but they share a common knowledge that pronunciation is how words

or sentences are spoken

1.1.2 The importance of pronunciation

Nowadays, no one can deny the significant role of pronunciation in language teaching and learning Pronunciation is one of the most important aspects of language We may be proficient at grammar and have a huge store of vocabulary,

but if we pronounce words wrongly, we just will not get understood

Wong (1993) argues that the importance of pronunciation is even more distinct when the connection between pronunciation and listening comprehension is considered As listeners expect spoken English to follow certain patterns of rhythm and intonation, speakers need to employ these patterns to communicate effectively

If the rhythm and intonation are different, listeners simply can‟t get the meaning Similarly, listeners need to know how speech is organized and what patterns of intonation mean in order to interpret speech accurately Thus, learning about pronunciation develops learners‟ abilities to comprehend spoken English Furthermore, Wong demonstrated that a lack of knowledge of pronunciation could even affect students‟ reading and spelling

Varonis and Gass (1982) examined the factors affecting listening comprehension in native speakers of English exposed to foreign or second language accents They concluded that grammar and pronunciation interact to influence overall intelligibility

As indicated above, it is surely that pronunciation plays a very important role

in communicative competence because successful communication can not take place without correct pronunciation (Celce-Murcia, Briton and Goodwin, 1996)

1.2 Pronunciation in language teaching

1.2.1 The status of pronunciation in current language teaching

The status of pronunciation teaching in different schools of language teaching has varied widely According to Castillo (1990), pronunciation teaching has no role at all in the grammar-translation method, but it is the main focus in the audio-lingual method The audio-lingual view of the pronunciation class was also mirrored in situational language teaching, developed in Britain (Richards and Rodgers, 1986) During the late 1960's and the 1970's questions were asked about the role of pronunciation in the ESL/EFL curriculum, whether the focus of the programmes and the instructional methods were effective or not Pronunciation programmes until then were 'viewed as meaningless non-communicative drill-and-exercise gambits' (Morley, 1991) Purcell and Suter (1980) claimed that the teaching of pronunciation was pushed aside in many language programmes and

many studies concluded that little relationship exists between teaching pronunciation in the classroom and attained proficiency in pronunciation They also found out that the strongest factors that affect pronunciation seem to have little to

do with classroom activities'

Nowadays, teachers and learners have realized the importance of pronunciation in English teaching and learning, however, it still has not received enough attention In fact, pronunciation tends to be de-emphasized in most English courses because many teachers believe that pronunciation cannot be taught effectively and it is not worth spending time on this field because it should be allowed to develop naturally by students

Although Morley (1991) insisted that it is necessary to teach English pronunciation in the ESL or EFL classroom, this important area is still neglected at many universities and colleges around the world According to Michael Wei, in China, there is no place for English phonetics courses in English teaching and learning and a pronunciation course is still only an elective in the universities or colleges According to Lin, Fan and Chen (1995) some teachers in Taiwan might argue that English pronunciation is not important at all, for very few tests would require students to show abilities related to pronunciation or speaking Michael Wei also pointed out that in the U.S., many students and teachers believe that it is useless spending time on pronunciation because it would be difficult, if not impossible for students to hear differences English pronunciation is simply ignored

in the curriculum of some universities in Thailand (Wei and Zhou, 2002) In Mexico, pronunciation was described as “the Cinderella of language teaching”; that means an often low level of emphasis was placed on this very important language skill (Dalton, 2002)

As mentioned above, pronunciation is still neglected in EFL/ESL classrooms throughout the world including Asia today In reality, this ignorance has been noticed by few teachers of ESL/ EFL who have recently provided valuable empirical articles with model techniques and activities that help to improve pronunciation in and outside class Till now, new ways of teaching pronunciation are still developed and tested, then there is still a need for careful experimentation to determine the effectiveness of methods

1.2.2 Elements of pronunciation teaching

Different researchers have different points of view toward what should be taught in pronunciation classes Colin Mortimer (1985) claimed that elements of pronunciation teaching include weak forms, clusters, linking-up, contractions and stress time However, according to Gerald Kelly (2000), teaching pronunciation involves: vowels, consonants, word and sentence stress, intonation, other aspects of connected speech and spelling Jennifer Jenkins (2004) provided more comprehensive elements of pronunciation teaching This researcher stated that depending on the second language in question, pronunciation teaching typically covers any or all of the following: consonant and vowel sounds, changes of these sounds in the stream of connected speech, word stress patterns, rhythm, and intonation, which might be described as the nuts and bolts of pronunciation

Consonant and vowel sounds

It is obvious that learners of English need to know and pronounce letter sounds correctly because they are the basement for the combination of sounds into words However, students must know that English pronunciation does not match spelling and one of the most confusing aspects of English pronunciation is sound and spelling patterns English has borrowed lots of words from other languages such

as ancient Latin, Greek, Eskimo and Farsi, so its sound and spelling correspondences are irregular Thus, phonetic transcription is an indispensable part

of pronunciation teaching

Word stress patterns

Word stress must highly be focused on at the beginning of any pronunciation courses because without correct word stress, speakers of English cannot have understandable pronunciation In every two or more-syllable words, one of the syllables is stressed, which means it is higher, louder and longer than the others This stressed syllable is very important because it helps listeners distinguish the word from others Therefore, listeners often find it hard to understand what the speaker is saying when he or she misuses word stress

Rhythm

Rhythm is the obvious feature of every language Rhythm or beat of a language is the product of word stress and the way in which important items are emphasized The combination of strong beats (the occurrence of important items) and weak beats (the occurrence of unimportant items) makes rhythm easy to be recognized Thus, after dealing with word stress patterns, teachers of pronunciation should introduce to their students the rhythm of English which is characterized by the alteration of strong and weak syllables (Kenworthy, 1987)

Intonation

Even if you pronounce each word clearly, if your intonation patterns are standard, your meaning will probably not be clear Also, in terms of comprehension, you will lose a great deal of information if you are listening for the actual words used Intonation refers to the intention and feelings of the speaker An important feature of English intonation is the use of an intonational accent (and extra stress) to mark the focus of a sentence That is the reason why students need to have good knowledge of sentence focus in order to have good intonation Moreover, intonation

non-is an abstract concept which can be vague to students while sentence focus non-is more specific With sentence focus, speakers help listeners easily get the message they want to convey In spoken English, speakers often put stress on the words that carry the most information In other words, they use stress to signal the importance of different parts of the message As a result, listeners need to be able to realize points

of focus; otherwise, they will feel difficult to interpret what they hear Teachers will succeed in teaching sentence focus if they select suitable contexts in which learners find it easy to understand the notion of “importance”

1.2.3 Current ideas on pronunciation teaching and learning

Changing outlooks on language learning and teaching have influenced the view of language competence, which leads to a shift from specific linguistic competencies to broader communicative competencies as goals for teachers and students (Morley, 1991) Previously, teachers of pronunciation only focused on teaching segmental features which started with a concentration on phonetic alphabets during the Reform Movement (Celce-Murcia et al., 1996) Phonetic

training was used in order to help learners establish good speech habits Minimal pair drills were used extensively to distinguish phonemes in listening practice and oral production (Celce-Murcia et al., 1996) However, after Anderson-Hsieh introduced the researches on “Teaching suprasegmentals to international teaching assistants using field-specific materials” (1990) and “Pronunciation factors affecting intelligibility in speakers of English as a foreign language” (1995), the focus of pronunciation teaching shifted dramatically from segmentals to an emphasis on suprasegmentals Following Anderson-Hsieh, abundant researches have investigated the extent to which suprasegmentals contribute to speakers‟ intelligibility and its pedagogy Underhill (1994) stressed the necessity of designing syllabuses mainly focusing on major features of communication - superasegmental features of speech for teaching English McNerney and Mendelsohn (1992, p 186) suggested “a short-term pronunciation course should focus first and foremost on suprasegmentals, as they have the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of learners‟ English” So far a lot of books for teachers have largely encouraged the teaching of suprasegments at the production level to improve learners‟ intelligibility In the same spirit, Morley also states the need for the integration of pronunciation with oral communication, a change of emphasis from segmentals to suprasegmentals, more emphasis on individual learner needs, meaningful task-based practices, development of new teacher strategies for the teaching, and introducing peer correction and group interaction According to Cohen (1977), teaching phonemes is not enough for intelligibility in communication With the emphasis on meaningful communication and Morley's (1991) premise, that 'Intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence' teachers should include pronunciation in their courses and expect students to do well in them It is certain that the learner's ability to communicate is severely limited without adequate pronunciation skills Morley believes that not attending to a student's pronunciation needs „is an abrogation of professional responsibility (1991)'

Other research gives support to Morey's belief in the need for 'professional responsibility' when the results show that 'a threshold level of pronunciation in English such that if a given non-native speaker's pronunciation falls below this

level, he or she will not be able to communicate orally no matter how good his or her control of English grammar and vocabulary might be' (Celce-Murcia, 1987) Gilbert (1984) believes the skills of listening comprehension and pronunciation are interdependent: 'If they cannot hear English well, they are cut off from the language If they cannot be understood easily, they are cut off from conversation with native speakers.' Nooteboom (1983) has also suggested that speech perception has great influence on speech production; the hearer has become an important factor

in communication discourse This illustrates the need to integrate pronunciation with communicative activities; to give the student situations to develop there pronunciation by listening and speaking The current research and the current trend reversal in the thinking of pronunciation shows there is a consensus that a learner's pronunciation in a foreign language needs to be taught in conjunction with communicative practices for the learner to be able to communicate effectively with native speakers

1.2.4 Teachers’ roles

Some researchers (Suter and Purcell, 1980) have cast doubt on the importance of pronunciation teaching because in their opinion, little relationship exists between teaching pronunciation and attained pronunciation proficiency They stated that “the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is the matter substantially beyond the control of educators” However, other researchers including Pennington (1989) believed that teachers with formal training in pronunciation play an important role in helping students improve their pronunciation A teacher of pronunciation often fulfills the following roles:

 Helping learners perceive sounds

 Helping learner make sounds

 Creating authentic activities and exercises

 Providing learners with feedback

 Accessing learners‟ progress

1.2.5 Learners’ roles

There is no doubt that whatever the teacher does and however hard he/ she tries, there is still no success in the teaching and learning process if students do not

involve Students need to develop awareness and monitoring skills that will allow learning opportunities inside and even outside the classroom environment, which promises their improvement and prospect of change The learner‟s involvement in the learning process has been noted as one of the best techniques for developing learner strategies, that is, the measures used by the learner to develop his language learning (Morley, 1991) Thus, students must become part of the teaching and learning process, actively involve in their own learning Ultimate success in pronunciation surely depends on learners‟ attitude and how much attempt they put into the process of learning

1.3 The use of games and other communicative activities in pronunciation teaching

As discussed above, pronunciation is an essential part in language learning and teaching Many people believe that in language learning, effort is required at every moment and must be maintained over a long period of time It is also obviously true with pronunciation learning There are a few pronunciation teachers who think that teaching pronunciation means helping students perceive and produce English sounds correctly That is why they often ask their students to repeat the sounds times and times again after introducing them, which makes students get bored with studying pronunciation Once students get bored, they will get nothing from the studying

Talking about the advantages of games, Thiagarajan (1999); Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby (2005) claimed that games add interest to what students might not find very interesting Sustaining interest means sustaining effort After all, learning a language involves long-term effort because games offer students a fun-filled and relaxing learning atmosphere Thanks to that, they learn and practise the sounds in a non-stressful way Games ease the fear of negative evaluation, the concern of being negatively judged in public, and which is one of the main factors inhibiting language learners from using the target language in front of other people (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986) In a game-oriented context, anxiety is reduced and speech fluency is generated, so communicative competence is achieved

According to Shalley Vernon in the article “Teaching English Pronunciation Using Role Playing and Other Games”, anxiety is one of the most common

obstacles to the ESL students‟ ability to learn English pronunciation However, the problem of anxiety can also be resolved with games because students will learn to relax and enjoy themselves, which encourages them to participate and be more willing to experiment with new different sounds Richard-Amato (1988) and Uberman (1998) also shared the same view that the variety and intensity that games offer may lower anxiety and encourage shyer learners to take part especially when games are played in small groups

More importantly, it is undeniable that games are advantageous in pronunciation teaching in the way that they help teachers to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful Games provide a context for meaningful communication Even if the game involves discrete language items, such as a spelling game, meaningful communication takes place as students seek to understand how to play the game and as they communicate about the game: before, during, and after the game (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005) In order to take part in games, learners must understand what others are saying and they must speak

in order to express their own point of view or give information By that way, teachers are successful in helping learners achieving the shift from specific linguistic competencies to broader communicative competencies and the change of emphasis from segmentals to suprasegmentals which have been presented clearly in part 1.3

Apart from games, other communicative activities such as drama practice, puppet-play, news reading, and video making which sometimes require preparation before going to class are also effective in pronunciation teaching because they are very motivating even outside class and yield opportunities for students to put what they have learnt in pronunciation lessons into connected speech Thus, they will experience what have been taught more vividly, therefore, remember better

Games and other communicative activities, from what have been discussed above, undoubtedly bring about a lot of benefit to both teachers and students in the process of teaching and learning pronunciation Thus, nowadays, it is obvious that thousands of teachers all over the world are exploring those activities from different printed and online sources to apply in their pronunciation classes with hope that they can help their students gain the greatest improvement in this subject

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Context of the study

The study was carried out in two first year classes at English Department, HANU To tell the truth, English proficiency of students here is much lower that that of previous years because they have easier access to the Department with lower marks at the entrance exams

However, the Department is still one of the best places for those who want to

be good interpreters and teachers of English There are normally 10 or 11 first year classes with about 25 students in each class Most students here come from different Northern provinces such as Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen, Bac Ninh, Thai Binh, and Nam Dinh where they get used to passive ways of learning, which is embedded deeply in their mind from primary school Frankly speaking, they have had more difficulties in learning English than students from big cities in terms of ability and condition Moreover, almost all students here have had no training in listening and speaking, especially in pronunciation However, when they are in English Department, HANU, they have a favorable English learning environment because they can work with qualified teachers, have more access to resources of reference books in the library or via the internet, and more chance to meet foreigners Thus, a good way to enhance students‟ improvement is to motivate them to make most use

of all the external conditions to self study

With the main purpose of training students to have high communicative competence, the Department realizes that teaching and learning pronunciation play

an important role in the training process Therefore, the subject has been taught separately from Speaking for three years There is a pronunciation team including two American experts and five Vietnamese teachers who work with first year students two periods per learning session, one learning session per week There are

12 weeks in the first semester and 20 weeks in the second one Teachers in the team share their observation and ideas on the lesson plans as well as students‟ reaction in the weekly meeting The core book is English Pronunciation in Use – Elementary

by Mark Hancock, Cambridge University Press Other extra materials are taken

from Primary Pronunciation Box by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson, Targeting Pronunciation by Susan F Miller, Understanding English pronunciation

by Susan Boyer, Pronunciation games by Mark Hancock

The study was conducted in 12 weeks from October to December, 2010

2.2 Participants of the study

The participants of this study were selected on the basis of convenience I was in charge of teaching pronunciation to two first-year classes 5A-10 and 6A-10

at English Department, HANU Each class consists of 25 students, with 23 females and 2 males ranging from 18 to 22 years of age All of them had learned English for

at least 3 years and had to take the English written test designed by the Ministry of Education and Training in the entrance exam to the university However, their marks were various, which shows that they were not of the same levels of English proficiency As presented above, most of the students come from Northern provinces In general, their grammar and reading are comprehensible, but their pronunciation is not good Besides the students in these two classes, the teacher also contributed a lot to the study as her note and observation played an important role in the analysis of the study

2.3 Activities applied in the course

After two years teaching pronunciation to first year students at English Department, HANU, I have realized that my students were not really motivated and enthusiastic to practice inside and outside classes That fact, of course, led to little improvement in their pronunciation Thus, when doing this action research, I have applied some games and stimulating activities to encourage them to make more effort in this subject

 Games

Most of the games applied in my classes are taken from the book

“Pronunciation Games” by Mark Hancock I have chosen some games that were suitable for my students when they practised individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress and intonation (Appendix 8) All the games were used in classes at different stages of the lesson

Besides, I have also designed some other games that drew much attention and interest from my students

- Notes: T is expected to win but don‟t forget to encourage students (Ss) At the end of the game, T should stress that the ultimate purpose of the game is to show Ss the difficulty of pronunciation

- Notes: T should ask one student (S) to act as assistant to ensure fairness T should be very careful and accurate in his/her own pronunciation

“Match and Sort”

- Materials: A set of syllables for each group of four (Appendix 11)

- Rules: Ss must combine stressed syllables with unstressed ones to make two-syllable words (not longer) Tell them that the highlighted syllable (grey background) must be the stressed syllable for that word When they make a word, they write it on a piece of paper in one of two columns: stress on first or stress on second syllable (write on white board) Then they can put those two pieces of paper (syllables) back in the bag or envelope T checks groups individually and ask each

S to pronounce some of the words In the end, ask which column had the most

words They will see that, by far, there are many more words stressed on the first syllable Have individual Ss say different words

“Same Stress”

- Material: A set of cards for each group (Appendix 12)

- Rules: Divide class into teams of four, one of the Ss in each group deals the cards out evenly to each member of the group They must hold them face down in one hand When T says “Begin”, one S in each group goes first by putting his top card, word up, in the center of the table and pronouncing it Then the next student does the same thing on top of the first person‟s card When there are 2 stress patterns in a row that are the same, the first person to say “SAME!” gets to take all the cards in the center pile and put them at the bottom of his own pile If someone yells “SAME!” but the stresses are actually different, then that person must put one extra card at the bottom of the pile The game continues this way until time is up

- Notes:

 Any person in the group can yell out “SAME!” Whenever he first notices that the top two cards have the same stress pattern, even if it is before the card thrower pronounces his word

 If someone uses incorrect pronunciation, tell the other Ss to help correct it

 If someone yells “SAME!” and it is not the same stress, then he must put a card of his on the center pile as penalty

 If someone runs out of cards, they can still yell “SAME!” and join in the game again

 Other stimulating activities

- Note: This activity can be used in class or assign as homework

Poem composing

- Rules: T tells Ss a particular rhyme of a poem and then makes the first sentence that includes the rhyme T then points at a S at random; that S must create and read aloud the next sentence of the poem If the S cannot make a sentence, T calls another one (Appendix 14)

- Note: This activity can be assigned as homework with Ss working in pairs

or groups

News reading

- Rules: T asks Ss to work in groups of three or four to write a news report

on what has happened around them in their imagination Then, one representative from each group read aloud the news in front of the class The class vote for the most interesting news (Appendix 15)

- Note: This activity can be used in class or assigned as homework

Puppet-play

- Materials: Puppets (Attached VCD)

- Rules: T asks Ss to work in groups of three or four to act in the role of different puppets Ss have to think of the conversation among the puppets and after some time for preparation, they will go to the board and use the puppets to present

to conversation

Subtitle reading

- Materials: Short video clip or extracts of films, computer or VCD player, a large screen, a projector, and speakers

- Rules: T plays the clips or extracts twice with sound and English subtitles

Ss look at the screen and listen to the sound to feel the intonation and emotion Later, T calls some Ss to be closer to the screen to read the subtitles while s/he is playing the clips or extracts without sound

- Note: The language and the speed of speaking in the clips or extracts must

be of Ss‟ level

- Notes: This activity can be adapted to Lyric Correction if the lyrics of the

songs had some changed words pronunciation of which is similar to the original ones‟ Ss listen to the song and correct the wrong words

- Notes: This activity is a minor project of the term T must assign the project some weeks before the term ends so that Ss have enough time for preparation

2.4 Instruments

In order to obtain in-depth information on the application of activities in the course, the study used a variety of research instruments including an oral diagnostic test, questionnaire, classroom observation and teacher‟s notes, and final examination There are a number of reasons why I chose these tools in my study I carried out the oral diagnostic test because it would give me true information on my students‟ pronunciation before I decided which fields to focus on during the whole course The final examination was really necessary because it was an effective tool

to measure my students‟ improvement The result of the final examination worked

as a good reference to see how much they had gained after the course Besides the two tests, I used questionnaire because it was easy to manage and obtain big-scale data Questionnaires are familiar to most people and nearly everyone has had some

experience completing questionnaires, so they generally do not make people apprehensive Moreover, questionnaires reduce bias There is uniform question presentation and no middle-man bias The researcher's own opinions will not influence the respondent to answer questions in a certain manner Thus, the questionnaire would give me more reliable data for analysis Lastly, I applied classroom observation and teacher‟s notes because it was convenient for the teacher

to obtain more detailed and precise evidence of the students‟ attitude and classroom atmosphere Additionally, it would permit the researcher to study the processes of education in naturalistic settings Classroom observation also stimulated change and verified that the change occurred, which led to improved understanding and better models for improving teaching

2.4.1 Diagnostic test

At the beginning of the term, participants were required to take an oral diagnostic test in which students read aloud a passage The test was designed by the two American experts and revised by five Vietnamese teachers Students‟ performance was recorded for analysis of the pronunciation mistakes so that I would pay more attention to their problems later in the course The results of the diagnostic test were also used in comparison with the results of the final examination to reveal improvements that students made during the course of pronunciation (Appendix 1)

2.4.2 Final oral examination

The examination took place one week after the course Students took the exam in pairs, each pair had to read aloud a conversation in five versions which were of the same level of difficulty (Appendix 2) Teacher marked students‟ pronunciation basing on the Test Rubric (Appendix 3) The examination was to find out how much students had gained after the first term studying pronunciation

2.4.3 Questionnaire

The questionnaire was delivered to students before and after the course The purpose of the two deliveries was to find out the students‟ attitude, interest and motivation before the course and the changes in the students‟ self evaluation after the course (Appendix 5)

2.4.4 Teacher’s notes

The researcher carried out classroom observation in order to take notes of changes in the students‟ attitude, motivation, interest and improvement during the course The researcher also reflected on the teaching and learning process after each lesson.(Appendix 7)

CHAPTER 3: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This action research was conducted to evaluate the application of games and other stimulating activities in teaching pronunciation to first year students in English Department, HANU The main purpose is to investigate whether the activities were effective to increase students‟ intelligibility and motivation in learning pronunciation This chapter presents the results of all the data gathered throughout the research Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the collection of information reported in this chapter Quantitative results involved in participants‟ scores in diagnostic test, final oral exam and their responses to the questionnaire Qualitative results were the information taken from the researcher‟s notes and observation

Chart 1: Students’ scores in diagnostic test and final test

It was found out that the overall scores of the students changed a lot in the diagnostic test and final examination In the diagnostic test, the results ranged from

5 to 9 with the average score of 6.52 while the results in the final test were various from 6 to 9 with the average score of 7.44 Moreover, the percentage of students who got a certain mark in the diagnostic test and the same mark in the final test was totally different Those with mark 6 accounted for the largest part (24%), followed

by the number of those with mark 6.5 and 7 (20%) at the beginning of the course It

is obvious that students‟ pronunciation at that time was still very poor, which was illustrated by the fact that 20% of them just got 5 and 5.5 in the test while only 14% got the results of 8 and above However, the results at the end of the course were much more positive None of the students scored 5 or 5.5 and the number of those who scored 8 and above increased significantly by 16% to 30% The majority of the students got 7 or 7.5 (54%) in the final test compared to 22% in the diagnostic test More specifically, students with mark 7 made up the largest percentage of all (30%)

The researcher‟s anecdotal notes in tests and examination revealed that after the course students showed much improvement in pronouncing consonant sounds although some needed further practice The problem of word stress seemed to be solved quite successfully with the habit of using dictionary and motivating activities, which was illustrated by the fact that the number of the students who put stress on the correct syllable increased considerably Despite that positive finding, sentence stress and intonation were still the problems for many students and they needed much more practice on these aspects

3.1.2 Responses to the questionnaire

Areas of investigation

The questionnaire includes 12 questions which cover five main areas of investigation as follows:

Students‟ evaluation of the importance of pronunciation Question 1, 2

Students‟ evaluation of their aptitude to learn

Students‟ evaluation of their interest and motivation Question 5, 6, 7

Students‟ evaluation of pronunciation lessons Question 8, 9

Students‟ evaluation of activities in the course Question 10, 11, 12

Analysis and findings

 Students‟ evaluation of the importance of pronunciation

Firstly, the researcher analysed students‟ evaluation by looking at their responses to a direct question about the importance of pronunciation in language learning

c Not very important

d Not important at all

Chart 2: The role of pronunciation in language learning

As can be seen clearly from the chart, the majority of students thought that pronunciation was very important in learning a foreign language both before and after the course However, the percentage of students who held the idea after the course (84%) was much higher than that of those who had the same point of view before the course (60%) On the contrary, only half of the students who thought that pronunciation is rather important kept their view after they had finished all pronunciation lessons It was obvious that none of the students did not appreciate the role of pronunciation and chose option d (not important at all)

In order to analyse students‟ evaluation of the importance of pronunciation, the researcher based not only on their direct answer to question 1 but also on their acknowledgement on the influence of poor pronunciation on other skills in question

Chart 3: The influence of pronunciation on speaking and listening

Generally speaking, most of the students were aware of the role and influence of pronunciation, which is illustrated by the fact that 80% of them found it

difficult to learn such skills as speaking and listening due to their poor pronunciation After the course, even more students (88%) realized the reason for difficulty in listening and speaking was poor pronunciation

Looking at the analysis, it was obvious that students were positive in learning pronunciation They had quite high awareness of the importance of pronunciation in their language learning, especially speaking and listening

 Students‟ evaluation of their aptitude to learn pronunciation

There are three questions dealing with this matter The first question is for students to self evaluate their pronunciation The responses before and after the course were different in all options

d Not good at all

Chart 4: Students’ evaluation of their own pronunciation

Before they took the course, nearly half of the students admitted that their pronunciation was not good at all while only 16% of them were very confident about their intelligibility Responses to two other options (b and c) were 18% and 20% respectively However, the results after the course were not that diverse The gap between option a and d was not 30% but only 4% Over 50% of the students thought that their pronunciation was good or rather good, which was 20% more than before the course

With regards to the difficulty of pronunciation, the responses before and after the course were not much different

d Not difficult at all

Chart 5: Students’ evaluation of the difficulty of pronunciation

In general, most of the students thought that it was not easy to master this field (92%) while only 8% of them found it not difficult at all More specifically, there was a slight change in the number of students who thought that learning pronunciation was very difficult, difficult and rather difficult After the course, the percentage of those who chose option a reduced by 6% while the percentage of those who chose option b and c increased by 2% and 4% respectively

It can be seen clearly that after the course, the majority of students still felt that learning pronunciation was not easy; however, it was not as difficult as they used to evaluate, which, to some extend, would promote them to study the subject

 Students‟ evaluation of their interest and motivation to learn pronunciation Question 5, 6, and 7 were used to measure students‟ interest and motivation Looking at the results, it is clear that students‟ interest and motivation towards learning pronunciation had many changes when comparing responses before and after the course

Chart 6: Students’ interest in learning pronunciation

Responding to question 5, only 60% of the students revealed that they had very high or high interest in pronunciation, but after the course, the number went up

to 88% In contrast, the number of students who showed their low or very low interest decreased by 28% from 40% to 12%

Chart 7: Students’ effort in learning pronunciation

When students rated their effort in learning pronunciation in question 6, 58%

of them showed their very high or high effort before the course compared to 42% of the opposite However, the first figure went up by 28% to 86% after the course while the second figure was divided by three, which means only 14% of them rated their effort low or very low

Chart 8: Students’ self-studying time

As for time of self studying, none of the students responded their daily practice of pronunciation Before the students took the course, only 34% of them weekly spend time on this subject, which was equivalent to the percentage of those who never learnt pronunciation outside classroom However, the responses after the course were totally different The number of students practising the sounds outside class increased dramatically from 66% to 90% More specifically, half of the students responded that they self studied every week and 40% of them sometimes practised pronunciation Meanwhile only a small number of students never reserved any time for this subject (10%)

There were a lot of changes in the students‟ interest and motivation in learning pronunciation before and after the course It was revealed by the fact that after the course most students found learning pronunciation much more enjoyable than they used to think of It seemed that motivating activities in the course fostered students‟ positive attitude towards learning pronunciation and stimulated their interest It was found out that students‟ attitude was also more favourable at the end

of the course than at the beginning With regards to effort in learning pronunciation, after the course almost all students assessed that they had invested more considerable effort in learning pronunciation compared to before the course

 Students‟ evaluation of pronunciation lessons

The findings on students‟ evaluation of pronunciation lessons before and after the course witnessed some changes

Chart 9: Students’ evaluation of pronunciation lessons

Before the course, the majority of students (66%) thought that pronunciation lessons would be very favourable or favourable However, pronunciation seemed to

be more interesting than they had expected, which was revealed through a very large number of students choosing option a and b when they evaluated the lessons after the course (90%) Students‟ high appreciation of pronunciation lessons was also illustrated with only 10% rated them unfavourable or very unfavourable compared to 34% before the course, which was such a significant drop

After the course

a Yes, much better

b Yes, better

c Yes, a little better

d No, not better at all

Chart 10: Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of pronunciation lessons

In response to question 9, which aims to measure the effectiveness of pronunciation lessons, most students thought that the lessons would be/ were useful

to help them improve their intelligibility Before the course, 74% of the students thought that their pronunciation would be better while only 26% of them did not believe that the lessons would have good influence This question, however, after the course, received different responses The number of those who have positive views toward the influence of pronunciation lessons made up 90%, nine times as much as the number of those who held negative views More specifically, the percentage of students who thought their pronunciation had become much better, better, or a little better was 32%, 38%, and 20% respectively

The analysis of the results above has proved the role of pronunciation lessons

in helping students improve their intelligibility in spoken English The lessons were much more favorable than they had expected and most of the students enjoyed practising the sounds and other aspects of pronunciation in class After 12 weeks of studying, more students showed their belief in good influence of the lessons, which was a clear evidence of class time‟s usefulness

 Students‟ evaluation of activities in the course

After the course

a Very interesting and useful

b Interesting and useful

c Rather interesting and useful

d Uninteresting and useless

Chart 11: Students’ evaluation of class activities

With regards to students‟ evaluation of the sufficiency and usefulness of class activities in question 10, there was great difference in responses before and after the course Before taking pronunciation lessons, half of the students thought games and other stimulating activities that teacher would use were very interesting and useful or interesting and useful However, just after 12 weeks, that number was nearly doubled to 90% The significant change also lied in the number of students who rated class activities rather interesting and useful or uninteresting and useless Before the course, 32% of the students assessed class activities rather interesting and useful, but it decreased by 22% after they joined the course More amazingly, none of the students agreed that class activities were uninteresting and useless while 18% held that opinion when they have not taken the course

Chart 12: Students’ preference of activities inside class

For the students‟ preference of class activities, before the course, the three most favourite activities that encouraged students to practise in class were lyrics completing, games and subtitle reading with the number of students choosing the three types were 82%, 76% and 58% respectively The activity that was the least motivating in class was video making with only 30% responses However, after the course, there was a slight change The number of students who were in favour of games accounted for the largest part (80%) Lyrics completing stood at number two with 76% The third place was reserved for puppet play when 70% of the students indicated that they were encouraged to practise pronunciation in class with this

activity The activity that was chosen by the fewest students was not video making but news reading (34%)

With regards to activities that were effective to motivate students to practise outside class, before the course, lyrics completing, games and subtitle reading were still ranked at the first three places with the responses of 76%, 70% and 60% respectively Video making and subtitle reading shared the same place with 60% of the students choosing these options However, just after 12 weeks, video making was the most beloved activity outside class for students, which was illustrated by the fact that 80% of them agreed that it was motivating The second place was still reserved for games with 74% Lyrics completing was at the third place instead of the first place before the course Puppet play seemed not to be favoured outside class and stood at the final position with 10% before the course and 8% after the course choosing the option

Students‟ evaluation of class activities in learning pronunciation changed a little before and after the course It was found out that the activities received more appreciation from students at the end of the course when the number of those who thought that class activities were very favourable and favourable increased dramatically Students‟ preference of activities in class and outside class also witnessed some differences For practising in class, most of the students loved

games, lyrics completing and puppet play while video making, games and lyrics completing were the most favourable outside class News reading and puppet-play attracted quite little interest from the students inside and outside class respectively

3.2 Qualitative results - Teacher’s notes and observations

Apart from the results in the diagnostic test and final test as well as the responses to the questionnaire, the study was also based on the researcher‟s observations and analysis of the diagnostic test and during class time throughout the course

3.2.1 Diagnostic Test Analysis

After the test, the researcher has summarized some common problems that students encountered and put them in the analysis as follow:

 Individual sounds

Students had problems with both vowel and consonant sounds With regard

to vowel sounds, the first problem was that most students could not correctly pronounce the sound /æ/ This might be because the sound does not exist in Vietnamese language They replaced the sound with either /e/ or /a/ which seems to

be more familiar to them Another typical problem was the length of sounds Most students could not distinguish short and long vowel sounds such as // or /I:/, // or /u:/, etc For diphthongs, they did not pronounce them with enough length of time and did not pronounce them as two vowel sounds but just like one sound in Vietnamese For instant, /ei/ was pronounced like “ây”, // was pronounced like

“âu”

In comparison with vowel sounds, students had more troubles in pronouncing consonant sounds Deleting ending sounds was a common mistake of most students This kind of mistakes is easy to be explained because in Vietnamese language system, consonants at the end of a word are never spoken The second striking note was that students often replaced some English sounds with Vietnamese ones Such typical sounds were //, //, //, //, /r/, /j/ /tr/, /d/ // was often replaced with “th” in Vietnamese, //, /j/, //, /d/ were mispronounced to /z/ or “d”

in Vietnamese /r/ was also pronounced like /z/ sometimes // was wrongly pronounced like /s/, /tr/ was not pronounced as a consonant clusters but like the

Vietnamese “tr” which sounds like /t/ Additionally, some students even could not distinguish /n/ and /l/ due to their dialect Consonant clusters were another problem for my students Some of them could not make the clusters smooth because they tend to add // between the two sounds Finally, many students added /s/ to almost every word they pronounced

 Word stress

Many students did not put any stress on multi-syllable words They pronounced every syllable with the same effort, which slowed down their speed and made their speaking hard to listen to A few students seemed to be conscious of the necessity to put stress on multi-syllable words; however, they do not stress on correct syllables This problem led to the fact that multi-syllable words they pronounced sounded strange and difficult to be recognized

 Sentence stress

It was obvious that my students had a really big trouble with sentence stress due to their word stress Most of the students are influenced by their mother tongue which is totally different from English Vietnamese is a syllable – timed language, which explains why Vietnamese people tend to put equal stress on each syllables In the diagnostic test, most of my students applied that habit to English sentences This made their pronunciation sound unnatural and monotonous By putting equal effort

to every syllable in a sentence, my students tend to separate words so clearly that they did not have smooth reading but choppy one

 Rhythm and Intonation

With the analysis of word stress and sentence stress above, it is clear that the students could not have natural rhythm and intonation in reading English Most of them had flat intonation without the change of pitch due to the lack of stressed and unstressed syllables

3.2.2 The researcher’s observations during class time throughout the course

The information taken from the observations was divided in to three main parts: students‟ attendance, students‟ participation and students‟ performance

 With regards to students‟ attendance, most of them participated the class regularly Only 5 students were absent from the class once or twice because of their

illness The situation was much better than the previous years when many of the students did not care about their attendance even though it accounted for 20% of their final scores

 As for students‟ participation, the researcher found it quite positive when most of the students were very enthusiastic in taking part in games taken form the book Pronunciation Games and games designed by the teacher Other class activities were also attractive to students However, students seemed to be the most attentive and motivated in practising pronunciation with songs and puppet-play Students also took part in such activity as news reading, but they did not show their great enthusiasm as in other activities The researcher also noted the fact that some students were considerably more shy and self-conscious than others and were not confident to take part in class activities for fear that they would make mistakes and

be laughed at by their classmates Nonetheless, some were so dominant and always volunteered to participate in games and other activities Another thing that the researcher realized was that while participating in pronunciation games, the students expressed disappointment when they were not the winners in the competition, but after that they quickly recovered and tried much more in other games

 With regards to students‟ performance, the researcher would like to discuss their performance during class time and in the final examination In the beginning lessons, many students demonstrated difficulty in articulating some vowel and consonant sounds listed in the analysis of the diagnostic test They also had many problems with word stress and intonation However, the problems reduced gradually in the following lessons Some students showed their great improvement, but some others still could not overcome their difficulties even at the end of the course Among those who did not gain any improvement, some worked very hard in class, but some did not Most of the students completed homework very regularly and often show better performance in presenting their homework than in activities they joined in class At the end of the course, most of the students were more aware

of the difference between long and short vowel sounds and more careful in pronouncing words including those sounds Nevertheless, many of them still could not pronounce the vowel sound /æ/ Additionally, diphthongs were not pronounced long enough Such sounds as //, //, //, //, /d/, /n/, /l/ were also difficult for

many students even when they performed in activities in the last lesson As for word-stress, from the beginning till the end of the course, many students still gave the last syllable more force in their pronunciation, which made their speaking sound unnatural and strange That kind of mistakes happened most commonly in adjectives with –ese, -ous ending With regards to intonation, the majority of students improved their monotonous voice pitch while some others could not and gave each individual word equal force In the final test, the researcher witnessed a lot of improvement in most of the students in all aspects of pronunciation However, some of them showed the same intelligibility as in the diagnostic test

3.3 Discussion

The results analysed in this chapter derived from the diagnostic test and final test as well as the teacher‟s observation and the questionnaire delivered before and after the course The analysis showed that students‟ motivation and pronunciation in terms of both segmental and suprasegmental features had been improved a lot After the researcher has worked hard on the data and information, she would like to discuss the effectiveness of motivating activities in the course and some disadvantages that led to difficulties she encountered when applying those activities

3.3.1 The effectiveness of games and other stimulating activities

It can be said that stimulating activities applied in the course had brought about great improvement in students‟ motivation, interest and pronunciation intelligibility Firstly, the researcher found that students in this course were much more active, voluntary, and enthusiastic in the class than the students in the previous years The evidences lied in regular attendance of the students and their responses to questions in the questionnaire With the application of new motivating activities, the students seemed to be more interested and autonomous in their learning When applying such interesting activities, the teacher hardly found any sleepy and bored faces in her class, instead, there were just eagerness and enthusiasm Students often volunteered to take part in motivating activities that their teacher introduced in class Sometimes they showed exhaustion and tiredness in pronunciation lessons because they had had two hours studying listening, however, students never showed their disconcern and disinterest The researcher many times saw students practising sounds, word-stress and sentence stress in the break time They even told the

teacher that they spent more time self-studying pronunciation than they had used to Many of them revised the sounds by replaying the games in class, listen to songs and try to sing the lyrics, watch movies or animated films and read the subtitles aloud Some other students logged in different websites for pronunciation that the teacher had introduced to them to have more drillings They used the internet not only for chatting, emailing, searching for information but also for practising pronunciation At the end of the course, when the teacher collected the students‟ feedback, the majority of them revealed that pronunciation class was what they expected the most among all subjects in the week Thanks to such interest, students‟ intelligibility had been improved much at the end of the course even though both teacher and students had longed for better results

3.3.2 Some disadvantages of the use of games and other stimulating activities

It is obvious that apart from advantages games and other stimulating activities have brought about, there have been some disadvantages that led to difficulties teachers have to overcome in order to prepare and organize class activities which are effective and attractive to students

Vast time and effort investment is the first thing that teachers have to face with It is undeniable that teachers need to spend a lot of time reading different books and reference documents to have a wide range of activities that they can use

in class It may take them hours to think and consider whether the activities are suitable and effective in their classes When teachers can decide what kind of activities to use in class, the next step is to make a careful lesson plan to ensure that they will deliver the activities successfully Teachers sometimes have to adjust the rules or make some changes so that the activities will be suitable to their students‟ level of proficiency and the context of teaching There are not always handouts that they can use immediately for their students, so it will take them more time to adapt

or even design totally new handouts More specifically, if teachers want to apply lyrics completing, they will have to listen to many different English songs just to choose one song which has suitable pace and includes the sounds in focus they want

to teach their students Then, they need to work with the lyrics to decide the blanks Another evidence of vast time investment is the preparation for subtitle reading Not all movies and cartoons can be used to help students practise the sounds and