Using minimal pairs to teach english discrete sounds to english non majored students a case study at the university of transport in hcmc

VIETNAMESE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES  USING MINIMAL PAIRS TO TEACH ENGLISH DISCRETE SOU

VIETNAMESE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES



USING MINIMAL PAIRS TO TEACH

ENGLISH DISCRETE SOUNDS

TO ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS:

A CASE STUDY

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT IN HCMC

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by

LÊ THANH TÚ

Supervisor

TÔ MINH THANH, Ph.D.

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2009

DEDICATION

to my family, the great teachers, and friends of my life

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that this thesis entitled

“USING MINIMAL PAIRS TO TEACH ENGLISH DISCRETE SOUNDS

TO ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS:

A CASE STUDY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT IN HCMC”

submitted in terms of the Statements of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee, is my own work

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2nd, 2009

LÊ THANH TÚ

ii

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, LÊ THANH TÚ, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library

I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction for theses

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2nd, 2009

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of authority i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Table of contents iii

List of figures vii

List of tables ix

List of abbreviations and symbols xi

Acknowledgements xii

Abstract xiii

INTRODUCTION 1

0.1 Rationale of the study 1

0.2 Aims of the study 2

0.3 Significance of the study 3

0.4 Design of the study 3

0.5 Limitation of the study 4

0.6 Delimitation of the study 5

Chapter 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Basic terms 6

1.1.1 Minimal pairs 6

1.1.2 Discrete sounds 6

1.1.3 Consonant Zero 7

1.2 Speech sounds 8

1.2.1 Vowels 8

1.2.1.1 Definition 8

1.2.1.2 Classification 8

1.2.2 Consonants 10

1.2.2.1 Definition 10

1.2.2.2 Classification 10

1.2.2.2.1 Places of articulation 10

1.2.2.2.2 Manners of articulation 11

1.2.2.2.3 Voicing 14

1.2.3 Diphthongs 15

1.2.4 Phonemes 15

1.2.5 Allophones 16

1.3 Relationship between minimal pairs and pronunciation acquisition 16

1.4 Relevant research and theory 17

1.4.1 Relevant researches 17

1.4.2 Relevant theory of pronunciation teaching 18

1.5 Principles and techniques in pronunciation teaching 20

1.6 Summary 24

Chapter 2

METHODOLOGY 25

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2.1 Research questions 25

2.2 Materials and instruments 25

2.2.1 Classroom tasks 25

2.2.2 Audiovisual aids 26

2.2.3 Technological tools 26

2.2.3.1 Teaching tools 26

2.2.3.2 Recording tool 30

2.2.3.3 Analysing tools 30

2.2.4 Pronunciation test 33

2.2.5 Recordings 34

2.2.6 Questionnaires 34

2.2.7 Interviews 35

2.2.8 Observations 35

2.3 Responsive community 35

2.3.1 The student subjects 35

2.3.2 The teacher subjects 36

2.4 Research procedures 36

2.4.1 Getting started 36

2.4.2 Doing the experimental teaching 37

2.4.3 Testing the students’ achievement 37

2.4.4 Collecting data 37

2.4.5 Analysing data 37

2.4.6 Testing the study’s hypotheses 38

2.5 Summary 38

Chapter 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 39

3.1 Results of questionnaires 39

3.1.1 Results of Students’ Questionnaire 1 39

3.1.2 Results of Students’ Questionnaire 2 47

3.1.3 Results of Teachers’ Questionnaire 53

3.2 Results of the test scores 62

3.2.1 Results of Diagnostic Test 62

3.2.2 Results of Achievement Test 65

3.3 Results of the students’ recordings 69

3.3.1 Results of Before Recordings 70

3.3.2 Results of After Recordings 72

3.4 Results of the interviews 74

3.4.1 Results of interviews with the teacher subjects 74

3.4.2 Results of interviews with the student subjects 76

3.5 Results of the researcher’s observations 79

3.6 Results of testing the two hypotheses 80

3.6.1 Results of testing the first hypothesis 80

3.6.2 Results of testing the second hypothesis 83

3.7 Summary 89

Chapter 4 SUGGESTED TEACHING STRATEGIES 90

4.1 Getting students to employ correct articulators 90

v

4.2 Using minimal pairs as a teaching and learning tool 92

4.2.1 Single minimal pairs 92

4.2.2 Integrated minimal pairs 93

4.2.3 Minimal pair phrases 96

4.2.4 Minimal pair sentences 97

4.3 Using minimal pairs as games or classroom activities 98

4.3.1 Matching activities 98

4.3.2 Recognition activities 101

4.3.3 Bingo sheets 104

4.3.4 Tongue twisters 106

4.3.5 Flash cards 107

4.3.6 Conversations 108

4.3.7 Worksheets 109

4.3.8 Information gap 111

4.3.9 Climb King 112

4.4 Getting students to record their own pronunciation 113

4.5 Summary 113

Chapter 5 CONTRIBUTIONS AND TEACHING IMPLICATIONS 114

5.1 Contributions 114

5.2 Teaching implications 115

CONCLUSION 120

BIBLIOGRAPHY 123

APPENDICES 125

Appendix 1A: Students’ Questionnaire 1(Vietnamese Version) 125

Appendix 1B: Students’ Questionnaire 1 (English Version) 126

Appendix 2A: Students’ Questionnaire 2 (Vietnamese Version) 127

Appendix 2B: Students’ Questionnaire 2 (English Version) 128

Appendix 3: Teachers’ Questionnaire (English Version) 129

Appendix 4: Pronunciation Test Paper 131

Appendix 5: Pronunciation Test Answer Sheet 132

Appendix 6: Answer Keys to Pronunciation Test 133

Appendix 7: Pronunciation Test Transcript 134

Appendix 8: Student Recording Paper 135

Appendix 9: Lesson Plans 136

Lesson Plan 1 137

Lesson Plan 2 141

Lesson Plan 3 144

Lesson Plan 4 147

Lesson Plan 5 150

Lesson Plan 6 153

Lesson Plan 7 156

Lesson Plan 8 159

Lesson Plan 9 162

Appendix 10: Check List for Class Observation 165

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Appendix 11: Check List for Teacher’s Self-evaluation 167

Appendix 12: Check List for Interview with Teacher Subjects 168

Appendix 13: Check List for Interview with Student Subjects 170

Appendix 14: CD of Pronunciation Test, Before Recordings, After Recordings, and the video clip “At the Chinese Restaurant” 172

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Interfaces of ProPower1 and ProPower2 26

Figure 2.2: List of sounds from Lessons in ProPower1 and ProPower2 26

Figure 2.3: Side View, Front View and Air Flow Legend as observed in ProPower2 27

Figure 2.4: Side View Legend as observed in ProPower2 27

Figure 2.5: Description as observed in ProPower2 28

Figure 2.6: Suggestion as observed in ProPower2 28

Figure 2.7: Interfaces of Exercises as observed in ProPower2 29

Figure 2.8: Interfaces of LYA28 29

Figure 2.9: Interfaces of video clips for “eat” and “it” as observed in LYA28 30

Figure 2.10: Interface of All Audio Recorder – Version 2.10 30

Figure 2.11: Spectrogram of the production of “light” by S36 before ET 31

Figure 2.12: Spectrogram of the production of “light” by S19 before ET 32

Figure 2.13: Interface of SPSS 32

Figure 3.1: Students’ time for learning English 40

Figure 3.2: Students’ self-evaluation of their pronunciation before ET 40

Figure 3.3: Students’ awareness of pronunciation before ET 41

Figure 3.4: Students’ frequency of practising pronunciation before ET 42

Figure 3.5: Students’ expected use of English in the future 43

Figure 3.6: Students’ time spent on learning English per day 44

Figure 3.7: Previous teachers’ pronunciation teaching 45

Figure 3.8: Students’ problems in pronunciation before ET 46

Figure 3.9: Students’ opinion on the benefits of minimal pairs 47

Figure 3.10: Students’ raised awareness of pronunciation after ET 48

Figure 3.11: Students’ expected frequency of pronunciation practice after ET 48

Figure 3.12: Students’ interest in learning pronunciation with minimal pairs 49

Figure 3.13: Students’ opinion on the classroom activities 50

Figure 3.14: Students’ expected frequency of pronunciation classes 50

Figure 3.15: Students’ choice of the most difficult sounds to learn 51

Figure 3.16: Students’ after ET suggestions of how to solve their own problems 52

Figure 3.17: Teachers’ opinion on the benefits of minimal pairs in pronunciation teaching 53

Figure 3.18: Teachers’ evaluation of their students’ motivation 54

Figure 3.19: Teachers’ expected frequency of pronunciation teaching 54

Figure 3.20: Time spent on designing classroom activities with minimal pairs 55

Figure 3.21: Teachers’ choice of suitable activities employing minimal pairs 56

Figure 3.22: Teachers’ opinion on the most difficult sounds to teach 56

Figure 3.23: Teachers’ opinion on teaching aids for pronunciation teaching 57

Figure 3.24: Teachers’ sources of minimal pairs for their pronunciation teaching 58

Figure 3.25: Teachers’ evaluation of their students’ pronunciation improvement 59

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Figure 3.26: Teachers’ opinion on how accurate their assessment of their students’

pronunciation improvement is 60

Figure 3.27: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching pronunciation to at UT-HCMC 61

Figure 3.28: Teachers’ suggestions for teaching pronunciation to the whole population at UT-HCMC 61

Figure 3.29: Distribution of grade groups in Diagnostic Test 64

Figure 3.30: Distribution of grade groups in Achievement Test 67

Figure 3.31: Distribution of grade groups in the two tests 69

Figure 3.32: Distribution of mistake groups in Before Recordings 71

Figure 3.33: Distribution of mistake groups in the two sets of recordings 74

Figure 3.34: Spectrograms of “light” produced by NS and S19 before ET 81

Figure 3.35: Spectrograms of “my” produced by NS and S42 before ET 81

Figure 3.36: Spectrograms of “play” produced by NS and S29 before ET 81

Figure 3.37: Spectrograms of “thank” by NS and S53 before ET 82

Figure 3.38: Spectrograms of “read”, “rid” by NS and “read” by S31 before ET 82

Figure 3.39: Spectrograms of “to”; “do” by NS and “to” by S35 before ET 82

Figure 3.40: Distribution of mistake groups before and after ET 84

Figure 3.41: Students’ frequency of self-studying English pronunciation before and after ET 85 Figure 3.42: Spectrograms of “light” produced by NS and S19 before and after ET 86

Figure 3.43: Spectrograms of “my” produced by NS and S42 before and after ET 86

Figure 3.44: Spectrograms “play” produced by NS and S29 before and after ET 87

Figure 3.45: Spectrograms of “thank” produced by NS and S53 before and after ET 87

Figure 3.46: Spectrograms of “read” produced by NS and S31before and after ET 88

Figure 3.47: Spectrograms of “to” by NS and S35 before and after ET 88

Figure 4.1: Articulators involved in producing /T/ as observed in ProPower2 90

Figure 4.2: Articulators involved in producing /T/ 91

Figure 4.3: Minimal pairs for /b/ and /p/ 92

Figure 4.4: Minimal pairs for /s/, /z/and /S/ 93

Figure 4.5: Three words forming integrated minimal pairs 94

Figure 4.6: Four words forming integrated minimal pairs 94

Figure 4.7: Five words forming integrated minimal pairs 94

Figure 4.8: Six words forming integrated minimal pairs 95

Figure 4.9: Seven words forming integrated minimal pairs 95

Figure 4.10: Eight words forming integrated minimal pairs 95

Figure 4.11: Two minimal pair phrases with mono-syllabic words 96

Figure 4.12: Three minimal pair phrases with mono-syllabic words (For the case of CZ) 96

Figure 4.13: Two minimal pair phrases with poly-syllabic words 96

Figure 4.14: Three minimal pair phrases with mono-syllabic words 97

Figure 4.15: Four minimal pair phrases with poly-syllabic words 97

Figure 4.16: Minimal pair sentences for /I/ and /i;/ as observed in LYA28 97

Figure 4.17a: Pictures with guided phonemic transcriptions 99

Figure 4.17b: Pictures without any phonemic transcriptions 99

Figure 4.18: Handout for minimal pair matching activity 99

Figure 4.19a: Words with their phonemic transcriptions 100

Figure 4.19b: Words without any phonemic transcriptions 100

Figure 4.20: Minimal pairs for /p/ and /b/ 101

Figure 4.21: Minimal pair phrases for /p/ and /b/ 102

Figure 4.22: Listening discrimination for /p/ as observed in ProPower2 103

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Figure 4.23: Minimal pair Bingo sheet for /&/ and /e/ [Celce-Murcia et al, 1996: 118] 104

Figure 4.24: Minimal pair Bingo sheet for multiple sound contrasts 105

Figure 4.25: Minimal pair contrasts of final consonants [Celce-Murcia et al, 1996: 76] 107

Figure 4.26: Worksheets with minimal pair sentences [Celce-Murcia et al, 1996: 117] 110

Figure 4.27: Information gap exercise to discriminate between /Q/ and /V/ [Celce-Murcia et al, 1996: 121] 111

Figure 4.28: Minimal pair tree to play Climb King for /&/ and /e/ 112

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Classification of consonants according to place articulation 10

Table 3.1: Students’ time for learning English 39

Table 3.2: Students’ self-evaluation of their pronunciation before ET 40

Table 3.3: Students’ awareness of pronunciation before ET 41

Table 3.4: Students’ frequency of practising pronunciation before ET 42

Table 3.5: Students’ expected use of English in the future 43

Table 3.6: Students’ time spent on learning English per day 44

Table 3.7: Previous teachers’ pronunciation teaching 45

Table 3.8: Students’ problems in pronunciation before ET 46

Table 3.9: Students’ opinion on the benefits of minimal pairs 47

Table 3.10: Students’ raised awareness of pronunciation after ET 47

Table 3.11: Students’ expected frequency of pronunciation practice after ET 48

Table 3.12: Students’ interest in learning pronunciation with minimal pairs 49

Table 3.13: Students’ opinion on the classroom activities 49

Table 3.14: Students’ expected frequency of pronunciation classes 50

Table 3.15: Students’ choice of the most difficult sounds to learn 51

Table 3.16: Students’ after ET suggestions of how to solve their own problems 52

Table 3.17: Teachers’ opinion on the benefits of minimal pairs in pronunciation teaching 53

Table 3.18: Teachers’ evaluation of their students’ motivation 53

Table 3.19: Teachers’ expected frequency of pronunciation teaching 54

Table 3.20: Time spent on designing classroom activities with minimal pairs 55

Table 3.21: Teachers’ choice of suitable activities employing minimal pairs 55

Table 3.22: Teachers’ opinion on the most difficult sounds to teach 56

Table 3.23: Teachers’ opinion on teaching aids for pronunciation teaching 57

Table 3.24: Teachers’ sources of minimal pairs for their pronunciation teaching 58

Table 3.25: Teachers’ evaluation of their students’ pronunciation improvement 59

Table 3.26: Teachers’ opinion on how accurate their assessment of their students’ pronunciation improvement is 59

Table 3.27: Results of Diagnostic Test 62

Table 3.28: Distribution of grade groups in Diagnostic Test 63

Table 3.29: Results of Achievement Test 65

Table 3.30: Distribution of grade groups in Achievement Test .66

Table 3.31: Distribution of grade groups in the two tests 68

Table 3.32: Distribution of mistake groups in Before Recordings 70

Table 3.33: Overall calculation of mistake groups in Before Recordings 70

Table 3.34: Distribution of mistake groups in After Recordings 72

Table 3.35: Distribution of students’ mistake groups in the two sets of recordings 73

x

Table 3.36: Overall calculation of students’ scores in the two tests 83 Table 3.37: Overall calculation of students’ mistakes in the two sets of recordings 83 Table 3.38: Frequency of students’ self-studying English pronunciation

before and after ET 84

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

EFL English as a foreign language

ESL English as a second language

ET The experimental teaching stage

LYA28 Lose Your Accent in 28 Days

L1 first language/mother tongue

L2 Second language

NS The native speaker of English

ProPower1 Pronunciation Power 1

ProPower2 Pronunciation Power 2

RC Research code of a student

SPSS Statistics Package for Social Sciences

S _ Student numbered _

UT-HCMC University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City

/{/ Phonetic symbol of Consonant Zero

M1 Omitting the word-final consonant

M2 Adding the word-final /s/ to English words not ending in /s/

M3 Adding the schwa /6/ in the middle of a consonant cluster

M4 Mispronouncing strange sounds to Vietnamese people, e.g /T/ and /D/ M5 Failing to differentiate between long and short vowels

M6 Failing to differentiate between voiced and voiceless consonants

xii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With affection and appreciation, I would like to acknowledge the indebtedness to those whose contributions served as great help during the process of conducting this M.A thesis

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr

Tô Minh Thanh for her enthusiastic guidance, useful advice, careful proof-reading and instructive comments on my writing Without these helps, this M.A thesis would not have been successfully accomplished

I would also like to send my special thanks to Mr Tim Moore, Senior Teacher Adults of British Council - Ho Chi Minh City, for the recording of the pronunciation test which served as an element of the study’s instrument; to Ms Nguyen Thi Nguyet Anh and

Mr Nguyen Tan Loc for the enthusiastic help and the integrative collaboration during the conduction of the study

I am also grateful to all of the professors and lecturers in charge of the master course in TESOL for their devotions which provided me with a better approach to English teaching and studying

Next, I wish to sincerely thank the leaders of the University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City for the permission with which the students of Class CN07B at this university was allowed to be the student subjects of this experimental research; to all of the colleagues at the university for the advice and suggestions both of which appeared to

be very useful for the classroom activities as well as the data collection; and to all of the students in the class for the enthusiastic participation in this research

Last but not least, I would love to thank all the authors whose books, journals and

articles have served as very helpful theoretical references for this M.A thesis

Employing minimal pairs as a means to teach speech sounds may no longer be a new technique nowadays However, its full use has yet been made in the particular setting of Vietnam In the light of this view, this case study was intended to investigate the effectiveness of this technique in the specific context of the first-year students at the University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City More specifically, this research was conducted with the participation of 54 students in class CN07B as the student subject and the instrumental employment of the four pieces of application software designed for

learning English Pronunciation: Pronunciation Power 1, Pronunciation Power 2, Lose

Your Accent in 28 Days and Praat In addition, some recordings, questionnaires,

interviews, pronunciation tests and exercises as well as a number of class activities designed by the researcher were also used as other components of the study’s instrument

Conducted, both quantitatively and qualitatively, this MA thesis, to some extent, explored the potential problems facing the students in acquiring English discrete sounds; and the findings seem to be practically applicable to the context of the student population Actually, some of the strategies turned out to be of great use to pronunciation teaching and learning at the subject institution Expectedly, if properly applied, such techniques may practically facilitate the teaching and learning of English pronunciation to both English-majored and English non-majored students at other educational institutions facing similar problems

1

INTRODUCTION

The introduction describes the rationale for choosing the topic, states the aims of the study done for and reported in this M.A thesis, identifies the significance of the study, depicts the study’s design, and indicates the study’s limitation as well as delimitation

0.1 Rationale of the study

Theoretically, most educators agree that minimal pairs1

greatly facilitate students’ acquisition of discrete sounds2 With their own power, minimal pair drills3 create a contrastive environment where these sounds are phonemically presented in such a way that they can be perceived with utmost ease and high motivation Such an environment is fulfilled with contexts where a single phoneme4 functions as to denote word meaning Contexts of this kind demonstrate the importance of pronunciation in oral communication, and thus force students into the habit of speaking with accurate pronunciation and interpreting a spoken message with precise recognition of phonetic form of words These facts indicate that practice with minimal pairs can naturally raise students’ awareness of pronunciation and improve their production as well as recognition at word level laying the foundation for their further progress in oral skills Practically, communicative competence has recently been considered the first priority of most EFL teachers as well as learners In this aspect, it is pronunciation that partially shapes the speaker’s success Actually, Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin [1996:1] claim that

“successful communication cannot take place without correct pronunciation” In other words, the pronunciation from the speaker and the recognition from the listener have great influences on the quality of communication for both of the parties Furthermore, in his discussion about acquisition of speech sounds, Chomsky [1972: 29] states that “the person who acquired knowledge of a language has internalised a system of rules that relate sound and meaning.”

1

Minimal pairs are “pairs of words that differ in meaning on the basic of a change in only one sound.” [Avery

and Ehrlich, 1992: 39] See Section 1.1.1 for further information

2

In the scope of this study, discrete sounds are vowels and consonants articulated separately See Section

1.1.2 for further information

3 A minimal pair drill is “a DRILL in which MINIMAL PAIRS are practiced together, especially in order to help students to learn to distinguish a sound contrast” [Richards et al, 1993: 231]

4

A phoneme is “the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words.”

[Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 214] See Section 1.2.4 for further information

2

Accordingly, the relation between sound and meaning is so close Nevertheless, here and there, inadequate attention is paid to pronunciation learning The situation of the first-year students at the University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City (abbreviated to UT-HCMC) is a good case in point A considerable number of these English non-majored students fail to pronounce

English sounds properly Utterances in which words with similar sound forms, such as wine and wife, cannot be distinguished are of high frequency Such mispronunciation may cause

misinterpretation and potential discomfort devaluing the speaker’s effort in oral communication

irrespective of their fairly good stock of vocabulary and grammatical structure Therefore, it is

necessary to find a satisfactory solution to the problem, if not to put an end to the situation Connectedly, it is reasonable to assume that one of the first attempts to make these students fully aware of the significance of pronunciation in their second language (abbreviated

to L2) acquisition is to distinguish English discrete sounds from one another by highlighting the process in which the sounds are recognized and produced first in individual words and next in phrases or isolated utterances Using minimal pairs seems to be an appropriate tool in such a case Last but not least, for the sake of the student subjects’ advancement of English

pronunciation, the concept of Consonant Zero (abbreviated to CZ) was experimentally

employed in the study so as to more clearly describe the hypothesized problems as well as to better facilitate the experimental teaching stage (abbreviated to ET)

0.2 Aims of the study

The study was intended to fulfill the following purposes:

(1) To find out the problems facing the first-year students at UT-HCMC in recognizing and producing English discrete sounds;

(2) To measure the effectiveness of using minimal pairs as a means to teach English discrete sounds to the students;

(3) To improve the students’ recognition and production at word level;

(4) To investigate the students’ awareness as well as motivation for learning English discrete sounds, employing minimal pairs;

(5) To give some recommendations on how to choose minimal pairs and how to design classroom activities employing those minimal pairs as a teaching tool

3

Expectedly, the teaching strategies reported in this study may provide learners with an enhancement in their pronunciation of English at word level which can serve as an access to further advancement in other aspects of pronunciation such as linking, assimilation or elision

0.3 Significance of the study

Hardly can non-native speakers of English be regarded as “good” if they fail to pronounce English discrete sounds clearly enough to approach the so-called native-like pronunciation In other words, mastering discrete sounds lays the foundation for the subsequent development of oral skills

This study focuses on the technique of using minimal pairs as a means to facilitate the process of teaching and learning English discrete sounds Such facilitation seems to be of both

an urgent need and great use to, first of all, the teaching and learning of English at UT-HCMC, and furthermore, at other Vietnamese educational institutions facing somewhat similar predicament What is more, the findings concerning pronunciation problems and its teaching suggestions may serve as a reference document to EFL/ESL teachers who are interested in improving their students’ oral skills in general and precise pronunciation of English discrete sounds

in particular

0.4 Design of the study

Apart from its additional attachments namely the acknowledgements, the abstract, the table of contents, the lists of figures, tables, abbreviations, bibliography, and appendices; this M.A thesis consists of five chapters in addition to its introduction and conclusion

The introduction presents the rationale for choosing the topic; states the study’s aims,

significance and design; and identifies its limitation and delimitation

Chapter 1 gives the definitions of basic terms employed in the study; describes some

relevant aspects of English sound system; figures out the relationship between minimal pairs and the process of pronunciation acquisition; reviews some relevant theory and research The mention of some principles and techniques in pronunciation teaching ends this chapter

Chapter 2 describes the methodology employed to conduct the study including research questions and hypotheses, materials and instruments, subjects, and procedures of data collection

4

Chapter 3 is the presentation of the data analysis attached with the discussion of the

outcomes drawn from this analysis

Chapter 4 is generally fulfilled with a number of recommendations, including various

activities and exercises designed and adapted by the researcher from various sources which may

be used in teaching discrete sounds

Chapter 5 functions as a description of the teaching implications and the study’s

contributions

The conclusion produces a summary of the study done for the M.A thesis

0.5 Limitation of the study

This study with the prominent focus on using minimal pairs to teach discrete sounds was conducted with the participation of the 54 first-year students in class CN07B at UT-HCMC as the student subjects and the twenty teachers of English from the English Department at this university as the teacher subjects Hence, the data collected from the teacher and student subjects’ responses only reflect their own attitudes towards the suggested teaching technique of the study, and its recommendations are supposed to be most suitable for these subjects In other words, the limitation of this study lies in these two facts: (1) the recommendations are intended to be applied basically to the situation of the first-year students at UT-HCMC and (2) the study does not deepen further discussion on how to deal with bigger terms of English phonetic system, namely diphthongs, triphthongs and consonant clusters; or some relevant complicated aspects of supra-segmental phonology, such as linking, elision, assimilation, rhythm, intonation, etc

0.6 Delimitation of the study

If properly modified, the study may be of suitable use at other educational institutions

in Vietnam where students face pronunciation problems similar to those reported in this M.A thesis In addition, the progress in pronunciation at word level which the students can make with the support of minimal pairs can point out their path to approach further aspects of English pronunciation, especially those related to connected speech such as linking, elision and assimilation

1.1 Basic terms

1.1.1 Minimal pairs

Below are some definitions of minimal pairs collected from different sources:

(1) Minimal pairs are “pairs of words that differ in meaning on the basic of a change in only one sound.” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1992: 39]

(2) “A first rule of thumb to determine the phones of any language is to see whether substituting one sound for other results in a different word If it does, the two sounds represent different phones When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in the string, the two words are called a minimal pairs.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 218]

(3) “A minimal pair consists of two words pronounced alike except for a single phonemic difference A phoneme is the smallest unit of significantly distinctive sound The phonemic difference is

responsible for radical changes in the meaning of the word, as in hat-hit or thing-sing

Consequently, errors in auditory discrimination and/or articulation of these sounds may result in misunderstanding and misinterpretations of the meaning of the word, phrase or sentence.” [Nilsen and Nilsen, 1973: 15]

1.1.2 Discrete sounds

According to an article entitled The Sounds of Speech by Morris Halle of Linguistic

Society of America, “the words we utter are composed of discrete sounds… In uttering a word

we actualize the sequence of discrete sounds stored in memory as a sequence of actions of our articulators.”

[Extracted from http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-fields-sound.cfm, retrieved on May 29th, 2008]

Within the scope of this study, the term “English discrete sounds” refers to all English vowels and consonants articulated separately, thus excluding English diphthongs, triphthongs and consonant clusters

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1.1.3 Consonant Zero

In the Vietnamese language, “there are no consonant clusters” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 153] In addition to this particular linguistic phenomenon, the Vietnamese people seem to attach themselves to the habit of not audibly producing final consonants as a result of their lifelong L1 acquisition Accordingly, this habit affects their pronunciation of English in oral communication Truly enough, from a lot of observations, for the case of word-final consonants,

it is reported that a great number of Vietnamese learners of English pronounce the words car /kA;/ and card /kA;d/ almost in the same way And, the same thing happens to the case of word-medial consonants with words like picture /"pIkÍ@/ and pitcher /"pIÍ@/ Such

mispronunciation may prevent Vietnamese speakers of English from getting close enough to native pronunciation of English

The nature of this problem relates directly to word-final consonants and word-medial consonants As a matter of fact, the production of a consonant bears different changes in different phonetic contexts In his discussion of elision in English consonant clusters, Roach [2000: 142] suggests “Zero Recognition”, also known as “Zero Code”, so as to refer to cases

of such clusters where a consonant appears to be of little or almost no audible production for the sake

of the ease of sound production, especially in connected speech

Despite its closeness to Vietnamese learners’ omission of final consonants or medial consonants in English words, Roach’s Zero Recognition may not be suitable to specify such mispronunciation due to Vietnamese learners’ bad habits of sound production For the sake of the study done for this M.A thesis, the researcher would like to suggest the concept named

word-“Consonant Zero”, whose phonemic transcription is indicated by /{/ The employment of Consonant Zero makes it acceptable for (1) the two words lie and thirty to be phonemically

transcribed as /laI{/ and /"T@;{ti/ respectively and for (2) the two pairs of words lie /laI{/ and

like /laIk/, thirty /"T@;{ti/ and thirsty /"T@;sti/ to be called “minimal pairs,” which are very

useful for the case of the student subjects

1.2 Speech sounds

7

“Vocal sounds are produced in the human body by the organs of what is called the vocal tract5 Vocal sounds which are organized to communicate information are called speech sounds.” [Buchanan, 1963: 18] In other words, a speech sound is a sound produced by the vocal organs for the sake of communication According to Fromkin and Rodman [1993: 198], “every language of the world contains the two basic classes of speech sounds often referred to by the cover terms

consonants and vowels.”

1.2.1 Vowels

1.2.1.1 Definition

Vowels are speech sounds produced by “passing air through different shapes of the mouth and different positions of the tongue and lips unobstructed by narrow passages (except at the glottis).” [Finegan, 1994: 39],

1.2.1.2 Classification

“Different vowel sounds result from different positions of the tongue and lips In describing vowels, it is necessary to discuss four characteristics:

① Tongue Height: whether the tongue is high or low in the mouth

② Frontness/Backness: whether the front or the back of the tongue is involved

③ Tenseness/Laxness: whether the muscles are tense or lax

④ Lip Rounding: whether the lips are rounded.” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 28]

 The height of the tongue allows us to distinguish high, low and mid vowels: the vowels in

beat, bit, boot and book are all considered to be high vowels because they are made with the tongue raised above its rest position; the vowels in bat, botch and bar are all considered to be low vowels because they are made with the tongue below its rest position; the vowels in bet, but and bought are all considered to be mid vowels because they are made with the tongue neither

high nor low in the mouth Since the tongue is much lower, the mouth is open much wider for

the vowel of bat than for that of beat

5“The vocal tract is the air passages which are above the vocal cords and which are involved in the production

of speech sounds.” The vocal tract can be divided into:

- THE NASAL CAVITY, which is “the air passage within and behind the nose”;

- THE ORAL CAVITY, which is “the air passage within the mouth”;

- THE PHARYNX, which is the air passage extending “from above the vocal cords up to the soft

palate (velum) at the back of the mouth.” [Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 214; 308]

8

 Which part of the tongue that is involved in the production of a vowel allows us to classify

it either front, back or central: the vowel of beat, which is made with the front part of the tongue

high in the mouth, is referred to as a high front vowel; the vowel of boot, which is made with the back part of the tongue high in the mouth, is referred to as a high back vowel; the vowel of bat, which is made with the front part of the tongue low in the mouth, is referred to as a low front vowel; the vowel of botch, which is made with the back part of the tongue low in the mouth, is

referred to as a low back vowel

The vowels in but and birth, which are made with neither the front nor the back part of the

tongue, are referred to as central vowels When these vowels are pronounced, the tongue is neither high nor low in the mouth; therefore, they are called mid central vowels

 The vowels in beat, bought, boot and birth, which are produced with extra muscle tension, are tense The vowels in bit, bet, botch, book and but, which are produced without this tension, are lax Tense vowels are produced with much more effort than lax vowels

 The back vowels in boot, book, bought, and botch are all pronounced with the lips

rounded, i.e with the corners of the lips brought towards each other and the lips often pushed

forwards, resulting in some protrusion The low back vowel in bar is the only English back

vowel that occurs without lip rounding All non-back vowels are also unrounded The front vowels

in beat, bit, bet, and bat are all pronounced with the lips more or less spread, i.e with the corners of the lips moved away from each other as for a smile All English front vowels are more or less spread The central vowels in but and birth are all pronounced with the neutral lips, i.e with the lips neither rounded nor spread All English central vowels are neutral

According to Received Pronunciation6 (abbreviated to RP), English long and short vowels also differ from each other in length: “The pronunciation of long vowels is held longer than that of short vowels Long vowels are commonly represented with a colon after them in

phonetic transcriptions…” [Finegan, 1994: 41]: bit /b1t/ vs beat /bi:t/, pull /pål/ vs pool

/pu:l/, hot /h4t/ vs horse /h0:s/, perhaps /p6‘h`p/, verb /v3:b/

1.2.2 Consonants

6

a well-known British accent that has been most fully described, has been used as the basis for

textbooks and pronouncing dictionaries and has been selected by British teachers to teach to foreign

learners

Table 1.1: Classification of consonants according to place of articulation

“The sounds /p/, /b/, and /m/ are referred to as bi-labial sounds because the two (bi) lips (labial) are involved in their production.” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 13]

“The sounds /f/ and /v/ are referred to as labio-dental sounds because the lips (labio-) and the teeth (dental) are involved in their production.” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 13]

The sounds /8/ and /5/ are referred to either as inter-dental sounds because the tongue

tip is placed “between (inter-) the teeth (dental)” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 11], or as dental sounds because the tongue tip is put “close to the cutting-edge of the upper front teeth.” [O’Connor, 1986: 29]

“The sounds /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/ and /r/ are referred to as alveolar sounds because the tongue blade either touches or approaches the alveolar ridge (also called the tooth ridge) in their production.” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 15]

“The sounds //, /2/, /t/, and /d2/ are referred to as alveo-palatal sounds because the

tongue blade is just behind the tooth ridge (alveo-) at the hard palate (palatal) in the

production of these sounds.” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 16]

10

“The sounds /k/, /9/ and /7/ are referred to as velar sounds because they are made with

the tongue back rising to touch the soft palate or velum (velar).” [Avery & Ehrlich,

1995: 1

1.2.2.2.2 Manners of articulation

Manners of articulation refer to the ways in which “the airstream is affected as it travels from

the lungs up and out of the mouth and nose” [Fromkin & Rodman, 1993: 193] In other words, a

manner of articulation is the kind of closure or constriction used in making a consonant

(1) In the production of theEnglish STOPS (also called oral stops or non-nasal stops) /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and /9/, the airstream is completely blocked in the oral cavity for a brief period because the soft palate is raised to shut off the nasal cavity and, at the same time, either the lips are pressed together or the tongue actually touches some part of the roof of the mouth to shut off the oral cavity The complete closure or stop is then suddenly released, and the air escapes with an explosive sound

 /p/ and /b/ are bilabial stops: close the lips, and raise the velum to shut off the nasal

cavity

 /t/ and /d/ are alveolar stops: press the tongue blade against the alveolar ridge, and raise

the velum to shut off the nasal cavity

 /k/ and /9/ are velar stops: press the tongue back against the velum, and raise the velum

to shut off the nasal cavity

(2) In the production of the English NASALS (also called nasal stops) /m/, /n/ and /7/, the

airstream is completely blocked in the oral cavity as it is for oral stops However, the velum is

lowered, allowing air to escape through the nose

 /m/ is a bilabial nasal: To shut off the oral cavity, close the lips; and to let the air escape through the nasal cavity, lower the velum

 /n/ is an alveolar nasal: To shut off the oral cavity, press the tongue blade against the

alveolar ridge; and to let the air escape through the nasal cavity, lower the velum

 /7 / is a velar nasal: To shut off the oral cavity, press the tongue back against the velum; and to let the air escape through the nasal cavity, lower the velum

11

“The non-nasal or oral stops are also called plosives because the air that is blocked in the mouth

‘explodes’ when the closure is released This explosion does not occur during the production of

nasal stops because the air has an ‘escape route’ through the nose.” [Fromkin & Rodman,

1993: 193]

(3) In the production of the English FRICATIVES /f / , /v/, /8/, /5/, /s / , /z /, // and /2/,

the airstream is partially blocked in the oral cavity (simultaneously with the velum raised to shut off the nasal cavity) “This partial obstruction results from the lip or the tongue coming close to

some part of the upper mouth These consonants are called fricatives because the close

approximation of the articulators causes turbulence or friction in the air flow.” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 19]

 /f /and /v/are labio-dental fricatives: A narrowing is formed by holding the lower lip

very close to the upper front teeth When the air is pushed through the narrowing, it causes

slight friction

 /8/ and /5/ are (inter-)dental fricatives: A narrowing is formed by putting the tongue tip

between the teeth or holding the tongue tip very close to the cutting-edge of the upper front teeth When the air is pushed through the narrowing, it causes slight friction

 /s / and /z / are alveolar fricatives: A narrowing is formed by holding the tongue blade very close to the alveolar ridge When the air is pushed through the narrowing, it causes

slight friction

 // and /2/ are alveo-palatal fricatives: A narrowing is formed by holding the tongue blade

very close to the back part of the alveolar ridge and the front part of the hard palate And

the lips are slightly rounded When the air is pushed through the narrowing, it causes slight friction

(4) In the production of the English AFFRICATES /t/ and /d2/, there is a combination of an

oral stop followed immediately by a fricative. /t/ and /d2/ often have slightly rounded lips

Both are made with the tongue blade first raised against and then moved away from the back part

of the alveolar ridge Although the affricates can be said to be composed of an oral stop and a fricative, it is usual to regard them as single independent phonemes in English The two

12

components of an affricate must be homorganic: they must be made with the same articulator

— the tongue blade, and have the same place of articulation — alveo-palatal

(5) In the production of the English APPROXIMANTS /l/, /r/, /j/ and /w/, an articulator

approaches a certain place of articulation as for fricatives but the articulator does not come close

enough to the roof of the mouth to cause audible friction

a The liquids /l/ and /r/

 “/r/ is pronounced by channeling air through the central part of the mouth, /l/ by channeling it

on each side of the tongue /r/ is therefore called a central approximant, /l/ a lateral approximant To distinguish them from the other approximants, /r/ and /l/ are sometimes

called liquids.” [Finegan, 1994: 37]

 “/r/ and /l/ are also called LIQUIDS because “the air passes through the mouth in somewhat

fluid manner…” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 22-23]

b The semi-vowels /j/ and /w/

 The other two English approximants /j/ and /w/ are produced with a relatively wide opening in the mouth and thus are often called SEMI-VOWELS In articulating /j/ and /w/, “the tongue moves rapidly in gliding fashion either toward or away from a neighboring vowel” [Fromkin &

Rodman, 1993: 197]; therefore, they are also called GLIDES

 “In the pronunciation of /w/, the lips are rounded and, at the same time, the back of the tongue approaches the soft palate … In the pronunciation of /y/7 the blade of the tongue approaches the hard palate.” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 24] According to O’Connor [1986: 57-

58], /j/ is “a quick glide from the position of the vowel /i:/ or /1/ to any other vowel We usually

transcribe the word yes as /jes/, but we might easily transcribe it /i:es/ or /1es/, on

understanding that the /i:/ or /1/ is very short and that we move smoothly and quickly to the following /e/.” In the same way, /w/ is “a quick glide from the vowel /u:/ or /å/ to whatever

vowel follows.” Thus, well might be transcribed as /u:el/ or /åel/, on understanding that the /u:/ or /å/ is very short and that we move smoothly and quickly to the following /e/

13

The third way in which consonants can differ from each other is in terms of voicing

Consonants may be grouped in pairs, both members of a fortis/lenis (voiceless/voiced) pair

having identical place and manner of articulation, but one with voicing and the other without: /p/

and /b/, /f/ and /v/, /t/ and /d2/, etc

According to Avery & Ehrlich’s classification of English consonant phonemes [1995: 27], stops, fricatives and affricates consist of pairs of voiceless/voiced consonants whereas nasals and approximants are all voiced

24-1.2.3 Diphthongs

“RP has a large number of diphthongs, sounds which consists of a movement or glide from one vowel to another A vowel which remains constant and do not glide is called a pure vowel Perhaps the most important thing to remember about all the diphthongs is that the first part is much

longer and stronger than the second part… The centring diphthongs glide towards the /6/ (schwa) vowel… The closing diphthongs have the characteristic that they all end with a glide toward a

closer vowel.” [Roach, 1991: 20-21]

Three English centring diphthongs are:

/16/: beard, Ian, fierce, etc

/e6/: air, heir, scarce, etc

/å6/: February, moored, tour, etc

Three English closing diphthongs ending /1/ in are:

/e1/: face, paid, day, etc

/a1/: blind, try, high, etc

/01/: point, voice, toy, etc

Two English closing diphthongs ending /å/ in are:

/6å/: so, low, shoulder, etc

/aå/: house, ground, brown, etc

Because the positions of vowels are less precise than those of consonants, there is great individual and dialectal variation in the formation of vowels

1.2.4 Phonemes

A phoneme is “the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words

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(a) The English words pan and ban differ only in their initial sound: pan begins with /p/ and

ban with /b/

(b) The English words ban and bin differ only in their vowels: /`/ and /1/

Therefore, /p/, /b/, /`/ and /1/ are phonemes of English.”

[Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 214]

“The functional sounds of speech, i.e., the sounds which contrast in the same environment, are called PHONEMES.” [Buchanan, 1963: 90]

1.2.5 Allophones

An allophone is “any of the different forms of a PHONEME… Both the unaspirated /p/ (or

[p]) in span, and the aspirated /p/ (or [ph]) in put have the same phonemic function, i.e they

are both heard and identified as /p/ and not e.g as /b/; they are both allophones of the phoneme /p/.” [Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 9]

An allophone is “a predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme In English, each vowel phoneme has both an oral and a nasalized allophone The choice of allophones is not random or haphazard It is rule-governed… Speakers… produced nasalized allophones of the vowel phonemes automatically whenever they occur before nasal consonants.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993:

224] A few example of nasalized vowels are barn [bã:n], seem [sĩ:m], sting [stĩN]

Allophones of a phoneme never occur in the same position They always occur in different

positions We say that they are in COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION We can predict the occurrence

of the allophones of the English phoneme /l/, for example, by observing their positions

1.3 Relationship between minimal pairs and pronunciation acquisition

When properly employed, minimal pairs effectively facilitate pronunciation acquisition The good cases in point are lessons and exercises designed by Baker [2006] in the two

textbooks entitled Tree or Three and Sheep or Ship; and by Baker & Goldstein’s [2008] in the

textbook entitled Pronunciation Pairs These two authors share and illustrate the view that

“language teachers can improve their students' pronunciation markedly drilling minimal pairs

in order to help them improve their intelligibility” [Hansen, 1995: 36] When learners compare and contrast discrete sounds in the environment presented in minimal pairs, the importance of

~

15

these sounds in denoting word meaning is transferred to their mind naturally Experience shows that “pronunciation classes… make students more conscious of their own pronunciation and aware of ways in which their pronunciation differs from the model offered” [Rajadurai, 2001: 14] Only when seeing this difference, will Vietnamese learners of English find out the importance

of discrete sounds in the English language and that of the tone8 in the Vietnamese language are of equal value in denoting word meaning Accordingly, this finding will raise Vietnamese learners’ awareness of accurate pronunciation when speaking English This may also help lay the foundation for further progress in such aspects of connected speech as linking, elision and assimilation

1.4 Relevant research and theory

1.4.1 Relevant researches

Using minimal pairs to teach pronunciation has long been an interesting topic A great number of researchers have spent their time and energy to exploit the advantages of this technique Among these studies, the following are believed to have the closest relation with this research

First, the research entitled Recognizing Words in Continuous Speech: how important are word-final consonants? was conducted by Tauroza [1993], a senior lecturer of English,

with the participation of learners from Hong Kong, Italy and the UK as its student subjects to find out at what level word-final consonants affect word recognition This paper employs minimal pairs as part of the instrument used The finding indicates that the instability of word-final

8

Tone is “the height of pitch and change of pitch which is associated with the pronunciation of syllables or

words and which affects the meaning of the word.”

In Vietnamese, which is a tone language, tone is used to differentiate words; i.e variations in pitch affect the meaning of words and thus, substituting one distinctive tone for another on a particular

word or morpheme can cause a change in the lexical meaning of that word or morpheme:

- ma (with the mid-level tone) = ghost

- má (with the high-rising tone) = cheek, mother

- mà (with the low-falling tone) = but

- mạ (with the low-broken tone) = rice seeding

- mả (with the low-rising tone) = tomb

- mã (with the high-broken tone) = horse

In English, which is an intonation language, “tone does not differentiate words in this way Instead, it operates above the level of words and is perceived to influence the meaning of chunks of speech, which are commonly called tone units.” [Richards et al, 1993: 382]

16

consonants in spoken English is regarded as a potential problem for listeners, especially those who are L2 listeners

Second, the research titled Teaching Pronunciation with Minimal Pairs conducted by

Mora [2004], Associate Professor at San Diego State University mainly proves that, together with flashcards and matching items, minimal pairs can be used to effectively enhance students’ pronunciation and recognition at word level

1.4.2 Relevant theory of pronunciation teaching

The following review of relevant theory bases itself mostly on descriptions of approaches and techniques for pronunciation teaching reviewed by Avery and Ehrlich [1995]

and Celce-Murcia et al [1996]

 An intuitive-imitative approach depends on the learner’s ability to listen and to

imitate the rhythms and sounds of the target language without the intervention of any explicit information It also presupposes the availability of good models to listen to, a possibility that has been enhanced by the availability first of phonograph records, then of tape recorders and language labs in the mid-twenty century and more recently of audio and video cassettes and compact discs

 An analytic-linguistic approach utilizes contrastive information and tools such as charts of

the vocal tract, descriptions of articulators and of the target sound system, etc and other aids to supplement listening, imitation, and production It explicitly informs the learner of and focuses attention on the sounds and rhythms of the target language This approach was developed to complement rather than to replace the intuitive-imitative approach, which was typically retained as the practice phase used in tandem with the phonetic information

 The Direct Method allows the teaching of pronunciation through intuition and

imitation: students imitate a model — the teacher or a recording — and do their best to approximate the model through imitation and repetition This instructional method was grounded on observations of children learning their first language and of children and adults learning foreign languages in non-instructional settings

 Naturalistic methods mostly expose students to listening before any speaking

Examples include Asher’s [1977] Total Physical Response and Krashen and Terrell’s [1983] Natural Approach Proponents maintain that the initial focus on listening without

17

pressure to speak gives the learner the opportunity to internalize the target sound system When the learner does speak later on, their pronunciation is supposedly quite good despite their never having received explicit pronunciation instruction

 The Reform Movement advocates the following notions of practice:

- The spoken form of a language is primary and should be taught first;

- The findings of phonetics should be applied to language teaching;

- Teachers must have solid training in phonetics;

- Learners should be given phonetic training to establish good speech habits

 The Audio-lingual and Oral Approach sees pronunciation very

important and thus taught explicitly from the start As in the Direct Method classroom, the teacher (or a recording) models a sound, a word, or an utterance and the learner imitate or repeat However, the teacher also typically makes use of information from phonetics and/or visual aids that demonstrate the articulation of sounds Furthermore, the teacher often uses minimal pair drills, a technique derived from the notion of contrast in structural linguistics

 The Silent Way emphasizes pronunciation accuracy of the sounds of

the target language from the very initial stage, enabling the learner to sharpen their own inner criteria for accurate production In the Silent Way, the learner’s attention is focused on the production of the sound system without having to learn the phonetic alphabet or a body of explicit linguistic information The teacher speaks as little as possible, indicating through gestures what the learner should do This includes an elaborate system in which the teacher tap out rhythmic patterns with a pointer, hold up their fingers to indicate the number of syllables in a word or to indicate stressed elements, or model proper positioning of the articulators by pointing to their own lips, teeth, or jaw

 The Communicative Approach sees using language to communicate

as central in all classroom language instruction because the primary purpose of language is communication This focus on language as communication brings renewed urgency to the teaching of pronunciation, for both empirical and

18

anecdotal evidence indicates that there is a threshold level of pronunciation for nonnative speakers of English: if they fall below this threshold level, they will have oral communication problems no matter how excellent and extensive their control of English grammar and vocabulary might be

1.5 Principles and techniques in pronunciation teaching

Conferring the essentiality of teaching pronunciation, Avery and Ehrlich [1995: 164] assert that: “A separate class should be devoted to pronunciation teaching, or pronunciation did not get taught at all;… pronunciation can and should always be integrated into all aspects of language teaching and reinforced in all classes.”

In the light of this assertion, it becomes obvious that no matter what way and extent, pronunciation should be regularly included in every class This may be considered the first rule

of thumb in pronunciation teaching

Then, the question is how to add up such an inclusion Within the scope of the study done for this M.A thesis, the discussion focuses on only discrete sounds As far as the procedure

of presenting a new sound is concerned, Doff [1988: 114] suggests the following steps:

- Say the sound alone;

- Say the sound in a word;

- Contrast it with other sound;

- Write words on the board;

- Explain how to make the sound;

- Get students to repeat the sound in chorus;

- Get individual students to repeat the sound

These procedures can be fostered by the flexible application which varies from teacher to teacher Such application can be practically supported by the employment of particular techniques

so that specific objectives can be reached In order to get the best of the application, it is important to bear in mind that techniques must be consistent with a method9, and therefore in harmony with an approach10 as well.” [Richards and Rodgers, 1986: 15]

9

“Different ways of teaching language… are referred to as methods.”[Richards et al, 1992: 20]

10 Approaches refer to “different theories about the nature of language and how languages are learned.”

[Richards et al, 1992: 20]

19

Richards et al [1992: 20] define techniques as “different kinds of classroom activity.” A

variety of teaching pronunciation techniques have been applied in language classes Below are

ten reviewed by Celce-Murcia et al [1996: 8-9]

(1) Listen and imitate: This technique sounds like the way a child learns his/her mother tongue When the child hears a certain word in a given setting, he/she will listen to it and tends

to imitate In the same way, the learner listens to a teacher-provided model and repeats or imitates it This technique has been enhanced by the use of tape recorders, language labs, and video recorders

(2) Phonetic training: The teacher uses articulatory descriptions, articulatory diagrams, and the phonetic alphabet to provide the learner with oral skills

(3) Minimal pair drills: This technique helps the learner distinguish similar and problematic sounds in the target language through listening discrimination and spoken practice Minimal pair drills typically begin with word-level drills and then move on to sentence-level drills

(4) Contextualized minimal pairs: The teacher establishes the setting (e.g., a blacksmith shoeing

a horse) and presents key vocabulary; the learner is then trained to give an appropriate meaningful response to a sentence stem

Sentence stem:

The blacksmith (a hits / b heats) the horseshoe

Cued student response:

a with the hammer / b in the fire

(5) Visual aids: Description of how sounds are produced can be supported by using different kinds of visual aids such as pictures, rods, sound-color charts, realia, etc

(6) Tongue twisters: The learner is required to pronounce the same or similar sounds that

repeatedly occur in a sentence, e.g the practice of /S/, /s/, and /z/ is the sentence She sells

seashells by the seashore, but the shells she sells are not seashells.11

(7) Developing approximation drills: The learner is taught to retrace the steps that many English-speaking children follow as they acquire their mother tongue: since children learning

English often acquire /w/ before /r/ or /j/ before /l/ [Celce-Murcia et al, 1996: 9], adults who

11

phonemically transcribed as /Si: selz "si:Selz bAI D@ "si:SO:, bVt D@ Selz Si: selz A: nQt "si:Selz/

20

have difficulty in producing /l/ or /r/ can be encouraged to begin by pronouncing words with the initial /w/ or /j/, and then shift to /r/ or /l/, respectively:

/w/ → /r/ /j/ → /l/

(8) Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by affixation: This technique is used with intermediate or advanced learners The teacher uses the technique to point out the rule-based nature of vowel and stress shifts in etymologically related words to raise awareness; sentences and short texts that contain shifts of both types of a certain pair of words may be provided as oral practice material

I can tell from these PHOtographs that you are very good at phoTOgraphy

(9) Reading aloud/recitation: Passages or scripts are provided for the learner to read aloud, focusing on stress, timing, and intonation

(10) Recordings of the learner’s production: The teacher uses the learner’s audiotapes and videotapes of rehearsed and spontaneous speeches, free conversations, and role plays for the evaluation and correction of pronunciation This technique certainly motivates the learner as it can arouse curiosity to listen to their own voice in producing another language

Contributing more to the current tendency of teaching English pronunciation, Kelly [2000: 15] suggests that the teaching of pronunciation involves the teaching of productive skills and receptive skills12 In terms of reception, the learner study how to identify the differences

12

“Language skills are the mode or manner in which language is used Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are generally called the four language skills Sometimes, speaking and writing are called the active/productive skills and reading and listening the passive/receptive skills.” [Richards et al, 1992: 205]

21

between phonemes, especially when there is no contrast in L1 Then the learner applies what has been learnt in their production of sounds In favour of this idea, Kelly [2000: 16-20] suggests the following techniques in teaching pronunciation

(1) Eliciting and drilling: The learner is requested to raise a known word, phrase or structure

so that the teacher can say it aloud and then gets the whole class to repeat it Prompts, pictures, mimes, etc are usually employed for class involvement

(2) Chaining: The teacher gives the learner part or half of a sentence, requesting for their completing the sentence by means of only poly-syllabic problematic words

(3) Substitution: The learner is required to substitute successive items for the sounds given

(6) Pronunciation and spelling activities: The learner is required to identify the correlation between a sound and its spelling representatives and then to produce the sound correctly

(7) Homographs and homophones13: These can be used as the basis for pronunciation and spelling activities Dealing with homophones, the learner listens to a sentence while looking at

a given list of words in order to choose which word is actually heard in the sentence, as demonstrated by Woolard’s [1996: 6] following example:

Situation: A teacher saw two boys fighting in the playground

Teacher: Stop! You know the school rules – No fighting

Student: But, sir, we’re not fighting We’re fighting quietly

Cues: a allowed / b aloud

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Presented in Chapter 1 are pieces of relevant literature including definitions of basic terms employed in the study, related aspects of the English sound system, the relationship between minimal pairs and the process of pronunciation acquisition, some relevant theory and research, and some principles and techniques in pronunciation teaching, all necessary for the thesis’ subsequent chapters

2.1 Research questions

The study aims at answering the following questions:

(1) What are possible problems facing English non-majored students at UT-HCMC in recognizing and producing English discrete sounds?

(2) In what way and to what extent do minimal pairs facilitate the teaching and learning of English discrete sounds?

(3) To what extent can the technique of teaching English discrete sounds with minimal pairs improve the students’ recognition and production at word level?

(4) What are the students’ attitudes towards the technique?

For the completion of the study done for this M.A thesis, the researcher also deals with two hypotheses:

(1) The student subjects’ problems of English pronunciation result from their poor acquisition of English discrete sounds

(2) Using minimal pairs as a means to teach English discrete sounds to the student subjects seems

to be a practically suitable solution to the problems

2.2 Materials and instruments

In order to accomplish the research project, the researcher made proper use of:

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2.2.3 Technological tools

2.2.3.1 Teaching tools

Three application softwares designed for learning English pronunciation:

 Pronunciation Power 1 and Pronunciation Power 2 (abbreviated to ProPower1 and ProPower2 respectively) published by English Computerized Learning Inc

Figure 2.1: Interfaces of ProPower1 and ProPower2

Two selected features of these softwares, which are used in ET, are Lessons and Exercises

Lessons provides the learner with audiovisual descriptions of all English speech sounds

from which the learner can choose a particular sound to study

Figure 2.2: List of sounds from Lessons in ProPower1 and ProPower2

- Side View and Front View depict both “inner workings” and “outer workings” of the vocal tract during articulation Also included in both of the softwares is Air Flow Legend, which

lists major air flow qualities including voicing, obstruction and release, replicated

when activating the Side View video

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Figure 2.3: Side View, Front View and Air Flow Legend as observed in ProPower2

- Side View Legend (available only in ProPower2) visualizes the articulators and their

positions

Figure 2.4: Side View Legend as observed in ProPower2

- Description (available only in ProPower2) tells the learner how to “operate” the

articulators when pronouncing a particular sound