Nghiên cứu các hoạt động nhằm tăng cường hứng thú học phát âm tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất hệ Cao đẳng tiếng Anh tại Trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Hà Nam

1

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES



TRNH PHƯƠNG LIÊN



A STUDY ON ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION TO LEARN
PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST – YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
AT HANAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE
(NGHIÊN CU CC HOT ĐNG NHM TĂNG CƯNG HNG TH HC
PHT ÂM TING ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM TH NHT H CAO ĐNG
TIẾ NG ANH TẠ I TRƯỜ NG CAO ĐẲ NG SƯ PHẠ M HÀ NAM )


M.A. Minor Programme Thesis


Field: English Methodology
Code: 60.14.10


HANOI – 2010

2

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES



TRNH PHƯƠNG LIÊN



A STUDY ON ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION TO LEARN
PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST – YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
AT HANAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE
(NGHIÊN CU CC HOT ĐNG NHM TĂNG CƯNG HNG TH HC
PHT ÂM TING ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM TH NHT H CAO ĐNG
TIẾ NG ANH TẠ I TRƯỜ NG CAO ĐẲ NG SƯ PHẠ M HÀ NAM )


Field: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY
Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: NGUYỄ N HUYỀ N MINH, M.A




HANOI - 2010

6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Statement of the problem 2
3. Purpose of the study 2
4. Research questions 2
5. Method of the study 3
6. Significance of the study 3
7. Definition of terms 3
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Researches into pronunciation teaching 4
1.1.1. Approaches to pronunciation teaching 4
1.1.2. Teaching Pronunciation: Segmentals or Suprasegmentals? 6
1.1.3. Factors affect pronunciation learning and teaching English 8
1.2. Researches into motivation in teaching and learning 8
1.2.1. Role of motivation to students‟ learning 8
1.2.2. Factors affect students‟ motivation 8
1.2.3. Framework to increase and sustain students‟ motivation 9
1.3. Researches into the ways to motivate students in pronunciation lessons. 10
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 12
2.1. Context of the study 12
2.2. Participants of the study 13
2.3. Instruments 13

2.3.1. Diagnostic test 13


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2.3.2. Post test 14
2.3.3. Final oral examination 14
2.3.4. Questionnaire 14
2.3.5. The students‟ journals 14
2.3.6. Teacher‟s observations and anecdotal notes 14
CHAPTER 3: DATA PRESENTATION
3.1. Pronunciation orientation and diagnostic test 15
3.2. The students‟ journals 16
3.3. Dictation usage 16
3.4. Games 16
3.5. Songs 22
3.6. Software 23
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Results 24
4.1.1. Diagnostic test, posttest and final oral examination 24
4.1.2. Questionnaire 25
4.1.2.1. Areas of investigation 25
4.1.2.2. Analysis and findings 26
4.1.3. The students‟ journals 29
4.1.4. Teacher‟s observations and anecdotal notes 31
4.2. Discussion
4.2.1. The roles of motivating activities 32
4.2.2. Factors influencing the students‟ motivation and performance 33
CONCLUSION
1. Summary of major findings 34
2. Implications 34

3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 36
REFERENCES 37
APPENDICES


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INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
In the process of globalization, the ability to communicate in English plays an important
role in fostering the development of the whole nation in general and of Phu Ly city - Ha Nam
province in particular. In order to communicate well in English, one advantageous point is to
have an intelligible pronunciation.
However, from the first day of my career as a teacher, I faced a disillusion to find that
the first-year English major students at Hanam Teachers‟ Training College had serious
problems in pronunciation. They mispronounced many words; paid very little attention to
stress, intonation and rhythm. Therefore, it is my desire to improve the situation of the
students‟ pronunciation. I registered to teach the subject “Practical Pronunciation” with the
coursebook “Ship or Sheep” by Ann Baker (1997). After the first courses, I was delighted to
witness certain improvements in students‟ pronunciation. However, it seemed to me that my
students were not very motivated in the course and their efforts faded quickly after the
examination. This fact dawned on me that my teaching was not interesting and motivating
enough. From the experience of the previous courses of pronunciation, I wished to apply more
stimulating activities to increase the students‟ motivation and intelligibility.
Moreover, I find that the time for students to study pronunciation in the class is limited,
thus in order to obtain good pronunciation requires much self-study time of students. The way
to promote students to self-study pronunciation is by making them have great motivation in
learning pronunciation. Because I strongly agree with Lightbrown, P.M and Spada, N (1999)
that students never learn everything they are taught, they only learn what they are interested in.
The researchers also added that students are unlikely to be very successful at learning anything
unless they enjoy the process.

Being urged by the situation and motivated by the idea of finding interesting tools to
teach pronunciation in an effective and systematic way, I would like to avail myself of this
opportunity to conduct a research on activities to motivate first-year English major students at
Hanam Teachers‟ Training College to learn pronunciation.


9
2. Statement of the problem
At Hanam Teachers‟ Training College, up to now there are four classes major in English,
with the aim of training teachers of English for secondary schools in the province, providing
office workers specializing in English for joint-venture companies in the industrial zones in
the province, training some male interpreters and translators to work in the Middle-East
countries in Asia. With the above aims, it is required that students must have an intelligible
pronunciation.
However, as a teacher of English at Hanam Teachers‟ Training College, I found that
students had serious problems with English pronunciation. Most of them come from rural
areas of Thanh Liem, Binh Luc, Kim Bang, Ly Nhan, where there is no emphasis on learning
pronunciation. Therefore, it is easy to find that students have so many problems with
pronunciation. Moreover, in my previous courses of teaching pronunciation, I realized that my
students seemed not to be highly motivated in learning with activities in the coursebook.
From the current situation of Hanam Teachers‟ Training College, I would like to conduct
a research on activities to motivate first-year English major students at Hanam Teachers‟
Training College to learn pronunciation.
3. Purpose of the study
This research is designed to bring a new air into the pronunciation class of the first-year
English major students at Hanam Teachers‟ Training College. In general, the purposes of this
study are:
+ to seek activities to motivate the first-year English major students at Hanam Teachers‟
Training College to learn pronunciation
+ to have empirical evidence of motivating activities on learning pronunciation of the

first-year English major students at Hanam Teachers‟ Training College
4. Research questions
1. What are motivating activities for the first-year English major students at
Hanam Teachers‟ Training College to learn pronunciation
2. How much do motivating activities in the research account for changes in
students‟ pronunciation and motivation?


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5. Method of the study
The method employed in this study is an action research, using a number of instruments
as questionnaire, the students‟ journals, teacher‟s anecdotal notes, along with diagnostic test,
posttest and final oral examination to collect data.
6. Significance of the study
Despite the fact that pronunciation plays an important role in learning a foreign language,
so far there have been few researches on the ways to motivate students to study pronunciation
compared to other skills such as speaking, listening, writing and reading. The study suggests
motivating activities in teaching pronunciation to facilitate the students‟ learning process.
Therefore, this study contributes to enriching the researches on strategies to promote students
to learn pronunciation. The results of this study will be of much benefit to both teachers and
students of English.
7. Definition of terms
Motivation
Among many definitions of motivation stands out Gardner‟s one (1985)
“Motivation refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the
language plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language” Gardner (1985, p. 10)
Intelligibility
“Intelligibility may be broadly defined as the extent to which a speaker’s message is
actually understood by a listener” (Munro & Derwing 1999, p. 289)

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CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Researches into pronunciation teaching
1.1.1. Approaches to pronunciation teaching
The approaches to pronunciation teaching have swung in and out of favor through the
years in the history. Two general approaches to the teaching of pronunciation described by
Celce-Murcia et al. (1996) have been adopted by many researchers, which are intuitive-
imitative approach and analytical-linguistic approach.
An intuitive-imitative approach assumes that students will develop acceptable
pronunciation and speaking skills when exposed to the target language through accurate
models. This approach relies heavily upon imitation and repetition, without any explicit
information provided by the teacher. The early method of pronunciation training called
Direct Method, which gained acceptance in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was formed from
observations of children attaining their first language. In this method, students would listen
and imitate a model of the target language that was spoken by the teacher (and later by
recordings) (Celce Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996). From the late 1960s and the early
1980s, there was a decline in explicit pronunciation teaching with the invention of the
language lab. During this time intuitive-imitative approach was more popular in the
pronunciation training with Total Physical Response by Asher‟s (1977) and Natural
Approach by Krashen and Terrell‟s (1983). In Total Physical Response, students would
begin to speak when they were ready and they were expected to make errors in the initial
stage. The main initial focus of Natural Approach was listening, which gave students the
opportunities to internalize the target sound system. Indeed, many contemporary researchers
still adopt this view but it is still needed to further investigate if the method has the
persuasive foundation.
An analytic-linguistic approach recognises the importance of an explicit intervention of
pronunciation pedagogy in language acquisition. The approach employs a variety of
pedagogical aids including phonemic chart, contrastive exercises and articulatory descriptions.
In this approach, students are given explicit information about how to produce the sounds and

rhythms of the target language. This approach was developed to complement rather than


12
replace the intuitive-imitative approach. In the 1890s, Henry Sweet, Wilhelm Viëtor and Paul
Passy the creators and developers of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), led a
movement in language teaching that was generally called the Reform Movement. These
phoneticians had great influence on the teaching of pronunciation with their contribution to the
development of a system for describing and analysing the sound systems of languages. The
1940s and 1950s witnessed a noticeable movement emphasized on explicit instruction of
phonetics with Audiolinguism in the United States and the Oral approach in Britain. These
two methodologies competed with the Direct Method by relying on a recording or the teacher
to model the target language followed by the students‟ repetition of that language. However,
teachers also drew from their knowledge of phonetics and for the first time used simplified
charts of the IPA and articulatory models in the classroom. The audiolinguism relied much on
drilling sound contrasts and minimal pairs, with very little attention to intonation and
conversational speech. The technique of minimal pairs drill was used extensively by Baker
(1977) in her very popular course book on contrastive segmental instruction “Ship or Sheep.”
The Silent Way (Gattegno, 1972) dominated in the early 1970s. In this method segmentals and
suprasegmentals are paid attention from the very beginning of instruction. The teachers‟ talk is
kept to a minimum using gestures, and visual aids such as the sound-colour chart, Fidel wall
charts, and Cuisenaire rods, which were used to demonstrate pronunciation instruction.
The 1980s witnessed the significant shift with discourse based communicative approach
with the ultimate goal was communication. The communicative approach dealt with tasks that
focus on meaning, using activities such as role play, problem solving and games in a relaxed
and supportive classroom environment. By focusing more on active communication, it has
been recognised that pronunciation competence below a certain threshold caused
unintelligible, even for the most grammatically and lexically advanced students (Hinofotis &
Bailey, 1980). Technique used to teach pronunciation included listening and imitating,
phonetic training, minimal pairs drilling in context, visual aids, reading aloud, recording the

students‟ production with more focus on suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation. It can be
seen that the communicative approach seems to be a more balance approach, with the focus on


13
both fluency and accuracy. The approach perhaps has characteristics of both intuitive-imitative
approach and analytical-linguistic approach.
1.1.2. Teaching Pronunciation: Segmentals or Suprasegmentals?
The categorization of pronunciation into segments (discrete sounds), and
suprasegments (features that organize streams of speech into meaningful units such as stress,
rhythm, intonation, linking, assimilation and deletion) is accepted by many researchers (Kelly,
2003; Kenworthy, 1987; Celce-Murcia et. al., 1996; Morley, 1999).
The tradition debate relating to which features of pronunciation - segments or
suprasegments - should be focused on in teaching pronunciation has still been hold. A brief
review of the debates between segments and suprasegments is presented as following.
Teaching segmental features started with a concentration on phonetic alphabets during
the Reform Movement (Celce-Murcia et. al., 1996). Phonetic training was used in order to
help learners establish good speech habits. Minimal pair drills were used extensively to
distinguish phonemes in listening practice and oral production (Celce-Murcia et. al., 1996).
However, after Anderson-Hsieh introduced the researches on “Teaching suprasegmentals to
international teaching assistants using field-specific materials” (1990) and “Pronunciation
factors affecting intelligibility in speakers of English as a foreign language” (1995), the focus
of pronunciation teaching shifted dramatically from segmentals to an emphasis on
suprasegmentals. Following Anderson-Hsieh, abundant researches have investigated the extent
to which suprasegmentals contribute to speakers‟ intelligibility and its pedagogy. Underhill
(1994) stressed the necessity of designing syllabuses mainly focusing on major features of
communication - superasegmental features of speech for teaching English. McNerney and
Mendelsohn (1992, p. 186) suggested “a short-term pronunciation course should focus first
and foremost on suprasegmentals, as they have the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of
learners‟ English”. So far a lot of books for teachers have largely encouraged the teaching of

suprasegments at the production level to improve learners‟ intelligibility.
In spite of the trend focusing on teaching superasegmentals, hesitation has still arisen
from the trend. Because of the close relation between suprasegmental features and the nature
of native accents, which are unlikely for learners to achieve, one question raises is that if


14
learners could acquire suprasegmental features at a productive level in a formal educational
setting. Taylor (1993) suggested that some suprasegmental features appear to be unteachable
and require learners‟ extensive exposure to the target language for acquisition. Moreover,
Pennington‟s research (Pennington, 1994, p. 95) asserted that learners approached new values
for phonological features gradually and piecemeal, rather than as the outcome of a rapid shift.
Brazil (1994, p. 3) commented that segmentals and suprasegmentals are interdependent
because “the work students do in one area supports and reinforces the work they do in the
other”. Jenkins (2004) regardless of a few studies (Gass & Varonis, 1985; Derwing & Munro,
2001, 2002), argued that most studies conducted to investigate the problem with
communication scenario between native speakers and non-native speakers, where native
speakers serve as the judges to examine non-native speakers‟ intelligibility. However,
according to Jenkins (2004), interactions among non-native speakers and non-native speakers,
which are very common in the world communication today, have revealed unintelligibility as a
problem at the segmental level of a major portion rather than at the suprasegmental level. Rost
(1990, p. 50) also pointed out, “most mishearings can be identified as occurring at a segmental
level”. Jenkins (2004) further suspected some researchers‟ attitude of wholesale transferring
native speakers corpus data to the English teaching realm of the “corpus syndrome.”
Therefore, Jenkins strongly suggested the need of a more systematic training of individual
segmental features and a return to the forgotten minimal pair drills.
In conclusion, the findings favor for suprasegments can only be suggestive rather than
conclusive to advocate suprasegments over the segments. Intelligible pronunciation cannot
have one without the other. Therefore, we would strongly attach the importance of both
segments and suprasegments in order to teach pronunciation more effectively. Final decisions

of which priority we should choose in our pedagogical implementation - suprasegments or
segments or the balance between two components - seem to fall back on each teacher in their
own context. Along with that, perhaps teachers are also the people who have to find out the
appropriate methods that transfer their belief of pronunciation teaching into relevant and
absorbable lessons to bring the best benefits to their students and enable their students to
communicate with intelligible pronunciation.


15
1.1.3. Factors affect pronunciation learning and teaching English
For Joanne Kenworthy (1987), there are quite many factors affecting students‟
pronunciation, which are the native language, the age of student, the amount of exposure, the
phonetic ability of student, attitude and identity of student, motivation and concern for good
pronunciation of students. He also stressed that a concern for good pronunciation on the part
of the teacher can instil a similar concern among the students, from which the teacher‟s role
can be seen quite important. Of the above factors, motivation and concern toward students‟
pronunciation play a very important role in order to get a good pronunciation. Other
researchers as Suter (1976), Celce Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin (1996) considered that
motivation and concern for good pronunciation affect pronunciation accuracy.
According to Bowen (1972), the success of pronunciation instruction depended greatly
on motivating the learner by integrating pronunciation with the elements of instruction, which
might be accomplished by contextualizing the pronunciation lesson. He considered motivation
as a powerful factor influencing the improvement of learners‟ pronunciation. The researcher
also believed that successful pronunciation teaching is directly related to having motivated
learners and meaningfully contextualized pronunciation instruction.
1.2. Researches into motivation in teaching and learning
1.2.1. Role of motivation to students’ learning
There are the close relationship between learning and motivation. Many researches have
proved that motivation affects learning. In the TESOL field, Brown (1987, p. 114) stated that
motivation is a key to learning another language. Oxford & Shearin (1994, p.12) persuaded

that “motivation is considered by many to be one of the main determining factors in success in
developing a second or foreign language”
In a similar way, Dornyei (2001, p. 1) corroborated the previous assertion and added
that “skills to motivate learners are crucial for language teachers.”
1.2.2. Factors affect students’ motivation
Many researchers have pointed out that the construct of motivation is not a single entity
but a multi-factorial one. Among the researchers in this issue stands out Dornyei‟s extended


16
motivational framework (2005). Dornyei (2005, p. 111) analyzed the second language learning
motivation within a framework of three levels, which are:
 Language level
 Learner level
 Learning situation level
Language level involves factors related to the second language, such as the culture, the
community as well as the practical values and benefits connected with the second language
learning. Learner level relates to learner personal characteristics in the process of second
language learning, which are self-efficacy, self-confidence, need for achievement, causal
attributions, the perceived second language competences and goal orientations and so forth.
Learning situation level consists of three aspects, which are course-specific motivational
components such as syllabus, teacher materials, teaching tasks, teacher-specific motivational
components such as teacher‟s personality, behaviors and teaching styles, group-specific
motivational components such as the group dynamics of the learner group.
1.2.3. Framework to increase and sustain students’ motivation
In order to increase and sustain students‟ motivation, some steps are required.
The first step is to create the basic motivational conditions. According to Dornyei (2001,
p. 120) teacher behavior is a powerful “motivating tool” in creating the basic motivational
conditions. Moreover, a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere and a cohesive learner
group with appropriate group norms are also elements to create the basic motivational

conditions.
The second step is to generate initial motivation. This can be done by increasing the
learner‟s goal-orientedness, making the curriculum relevant for the learners, creating realistic
learner belief.
The next step is to maintain motivation. According to Dornyei (2001), there are five
areas to maintain motivation:
 Setting “proximal subgoals”
 Improving the quality of learning experience
 Increasing learner‟s self-confidence


17
 Creating learner autonomy
 Promoting self-motivating learner strategies
The last step is to encourage students’ positive self-evaluation by providing students
motivational feedback from teacher, increasing learner satisfaction with rewards and grades.
1.3. Researches into the ways to motivate students in pronunciation lessons.
According to Kenworthy (1987), there are some ways that can help to motivate students
to learn pronunciation.
Firstly, students themselves must be persuaded how important pronunciation is good for
communication. According to Kelly (2003), pronunciation is the vital factor for the success or
failure of oral communication. The significance of pronunciation can be seen through the fact
that interlocutors are to face serious problems in communication without good pronunciation
of the language. In case the speaker mispronounce a word, or wrongly use the rhythm,
intonation of his intended utterances, the listener may have difficulties in recognizing and
understanding the conveyed message, or in other words, encounter the problems of reception.
In Kelly‟s viewpoint, a speaker can hardly be understandable to people if he consistently
mispronounce a range of words or put stress wrongly. The situation gets worse if
misunderstanding makes each other confused, embarrassed or annoyed. Therefore, good
pronunciation helps to consolidate speakers‟ confidence and leads to mutual comprehension in

communication. Sharing the same idea, website www.antimoon.com posted an article “first
impressions” saying that pronunciation is the first and the biggest thing that people notice
when someone is speaking.
“When you first meet a person, do you think that they will notice your poor vocabulary
or bad grammar? Probably not! They pay attention to your pronunciation. You can live
without advanced vocabulary as you can use simple words to say what you want to say. You
can also live without advanced grammar as you can use simple grammar structures instead.
But there is no such ting as “simple pronunciation”. Your pronunciation creates the first
impression. Therefore, it is one of the first things that you should learn.”
Thus, in order to motivate students to learn pronunciation, the teacher should help to
make students understand the importance of pronunciation.


18
Secondly, it is necessary for teacher to help students to set up a specific, short-term,
achievable goal for students‟ learning. This means that it must be clearly stated to students that
“native-like” accent is not the pronunciation goal. Learners can be satisfied with the ability of
pronouncing a language “intelligibly” with communicative efficiency. This will motivate
students to learn because if the goals are very general or unrealistic, students often tend to
disappoint and get soon bored with learning process. Moreover, McMillan and Forsyth (1991)
suggested that making students‟ learning goals in line with their existing needs may be a good
strategy to motivate students, because in this way, students can see the value and relevance of
the course to their development.
Thirdly, in order to motivate students to learn pronunciation, teacher should show the
great concern for the students‟ pronunciation and their progress. It is thought that if the teacher
continuously and consistently emphasizes on the need for good pronunciation from learners,
gradually the learners tend to develop a similar concern for their own pronunciation. And this
will help to improve the students‟ pronunciation. One of the most important tasks of the
teacher to show the great concern for the students‟ pronunciation is by devising useful and
motivating activities for students to learn and practise pronunciation. This is not an easy but

rewarding task. Therefore, teacher must be able to identify what exercises will benefit students
most, what types of activities will engage students most in the class.




19
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Context of the study
Being a small city in the south of Hanoi capital, the demand for learning English in
Hanam seem to be not as high as in other big cities because the limited number of joint-
venture and foreign-funded companies here. However the role of English in Hanam is paid
more and more attention now when English is considered as one factor to attract more
investment into Hanam. Therefore, from 2006 Hanam Teachers‟ Training College opened the
classes for students majoring in English. Up to now, there have been four classes major in
English. With the main purpose of training students with high communicative ability and
competence in English, teaching and learning pronunciation play an important role in the
college‟s training process. However, the students at Hanam Teachers‟ Training College are
quite different from students in big cities such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. Frankly, they
have more difficulties in learning English than students in big cities in terms of ability and
condition. For most students, studying in Hanam is in the last choice when they fail in the
entrance examinations to university elsewhere. Some students choose to study in Hanam
because of their finance and health condition. Moreover, almost all students here come from
rural areas of Hanam such as Kim Bảng, Lý Nhân, Thanh Liêm, Bình Lục, where they get
used to passive ways of learning, which is embedded deeply in their mind from primary school
to high school. Last but not least, English learning environment in Hanam is not favorable.
Even when some of the students have great interest and want to improve their English, it is
difficult for them to find good places to learn English. The number of English centers in
Hanam is still limited with low quality of teachers and learning facilities. Moreover most
students still have very limited access to Internet to find resources for studying. For many

students, even students majoring in English at Hanam Teachers‟ Training College, they have
never had a chance to meet foreigners. Resources of reference books in the college are also
limited. These internal and external constraints in learners and environment make the quality
and motivation to learn English here quite low.
The study was conducted in 9 weeks from the 26
th
of September, 2009 to the 27
th
of
November, 2009, with 5 periods per learning session, 1 learning session per week.


20
2.2. Participants of the study
The participants of this study were selected on the basis of convenience. I would be in
charge of teaching the subject “Practical Pronunciation” for the first-year students of English
class K13A at Hanam Teachers‟ Training College, which consisting of 34 students, with 32
female and 2 male students ranging from 18 to 22 years of age. All of them had learned
English for at least 3 years. They had to take the English test with the same format from the
Ministry of Education in the entrance exam to the college. However, their marks for English in
the entrance exam were not high, in which the highest for English is 7.5 and the lowest is 3.
Most of them come from rural areas in the province. In general, their grammar and reading are
comprehensible but their pronunciation is not good.
2.3. Instruments
In order to obtain in-depth, rich information, the study used a variety of research
instruments and sources of data, including diagnostic test, questionnaire, the students‟ journals,
classroom observation and teacher‟s anecdotal notes, posttest and final oral examination.
2.3.1. Diagnostic test
At the beginning of the course, participants were required to take part in a diagnostic test,
in which they would read aloud some sentences containing minimal pairs, a passage, which I

took from the website effortlessenglishclub.com and a conversation, which I adapted from the
book “Test Your Pronunciation” by Michael Vaughan (2002). The sentences, the passage and
the conversations were selected from the recourses that had audio recordings, so that I could
assess the students‟ performance by comparing the students‟ pronunciation with the
pronunciation of the native speakers. The diagnostic test was recorded for analysis of the
students‟ problems in pronunciation in order that I would pay more attention to their problems.
The results of the diagnostic test were also used in comparison with the results of the posttest
and final oral examination to reveal improvements that students made during the course of
pronunciation with motivating activities. (Appendix 3)


21
2.3.2. Post test
The day before the end of the course, I asked the students to carry out the posttest, in
which they would do the diagnostic test again, with the aim to find out how they had improved
after the course. The posttest had the same design and content as the diagnostic test.
2.3.3. Final oral examination
The researcher would use final oral examination test on pronunciation as a
combination to evaluate the effectiveness of motivating tools on the students‟ pronunciation.
The examination took place two weeks after the course. The examination had the same form
as the diagnostic test but the contents were different. (Appendix 4)
2.3.4. Questionnaire
There is one questionnaire, which was delivered to students twice, one before the
course and one after the course. Participants were received the questionnaire at the beginning
of the course, which aimed at finding out the students‟ attitude, interest and motivation before
the course. The questionnaire was delivered the second time on the day before the end of the
course with the aim to find out changes in the students‟ self evaluation after the course. The
students answered the questionnaire anonymously. (Appendix 1)
2.3.5. The students’ journals
The students were required to write journals every week to reflect on what they had

learned in the class and presented their understanding of the aspects of English pronunciation.
The journals were collected by the researcher at the end of the course and the reflection part in
the journals was used to investigate the students‟ attitudes and issues in the course. (Appendix
7)
2.3.6. Teacher’s observations and anecdotal notes
The researcher carried out classroom observation in order to take notes of changes in the
students‟ attitude, motivation, interest and improvement in the course. The researcher also
reflected on the teaching and learning process after each lesson. (Appendix 8)



22
CHAPTER 3: DATA PRESENTATION
In the pronunciation course, I applied some activities so that the pronunciation lessons
would be more interesting and effective.
3.1. Pronunciation orientation and diagnostic test
I spent the first day carrying out pronunciation orientation and diagnostic test. I tried to
create a friendly and comfortable atmosphere in the class. After the introduction, we discussed
the students‟ experience in learning pronunciation so far. It was revealed that they learnt
almost nothing about pronunciation before except some written tests of word stress and odd –
one – out sounds, which were boring and hard for them. Then we discussed about the
importance of pronunciation in communication and in their future career. After that the
students did the diagnostic test in groups of 5. Our class had the first lesson on Saturday
because on that day there were many vacant classrooms, so that we could conduct to record in
7 rooms for 7 groups of 5 in a quiet environment. Each group would gather in one room that I
prepared beforehand. I distributed each group with one handout of the diagnostic test, which
they would record individually. I instructed them to use the recorder that I prepared. While
one member of the group did the diagnostic test, other members of the group would listen and
play the role of Feedback Director and write their comments on the problems relating to
vowels, consonants, word stress, sentence stress, rhythm and intonation that their friend made.

After all of the five members of the group finished recording the diagnostic test and their
critical friends finished their comments, the group would exchange the comments among the
members, in which each member would receive the comments from 4 other members. Then
the group would discuss for a while before coming back to their classroom at assigned time to
listen to the model on the tape to compare their reading to their speaking of native speakers
and then fill in the self-assessment of pronunciation. I reassured them that they would not be
marked based on this assessment form. I would photocopy their assessment forms. I would
keep one set and give back to the students one set so that they can work to overcome their
problems of pronunciation that they self-reflected and track their improvement. While the
students were recorded reading the diagnostic test, I went to all the rooms to monitor and give
a help when necessary. After all groups came back to the classroom, I collected the recordings


23
for further investigation of the difficulties that the students faced. The next lesson, I pointed
out the common errors and mistakes in the students‟ pronunciation and then provided them the
plan of the study in the course.
3.2. The students’ journals
Guidance and basic knowledge of pronunciation, including English vowels, consonants,
stress, rhythm and simple intonation are really needed for the students to make them
autonomous learners of English pronunciation during the course and even after the course. To
be able to self-monitor, learners must be aware of the phonological features and patterns
underlying the second language (Morley, 1994). In order to equip the students with the
knowledge of pronunciation, along with the teacher‟s lectures and discussion in the class, I
required the students to write journals every week, in which the students reflected on what
they had learnt in the class that week and their understanding of aspects of pronunciation.
(Appendix 7)
3.3. Dictation usage
It is common to see that most students use dictionaries just to look for the meaning of a
word. My students rarely use dictionaries to check its pronunciation and stress. Even when

some of them try to look for pronunciation of words in dictionaries, they do not succeed in
pronounce words correctly because of their wrong articulation of the consonants and vowels.
Therefore, the encouragement and instruction on the use of dictionaries were combined in my
teaching of basic articulation of vowel and consonant sounds. The habit of using dictionaries
effectively can help the students have better pronunciation of individual words and have better
control and more responsibility in learning pronunciation.
3.4. Games
Applying games in teaching and learning English is useful because it helps to create
exciting atmosphere in the class and increase students‟ motivation. Along with delivering the
students with pronunciation games from the book “Pronunciation Games” by Mark Hancock
(1995), and “The Pronunciation Book” by Tim Bowen and Jonathan Marks (1992) and
organised some simple games such as Bingo or tongue twister, the following are some


24
stimulating games that I applied in the course which drew much of attention and interest from
my students.
Practise particular sounds
Rubber band
To solve the problem of vowel length of the students, I used the idea of using rubber
bands of Gilbert, 1993. Rubber bands were used to help the students to feel and see more
clearly the differences between long and short sounds.
Make up stories
After the students understood the articulation of individual sounds, and got some more
practise on the sounds. I asked them to work in groups of five to make up a story or a dialogue
which contained at least 7 words with the sound they had practised. The aim in this activity
was that I wanted the students to review the sound in context and be creative.
Quickest minimal pairs
Minimal pair practice is often boring for students. However, in order to create more
motivating atmosphere in practising minimal pairs, I organised a game to review the sounds

that the students had just learnt. I divided the students into two teams and explained the rule. I
would write one word on the backboard. The task of the players in two teams was to call out
minimal pair of the word on the backboard. In order to score points for their team, students
had to stand up, call out minimal pairs and sit down quickly. The student who stood up and
spoke out one minimal pair of that word and sat down quickest scored points for their team.
Teaching word stress:
Syllable identification:
In my teaching, I realized that the students had difficulties in counting out the syllables.
Therefore before teaching word stress, I had some review for syllables. Firstly I introduced the
definition of syllable in a simple way. Then we worked as a whole class to count out the
number of syllables in some words. Next I asked the students to work in pairs taking turns
pronouncing polysyllabic words while the partner counted the syllables on their finger. Finally
I organized a game on syllables, which I based on the idea of Fischler (2004). I divided the
class into 4 teams and handed out each team a worksheet containing spaces for filling in with


25
words having the required syllables. The goal of each team is to write as many words as
possible within the given category in three minutes. (Appendix 10)
When students had a firm grasp of syllables, it was the time that I introduced word
stress.
Word stress pattern
After a brief review of the stress patterns that the students had learnt in high schools, I
arranged a group competition in the class to provide more examples of the stress patterns. I
divided the class into 6 groups and asked the groups to write down examples for word stress
patterns within 5 minutes. In this activity I asked the students not to use dictionaries. I realized
that the students cooperated and thoroughly debated. Some of them tried to read aloud words
with stress on different syllables for their friends to consider before writing down the
examples.
“Oh” language

After the game, the class practised the “Oh” language with the correct word stress
pattern that they had just written down. In this activity the students would replace unstressed
syllables with “oh” in soft voice and stressed syllables with “OH” in a stronger and louder
manner. This way of practice word stress brought a lot of laugh and happy faces to my
students. And It is found that the student were fluent in “Oh” language very quickly.
Run &Tick
When all students were aware of the word stress patterns, I organized one fun game call
“run &tick” which attracted the students a lot. First I drew the stress pattern on the blackboard.
Then I divided the class into two teams. I explained to them that they were going to hear some
words. Their task was to run to the blackboard as quickly as possible and use chalk to tick at
the appropriate stress pattern of the word. I found that this activity created much of fun in the
class and students were very excited to participate.
Stand up – Sit down
One game that I organised to review word stress before teaching sentence stress is called
“stand up –sit down”. In this game, I divided the class in half, with students belonging to two
tables in a row competed with each other. I wrote multisyllable words on the blackboard. Each


26
student in one table represented one syllable. The student represented the syllable which
carried stress must stand up. The students carrying the unstressed syllables still sat down. At
the end of the game, the half got most correct answers in word stress is the winner.
Teaching sentence stress, intonation:
Three readings
As the findings in the diagnostic test (appendix 6), the students in the study as well as other
Vietnamese students are influenced by syllable-timed language of Vietnamese. Therefore in
my teaching, the first thing I do was to raise the students‟ awareness of the differences
between two languages. The first activity I introduced is called “three readings”, which was
based on the idea of Underhill (1994). In this activity, I read aloud the same sentence three
times in three different ways. Because at this stage, the sentence stress should be clear.

Therefore I chose a Shakespearian verse to demonstrate three readings.
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”
The first time I read the sentence without any stress or changes in intonation so that each
syllable is given the same length, volume and pitch. Then I elicited the students‟ comments on
that way of speaking and asked them if in English people put stress on every word they speak
like that.
The second time I read the same sentence again, deliberately stressing wrong to get the
students‟ feedback:
A rose BY aNY oTHER name WOULD smell AS sweet
In the third time, the sentence was read aloud with the stress was put where it seemed
natural.
a ROSE by ANy OTHer NAME would SMELL as SWEET
Then we discussed as the whole class the role of stress and rhythm in English and how to
make it sound more natural in English.
I also used visual contrasts of the utterance: “Pronunciation is important” which I based
on the illustration of Prator and Robinett, 1985 to help the students remember better the
differences between two languages.



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Syllable-Timed Rhythm Stress – Timed Rhythm



After that, we discussed and practised the cases that carry stress in the sentence.
Talking hands
One game that aroused the students‟ interest is the game talking hands, which is based on the
idea of Laroy (1995). In this game, the students have to listen to rhythm patterns of some
simple utterances in order to try to identify the meaning of the message. To make it more

interesting, I told the student that in some tribes in the world, people use drums to transmit a
limited number of messages over long distances. It is somehow the same as in English; rhythm
can be recognized and understood in some way. Then I introduced the game of talking hands,
in which the students would use the clapping of the hands to transmit meanings. First I made a
list of some simple utterances such as: Hello, Nice to meet you, I am glad to see you, How are
you?, Good morning to you, Good evening, Sit down, Wonderful, Oh dear! Next I asked the
students to put correct stress in the utterances by drawing symbols of stressed and unstressed
syllables under the utterances with o indicating unstressed syllables and 0 indicating stressed
ones. For example o0 represented “hello”, 0o0o represented “nice to meet you”. Then I
clapped some rhythms and asked the students to call out the utterance. After they practised
clapping these utterances in pairs, I divided the class into two tribes and chose voluntarily a
chief for each tribe and a number of „drummers‟. The rest of the class are villagers who will
overhear the message. The chiefs stood at two ends of the classroom. The drummers stood
along two ways leading to the chiefs. One chief ordered his „drummer‟ to transmit a message
to another drummer who then transmits it to another one, until the message reaches the chief at
the other end of the classroom. The second chief says, „The chief from the other village is
saying “Good morning to you”, for example. If this is right, the drummers and villagers clap
„Wonderful!‟ or another expression of praise. If the interpretation is wrong, they clap „Oh
dear!‟ and make a sad face. The second chief answers the message in the same way. It is found


28
that this game is stimulating to my students and helps them recognize some basic rhythm
patterns.
Lip reading
Another activity that I applied in the course is called “lip reading”. This activity helped
to develop the students‟ awareness of articulation and lip movements and facial expression, as
well as body language, which work as clues to find out the meaning of utterances. I used
scenes from the cartoon “Tarzan” with the first conversation between Jane and Tarzan and
scenes from the movie “My Fair Lady” (1964) because it is suitable to my students‟ level.

First I played the scenes with the sound off and asked the students to work in groups of 5 tried
to find out what the speaker is saying by watching the lip movements and body language of
the speaker. After several times, I elicited the answers from the students and replayed the
scenes with sound so that the students could check their understanding. Then the best group in
understanding the scenes was asked to perform the scenes again in front of the class.
Competitive role play games
In order to help student practise more materials in the coursebook with more interest
and motivation, I applied some more competitive role play games. After each lesson, I asked
students to work in groups to practise dialogues in the coursebook “Ship or sheep” again at
home. The numbers of students per group depend on the number of characters in the dialogue.
Students could choose their partners or group without assignment from the teacher. At the next
lesson, the teacher would choose at random two groups to role play the dialogue again. The
group, which was evaluated the best by teacher and their classmates would receive one point
in their participation and mid-term marks. Moreover, each member of the group would have
chance to pick up a lucky number. At the end of the course, the teacher would announce the
lucky numbers. The students who had the lucky numbers would receive small gifts from the
teacher. It was observed that the students tried their best to pronounce sounds, stress and
intonation as accurately as they could when they participated in the competitive role play
games.