An investigation on common errors in pronouncing english consonants made by 6 to 10 year old students at linkinworld english skills center, dong anh, hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OFPOST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************************** TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO AN INVESTIGA

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

********************************

TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

AN INVESTIGATION ON COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH CONSONANTS MADE BY 6 TO 10 YEAR OLD TUDENTS AT LINKINWORLD ENGLISH SKILLS CENTER, DONG ANH, HANOI

Tìm hiểu những lỗi phát âm phụ âm tiếng Anh thường gặp của học sinh từ 6 đến 10 tuổi tại trung tâm kĩ năng Anh ngữ

Linkinworld, Đông Anh, Hà Nội

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.0111

Ha Noi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

********************************

TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

AN INVESTIGATION ON COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH CONSONANTS MADE BY 6 TO 10 YEAR OLD TUDENTS AT LINKINWORLD ENGLISH SKILLS CENTER, DONG ANH, HANOI

Tìm hiểu những lỗi phát âm phụ âm tiếng Anh thường gặp của học sinh từ 6 đến 10 tuổi tại trung tâm kĩ năng Anh ngữ

Linkinworld, Đông Anh, Hà Nội

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.0111

Supervisor: Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Ph.D

Ha Noi, 2014

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation on common errors inpronouncing English consonants made by 6 to 10 year old students atLinkinworld English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi” is a result of myresearch for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages andInternational Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi This thesis hasnot been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiaryinstitution

Signature

Trần Thị Phương Thảo

Also, thanks are sent to my colleagues and students at Linkin‟worldEnglish skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi, without whose support andencouragement it would be never have been possible for me to have this thesisaccomplished.

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the sacrificethey have devoted to the fulfillment to this academic work

This minor thesis aims at identifying the most common mistakes ofstudents aged from 6 to 10 years old at Linkin‟world English skills center,Dong Anh, Hanoi” when they pronounce English consonants as well asinvestigating the main causes of these mistakes and the possible pedagogicalsolutions to assist them to correct their mistakes

In the course of fulfilling this study, the researcher used 2 data collectioninstruments: tape recording of the informants‟ pronunciation of selectedwords and words within sentences and dialogues to find out the most commonmistakes in pronouncing English consonants and questionnaire for teachers toinvestigate the causes of these mistakes and some possible solutions teachersuse to help their students improve these mistakes

The data analysis reveals the following major findings The most commonmistakes of students when pronouncing English consonants are soundomission and sound deviation The main causes of mispronunciation are asfollow: (1) Students do not know how to use their mouth, tongue, lip topronounce (2) Negative influence of the mother tongue: the students are toomuch affected by the way they pronounce Vietnamese (3) Students are notconfident to pronounce English sounds These results are taken into accountand lead to some pedagogical suggestions to deal with these found problems

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Consonants in English

Table 2: Number of students with trouble of English consonantsTable 3: Number of students pronouncing sound omission

Table 4: Number students making mistakes of sound deviationFigure 1: Teachers‟ perceptions of causes of students‟ mistakesFigure 2: Teachers‟ methods used to help students correct mistakes

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims and objectives 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Theory background 5

1.1.1 The role of pronunciation in language teaching 5

1.1.2 English consonants 6

1.1.3 Mistakes in language learning 12

1.1.3.1 Types of mistakes 13

1.1.3.2 Possible causes of mistakes in language learning 14

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 The informants of the study 17

2.2 Research method 17

2.2.1 Data collection instruments 17

2.2.2 Data collection procedures 18

2.3 Data analysis 19

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 20

3.1 Findings and discussions 20

3.2 Some suggested activities for students to improve their mistakes in pronouncing English consonants 29 PART C: CONCLUSION 33

1 Summary 33

2 Pedagogical Implication 34

3 Limitation and suggestion for further research 35

REFERENCES 36

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Our world is developing every hour and international cooperation isone of the important strategies of each country to promote its socio-economicdevelopment To integrate successfully into the global economy, foreignlanguage is considered to be indispensable Understanding the importance offoreign language in general and of English in particular, the Vietnamesegovernment has set up a curriculum for English learning for children from 6years old onwards The number of English language centers has beenremarkably increasing during the past two decades Thus, many Vietnamese,especially the young people can speak English; however, many foreignershave commented “many Vietnamese speakers can speak English, but only afew have intelligible English pronunciation so that they can be understoodeasily in direct communication with foreigners.” It is true that learners can notsucceed in studying English without mastering English pronunciation becausepronunciation is one of the most important components of a language It isreally important for learners to have communication of the target language ascorrect possible right from start

While I teach English to students age from 6 to 10 years old at

Linkin’world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi, I find that they make

many mistakes when they pronounce English sounds, especially Englishconsonants It is very necessary to find out students‟ mistakes in pronouncingEnglish consonants and help them correct those mistakes as soon as possible.With the expectation to help students pronounce English consonants correctlywhen they start to learn English, I decided to conduct the study “ An

investigation on common errors in pronouncing English consonants made

by 6 to 10 year old students at Linkin’world English skills center, Dong

Anh, Hanoi” It is hoped that this study will contribute to the goal of

enhancing students‟ performance in teaching and learning foreign language

2 Aims and objectives

2.1 Aim:

- Improving students‟ pronunciation of English consonants

2.2 Objectives of the study

- Identify what English consonants that are often mispronounced by 6

to 10 year old students at Linkinworld English skills centre, Dong Anh, Hanoi

- Identify what common mistakes students make in pronouncing those English consonants

- Find out causes of mistakes made by students in pronouncing those English consonants

- Suggest some possible solutions to help students improve their

pronunciation of English consonants

- Question 1: What are English consonants that are often mispronounced

by 6 to 10 year old students at Linkin‟world English skill centre, Dong Anh, Hanoi

- Question 2: What common mistakes do students make in pronouncing those English consonants?

- Question 3: What are the causes of those mistakes?

- Question 4: What are teachers‟ possible solutions to those mistakes?

There are many problems in Vietnamese students‟ pronunciation.However, because of limited time and the scale of the minor thesis, I onlyfocus on common mistakes in pronouncing some English consonants andcauses of those mistakes as well as possible solutions to eliminate them And I

only focus on students aged from 6 to 10 years old at Linkin‟world Englishskill center, Dong Anh, Hanoi.

5 Significance of the study

Theoretical significance: The research provides both teachers andlearners with revision of phonological characteristics and articulation of thesounds It is a basic foundation in teaching and learning Englishpronunciation

Practical significance: The study identifies young students‟ mistakes inpronouncing English consonants Therefore, it supplies teachers with theunderstanding and practical view to have pedagogical suitable solutions tohelp students improve their pronunciation as soon as possible

6 Organization of the study

To achieve the aims of the study, this paper is divided into five chapters:Part A: “Introduction” includes the reasons of choosing the thesis, theaims, the objectives, the research questions, the scope, the significance andthe organization of the study

Part B: Development

Chapter 1 “Literature review” is devoted to the presentation of thetheoretical background relevant to the research Firstly, the review ofpronunciation as well as factors affecting pronunciation learning isintroduced Then the literature related to mistakes is given

Chapter 2: “Methodology” describes in detail the research methodologywhich comprises the principles based on which the study is carried out

Chapter 3: “Findings and discussions” presents the findings anddiscussions from the data analysis

Part C: “Conclusion” summarizes the findings and gives limitations andsuggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theory background

1.1.1 The role of pronunciation in language teaching

“A learner who constantly mispronounces a range of phonemes can beextremely difficult for a speaker from another language community tounderstand A consideration of learners‟ pronunciation errors and of howthese can inhibit successful communication is a useful basis on which toassess why it is important to deal with pronunciation in the class” Kelly(2000:11)

While saying why it is important to teach pronunciation, Hewings(2004:10) “ Difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students fail toget their message across, even when the correct words are being used, or theymight fail to understand what is said to them.”

Sound is the core of the language so that is the reason why whenteaching a language the first thing the teacher should to is to let the learnershave chances to explore the sounds of that language Moreover,communicative approach is considered as the major language teaching in thetwenty first century as what the learners really need after graduating is thatthey can communicate successfully in their work and their life That is thereason why pronunciation teaching has been paid more and more attention byall teachers

Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of language likesyntax and vocabulary Correct pronunciation is considered to be aprerequisite to develop the speaking skill That is why teaching pronunciationshould occupy an important place in the study of any language

1.1.2 English consonants General description of English consonants

“Consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting the airflow in a variety of ways” (Kelly.G, 2003:24)

There are three ways of describing the consonant sounds: the manner

of articulation, the place of articulation, the force of the articulation

Table 1: Consonants in English

 Bilabial Plosives: /p, b/

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary

obstacle to the air-stream is provided by the closure of the lips Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are held wide apart for /p/, but may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for

/b/ according to its situation in the utterance Then the closure is released

suddenly for the air to escape with a kind of explosion.

 Alveolar Plosives: /t, d/

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary

obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the tip and rims

of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth Lung air is compressed

behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart

for /t/, but may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for /d/according to its situation in the utterance The air escapes with noise upon the

sudden separation of the alveolar closure.

 Velar Plosives: /k, g/

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primaryobstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the back of thetongue and the soft palate Lung air is compressed behind this closure, duringwhich stage the vocal cords are wide apart for /k/, but may vibrate for all orpart of the compression stage for /g/ according to its situation in the utterance.The air passage escapes with noise upon the sudden separation of the velarclosure

All six plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (initial position),between other sounds (medial position) and at the end of a word (final

(Examples words: thumb, thus, either, father, breath, breathe)

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the tip andrims of the tongue make a light contact with the edge and inner surface of theupper incisors and a firmer contact with the upper side teeth, so that the airescaping between the forward surface of the tongue and the incisors causes

friction For / θ / the friction is voiceless, whereas for / ð/ there may be some vocal cord vibration.

 Alveolar Fricatives: /s, z/

(Examples words: sip, zip, facing, rise, rice)

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the tip andblade of the tongue make a light contact with the upper alveolar ridge, and theside rims of the tongue a close contact with the upper side teeth The air-stream escapes through the narrow groove in the centre of the tongue andcauses friction between the tongue and the alveolar ridge In other words, inthe articulation of these sounds the air escapes through a narrow passagealong the centre of the tongue, and the sound produces is comparativelyintense

 Palato-alveolar Fricatives: / ∫ ; ʒ /

(example words: ship, Russia, measure, Irish, garage)

The fricatives are so called palato-alveolar, which can be taken to meanthat their place of articulation is partly palatal, partly alveolar The tongue is

in contact with an area slightly further back than that for /s/, /z/ If you make /s/ then / ∫ /, you should be able to feel your tongue move backwards The airescapes through a passage along the centre of the tongue, as in /s/ and /z/, butthe passage is a little wider Most speakers of RP have rounded lips for / ∫ /and / ʒ /, and this is an important difference between these consonants and /s/and /z/ In addition, the escape of air is diffuse (compared with that of /s, z/),the friction occurring between a more extensive area of the tongue and theroof of the mouth In the case of / ∫ /, the friction is voiceless, whereas for / ʒ /there may be some vocal cord vibration according to its situation

All the fricatives described so far can be found in initial, medial and finalpositions In the case of / ʒ /, however, the distribution is much more limited

Very few English words begin with / ʒ / (most of them have come into thelanguage comparatively recently from French) and not many end with thisconsonant Only medially, in words such as “measure”, „usually‟ is it found

 Affricates: /t∫ ; d ʒ /

(Palato-alveolar affricates)

The term “affricates” denotes a concept which is primarily of phoneticimportance Any plosive, whose release stage is performed in such a way thatconsiderable friction occurs approximately at the point where the plosive stop ismade, may be called “affricative” The friction present in an affricate is ofshorter duration than that which characterizes the fricatives proper In thearticulation of /t∫; dʒ / the soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shutoff, the obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the tip,blade, and rims of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth At thesame time, the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate in readinessfor the fricative release The closure is released slowly, the air escaping in adiffuse manner over the whole of the central surface of the tongue with frictionoccurring between the blade/front region of the tongue and the alveolar/frontpalatal section of the roof of the mouth During both stop

and fricative stages, the vocal cords are wide apart for / t∫ /, but may be

vibrating for all or part of / dʒ / according to the situation in the utterance

 Bilabial Nasal: /m/

The lips form a closure as for /p, b/; the soft palate is lowered, adding theresonance of the nasal cavity to those of the pharynx and the mouth chamberclosed by the lips; the tongue will generally anticipate or retain the position ofthe adjacent vowel

 Alveolar Nasal: /n/

The tongue forms a closure with the teeth ridge and upper side teeth as for/t, d/; the soft palate is lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity tothose of the pharynx and of that part of the mouth chamber behind thealveolar closure; the lip position will depend upon that of adjacent vowels

 Velar Nasal: /ŋ/

A closure is formed in the mouth between the back of the tongue and thevelum as for /k, g/ (the point of closure will depend on the type of vowelpreceding); the soft palate is lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity

to that of the pharynx and that small part of the mouth chamber behind thevelar closure

 Alveolar Lateral /l/

Only one alveolar, lateral phoneme occurs in English, there being noopposition between fortis and lenis, voiced or voiceless, or fricative and non-fricative Within the /l/ phoneme three main allophones occur:

- Clear [l], with a relatively front vowel resonance, before vowels and /j/

- Voiceless [l0], following aspirated /p, k/

- Dark [ł], with a relatively back vowel resonance, finally after a vowel,before a consonant, and as syllabic sound following a consonant

For clear [l], the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hardpalate at the same time as the tip contact is made For dark [ł], the tip contact

is again made on the teeth ridge, the front of the tongue being somewhatdepressed and the back raised in the direction of the soft palate, giving a backvowel resonance

Both [l] and [ł] are voiced, though partial devoicing may take place when

a preceding consonant is fortis The actual point of contact of the tongue for[ł] is conditioned by the place of articulation of the following consonant; thus,

in health, will they, the [ł] has a dental contact, but in already, ultra, all dry,

the contact for [ł] is likely to be post-alveolar

 Alveolar Approximant: /r/

The most common allophone of RP /r/ is a voiced post-alveolarfrictionless approximant The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonatorshut off, the tip of the tongue is held in a position near to, but not touching,the rear part of the upper teeth ridge; the central part of the tongue is loweredwith a general contraction of the tongue The air stream is thus allowed toescape freely, without friction, over the centre part of the tongue

 Palatal Approximant: /j/

The vocalic allophones of RP /j/ are articulated by the tongue assumingthe position for a front half-close to close vowel and moving awayimmediately to the position of the following sound; the lips are generallyneutral or spread When /j/ follows a fortis consonant such as /p/, /k/,devoicing takes place

 Labio-velar Approximant: /w/

The vocalic allophones of RP /w/ are articulated by the tongue assumingthe position for a back half-close to close vowel and moving awayimmediately to the position of the following sound; the lips are rounded The

soft palate is raised and the vocal cords vibrate; but when /w/ follows a fortis consonant, some devoicing takes place

1.1.3 Mistakes in language learning

Mistakes are said to be unsystematic in nature and correctable whenattention is drawn to its producers Mistakes are caused by temporary lapses

of memory, confusion, and carelessness and so on According to Adrian(1994: 131), the term “mistake” is used to refer to something that at thatmoment is not acceptable He suggested that “it could turn out to be either aslip or an error” The mistake is a “slip” when the learner already has theinner criteria for self-correction but isn‟t applying them at the moment,perhaps because her attention is elsewhere, or perhaps at the moment she isnot recalling the criteria, though she might recognize them At some level shealready knows what is required for correctness By “error” he meant that thelearner does not have the criteria for correctness This is something new thatshe cannot work out for herself Furthermore, many people only pay attention

to “the what”, i.e what is conveyed, not “the how” i.e the way words aresaid, nor the stress and intonation of the sentence Regardless of thedistortion of some fricatives and affricates in pronunciation, in many Englishclasses in Vietnam, teaching focuses on ideas (what), but very little or almost

no attention is paid to the way (how) the ideas are expressed orally Thisnegative attitude towards pronunciation mistakes more or less indulgespeople with pronunciation mistakes, thus degrades the standard of English inVietnam Nevertheless, recently, there has been some improvement inlearning English with more focus on pronunciation, stress and intonation insome English training institutions in Vietnam, ranging from secondaryschools and evening English centers to tertiary educational institutions such

as colleges and universities of foreign languages As a result, more phoneticdrills and practice are included in English teaching programs as well as inexaminations now.

1.1.3.1 Types of mistakes

According to Adrian (1994: 133), mistake is “error” when the learnerdoes not yet have the criteria for correctness This is something new that shecannot work out for herself There have been different ways to classify errorsbecause researchers look at errors differently

Hendrickson (1980: 206) divided errors into 2 types: local errors andglobal errors because he focused on the influence of errors on the sense of asentence or an utterance According to him, the global eưors not the localones could make the sentence ambiguous or senseless Duley, Burt andKrashen (1982: 53) classified errors relating to their observablecharacteristics For them there are 4 types of errors, namely omission,addition, misformation and misordering

Abbot (1980:82) divided errors into competence errors and performanceerrors The competence errors consists of transfer, inừalingual and induced.Performance errors include errors of processing problems and errors ofcommunication strategies

Pham Dang Binh (2003), in his PhD thesis dissertation on Vietnamesestudents‟ errors, classifies errors into two main types: common errors andtypical errors Common errors are those which are committed by any secondlanguage learners when learning the same target language even when theycome from different countries These errors normally appear at the beginning

of the learning process and consist of competence errors with errors inphonology, vocabulary and grammar and performance errors with

intralingua] and interlingual errors Errors that are typical of certain groups oflearners who speak the same first language or live in the same culture arecalled typical errors Those errors include two main types: interlingual errorsand culture interference errors.

Richards (1984:19-27) distinguishes three main major types of errors:interlingual errors, intralingual errors and developmental errors Interlingualerrors result from language transfer, that is, which is caused by the learner‟snative language

However, with their classifications, they showed very little concern abouterror types and did not reflect the process of making errors and causes ofeưors made by learners as well

Ha Cam Tam (2005: 9-10) set up a reasearch question involving the mostcommon pronunciation problems of the students in the English Departement

of the university of Languages and International Studies According to her,the most frequent errors of Vietnamese learners in pronunciation are soundommision, sound confusion and sound redundancy

1.1.3.2 Possible causes of mistakes in language learning

A variety of factors have been investigated to account for the problemsrelated to English pronunciation faced to foreign learners

Considered the most influential factor, mother tongue inference has beenstudied thoroughly As showed by Kenworthy (1988), Rivers and Temperly(1978), as well as Chan and Li (2000) learners‟ native language plays animportant role in their acquisition In terms of English sounds, it wasemphasized by two latter researchers that “English sounds which have nocounterpart in the native language will at first be difficult for students todistinguish (p.162)

Other factors may affect the learning English are learner age, interest andmotivation they raise on the issue, amount of exposure to English language asperceived by Kenworthy (1988:4 -7) Gardner (1985:10) defined “Motivation

is the present context refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achievethe goal of learning plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language”

A key issue in Gardner‟s motivation theory is the relationship betweenmotivation and orientation (goal) Thus, in his view, “motivation” refers to akind of central metal “engine” or “energy-centre” that subsumes effort, warrt/will and task enjoyment However, they are„internal factors not externalfactors Motivation is affected by both internal and external factors.According to Ellis (1997:75), leamers‟attitude and effective states constituethe learners‟ effort degree when learning an L2 belong to “motivation”

In an action research on the role of continuous feedback in students‟pronunciation improvement, Tran Thanh Phuc (2006) reviewed seven factorsthat affect the pronunciation of Vietnamese learners A part from thosecauses: native language, learners‟ ages, she emphasizes the influence of theamount of exposure to English, students‟ own phonetic ability, their attitude

to the learning of the language, motivation and the teacher‟s role

In attempt to discuss Vietnamese learners‟ pronunciation of Englishsounds, Dr Duong Thi Nu (2009) showed four main reasons that account fortheir failure in making the truly English consonants: (1) failure indistinguishing the difference, (2) influence of mother tongue, (3) perception

of mistakes, (4) inadequate drills and practice

To sum up, the above studies have revealed the most typicalpronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners of English and someresearchers mentioned factors that influence learners‟ pronunciation ofEnglish However, many previous studies found in books, linguistic

magazines or on the Internet are only about general pronunciation problems ofwide issue And most studies only concentrate on participants who arestudents at high schools or universities For these reasons, my research iscarried out to find out common mistakes in specific sounds ( consonants) and

my research focus on participants who are young learners ( students aged

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The informants of the study

There were 35 informants in the study including thirty students aged from

6 to 10 years old of 4 classes Fa1.5, Fa1.6, Fa1.7, and Fa1.8 at Linkin‟worldEnglish skill centre and five English teachers at Linkin‟world English centre.Most students have learnt English for one year, some have learnt for morethan one year and they have just finished the same course book “Family andfriends 1”, Oxford university press All of teachers have at least one yearexperience in teaching students age from 6 to 10 years old

2.2 Research method

In order to answer the research questions, the survey method was adopted

in which a survey questionnaire and recording informants‟ pronunciationwere the data collection instruments

2.2.1 Data collection instruments

Instrument 1: Recording informants’ pronunciation

The use of a recorder is undoubtedly the most common method ofrecording interview data because it has the obvious advantage of preservingthe entire verbal part of the interview for later analysis Moreover, the writercan stop and play back some of the interview to see and get the data moreclearly and exactly This is the reason why tape recording is utilized torecognize the students‟ problems in pronouncing English sounds

The task was designed to record the students‟ pronunciation including 3parts: In part 1, students read aloud sounds and words containing consonants

in all positions of a word (initial, middle, final) In part 2, students read aloud

8 sentences These sentences have many words with the sounds studentsusually mispronounce In part 3, each pairs of students read 2 dialogues Allwords, sentences, dialogues used in the task in the course book “Family andfriends 1”, Oxford university press.

Instrument 2: Questionnaire

The researcher chooses survey questionnaires because they are usefulways of gathering information about “affective dimensions of teaching andlearning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation and preferences” (Richards andLockhart, 1994:10) and enable a researcher to collect a large amount ofinformation relatively quickly

In this study, a great number of question types categorized by Youngman(1986, as cited in Nunan, 1992:144) including frequency, list, category andranking questions had been applied

As the basic for the completion of the study, the questionnaire is carefullydesigned with 11 questions to get the most effective investigation

The questionnaire is designed to clarify:

- Teachers‟ attitude toward pronunciation

- Teachers‟ perception about their student‟s pronunciation mistakes

- Teachers‟ perception about causes of students‟ mistakes in

pronouncing consonants

- Teachers‟ methods to help students eliminate their mistakes in

pronouncing English consonants

2.2.2 Data collection procedures

In the first phrase, the researcher used the tape recording Thirty students were gathered to be informed of the materials the researcher had prepared for