Using videos to improve efl vietnamese learners english pronunciation

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRẦ N NGUYỄN NHƯ QUỲNH USING VIDEOS TO IMPROVE EFL VIETNAMESE LEARNER’S ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

TRẦ N NGUYỄN NHƯ QUỲNH

USING VIDEOS TO IMPROVE EFL VIETNAMESE LEARNER’S ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An , 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

TRẦ N NGUYỄN NHƯ QUỲNH

USING VIDEOS TO IMPROVE EFL VIETNAMESE LEARNER’S ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60140111

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR:

Nguyen Gia Viet, Ph.D

Nghệ An, 2017

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I herein declare that the thesis is my own work and that it has not been submitted for any other purposes before

Works of others that are used in the thesis are properly cited and acknowledged

Tran Nguyen Nhu Quynh

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to many people, from whom I have received valuable contributions for the completion of this work

First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Mr

Nguyen Gia Viet, Ph.D for his valuable support, guidance and timely, encouragement while I was doing this research Without his guidance, comment, and suggestions during all phases of the work, my thesis would still be far from completed

Secondly, I would also like to express my gratitude to all lecturers and staff of the

Department of Foreign Languages, Vinh University who supply me with the good conditions to conduct this thesis and finish this TESOL M.A cohort

In addition, my special thanks also go to the non-English major students of grade 11th in Le Quy Don High School for their willingness to complete the survey questionnaire Without their help, this project could not been a success

Last but not least, my warmest thanks go to my beloved family, my colleagues, my friends for

their kindness, helpful supports and useful encouragements

ABSTRACT

In learning English, Pronunciation is an important skill because a word being pronounced incorrectly or wrong intonation may lead to misunderstanding from listeners Most of EFL Vietnamese learners have difficulties in pronouncing the words correctly in English The National University Entrance Exam delivered annually does not test oral and aural competencies

of the prospective English language teachers As they do not expected to have these skills, students automatically do not focus on listening comprehension and pronunciation aspects of the target language, which leads to lose one of the components of an effective communication In order to eradicate this problem, this study aims to investigate the audiovisual method which means using videos to improve EFF Vietnamese learners’ English pronunciation The data were collected mainly through survey questionnaires, interview and tests Questionnaires are administered to 60 participants of the two non-major English classes whose ages 17, and then analyzed by means of descriptive statistics These learners were pretested through a number of pre-designed words which be rated in terms of pronunciation accuracy Based on the results of the pre-test, two groups, one as the experimental group and the other as control group, were formed Then, traditional method (drill) will be used for the control group in pronunciation practice Meanwhile, videos will be used to get the experiment group practice After three months, the two groups were posttested through similar in format and material to the pre-test The score of the participants demonstrated that experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of the average accuracy gains Finally, it was concluded that videos can lead to higher accuracy in improving EFL Vietnamese’s English Pronunciation

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Bilabial Consonants in Phonetic Alphabet

Table 2.2 Labiodentals Consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet

Table 2.3 The Nasal Consonant

Table 2.4 Classification of Fricatives in Terms of Voicing

Table 2.5 Classification of Stops in Terms of Voicing

Table 2.6 Classification of Affricates in Terms of Voicing

Table 2.7 Classification of English Consonant

Table 4.1: Pretest Score of Experimental Group and Control Group

Table 4.2: The percentage of the pretest achievement of each final consonant

Table 4.3: The improvement of the Cycle 1

Table 4.4: Posttest Score

Table 4.5: The improvement of the Cycle 2

Table 4.6: Data test of two group

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 2

ABSTRACT 3

LIST OF TABLES 4

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 8

1 Rationale 8

2Research Questions Error! Bookmark not defined 3 The Objective of the study Error! Bookmark not defined 4 Significance of the study Error! Bookmark not defined 5 Scope of the Study Error! Bookmark not defined 6Methodology Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 3

A The Nature of Pronunciation 3

1) The definition of Pronunciation 3

2) Definition of consonant 4

2.1 Place of Articulation 4

2.2 Manner of Articulation 7

2.3 Manners of Interference 8

3) Consonant in English Phonology 9

3.1 English sound class 9

3.2 Consonants 11

4) Teaching Pronunciation 18

4.1 The objective of teaching pronunciation 18

4.2 The problems of teaching pronunciation for EFL Vietnamese learners 19

4.3 Methods and techniques of teching pronunciation 20

B The Nature of Audio-visual aids 22

1 Kinds of Audio-visual aids 23

iv

2 The Advantages of using Audio-visual aids 24

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLODY 24

A The setting and the subject of the Research 24

1 Time and place of the Research 25

2 The subject of the Research 25

B Action Research 25

1 Definition of Action Research 25

2 The steps in Action Research 26

3 The procedure of Action Research 27

3.1 Indentify a problem area 27

3.2 Planing the action 28

C Method of Research 29

D Research Instruments 30

1 Pretest 30

2 Questionnaire 30

3 Treatment 31

4 Posttest 31

E Data Collection Procedure 32

F Data Analysis 32

CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 32

A Research Findings 32

Cycle 1 32

1)Questionnaire A 32

2)Interview 33

3)Pre-test 35

4)Planning 38

5)Action 38

6)Observation 39

7)Reflection 40

Cycle 2 40

1) Revised Plan 40

2) Action 40

3) Posttest 41

4) Questionnaire B 42

5) Observation 43

6) Reflection 44

7) Interview 45

B Discussion 45

1) Videos are able to improve Students’ pronunciation ability 46

2) Videos are able to improve Students’ perception 46

C Hypothesis testing 46

CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION 46

A Conclusion 46

B Implication 47

C Suggestion 47

1) For the teachers 48

2) For the institutions 48

3) For other researchers 49

REFERENCES 50

APPENDIX A PRETEST 55

APPENDIX B POSTTEST 57

APPENDIX C DATA COLLECTION FROM PRETEST AND POSTTEST 58

APPENDIX D THE CYCLE1 TEST 60

APPENDIX E QUESTIONNAIRE A 61

APPENDIX F QUESTIONNAIRE B 63

APPENDIX G ENGLISH PHONETIC SYMBOLS 65

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

According to A.G Gimson “All language are spoken and begun with ears Once a known

professor notes that at speaking language a person should know exactly one hundred percent of its phonetics, ninety percent of its grammar and ten percent of the vocabulary may be sufficient”

It seems obvious to me that phonetics constitutes the basic of all other aspects of language The students should first of all learn to hear the sounds accurately and listen to them closely and carefully The more and hear the differences between the various sound of English language, the better they will articulate them To this end, students should undergo ear-training and constant listening to English native speakers or some equally good models Then they should imitate they should heard, using their background knowledge to make the proper adjustment of their speech organs to reproduce the sound correctly Wrong practice does not only waste time and effort but also creative had habits, which will be extremely difficult to eliminate

When speaking a foreign language, say English, pronunciation is of great importance If you cannot pronounce correctly you are not able to make yourself understood A language is a tool of communication but bad pronunciation can never be a good tool of communication

For the reasons above, I have decided to do this research named “ Using Videos to Improve EFL Vietnamese Learner’s English Pronunciation” I hope that this study will be helpful for Vietnamese teachers and students in some ways to find appropriate approaches to help students improve their pronunciation

2 Research questions

1 Does the use of videos help students improve English pronunciation?

2 What perceptions do students have about using videos to help them improve pronunciation in English classes?

3 The Objectives of the Study

For the reasons mentioned above, the study aims of this thesis to examine whether or not the audiovisual (videos) method can improve English pronunciation ability of EFL Vietnamese Learners and to identify what students’ perceptions are when videos are used as a teaching learning media in pronunciation practice

4 Significance of the Study

This study is significant in many ways Firstly, if the results are positive, this can encourage English teachers to use audio visual in teaching English pronunciation Secondly, EFL Vietnamese learners are easy to get more experience or use videos as an effective way to improve English pronunciation Next, it also helps EFL Vietnamese learners to learn English pronunciation easily or ensure that audio visual can be interesting in teaching English pronunciation

5 Scope of the study

This research is focused on the effectiveness of using audio visual (videos) to develop EFL Vietnamese Learner’s English pronunciation The researcher wants to make an effort to improve Vietnamese EFL Learners’ six final consonants (/s/, /z/, /l/, /ð/, /f/, /v/) The researcher chose 60 graded 11th students to prove this study However, this research still has limitation which is not focused on all ages and regions in Vietnam It also estimated students’ English pronunciation level by final consonants

- The pronunciation standard used is American standard

The main data collection instruments are tests and a follow-up questionnaire This research will

be carried out using an action research design Two classes will be chosen to participate in the study: one is the control group and the other is the experimental (treatment) group In the first cycle, both groups will be given a pronunciation test and a questionnaire In this first test, the students will be asked to say a number of pre-designed sentences and words and be rated in terms of pronunciation accuracy Then, the researcher will use the questionnaire’s result to make

a plan for the students For a period of three months, the traditional method (drill) will be used to get the experimental group practice Meanwhile, videos will be used to get the experimental

group practice pronunciation The videos will be only taken from the website “youtube.com”

After the period, a post test, which is similar in format and materials used to the pre-test, will be conducted with both groups The results of the tests will be compared and analyzed to bring about findings for research question 1 Following the post test, a follow- questionnaire will be distributed to the experimental group, to investigate students’ experiences and perceptions of using videos for pronunciation learning in English classes This follow-questionnaire will continue findings for research question 2 The interviews in this research would also use to support to answer the question 2

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

A The nature of pronunciation

1 The definition of pronunciation

Pronunciation is one of the important aspects in English, especially in oral communication Every sound, stress pattern, and intonation may convey meaning The non-native speakers of English who speak English have to be very careful in pronouncing some utterances or he may create misunderstanding So, having an intelligible pronunciation is necessary rather than having a native-like pronunciation Here is pronunciation definition from some experts:

According to Ann Cook, pronunciation is the spoken sounds of vowels, consonants and combination We can take assumption is in which a language or word is pronounced

Pronunciation is how the way we pronounce the word How we can speech the word is included in pronunciation

Beside of that, Lado (1964:70) has opinion that pronunciation is the use of a sound system in speaking and listening Here, pronunciation is merely treated as the act that happens in speaking and listening Lado doesn’t mention how the sounds are produced

Pronunciation is the act or manner of pronouncing words; utterance of speech In other words, it can also be said that it is a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood In the senses, pronunciation entails the production and reception of sounds of speech and the achievement of the meaning (Kristina, Diah, et al.2006: 1) This second definition gives a briefer pronunciation’s definition It contains some important keys in pronunciation: act, speaking, production and reception of sound According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary, pronunciation is a way in which a language or a particular word or sound is spoken This definition has clear information as follows:

a Pronunciation is a way of producing something

b The product of this act is language or word or sound

However, it does not have any important information about how a language or a particular word or a sound should be spoken

From the definitions above, it can be concluded that pronunciation is the particular way

of speaking a word or phrase which is accepted or generally understood (intelligible)

We can conclude that toward pronunciation we are able to identify the speakers We can know if someone is native or not by his pronunciation

2 Definition of Consonant

Consonants are sounds characterized by a constricting or a complete closing of the air passages (Malmberg, 1963: 32) Every consonant may be defined according to its place of articulation and manner of articulation

2.1) Place of Articulation

The place of articulation of a consonant is determined by the articulator participating in its production

a) Bilabials

Bilabial sounds are made with two lips coming together and touching momentarily The obstruction of the airstream thus occurs at the lips English has three bilabial sounds: [p] as in pie, [m] as in man and [b] as in ball

Table 2.1 Bilabial Consonants in Phonetic Alphabet

bilabial nasal English man [mæn] man voiceless bilabial English spin [spɪn] spin voiced bilabial English bed [bɛd] bed

b) Labiodentals

The labiodentals sounds are made with the upper teeth touching the lower lip

Table 2.2 Labiodentals Consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet

f voiceless

labiodental fricative

English fan [ æn] 'fan'

v voiced

labiodental fricative

English van [væn] 'van'

c) Interdentals

Interdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors In this case, the tip of the tongue is placed between the upper and lower front teeth, and therefore may articulate with both the upper and lower incisors Voiced and voiceless interdental fricatives [ð, θ] appear in American English as the initial sounds of words like 'then' and 'thin'

d) Dentals

Dental consonants are articulated with the tongue against the back of the upper incisors such as /t/, /d/, /n/, and /l/ in some languages

e) Alveolar

Alveolar consonants are made with the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth just behind the upper teeth (alveolar ridge) Alveolar consonants may be articulated with the tip of the tongue, called apical consonants, as in English,

Table 2.3 The Alveolar Consonants in Phonetic Alphabet

English tap [ ʰæp]

voiced alveolar plosive

English done [dʌn]

voicelessalveolar fricative

English suit [sju:t]

voiced alveolar fricative

English zoo [zu:]

f) Alveo-palatal

Alveopalatal consonants are made with the blade of the tongue approaching of the hard palate just behind the alveolar ridge The alveo-palatal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

g) Velars

Velar consonants occur when the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum (soft palate) The velars consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

Table 2.4 The Velars Consonants in Phonetic Alphabet

velar nasal English sing [sɪŋ] sing voiceless velar

plosive

English kite [kaɪt] kite voiced velar plosive English get [ɡɛt] get

h) Glottal

Glottal consonants are consonants using the glottis as their primary articulation Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the glottal fricative[disambiguation needed], to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have, while some do not consider them to be consonants at all However, glottal consonants behave as typical consonants in many languages

Table 2.5 TheGlottal Consonants in Phonetic Alphabet

2.2 Manner of Articulation

Manner of articulation refers to the way in which the obstruction of the air-stream, which characterizes all consonants, is achieved (Peter and Susan, 1992: 18) At the different places of articulation in the mouth, there are several basic ways that the air-stream can be obstructed

a) Stops

Malmberg (1963: 40) states that momentary consonants or stops are complete closing followed

by an abrupt opening (explosion) With regard to English, this closing may be achieved with both lips against each other (bilabial stop), with the tip of the tongue against the teeth or the gums (dental or alveolar stop), or with the back of the tongue either against the hard palate (palatal stop) or against the soft palate (velar stop) The examples of stops are:

b) Fricatives

Fricatives are sounds made by partial obstruction of the airstream This partial obstruction results from the lips or the tongue coming close to some part of the upper mouth These consonants are called fricatives because the close approximation of the articulations causes turbulence or friction in airflow Fricative consonants are characterized by a narrowing of the air passage, which produces a frictional or rubbing noise as the air passes through the tiny opening formed by the articulating organ In principle, it is possible to produce fricatives at any point whatever in the mouth, from the lips to the pharynx, and also in the larynx itself English has fricative consonants as follows: [f], [v], [s], [z], [∫], [ʒ], [θ], and [ð]

c) Affricatives

Affricatives are the consonant which is the combination of stop and fricative The example of

affricatives is [t∫] as in English initial consonant of child

d) Nasals

Nasal sounds are sounds made with the air escaping through the nose All nasal sounds much alike a kind of humming sound English has several nasal consonants: nasal bilabial [m], nasal alveolar [n] and velar nasal [ŋ] Nasal consonants are normally voiced but may lose their voicing

in combination with voiceless consonants

e) Laterals

Laterals are sounds that are occur when the tongue makes a firm contact with the point of articulation in the teeth or the palate This contact takes place only at the middle and oral cavity, while air escapes from both sides of the place of articulation The English [l] in long is a lateral type The tip of the tongue touches the upper gums, and air escapes on both sides of the tongue English [l] sound is alveolar lateral

f) Trills: r-sound

The consonants called trills or vibrant are articulated in such a way that the articulating organ (in this case is either the tip of the tongue) forms a series of very brief occlusion, separated by small vocalic elements The trills belong to the r-family sounds There are two kinds of r in terms of the articulatory organ: the front or apical r and the back or uvular r The first is pronounced in

such a way, that the tip of the tongue touching the alveoli, is pressed by forward by the stream of air f

2.3 Manners of Interference

2.3.1 Closure

There are three different types of closure: stops, rolls, and flaps As stated above, stops are complete closing followed by an abrupt opening (explosion) When there is velic closure the air the air-stream cannot get out through the nose, nor can get out immediately through the mouth Since the lungs are still pushing air upwards the air is compressed within the totally enclosed cavity, and then when the mouth closure is removed, this is compressed air explodes out of the mouth as pie, by, die, et cetera This kind of sound, which has compression and explosion, is called plosive

2.3.2 Narrowing

When two speech organs are very close together the air forcing its way, then it is resulting narrowing The air then becomes turbulent, and this turbulence is heard as friction noise Sounds having such friction are known as fricatives Some fricatives are made with a hissy kind of friction, example /s/ and /∫/, and these are sometimes referred to as sibilants; while the non-sibilants have a less hissy, like /f/ and /θ/ In German s is generally even more grooved than in English and this makes it sounds very characteristic

2.3.3 Opener Positions

If two organs are not so close together that they cause friction they may be playing a major part

in shaping the cavities through which the air flows This position causing frictionless sounds named frictionless continuants This sound can be produced if the speaker gently lowers the lip away from the teeth when he says along fricative sound (for example /v/) until the friction disappears This friction /v/ sound can quite often be heard as a defective /r/ in English The word ever said with a frictionless /v/ will sound like defective version of the word error

3 Consonant in English phonology

3.1 English Sound Classes

To be effective in learning English pronunciation, it is essential to have an understanding of how the speech sounds of English are produced By knowing how sounds are produced, the correct English sounds can be correctly produced

3.1.1 English Speech Sounds Production

Speech sounds are made by air moving outward from the lungs through the mouth or nose Different speech sounds result when the airstream is changed in some way by the positioning of various parts of the mouth Some sounds are made as a result of the lips changing the airstream while other sounds made as a result of the tongue changing the airstream

The parts of the mouth that are involved in production of speech sounds can be divided into two:

articulators and places of articulations The moveable parts of the mouth (the lower lip, the

bottom teeth, the tongue, and the lower jaw) are referred to as articulators The unmovable parts

of the mouth involved in the articulation of speech sounds are referred to as places of articulations In the production of speech sounds, the articulators approach the places of articulations, causing the airstream to be changed in different ways

3.1.2 Organs of Speech

a) Lungs are the main organ for respiration, the other functions are to provide main source

of airstream to create speech sound and to organize speech sound Lungs are the initiator in initiation, so it’s called pulmonic sound

b) Larynx is the valve in respiratory which will shut immediately to ensuring the food or drink will come through pharynx and go into esophagus Another speech sound in larynx is vocal fold Vocal fold is the valve which controls the air stream among lungs, oral cavity, and nasal cavity

c) Pharynx is a pipe which located in the larynx When producing sound pharynx as the air tube which will vibrate when the vocal fold vibrate

d) Hard palate, this articulator often called as “roof of the mouth” Just like velar this

articulator is passive articulator The sound produced by this articulator called palatal sound e) Alveolar ridge, located between front teeth and hard palate In producing sound this articulator is passive, but the tip of the tongue is active The sound produced by this articulator called alveolar sound

f) Tongue divided into three main parts: tip of the tongue, blade of the tongue, and back of the tongue

g) Upper teeth ridge is located above and behind the upper front teeth

h) Hard palate is that portion of the roof of the mouth directly behind the upper teeth ridge

It arches upward to the highest point in the mouth and then gradually descends

i) Soft Palate or Velum is that portion of the palate directly behind the hard palate It ends at the back portion of the mouth in a small bulb called the uvula The position of velum can be up

or down, so it will control the air stream through the oral cavity or nasal cavity Velum is passive articulator The sound produced by this articulator called velar sound

j) Vocal cords are muscles in the larynx which make the sound produced voiced or voiceless

4 Teaching Pronunciation

Teaching pronunciation in a high school is very essential Teacher should give certain attention

in teaching pronunciation and decide the area of sounds that become the basic need for students Native-like pronunciation is difficult for most young learners to achieve in a foreign language The achievement of it requires not only skilled teaching but also a high level of internal motivation of the student Most young learners are satisfied with reasonably intelligible speech

in the second language and this is an acceptable goal for the English Foreign Language teacher The teacher should give assistance during the regular speaking lesson to students who are having difficulty with particular sounds The particular sounds that students will find it difficult will differ for different language backgrounds

4.1 The Objectives of Teaching Pronunciation

Here are some objectives of teaching pronunciation:

1) Ability

The pronunciation should enable learners to surpass the threshold level so that their pronunciation will not detract from their ability to communicate (Celce- Murcia, et al 1996: 8) 2) Consistency

The pronunciation should be smooth and natural

3) Intelligibility

The pronunciation should be understandable to the listeners (Kenworthy,1987: 3)

4) Communicative Efficiency

The pronunciation should help to convey the meaning that is intended by thespeaker

Based on the goals above, the intelligibility is considered the main goal of pronunciation since the idea of pronunciation is to enable the listeners to understand what the speaker says Kenworthy (1987) states that the main goal of pronunciation for the learners is can be comfortably intelligible It means that the conversation between the speaker and the listener can

be “comfortable” It’s not the condition where the speaker and the listener speak a native-like pronunciation, but both the speaker and the listener understand each other

4.2 The Problems of Teaching Pronunciation for EFL Vietnamese Learners

4.2.1 The Vietnamese Learner

The Vietnamese language has only six consonants that appear at the end of words, all of which

are shared with English (p, t, k, m, n, and ng) However, English has an almost endless list of

final consonants and final consonant clusters The chart below by Tang (2007) lists over fifty, most of which can take derivational or inflectional morphemes to create new, different sounds Vietnamese learners of English often struggle with production of six English final consonant sounds (/s/, /z/, /l/, /ð/, /f/, /v/) in the syllable final positions (Ha, 2005; Ngo, 2005; Nguyen, 2007; Osburne, 1996; Sato, 1984; Tang, 2007)

The chart: Comparison of Vietnamese and English Consonant sounds in Syllable Initial

and Final Position

Tang (2007) found that Vietnamese learners often simplify or omit the consonants in the final syllables of English words He also noted that when simplifying these final sounds,

Vietnamese learners of English have a tendency to replace the English endings with sounds that are common to both Vietnamese and English languages (Tang, 2007, p 21).Having noted the influence of the Vietnamese on the production of English, it is also important to understand the final syllable sounds that pose the greatest struggle for Vietnamese English language learners (ELLs) Below are some sounds that are not shared between the two languages

as final consonant sounds

Having noted the influence of the Vietnamese L1 on the production of English, it is also important to understand the final syllable sounds that pose the greatest struggle for Vietnamese English language learners (ELLs) Two sounds that are not shared between the two languages as final consonant sounds are the alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/ While Vietnamese does have these sounds as syllable-initial consonants, they never appear at the end of words (Tang, 2007) Ha (2005) asserts that among Vietnamese speakers of English, the /z/ and /s/ sounds are most frequently omitted Vietnamese speakers’ also may pronounce /z/ as /s/ Another sound, which is known to pose struggles for Vietnamese speakers, is the alveolar lateral sound /l/ (Ha, 2005) Ha (2005) indicates us that the final consonant sound /l/ may be produced as the /n/ The last sound addressed in this research is the dental fricative /ð/, which may be replaced with the Vietnamese dental aspirated /t/ (Ha, 2005)

4.2.2 The Teacher

The problems of the teacher related to pronunciation practice are stated below:

a) The Lack of Knowledge about Pronunciation

Sometimes, teachers are simply don’t understand about pronunciation, so they often make mistake when they pronouncing words or utterances They don’t know how the sounds are produced, so they can’t explain to their students

b) The Lack of Motivation to Teach Pronunciation

Many teachers ignore of the importance of pronunciation in language learning They think that pronunciation is not as important as writing, reading, grammar, etc

c The Techniques of Teaching Pronunciation

There are many techniques of teaching pronunciation According to Celce- Murcia, et al (1996: 8), there are ten techniques of teaching pronunciation as follows:

1) Listen and imitate: A technique used in the Direct Method in which students listen to a

teacher-provided model and repeat or imitate it

2) Phonetic Training: Use of articulatory descriptions, articulatory diagrams, and a phonetic

alphabet

3) Minimal pair drills: A technique to help students distinguish between similar and

problematic sounds in the target language through listening discrimination and spoken practice

4) Contextualized minimal pairs: In the technique, the teacher establishes the setting and

presents key vocabulary; students are trained to respond to a sentence stem with the appropriate meaningful response

5) Visual aids: Enhancement of the teacher’s description of how sounds are produced by

audiovisual aids such as sound-color charts, Fidel wall charts, rods, pictures, mirrors, props, regalia, etc these devices are also used to cue production of the target sounds

6) Tongue twister: A technique from speech correction strategies for native speakers

7) Developmental approximation drills: A technique suggested by first-language acquisition

studies in which second language speakers are taught to retrace the steps that many speaking children follows as they acquire certain sounds in their first language

English-8) Practice of vowel shift and stress shift related by affixation: A technique based on rules

of generative phonology used with intermediate or advanced learners

9) Reading aloud/recitation: Passage or scripts for learners to practice and then read aloud,

focusing on stress, timing, and intonation

10) Recordings of learners’ production: Audio and video tape of rehearsed and spontaneous

speeches, free conversations, and role plays

4.3 Methods and Techniques of teaching Pronunciation

a) Phonetic transcription

One of the long-used and known to all teachers technique is phonetic transcription, which is a code consisting of phonetic symbols Each symbol describes a single sound, which is in fact different from a letter of the alphabet True as it is, in order to use phonetic transcription one must learn the code and it takes time and effort Although it is possible to learn the pronunciation without the code, many linguists believe it to be a valuable tool in learning the foreign sound system One obvious advantage of learning the code is the ability to find the pronunciation of unfamiliar words in a dictionary All good modern learners’ dictionaries use phonetic symbols to indicate pronunciation, and learners must therefore be familiar with them’

b) Auditory reinforcement

As A Brown (1992 ) notes, there is a common assumption among teachers that perceptual and

productive language skills such as listening and speaking are taught through the same medium,

namely speaking and listening As the result many of them use the traditional listen-and-repeat approach in spite of the present tendency for communicative language teaching Techniques

based on this method are often production oriented and aim at improving students’ spoken

English Many of such techniques employ minimal pairs, which are words that have different meaning and their pronunciation differs only in one sound Minimal pair drills were introduced during the Audio lingual era and have still been used both in isolation - at a word-level and in

context - at a sentence-level The technique is useful for making learners aware of troublesome

sounds through listening and discrimination practice

c) Visual reinforcement

Visual reinforcement has been connected with pronunciation teaching since the time of Silent

Way was the skill was taught through the use of word charts and color rods Since that time

many other ways of visualizing pronunciation have been introduced They may be especially useful for adult learners who undergo the process of fossilization While children benefit from oral repetition, drills and taping themselves, adult learners find it difficult to learn the patterns of intonation, stress and rhythm The reason may be that they simply do not know whether the patterns they produce are acceptable Real time visual displays are to show learners the relationship between the patterns they produce and those they are required to repeat One of the possible conventions for making the word stress visible is writing the stressed syllable in capital letters:

FAshion, SEssion, beHAVE

Another common way of visualizing word stress is the use of dots The large dots mark a stressed syllable in a word:

catwalk - • •

d) Tactile reinforcement

The use of the sense of touch is another frequently employed technique, though it is not discussed very often In fact, some teachers might be taking advantage of it without even realizing this Celce-Mauricia (1996) calls this mode a visual reinforcement One of the forms of this reinforcement includes placing fingers on the throat in order to feel the vibration of the vocal cords, and it may be useful when teaching the distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants A different form of tactile reinforcement incorporates simple tactile descriptions given to the students: ‘When you pronounce /r/ your tongue feels liquid and your jaw is tight (Celce-Mauricia, 296)

e) Drama Voice Techniques

The focus of the above techniques has been generally on accuracy of sounds and stress at a word level Nevertheless, we should bear in mind that both the ability to produce isolated sounds or recognizing suprasegmental features and fluency contribute to effective communication Today’s pronunciation curriculum which has communicative language teaching as its goal thus seeks to identify the most important features and integrate them in courses The interactive aspect of pronunciation as well as other aspects of English can be emphasised by the use of drama techniques In classes where these techniques are employed, they help to reduce the stress that accompanies oral production in a foreign language They are fun, entertaining and relaxing Moreover, they also increase learner confidence, because they help learners to speak clearer, louder and in a variety of tones One means in which drama voice techniques can enter pronunciation classroom is for teachers to employ poetry, tongue twisters and raps

f) Audio feedback

In traditional methods, which have been used for a long time now, teachers have taken the advantage of the audio medium, namely a tape recorder, for a dual purpose First, for listening to the recorded native speaker discourse And second, for taping students and replaying their own production As a matter of fact, in today’s pronunciation classroom audio feedback still plays a significant role Most of all, learners are provided with authentic material and unlimited access

to native-speaker’s discourse They can also record written passages and ask teachers for feedback

g) Multimedia enhancement

One of the major developments in the field of linguistics following the audio medium are video recorders and the use of software These are an advance over audio tapes in that they provide visual support, which is as important in pronunciation teaching as auditory Celce-Mauricia (1996) lists also other advantages of multimedia enhancement (313):

1 access to a wide variety of native-speaker speech samplings

2 sheltered practice sessions in which the learner can take risks without stress and fear of error

3 opportunity for self-pacing and self-monitoring of progress

4 one-on-one contact without a teachers’ constant supervision

5 an entertaining, game like atmosphere for learning

As for video recorders, they may serve both as a source of learning material and feedback Students may not only view a native speakers’ production of speech but can also see and hear themselves if videotaped Another innovative technique, which is becoming more and more frequently used in pronunciation teaching, are computer displays The advantages of this medium include: visual feedback, entertaining, game like quality of programs, a great amount of individual feedback and the opportunity to compare learner’s own production of speech with a native-speaker model The only limitation of this medium that learners and teachers may come across is the availability of software, since many schools are still not equipped with large enough computer labs to meet user’s needs

B The Nature of Audio-visual aids

Madhuri (2013) states about the definition of audio-visual aids that the audio- visual aids are tools of record to improve speaking skills that are used for several times and more than others It

is where the object picture section and gestures have been systematically used with audio-visual work to elucidate meaning

Subathra (2012) emphasizes the best side of audio-visual aids that they made the process of learning has become quite exciting for the students with the audio-visual aids It helps the students in generating an open mind for learning At the same time it develops team work among the students as they are required to work in teams for such project-based learning Within a short period of time these audio-visual aids gained much popularity and have shown their dominance

Ahmad (2013) emphasizes that in audio visual aids, both the listening (ears) and viewing faculties (eyes) are involved Such aids include television programs, video films, motion pictures, synchronized audio-slide projectors, computers and computer- assisted instructions and

so on Cartoon films are also a useful medium for developing, and chiseling the skills of the students

1 Kinds of Audio-Visual Aids

According to Ahmad (2013), there are four kinds of audio-visual aids They are films, television, video and CDs

1) Films

Films represent an effective instructional device to cater to the students’ attention and create interest and motivation among them towards effective learning Educational films may be prepared on any content material or any aspect of knowledge, and behavior

2) Television

Television is a versatile medium of transmitting education through different programs It is an exciting means of communication Useful instructional programs are being telecasted regularly for the student community on television A teacher should utilize the TV programs and make them the basis for discussions on relevant occasions

3) Video

Video is a viable aid towards effective learning and teaching Teaching with the help of video is called video-aided instruction In video-aided instruction, learners’ comprehension is generally tested through a questionnaire and video is clearly an instructional medium that generates a much greater amount of interest and enjoyment than the more traditional printed material

4) CDs

Nowadays, educational video-cassettes are easily available in the market Educational CDs can be prepared on any aspect of the subject-matter and curriculum

2 The Advantages of Using Audio Visual Aids

According to Nupur (2012), there are so many advantages of using audio visual aids, such as:

1) Best motivators: They are the best motivators Students work with more interest and

zeal They are more attentive

2) Fundamental to verbal instructions: They help to reduce verbalism which is a major

weakness of the schools They convey the same meaning as words mean They give clear concepts and thus help to bring accuracy in learning

3) Clear images: Clear images are formed when we see, hear, touch, taste and smell as our

experiences are direct, concrete and more or less permanent Learning through the senses becomes the most natural and consequently the easiest

4) Vicarious Experience: Everyone agrees to the fact that the firsthand experience is the

best type of educative experience but such an experience cannot always be provided to the pupils

so in some situations certain substitutes have to be provided For this we find a large number of inaccessible objects and phenomenon In all such cases audio-visual aids provide us the best substitutes

5) Variety: Audio-Visual aids provide variety and provide different tool s in the hands of

the teacher

6) Freedom: The use of audio-visual aids provide various occasions for the pupil to move

about, talk, laugh and comment upon Under such an atmosphere the students work because they want to work and not because the teacher wants them to work

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes five parts: the setting of the research, the method of the research, the techniques of collecting the data, and the techniques of analyzing data

A The Setting and the Subject of the Research

1 Time and Place of the Research

The research is conducted at Le Quy Don High School, one of senior High School in Tan An city, Long An Province, Vietnam

The reason of choosing Le Quy Don High School as the offsetting for the research is that there is

a close relationship between the teachers and the researcher in this school so that the researcher can get more information from them In addition, the researcher would like to contribute her efforts to teaching and learning English to this school

Based on the researcher’s observation, this school has completely enough facilities There are 55 classes from 10th grades to 12th grades Each class consists of 30 students Besides, there are a headmaster room, a language laboratory (in progress), a science laboratory, a computer laboratory, a library, a counseling room, a health room, a hall, and 3 canteens

The researcher conducted the research in this school for about three months It was started on January10th and was finish April 10th 2017 The research adjusted the research schedule with the lesson schedule in this school She conducted her research once a week

2 The Subject of the Research

The subject of the research was the 11th graded students of two classes Each class consisted of

30 students The students were observed by the researcher in their English lesson

B Action Research

1 Definition of Action Research

In this study, the classroom action research was conducted as a way to solve the problems related to students’ pronunciation According to Ferrance (1998) action research is a process in which participants examine their own educational practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research Ferrance’s statement is clear enough since it provides complete information about action research reflected in these key words: process, participants, educational

practice, and techniques of research

Meanwhile, Carr and Kemmis in Anne Burns (1999: 30) states that action research is the application of fact finding to practical problem solving in a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it, involving the collaboration and co-operation of researchers, practitioners, and laymen

Wallace (1998: 255) states that action research is a method of professional development which involves the systematic collection and analysis of data related to practice

From the definition above, it can be concluded that action research is the systematic study

of problem solving in a social situation with the involvement of the researcher to improve the quality of action within it which involves the systematic collection and analysis of data related to practice

2 The Steps in Action Research

Kemmis and McTaggert in Burns (1999:32) explain that action research occurs through a dynamic and complementary process, which consists of four essential ‘moments’: planning, action, observation and reflection These moments are the fundamental steps in a spiraling process Each step is explained as follows:

c Observation

Observation is a step where the researcher observes the effects of the critically informed action

in the context in which it occurs The researcher observes all activities happening in the classroom and make notes related to the process of teaching and learning The researcher does observation during teaching and learning process

d Reflection

Reflection is a step to reflect the effects of the action as the basis for further planning Reflecting

is needed as the basis for further planning In this step the researcher reflects what he has done through a succession of stages

The spiral model can be illustrated as follows:

3 The Procedure of Action Research

The four steps at the model can be expanded into six steps which included in the procedure of

action research The procedures are: 1) identifying the problem; 2) planning the action; 3)

implementing the action; 4) observing the action; 5) reflecting the action; and 6) revising the plan Each step will be explained as follows:

3.1 Identify a Problem Area

In identifying the problems, the researcher had conducted pre- observation, pre-test, interview and distributed the questionnaires before conducting the research

The problems were identified by using three elements:

(1) Test

The pre-test was given in order to know the students’ pronunciation ability

(2) Interview the Teacher and the Students

The interview was held in order to know the problems faced by the teacher during teaching learning process

(3) Observation

The observation was held in order to know the students’ pronunciation ability, teaching method used by the teacher, and the students’ behavior during teaching-learning process

3.2 Planning the Action

General plan will be made before implementing the action The researcher will prepare everything related to the action as follows:

(1) Preparing the materials and sheets for classroom observation (to know the situation of teaching-learning process when the technique is applied)

(2) Making lesson plan and designs the steps in doing the action

(3) Preparing teaching aids (slide shows, text-book, etc)

(4) Preparing exercises and post-tests (to know whether students’ pronunciation ability improves or not)

3.2.1 Implementing the Action

In implementing the action, the researcher did the planning which had been made The researcher applies the lesson plans the researcher had made The researcher used cartoon films in teaching and learning process in order to improve students’ pronunciation ability The real implementation was presented as follows

a The researcher prepared materials containing some exercises and practices taken and adapted from book and other sources

b The researcher gave short explanation and guided the students to understand and to practice how to produce English sounds

c The researcher played the cartoon films that would be imitate by the students in the class

d The researcher asked the students to read the dialogue in front of the class

e The researcher records the dialogue

f The researcher asked about the students’ feeling and their comment dealing with cartoon films and the activities done in the classroom

3.2.2 Observing the Action

The observation was done during the teaching and learning process In this step, the English teacher of Le Quy Don High School was the observer He observed all activities happening in the classroom and took notes related to the process of teaching and learning There were some aspects which were observed: class situation, students’ behavior, teacher technique in delivering the materials and students response when they were given the materials

3.2.3 Reflecting the Action

The researcher evaluated the teaching activity that had been carried out The researcher reflected the field note in order to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the teaching activity that had been carried out The weaknesses are refined in the next cycle, so that finally the effectiveness of using videos to improve students’ pronunciation ability is determined

3.2.4 Revising the Plan

Revising plan was needed when the action cycle did not make any improvement on the students’ pronunciation ability Based on the weaknesses which are found in reflecting process, the researcher revises the plan for the next cycle

This research is conducted in two cycles Pre-test is held at the beginning of cycle to measure students’ pronunciation ability before implementing the action In the end of every cycle, there was post-test Students’ improvement was seen in the results which were compared from the pre-test and post-test

C Method of Research

In order to find out students’ Pronunciation improvement towards the audiovisual method, the author employed both qualitative and quantitative methods Quantitative researchers are concerned in their research with an attempt to count, measure the events and perform the statistical analysis of a body of numerical data (Smith, 1988) According to Balsley (1970), this method can achieve high levels of reliability of gathered data due to controlled observations, laboratory experiments, mass surveys, or other form of research manipulations Meanwhile, qualitative research involves accurately describing, decoding, and interpreting the meanings of phenomena occurring in their normal social contexts (Fryer, 1991) The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is beneficial because “by using a rigorous design, the

quantitative methods can tell us what works, while the qualitative can tell us how it works” (Condelli and & Wrigley, 2003)

Moreover, quasi-experimental design was applied to the research The participants were divided into control group and experimental group The audio visual method was utilized to teach to experimental group, whereas control group was taught pronunciation by using traditional method The study aims at investigating the improvement of English pronunciation of EFL Vietnamese Learners Therefore, it consisted of two variables The dependent variable is the students’ achievement on the pronunciation posttest The independent variable is method of teaching pronunciation with videos Besides, to ensure the validity and reliability of the research, the author made use of a number of data collection instruments, including questionnaire, interview, and the pre and posttests

D Research Instruments

To gather data related to students’ improvement on English Pronunciation, the author made use

of several instruments, namely pretest, posttest, questionnaire and interview

1 Pre-test

The participants were required to do pretest before the experimental teaching The pretest was designed to access students’ English pronunciation Students had to complete the test in 10 minutes There was no guidance or help given during the test The test consisted one parts which

is a range of most commonly mispronounced words by non-native English language learners in Vietnam The participants were provided a wordlist adapted from Nguyen’s (2007) study on the pronunciation difficulties faced by Vietnamese learners of English It was aimed to find out whether the students already know how to pronounce some words in English correctly or not In the first part, the wordlist contained fourteen words which ended with six final consonant sounds that are foreign to Vietnamese speakers (/s/, /z/, /l/, /ð/, /f/, /v/) and for the second part, The students will read some random sentences Students should aware of being evaluated on pronunciation and therefore slowly enunciate each syllable

2 Questionnaire

The author took advantage of questionnaire which is a valuable technique to gather students’ perception toward the study There are two questionnaires in this research The questionnaire A

will identify the problems of the students when they pronounce English final consonants and find out students ‘opinion about new methods to improve their pronunciation The result of questionnaire A will use to compare with the Questionnaire B’s result which is given to the students after posttest This can help the author knows students’ perception improve or not Grillham (2000) stated that questionnaire helps researchers get information from a lot of people easily without costing too much time and money It can also supply respondents do not have to

be under much pressure for immediate response The respondent’s privacy is kept; therefore, they can provide reliable answer

The questionnaire was divided into two parts:

Part 1: Student’s personal information

This part includes student’s ages, genders, fields of study and years of study and years of learning English

Part 2: The main part

It focuses Student’s attitudes towards and perceptions of using videos to improve English pronunciation It was also used to gain information about students’ opinion about the audio visual aids and what the students’ want or need

3 Treatment

In this research, the lesson would be held four times for control group and four times for experimental group The researcher taught English pronunciation with traditional methods for control group For experimental group, the researcher asked students to watch some videos which were collected from the internet

4 Post-test

The test was given to the students after four times treatment The test has the same format as pretest Both the pre and posttest are equal in term of level of difficulty The posttest was also conducted 10 minutes The same tool of pretest evaluation was used to mark student’s posttest The results of posttest were in comparison with that of pretest so as to reveal the impact of adapting audio-visual method for improving English Pronunciation

D Data collection procedure

The data collection took place in the second semester of the academic year 2016-2017 at Le Quy