DICTATION AND ITS BENEFITS FOR TEACHING PRONUNCIATION TO EFL VIETNAMESE COLLEGE STUDENTS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI NGOC THAO

DICTATION AND ITS BENEFITS
FOR TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
TO EFL VIETNAMESE COLLEGE STUDENTS

Major: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr. Tran Thi Ngoc Yen

Nghe An, 2017


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ABSTRACT
Dictation is a teaching technique which has been proved effective at all levels of
EFL instruction. This study, in the first place, explored the impact of dictation
activities on EFL Vietnamese college students’ pronunciation. The study also
aimed to determine the role of frequency in using dictation activities to achieve
optimal results. An experiment was conducted among three groups of college
students. The control group did not receive do any dictation activities while one
treatment group had one and the other had two dictation sessions a week. After
the treatment, the three groups had the post-test, which was designed to evaluate
their pronunciation. Two comparisons were made: a comparison between the

average total scores of the control groups and the two treatment groups, and a
comparison between the average total scores of the first and the second
treatment groups. It was found that both treatment groups outperformed the
control group, but the treatment group that had two dictation sessions a week
achieved better results than the other treatment group. Based on these results, the
relationship between more frequent dictation and better pronunciation
competence was consolidated.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Tran Thi
Ngoc Yen, lecturer of Faculty of English, Vinh University, for her enthusiastic
instructions, careful guidance, invaluable advice and encouragement from the
first draft till the completed thesis.
I am also grateful to my lecturers at Faculty of English, Vinh University, for all
their kind guide and help.
I also wish to thank my colleagues and students at Long An Teacher Training
College for all their help to finish the study.
My special thank also go to my family who have been interminably encouraging
and facilitating me to fulfill this assignment.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS


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IST OF CHARTS
Chart 4.1:

Result description of the General test - the Control class

Chart 4.2:

Result description of the General test - the Treatment class

A
Chart 4.3:

Result description of the General test - the Treatment class

B
Chart 4.4:

Pre-test results of the control class

Chart 4.5:

Pre-test results of the treatment class A

Chart 4.6:

Pre-test results of the treatment class B

Chart 4.7:

Post-test result of the control class

Chart 4.8:

Post-test result of the treatment class A

Chart 4.9:

Post-test result of the treatment class B

Chart 4.10:

Result description for the pre-test and post-test of the control
class and the treatment class A

Chart 4.11:

Comparison the means of the pre- test and post-test for the
control class and the treatment class A

Chart 4.12:

Result description of the pre-test and post-test for the treatment
class A and the treatment class B

Chart 4.13:

Comparison the means of the pre- test and post-test for the
treatment class A and the treatment class B

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1:

The test result of the previous semester (before the

treatment time)
Table 4.2:

The test result of the pre-test

Table 4.3:

Mean scores on pre-test of the control class and the

treatment classes
Table 4.4:

The result of the post-test

Table 4.5:

Mean scores on post-test of the control class and the

treatment classes
Table 4.6:

Mean and standard deviations of participants’ pronunciation

increases (post-test minus pre-test) for the control class and the
treatment class A

Table 4.7:

Mean and standard deviations of participants’ pronunciation
increases (post-test minus pre-test) for the treatment class A and
the treatment class B


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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction

Language is a means of communication and English has become a language for
global communication these days. Richards (1991) stated that it is a medium for
international commerce, industry, communication and a source of scientific and
technological advancement. Its role in the academic world cannot be
overemphasized. In Viet Nam educational system, English language has been
treated as one of the compulsory subjects. And Vietnamese students now are
studying English also for their own communicative skills. The growing
emphasis on communicative approaches for the teaching of English has placed
higher needs for correct pronunciation, especially with English majored students
at a ‘teachers training’ college. Current pedagogical thinking and research on
pronunciation reveals that intelligible pronunciation is a very essential
component of communicative competence. Pronunciation

is definitely

the biggest thing that people notice when you are speaking English.
Vietnamese students encounter many difficulties when they learn to pronounce
English sounds. The pronunciation of another sound system is really a factor that
they find difficult. In Vietnamese, a letter is often represented by the same
phoneme (except /r/, /ng, ngh/, /k/ (c,k). While in English, the same letter may
represent different sounds or each English sound has more than just one
pronunciation. For example, in Received Pronunciation, the letter ‘a’ has many
different pronunciations, including /æ/ as in trap, bat; /ɑː/ as in ask (BrE), bath
(BrE); /eɪ/ as in face, famous; and /eə/ as in care, parent. It also can be
pronounced /ɔː/ as in all or it can be used as schwa. If the learners have no
knowledge about this inconsistency, this will lead to unintelligible
pronunciation.


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As one of the oldest language teaching activities, dictation has been neglected
by teachers. For them, the word ‘dictation’ is synonymous with ‘old-fashioned’
and ‘teacher-centred’. In fact, with a number of studies and commentaries,
dictation is regarded as a supportive learning technique. It is thought that
dictation can help develop all language skills, that is, grammar, oral
communication, listening comprehension, especially pronunciation.
First year students at Long An teachers training college have to complete the
English courses with the course book “American English File” by Clive
Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koenig and Paul Seligson (Oxford, 2008). From my
own observation and experiences, my students who were confident in their
knowledge of Grammar had serious problems in pronunciation. Because of their
poor pronunciation, they usually felt unconfident when communicating as well
as get difficulty in Listening and Speaking. They thought that it was no worth
learning and boring of learning pronunciation. In order to improve my students’

pronunciation, I chose to conduct a study on ‘Dictation and its benefits for
teaching pronunciation to EFL Vietnamese college students’.
1.2 Rationale

Teaching pronunciation involves a variety of challenges. Teachers often find that
they do not have enough time in class to give proper attention to this aspect of
English instruction. Drilling sounds over and over again (e.g., minimal pair
work) often leads to discouraging results, and discouraged students and teachers
end up wanting to avoid pronunciation altogether. Moreover, most of the
students were convinced that English pronunciation was exceptionally difficult
and their affective links with their mother tongue are normally positive and
strong.
The use of dictation as a valuable language teaching and learning technique has
gone through a long history and has been used for centuries all over the world.


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Research has shown that dictation can help students improve different aspects of
their language proficiency as Davis and Rinvolucri (2002) explained that
“Dictation provides activities suitable for a wide range of levels and ages,
example texts for many activities, opportunities for students to create their own
texts, and a variety of suggested correction techniques”. It is surprising that
despite all the benefits, dictation is not widely used in teaching English because
some linguists/teachers consider it teacher-centered and old-fashioned.
This study was written for my improvement of teaching English pronunciation.
As a teacher of English, I wish to re-introduce dictation as a beneficial language
teaching and learning device and to suggest ways for using it in an effective and
interesting manner in order to for EFL Vietnamese college students to achieve
intelligible pronunciation.

1.3 Aims of the study

The aim of the thesis is to explore dictation and its benefits for teaching
pronunciation to EFL Vietnamese college students.
1.4 Research questions

The thesis is designed to answer the two following research questions:
- What is the impact, if there is any, of dictation activities on EFL Vietnamese
college students’ pronunciation?
- How often should dictation activities be used in order for EFL Vietnamese
college students to achieve optimal results?
1.5 Scope of the study

There are a large number of definitions about pronunciation. In this thesis,
pronunciation is defined as ‘a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is
accepted or generally understood’ (American Heritage Dictionary, 3 rd, 1992). It
is also the scope of the study.


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In addition, this thesis was aimed at doing research among adult learners. Young
learners were not included in this research.
1.6 Thesis design

The thesis is divided into five chapters:
Chapter 1 is an introduction to the whole thesis. It includes the rationale of the
study, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study and thesis design
of the study.
Chapter 2 is about literature review. This chapter consists of five parts. It

presents the definition and role of pronunciation in communication. Factors
affecting pronunciation learning, common pronunciation problems met by
Vietnamese learners of English and methods to teach English pronunciation are
also included in this chapter. The next part of the chapter is about assessing EFL
pronunciation ability, definition of dictation, history of dictation across foreign
language methodologies, characteristics of dictation as well as different types of
dictation and the use of dictation in teaching English pronunciation.
Chapter 3 describes the methodology of the research which consists of research
questions, participants, materials and procedure.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussions, gives a detailed presentation of the effects
of dictation on the participants’ pronunciation and the role of frequency. The last
part of the chapter includes the discussion of the results and findings.
Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the research. It presents summary of the findings,
conclusions, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.
In the last part of the thesis, references and appendices are given in order to
assure that the study is really valid.


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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Pronunciation
2.1.1 Definition
Pronunciation is one of the most important things that students have to master in
order to communicate appropriately and fluently. It refers to the production of
sounds that we use to make meaning. Pronunciation is also the act or manner of
pronouncing words; utterance of speech, a way of speaking a word, especially a

way that is accepted or generally understood.
The notion of pronunciation has been defined in many different ways by writers.
According to the Oxford Learners Dictionaries, 8 th (2008), pronunciation is the
way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced. Wikipedia
stated that pronunciation is “the way a word or a language is spoken, or the
manner in which someone utters a word”.
For Ur (2001) and Richard (2002), pronunciation is the sound of the language.
Pronunciation is also defined as ‘a way of speaking a word, especially a way
that is accepted or generally understood’ (American Heritage Dictionary, 3 rd,
1992).
And as Cobbett stated in A Grammar of the English Language in a Series of
Letters: Intended for the Use of Schools and of Young Persons in General, but
More Especially for the Use of Soldiers, Sailors, Apprentices, and Plough-Boys,
1831, “pronunciation is learned as birds learn to chirp and sing”.
2.1.2 Role of pronunciation in communication
Pennington in 1996 found out that the most important part of learning a second
language rests on pronunciation. Pronunciation is the foundation of speaking.
According to Yong (2004), English, both written and spoken, has been accepted
as the ascendant means of communication for most of the world but some
misunderstandings have been caused by inappropriate pronunciation. Learners


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with intelligible pronunciation in English are more likely to be understood even
if they make errors in other areas. Good pronunciation can make the
communication easier and more relaxed and thus more successful (Dan, 2006).
Almost all learners rate pronunciation as priority (Willing, 1993) and what will
help them most is plenty of authentic conversation practice, an area in which
they need more guidance (Burns & Joyce, 1997).

When we talk to people in the real life, our pronunciation is the first thing they
notice during a conversation. In everyday communication, just a limited
vocabulary is needed, not complicated words. And the fact is that your
pronunciation will be noticed right away only for the first few words.
Pronouncing the words correctly is better than knowing a lot of vocabularies
with unintelligible pronunciation. Unlike the other skills, pronunciation strikes
the listener directly in the face (the ears, to be more precise). According to
Celce-Murcia et al, pronunciation plays a very important role in communicative
competence. Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of foreign
language learning. Pronunciation is an aspect of verbal communication which
makes the communication more attractive and effective. To have success in
communicating with others, it is recommended that you have good
pronunciation in general and good foreign language pronunciation in particular.
Pronunciation instruction is of great importance for successful oral
communication to take place since it is an important ingredient of the
communicative competence (Hismanoglu, 2006).
2.1.3 English pronunciation
One of the most difficult things about learning English is using the correct
English pronunciation. Most people speak the dialect of standard English with
an accent that belongs to the part of the country they come from or live in.
Learners of British English commonly hear RP (Received Pronunciation),


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which is an accent often used on the BBC and other news media and in some
course materials for language learners, but it is also common to hear a variety
of regional accents of English from across the world. There are two widely
understood accents of English: General American (GenAm) and Received
Pronunciation (RP), spoken in Britain. If you speak General American or

Received Pronunciation, you will be understood by native and non-native
speakers of English from all parts of the world. These two accents are used on
television, in movies and in English teaching materials.
According to Wikipedia, Received Pronunciation is the accent of Standard
English in the United Kingdom and is defined in the Concise Oxford English
Dictionary as "the standard accent of English as spoken in the south of
England", although it can be heard from native speakers throughout England and
Wales.
General American English Pronunciation (GAEP) is a kind of standard
pronunciation found in American dictionaries such as the Merriam
Webster. General American is an umbrella variety of American English
(Wikipedia). In this research, all the tests are conducted in American English as
the course books “American English File” by Oxenden, Latham-Koenig and
Seligson (Oxford, 1996) are based on General American.
Although RP is a minority English pronunciation, it was for historical reasons
selected as a prescriptive model of English in teaching materials. Those
historical reasons are changing, and it is now better to treat RP as a point of
reference and not as a preferred pronunciation target. Certainly RP has
widespread intelligibility, but so do many other accents.


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2.2 Teaching and learning English pronunciation
2.2.1 Factors affecting pronunciation learning
The role of pronunciation in the different schools of language teaching has
varied widely from having virtually no role in the grammar-translation method
to being the main focus in the audio-lingual method where emphasis is on the
traditional notions of pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills and short
conversations (Castillo, 1990). Morley (1991) insisted that it is necessary to

teach English pronunciation in the ESL or EFL classroom. However, according
to Wong (1993), in the United States, many students and teachers believe that
spending time on pronunciation is useless because it would be difficult, if not
impossible for students to hear differences, for instance, between ship and sheep.
In Thailand, Wei and Zhou (2002) found out that English pronunciation is
simply ignored in the curriculum of some universities.
Scarcella & Oxford (1994) concluded that “Pronunciation should be taught in all
second language classes through a variety of activities”. However, most
language teachers do not have useful strategies for teaching pronunciation, and
they do not know what strategies are appropriate when they meet a specific
problem. “We are comfortable teaching reading, writing, listening and to a
degree, general oral skills, but when it comes to pronunciation we often lack the
basic knowledge of articulatory phonetics (not difficult to acquire) to offer our
students anything more than rudimentary (and often unhelpful) advice such as,
‘it sounds like this: “uuuh’ (Dalton, 2002).
According to Nunan (2003), the background of teaching pronunciation, as well
as the place of pronunciation teaching in the ESL/EFL classroom, has undergone
some dramatic changes over the past 50 years. The teaching of pronunciation
has depreciated in comparison with the four basic skills in English. Morley
(1991) pointed out that 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s was golden time for


15

pronunciation teaching as pronunciation was viewed as an important component
of English language teaching curricula in audio-lingual methodology. As
proposed by Nunan (2003), in this stage, the main orientation was "Listen
carefully and repeat what I say". With Audio-Lingual method, "pronunciation is
taught from the beginning, often by students working in language laboratories
on discriminating between members of minimal pairs"(Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

However, there were some manifestations of changes in the late 1960s into the
1980s when a large number of questions were raised about pronunciation in the
ESL curriculum (Richards and Rodgers, 1986): whether the focus of the
programs and the instructional methods were effective or not. The orientation in
this stage from Nunan (2003): "Let's analyze these sounds closely to figure out
how to pronounce them clearly". Then it seemed there was a growing interest in
revisiting the pronunciation component of the ESL curriculum for adults that
began in the mid -1980s and into the 1990s. "Let's start using these sounds in
activities as soon as we can while I provide cues and feedback on how well
you're doing" was the orientation in this stage also proposed by Nunan (2003).
With a shift from specific linguistic competencies to broader communicative
competencies as goals for both the teacher and the learner (Morley, 1991), the
need for the integration of pronunciation with oral communication is clearly
realized.
In the late 1980's, there was a re-concentration on pronunciation (Morley, 1991).
After 1980's, L2 pronunciation, gained new meaning because of its fruitfulness
to a broad group of international people in both ESL and EFL settings
(Anderson-Hsieh, 1989; Brown, 1991; Shimamune & Smith, 1995; Derwing &
Munro, 2005; Gatbonton, 2005). Many of the learners in this stage were
immigrant residents, refugees, students, etc., who demanded for L2
pronunciation learning for finding jobs. Because of the need for international


16

communication, new perspectives on pronunciation teaching and learning
emerged (Haslam, 2010). In the 90's, the focus of pronunciation was on
communicative meaning, meaningful practice, and the uniqueness of each
individual ESL learner. Pronunciation was viewed as an important part of
communication (Morley, 1991). Changing outlooks on language learning and

teaching have influenced a move shifted from the teacher playing the key role in
the learning process to the student performing that role (Pica, 1994; Oxford,
2003).
According to Harmer (2001), pronunciation teaching not only makes students
aware of different sound and sound features but also improve their speaking
immeasurably. At the present time, the increasing demand for global
competence and international communication and collaboration makes attaining
proficiency in a second or foreign language more prominent and this proficiency
should cover not merely vocabulary and grammar, but good pronunciation as
well (Lord, 2008).
All students can do well in learning the pronunciation of a foreign language if
the teacher and student participate together in the total learning process. Success
can be achieved if each has set, respectively, individual teaching and learning
goals. Gilbert (1984) believes the skills of listening comprehension and
pronunciation is interdependent: 'If they cannot hear English well, they are cut
off from the language... If they cannot be understood easily, they are cut off from
conversation with native speakers.'
As non-native speakers, we sometimes made mistakes in pronouncing words.
There are many major factors affecting the learners’ pronunciation. The native
language plays an important role in learning to pronounce English. There has
been a great deal of research on the differences between sound systems of
English and other languages in terms of sound systems. According to Kenworthy


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(1987), “to put it very crudely, the more difficulties there are the more
difficulties the learners will have in pronouncing English”. Many studies
indicated that the greater the input of target language was and the higher the rate
of target language use was the closer learners’ pronunciation was to that of

native speakers (Munro, 1993; Flege et al., 1997, Derwing, 2008).
About age of acquisition, the relationship between a learner's age and his/her
potential for success in second language acquisition is the subject of much lively
debate. The Critical Period Hypothesis suggests that there is a time in human
development when the brain is predisposed for success in language
learning. There have been many studies on the question that whether there is an
age-related limit on the mastery of pronunciation and the results are conflicting
because these studies have assessed pronunciation in different ways. Bongaerts
et al. (1995) emphasizes, adult-learners can achieve native-like pronunciation
performance thanks to specific pronunciation training, large amount of L2 input,
high motivation and appropriate learning context.
The role of attitudes and motivation in second language learning has been
studied. The overall findings show that positive attitudes and motivation are
related to success in second language learning. Crookes and Schmidt (1991)
pointed to several areas where educational research has reported increased levels
of motivation for students in relation to pedagogical practices such as motivating
students into the lesson, varying the activities, tasks and materials and using cooperative rather than competitive goals. According to Moyer (1999), high
motivation for achieving a set goal in learning L2 pronunciation can account for
learners’ success in gaining a good pronunciation or a native-like accent.
Another factor is the amount and type of prior instructions. The learners can use
their previous knowledge to improve the pronunciation with accurate sounds and
stress. The amount and type of prior pronunciation instruction of the learners


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should be taken in consideration, so that their pronunciation problems could be
recognized and solved soon (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010).
The very important factor is that approaches to the teaching of pronunciation
have changed throughout the recent history of language teaching. There are

different approaches of pronunciation teaching such as bottom-up and top-down
approach by Dalton (2003); Intuitive-Imitative and analytic-linguistic approach
by Celce-Murcia (1996); Communicative approach or integrated approach by
later researchers. As most teachers do not have useful strategies or techniques
for teaching EFL pronunciation and as they do not know what strategies are
appropriate when they meet a specific problem, they simply avoid pronunciation
instruction in the classroom.
The pronunciation of any one learner might be affected by a combination of
these factors. The key is to be aware of their existence so that they may be
considered in creating realistic and effective pronunciation goals and
development plans for the learners.
2.2.2 Common pronunciation problems met by Vietnamese learners of
English
Vietnamese native speakers have to deal with many obstacles to learn English
pronunciation. There have been quite a number of studies about the difficulties
Vietnamese learners face in pronouncing English consonants and clusters. As the
first conclusion from Ha (2005), after the analysis were collected through three
exams with the total of fifty one students, there were three main types of errors
found in the data and the most common error was sound omission in comparison
with sound confusion and sound redundancy. However, in research done by Ha
(2005), a point to note is that her studies focused on learners from the North of
Vietnam. According to the Center of Applied Linguistics (Neumann, 2007),
taking final consonants into consideration, for example, /t/ and /d/ at word-


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finally are commonly confused with /t/ and /d/ everywhere, whereas /p/ sound in
/ pɒp/ NAmE /pɑːp/ pop is often mispronounced as /bɒp/ NAmE /bɑːp/ Bob by
Southern people and /ʃ/ sound in /puʃ/ push becomes /pus/ puss by northerners.

Ha (2005) with another research from Tang (2007) showed that the English
language has a number of consonants, especially final consonants and clusters
that do not exist in Vietnamese rather than vice versa. As a result, pronouncing
English final consonants and consonant clusters properly is one of the most
difficult things that learners have to face from the very beginning.
According to Osburne (1996) in an analysis of a case study from her subject - a
Vietnamese native speaker who came to the United States in 1972: "In additional
to cluster reduction, optional deletion of single syllable-final consonants,
especially fricatives, which is attested for Vietnamese L1 speakers was found",
and "Consonants omitted, however, were always final consonants not permitted
by Vietnamese (for example /l/ in control, /z/ in because)".
The process of learning a new language is the one of gaining a new habit
system, in which the habits of using the mother tongue affects language
learning. Interference is a kind of special errors that Vietnamese learners meet
because of their habits or natural effects from the mother tongue – Vietnamese –
into the target language – English. The language produced by foreign learners is
unavoidably influenced by the mother tongue of the leaners. For example, with
the words mind, Vietnamese learners easily mispronounce as /mɪnd/ like the
sound /i/ in Vietnamese. Another example is the word ginger which is
mispronounced /ˈgɪngə(r)/ like the sound /g/ in Vietnamese. Learners should
perceive that the spelling of an English word doesn’t really tell them how to
pronounce it. It’s incredibly easy to make pronunciation mistakes, which can


20

become bad habits. That’s why learners should always check the pronunciation
rather than guess it. The learners have to learn not just spellings, but also
pronunciations and cannot use spellings as a shortcut for pronunciation.
Another problem is about silent letter. Silent letter is a letter that in a particular

word does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation. Silent
letters create problems for both native and non-native speakers of a language, as
they make it more difficult to guess the spellings of spoken words. There are 20
letters from 26 letters in English words that potential to be silent. The silent
letters are generally the letters that do not correspond to the other sound in the
words. For example, the letter [h] in the words exhausted /ɪɡˈzɔːstɪd/ or the
words hour /ˈaʊər/.
From the above examples, we see that the mother tongue has a great effect on
the English language produced by learners. Gillette (1994), Graham (1994),
Pennington (1994), Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996) agree that the
learner's first language influences the pronunciation of the target language.
According to Swan and Smith (1987), mother tongue interference appears in
many aspects of language, especially pronunciation. Although pronunciation
consists of many aspects, in this thesis, only sound is focused on.
In conclusion, it can be concluded that Vietnamese learners have a tendency to
move strange English ending sounds towards similar sounds which exist in their
first language; omit the sounds that are too difficult for them; reduce final
clusters; and pronounce English words in the same way they behave with
Vietnamese spelling. These may cause some problems for communication with
native speakers and other proficient speakers of the English language.


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2.2.3 Methods to teach English pronunciation
Research has shown and current pedagogical thinking on pronunciation
maintains that 'intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of
communication competence' (Morley, 1991:513). Teacher must then set
achievable goals that are applicable and suitable for the needs of the student.
The growing emphasis on communicative approaches for the teaching of

English has placed higher demands for correct pronunciation. Without adequate
pronunciation skills, the learner’s ability to communicate is severely limited.
Morley believes that not attending to a student’s pronunciation needs, ‘is an
abrogation of professional responsibility’ (1991: 489).
Fraser (1999) added that in the inquiry for effective teaching, it is worth
integrating carefully the nature of the difficulties that may be encountered.
Learners also need motivation and time to really practice pronunciation. It is
worth spending class time discussing with learners their own ideas about what is
involved in learning pronunciation.
Teachers should pay attention to the development of self-correction techniques
and self-monitoring strategies. It is critical that the teacher help to develop
strategies which will allow the learner to self-correct and self-monitor by
focusing on motivation, explanations, practice and feedback. Learners should
understand why accuracy of oral production is important.
In particular, English teachers should use many different kinds of practice to
help learners improve their pronunciation. Teaching English pronunciation is a
challenging task with different objectives at each level.
The first method was conducted is minimal pair drills. This is a pair of
utterance-usually short- which differs in meaning, but which are exactly alike in
sound except in one point. The students are to pronounce pairs of words which


22

differ in pronunciation only in one respect, such as bid /bɪd/ - big /bɪg/, and
sound /saund/ - round /raund/ (Deterding and Pudjosoedarmo, 1998).
Teachers can use a series of isolated sentences. These have concentration of the
sound to be practiced, but they are not sentences frequently used in everyday
conversation, Fangzhi (1998). For example: /ʊ/
"You should look at some good cookery books."

"You wouldn’t ‘put your foot in it’.” (Ship or sheep?, Ann Baker, 2008)
Tongue twisters are very useful. Playing with words is particularly useful for the
students who have unique pronunciation problems.
Ball (2003) gives examples of tongue twisters. The tongue twister, "She sells
seashells by the seashore," is based on a song written by Terry Sullivan.
“She sells seashells by the seashore.
The shells she sells are surely seashells.
So if she sells shells on the seashore.
I’m sure she sells seashore shells.”
“If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?”
Fangzhi (1998) concluded in his study that the practices above are good for
introducing English sound to beginners and also good for building a strong basic
pronunciation. These pronunciation practices might be succeeded in helping
students to improve pronunciation but not in sequence. Students who are trained


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in these ways tend to make more pronunciation errors when speaking
spontaneously.
Celce Murcia, et.al. (1996) introduced two approaches that can be applied in
helping students' pronunciation improvement. The first one is an intuitiveimitative approach. It talks about the students' ability to listen to and imitate
sounds of a target language. He/she also can make imitate the pronunciation of
other people in television, radio, songs, and so forth. The second approach,
according to Celce Murcia, is an analytic-linguistic approach which recognizes
the importance of intervention of pronunciation in language acquisition. Using
this approach, teacher is to identify students' problem in pronouncing the foreign
language by providing pedagogical aids.
Besides, Nunan (2003) also pointed out other teaching strategies to teach
pronunciation. Openness to change is a strategy in which teachers ask learners to

discuss problem areas that are faced. It is important to build learner's selfconfidence and attend their emotional needs as a non-native speaker. Another
one is contextualized minimal pairs. It means teaching pronunciation by
distinguishing between specifically targeted sounds, stress patterns, or intonation
patterns through the use of minimal pairs. Next, gadgets and props is a strategy
in which learners are to analyze the words on their own, and to practice saying
words by using their tools in coordination with their pronunciation stress
syllables. For Nunan (2003), slow motion speaking allows learners to view close
up, and to imitate, the teacher's way of producing specific sounds in context.
With tracking strategy, language's learner are not being asked to repeat after the
recorded voice, but to try to say the words presented in the transcript concurrent
with the voices they are listening to. The last strategy as Nunan suggested is


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techniques from drama and theater arts. Popular plays and screenplays can be
interesting sources of pronunciation work.
In order to be success in teaching pronunciation, Otlowski (1998) suggested that
pronunciation should be integrated

into other

subjects

orienting to

communicative competence than linguistic skill. Morley (1991) also pointed out
that listening comprehension and pronunciation have close relationship.
According to Morley (1991), intelligible pronunciation is seen as essential
component of communicative competence.

2.3 Assessing EFL pronunciation ability
In pronunciation teaching, it is very common to see some learners who have
better pronunciation skills than others. Pronunciation ability is shaped depending
on several factors and the results of the studies which have conducted so far
show that pronunciation ability is not dependent on only one factor. Dealing
with one factor independently by omitting the others doesn't give healthy results.
All factors are connected and affect each other and they may have an influence
on pronunciation ability as a consequence. According to Baker & Haslam
(2013), motivation takes its source from higher aptitude and learners who have
high motivation and aptitude make use of pronunciation more frequently.
Obviously, pronunciation is tested globally in different types of conversational
exchange, interview, reading aloud, etc., that go on in the classroom.
Normally, audio recorder will be used as a means of assessing students’
pronunciation ability through their voice recordings. After being assessed by an
expert, learners know their mistakes in order to improve.
There are a large numbers of effects on pronunciation achievement, but the
amount of their contribution varies according to learners' needs, their exposure
time to the target language, their learning context, and their future goals.


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However, language learners don't have to achieve native-like proficiency in
pronunciation. Accurate pronunciation which will make the intelligible is
desired since English is now lingua franca.
Teachers play an important role in achieving pronunciation ability. In order to
avoid difficulty and boredom which pronunciation is linked to, teachers should
bring a variety of activities which appeal to students from different intelligent
types into their classrooms. (Thompson, Taylor, & Gray, 2001)
2.4 Dictation

2.4.1 Definition of dictation
Dictation has been a feature of language classrooms for hundreds of years. It is a
teaching technique which has proved effective at all levels of instruction.
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, ‘dictation’ is a test in which a
piece of writing is dictated to students learning a foreign language, to test their
ability to hear and write the language correctly. The teachers dictate a word,
phrase or sentence and the students write it down. In Oxford Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary (1995:190), dictation means “being dictated to: passage
that is dictated”.
In another statement about dictation, Oller (1979) stated that: “Dictation is a task
which requires the processing of temporally constrained sequences of material in
the language, divided up the stream of speech and then refers down what is
heard requires understanding the meaning of the material”.
Richards and Schmidt (2002) have demarcated dictation as a technique used in
both language teaching and language testing in which a passage is read aloud to
students or test takers, with pauses during which they must try to write down
what they have heard as accurately as possible. Davis and Rinvolucri (2002)
have also defined dictation as decoding sounds in aural input and then recoding
them in writing.