A study on modification of english final sounds in connected speech – problems faced by the high school students and solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES --- ---TRỊNH PHƯƠNG THẢO A STUDY ON MODIFICATION OF ENGLISH FINAL

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST

GRADUATE STUDIES -

-TRỊNH PHƯƠNG THẢO

A STUDY ON MODIFICATION OF ENGLISH FINAL SOUNDS IN CONNECTED SPEECH – PROBLEMS FACED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND

SOLUTIONS

(Nghiên cứu về sự biến thể của các âm cuối Tiếng Anh trong lời nói liên kết

– những vấn đề mà học sinh trung học phổ thông đối mặt

và cách giải quyết)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST

GRADUATE STUDIES - -

TRỊNH PHƯƠNG THẢO

A STUDY ON MODIFICATION OF ENGLISH FINAL SOUNDS IN CONNECTED SPEECH – PROBLEMS FACED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND

SOLUTIONS

(Nghiên cứu về sự biến thể của các âm cuối Tiếng Anh trong lời nói liên kết

– những vấn đề mà học sinh trung học phổ thông đối mặt

và cách giải quyết)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Dương Thị Nụ

I, Trinh Phuong Thao, certify that this thesis is the result of my own researchand the substance of the research has not been submitted for degree to any otheruniversity or institution

Hanoi, 2016

Trịnh Phương Thảo

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to Dr Huynh Anh Tuan, TheHead of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies and all his staff members who have been

of great help My great thanks go to all the lecturers of Faculty of Post GraduateStudies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam NationalUniversity, Hanoi for their interesting lectures and suggestions for the topic of mystudy

Thanks are also due to my students at grade 11 in Hermann Gmeiner HighSchool, Hai Phong for their assistance and cooperation in completing thequestionnaires

Last but not least, I would like to give my deepest gratitude to my parentsand my friends for their moral support and encouragement throughout my trainingcourse

The study still has limitations, therefore all the suggestions andrecommendations would be warmly welcomed

Connected speech is the area on which little research has been done and is nottaught in high school English education in Vietnam Yet teaching connected speech

is essential for listening comprehension as well as pronunciation

The researcher realized Vietnamese students deal with a lot of difficultiescaused by modification of final sounds in connected speech Therefore, the purpose

of this study is to present an overview of connected speech, especially themodification of final sounds such as linking, assimilation and elision, to find out theproblems in listening to connected speech and give some suggestion in teaching andlearning

The study has been conducted in the area of listening skill It focuses on theattitudes towards the learning listening and the difficulties in teaching and learninglistening to connected speech of the students of grade 11 in Hermann Gmeiner HighSchool, Hai Phong

It is hoped that this thesis will make contribution to solve some of the existingproblems of inadequate listening competence of the students in Hermann GmeinerHigh School

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi

INTRODUCTION 1

I Rationale 1

II Aims of the study 2

III Research questions 2

IV Scope of the study 2

V Significance 3

VI Methods of the study 3

VII Design of the study 3

DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Definition of connected speech 4

1.2 Aspects of modification final sounds in connected speech 5

1.2.1 Linking 5

1.2.2 Assimilation 7

1.2.3 Elision 8

1.3 The connection between pronunciation and listening 9

1.4 Connected speech and problems for listening comprehension 10

1.5 Some previous suggestions 11

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 13

2.1 The context of the study 13

2.2 Subjects 14

2.2.1 Teachers 14

2.2.2 Students 14

2.3 Instruments 14

2.3.1 Listening test 14

2.3.2 Questionnaires 15

2.3.3 Classroom observation 16

2.4 Data collection procedures 16

2.5 Data analysis 16

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 17

3.1 Results from the questionnaire for the teachers and the students 17

3.1.1 Teachers and students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning connected speech 17

3.1.2 Connected speech difficulties perceived by students 20

3.1.3 Connected speech difficulties perceived by teachers 22

3.1.4 The methods in teaching listening sounds in connected speech 23

3.2 Results from listening test 24

3.3 Results from classroom observation 26

CHAPTER IV: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION 28

4.1 Discussion 28

4.1.1 The problems that the grade 11-students at Hermann Gmeiner school may face when listening to the modifications in connected speech 28

4.1.2 The causes of these problems 29

4.2 Recommendation 31

4.2.1 To the teachers 31

4.2.2 To the students 36

CONCLUSION 37

1 Recapitulation 37

2 Limitations and recommendations for further study 38

REFERENCES 39 APPENDIXS……… I

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

List of tables

Table 1: The problems in listening to connected speech

Table 2: The reasons causing difficulties in listening to connected speechTable 3: The major challenges in teaching listening to connected speechTable 4: The activities and techniques in teaching connected speech

List of charts

Chart 1: The roles of teaching and learning modification in connected speech

Chart 2: The students‟ knowledge about connecting sounds

Chart 3: The frequency of teaching and being taught connecting soundsChart 4: The frequency of connected speech correction

Chart 5: The situation of practicing listening to connecting sounds

Chart 6: The students‟ percentage of correct answers in total

Chart 7: Students‟ wrong answers on each task

of listeners and sometimes bring unexpected effects or even communicationbreakdown.

Speech in every language is defined by a large variety of pronunciationfeatures that work together to create its specific sound English is usually described

as a very melodic, singsong language It is characterized by a continuous rhythmicstream of sound with frequent interaction between stressed and unstressed syllablesand sound adjustments at word boundaries Although individual sounds areimportant, when speaking English naturally, the sounds blend together, some wordsflow together forming a continuous stream of speech Final sounds are joined withinitial sounds of following words to produce connected speech This is essential forspeaking English fluently and communicating efficiently, but this is also a bigproblem for the learners, especially when listening to natural language

1.2 Practical rationale

In high school English education in Vietnam, connected speech is not taughtsystematically in any lessons of any English textbooks However, the role ofconnected speech is very important for not only pronunciation but also listeningcomprehension Unfortunately, in Vietnam, this feature seem to be rather neglected

by teachers of English and only advanced learners are capable of producing goodconnected speech

As an English teacher working at Hermann Gmeiner high school, the authoralso sees the similar present situation of pronunciation teaching and listening

teaching The researcher finds many problems concerning connected speech that thestudents face in listening The students do not recognize words they know whilelistening Some learners identify the wrong words that they are listening to Themodification of ending sounds in connected speech may be one of the main factorspreventing the learners from listening comprehension.

For all reasons above, I find it essential to choose this topic for study.Hopefully, the research will find out the problems that the students face in listeningconnected speech and recommend some strategies to help the students and teachers

at Hermann Gmeiner high school overcome the difficulties

II Aims of the study

The main aim of the study is to improve students‟ ability in listening Englishwith modification of ending sounds in connected speech

The study is to achieve these objectives:

 Finding out the problems in connected speech that grade 11-students at Herman Gmeiner high school may face in listening comprehension

 Explaining the reasons of these problems and suggesting some solutions

III Research questions

The above – mentioned objectives can be elaborated into the following research questions:

 What are the problems about the modification of final sounds in connectedspeech that grade 11-students at Hermann Gmeiner may face when listening?

 What are the causes of those problems?

IV Scope of the study

The study is implemented among grade-11 students at Hermann Gmeinerhigh school in Hai Phong The author mainly focuses on studying some students‟problems in listening when they face the modification of ending sounds inconnected speech and suggests some solutions for them

V Significance

The result of the study will hopefully be of great significance in giving somesolutions and strategies to help high school students improve their speaking and

listening skills as well as to deal with the modification of final sounds in connectedspeech.

VI Methods of the study

In order to accomplish this thesis scientifically and adequately, a surveymethod of research will be carried out quantitatively and qualitatively.Questionnaire, listening test and observation are methods used to collect data

The questionnaire is given to students of two classes of grade 11 and allteachers at Hermann Gmeiner school with the hope to find out the situation ofteaching and learning connected speech, the difficulties and causes in listening toconnected speech The author also carries out observing some lessons to havereliable responses about these situations The listening test is conducted to identifyexactly the common connected speech mistakes that the students make whenlistening

Based on the results of the survey questionnaire, listening test andobservation, data analysis was done so as to put forwards some applications andsuggestions in order to improve teaching and learning connected speech in listeningcomprehension

VII Design of the study

The thesis is structured in three main parts

The first part is Introduction It introduces the aims, the scope, and the significancethe methods and the design of the study

The second part, Development, consists of four chapters

Chapter 1 provides a review of the literature on the approaches to modification offinal sounds in connected speech, the influence of connected speech on listening andsome previous researchers about connected speech and listening

Chapter 2 presents the research methodology and the instruments used to collectdata

Chapter 3 presents the results of the study, along with the analysis of the data Chapter 4 presents the discussion as well as gives the recommendation for the study

The last part is Conclusion which summarizes the main issues of the whole study and gives suggestions for further study

DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides readers with the theoretical background of the study byintroducing some key concepts necessary for the best understanding of this research, aswell as the review of previous studies related to the topic It begins with reviewing theconcepts of connected speech, followed by aspects of modification final sounds inconnected speech After that, this chapter shows the connection between pronunciationand listening as well as the influence of connected speech on listening Finally, thechapter focuses on some previous suggestions for this problem

1.1 Definition of connected speech

"Connected speech is more than just a string of individual target segments joined together in series, since each segment is liable to influence the segments that surround it The precise form that these influences take is determined by the particular language in question, and so the phonology of connected speech is part

of the phonology of the language that the child has to master " (Martin,

2008:15)

In the book “A dictionary of linguistics & phonetics” (2008), the author

David Crystal also gives the definition of connected speech: “Connected speech, or connected discourse, in linguistics, is a continuous sequence of sounds forming utterances or conversations in spoken language Analysis of connected speech shows sounds changes affecting linguistic units traditionally described as phrases, words, lexemes, morphemes, syllables, phonemes or phones”.(p135)

In another perspective, connected speech, also known as sandhi-variation,reduced forms, etc., is the continuous chains in normal conversation, which includessuch phenomena as reduction, elision, assimilation, intrusion, juncture, linking, andcontraction It is a combinatory articulatory phenomenon in which words are notpronounced in isolation but run together

There are many definitions about connected speech, but it is easy tounderstand that connected speech is spoken language that is used in continuoussequence, as in normal conversations There is often a significant difference

between the way words are pronounced in isolation and the way they arepronounced in the context of connected speech.

1.2 Aspects of modification final sounds in connected speech

1.2.1 Linking

In connected speech, words within the same phrase or sentence often blendtogether Connecting groups of words together is referred to as linking When wordsare properly linked, there is a smooth transition from one word to the next Thereare some cases of linking: linking consonants to vowels, linking consonants toconsonant and linking vowels to vowels (Avery & Ehrlich, 1992)

1.2.1.1 Linking consonants to vowels

When a word that ends with a consonant is followed by a word that beginswith a vowel, the consonant seems to become part of the following word This isespecially true when the word beginning with a vowel is a function word Forexample:

Stop it /stɒ pɪt/ Run around /rʌ nəˈraʊnd/

Laugh about /lɑː fəˈbaʊt/ Match in / mɑː tʃɪn/

With it /wɪ ðɪt/ Back out / ˈbæ kaʊt/

1.2.1.2 Linking consonants to consonants

When a word that ends with a stop consonant is followed by a word that begins with a consonant, the stop consonant is usually not released, that is, the tongue or lips will move to the place of articulation of the stop consonant and then move immediately to the place of articulation for the next consonant For example:

Stop trying / stɒp tʃaɪɪŋ /

Fat chance / fæt tʃɑːns /

Bad judge / bæd dʒʌdʒ /

Keep speaking / kiːp ˈspiːkɪŋ /

Lap dog / læp dɒɡ /Big zoo / bɪɡ zuː /Let down /let daʊn /Deck shoes / dek ʃuːz /

1.2.1.3 Linking vowels to vowels

Linking between vowels refers to a pronunciation change when a word,which ends in a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound, and asemi-vowel is used to join the two words or sounds This modification allows thespeech to flow more smoothly, and produces continuous connected speech (Avery

& Ehrlich, 1992)

There are three types of linking which join vowel – vowel combinations usingsemi-vowels, namely linking /r/ and intrusive /r/, intrusive /j/ and intrusive /w/

Linking /r/ and intrusive /r/

This is the most familiar case in linking The phoneme /r/ does not occur insyllable-final position in the BBC accent, but when a word‟s spelling suggests afinal „r‟, and a word beginning with a vowel follows, the usual pronunciation is topronounce with /r/ For example:

„here‟ /hɪə/ but „here are‟ /hɪər əː/

„for‟ /fɔː/ but for eggs /fɔːr egz/

BBC speakers often use /r/ to the similar way to link words ending with asvowel, even when there is no “justification” from the spelling This has been calledintrusive /r/, as in:

„media events‟ /miː.dɪər ɪvents /

„Australia and Africa‟ /ɒstreɪliər ən æfrɪkə / Intrusive /j/

This type of linking occurs when the final sound of the first word ends in ahigh front vowel These are sounds which are produces with the highest part of thetongue and close to the front of the mouth, namely /ɪ/ and diphthongs formed withthe short high front vowel /ɪ/, which are /aɪ/, /eɪ/ and /ɔɪ/. For example:

„my aunt‟ /maɪ jɑːnt /

„see you‟ ˈ/siː jəs /

Intrusive /w/

This type of linking occurs when the final sounds of the first word ends in ahigh back vowel These are sounds which are produced with the highest part of thetongue, but close to the back of the mouth, and include /ʊ/ and diphthongs formedwith the short high back vowel /ʊ/, which are /əʊ/, /oʊ/ and /aʊ/. For example:

Go in / ɡəʊ wɪn / Two others/tuː wʌðəz /

1.2.2 Assimilation

Assimilation is the change of one sound into another sound because of the

influence of neighboring sounds

According to Peter Roach (2000), the main differences between consonants are of three types:

- Differences in place of articulation

- Differences in manner of articulation

- Differences in voicing

Accordingly, it can be identified assimilation of place, of manner and of

voicing in consonants

Assimilation of place is most clearly observable in some cases where a final

consonant with alveolar place of articulation is followed by an initial consonantwith a place of articulation that is not alveolar For example:

/t/ -> /p/ Right place / raɪp pleɪs //d/ -> /b/ He is a good boy

/hi iz ə ɡʊb bɔɪ //n/ -> /m/ I can believe it

/aɪ kəm bəli:v ət //n/ -> /ŋ/ I can go

/aɪ kəŋ ɡəʊ //t/ -> /k/ White coat

waɪk kəʊt //s/ -> / ʃ/ This shop

/ðɪʃ ʃɒp /

When the negative n‟t is attached to an auxiliary verb, the /t/ is often

changed to a short transitional sound at the same place of articulation as thefollowing consonant and the /n/ assimilates to this consonant (Peter Avery ,1992)

I can‟t believe it /aɪ kæmp bəli:v ət / /nt/ -> /mp/

I can‟t go

Palatalization is one of the most common types of assimilation It is calledpalatalization because the tooth ridge sounds /t/ and /d/ are pronounced further back

in the mouth, closer to the hard palate to become the sound /dʒ/ in the same place as

the sound /j/ is pronounced It is also common for /s/ a n d / z / to be pronounced as /

ʃ / and / ʒ/ when they occur before a sound /j/ (Peter Roach, 2000)

For example:

Where did you go?

This yearWould you mind?

Please yourself

/ weə dɪdʒə ɡəʊ / / ðɪʃiə /

/ wʊdʒə maɪnd / / pliː ʒə self /

Assimilation of manner is very rare, and is only found in the most rapid and

casual speech; general speaking, the tendency is for regressive assimilation and thechange in manner is most likely to be toward an “easier” consonant – one whichmakes less obstruction to the airflow It is thus possible to find cases where a finalplosive become a fricative or nasal For example:

This is a good song / ðɪs ɪz ə ɡʊs sɒŋ /That night

/ ðən naɪt /

Assimilation of voice is also found, but only in a limited way If the lenis

(voiced) consonant is preceded by the fortis (voiceless), we often find that the lenisconsonant has no voicing This is not a very noticeable case of assimilation Forexample:

Have to / hæv tuː / -> / hæftuː /

I like that black dog / aɪ laɪk ðət blæk dɒɡ / -> / aɪ laɪg ðəd blæg dɒɡ /

Much more could be said about assimilation but, form the point of view oflearning or teaching English pronunciation, to do so would be useful (Roach, 2000)

1.2.3 Elision

Elision is the leaving out of a sound or sounds in speech According to PeterRoach (2000), elision is typical of rapid, casual speech Producing elisions issomething which foreign learners do not need to learn to do, but it is important forthem to be aware that when native speakers of English talk to each other, quite anumber of phonemes that foreigner might expect to hear are not actuallypronounced

Following are some types of elision in connected speech

 Avoidance of complex consonant clusters

It has been said that no normal English speaker would ever pronounce all theconsonants between the following two words: next spring /nekst sprɪŋ / Normally,

the consonants in the middle /st/ are omitted In clusters of three plosive or two plosive plus a fricative, the middle plosive may disappear For example:

Past president / pɑːs ‘prezɪdənt /Left field /lef fiːld /

 Loss of final /v/ on „of‟ before consonants For example: Lots of them / lɒts

ə ðəm /

Waste of money /weɪst ə vgmʌni /

It is difficult to know whether contractions of grammatical words should beregarded as examples of elision or not The fact that they are regularly representedwith special spelling forms makes them seem rather different from the aboveexamples The best – known cases are:

- „had‟, „would‟: spelt „d , pronounced /d/ (after vowels), / əd/ (after

consonants)

- „is‟, „has‟: spelt ‟s, pronounced /s/ (after fortis consonants), /z/ (after lenis

consonants), except that after / sˌ zˌ ʃˌ ʒˌ tʃˌ dʒ / „is‟ is pronounced /iz/ and „has‟ is pronounced / əz/ in contracted form

- „have‟: spelt ‟ve, pronounced /v/ (after vowels), əv (after consonants)

- „not‟: spelt n‟t, pronounced /nt/ (after vowels), nt (after consonants)

- „are‟: spelt ‟re, pronounced /ə/ after vowels, usually with some change in the

preceding vowel, e.g „you‟ /ju:/ - „you‟re‟ / juə/ or /jɔː/ ( Roach P, 2000)

1.3 The connection between pronunciation and listening

Gilbert (2008) presents his ideas about the connection between pronunciationand listening To his views, pronunciation is an important aspect of both speakingand listening and an understandable pronunciation is crucial to their communicationskills Thus, teachers should integrate it with other areas of language work

Moreover, he recommends that authentic unscripted recordings from thecassettes can be used in an effective way which explores the recordings as naturalspeech to raise the students‟ awareness of elements of connected speech and realizethe crucial relation between developing pronunciation and listening skills

Murphy (1991) states that increasing numbers of ESL methodologists arguethat L2 pronunciation practice needs to be intimately linked with the listeningprocess

According to Kelly (2003), teachers should consider the noticing processwhich affects students‟ achievement of L2 pronunciation When pronunciation

study and listening activities are combined, students will notice things about thelanguage and its use better The concept of noticing is crucial in pronunciationwork He has pointed out “Listening will continue to play a large part inpronunciation training, with perhaps more authentic listening tasks with a variety ofaccents.”

To sum up, listening and pronunciation have an interactive relation.Listening supports much for pronunciation However, pronunciation also causes alot of difficulties for listening, especially pronouncing sounds in connected speechthat is mentioned below

1.4 Connected speech and problems for listening comprehension

Listening is a process affected by the character of the listener, the speaker,the content of the message, and any visual support that accompanies the message(Brown & Yule, 1983) Among many suggestions as to the causes of the difficulty

in understanding spoken English, the researchers seem to agree on the idea thatconnected speech forms are the main cause Goh (2000) and Chen (2002) claimedthat students do not recognize words they know while listening and Sun (2002)made a similar suggestion that students cannot segment speech, and that makeslistening difficult Ur (1984) claims that when a student learns a new word or anexpression, he usually learns its written and spoken form in its formal and slowform ignoring how this word sounds when it is said quickly or in stressed manner in

a sentence Underwood (1989) holds the idea that when encountered with speechthey have not heard before, students find that the sounds are lost as the speakersfocus on the message rather than the dictation Students have difficulty inconnecting the sounds they hear with words they have seen and recognized in printform

Also, the influence of connected speech on listening has been investigated inseveral studies These studies show how reduced forms in connected speech caninterfere with listening comprehension Henrichsen (1984) hypothesized thatreduced forms in listening input would decrease the saliency of the words andtherefore make comprehension more difficult for ESL learners This hypothesis was

supported by results showing that both high and low level ESL learners scoredsignificantly lower on a test where the examinees had to write down the citationform of the words in a sentence being said in reduced forms Comprehending theinput with reduced forms, compared to when the sentences were fully enunciated,was more difficult for both levels of students meaning that connected speech wasnot easy to understand regardless of the level the students were in.

Ito (2006) further examined this issue using a dictation test by examining thecomprehension difficulty difference caused by two types of reduced form, thelexical and the phonological forms Her assumption was that „lexical reducedforms‟ such as in the example “won‟t” exhibit more saliency and thus would bemore comprehensible compared to phonological forms such as in “he‟s” wherethere is no drastic phonological change after the two words, “he” and “is”, form acontraction The results were similar to Henrichsen (1984) and showed that reducedforms do interfere with listening comprehension Just as she predicted, non-nativespeakers scored significantly lower on the dictation test regarding the phonologicalforms than the lexical forms indicating that different types of reduced forms diddistinctively affect comprehension

1.5 Some previous suggestions

Considering the challenges students face while listening to English, studentsshould somehow be exposed to connected speech that is a part of the naturallanguage use As Brown (2006) argues, students need to be able to adapt their stylesand registers in using language, and the ability to understand and use connectedspeech is necessary for these adaptations Based on the findings that reduced forms

in connected speech cause difficulties in listening comprehension, several studiesattempted to investigate the teachability and effectiveness of explicit instruction inconnected speech on listening Brown and Hilferty (1986 & 2006) examined theeffectiveness of teaching reduced forms to 32 Chinese EFL graduate students After

30 ten-minute mini-lessons on reduced forms, the group of 16 students whoreceived the instruction as opposed to the other 16 students who did generalpronunciation drills was found to have scored higher on two of the three measures

used (Integrative Grammar Test from Bowen, 1976, and a reduced form dictationtest) suggesting that teaching connected speech does facilitate listening

comprehension

Matsuzawa (2006) did a similar experiment using a pretest-posttest designwith 20 Japanese business people to see if they would benefit from connectedspeech instruction The student‟s listening comprehension ability was measured by

a dictation test similar to the ones mentioned above, and subsequent to thetreatment, the posttest scores indicated that the students had made statisticallysignificant improvement

Some researchers who are aware of the importance of teaching these formshave a number of suggestions on how to teach connected speech Some of theirideas can be listed as follows:

- Using background knowledge and relating prior knowledge to the newinformation contained in the spoken text It is also important to pre-teach these forms(Hasan, 2000)

- Singing rhyme and verse as a means of teaching problematic sounds (Marks, 1999)

- Promoting practice through cloze tests and dictation is proposed Analyzingspoken discourse and activities which are meaningful, purposeful, communicative andtask-based

- Giving dictation of sentences, repeating each sentence twice with relaxed or fast pronunciation

- Incorporating the reduced forms into exchanges with the students

- Keeping listening journals as a homework assignment

- Using games and competitions and various types of cloze exercises, such as songs, dialogues, news broadcasts and interviews (Norris,1995)

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

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

The aim of the study, as stated in Chapter 1, is to find out how difficult thestudents meet when listening to connected speech as well as analyze the reasons ofthose problems and then give the solution In order to search the mistakes that thestudents make in listening to connected speech, the researchers ask the students to

do a listening test Moreover, a questionnaire for the students and one for theteachers are given to get information about the causes of the problems and thesolutions Finally, to have more accurate evaluation from teachers and students, theauthor obverses some listening lessons

2.1 The context of the study

Hermann Gmeiner high school is a local private school located in the centre

of Hai Phong city This is the only school in Hai Phong with three levels: primary,secondary and high school About high school, there are 12 classes for all threegrades, in which grade 11 has 4 classes The number of students in each classremains about 45-55 students This school has enough rooms for 12 classes, butonly two rooms are equipped with a projector and two loudspeakers at the corner ofthe room There is only one cassette player that teachers can borrow to use forlistening lessons

Hermann Gmeiner school always pays attention to improving the quality ofteaching and learning English Beside the main course in the morning, the schoolhas private lessons in the afternoon with three subjects: English, Math andLiterature The quality of the students is not good because the enrolled students arenot chosen through any examination Because this is a private school, thecompetition is higher than the others in the city, so the quality of the teacher is ontop priority, especially English teachers Moreover, the school hired two foreignteachers to help students communicate directly

2.2 Subjects

2.2.1 Teachers

There are 10 English teaching staff that do the questionnaire: 8 Vietnameseand 2 foreigners The teachers for high school level consist of 3 males and 7females whose ages range from 26 to 50 years old All Vietnamese teachers whohold B.A degrees from different universities in Vietnam have been teachingEnglish for over two years At present, two teachers have M.A degree and one isdoing M.A course Two foreigners who are working officially in Apollo English,which is one of the most famous English centre in Vietnam Both of them areissued the teaching certificate and have more than one year experience

2.2.2 Students

The questionnaire is circulated to 90 students from two classes 11A and11B of Hermann Gmeiner high school that include 65 girls and 25 boys Afterthat, 40 students chosen randomly will do the listening test All the students havebeen learning English since they were at primary school Due to the recentschedule, the informants attend five English periods every week, one of which istaught by native speakers

Most of the students do not consider English as their favorite subject and donot pay attention to study it 80% concentrate on three main subjects in entranceexamination such as Math, Physics, Chemistry Only 20% choose English as amain subject for going into university The students are not interested in learningEnglish due to the fact that they find it difficult to learn and use English skills,especially Listening, Speaking and Writing Because English is one of the coresubjects, they only study Grammar to be able to pass the exam

students from 90 students of two classes The test is collected from the exercises

in the books or on Internet Because it is difficult to collect audio files, theresearcher only write the documents, then a foreign teacher from America readand record them in a CD to make this listening test The test includes three tasksthat can show the problems relating modification of final sounds in connectedspeech

In the first task, the students listen to each sentence once and choose onesentence they hear This task includes 6 sentences using linking sounds inconnected speech Sentence 1 and 2 contain the linking consonants to vowelswhile sentence 3 includes the linking consonants to consonants and the othersaim at checking the students about linking vowels and vowels

The second task is listening and selecting the word to complete thesentences that assimilation appears The students also listen once The final task

is designed with an aim to check the student‟s knowledge about elision, so itrequires the students to listen twice and write a missing word in each blank

2.3.2 Questionnaires

2.3.2.1 The questionnaire for the students

This questionnaire is used to elicit the students‟ general opinion in learningabout connected speech, the students‟ difficulties and causes as well as theirexpectation from the teachers The questionnaire including three main parts with

8 questions is delivered to 90 students The first part aims at finding out thestudents‟ perception and attitude toward English connected speech The secondpart focuses on the situation of teaching and learning the ending sounds inconnected speech and the difficulties in listening English connected speech Thelast one includes the reasons that cause these problems All the questions arewritten in Vietnamese to enable the students to understand and allow their fullexpression of ideas

2.3.2.2 The questionnaire for the teachers

This questionnaire of five questions designed in English is delivered to 10teachers The first question aimed at getting the teachers‟ opinion about the

important role of teaching connected speech in general In the next threequestions, the author wants the teachers to describe the reality of teaching andtheir attitudes toward teaching final sounds in connected speech, the difficultiesand unsolved problems that they encounter The last question is intended to findout some strategies which can be applied in teaching listening connected speech.

2.3.3 Classroom observation

Observation as a technique relies on the things the author saw and heard, andrecording these observations rather than relying on subjects‟ self –reportresponses to questions only Observations in this research study mainly focus onclassroom instruction and learning activities The researcher also focuses ontaking notes of equipment in the classroom and the challenges caused bymodification of final sounds in connected speech The observation is carried out

in three five different lessons including two Speaking lessons and three Listeninglessons The lessons are taught by three different teachers (two Vietnameseteachers and one foreign teacher) at 3 classes 11A, 11B and 11C

2.4 Data collection procedures

The first step of data collection is to distribute questionnaire to 90 students

to have a better understanding of the situation of learning pronouncing words inconnected speech The second step is delivering the questionnaire to 10 nativeand non-native teachers in order to get the problems in teaching pronunciation.Third, the author chooses 40 students randomly do the listening test Finally, theauthor observes the lessons in three classes 11A, 11B and 11C

2.5 Data analysis

Based on data collected from the survey questionnaire, the listening test andthe observation, the results will be analyzed and presented in order to answer theresearch questions The data obtained from the questionnaire and listening test isanalyzed quantitatively with percentage and number and qualitatively with threethemes as posted in the research questions The data obtained from theobservation is analyzed qualitatively with the help of checklist cross tabulatingcases and themes to identify the listening problems caused by connected speech

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 3.1 Results from the questionnaire for the teachers and the students

3.1.1 Teachers and students’ attitude toward teaching and learning connected speech.

The beginning part of the questionnaire focuses on finding all informationabout teachers and students viewpoints in teaching and learning connecting sounds.First, chart 1 describes the results provided by the answers to question 1 in thequestionnaire for teachers and students referring to the roles of teaching andlearning modification in connected speech perceived by teachers and students atHermann Gmeiner high school

Question 1 (for students): How important is connecting sounds in a phrase or a sentence?

Question 1 (for teachers) : How important do you think teaching modification in connected speech is?

Not important Neutral Important

Chart 1: The roles of teaching and learning modification in connected speech

As can you see from the chart, most of the students (61%) and the teachers(70%) appreciate the important role of learning and teaching connecting sounds.There are the equivalent proportion between students and teachers (28% -30%) thatare not aware of the vital role of connected speech The teachers do not find

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Question 2 (for students): How much do you know about how to connect sounds in a

phrase or a sentence?

Know clearly Know little Know nothing

Chart 2: The students’ knowledge about connecting sounds

As shown in chart 2, no one knows clearly about the rules of connecting

sounds in a speech It is easy to understand this problem because it is not given

officially in any lessons in any English textbook in Vietnam curriculum Only 11%

of the students know a little about it, which means the teachers used to mention

them in class or the students realized themselves The serious problem is that 89 %

students do not know anything about connecting sounds They do not know what

connecting sounds are and how to practice them This is really a disadvantage for

students in learning English because lack of knowledge about connecting sounds

may lead students to poor listening and speaking

Question 3 (for students): At school, how often are you taught about connecting

sounds when reading, speaking or listening to a phrase or a sentence?

Question 2 (for teachers): How often do you teach your students the modification of

final sounds in connected speech?

Teachers20

Chart 3: The frequency of teaching and being taught connecting sounds

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This question was raised to both teachers and students at Hermann Gmeinerschool and results in chart 3 show that teachers and students do not teach and learnabout connected speech regularly 30 % of teachers confirmed that they sometimesspend a little time explaining to the student about connecting sounds, only 11% ofthe students agree with this answer With the high rate, 54 % of participants believethat they are rarely taught and 35 % of them think they have never been taughtabout connected speech However, only one teacher gives the answer “never” and anumber of teachers assert that they used to talk about connected speech but rarely.These different choices may be affected by such factors as the students may not payattention to the lessons or may not understand all of the teachers‟ explanation, theteachers do not explain clearly or do not spend enough time to talk about them.The similar results are also collected from the frequency in correcting students‟mistakes in connecting sounds in a phrase or a sentence.

Question 4 (for students): How often do your teachers correct the mistakes in connecting sounds in a phrase or a sentence?

Question 5 (for teachers): How often do you correct your students‟ mistakes when reading, speaking or listening connected speech?

Chart 4: The frequency of connected speech correction

It is surprising that most of the teachers and students‟ answers are the same.All of the teachers say that they do not often correct their students‟ mistakes and allstudents have the same ideas Most of the teachers and students (50% and 60%)choose the answer “rarely” Some teachers (30%) never spend time correcting

mistakes for their students Having the similar result, 32% of students state that

their connecting sounds mistakes have never been corrected Actually, it isunnecessary to correct all the mistakes but correction should be carried out duringlessons, especially common mistakes

Question 5 (for students): How often do you pay attention to connect sounds in a phrase or a sentence when reading, speaking or listening?

Question 6(for students): After studying in class, how often do you practice listening skill yourself?

100

80

60

Students 40

0

Often Sometimes Rarely Never

Chart 5: The situation of practicing listening to connecting sounds

What can be inferred from chart 5 is that students did not pay attention toconnecting sounds as well as practicing listening to them at home A large number

of students choose “never” for both questions Only about 5% of the studentssometimes take interest in connecting sounds and practice listening at home Theothers also rarely do the above things It is the reason why students made a lot ofmistakes in connected speech

3.1.2 Connected speech difficulties perceived by students

Question 7: What problems do you have when listening to a phrase, a sentence or a connected speech?

Agree Disagree Don‟t know

a Find it difficult to recognize words 89% 2% 9%

b Can‟t understand what the speaker says 81% 5,5% 13,5%

c Don‟t catch all words in a phrase or a sentence 69% 12% 19%

d Don‟t know the words you listen to 91% 2% 7%

e Other problems (please specify)…… 0% 0% 0%

Table 1: The problems in listening to connected speech