Using software to improve first year english majors pronunciation

Table I English consonants 8 Table 2 Students' common mistakes in producing English sounds 24 Table 3 Students' stress on important words 24 Table 4 Students' stress on corrective words

T R I N H T H I HANG

USING SOFTWARE TO IMPROVE FIRST-YEAR

ENGLISH MAJORS' PRONUNCIATION: AN ACTION

RESEARCH AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY

SU DUNG PHAN MEM PHAT TRIEN KHA NANG PHAT

AM CHO SINH VIEN CHUYEN NGANH TIENG ANH NAM THU N H A T : NGHIEN CUU HANH DONG TAI TRUONG

DAI HOC HONG DUC

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Major: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Do Tuan Minh, PhD

H A N O I - 2 0 1 0

IV

TABLE OF CONTENT

Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF DIAGRAMS, CHARTS, AND TABLES ^"'

PARTI INTRODUCTION I

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Purposes of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Method of the study 3

6 Significance of the study , 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART II DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW , 5

1.1 Role of pronunciation in language learning 5

1.2 Aspects of pronunciation teaching 6

1.2.1 Vowel sounds 7

1.2.2 Consonant sounds 8

1.2.3 Word stress 9

1.2.4 Sentence stress 9

1.3 Approaches to pronunciation teaching 11

1.3.1 Explicit or Implicit H

1.3.2 Top-down or Bottom-up 13

1.4 Computers-assisted language learning (CALL) and EFL learning and

teaching 14 1.5 Roles of CALL software in EFL teaching and learning 15

1.6 Benefits of using C A L L softAvarc in EFL teaching and learning 16

1.7 Limitations of CALL software in EFL learning and teaching 17

C H A P T E R 2 M E T H O D O L O G Y : 19

2.1 Context of the study 19

2.2 Arguments for the use of an action research 19

2.3 Description of the software program 20

2.4 Subjects of the study 21

2.5 Instruments 21

2.6 Procedure 22

C H A P T E R 3 DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23

3.1 Findings from the pretest 23

3.4 Further findings from the teacher's obser>ation and informal

intei-view with students 37

PART HI CONCLUSION 39

1 vSummary 39

2 Pedagogical implication 39

3 Limitations of the study 40

4 Suggestions for further research 40

R E F E R E N C E S 42 APPENDICES I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

NS: Native speaker

NNS: NOP native speaker

IT: Information technology

CALL: Computer-assisted language learning

CMC: Computer mediated communication

Table I English consonants 8

Table 2 Students' common mistakes in producing English sounds 24

Table 3 Students' stress on important words 24

Table 4 Students' stress on corrective words 25

Table 5 Students' intonation of statements, yes-no questions, wh-questions,

requests and suggestions 27 Table 6 Students' intonation of lists 27

Table 7 Students' performance of linking 28

Tabic 8 Aspects of pronunciation to be integrated in speaking lessons 29

Table 9 Comparison of the students' pronunciation of English sounds in the

pretest and posttest 30 Table 10 Students' stress on important words 32

Table I 1 Students' stress on corrective words 32

Table 12 Students' intonation of statements, yes-no questions, wh-questions,

polite requests and suggestions 34 Table 13 Students' intonation of lists 35

Table 14 Students' performance of linking 35

Charts

Chart I Rhythm and thought groups 26

Chart 2 Rhythm and thought groups 33

In the last decades, the general goals of teaching have primed the effective use of the spoken language to establish successful communication That is why there has been a steady growth

in the attention to the magnitude of speaking and pronunciation teaching This fact has brought about an emergent debate about models, goals and particularly, the methodology used for speaking and pronunciation teaching

A number of research studies have dealt with pronunciation teaching and problems students face in English pronunciation The research findings have revealed that pronunciation frequently interferes with communication As a matter of fact, communication may break down when people pronounce incorrectly Moreover, learners with good pronunciation are usually more proficient speakers and more successful language learners than those with poor pronunciation

Since I started teaching at Hong Due University, I have taught speaking and pronunciation to first-year 1-nglish majors many times 1 have always been trying my best to help my students pronounce better However, I have had many frustrations because my students always have many mistakes in their pronunciation 1 have been investigating into the reasons for this, and I have found that my students, most of whom are from rural areas in the province, only learned grammar and never focused on pronunciation at secondary school Moreover, they did not have much access to native speakers' pronunciation

lor non-English majors at other departments of Hong Due University, they are required to have intelligible pronunciation English majors at Foreign Department, however, must go tar beyond the intelligibility to the point that they should sound like or nearly like native speakers because they will become teachers of English and their pronunciation will affect man\ generations to come That is the reason why frst-year English majors' weak pronunciation has been a matter of serious concern amonc us

Due to the importance of pronunciation in language learning and the poor pronunciation of first-year English majors at Hong Due university, I decided to introduce some changes into my speaking and pronunciation course for first-year English majors with the hope to improve their

pronunciation That v/as the reason why I conducted this study "Using software to improve

first-year English majors' pronunciation: An action research at Hong Due University \ which

tried to exploit the software programs available in my speaking and pronunciation lessons with

an aim to improve first-year English majors' pronunciation

2 Purposes of the study

The purpose of this study is to improve English pronunciation for first-year English majors at

I long Due University Specifically, it has three purposes as follows:

- To identify students' most common mistakes in their English pronunciation

- To exploit the software program, namely Pronunciation Power as an intervention in

pronunciation lessons to improve students' pronunciation

- To justify Ihc effectiveness of using pronunciation software in teaching r:nglish pronunciation to first-year English majors

3 Research questions

Regarding the importance of pronunciation teaching, purpose of the research and statement of the problem, this study is accomplished to find the answer to the question ^How effectively is software exploited to improve first-year English majors* pronunciation at Hong Due university? * Specifically, the study addressed the following three research questions:

• What are the students' most common problems regarding their English pronunciation?

• Is Pronunciation A;MCTeffective in teaching first-year English majors' pronunciation?

• If yes, how effective is it?

using the pronunciation software named Pronunciation Power, Within its scope, the research

was aimed at justifying the effectiveness of using this software program in teaching English pronunciation to first-year English majors at Hong Due university

5 Methods of the study

This study is conducted as an action research because it is aimed at improving first-year

English majors' pronunciation In order to get data, a combination of different instruments, namely class observation, informal interviews and audio-recording, is used The data collected from the observation and interviews will be analyzed by qualitative method, and the data collected through the tape scripts will be analyzed by quantitative method

6 Significance of the study

Even though there have been numerous studies on pronunciation teaching, few investigations into the use of software in teaching pronunciation are conducted This research provides an insight into the effectiveness of applying pronunciation software to the teaching of pronunciation to first-year English majors The results of the study will, therefore, be much beneficial to both teachers who are considering whether to exploit software programs in their English pronunciation lessons and students who are interested in using software programs to improve their English pronunciation

7 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts as follows

The first part deals with rationale, purposes, research questions, scope, methods and design of

the study

The second part contains three chapters, in which chapter I reviews the literature focusing on the theoretical basis related to teaching pronunciation and using C A L L programs in language learning and teaching, chapter 2 presents a detailed description o f the research methodology, and chapter 3 discusses the findings o f the study

The final part summarizes all the main ideas expressed throughout the research, provides pedagogical implications and suggests further research orientations

also adds that pronunciation instruction needs' to be integrated with broader level communicative activities in which speakers and listeners engage in meaning communication

It is obvious in my situation as a teacher o f English that students' weak pronunciation has negative effect on their ability to express themselves and their ability to listen to others, especially to native speakers Speakers with wrong pronunciation find it difficult to make themselves understood by the teacher and other students, which makes them embarrassed and hesitant to continue speaking Moreover, when a learner has already stuck to the wrong way of pronouncing a particular word, phrase or sentence, (s)he is unlikely to recognize the authentic pronunciation by a native speaker and fail to interpret what the speaker means

Therefore, it can be concluded that pronunciation play an essential role in learning a foreign language because it is intelligible pronunciation that make communication possible and even if

a speaker uses the right words with the right structure hut without correct or inlclligibic pronunciation, s(he) is likely to cause misunderstanding, communication interruption, or even communication breakdown

1.2 Aspects of pronunciation teaching

As regards what teaching pronunciation involves, Ur (1996:47) claims that "the concept oj

''pronunciation " may be said to include:

- the sounds of the language, or phonology,

- stress and rhythm

- intonation "

Martin Hcwings in his book Pronunciation Practice Activities presents that the following

elements should be included in the English pronunciation teaching:

- Segmental features with more focus on consonants, consonant clusters and vowel length

- Suprasegmental features consisting of word stress, tonic words, weak and strong forms, connected speech and tone, (pp.15 - 16)

1.2.1 Vowel sounds

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., and Goodwn, J, (1996) defines vowels as ""sounds in which

there is continual vibration of the vocal cords and the air stream is allowed to escape from the mouth in an obstructed manner, without any interruption.'"

According to Roach (1998), vowels are "'sounds in the production of which there is no

obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips.'' Vowels can be classified in

terms of:

- the height of the bulk of the tongue in the mouth

- the front/back position of the tongue in the mouth.- the degree of lip-rounding

- the length of vowels

The classification can be shown in the following diagram:

• i:

\

•

\ clof«

1.2.2 Consonant sounds

According to Kelly G, (2003:24), "'consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or

diverting the airflow in a variety of ways.'"

Roach (1998) define consonants as ""sounds in which there is obstruction to thejlow of air as

it passes the larynx to the lips "

Consonants are classified according to:

- the manner o f articulation

- the place of articulation

- the force of articulation

The classification of English consonants can be shown in the following tabic:

Table / English consonants

dental

f V

: ; * ^ s ' :

Imor dental

1.2.3 Word stress

Avery and Ehrlich's (1992) state that word stress involves making vowels longer and louder Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaun (1973:450) defines stress as the prominence with which one part of a word or of a longer utterance is distinguished from other parts According

to Pennington, stress has at least three prosodic features, which are duration (or length), intensity (or loudness) and pitch (or fundamental frequency)

Word stress is closely related to intelligibility because when a word is said with incorrect stress pattern, the listener may spend time searching for the word in the wrong stress category

A stress pattern mistake can, therefore, cause a great deal of confusion That is the reason why Kelly (2000) emphasizes that it would be practical to base our teaching principle on a two-level division (stressed or unstressed)

1.2.4 Sentence stress

According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992), in a particular sentence, one content word receives greater stress than all others, which is referred as the major sentence stress In most cases, the major sentence stress falls on the last content word within a sentence However, there are also cases in which the major sentence stress will not fall on the final content word of the sentence

It depends on the speakers who decide which word in their speech they want to give more or less prominence A word may be given less weight because it has been said already, or it may

be given more weight because the speaker want to highlight it

The use of incorrect stress in English can make it difficult for listeners to identify the meaning

of the sentence Kenworthy (1987) demonstrates that there is a great deal of evidence that native speakers rely very much on the stress pattern of words when they are listening, and that when a native speaker mishears a word, it is because the foreigner has put the stress in the wrong place, not because he or she mispronounced the sounds of the word

1.2.5, Rhythm

Kenworthy (1987:30) claims that rhythm is a product of word stress and the way in which important items are foregrounded through their occurrence on a strong beat, and unimportant items are backgrounded by their occurrence on a weak beat Dalton and Scidlhofer (1994) also give the similar description of rhythm concentrating on the contrast between stress and

unstress, which states that ""utterances are continuous strings of syllables, the stressed

syllables provides the foreground and the unstressed ones the backgrounds " English has a

stres.s-timed rhythm, in which stressed syllables recur at equal intervals of time but unstressed syllables are unequally spaced in time The amount of time it takes to say a sentence depends

on the number of syllables that receive stress, not on the total number of syllables This should

be distinguished from syllable-timed rhythm like Vietnamese, in which all the syllables recur

at equal intervals of time, stressed or unstressed, so that Vietnamese students can avoid the interference of their mother tongue in the target language

1.2.6 Intonation

According to Kelly (2000), intonation refers to the way the voice goes up and down in pitch

when wc are speaking He also claims that "// is a fundamental part of the way we express our

o\yn thoughts and it enables us to understand those of others "

Four basic tunes of English are as follows:

- The falling tune (the glide-down)

- The first rising tune (the glide-up)

- The second rising tune (the take-oft)

-The falling-rising tune

Intonation has the function as the expression of speaker's altitude and purpose in sa\ing something such as greeting you, telling you something, asking you, ordering >ou pleading

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with you or thanking you etc Intonation is therefore important for intelligibility Inappropriate intonation pattern can lead to misunderstanding just as mispronounced sound can The importance o f raising students' awareness o f the uses o f four basic tunes of English

in order to improve their communicative performance is therefore can not be denied

1.2.7 Other aspects of connected speech

The following aspects appear when English is spoken in casual and rapid everyday speech

* Assimilation

According to Kelly (2000), assimilation is the modification of sounds on each other when they meet, usually across word boundaries, but can also within words Assimilation is said to be progressive when a sound influences a following sound, or regressive when a sound inlluenccs one which precedes it

* Word linking

When a word finishes with a consonant and is followed by another word which an initial vowel, the final consonant o f the first word will j o i n with the first vowel of the second one

* Elision

Kelly (2000) define elision as ''the disappearance of a sound In saying an utterance, some

sounds are deleted due to the fast speed and also due to the economy o f effort, when people do not want to try hard in pronouncing every single sound

1.3 Ap|)roaches to pronunciation teaching

1.3.1 Explicit or I m p l i c i t

In a summary of the application o f explicit phonetic instruction in pronunciation teaching Derwing and Munrol (2005:388) explain explicit phonetic instruction as follows: 'Must as students learning certain grammar points benefit from being explicitly instructed to notice the

difference between their productions and those of LI speakers, so students learning L2 pronunciation benefit from being explicitly taught phonological form to help them notice the difference"

In a well-known study by Derwing, Munrol and Wiebe (1998), explicit instruction was given

to the experimental group and not to the control group Both groups were evaluated before and after the experiment by both trained and untrained listeners The results demonstrated that explicit phonetic instruction enhanced learners' pronunciation of the target language

Luchini in his article "Task-Based Pronunciation Teaching: A State-of-the-art Perspective"

argues that "" the formal instruction of those common core features of English pronunciation

- vowel length, nuclear stress (especially contrastive stress), and voice setting - which seem to

be vital for establishing intelligibility enable learners to take utmost advantage of both (heir receptive and productive pronunciation skills " /"p 197)

However, not all researchers agree that formal and explicit instruction can help students to improve their pronunciation Roach,1983; Dalton and Seihofcr 1994: among others state that numerous students can not gain all the prosodic features when they arc overly taught, which can only be implicitly learnt by long-term exposure to the target language, (pi95)

I myself believe that overt instruction is necessary in the speaking and pronunciation lessons, especially for my first-year English major students at Hong Due universitx because they will become teachers of English and they need to know exactK how a sound, a word, a phrase, an utterance or a sentence is pronounced, so that they can teach their pupils in the forthcoming luture, not just to learn pronunciation implicitly without thorough understanding of it However, this does not mean that implicit learning is not important Teachers should on the one hand give explicit phonetic instructions and on the other hand encourage students to continuously expose to the target language

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1.3.2 Top-down or Bottom-up

Pronunciation teaching consists of 2 parts: segmental (consonants, vowels and clustering) and suprasegmental (thoughts group, prominence, intonation and syllable structure) Dalton &

Scidhofcr in their book Pronunciation identify two approaches to pronunciation teaching

including bottom-up and top-down In bottom-up approach, the segmental features are to be taught first, then the suprasegmentals will naturally be gained Whereas, in the top-down approach, the prosodic features are to be learnt before the segments, (pp.69-70)

According to Celce-Murcia (2001), the top-down approach, in which suprasegmental aspects

of pronunciation arc addressed first, has been the main trend in pronunciation leaching Field (2005:20) also states that suprasegmentals should be taught first in order to improve learners' intelligibility He explains that the results of numerous research have shown the importance of suprasegmentals over the segmentals Moreover, segmentals arc manageable because listeners can use their lexical knowledge to interpret the phonemes

In contrast to Celce-Murcia and Field, Levis (2005) claims that the mainstream emphasis on suprasegmental aspects is not entirely valid because it is not based on sound research and he points out a segmental focus makes a more important contribution to intelligibility Saito (2007:20) also emphasizes the importance of teaching segmental prior to suprasegmental features and argues that the communication can get through if the speakers use the wrong prosody because the listeners can interpret what the speakers mean, but the speakers' mispronunciation of the sounds in minimal pairs can lead to communication disruption

Luchini (2005:195), however, balances these two approaches when he assumes that we should equilibrate between segmentals and suprasegmentals so that students can decide whether the\ desire to be native-like speakers or not He goes on to argue that both segmental and suprasegmental features are important in making one's pronunciation intelligible

In the researcher's intervention, she followed the bottom-up approach in which segmental features were taught before suprasegmental ones

1.4 Computers-assisted language learning ( C A L L ) and EFL learning and teaching

During the last decades, much C A L L research has explored the potential of technology as well

as multimedia—the combination o f text, audio, video, graphics, and animations—as a tool to teach and reinforce English language learning These studies focus on justifying the effectiveness of the application o f certain technologies in specific language skill areas

In his recent literature review and meta-analysis, Zhao (2003) identifies three problems with assessing the effectiveness o f technology First is the problem o f defining what counts as

technology (videos, C A L L tutorials, and chat rooms, for example, are obviously very different) The second problem is separating a technology from its particular uses Because any given technology may be used in a variety of ways, some effective, some not, it is difficult

to generalize about the effectiveness o f a technology itself The third issue has to do with the effects of other mediating factors, such as the learners, the setting, the task(s), and the type o f assessment Zhao attempted to address these issues by performing a meta-analysis of stringently selected studies published between 1997 and 2001 Including technologies ranging from video to speech recognition to web tutorials, Zhao found a significant main effect for technology applications on student learning

According to (Wood, 2001) and Nikolova (2002), multimedia is seen as supporting vocabulary acquisition because it can effectively present new lexical items and enable learners

to practice them with visual referents and through gaming formats that include visual and auditory information, which improve retention

Multimedia technology containing audio and video has also been shown to promote the development o f listening skills (Brett, 1997 Merler 2000), and computer mediated communication (CMC) has also had positive effects on language acquisition (Chun, 1994; Warschauer, 1997) Gulcan (2003), and Hagood (2003) contend that the interpla\ of multimedia elements improves learning to read a second language

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Stenson, Downing, Smith, & Smith (1992) hold the view that visual displays of language learner speech and the opportunity to visually and aurally compare output to that of a native speaker have been shown to improve target language pronunciation

In short, much recent CALL research has focused on the application of CALL in language teaching and research results have showed that CALL can be effectively employed to support and enhance language acquisition Few, however, have focused on the application of computer software in language learning and teaching The chief aim of this study was to justify the effectiveness of using computer software to teach English pronunciation to English major students

1.5 Roles of CALL software in EFL teaching and learning

According to Kern (2006), the role of technology in CALL can be thought of in terms of "///c

metaphors of tutor, tool, and mediufn\ In the tutor role, computers can provide instruction,

feedback, and testing in grammar, vocabulary, writing, pronunciation, and other dimensions of language and culture learning Voice interactive CALL can also simulate communicative

interaction In the tool role, computers provide ready access to written, audio, and visual

materials relevant to the language and culture being studied They also provide reference tools such as online dictionaries, grammar and style checkers, and concordances for corpus analysis

The Internet and databases can serve as tools for research In the medium role, technology

provides sites for interpersonal communication, multimedia publication, distance learning, community participation, and identity formation

Specifically, Barr (2004) sees the roles of CALL software as follows:

- CALL software as a learning aid

Barr (2004) states that generic and specialized computer-assisted learning software have been used to enhance the learning capabilities of students in many areas of study, including

language learning Similar to Kern, Barr also regards computer software as a tutor, ''adopting

the role of the teacher" and as a tool to develop course materials

- CALL software as a resource for reference

According to Barr, CALL software programs are available over the web which can also be directly downloaded This give tutors the opportunity to prepare lessons using the programs appropriate with aims and objectives of their lessons Similarly, students are free to browse the web for material or use CALL packages in their own time

Therefore, it can not be denied that information technology in general and CALL software in particular play a positive role in language learning and teaching In other words, IT and CALL software enhances the process of language learning

1.6 Benefits of using CALL soft^varc in EFL teaching and learning

As regards benefits of CALL software, Sciarone and Mcijcr (1993, quoted in Barr 2004)

suggested that ""(\4LL programs can be used for quite tedious tasks such a\ /caching grammar

and vocabulary acquisition'' (p33) CALL programs will never tire, unlike human teachers,

and can be used repeatedly Barr added that when students use CALL packages, the teacher therefore has more time to devote to preparing other types of classes, concentrating on specific problems they may have In addition, CALL has a certain academic value Many modern programs make effective use of graphics and color and recorded sound: they are therefore eye- catching, which make students be attracted to the programs that teach tedious areas of

language learning This view is further reinforced by Galavis (1998), who claimed that "Video,

pictures, and sound presented by computers stimulate sight and hearing simultaneously in a way traditional resources do not'''

Galavis goes on to state that CALL software programs may provide considerable input and a

wide variety of registers and accents They ""provide access to authentic materials" Pacoex

(1997) also maintains that CALL software is able to offer comprehensible input, which is

necessary for the taking place of second language learning Hie software utilize a

multi-sensory collection of text, sound, pictures, video, animation and even hypermedia which provide meaningful contexts to facilitate comprehension

of self-study

Another major advantage is that by learning a foreign language using software, students can develop their own autonomy by going at the pace that suits them best and choosing the most appropriate learning styles and strategies

C A L L software can also take a load of pressure off students It can be frustrating and embarrassing to struggle learning a language in front of others that are learning it rather easily When students learn at home, there is no pressure and no one to feel timid around while learning

Moreover, most o f the software for language learning comes along with interactive audio lessons, and even speech recognition software for pronunciation The more advanced software offerings even come provided with an interactive forum where students can interact with a particular language professional and fellow students All these characteristics help students to immerse in authentic materials and expose to native speakers

It is due to these benefits o f using software in language learning and teaching that the researcher, as a teacher o f English o f Foreign Language Department at Hong Due University decided to exploit the software to teach pronunciation to her first-year English majors

1.7 Limitations of C A L L software in EFL learning and teaching

Beside the precious benefits that C A L L programs can bring to language learning and teaching, there reveal certain limitations that teachers should take into consideration when choosing these programs to integrate into their lessons

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As Graham Davies points out, in his article on history of C A L L , that these programs are not suitably spontaneous (2000) In other words, they do not yet have the ability to react to the unforeseen It students do not understand the mistakes they make, the help sections that many

C A L L packages provide are limited by the information that the programmer has fed into the help section database They cannot address questions that have not been pre-programmed

Moreover, ""it appears that CALL systems have insufficient technological capability to

recognize and respond to the human voice" (Ehsani and Knodt, 1998 quoted in Barr, 2004)

Students cannot yet conduct a conversation in a foreign language with a computer: human contact is required for this type o f interaction Galavis (1998) agrees on this fact when he states that computers do not provide some important features of real communicative exchanges as well as the sense o f cooperation that can be found in class with a teacher Lee (2000) also stated that there is a lack of high quality software

To a certain extent, these limitations can be reduced in a number o f way.s Levy (1997:231) argues that it is importance for language teachers to have a more direct role in the production

o f C A L L software, thereby, ensuring the pedagogical relevance o f these programs In addition, all the software programs should be carefully checked before being used

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CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context of the study

The study was conducted at Hong Due university in Thanh Hoa province This is a discipline university in which English is one of the majors Students at Foreign Language Department are trained to become teachers of English for secondary schools in Thanh Hoa Teachers of English training course K12, to which the study is targeted, is in its first year in the academic year 2009-2010

multi-In the first semester, pronunciation is not designed as a separate subject but integrated into the speaking course which is delivered within 15 weeks with 4 periods a week The course book

being used is ""Let's talk / " by Leo Jones, Cambridge University Press 2002

My observation at the first and second week of the semester showed that students made many mistakes in their pronunciation I tried to correct some of these mistakes Iloxsever students seemed so solidly stuck to their initial pronunciation that right after the teacher's feedback, they returned to their mistakes Therefore I decided to provide them with proper training using the software packages that arc vivid enough to change their fossilized mistakes

2.2 Arguments for the use of an action research

""Action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular school operates, how they teach, and how well their students learn The information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educational practices in general, and improving student outcomes " (Mills, 2004:4)

According to Cohen and Manion (1985), the aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs within educational context in which the research is carried out

Koshy (2005) also maintains that action research is a powerful and useful model for practitioner research because research can be set within a specific context or situation and researchers can be participants - they do not have to be distant and detached from the situation

The researcher, as a teacher, decided to choose action research as her methodology because action research is classroom-based research conducted by teachers in order to reflect upon and evolve their teaching This meets the main purpose o f my thesis, that is to gain understanding

o f teaching and learning within my own classroom and to use that knowledge to increase my teaching efficacy and improve my own students' pronunciation

2.3 Description of the software program

Pronunciation Power scries consisting o f 2 CD-Roms is an interactive software program that

focuses on developing students' individual sounds and basic suprasegmental features I here arc three areas o f study for a particular sound: Lessons, Speech Analysis, and Exercises Pronunciation Power I contains S.T.A.l.R (Stress, Timing Articulation Intonation and pitch and Rhythm) Exercises which are not available in Pronunciation Power 2 Audible sounds are accompanied by visual illustrations (a side and a front view) o f real-time articulatory movements for the production of the sounds For the side view, animated drawings provide an x-rayed look of the complete articulatory mechanics, including manner and location of airflow, lips and tongue placement and movement, velum movement, and whether a sound is voiced or voiceless For the front view, a video clip of a real person is shown, demonstrating jaw, lip, and tongue protrusion movement A written description, and at times suggestions, for prcxkicing the sound is provided, which the user can access as an auditory clip The Speech Analysis offers the user a look at graphic representations of the sound utterance as a waveform The user is able to record their own production of the sound, and then compare their waveform o f the sound with that o f the instructor The waxeforms provide information concerning the loudness (amplitude) and pitch (frequenc>) o f sounds, as well as duration (length)

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2.4 Subjects of the study

The researcher is a teacher of Foreign Language Department at Hong Due University The students participating in the research were 30 flrst-year English majors from KI2 - teacher training cour.se, academic year 2009-2010 of Foreign Language Department at Hong Due University They consist of 29 girls and I boy, who are between 1 8 - 2 0 years of age They come from different districts in Thanh Hoa and have learned English for 7 years or more They must get at least mark 5 for English in order to pass the entrance exam 1 herefore, it can

be assumed that these students are quite homogeneous in their level of English proficiency

2.5 Instruments

The lull period of data collection covered the whole term in order to help me sec the effects of

my interventions 'I'hrec dilTerent methods were used, of which classroom observation and informal interviews with the students were carried out through the whole term and the other one, audio-recording at the beginning as a pre-test and the end of the term as a post-test

Classrooni observation

My observation fell on the following aspects:

Students' accurate pronunciation of sounds

Students' word strcss and sentence stress

- Students' use of rhythm unit

Students' intonation

My observation was noted down in my teaching journals after each lesson

Informal interview with sludents

Throughout the whole term, I conducted informal interviews with my students during class breaks My major concerns are their opinions of the new way of presenting the pronunciation using the software, and how useful they think it is Information obtained from my students was also included into my teaching journals

A udio-recording

This is the main instrument to collect the needed information in my research which were administered to students at the second week and final week of the semester The purpose of the first audio-recording is to find out students' typical pronunciation mistakes regarding sounds, stress, rhythm and intonation The second audio-recording is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using CALL software in teaching pronunciation

2.6 Procedure

The study was conducted during the first term of the academic year 2009-2010 At the beginning of the semester, a pretest was conducted to the students to find out the current situation of their pronunciation Then the intervention was provided During the pronunciation

and speaking classes, the teacher used the CALL software package named Pronunciation

Power to give sludents explicit instruction on how to pronounce different sounds, to put stress

on words or in sentences, to speak with the right rhythm and intonation in English Then the students practiced with the help of the software to achieve native-like pronunciation At the end of the semester, a post-test was administered to these students to discover whether the intervention had any positive effect on their pronunciation Furthermore, from the ver\ first lesson of the course, the teacher kept the record of the students" pronunciation in classroom activities in her teaching journals, which lasted for a whole term By the end of the term, 15 records of teacher observation will be collected In the class breaks during the term, informal interviews with the students were carried out and also kept in the teacher's teaching journals

Based on the results of the audio-recording as well as the teacher's observation and informal interview's with the students,, the efficiency of the intervention was evaluated