Nghiên cứu về hoạt động dạy phát âm tiếng anh cho học sinh lớp 5 tại một số trường tiểu học ở bắc ninh

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ---NGO THI TRANG A Study on Teaching English Pronunciation for the Fifth-grade Students in some Primary Schools in Bac Ninh Nghiên cứu

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES -

NGO THI TRANG

A Study on Teaching English Pronunciation for the Fifth-grade Students in

some Primary Schools in Bac Ninh (Nghiên cứu về hoạt động dạy phát âm Tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 5 tại một số

trường tiểu học ở Bắc Ninh)

Thai Nguyen, July 2019

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES -

A Study on Teaching English Pronunciation for the Fifth-grade Students in

some Primary Schools in Bac Ninh

Full Name: Ngo Thi Trang ID: ThSK2TA4.17.016 Class: K2A

Supervisor:Prof Dr Hoang Van Van

Thai Nguyen, July 2019

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DECLARATION

This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Master of English Linguistics at Department of Post Graduate studies – School ofForeign Languages - Thai Nguyen University I certify that this thesis is the result of

my own research, and it has not been submitted for any other degrees

Thai Nguyen, July 8, 2019

Student’s signature

Ngô Thị Trang

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I am also indebted to the field workers who were kind enough totolerate the painstaking task of collecting the data Then my thanks also sent

to my classmates at the Master Course Class who have taken time andtrouble to alert me to errors in my thesis and provided me with useful data

on which this thesis is based

I also wish to send my sincere thanks to the teachers and students atthree Primary schools in Bac Ninh city , where I taught in order to gatherinformation for my servey questionnaires Without their help, this studycould not have been successful

Finally, I would like to express special thanks to my husband andfamily for their support and encouragement while the study was beingcarried out For my little experience and knowledge, I would like to receivemore useful comments from lectures and others

ABSTRACT

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It is undeniable that English has become one of the most popular foreignlanguages in Vietnam However, though Vietnamese learners can speak English, notmany of them have intelligible English pronunciation, especially young learners Thus,the research is conducted with the aim of investigating current English pronunciationfor young learners, in particular, the fifth-grade students in three primary schools inBac Ninh Province, namely Thi Cau, Dai Phuc and Vo Cuong

For the purpose of finding out current English pronunciation for fifth-gradestudents of such three primary schools, the author delivered questionnaires to 15teachers, interviewed three Heads of English division and observed 10 English classestaught by 10 teachers of three primary schools After collecting data, the researcherfound out that most of the teachers in such primary schools still applied traditionalEnglish pronunciation methods during English lessons for fifth-grade students, whichmade the students not really motivated, interested and active in the lessons Also, most

of the teachers dealt with difficulties in stress and intonation when teaching Englishpronunciation for such students Based on findings and limitations in Englishpronunciation teaching for fifth-grade students, the author proposed some possiblerecommendations for teachers, students and administrations of three primary schoolswith the hope of helping them improve English pronunciation effectiveness in thecoming times

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION………i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… …ii

ABSTRACT……… …iii

TABLE OF

CONTE N TS… … … … ……… … …… … … … ……… … …… … …… Error!

Boo k m a r k not defin e d v

LIST OF

TABLE S …… … … … ……… … …… … … … ……… … …… … … … … … Error!

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LIST OF

FIGUR E S… … …… … ……… … …… … … … ……… … …… … … … … Error!

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research question 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Structure of the research 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theoretical background 4

1.1.1 Definitions of pronunciation 4

1.1.2 Approaches to teaching pronunciation 5

1.1.3 Techniques to teach pronunciation 7

1.1.4 Elements of teaching pronunciation 9

1.1.5 The teacher’s roles in teaching pronunciation 10

1.1.6 Definitions of young learners 12

1.1.7 Characteristics of young learners 13

1.2 Previous studies 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18

2.1 Research design 18

2.2 Research participants 19

2.3 Research instruments 21

2.3.1 Questionnaires 21

2.3.2 Interview 22

2.3.3 Classroom observation 23

2.4 Procedure 24

2.4.1 Piloting questionnaires 24

2.4.2 Data collection process 24

2.4.3 Procedure of data analysis 25

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

3.1 Introduction 26

3.2 Current pronunciation teaching in some primary schools in Bac Ninh 26

3.2.1 Activities mainly used to enhance student’s pronunciation 26

3.2.2 Teacher’s guidance for students to practice pronunciation at home 28

3.2.3 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English pronunciation to the students .31

3.3 Discussions 33

3.3.1 Activities used to enhance students’ pronunciation 33

3.3.2 Teacher’s guiding activities for home practice 33

3.3.3 Teacher’s difficulties 35

3.4 Teachers’ suggestions on improving the teaching of English pronunciation 36 PART 3: CONCLUSION 38

1 Main findings 38

2 Implications 39

2.1 Implications for the teachers 39

2.2 Implications for the students 40

2.3 Implications for the administrators 41

3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 41

3.1 Limitations 41

3.2 Suggesstions 42

LIST OF REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES I

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The frequency of activities mainly used to enhance student’s

pronunciation

by teachers 26Table 3.2: The frequency of the teachers’ guidance for students to practicepronunciation at home 29Table 3.3: The teachers’ difficulties in teaching English pronunciation to the

students 31

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1.: Age and gender of the teachers 20Figure 2.2: Schools and seniority of the teachers 21

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1 Rationale

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

English has presently been commonly used in Vietnam It's a mandatorysubject at all levels of school Primary schools are the government's objectsconcerned with teaching English The age of 6 to 13 is the correct age for thelearners to learn a second language along with the mother tongue because at that erathe kids have a strong memory to receive the new stuff In particular, the fifth-grade is the final phase in primary education in which students are instructed to ask

a straightforward question and enhance their pronunciation by concentrating onstress and intonation

On the contrary, in some cases, some teachers don’t have a propermethodology to inspire their students for speaking English correctly andcomprehensively, which makes students not excited in studying pronunciation It iseasy to understand because it is hard and challenging, and takes time There aredifferences between Vietnamese and English so that the students commonly struggle

to speak English naturally The reasons for these problems are the incorrect stressposition and the unusual intonation when making sound Initially, not many peopletake much care on these problems, but these mistakes will become barriers toprevent the pupils from communicating and understanding native speakers because

of the differences in sounds made

Moreover, in teaching practice at some primary schools in Bac Ninh, teacherstend to face to unintelligible pronunciation by some students It is necessary to haveexact and clear pronunciation during the listening process because this will makegreat contributions to English teaching of teachers

In addition, primary education is a basic foundation for many subjects ingeneral, and in English in particular If teachers do not have the appropriate teachingmethodology, which leads to students’ erroneous pronunciation, in the future theseproblems will become students’ habit and might be impossible to change orimprove As a result, the thesis mainly focuses on current pronunciationteaching; thereby

helping teachers improve their teaching skills when teaching pronunciation for students.

All of these motivated me to conduct this research with the topic “A study onteaching English pronunciation for the 5th grade in some primary schools in BacNinh”, which would go into details of pronunciation teaching methodology at the 5th

grade and suggest some other effective techniques in order to improve pronunciationteaching for teachers

2 Aims of the study

The research is carried out with the aim of clarifying the current situation ofteaching and learning English pronunciation of both teachers and students in someprimary schools in Bac Ninh, namely Thi Cau Primary School, Dai Phuc PrimarySchool and Vo Cuong Primary School The research finds out activities often used

by the teachers to guide students to practice pronunciation at home Accordingly,the author recommends some possible solutions with the aim of helping Englishteachers at such three primary schools improve their teaching way how to applyeffective methods in teaching English for the 5th grade students

4 Scope of the study

The research is conducted on the English teachers in some primary schools inBac Ninh Regarding its scope, the research would emphasize finding out the currentsituations of teaching pronunciation for the fifth-grade students in some primaryschools in Bac Ninh and the teacher’s recommendations for better pronunciation

teaching Hence, the research’s result cannot be adequate to all Vietnamese studentsand English teachers It means the research works well only for teachers andlearners who are teaching and learning at such schools with similar English syllabusfor the ones who are concerned.

5 Structure of the research

The research includes three parts The first part is Introduction, in which therationale, aims, research question, scope and design are identified

The second one is Development which consists of three chapters Chapter 1 –Literature review gives an overview of the theories relating to teaching and learningEnglish pronunciation for young learners in Vietnam In Chapter 2 - Methodology,the researcher describes the background to the study; how to carry out and theprocess of conducting the research methods such as questionnaire, interviewand class observation The last chapter - Chapter 3 – Findings and discussiondescribes the results of the research

Part 3 – Conclusion, gives the summary of the study, the suggestions forteaching/learning more effectively and the recommendations for further study

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This section gives some definitions, pronunciation characteristics to clarifyobviously what pronunciation is consistent with the opinions of many scientists andthe views of the author In addition, it also introduces other elements such as theadvantages of excellent pronunciation and variables influencing its teaching Thepast studies listed and discussed in this section also provide the author's researchwith knowledge and useful information

1.1 Theoretical background

1.1.1 Definitions of pronunciation

There are various definitions of pronunciation depending on the views ofdifferent scientists Before mentioning its significance, however, the first significantthing to be concerned is to identify that pronunciation is distinct from phonology.Zielinski (2009, p 205) stated that when we talk, pronunciation relates to how wecreate the noise we use to create significance Indeed, as John Burgess and SheilaSpencer (2000, p.195) argued, "the phonology of a target language consists oftheory and knowledge about how the sound system of the target language works,including both segmental and supra-segmental features Pronunciation in languagelearning, on the other hand, is the practice and meaningful use of the target languagephonological features in speaking, supported by practice in interpreting thosephonological features in a target language discourse that one hears" (Burgess andSpencer, 2000)

According to Yates (2002), sounds that generate pronunciation makemeaning Cook (1996) said pronunciation is English-language sound production.When sounds are correctly generated, pronunciation is learned by repeating andcorrecting them

A smart individual may have many good thoughts in his mind, but if hispronunciation is not evident in this context, no one will comprehend him because

"pronunciation is an essential component of oral interaction" (Fraser, 2001, p.1) If aterm is wrongly pronounced, the listener may misunderstand the speaker andsometimes it breaks the relationship or leads to adverse ideas Hence, pronunciation

plays an important role in a discussion that transmits a message between speaker and listener to achieve its objective.

English pronunciation is the way a word is spoken The way in which manyEnglish words are pronounced is distinct from the way in which they are spelt forseveral purposes There are some sounds represented by more than one lettercombination

In conclusion, the following definition is accepted in this research becausethe significance of pronunciation is fully described According to Lynda Yates andBeth Zielinski (2009, p.205), pronunciation is the way a word or language can bespoken or read based on the place of birth, habitat, ethnic group, social class andeducation of people Besides demonstrating how a term is spoken, pronunciationimpacts inspirational thoughts, thinking about the speakers, it says if the listenersknow the speakers

1.1.2 Approaches to teaching pronunciation

The field of modern language teaching has created two particular approaches

to pronunciation learning, according to Celce-Murcia's evaluation (1996): imitative approach and analytic-linguistic approach

intuitive-+ Intuitive-imitative Approach

Intuitive-imitative approach depends on the ability of the learner to listen andimitate the rhythms and sounds of the target language without the intervention ofany explicit information; it also presupposes the availability of good models tolisten to, a possibility that has been enhanced by the availability of phonographrecords first, then tape recorders and language labs in the mid-twentieth century

At the start of the teaching pronunciation, Jones and Evans (1995) suggeststhat educators should adopt this strategy First of all, this represents a more holisticstrategy in which distinct components of speech are viewed as incorporated from thestart Secondly, it provides learners the opportunity to experience intuitive andcommunication pronunciation before proceeding to a more analytical exploration ofparticular phonology components In the end, speech quality research can assistlearners enhance their picture and thus boost trust when they talk English

+ Analytic-linguistic Approach

Analytic-linguistic approach uses data and instruments for complementinglistening, imitation and manufacturing, such as the phonetic alphabet, articulationaldescriptions of vocals, chart of vocal apparats and contrast data It tells the learnerexplicitly and concentrates on segments such as the sounds and rhythms of thetarget language This strategy has been created to complement the intuitive strategyrather than to replace it

Approaches to Bottom-up and Top-Down are two common approaches to thepronunciation of the teaching mentioned by Tench (1984), Pennington (1989), Jonesand Evans (1995), Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994)

+ Approach of Bottom-up

A bottom-up approach is closely related to precision, which should beconcentrated from the start of a course Teachers educate students in pronunciationwith the components of lowest and most concrete units The teacher passes throughmore abstract sections like intonation and the thought group from single consonants

to vowels

+ Approach of Top-down

A Top-down approach takes in connected speech the concept ofcontextualized sounds The instructor runs from the most important components tothe smallest of the pronunciation: from intonation or group of thoughts, or contexts

to individual sounds

+ Approach of integrating pronunciation

Hewings (2004) indicates an approach to integrate pronunciation in certainclasses when pronunciation has less priority than other language elements such asgrammar and vocabulary The teacher plays a more important role in education byincorporating it into other fields of linguistic job, such as linking vocabulary andpronunciation or linking grammar with pronunciation

In language teaching the approaches to pronunciation were used globally.However, determining which strategy is a priority relies on the certain situations,the official curricula and the teacher

1.1.3 Techniques to teach pronunciation

The Communicative Approaches, which presently dominate linguisticteaching, state that since language is mainly communicable, linguistic use in alllinguistic courses should be essential Langue as communications is a renewedurgency for pronunciation learning, as there is a threshold for non-English-speakers;

if they are lower than this threshold stage, verbal difficulties are encounteredregardless of how outstanding and comprehensive their control over englishgrammar and vocabulary may be (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, Goodwin, 1996)

Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin lists 10 traditional methods for theteaching of pronunciation as part of the communication approach:

+ Listen and imitate: A technique used in the Direct Method in whichstudents listen to a teacher-provided model and repeat or imitate it The use of taperecorder, linguistic laboratories and video grapher has improved this technique

+ Phonetic training: use of articulatory descriptions, articulatory charts,phonetic alphabets (a reform movement method that may include phonetictranscription and phonetic text reading)

+ Minimal pair drills: A method implemented during the Audiolingual age toassist learners to differentiate comparable and problematic sounds through listeningdiscrimination and speech exercise in the target language Minimal couple exercisestypically start with word-level exercise and then proceed to sentence-level exercise

+ Contextualized minimal pairs: In this technique, the teacher sets out thesettings and provides important vocabulary in this method; learners are then taught

to react with the suitable meaningful reaction to a phrase

+ Visual aids: Improvement of the teacher’s description of how audio visualaids such as sound charts, faithful wall charts, rods, photos, mirrors, props, and so

on produce sounds These equipment are also used to indicate target soundmanufacturing

+ Tongue twisters: A technique from speech correction strategies for nativespeakers (e.g., “She sells seashells by the seashore.”)

+ Developmental approximation drills: A technique recommended byacquisition research in the first language by teaching second-language languagespeakers to follow the measures many English speaking kids take to learn certainsounds in their first language As children learning English often acquire /w/ before/r/ or /j/ before /l/, adults who have difficulty producing /l/ or /r/ can be encouraged

to begin by pronouncing words with initial /w/ or /j/, and then shift to /r/ or /l/,respectively:

/w/ → /r/ /j/ → /l/

wed red yet let

wag rag young lung

+ A method based on laws of generative phonology (Chomsky and Halle1968), used for intermediary or developed students: the practice of vowel changesand stress changes linked to applied science The teacher points out the rule-basedquality of vowels and stress changes to sensitization in phrases linked to etymology;phrases and brief texts containing both members of a couple can be given as oralpractice documents:

Vowel shift: mime /ai/ mimic /i/

Sentence context: Street mimes often mimic the gestures of passersby.

Stress shift: PHOtograph phoTOgraphy

Sentence context: I can tell from these photographs that you are very good atphotography

+ Reading aloud/recitation: Scripts or passages for students to exercise, thenread aloud, concentrating on stress and timing This method can include or may notinclude memorizing the wording and is generally used in genres designed forspeaking, such as speeches, poems, plays and dialogues

+ Recordings of learners’ production: Tapes of rehearsed and spontaneousspeeches, free discussions, and roles in both audio and video The followingplayback provides possibilities for teacher, peer and self-evaluation feedback

Except for the two last methods mentioned above, we can see that the focus

of training on pronunciation was mainly to get the sound correct at word level–todeal

with words in isolation or with words in very regulated and well-constructingsentence levels The last two methods enable students to exercise at speech level.However, the material for exercise is often fully written and sometimes veryelaborated.

1.1.4 Elements of teaching pronunciation

According to Kelly (2000), vowels, consonants, word and phrase stress,entonation, other elements of linked velocity and orthodoxy conclude teachingpronunciation Colin Mortimer (1985) claims however that weak forms, clusters,links, contractions and times are components in the doctrinal pronunciation A moredetailed and genuine element of education is offered by Linda Grant (1993) Shearranged the components for the learning of sounds, speeches, phrases and lastly thesections of discourse The pronunciation elements to be taught are:

+ Sound and Spelling Patterns

The aspects of the English pronunciation and spelling patterns are confusing.The sound and spelling of English correspondences are irregular because Englishhas borrowed a lot of other words from ancient Greek and Latin to Eskimo andFarsi Two typical instances of unequivalence between sound and orthography arehomographs and homophones For efficient pronunciation teaching sounds andspelling patterns, each sound (vowels and consonant), the phonetic transcription,syllable and ending sounds shall also be considered

+ Word Stress

Word stress should be extremely concentrated in helping students to haveunderstandable pronunciation at the start of any speech course Two or moresyllables are stressed with every word, and one is stronger, louder and longer thanthe other This stressed syllable is extremely essential because English speakersdepend on stress patterns to recognize the words and sentences they hear (LindaGrant, 1993) The more often the presenter has misused stress, the more effort hemust make to comprehend what he/she says

+ Rhythm

+ “Rhythm is characterized by the alternation of strong and weak syllables”(Kenworthy, 1992:30) Rhythm is a result of word stress and how significantelements have a powerful beat as a result of their occurrence, and unimportantobjects have a weak beat.

+ Sentence focus and Intonation

In spoken English, the presenter provides the listener with data on the relativesignificance of multiple components of the massage in multiple respects One way is

to emphasize the phrases with the most data The primary phrase stress generallywas called (Kenworthy, 1992:32) The focus and intonation of the sentence relate tothe speaker's purpose and emotions She / he emphasizes the most significantphrases when she / he talks Teaching the focus of language and intonation willsucceed more if the teacher chooses a context that obliges students to grasp this idea

of “importance”

+ Thought group

Words are called thought group, organized by the speaker in brief meaningfulsentences The pronunciation factor is super-segmented and appears to beinexpressible However, by offering friendly explanations and genuine training, ifeducators simplify this abstract concept, it becomes teachable The group of thoughtlearning is a key component of pronunciation learning If a presenter does not dividethe voice flow into suitable think tanks, the language may be difficult tocomprehend, regardless of how obviously pronounced each word is Thus, onehelpful way to assist students speak is to assist them learn of the think group, theword' talking obviously' in the great phonology book (Rogerson and Gilbert, 1984).Rogerson and Gilbert State describe the “thought group”: “When we speak, we need

to divide speech into small chunks to help the listener understand the messages.These chunks or thought groups are groups of words which go together to express

an idea or thought In English, we pause and low pitch to mark the end of thoughtgroups”

1.1.5 The teacher’s roles in teaching pronunciation

In the globe of language education, the usefulness of pronunciation is acommonly discussed topic Some of the research suggests that the improvement of

pronunciation of teachers can make little or no difference (Suter 1976, Purcell andSuter, 1980) In other words, it goes beyond the control of teachers to achieve aprecise pronunciation in a second language Nevertheless, study suggests that ifcertain criteria such as supra-segmental learning and connecting speech with hearingpractices are complied with, the teacher can make a distinct distinction "Teacherswith formal education can make a difference in pronunciation and supersegmentaleducation" thinks Pennington (1989) Even though their education is formal,educators play an important part in the pronunciation of teaching and learning Afew roles (by Kenworthy 1996) are stated as follows a typical teacher of thepronunciation:

+ Helping learners hear

It is part of the job of the teacher to help students to perceive sounds.Learners are often very inclined to hear the English sounds in terms of their mothertongue Every language has its own sound categories Teachers must inspect thattheir students hear sounds according to their categories and assist them if needed tocreate fresh categories

+ Helping learners make sounds

It is apparent that some English sounds do not appear in the mother tongues

of learners Sometimes students can imitate the new sound, but if they can, theprofessor must offer them a few clues to create the new sounds

+ Providing feedback

The teacher must inform the students how they do both the above duties.Students themselves often cannot say whether they have done it; the professor mustgive them data on their results In other instances, pupils can overdo something–theycan assume inaccurately how English is pronounced, maybe because of the manner

it is written This brings the professor to another assignment:

+ Pointing out what’s going on

Learners should understand what to do and what to do Since students speakunconsciously with most uncontrolled people, something significant may bemissing For example, if a specific word is stressed or said differently, it may nothave an

effect on the message sent to the listener Teachers must make students conscious ofthe sound potential –the resources to send spoken messages.

+ Devising activities

The teacher must consider what kinds of exercises and events are useful inlearning pronunciation What are the most practical, experimental and explorativeactivities? When designing teaching activities, educators should also remember thatsome activities better match some students' styles and methods than others

+ Assessing progress

This is some sort of remark or feedback about their treatment ofpronunciation Learners discover it hard to achieve their own development, so if theprofessor gives this type of data it will be important This is particularly hard forcreating sounds, but progress data is often a key motivational factor

1.1.6 Definitions of young learners

Young learners are defined in many ways They are the pupils who, at theage of nine and ten, are studying at elementary school Young learners, in otherwords, are primary school learners According to Cameron, young learners aredefined as learners between the ages of five and twelve, so the age of the younglearner is in primary school Young learners are also the students at ElementarySchool who learn English within 4 years and are from grade 4 to grade 6 Youngstudents can be said to be students aged 7-15 At Senior High School, they studyEnglish as their second language

For students who are not yet adults, young learners are "a catch-all term forstudents who are not yet adults The term swept into fashion at the beginning of the

nineties reflecting the trend to lower the starting age and broaden the access toEnglish language learning to younger people in many countries all over the world"(Carolread 2015) As Phillips' declaration, there are many variables that affect thematurity of young learners, such as culture, environment, gender, friends, and parentexpectations The author also indicates that teachers need to recognize thesedistinctions and offer young learners the appropriate types of operations.

1.1.7 Characteristics of young learners

Young learners or children have their own distinct characters from adults.Some features include lack of experience and understanding, a lot of energy, andalways need to be physically active, get bored quickly, study more slowly andquickly forget stuff, be passionate, imitate very nice stuff, continue to improveliteracy in their mother tongue, etc In addition, according to Slattery and Willis(2001), in many areas young learners need to learn, like doing something, seeing,listening, and imitating They can hear the sounds very accurately and mimic themethods that adults or others talk These individuals like to play and use theirimagination to do stuff, young learners are naturally curious as well

As for Brumfit (1997), young learners have many features as below:

- Most of them go to college This is a excellent opportunity for teachers toshape classroom life expectations

- Young learners tend to be patient and learning passionate-young studentslike taking part in operations or physical motion Stimulating their thinking andmaking them closer in the schools is best

It may be suggested that the required technique to practice pronunciation foryoung learners is to obtain the steady input in the language In addition, the kids dothe activities of imitating and repeating Young students need to create their learningstrategies, comprehend learning significance, and know how to plan, oversee,regulate, and reflect learning As Johnstone's concept to offer the right teaching andlearning circumstances, the young learners have some benefits as follows whencompared to the older beginners when learning the second language:

- They are less concerned about language than the elderly learners.Therefore, absorbing language is simple for them.

- Young learners will also have excellent control over individual sounds andintonation patterns

- It is not hard for young learners to establish a productive link between thefirst and second languages with the required benefits for their language knowledge

The development of young learners' schooling, from consciousness, emotion

to culture and the formation of multilingual and intercultural identities may have abeneficial effect

According to Slattery and Willis, English teachers need to make the Englishpronunciation class more enjoyable in order to deliver the great circumstances foryoung learners Importantly, English teachers should acknowledge that the attitude

of the student to learn the language is affected by them

- Express what they mean by using pictures, gestures, taking the actions, etc

- Sing a song, play games in English with students

- Help the learners feel comfortable and confident, not worry about themistakes when participating in English class

- Talk with learners in English

- Prepare lessons with the different activities that create some noisy, standing,moving, sitting, sometimes quiet

- Sometimes use the new words or things that young learners do not know

- Tell the simple stories in English, using pictures and action in the differentvoices for each situation

In addition, Edelenbos and Kubanek have given many following principlesthat are most suitable for learning:

- A positive motivation for learning

- Training and practice pronunciation

- Explain the relationship between graphemes and phonemes of the otherlanguage when comparing to the mother tongue

- Training the ear

English teachers should therefore frequently use English in the classroom.Sometimes teachers have to encourage students to sing English songs, tell funnyEnglish tales, do ears, exercise pronunciation, and enhance the student's knowledge

of the connection between pronunciation and English spelling when compared to themother tongue Nixon & Tomlinson (2005) also verified that it is much simpler at

an early point in the learner's growth to teach and correct pronunciation than tocorrect subsequent time-compound pronunciation mistakes The Englishteachers must therefore concentrate a lot on creating and improving pronunciationabilities from the beginning when teaching young learners

1.2 Previous studies

There are quite a large number of studies on pronunciation teachingmethodology to enhance students’ pronunciation ability

Chen Dan (2006) studied How can I improve my student’s pronunciation In

2006, Chen Dan performed a study to define dimensions of pronunciation teachingand techniques for learners to evaluate and enhance pronunciation teaching Hisresearch is being conducted at China's Foreign Language Teaching ExperimentalCenter for Educational Action Research (CECEARFLT) In order to teach Englishpronunciation, Chen Dan tried to demonstrate the present condition and theappropriate methods It showed the condition of teaching and made excellentcontributions to help teachers discover helpful interventions The research is beinginvestigated in China In addition, Vietnam and China have always consideredEnglish as a foreign language (EFL) and have also concentrated heavily on teachingtechniques to satisfy the growing requirements of pronunciation learning

Patchara Varasarin (2007) studied about An action research study of pronunciation training, language learning strategies and speaking confidence This

is a cooperative action study inquiry to train English pronunciation, communicationabilities for Thai learners in Thailand who are learning this language This research,

in other words, focuses on researching pronunciation instruction; language learningstrategies, and how such methods boost trust and enhance learners' communicativeskills Specifically, the significance of pronunciation instruction in a school was

explored through survey questionnaire to determine the outcome of teachers' method

to attitudes and pronunciation of learners The purpose of the training is to improvethe spoken intelligibility and pronunciation of the student

In the study of Teaching pronunciation at secondary level of Jana

Mikuláštíková (2012), the author discussed the significance of teaching Englishpronunciation in secondary schools This is because English is deemed a globallanguage that non-native individuals are improving on a daily basis His grammarand vocabulary are not enough for this language to understand and write,communication or pronunciation also play a very significant role in efficientlyperforming the language The author has therefore established some methods toimprove pronunciation in English classes by using the operations of course booknew English

to improve TEFL pronunciation Finally, the implementation of ReceivedPronunciation and General American is the most suitable pronunciation model forteachers to adopt learners

The study Students’ attitudes towards learning English pronunciation made

by Saundz Research Team (2015) researched 100 learners who commented on thesignificance of pronunciation in English The study participants from around theglobe gathered useful insight into how learners themselves see pronunciationteaching and approach it The results of the survey showed that for the extremely

significant role of pronunciation, most learners had a powerful agreement Morethan

70% of the learners surveyed agreed that excellent pronunciation in English is essential to them.

Furthermore, Ali (2015) had conducted a study on Improving English pronunciation among Arabic EFL School – age student using minimal pairs This

study explored whether using the approach of minimal pairs enhances Englishpronunciation of unfamiliar consonant sounds for 2nd intermediate gradeindigenous Arab learners in Saudi Arabia Furthermore, the type of study used inthis research was the action research developed to enhance classroom learning Inaddition, the author used four stages in conducting this survey, includingacting, planning, reflecting, and observing This study was carried out over a four-week period of about fifteen minutes / each moment, four times / week There weresome tools that were implemented in this research, such as verbal evaluation, pre-testand post-test In addition, this survey was conducted using post-test and pre-test

to assess whether there was any enhancement in the pronunciation of uniqueEnglish bracket phonemes(/p/,/b/,/v/,/t/ and / b) by the learners involved in thisresearch Finally, the author verified that minimal learning strategy pairs areefficient in improving the pronunciation of Arabic speakers of the secondintermediate grade

In conclusion, the pronunciation ability of learners is affected by manyvariables that can result in both students' great and poor pronunciation ability.However, in Vietnam, particularly in Bac Ninh, no research was performed to studyteaching pronunciation for fifth-grade learners The author therefore decided tochoose this subject as a difference and uniqueness of my thesis

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

The chapter describes the methodology employed in the study It consists oftwo sections The first section presents the specific methodology used to served theresearch questions underlysing the study The second section discusses the researchdesign with a description of the subjects, instruments, teaching materials and datacollection procedures

The purpose of this study is to research and answer two questions as below:

1 What are the activities currently employed by the teachers to teachpronunciation to the fifth-grade students at some primary schools in Bac Ninh?

2 How many activities which often used by the teachers at some primaryschools in Bac Ninh to practice pronunciation to their fifth-grade students?

3 What are the teachers’ suggestions for the better use of activities toimprove the fifth-grade students’ pronunciation?

2.1 Research design

Quantitative method can be described as "the numerical representation andmanipulation of observation for the purpose of describing and explaining thephenomena that those observations reflect" (Babbie, 1983, p.537) For the followingreasons, this technique demonstrated to be suitable in this research First, it assisted

to "seek facts or causes of social phenomena without regard to the subjective states

of the individuals" (Nunan, 1989, p.4) In addition, the data obtained is "accurateand generalizable" due to the big amount of research respondents, i.e 15 Englishstudents (Nunan, 1989, p.4)

In a quantitative research, however, what is likely to be sacrificed is the depth

of data Quantitative method therefore demonstrated not to be sufficient Therefore,

in this research, qualitative method was required to compensate for what is lacking

in a quantitative method

In contrast to quantitative method, qualitative method is the "non-numericalexamination and interpretation of observation for the purpose of discoveringunderlying meanings and patterns of relationships" (Babbie, 1983, p.537)

Qualitative research seeks at a more thorough and in-depth knowledge of thephenomena than

simply answering questions about how well, how much or how correctly something

is achieved (Gay, 1996; Wallace, 1998) The qualitative study is based primarily onthree fundamental methods of information collection, i.e observation ofparticipants, interview and document or artifact analysis

In conclusion, in this thesis, the research design comprises of the quantitativeand qualitative method in questionnaire and interview types The questionnairesrepresent the reality of applying 5th grade English pronunciation in some mainschools in Bac Ninh, the attitudes of teachers towards learning 5th grade Englishpronunciation, as well as suggestions for better teaching 5th grade Englishpronunciation in some main schools in Bac Ninh The interviews helped the authorfind out more about the truth of teaching the 5th grade English pronunciation Theyalso provide additional suggestions for promoting 5th grade English pronunciationteaching

The author conducted interview and questionnaire in this research to searchfor the study's qualitative and quantitative data Many writers and scientists haveshown that observations or interviews have not restricted informants In order toobserve and conduct the interview, the author must engage in the classroom in order

to gather information The study also utilizes questionnaires as the primary tool tofind out how to teach and exercise English pronunciation in practice

2.2 Research participants

With the aim of proposing teaching methodologies for teachers in 03 primaryschools in Bac Ninh, the author invited 15 teachers to answer a list of questions todiscover how they applied the methods in teaching English which have been used intheir lesson plans or any difficulties they might face during teaching pronunciation,particularly stress and intonation The study was conducted at 03 primary schools,namely, Thi Cau, Dai Phuc and Vo Cuong, of which the number of English teachers

is limited As a result, 15 teachers agreed for interviewing

The age, gender, schools, years of experience of 15 English teachersparticipating in this study were presented as below:

Figure 2.1.: Age and gender of the teachers

From the above two charts, we could easily see the age and the gender of 15English teachers in the survey In Figure 2.1, there were 3 English teachers from 22

to 25 years old, equivalent to 20% The English teachers between 26 – 30 years oldmade up for 40% In addition, there were 4 teachers being in the 31 to 44-year-oldage group, accounting for 26.67% The teachers over 45 years old constituted13.33% In this study, most English teachers who answered the questionnaire were

in the 26 – 30 age range; while fewer teachers were over 45 Besides, the Figure 2.1also showed that 20% of male English teachers answered the questionnaire(equivalently

3 teachers) 80% of English teachers taking part in this survey were female,equivalent to 12 English teachers During the survey, female English teachers werewilling to answer the questionnaire

Here are the charts which presented participant’s schools and years of experience:

Figure 2.2: Schools and seniority of the teachers

The mentioned two charts showed the five primary schools and experienceyears of English teachers taking parting in answering the questionnaire In Figure2.2, there were 26.67% of English teachers, equivalent to 04 teachers teaching at ThiCau primary school 6 English teachers worked at Dai Phuc primary school, whichaccounted for 40% There were 05 English teachers from Vo Cuong primary school,taking account for 33.33% Besides, the years of experience of English teachers attheir primary school were shown in Figure 2.2 There were quite many Englishteachers who had been teaching at their school from 1 to 5 years, making up for33.33%, and equivalent to 05 teachers 04 English teachers accounting for 26.67%,who had been teaching at primary school for 11-20 years 20% was the percentage

of English teachers (03) who had been teaching at primary school for 6-10 years andfor more than 20 years All the respondents answered the questionnaires, and othersalso participate in interviewing

2.3 Research instruments

2.3.1 Questionnaires

The researcher in this study has chosen questionnaires as the primary datacollection instrument because “it is quite labor-intensive in construction andanalysis The knowledge needed is controlled by the questions; therefore it affords agood deal