The reality of teaching and learning pronunciaton at Quynh Coi high school in Thai Binh problems and solutions = Thực trạng dạy và học ngữ âm tại trường PTTH Q

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************




HOÀNG THỊ DUYÊN


THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
PRONUNCIATION AT QUYNH COI HIGH SCHOOL IN
THAI BINH: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
(Thực trạng dậy và học ngữ âm tại trường PTTH Quỳnh Côi, Thái
Bình: vấn đề và giải pháp)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis



Field: English Methodology
Code: 601410
Supervisor: TỪ THỊ MINH THÚY. M.Ed.



Hanoi, December 2010

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Rationale of the study 1
1.2 Aims of the study 2
1.3 Research questions 2
1.4 Scope of the study 2
1.5 Methods of the study 2
1.6 Significance of the study 3
1.7 Design of the study 3
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1 Pronunciation concepts 5
2.2 Features of pronunciation 5
2.3 Teaching pronunciation 6
2.3.1 The importance of teaching/ learning pronunciation and a “paradox” 6
2.3.1.1 The importance of teaching and learning pronunciation 6
2.3.1.2 A “paradox” 7
2.3.2 Teachers’ roles in teaching pronunciation 8
2.3.3. Approaches, techniques and activities in teaching pronunciation 10
2.3.3.1 Approaches in teaching pronunciation 10
2.3.3.2 Techniques and activities 10
2.4 Learning pronunciation 12

2.4.1 Factors affecting learning pronunciation 12
2.4.2 Students’ roles in learning pronunciation 13
2.5 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunciation 13
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 16
3.1 Description of the setting 16
3.1.1 Description of the school 16
3.1.2 Description of the course 16
3.2 Subjects 16

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3.3 Research methods 17
3.4 Data collection procedures 18
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF THE DATA 20
4.1 Survey questionnaires 20
4.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning
pronunciation 20
4.1.2 Students’ pronunciation level 20
4.1.3 Pronunciation teaching and learning time 21
4.1.4 Teachers and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunciation
22
4.1.5 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning intonation and
stress 23
4.1.6 Classroom approaches, techniques and activities used by teachers 24
4.1.7 Students’ expectations and teachers’ recommendations to teaching and
learning pronunciation 25
4.2 Classroom observations 26
4.2.1 Teaching, learning materials and curriculum 26
4.2.2 Students’ activities and their mistakes in producing stress and intonation
27
4.2.3 Teachers’ approaches and techniques used in teaching pronunciation 27

4.3 Interviews and discussions 29
CHAPTER FIVE: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE DATA 31
Research question 1: What is the present situation of teaching and learning
pronunciation at QC high school? 31
Research question two: What are teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and
learning pronunciation? 32
Research question 3: What teaching techniques can be used to improve teaching
pronunciation for students at QCHS? 34
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 38
6.1 Conclusions 38
6.2 Recommendations for further studies 38
REREFENCES 40
APPENDICES 42
Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for teachers 42

vi
Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for students 44
Appendix 3: Classroom observation sheet 46
Appendix 4: Interview questions and transcription 47


1
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the study
Nowadays, with the rapid pace of integration and globalization, English becomes a
golden key to open the door of many fields such as commerce, communication, science
and technology throughout the world. Therefore, to meet the demand of the society, it is
very necessary to teach English in schools at all levels. And the highest target is to get
well in communication. If one wants to get successful in communication, he must be
good at pronunciation: “a threshold level of pronunciation in English such that if a given

non-native speaker's pronunciation falls below this level, he or she will not be able to
communicate orally no matter how good his or her control of English grammar and
vocabulary might be” (Celce-Murcia, 1987:5).
In the field of language teaching, the role of pronunciation has varied widely from
having virtually no role in the grammar-translation method to being the central focus in
the audio-lingual method where emphasis is on the traditional notions of pronunciation,
minimal pairs, drills and short conversations. The growing emphasis on communicative
approaches for the teaching of English has placed higher demands for correct
pronunciation. Despite this fact, at the upper-secondary school level in Vietnam, in
language teaching and learning, compared with vocabulary, grammar and language skills,
pronunciation has so far been paid less attention to. In the official textbooks used for
teaching English at high school level, there are a few exercises for pronunciation practice.
To make the matter worse, all important English exams at schools as well as the entrance
exam to universities are always in written form so most teachers as well as students have
little motivation to teach and to learn pronunciation. As a result, students are often shy
and unconfident to speak in English. And that is the reason why the effectiveness of
teaching pronunciation still remains one of the most widely problematic subjects in the
field of language teaching. .
Coping with this pressing fact, as a language teacher teaching English at Quynh Coi
high school (QCHS), the author always thinks of some burning questions: in language
teaching and learning, what is the present situation of teaching and learning
pronunciation at high school level in QCHS? What are the problems teachers and
students face in teaching and learning pronunciation? How to find suitable methods to

2
teach pronunciation? What should teachers do to teach pronunciation effectively? How
should teachers make students become interested in learning pronunciation? The answers
to these questions will help language teachers improve their students’ pronunciation as
well as help them make progress in effective communication. For the above reasons, the
author decides to carry out the study entitled: “The reality of teaching and learning

pronunciation at Quynh Coi high school: problems and solutions”.
1.2 Aims of the study
The main purpose of this study is to discover the reality of teaching and learning
pronunciation at Quynh Coi high school, especially to find out problems that teachers and
students often have in pronunciation lessons. The writer also hopes to make some feasible
solutions that can help the English teachers overcome those problems and improve
students’ pronunciation.
1.3 Research questions
The above aims of the study can be realized by answering the following research
questions:
(1) What is the present situation of teaching and learning pronunciation at QCHS?
(2) Which problems do the teachers and students at QCHS face in pronunciation
lessons?
(3) What teaching techniques can be used to improve teaching pronunciation for
students at QCHS?
1.4 Scope of the study
As a case study, this study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning two
aspects of English pronunciation: stress and intonation for the 12
th
form students at
Quynh Coi high school. The subjects of the study are 12
th
form students those are
familiar with learning pronunciation for two years at high school. Moreover, stress and
intonation are two major aspects of pronunciation introduced in the official textbook used
by the 12
th
form students. Other characteristics of English pronunciation would not be
deeply investigated in this research.
1.5 Methods of the study

In order to fulfill the tasks mentioned above, both qualitative and quantitative
methods are selected for this case study, involving the following instruments: survey

3
questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews. Firstly, the survey questionnaires
were delivered to both teachers and students to investigate the reality of teaching and
learning pronunciation at QCHS. Then, some classroom observations and interviews
with some English teachers have been also conducted to get supplementary
information. Finally, the results obtained from questionnaires, observations and
interviews have been discussed and analyzed to with a hope for providing language
teacher with some feasible teaching techniques to work successfully with their
students.
1.6 Significance of the study
This study hopes to make contribution to teaching pronunciation at high school
level in Vietnam and the result of the study is considered to be useful for teachers and
students at school. Thus, this study will be an interesting reference material for any
high school language teachers in Vietnam, especially for those who are in favor of
improving their students' pronunciation. This research will help teachers and students
identify their problems in teaching and learning pronunciation and self- improve their
pronunciation.
1.7 Design of the study
This thesis consists of six main chapters:
Chapter one is the INTRODUCTION including the rationales, the aims, the scope,
the research questions, the methods, the significance and the design of the research. It
expresses the reason why the author decided to choose this study and the methods for the
fulfillment of the study.
Chapter two is the LITERATURE REVIEW. It starts with theoretical issues on
pronunciation concepts, features of pronunciation, importance, problems, approaches,
techniques and activities, as well as teachers’ roles in teaching pronunciation. It also
covers such factors in learning pronunciation as students’ motivation, other subjective

and objective factors, and students’ roles. Problems in teaching and learning
pronunciation are in the last part of the LITERATURE REVIEW.

4
Chapter three is the METHODOLOGY. Chapter three starts with the description of
the setting and the participants. It also presents how data was collected through the
research methods and research procedures.
Chapter four is the PRESENTATION OF THE DATA, in which the outcomes of
the collected data are presented. A summary of the results and a general narrative
description is also provided.
Chapter five is the ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE DATA. In this
chapter, collected data is analysed and findings is explained.
Chapter six is the CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. This chapter
shows what the author learnt from the study. It also includes some recommendations for
other teachers and for further study.

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Pronunciation concepts
The notion of pronunciation has been defined in many different ways by writers.
Generally speaking, pronunciation is simply defined as “the way in which a word is
spoken” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992) or “the way in which a word
is usually pronounced” (Longman dictionary of contemporary English, 1978). In the
book “Pronunciation” published in 1994, Christiane Dalton and Barbara Seidlhofer
(1994:3) consider pronunciation “as the production of significant sound”. They look at
the word in two senses. First, it is used as part of a code of a particular language. That is
the reason why English sounds are distinguished from sounds of other languages. In this
sense, pronunciation can be told as the production and reception of sounds of speech.
Second, sound is used to achieve meaning in contexts of use. Here the code combines
with other factors to make communication possible. In this sense pronunciation is

referred with reference to acts of speaking.
In the scope of this study, the concept of pronunciation can be described as “a way of
speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood” (American
Heritage Dictionary, 1992) or “may be said to conclude the sounds of the language or
phonology; stress and rhythm; intonation; combination sounds; linkage of sound” (Ur, 1996).
2.2 Features of pronunciation
Gerald Kelly (2000) points out main features of pronunciation including phonemes
and suprasegmental features, in which consonants and vowels belong to phonemes,
intonation and stress are two main parts of suprasegmental. Phonemes are units of sound,
they are known as segments. Suprasegmental features are features of speech which apply
to groups of segments, or phonemes. The features which are important in English are
stress, intonation, and how sounds change in connected speech. The following diagram
shows a breakdown of the main features of pronunciation:

6
Features of pronunciation (Kelly, 2000:1)
As seen from the diagram, pronunciation is a broad subject with the boundaries of
various items such as consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation. This study is intended to
focus on two major features of pronunciation: intonation and stress are deeply
investigated.
According to Quirk R. and Greenbaun S. (1973:450), stress is the prominence with
one part of a word or of a longer utterance is distinguished from other parts. This can be
understood like this: when an English word consists of more than one syllable, one of
these syllables is made to stand out more than the others. This is done by saying the
syllable louder. For instance, in such words as “English”, “teacher”, and “student” the
first syllables are stressed.
Intonation is an important part that most teachers have to deal with when teaching
connected speech, it refers to the way the voice “goes up and down in pitch” (Kelly,
2000: 86) when we are speaking. It plays a vital role in helping people express their
opinions, and understanding thought of others.

In short, the word “pronunciation” is like a big umbrella covering various sub-items
as consonants, vowels, intonations, stress, etc. With such big boundaries of items,
language teachers and learners have to think of how to master these key aspects,
especially stress and intonation, to be successful in teaching and learning pronunciation.
2.3 Teaching pronunciation
2.3.1 The importance of teaching/ learning pronunciation and a “paradox”
2.3.1.1 The importance of teaching and learning pronunciation
Phonemes
Consonants
Vowels
Voiced

Unvoiced
Single vowels

Short
Word stress
Suprasegmental features

Intonation
Stress
Diphthongs

Long
Sentence stress

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Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of language like syntax and
vocabulary. Some people may argue that speech is obviously much more significant than
pronunciation. However, speech cannot exist without pronunciation. Correct

pronunciation, in fact, is considered to be a prerequisite to develop the speaking skill.
That is why teaching pronunciation should occupy an important place in the study of any
language.
According to Gerald Kelly (2000), pronunciation “involves far more than individual
sounds” including word stress, sentence stress, intonation, and word linking. All of these
influence the sound of spoken English. Sound is the core of the language. When teaching
a language, the first and foremost thing teachers should do is to let learners have chances
to expose themselves to the sounds of that language. That is the reason why more and
more teachers pay much attention to teaching pronunciation to their students.
Considering the importance of communication in general and pronunciation in
particular, Gerald Kelly confirms “a learner who constantly mispronounces a range of
phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to
understand. A consideration of learners’ pronunciation errors and of how these can
inhibit successful communication is a useful basis on which to assess why it is important
to deal with pronunciation in the class” (2000:11).
Sharing the same ideas with Kelly, Martin Hewings (2004:10) adds “difficulties
with pronunciation might mean that students fail to get their message across, even when
the correct words are being used, or they might fail to understand what is said to them.”
The inaccurate use of suprasegmetal elements, such as tress or intonation, can also cause
problems. Errors in pronunciation can lead to a problem of reception, or comprehension
of the meaning or function of an utterance, even worse, they can affect the perceived tone
or mood of an utterance. Moreover, it is obvious that good pronunciation serves as a
strong motivation for language learners. Most language learners show considerable
enthusiasm for pronunciation as they consider it as a good way to show that they are
competent in the language. Once they have obtained adequate pronunciation competence,
they gradually build up strong confidence for themselves and are ready to learn new
things without hesitation.
2.3.1.2 A “paradox”

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As the matter of fact, the role of pronunciation in English learning process could not
be negated. Regrettably, teaching and learning pronunciation has not received appropriate
attention as expected and Gerald Kelly call this fact a name “a paradox” (Kelly, 2000: 1).
It tends to suffer from being neglected. This may not be teachers’ lack of interest or
motivation in pronunciation. The main reason comes from their teaching experience and
confidence, “feeling of doubt as to hoe to teach” (Kelly, 2000:13). In spite of the fact that
both teacher and students are keen on pronunciation, they often take grammar or
vocabulary precedence over pronunciation for granted. If it is not neglected, “it tends to
be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in the classroom rather than being
strategically planned” (Kelly, 2000:13). This is the most popular problem in
pronunciation lessons. Teachers only deal with pronunciation when it comes to be
problematic. There is no lesson plan, no strategy in teaching and learning pronunciation.
Most teachers often prepare lesson plan for teaching grammar, vocabulary, but
pronunciation. Yet pronunciation work can, and should, be planned for, too. Teachers
should regard features of pronunciation as integral to language analysis and lesson
planning.
This paradox arises from both the nature of pronunciation itself, from the teaching
staff as well as from the learners themselves. However, to deal with this problem, as
language teachers, teachers need to have a good grounding in theoretical knowledge.
Furthermore, in order to teach pronunciation successfully, teachers should be practically
skilled in classrooms, and they need to have good ideas, approaches, techniques, as well
as classroom activities.
2.3.2 Teachers’ roles in teaching pronunciation
Mastering a foreign language pronunciation is not something impossible as far as
the student and the teacher participate together in the total learning process. Thus, to
succeed in a pronunciation program, the teacher plays an essential role. Kenworthy
(1987) and Hoang Van Van, et al. (2006) shared the similar ideas about teachers’ roles in
the teaching and learning pronunciation process, in which, teachers are responsible for:
 Helping learners to hear:

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The teacher has a mission to provide appropriate input of the target sounds for
learners to hear. Teacher needs to check that their students are hearing sounds according
to the appropriate categories and help them develop new categories if necessary.
 Helping learners to make sounds:
It is true that some English sounds do not exist in the learners’ mother tongue.
Some learners may be able to imitate the target sounds if they are provided models.
However, for those who lack such an ability, it is teachers’ duty to explain the way those
difficult sounds are made and provide aids to help learners produce correct sounds.
 Providing feedback:
Students need to be told where they are standing, how much they have gained and
what they need to improve because sometimes, students themselves can not know
whether they are making mistakes or not. The teacher must provide them with feedbacks
on their performance.
 Pointing out what is going on:
In many cases, learners fail to realize what and how they are speaking, as
speaking is for most parts unconsciously controlled, learners may sometimes make
mistakes in the way they produce a particular sequence of sounds, or put stress in an
incorrect place, leading to misunderstanding. It is the teachers’ role to specify the area
that learners have to pay attention to so as not to cause miscomprehension.
 Establishing priorities:
Native-like pronunciation is not easy to achieve. Therefore, learners need a guide
to tell them about what aspects they should master, what aspects they not need to be
“perfect”. Inevitably, when learning a foreign language, it is dealt if learners master every
aspect of it. However, as this is somehow unrealistic, learners should learn to satisfy at an
accepted level of those aspects which are not vital. The level at which learners can feel
satisfied at depends on different situations for different individuals.
 Devising activities:
It is not easy for teachers to cover all activities in a limited time. Thus, teachers
need to identify what exercises will be suitable for their learners, what activities would

bring them the best effect. In devising them, however, it should be accepted that certain
activities are more suitable to some students than others.

10
 Assessing progress:
An important role of teacher is to assess progress. Learners need to know at what
level they are in pronunciation. Tests allocated at appropriate times will serve as a strong
motivation for students. When they look at their marks, they have a clear sense of how
much they have gained. Judging learners’ pronunciation performance is very
complicated. However, this should be done accordingly.
2.3.3. Approaches, techniques and activities in teaching pronunciation
2.3.3.1 Approaches in teaching pronunciation
In the book “Teaching pronunciation” (Celce-Murcia M., et al., 1996: 2), the
authors point out two general approaches to the teaching of pronunciation in the modern
time, namely intuitive-imitative approach and analytic-linguistic approach.
An intuitive-imitative approach depends on “the learners’ ability to listen to and
imitate the rhythms and sounds of the target language without the intervention of any
explicit information”. This means the teaching of pronunciation depends largely on the
teacher’s turning on and rewinding a cassette player (or another instrument), and the main
activities in the class are listening and repeating. In this approach, the teacher has no
responsibility to explain how sounds are formed or produced and the learners do their
main task of listening and imitating, and it is expected that learners will gradually gain
pronunciation competence.
Meanwhile, an analytic-linguistic approach “utilizes information and tools such as a
phonetic alphabet, articulator descriptions, charts of the vocal apparatus and other aids to
supplement listening, imitation, and production” (Celce-Murcia M., et al., 1996: 2). In
this approach, learners are given explanation as well as training on how to form particular
sounds of the target language. Between these two approaches, there is no scale on
whether which one is better. Choosing to apply which approach into teaching
pronunciation depends on teachers themselves and the level of learners. To do well with

these two approaches, it is a need for both teachers and learners to fulfill knowledge of
articulator system such as consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation, etc. In this study,
the author considers the use of both approaches to gain best effect in teaching and
learning pronunciation.
2.3.3.2 Techniques and activities

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Pronunciation is never an end in itself, thus to receive expected result in teaching
and learning pronunciation, teachers have made use of a great deal of techniques. It may
be taught in isolation or in combination with language skills of speaking, listening,
reading or writing. Supported by Kelly (2000:16); and Celce, et al (1996:8), some
common techniques are:
 Drilling:
One of the main ways in which pronunciation is practiced in the classroom is
through drilling. In its most basic form, drilling simply involves the teacher saying a
word or a structure, and getting class to repeat it.
 Listen and imitate”
The pronunciation of the target language is provided by the teacher or tape
recorders, language labs, etc. students are to listen to a sequence of sounds or sentences
and repeat it.
 Chaining:
This can be used for sentences which prove difficult for students to pronounce,
either because they are long, or because they include difficult words and sounds
The above mentioned techniques are nearly similar; they usually take two forms,
which are either all-class or individual. These two forms are actually the two phase of the
same techniques. Normally, at first, the whole class repeats after certain sound and
phrases. After a certain amount of class-drilling, individual students take turns and
pronounce those items themselves.
 Phonetic training:
This technique makes use of articulator descriptions, articulator diagrams and a

phonetic alphabet. Learners are provided with basic theoretical knowledge about how
sounds are formed. They are also aided by the teacher to make genuine sound production.
 Minimal pair drills:
These relate to words which differ from each other only one phoneme. Normally,
students are allowed to listen to the tape and distinguish between the two sounds. This
type of activities is particularly useful to teach sounds which causes difficulties for
learners or sounds that are mismatched.
 Contextualized minimal pair:

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In this technique, the teacher establishes the setting and present key vocabulary;
students are then trained to respond to a sentence stem with the appropriate meaningful
response. When minimal pair drills seem a bit boring and too theoretical with separated
sounds, the contextualization seems to be more useful because it is more practical.
 Tongue Twisters:
This technique rooted from speech correction strategies for native speakers. When
other techniques look serious and sometimes put learners under pressure, tongue twisters
provide a more delighting way to learn pronunciation. Sounds which are difficult to
differentiate are put together to make meaningful sentences.
 Reading aloud/recitation:
Students are provided with a passage or scripts and then read aloud, focusing on
stress, timing and intonation. This activity is often done with texts such as poems,
rhymes, song lyrics, etc.
 Recording of learners’ production.
This technique can use audio-tape, video-tapes of rehearsed and spontaneous
speeches, free conversations, and role plays. It needs the feedbacks of teachers as well as
self-evaluation.
 Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by affixation:
Base on rule of generative phonology, used with intermediate or advanced learners.
The teachers point out the rule-based nature of vowel and stress shifts in etymologically

related words to raise awareness; sentences and short texts that contain both number of a
pair may be provide as oral practice material such as: PHOtograph and phoTOgraphy

2.4 Learning pronunciation
2.4.1 Factors affecting learning pronunciation
According to Joane Kenworthy (1987), there are many factors affecting learning
pronunciation, including the native language, the age factor, the amount of exposure,
phonetic ability, attitude and identity.
The native language: it is inevitable that learners’ native language has a great
impact on their ability of pronouncing English. The “foreign accent” is therefore easy to
identity.

13
The age factor: it is often assumed that the younger a person starts learning a
foreign language, the better he is at pronouncing it and he has a greater chance of having
a native-like accent.
The amount of exposure: people who live in the country where the target
language is spoken and is surrounded by an English-speaking environment may have
some advantages over some who do not.
Phonetic ability: researches have shown that some people naturally have a “better
ear” for a foreign language than others.
Attitude and identity: results from many studies have shown that learners who
have a positive attitude towards speakers of a foreign language tend to have a more
native-like pronunciation.
2.4.2 Students’ roles in learning pronunciation
It is essential that in order to learn a language, motivation plays a vital role. The
same thing happens to learning pronunciation. If students really care much about their
pronunciation, they will become more cautious about their speaking, and gradually build
up good pronunciation.
In teaching and learning pronunciation, if teachers play the roles of a “speech

coach”, students themselves need to involve in this process as much as possible in order
to get good results. It is necessary for students to satisfy some demands. Firstly, they need
to perceive the model as exactly as they can. Secondly, they need to response as much as
and as well as possible to the recognition, the imitation and repetition activities. Lastly,
beside the help of the teachers, students should do self-correction of their pronunciation
mistakes.
2.5 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunciation
Both teachers and students encounter various problems in the process of teaching
and learning pronunciation. These problems do not only arise from the nature of
pronunciation itself, but from various subjective and objective factors. In the light of the
previous and current studies, some major problems that teachers and learners face in
teaching and learning pronunciation are:.
The nature of pronunciation

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According to Nunan (1991), the problem of acquiring the phonology of a second
or a foreign language presents a formidable challenge to any theory of second language
acquisition. In teaching and learning pronunciation, the biggest problem that most of the
English teachers and students complain come from nature of pronunciation. English
pronunciation itself contains so many complicated factors and invisible rules.
In the light of this problem, Doff A. (1988) listed some common problems that
learners often make when they speak English. The first is difficulties in pronouncing
sounds which do not exist in the students’ own language. The second is the problems
with similar sounds that often cause learners’ confusion. The third is difficulties in
pronouncing consonant clusters. And the last problem mainly comes from English stress
and intonation. Students seem to have a tendency to give all syllables equal stress and
“flat” intonation.
Class setting
A lot of problems in teaching and learning pronunciation come from class setting
such as classroom size, quality of the teaching staff, teaching and learning equipment.

Firstly, a large class causes difficulty in teaching pronunciation. At high school, on
average, there are over 50 students per class. With such a high student-teacher ratio, it is
impossible to make sure that the teacher could carry out successful teaching techniques
and activities, and the learner is not able to listen and receive what the teacher is saying.
The quality of teaching staff is also a big problem. Most teachers of English are non-
native speakers, and a few of them can have a native-like pronunciation. As a result, the
language input that students receive every day is from non-native people. Therefore, it is
impossible to require students to achieve perfect pronunciation.
Teaching model
According to Kelly (2000), in the past, the model of teaching English
pronunciation was “received pronunciation”, the pronounciation of people in the
southwest England. Today, there is a vast number of English: American English,
Australian English, etc. Thus, it is difficult for teachers to choose what model to teach. In
fact, each teacher often cannot produce a “perfect” accent without being affected by his
own language. This fact sometimes causes both teachers and students problems in

15
teaching and learning pronunciation. Some teachers do not feel confident with their own
voice and students do not know what input language is perfect to receive.
Intelligibility
Beside factors from the nature of pronunciation, class setting, etc, teaching and
learning pronunciation involves in its own problem that Kenworthy (1987) calls it as
“intelligibility”. He defines “intelligibility” as “being understood by a listener at a given
time in a given situation”. This means that intelligibility is affected by a number of
factors: the speaker, the listener, the time, and the situation. This also means that teaching
and learning pronunciation depends on many factors, causing many problems for both
teachers and students.
In conclusion, in this chapter, some theoretical backgrounds relating to teaching
and learning pronunciation have been pointed out. These factors are the pronunciation
concepts and their features. Factors relating to pronunciation teaching and learning as the

importance, the problems, techniques and activities have been also given. It cannot be
denied that pronunciation and teaching pronunciation is an important part to conduct in
any language course. It is even more important for those who are or will be teachers of
the language. Methods of teaching pronunciation are various with different elements of
pronunciation. What are the attitudes of teachers and learners towards teaching and
learning pronunciation? Do teachers and learners have any problems in teaching and
learning? What techniques should be used to teach pronunciation? These questions will
be discussed in next chapters of the study.

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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Description of the setting
3.1.1 Description of the school
To get the aims for this study, the author chose Quynh Coi high school as a
case to carry out the investigation.
Located in Thai Binh, Quynh Coi high school has been known as one of the
leading choice of parents and students when they finish the secondary school. The
school has 36 classes with 90 teachers and 1,800 students. Each year, the school
enrolls more than 600 new comers.
3.1.2 Description of the course
At school, all students when pass the entrance exam to the school have to
study English as one of the compulsory subjects. During the process of learning
English at school, students use three English textbooks (English 10, English 11,
English 12) focusing on four skills including reading, speaking, listening, writing and
language focus part. The language focus comprises two major parts: pronunciation
and grammar. Normally, students start learning pronunciation when they study
English 10. However, at grade 10th, students only learn some vowels and simple
consonants. At grade 11th, students continue to study complex consonants. And at
grade 12
th

, students start to be familiar with stress and intonation exercises. That is
the reason why stress and intonation are two major aspects of pronunciation chosen in
this investigation.
3.2 Subjects
The subjects of this study comprised 10 teachers and 55 12
th
-form students at
QCHS. All English teachers were invited to participate in this study. They are from
27 to 60 years old, and have taught English for more than 2 years. They graduated
from both regular and in-service training. With those teachers who have taught
English for many years, they have teaching experience, but were not well trained.
They mainly graduated from colleges, even in-service training. With younger
teachers, they graduated from many different universities: state and non-state
universities. They are full of motivation, but lack of teaching experience. In general,
these teachers are good at teaching grammar and do not feel confident to deal with

17
speaking, listening, and pronunciation lessons. Thus, they often focus their lesson on
grammar but the speaking and pronunciation.
The class that the author chose to study consists of fifty-five 12
th
-form
students. These students have had at least 6 years of academic English experience by
the time they reach this course. However, their English proficiency is not good,
especially at pronunciation. They may be good at grammar and can do these grammar
exercises quickly, but can not speak fluently. Most of them do not feel confident to
speak in class and express their ideas in English. These students have studied at high
school for more than two years. Therefore, they have been getting similar with the
teaching and studying methods, the conditions and the teaching environment, so it
easy for the author to get their consent to participate in the research.

3.3 Research methods
As mentioned previously, the researcher chose a mixed-method approach to
data collection, utilizing triangulation to measure a broad variety of variables in the
research. Necessary data was gathered directly from the teachers and students
participating in the research in several ways:
Questionnaires: In order to collect reliable and comprehensive data, two
questionnaires were designed: one for teachers and one for students. They are both
open-ended and close-ended questions.
Teacher questionnaire (Appendix 1): one survey questionnaire with 8
questions was designed for the teachers to get their ideas of pronunciation teaching
and learning reality, problems faced by their students and some recommendations to
improve learning pronunciation reality at school. To get this aim, the questionnaire is
categorized into the following groups:
 Teachers’ attitude towards present situation of teaching and learning
pronunciation at QCHS;
 Approaches, techniques and classroom activities used by teachers in teaching
pronunciation;
 Problems faced by teachers in teaching pronunciation; and
 Teachers’ recommendations of techniques to improve students’ pronunciation.

18
Student questionnaire (Appendix 2): another survey questionnaire with 8
questions was designed for students including the following categories:
 Students’ attitude towards learning pronunciation, especially stress and
intonation;
 Students’ problems in learning pronunciation; and
 Students’ expectations in learning pronunciation.
In-depth classroom observations: Six informal classroom observations during
regular classroom sessions were used as an additional data source. The observations
were carried out for two weeks during the course of the study to get more practical

information about teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning
pronunciation, and difficulties as well as techniques used in pronunciation lessons.
During the process of observations, the author focused on some aspects taking in
class as:
 Teaching and learning materials used in class;
 Students’ activities and their mistakes in producing pronunciation; and
 Teachers’ approaches and techniques used in teaching pronunciation.
Interviews and discussions (Appendix 3): after collecting data from the survey
questionnaires and classroom observations, the author used the post interview in order
to get the in-depth discussion about techniques used to improve students’
pronunciation. Because it is too difficult for the researcher to conduct long interviews
with all teachers, the researcher randomly selected 5/10 teachers for interviews. They
were willing to express deeply their opinions, and ideas about teaching techniques.
3.2.3 Data collection procedures
The study was conducted in the first term of the school year 2010-2011 (from
September 2010 to December, 2010). At the beginning of the first term, two sets of
questionnaires were given to the teachers and the students who agreed to participate
in the research. After two days, these questionnaires were collected. The information
from these questionnaires were then summarized and presented in the form of
statistics. For the following two weeks, the author carried out some classroom
observations. The observations during six English lessons including one in reading,
one in writing, one in listening, one in speaking and two in language focus periods. At

19
each session, the researcher took field notes on what happened when the students
learned pronunciation. Finally, when the information from the survey questionnaires
and classroom observations were collected and analyzed, structured interviews were
carried out.
The data collected from three different resources were read through to obtain a
sense of the overall data. They were then analyzed both descriptively and

interpretatively. The initial sorting-out process was writing findings in the form of
reflective notes and summaries of field notes. The information was then displayed in
forms of tables and figures while qualitative data from the open-ended questionnaire
items, classroom observations and interviews were presented by quoting relevant
responses from the respondents.


20
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF THE DATA
This part, the information from collected data was presented in accordance with the
category of data collection instruments.
4.1 Survey questionnaires
4.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning
pronunciation
Assuming that the consideration of the teachers’ and students’ attitude towards
teaching and learning pronunciation would be beneficial to the research, at the outset,
these factors were surveyed. The results, shown in below, reflect that grammar is the
most concerning aspect in learning English at high school. Surprisingly, only 10% of the
teachers think that pronunciation is the most necessary for their students. They always
pay much attention and time and energy on grammar. In contrast, teaching and learning
pronunciation as well as developing listening, speaking or reading skills do not receive
enough attention to.
60%
20%
10%
10%
54%
13%
15%
18%

0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Teachers (%) Students (%)
Chart 1: Teachers' and students' attitude towards teaching
and learning pronuciation
Grammar
Vocabulay
Pronunciation
Skills


4.1.2 Students’ pronunciation level

21
Chart 2: Teachers' evaluations about students '
pronunciation level
0%
0%
10%
60%
30%
Excellent
Good
Above average
Average

Under average

From the chart 2, we can see an pessimistic reality of students’ level in learning
pronunciation at Quynh Coi high school. Being asked about this, all the teachers said that
students’ level is not equal, however; it is not good as expected. 60% teachers said that
their students’ level at pronunciation is at average; and even 30% of the students get
under average level. None of the teachers evaluate their students’ level at pronunciation is
good or excellent.
4.1.3 Pronunciation teaching and learning time
Chart 3 presents time that teachers and students spend on teaching and learning
pronunciation. One more time teachers and students share the same ideas about the fact
that too little time is on pronunciation. 80% of the teachers and 43% of the students said
that they did not have time to spend on teaching and learning pronunciation in one
teaching session (45 minutes); 20% of the teachers and 32% of the students spend less
than 20 minutes on teaching pronunciation. None of the teachers and a very small number
of the students teach and learn pronunciation for more than 20 minutes.
The overall results indicate that the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation at
Quynh Coi high school is not positive as expected. Although both teachers and students
are very optimistic towards teaching and learning pronunciation, students’ level is not
good as well as time spent on teaching pronunciation is limited during one normal
teaching session.