Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến dạy và học phát âm tiếng Anh

Trong phạm vi bài viết này, người viết sẽ nhấn mạnh tầm quan trọng của phát âm tiếng Anh. Bên cạnh đó, dựa trên một số nghiên cứu cũng như lý thuyết liên quan về phát âm, người viết sẽ phân loại các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến quá trình dạy và học phát âm tiếng Anh, đồng thời đưa ra một số đề xuất nhằm cải thiện chất lượng dạy và học phát âm hiện nay.

NGUYỄN TRÍ DŨNG * , NGUYỄN THỊ BIÊN **

* Học viện Khoa học Quân sự,  braveman20083@gmail.com

** Học viện Khoa học Quân sự,  bien_khanh2008@yahoo.com

Ngày nhận bài: 06/6/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 14/6/2018; ngày duyệt đăng: 20/6/2018

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the complaints teachers and learners

of English make about English pronunciation is

that they have trouble dealing with pronunciation

which is considered one of the most complicated

but significant features of second language

teaching and learning Indeed, good pronunciation

can promote language learning whereas poor

pronunciation can result in a great hindrance in the

second language learning Many learners, though,

seek to master native-like pronunciation and want

to speak English accurately and fluently, they have

trouble with pronunciation on account of a wide

range of influencing elements

Brown (2007) states that the influencing

elements of pronunciation not only include

CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN DẠY VÀ HỌC PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH

TÓM TẮT

Phát âm giống như người bản ngữ là một trong những nhiệm vụ rất quan trọng nhưng cũng khá

phức tạp đối với cả người dạy và người học Do đặc tính phức tạp của ngôn ngữ, phát âm đang

được xem là một kỹ năng cần được chú trọng nhiều hơn trong việc giảng dạy ngôn ngữ ở các

trường học và cơ sở đào tạo Trong phạm vi bài báo này, người viết sẽ nhấn mạnh tầm quan trọng

của phát âm tiếng Anh Bên cạnh đó, dựa trên một số nghiên cứu cũng như lý thuyết liên quan về

phát âm, người viết sẽ phân loại các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến quá trình dạy và học phát âm tiếng Anh,

đồng thời đưa ra một số đề xuất nhằm cải thiện chất lượng dạy và học phát âm hiện nay

Từ khoá: dạy và học phát âm, ngôn ngữ bản địa, phát âm

phonetic symbols and rules, but also involve the articulation of individual sounds and the distinctive features of sounds like voice and aspiration, voice-setting features and stress, intonation, and rhythm Meanwhile, Pennington and Richards (1996) points out that there are a range of elements that should be considered as part of pronunciation, such

as native language interference, age influence, etc

So as to, therefore, make pronunciation teaching and learning effective, it would be worthwhile to take these elements into account

This article addresses the elements that influence English pronunciation acquisition

in ESL situation Specifically, it first and foremost emphasizes the importance of English pronunciation, and reviews some researches and theories relevant to pronunciation The influencing

elements of English pronunciation acquisition are

categorized into two domains named as internal

and external ones

2 THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH

PRONOUNCIATION

Learning a language means dealing with the

performance of sounds, utterances, and words

properly and precisely One of the general goals

in the second language learning (L2), perhaps the

most important one, is speaking the target language

as accurately and fluently as native speakers

When people communicate in English, the very

first thing to be noticed, which can make a good

impression on our language competence, is the

way in which English is pronounced Indeed, poor

and incomprehensible pronunciation will surely

result in unpleasantness and misunderstanding

for both speakers and listeners What’s more,

it is apparent that limited pronunciation skills

will lessen learners’ self-confidence and lead to

negative influence for learners to estimate their

credibility and abilities (Morley, 1998)

Lund (2003, p.16) argues that pronunciation

is the only aspect of language calling for a

close interaction between the cognitive and

physiological processes In acquiring new sounds

we are also coping with a complex reorganizing

of the articulatory processes Good English

pronunciation will make oneself easily understood;

contrarily, poor English pronunciation may confuse

people and result in unpleasant conversations

and misunderstandings even when someone uses

advanced English grammar or vocabulary

Pronunciation has an important social value,

which is relevant to prestige, such as intelligence,

professional competence, persuasiveness,

diligence, and social privilege Pronunciation

can provide information about the speaker’s

geographical and social origin, and in most cases

it is the most salient characteristic of non-native

speakers (Kenworthy, 1997)

Pronunciation, in addition, is vocalized in communication and can be considered as a kind

of culture In the process of communicating, the speaker’s expression, describing or explaining can build up their individual cultural space modus vivendi, which the cultural space contains the system and hierarchy of values and the individual world view

In conclusion, pronunciation in general and English pronunciation in particular plays a very important part in English language teaching and learning Its importance has been recognized by many learners, teachers and researchers, but it should be noted that language learners always have difficulties with pronunciation In fact, there are a lot of researchers who have made contribution to seek the elements affecting pronunciation teaching and learning from various perspectives such as physiology, psychology and linguistics

3 PREVIOUS STUDIES ON ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND LEARNING

Kenworthy (1997) states that the history of teaching English pronunciation is known as a study

in extremes Some teaching approaches such as the Reformed Method and Audio-lingual focused on pronunciation and considered them as a pinnacle

of the English teaching and learning process, while others such as the cognitive movement and early communicative language teaching seemed to ignore pronunciation

According to Brown (2007), the Direct Method which became popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s was described as follows: pronunciation was taught through intuition and imitation In the Naturalistic Methods, learners had to learn solely

by listening prior to any speaking was allowed The first linguistic or analytic contribution to pronunciation teaching transpired in 1890s as part

of the Reform Movement in language teaching This movement was so much influenced by phoneticians such as Henry Sweet, Wilhelm Vietor,

and Paul Passay who developed the International

Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) They advocated the

notions and practices suggesting that learners

should be given phonetic training to set up good

speech habits and the spoken form of a language

and should be taught first

In 1940s and 1950s, teachers used both

Audio-lingual and Oral approaches their pronunciation

teaching classrooms in which the IPA and charts

demonstrating the articulation of sounds were

exploited They also applied the minimal pair drill

which using words that differ by a single sound

in the same position In addition, in the 1960s,

the Cognitive Approach, which used sound color

charts and Fidel word charts, were introduced

(The Fidel is known as a set of rectangle charts

organized along articulatory lines and presenting

all the possible spelling patterns for each sound

in the language using the color code Sounds

are seen in the same color and the same location

on each rectangle) In the color word charts, the

words which are grouped semantically in a way

allowing teachers to silently dictate or tap out

phrases, are then practised orally or written down

as a dictation This silent way seemed to have a

special focus on teaching pronunciation, and many

language educators agree that the principle of

sound-color correspondence, which the silent way

invoked, provided learners with an “inner resource

to be used” (Nation and Newton, 2009)

The Communicative Approach took hold in

the 1980s and is currently dominant in language

teaching According to Cele-Murcia, Brinton,

& Goodwin (1996), the primary purpose

of language is communication, the use of

language to communicate should be central in

all classroom instructions Cenoz (1999) claims

that pronunciation has traditionally been taught

with a goal of “speaking like a native speaker,

but this is not practical In fact, it is a recipe for

discouragement of both teachers and students

This has been referred to “the perfection trap”

A more practical approach is to aim to

“listener-friendly pronunciation”

Currently, the following techniques and practice materials are being used to teach pronunciation: Listen and Repeat (a technique from the Direct

Method, e.g., She sells seashells on the seashore),

Phonetic Training (a technique from the Reform Movement, e.g., using the correct IPA symbols when identifying the correct vowel: leg [e] – lag [æ], Minimal Pair Drills (a technique introduced during Audio-lingual area, e.g., beg-bag/ ten-tan, and Recording of learners’ production Morley (1998) supports the idea of critical listening; that is

to say, it is ideal if learners can listen to recordings

of their own voices, and especially if they can be recorded saying similar things several times, and then listen again to see if they can pick the various pronunciation

4 ELEMENTS AFFECTING THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND LEARNING AMONG ADULT LEARNERS

Based on reviewing previous studies and theories about pronunciation teaching and learning, the article will categorize the influencing elements

of English pronunciation teaching and learning

into two areas: internal and external.

4.1 Internal elements

4.1.1 Age

Widely recognized by many researchers, age is known as an element of great importance in SLA field There is general consensus that the younger the better when acquiring a new language and the more accurate their pronunciation will be in the target language Biologically, it has determined the period of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond the period language, learning is increasingly difficult to acquire

Proposed by Lenneberg (1997) Critical Period Hypothesis claims that there is a critical age period for language learning (around puberty) If learners

do not learn a foreign language before a certain

age, they cannot obtain a better pronunciation than

those who learn a foreign language at a proper

age If a learner begins to speak a second language

before the age of six, there will be little or no

accent If the learner begins to speak it between

at the age of 7-11, the learner is likely to have a

slight accent If the learner begins to speak after

the age of 12, the learner almost always has an

accent (Nation and Newton, 2009, p.78)

4.1.2 Brain

It seems that children have an advantage over

adults in language learning A child’s brain is

plastic to compare with an adult’s, but after nine

years old the brain is growing mature and some

functions are assigned to left and right hemispheres

and it will be difficult to approach native-like

pronunciation

Some researchers and neurologists have

claimed that there is a strong relationship between

language learning and lateralization Lenneberg

(1997) hypothesizes that lateralization is a slow

process, and it begins at the age of about two and

will be completed when reaching puberty Before

two years old, the brain has not developed but

after puberty it develops so much and will lose

its plasticity and finish the lateralization of the

language function

However, some researchers hold the opponent

point indicating that plasticity survives puberty

even till to twenties; they still have the possibility

to achieve native-like pronunciation (Lund, 2003)

4.1.3 Ear-perception

Ear perception is always ignored by many

people during the process of teaching and learning

pronunciation There is a common sense that

different people have different levels of hearing

abilities (Hamers, 1994) Some people have a

better ear capacity for language learning than

others Those who have good ear capacity can

easily discriminate two sounds more accurately and be able to imitate different sounds better than others and lead to their pronunciation approach to native speakers

It is noteworthy that ear capacity relates to learners’ age That is to say, learners may gradually lose some of their abilities when they grow older, and it might be difficult for them to pronounce the target language with a native or native-like accent

4.1.4 Aptitude

Some learners, indeed, have an aptitude for language learning and seem to acquire a better pronunciation than others According to Carroll (1992), four traits constitute language aptitude, namely, phonetic coding ability, grammatical sensitivity, inductive language learning ability and memory The first trait refers to “the capacity to discriminate and code foreign sounds which can

be recalled” Grammatical sensitivity concerns

“the ability to analyze language and figure out rules” Inductive language learning ability relates

to “the capacity to pick up language through exposure” The last component, memory, involves

“the amount of rote learning activity needed to internalize something” (Cele-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996, p.17)

In reality, aptitude plays a essential part in learners’ pronunciation development Though many people have language aptitude ability, its degree is variable Some people have more ability but some have less It, however, does not mean that learners who have higher aptitude will be successful while others will not (Cele-Murcia, Briton, & Goodwin, 1996)

4.1.5 Personality (extraversion and introversion)

Learners’ personalities relating to extraversion and introversion also influence their pronunciation learning The consensus seems that extroversive

characteristic plays a positive role in learning

native-like pronunciation; meanwhile, introversive one

does not Learners, who are sociable, courageous,

talkative and like to make friends, tend to express

themselves and take part in activities actively

Therefore, they have more opportunities to use the

target language and improve their pronunciation

In contrast, a typical introverted person who is shy

and likes to stay alone and prefers reading books to

talking with people, cannot find any opportunities

to speak the target language and practise their

pronunciation

4.1.6 Attitude, motivation and identity

Pronunciation learning is also affected by

learners’ learning identity and attitude According

to Buranavityawut (2000), the accuracy of

learners’ pronunciation is like a person’s sense

of identity Each learner has a distinct attitude

toward the target language and the target language

community, which can support or hinder the

development of pronunciation skills

If a learner has some prejudices or a negative

attitude to the target language, it will have a bad

influence on his/her language learning For example,

some people do not believe that it is necessary to

learn a second language, and they think language

learning will influence the learners’ cultural

development in a negative way, and their culture

will be imposed on the target language community

Contrarily, if a learner has a positive attitude and

open mind for the target language or target culture,

it will promote her/his pronunciation development

easily and accurately and have a native-like

accent (Cenoz and Garcia Lecumberri, 1999)

Motivation is seen as one of the key elements

that influence the rate and success of language

learning (Dornyei, 1998) Motivation is described

as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that

moves one to a particular action It is said that

high learning motivation can facilitate language

learning and lower learning motivation can

influence language learning rate

There seems to be an intimate relation between motivation and attitude According to Gardner and Lambert (1992), motivation can be divided into two basic types, which are instrumental and integrative motivation The former relates to the utilitarian gains such as getting a better job, going to a good university, passing an exam The latter involves positive attitudes toward the target language and target language community Carroll (1992) claims that instrumental motivation and integrative motivation can promote language learning

4.1.7 Individual efforts and goal setting

For many EFL and ESL learners, classrooms are the only learning setting for L2 learning However, teaching never causes learning, but creates the conditions in which learning can occur Therefore, individual efforts become a crucial factor for L2 learning Having good pronunciation is not easy for many learners and it needs persistence and a long time to practise, just like making muscles The more time learners spend in pronunciation, the better pronunciation they will get

Most studies demonstrated that L2 learners’ goal is to produce and perceive the native-like speakers Nation and Newton (2009) argues that there continues to be a debate about whether the model for foreign language learners should be a native speaker or non-native speaker, and if it is

an English native speaker, it should be British or American or some other regional pronunciation Therefore, we should bear in mind that good pronunciation does not mean perfect American

or British accent but sounds native-like and intelligible pronunciation

4.2 External elements

4.2.1 Native language

There is a general consensus that learners’ native language plays a central role in the precise acquisition of pronunciation in a new language

That is to say, learner’s first language is a

significant factor to account for foreign accents

and influence the pronunciation of the target

language It often relates to interference from the

mother tongue to errors in aspiration, stress, and

intonation in the target language For instance,

Chinese is a tone language while English is highly

stressed language

Brown (2007) points out all learners had

experiences that they met a great difficulty in

understanding what foreigners said This is not

because of their lack of knowledge of vocabulary,

language structures or grammar, but the sounds

they produced seems peculiar and their voice rose

and fell in unexpected places

Most teachers’ experiences and studies show

that the learners’ first language has a major

influence on learning the sound system of another

language (Nation and Newton, 2009) That is to

say, every language in the world has different

varieties and accents “Needless to say, learners of

a language speak the target language in a different

way; sometimes slightly different and sometimes

highly different rather than native speakers do,

which we call foreign accents, the nature of which

is determined to a large extent by a learner’s native

language” (Avery & Ehrlich, 1997, p.18)

4.2.2 Exposure

It is not easy to define exposure (Brown, 2007)

Generally, it relates to the length of time that the

learners live in a target language environment It

does not matter the place or country the learners

stay, but depends on how much they use English

in their daily life The more time they spend in

listening and speaking English, the better their

English pronunciation will be According to

Krashen (1992), learners acquire a L2 primarily

from input, which learners receive a large amount

of comprehensive input before speaking

However, it does not simply mean that learners who live in the target language country will have good native-like pronunciation On one hand, the key point is whether the learners grasp every opportunity to use the target language and take full advantage of the environment If the learners live

in an English-speaking country, then the learners will have many opportunities to listen to and use English since they are surrounded by the English speaking environment On the other hand, it should bear in mind that there are many people who live

in an English speaking country, but spend much time with a non-English speaking environment

or stick to their native speaking groups For this reason, it is not merely exposure that matters, but how the learners respond to the opportunities (Senel, 2006)

4.2.3 Education elements

Educational system is an implicit but indispensable element for L2 learning It is affected

by national social politics, economic development and national traditions If a country implements positive educational policies or creates a good learning environment, the learners will benefit greatly from it Good educational conditions can provide learners with opportunities to contact the target language or the target language community

It seems that if learners live in a non-English speaking country, there will be no advantage for them because they do not have opportunities to use the target language in a real environment, except their classrooms and they are only exposed to focused-listening On one hand, schools should provide space and conditions for students to practise On the other hand, teachers should encourage students to practise and create opportunities for them to practise (Cele-Murcia, Briton, and Goodwin (1996)

In EFL settings, especially where students have little opportunity to surround themselves with native input in the target language, the

burden will fall more on the teachers to provide

an adequate model of the target language, and to

ascertain that students have opportunities outside

the class (e.g, in the language laboratory or foreign

language learning centers) to experience samples

of the authentic oral discourse of native speakers

(Cele-Murcia, Briton, and Goodwin, 1996, p.17)

Teachers’ teaching methods have a big influence

on learners’ capability to absorb knowledge from

the teachers (Kenworthy, 1997) Good teaching

methods can inspire learners greatly during their

learning process They seem to be excited to take

lessons rather than do them reluctantly On the

contrary, poor teaching methods may discourage

or depress learners That is to say, teachers’

performance in class plays a decisive part in

learners’ learning

Many EFL teachers think pronunciation

is too complicated and difficult to teach and

ignore the importance of teaching students good

pronunciation There is a fact that, however, the

students’ pronunciation mostly depends on the

teachers’ pronunciation Therefore, it is important

and necessary that teachers should improve their

pronunciation first

Apart from teacher-related elements, other

objectives ones such as classroom facilities,

curriculum, etc may affect pronunciation teaching

and learning (Brown, 2007) Indeed, teachers

find hard to deliver their lectures if the

teaching-supported facilities do not work properly and

learners might feel depressed as a result of this

interruption Furthermore, learners may get

confused if the curriculum is not suitable for their

levels which might be too difficult or too easy

5 SUGGESTION FOR ENGLISH

PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND

LEARNING

It is very necessary for teachers and learners

of English to identify and deal with the elements

affecting the English pronunciation teaching and learning In reality, teachers play a crucial role

in students’ learning because pronunciation is one of the significant aspects of foreign language teaching It must be also borne in mind that teachers are the models for their students Thus, first of all, they should have good pronunciation; otherwise they can mislead their students That

is to say, the teachers should spend more time on teaching pronunciation

Besides, during the pronunciation teaching, teachers should always come up with different teaching methods that are suitable for different groups of students who might differ in age, aptitude, personality, and motivation Also, teachers should take much notice of how to help learners overcome the influences of their mother tongue which may take a long time to be improved Creating opportunities for learners to increase their exposure to English pronunciation should be teachers’ regular job

In the overall process of pronunciation teaching, it is difficult to teach without practice, but students may feel bored and depressed for drilling an individual sound for a long time Therefore, it is important to combine practice pronunciation exercises with more interesting ones Apart from equipping learners with knowledge, teachers should help students establish an appropriate goal of pronunciation and try to improve their learning motivation, which are important parts in language teaching Learners should find the most suitable learning method for themselves under the guidance of teachers and have enough exposure to the target language Moreover, learners can learn from each other, outside the class or without teachers’ presence So as to make learners become more efficient at learning pronunciation, they should set themselves specific goals and have definite motivation in learning as well

6 CONCLUSION

This article emphasized some important

elements influencing the English pronunciation

teaching and learning from a comprehensive

perspective In the case of internal elements, the

writer believes that the younger the learners start to

learn L2, the better they can master the language,

and this also relates to the brain development,

ear perception, and innate phonetic ability Many

researchers suggest that, positive attitudes and

opened-mind will promote learners’ pronunciation

development and let them have a native-like accent

Also, if learners have high motivation to learn

pronunciation and set up an appropriate goal for

pronunciation, they will master the target language

pronunciation much better For external elements,

native language is seen as the key factor which

has a big influence on the acquisition of English

pronunciation The learners will more easily

pronounce the target language sounds if their native

language has the similar sounds with the target

language Exposure is another important affecting

element that includes the attitude the learners

respond to opportunities to use the target language

Excelling at pronunciation benefits us loads

in communication, particularly intelligibility The

better we pronounce the better people understand

us It is unquestionable that these affecting elements

have different influences in pronunciation Some

of these elements are unchangeable, for example,

it is impossible for us to change the age and

phonetic ability of the learners It is apparent that

the influence of age is undeniable in language

learning process However, some elements are

changeable such as some educational factors./

References:

Avery, P & Ehrlich, S (1997), Preliminary

Considerations in the Teaching of

Pronunciation, TESL Center, London,

England

Brown, H D (2007), Teaching by Principles: An

Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy,

Pearson Education, White Plains, New York

Buranavityawut, N (2000), Factors which Affect

Pronunciation Learning, Retrieved September

10, 2009, from <http://media.ngberger.com/_

Carroll, J B (1992), The prediction of success

in intensive foreign language training

InR Glaser (Ed.), Training, Research, and

Education (p.87-136), University of Pittsburgh

Press, Pittsburgh

Celce-Murcia, N., Briton, M D., & Goodwin,

J M (1996), Teaching Pronunciation: A

Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers

of Other Languages, Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge

Cenoz, J & Garcia Lecumberri, M L (1999), The acquisition of English Pronunciation: learners’

views, International Journal of Applied

Linguistics, 9 (1), 3-17.

Dornyei, Z (1998), Motivation in second and

foreign language learning, Language Teaching,

31, 117-135

Gardner, R C & Lambert, W E (1992), Attitudes

and Motivation in Second Language Learning,

Newbury House, Rowley

Hamers, J F (1994), Age in Second Language

Acquisition, Multilingual Matters, Clevedon.

Kelly, L G (1999), 25 Centuries of Language

Teaching, Newbury House, Rowley.

Kenworthy, J (1997), Teaching English

Pronunciation, Longman, London.

Krashen, S D (1992), Principles and Practice

in Second Language Acquisition, Pergamon

Institute, Oxford

Lenneberg, E, H (1997), The Biological

Foundations of Language, Willey, New York.

Lund, K (2003), Age and Accent, Retrieved September 8, 2009, from <http://inet.dpb.dpu

ELEMENTS THAT AFFECT THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

TEACHING AND LEARNING

NGUYEN TRI DUNG, NGUYEN THI BIEN Abstract: Sounding like native speakers when studying a foreign language seems to be one of important but rather complicated tasks for both teachers and learners Due to the complexity of languages, pronunciation has been considered as a skill which needs to be paid special attention

to in language teaching in schools and training centers In the scope of this article, the writer will emphasize the importance of English pronunciation teaching and learning Besides, based on previous studies as well as theories concerning pronunciation, the writer will categorize elements that influence the English pronunciation teaching and learning as well as make some suggestions

on the issue

Keywords: pronunciation teaching and learning, native language, pronunciation

Received: 6/6/2018; Revised: 14/6/2018; Accepted for publication: 20/6/2018

dk/onfodok/spogforum/Espr26/Lund-eng

PDF>

Mayberry, R & Lock, E (2003), Age constraints

on first versus second language acquisition:

Evidence for linguistic plasticity and

epigenesist, Brain and Language, 87(1),

369-384

Morley, J (1998), Trippingly on the tongue: Putting

serious speech/pronunciation instruction back

in the TESOL equation, ESL Magazine, 1,

20-23

Nation, I S P & Newton, J (2009), Teaching

ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking, Routledge,

New York

Pennington, M C & Richards, J C (1996),

Pronunciation revisited, TESOL Quarterly,

20(2), 207-225

Piske, T., MacKay, I., & Flege, J E (2001), Factors affecting degree of foreign accent in an L2: A

review, Journal of Phonetics, 29, 191-215.

Senel, M (2006), Suggestions for beautifying the

pronunciation of EFL learners in Turkey, Journal

of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2(1),

111-125

Toohey, K (2001), Disputes in child L2 learning, TESOL Quarterly, 35, 257-278

Van den Noort, M W M L., Bosch, P., & Hugdahl,

K (2006), Foreign language proficiency

and working memory capacity, European

Psychologist, 11(4), 289-296.