The use of English pronunciation websites for improving grade 10 students’ pronunciation = Sử dụng các trang web phát âm để cải thiện năng lực phát âm của học s

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES






BÙI VĂN KHIẾT






THE USE OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION WEBSITES FOR
IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION

(SỬ DỤNG CÁC TRANG WEB PHÁT ÂM ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN
NĂNG LỰC PHÁT ÂM CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10)


MA MINOR THESIS




FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 601410

HANOI - 2012



TABLE OF CONTENTS


Page
DECLARATION
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ii
ABSTRACT
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
vii
LIST OF TABLES
vii
LIST OF DIAGRAMS AND CHARTS
vii
INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
1
2. Aims of the study
3
3. Scope of the study
3
4. Research questions/ Hypotheses
3
5. Research methods
4
6. Significance of the study
4
7. Organizations of the study
5
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1. Teaching pronunciation
7
1.2. Pronunciation as an aspect of communicative competence
9
1.2.1 Consonants and vowels
11
1.2.2 Word stress
11
1.3. Pronunciation websites
12
1.4. Theoretical background of technology and websites application
in language teaching
13
1.5. Advantages and disadvantages of using pronunciation websites

in pronunciation instruction
15
1.6. Websites evaluation
16

CHAPTER 2. THE STUDY

2.1. The context of the study
21
2.2. Subjects
21
2.3. Variables
22
2.3.1 The independent variable
22
2.3.2 The dependent variable
22
2.3.3 Constant variables
23
2.4. Design of the study
23
2.5. Data collection instruments
24
2.5.1 Pre-tests and post-tests
24
2.5.2 Questionnaire
24
2.5.3 Observation and diaries
25
2.5.4 Lesson plans

25
2.6. Data collection procedure
26
2.7. Marking
29
2.8. Data analysis procedure
29
CHAPTER 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1. The one-tail t-test (one-sample t-test)
30
3.1.1 Control group
30
3.1.2 Experimental group
31
3.2. The two-tail t-test (two-sample t-test)
33
3.3. The questionnaire
35
3.4. Observation and diaries
36
3.5. Discussion
37
CONCLUSION

1. Major findings of the research
38
2. Implications
39
3. Limitations

40
4. Suggestions for further study
40

REFERENCES
41
APPENDIX A - Pre-tests
I
APPENDIX B - Post-tests
IV
APPENDIX C - Students’ background survey questionnaire
VIII
APPENDIX D - Questionnaire
XI
APPENDIX E - Students’ results of pre-tests and post-tests
XIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

MCQs: Multiple Choice Questions
ESL: English as a Second Language
EFL: English as a Foreign Language



LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The table illustrates the research design adapted in this study.
Table 2: One-tail t-test for control group (Listening test)
Table 3: One-tail t-test for control group (Speaking test)
Table 4: One-tail t-test for experimental group (Listening test)
Table 5: One-tail t-test for experimental group (Speaking test)
Table 6: Two-tail t-test for control group and experimental group (Listening test)
Table 7: Two-tail t-test for control group and experimental group (Speaking test)




LIST OF DIAGRAMS AND CHARTS

Diagram 1: The relationship between the key variables of this study.
Diagram 2: The flowchart shows in detail how the research was conducted.



1

INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
More and more people desire to study abroad with the hope of being
successful in the modern world. Therefore, English is widely taught not only at
schools, colleges or universities but also at many foreign language centers. There
are also hundreds of English teaching and learning programs on radio and
television, especially thousands of websites for teaching and learning English
available on the Internet. However, students should be intelligent enough to adapt
the most effective method to master the language so that they can have a good
command of English in all four skills, especially speaking and listening in order to
communicate successfully. As a result, pronunciation is one of the most paramount
aspect that needs emphasis for the ease of communication.
As a teacher trainer and a part-time teacher of English, the researcher is
especially dedicated to the teaching of speaking and listening skills. However, from
his own experience of teaching as well as working as a teacher inspector, he noticed
the poor pronunciation with incorrect word stress of many students. They seem not
to have problems with grammar, fluency or ideas, though, they have difficulties in
pronouncing certain consonants, vowels and similar sounds in English, mainly the
minimal pairs such as: /l/ and /n/, /s/ and /z/, /p/ and /b/, /i/ and /i:/ . For example,
nice /nais/, nine /nain/, night /nait/, light /lait/ are all pronounced /nai/. Besides,
words and sentences are usually produced with wrong stress pattern or no stress at

all.
The reason for this may firstly be due to geographical positions where they
live, which belongs to the sociolinguistics. Another explanation for this could lie in
the introduction of Multiple Choice Exams for English, which surely have an
influence on students’ learning style in which speaking, listening and pronunciation
are never paid enough attention. However, the root of the issues is believed to be the
current technique of teaching pronunciation as well as the method of assessing.
2

Students are encouraged to learn the pronunciation by rules or sometimes listen to
and imitate the teacher's pronunciation of single words and limited sentence drills
and when assessing, paper tests with MCQs are employed. Many teachers claim that
the classes are too crowded (from 45-55) so they do not have time to correct
students’ pronunciation mistakes. In addition, there is not a separate period for
pronunciation instruction, just about 15 minutes for every 5 periods, therefore they
have to teach to the test, if not, their students will not get high scores in the exams
and their reputation as well as their emulation titles will be lost.
When observing teachers’ lessons, the researcher found that many teachers
have difficulties in producing good English, some even pronounce with wrong
sounds or stress. This may be due to the fact that they are not well-trained and
qualified enough. According to the results of the English Competence Survey
Exams for English teachers in 2011, only 05 out of 389 high school teachers in Nam
Dinh province got C1 (the requirement of the Ministry of Education and Training -
5
th
level in the Common European Framework). The survey results also revealed
that the teachers are particularly weak in listening and speaking skills, which surely
affect their teaching of pronunciation.
The researcher has taken this matter into consideration a lot. The students
seem not eager to learn pronunciation and feel shy to correct their mistakes every

time they are asked to. Meanwhile, most them are really into surfing the Internet, to
be more specific, they often spend hours signing in yahoo chat or facebook
everyday, which inspires the researcher the idea of using websites for pronunciation
instruction. The websites include not only standard video clips that guide students to
pronounce English sounds but they also provide a wide range of exercises, games,
quizzes and activities with pictures and other illustrations, which are believed to
attract the grade 10 students. Besides, studying with websites can give students
chances to listen again and practice the words, phrases, sentences at home which
can not be done with conventional technique.
3

From the reasons mentioned above and with an aim to improving the
students’ pronunciation, the researcher decided to do a piece of experimental
research on the impacts of pronunciation websites on the improvement of grade 10
students’ pronunciation of English consonants, vowels and word stress with a hope
to change the situation.
2. Aims of the study
The main objective of doing this research is to find out the more useful
technique for improving students’ pronunciation as the current method where
students learn the rules or repeat after the teacher and then do pronunciation
exercises on paper seems not efficient. The research is to test whether the use of
pronunciation websites can help improve students’ pronunciation significantly and
whether it is more effective than conventional technique.
3. Scope of the study
There are certainly various aspects of pronunciation such as vowels and
consonants, stress, intonation, rhythm, assimilation, elision, linking, tones etc.
However, due to the limited time as well as the scope of this paper, the research
deals with only two aspects of pronunciation: consonants and vowels, and word
stress. It is conducted with only 30 selected participants from class 10 Maths 1 at Le
Hong Phong Gifted High School in Nam Dinh Province within a period of 8 weeks

(two meetings a week, each meeting lasts 90 minutes).
4. Research questions
This study is guided by the following research questions.
1. To what extent does the use of pronunciation websites help class 10 Maths
1 students at Le Hong Phong Gifted High School improve their pronunciation?
2. Is the use of pronunciation websites more effective than conventional
technique of teaching pronunciation to class 10 Maths 1 students?
3. How do the students of class 10 Maths 1 feel about the use of
pronunciation websites for improving their pronunciation?
4

Null hypothesis 1 (Ho1): The use of pronunciation websites does not help
improve class 10 Maths 1 students’ pronunciation.
Null hypothesis 2 (Ho2): The use of pronunciation websites is not more
effective than conventional technique of teaching pronunciation to class 10 Maths 1
students.
Null hypothesis 3 (Ho3): Class 10 Maths 1 students have negative attitudes
towards the use of pronunciation websites.
5. Research methods
The aims of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of using websites
for students’ improvement in pronunciation, therefore an experimental design is
applied. In addition, the researcher made a careful selection of the subjects of the
study and controlled other extraneous variables such as students’ gender, age, the
teacher carrying out the lessons, teaching contents…, hence the study is a quasi-
experiment in nature.
In this research, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyse
the data.
Quantitative method:
The range of mathematical and statistical techniques used to analyse data. In
this research, it is used to analyse the data collected from the pre-tests and post-tests

to examine the interrelationships between variables, to see whether they are
associated or correlated and if so how strong. Then, conclusions are drawn from the
results using inferential statistics. It is also used to analyse data collected from the
survey questionnaire to find out what are the students’ attitudes towards the use of
pronunciation websites in pronunciation instruction.
Qualitative method:
In this research, qualitative method is used to analyse the teacher’s
observations, diaries and recordings.
6. Significance of the study
5

Many Vietnamese teachers of English find it quite challenging to teach
pronunciation to students, especially word stress and minimal pairs because students
forget them easily and due to the lack of practice time. Some even try to explain in
Vietnamese how to pronounce the words and present them all the rules of word
stress, still, they appear to be unable to digest. As a result, using pronunciation
websites to teach pronunciation to students discovered in this research is a really
significant and effective technique for English teachers. Not only do teachers save
time teaching and reading words to students but they also create positive
atmosphere in the English classes, and the most important value is that students can
make a lot of progress in their English pronunciation. However, in comparison to
the conventional technique, using the websites is not significantly more effective.
Therefore, it is advisable to take into consideration when to use websites and when
to use conventional technique for pronunciation instruction.
7. Organization of the study
This minor thesis is composed of five following parts and chapters:
INTRODUCTION
This part presents rationale, aims and scope of the study. Research methods,
questions, the significance and organization of the thesis are also discussed fully in
this part.

CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter summarizes fundamental and theoretical backgrounds and
concepts related to the topic of the study by earlier authors. It deals with the
importance of pronunciation in teaching and learning English as well as positive
and negative attitudes, remarks and previous results of using websites in language
instruction.
CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY
This chapter not only provides the setting of the study, the subjects and
instruments for collecting data but also presents the data collection and data analysis
procedures.
6

CHAPTER 3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The findings of the tests, questionnaire, diaries, observations as well as
recordings are presented in this chapter.
CONCLUSION
This part summarizes some major findings, provides recommendations for
classroom practice, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.

7

CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW

Technology, especially the emergence of the Internet, is affecting every
aspect of education and changing the way of teaching and learning. “It is no longer
a question of whether to take advantage of these electronic technologies in foreign
language instruction, but of how to harness them and guide our students in their
use” (Paulsen, 2001). Numerous websites present compilations of online resources
for language teachers (Kitao, 2000; Depoe, 2001). There are also currently many
websites containing materials for ESL learning accessible free of cost.
According to Li & Hart (1996), the web’s multimedia capabilities and
interactive functions have made it an attractive medium to conduct instruction.
Among the reasons for using the web in ESL learning, increasing student
motivation, authentic language, and global awareness have been cited (Meloni,
1998). Still, there are many problems with the application of the Internet in the
classroom including the reliability of the information on the web, the cost of the
equipment needed to connect to the Internet, and frustrating slow connections
(Warschauer, 2000). Despite these obstacles, using websites for language

instruction is becoming more and more popular and we certainly need more
confirmation from other researches and studies to support their effectiveness.
1.1. Teaching pronunciation
There have been various definitions of pronunciation by different authors.
Dalton & Seidlhofer (2003) defined pronunciation as the production of significant
sounds. According to Hornby (2003), “Pronunciation is the way in which a
language or a particular word or sound is pronounced.” (p.1015). In short,
pronunciation can be described as a way of speaking a word, especially a way that
is accepted or generally understood.
Most of the literature on pronunciation deals with what and how to teach
while the learner remains a silent abstract in the classroom. Morley (1994)
underlined that the prevalent focus on pronunciation teaching nowadays should be
8

on designing new wave instructional programs. Moreover, she stressed that these
instructional designs should take into account not only language forms and
functions, but also issues of learner self-involvement and learner strategy training.
In other words, students who have developed the skills to monitor and modify their
speech patterns if necessary should become active partners in their own learning.
It is a common knowledge that there have been different views on teaching
pronunciation in the field of language teaching. The role of pronunciation has varied
widely from having no role in the Grammar-translation method to being the central
focus in the Direct and Audio-lingual method where the emphasis is on the
traditional notions of pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills and short conversations.
The appearance of the communicative approach has placed higher demands for
correct pronunciation. Nevertheless, the teaching of pronunciation is not as simple
as people may think. Lee (2011) asserted:
Pronunciation is a crucial part of learning English as a Second Language, yet it is
one of the most challenging aspects of English for students and teachers. For
students, unfamiliar sounds and combinations of sounds can be difficult to learn.

Plus, strategies for teaching pronunciation are sometimes overlooked, leaving
teachers with limited skills in handling problems. (p.1)
A challenge for some EFL teachers is explaining how to pronounce the
sounds of English properly. Some students can repeat new or unfamiliar sounds
after simply hearing them pronounced by a teacher, but many cannot. Therefore, it
is essential to support the latter students with detailed directions on how to articulate
these sounds, which requires that teachers understand the anatomical basis of the
English phonetic system and familiarize students with the speech organs and how
they interact to form different sounds. Introducing students to basic speech anatomy
with labeled illustrations and demonstrating how they interact to form different
sounds in English consume lots of time, energy and talent, which seems too
challenging for teachers.
9

What’s more, many sounds in English have similar pronunciation and are
difficult for some English learners to use correctly. For example, "p" and "b" are
pronounced nearly identically, except that "b" is voiced (pronounced with the vocal
cords vibrating) while "p" is voiceless (pronounced with silent vocal cords).
Learners often confuse them because they cannot hear the difference. Therefore,
teachers need to build student awareness of such phonetic contrasts with drills and
games requiring students to identify or repeat the problematic sounds in similar
pairs of words (such as "peat" and "beat"). In fact, most teachers of English do not
really teach pronunciation to students in its right way. They find it rather
challenging because they do not have enough time, energy as well as talent to teach
pronunciation to their students properly. Fortunately, some pronunciation websites
can deal with these problems effectively because they include guiding video clips
for teaching students how to pronounce correctly and activities, games and quizzes
for students to practice.
1.2. Pronunciation as an aspect of communicative competence
There have been various supports for the effectiveness of pronunciation

training on learners’ achievement in communicative competence. According to
Pennington (1996), the most important part of learning a second language rests on
pronunciation. Morley (1998) also stated that pronunciation plays an important role
in overall communicative competence. While, Kelly (2006) confirmed:
A learner who consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely
difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand. This can be
very frustrating for the learner who may have a good command of grammar and
lexis but have difficulty in understanding and being understood by a native speaker.
The inaccurate use of suprasegmental elements, such as stress or intonation can
also cause problems… . (p.11)
In addition, Fraser (2000a) explained that being able to speak English
includes a number of sub-skills, of which pronunciation is by far the most important
10

(other sub-skills of speaking include vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatics). She
argued that a speaker with good pronunciation is intelligible despite other errors;
with poor pronunciation, a speaker can be very difficult to understand, despite
accuracy in other areas.
Hewings (2004) also emphasized that “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.” (p.10)
Yong (2004) confirmed that from the traditional ways of learning English,
students neglected the basic knowledge of speaking. This may have been enough to
meet the demands of English in the years when we had less communication with
foreign countries. However, oral communication began to be more important when
they arrived in this century with extended forms of communication with Western
countries. He asserted that understanding by reading or writing would no longer be
sufficient for the development of the economy and that communicating face to face
personally or through the Internet needed to be understood. Yong also indicated that
pronunciation is the foundation of speaking. English, both written and spoken, has

been accepted as the dominant means of communication for most of the world but
some misunderstandings have been caused by inappropriate pronunciation. Poor
pronunciation can condemn learners to less social, academic and work advancement
than they deserved.
Furthermore, Dan (2006) claimed that language competence covers many
aspects. Phonetics, both in theory and practice, constitutes the basis of speaking
above all other aspects of language and pronunciation is the foundation of speaking.
Good pronunciation may make the communication easier, more relaxed and more
useful. Almost all learners rate pronunciation as a priority and an area in which they
need more guidance.
In short, pronunciation plays a vital role in our modern world, particularly in
oral communication. Therefore, acquiring good pronunciation is very crucial for
those who are learning foreign languages in general and in English in particular.
11

1.2.1 Consonants and vowels
Consonants
Roach (2000) defined: “Consonants sounds are the sounds in the production
of which two articulators come together to form an obstruction of some type so that
the air-stream cannot get out freely.” (p.10).
In English, there are 24 consonants, whereas Vietnamese has only 21. Some
phonemes exist in English but not in Vietnamese and vice versa, which are
challenging for both Vietnamese teachers and learners.
Vowels
“Vowels are the sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction to
the air so the air can get out freely.” (Roach, 2000, p.11). There are 20 vowels in
English (12 simple vowels and 8 diphthongs).
1.2.2 Word stress
According to Hubicka (1980), Word stress is the magic key to understand
spoken English; incorrect stress can lead to a communication breakdown. Not only

the correct stressing but also “de-stressing”, and consequently the reduction of
vowel duration and quality play a major role in the production and perception of
words and their meaning. Therefore, improving students’ ability of using correct
word stress is an important part of teaching speaking.
What’s word stress?
According to Tam & Quang (2006), “The syllables of a word which stands
out from the remainder are said to be stressed, to receive stress.” (p.ix).
The production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker using
more muscular energy than is used for unstressed syllables. From the perceptual
point of view, all stressed syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is
called prominence; stressed syllables are recognized as stressed because they are
more prominent than unstressed syllables (Tam & Quang, 2006, p.ix).
Tam & Quang (2006) also pointed out that prominence is produced by four
factors: loudness, length, pitch and quality.
12

Sentence level stress is described by the term intonation. In this case, not
syllables but whole words are emphasized to maintain a natural rhythm. This
research does not aim to deal with sentence stress.
Levels of word stress
According to Roach (2000) there are three levels of stress which are
distinguished, namely: primary (tonic or nuclear), secondary and unstressed. The
prominence that results from the pitch movement gives the strongest type of stress;
we called the tonic strong stress when we wish to refer specifically to this type of
stress. It is also called primary stress. The syllable that is also quite prominent, but it
is not as strongly stressed as the primary stress is called secondary stress (or non-
tonic stress). The syllable that is called unstressed and regarded as being absence of
any recognizable amount of prominence is unstressed syllable (p.95-96).
Placement of stress within the word
Roach (2000) presented a summary of stress placement in nouns, verbs and

adjectives and noted that all rules have exceptions and readers may feel that the
rules are so complex that it would be easier to go back to the idea of learning the
stress for each word individually. From his own practical experience of teaching
English to high school students, the researcher also realizes that students seem not
apply the rules well in learning, especially in speaking English. Therefore, websites
were chosen for the research with a hope of improving students’ pronunciation.
1.3. Pronunciation websites
A website
A website (also written Web site or simply site) is a collection of related web pages
containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one
web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area
network through an Internet address also called URL. (Wikipedia, 2012)
A pronunciation website
13

A pronunciation websites is a collection of related web pages containing
images, videos, lessons, conversations, exercises and quizzes on pronunciation of
English consonants, vowels and words, phrases and sentences, which support the
teaching and learning of pronunciation.
1.4. Theoretical background of technology and websites application in
language teaching
The advantages of technologies in language instruction have been well
reported, especially in teaching pronunciation. It has been found out that technology
helps learners recognize the sound, then imitate the sound that is articulated.
Although the number of studies on the use of technology and websites in language
instruction is quite limited, there are lots of positive comments which have been
drawn out from writers.
Some authors suggested that teachers should use computers as tools for
learning increases motivation in children who are less likely to be motivated by
school (Burns, Griffin & Snow, 1999). In her research in the field of learning and

teaching EFL, Meskill (2005) also reported that children who otherwise “removed”
themselves from school community by keeping their heads down on their desks,
crying, acting out, and behaving in ways that revealed strong disconnections with
school, became more active when the screen is turned on. She then concluded that
using computers in teaching language for children brought many a benefit,
especially the children of low motivation.
Abrams (2006) asserted that Computer- Mediated Communication (CMC) is
the process of using computer to facilitate authentic communication between two or
more people, and using CMC in language teaching and learning seems the main
trend in the process of applying IT in English FL education. While Neri & Mich
(2008) showed that young learners improve their word-level pronunciation skills in
English as a foreign language with computers at a level comparable to that achieved
through traditional teacher-led training.
14

Cummins & Davesne (2009) also studied on the use of technology for
assessment of EFL abilities and obtained the better results in comparison with other
means of teaching EFL. Jarvis (2006) stated that technological development has
gone with teaching English and it has brought chances to people in communicating,
working, doing business, relaxing or studying and non-native English speakers
mainly come from Asian regions are at the top of using it.
Regarding of the Internet and websites, Kung & Chuo (2002) affirmed that
“students consider the Internet a useful tool to supplement in-class instruction. The
students deemed it appropriate to learn English through teacher-recommended ESL
websites. However, students needed instruction regarding where the sites are and in
how to use them.” Paulsen (2000), as cited in Kung & Chuo (2002) also remarked
about the importance of guiding students in the use of Internet resources. Whereas,
Norman (2011) appreciated the roles of websites:
Multiple online resources exist to help English-language learners improve their
pronunciation for free. Without hiring a tutor or attending English classes, you can

get better at pronunciation on your own (although tutors and classes are definitely
of benefit to some). News websites have helpful learning material, and online
videos also offer good ways to learn English pronunciation. (p.1)
Smith (2012) added:
You can use a variety of books and websites to learn English vocabulary and
grammar. To learn English pronunciation, though, it is a good idea to use both
audio and text lessons. Fortunately, you can find these lessons on several websites.
These websites can teach you how to pronounce consonants, vowels and eventually
entire words and phrases. Using these websites gives you the opportunity to learn
English pronunciation on your time and do so for free. (p.1)
15

Learners who have troubles in learning to speak normally believe that they
"just are not good at learning English." In reality, it is because most English class
environments are not ideal for learning to speak or not strictly focused on teaching
spoken language. Additionally, students have no chance to practise speaking with
native speakers, which may result in mispronunciations that hinder the progress.
Fortunately, with websites, students can practise with authentic voice.
However, there are also studies revealing that technology was of no benefits
to FL teaching and learning. According to one study by Thao (2003) on the use of
CMC in FL teaching and learning, 20% of the participants claimed that they were
not motivated and made little progress in listening comprehension; 80% felt that
they made little and slow progress, which was under their expectations.
Brooks (2002) and Brooks, Miles, Torgerson, C.,& Torgerson, D (2006) also
found no evidence of significant benefit on spelling outcomes using a computer
program for literacy learning. There was even a decrease in reading scores when the
software was used.
In short, the effectiveness of technology in foreign language learning remains
inconclusive, and this is the motivation for the researcher to carry out this study.
1.5. Advantages and disadvantages of using websites in pronunciation

instruction
There are certainly lots of advantages of using websites for pronunciation
instruction. First of all, students have chance to access to authentic voice since there
are video and audio clips by native speakers. Secondly, teachers can save time and
energy; all what they need to do is some guidance for students to study on their own
and some observation to make sure if they are on the right track. In addition,
websites are very useful resources for students to practice pronunciation at home
where there is no teacher’s help. What’s more, websites motivate and relax students
when studying because there are lots of illustrations, clips, games and quizzes to
refresh their mind while studying. Last but not the least; students can test their own
pronunciation with recording function, tests and quizzes.
16

Everything has its two sides and websites are not the exception. Once using
websites for language instruction, teachers need to be well-prepared for everything,
for example, the power, the Internet connection and the access speed, the
headphones, projector, sound server installation, searching engines etc. All these
conditions must work well during the lesson because if one thing goes wrong, the
lesson will not be successfully carried out. Besides, teachers also have to pay very
close attention to make sure that students do not access to other websites and check
whether they actually imitate the sounds in the video or audio clips.
1.6. Websites evaluation
Nowadays there are thousands of websites for English teaching and learning
on the Internet. Therefore, it is essential for teachers as well as learners to decide
what is good and what is a waste of time. The excessively increasing load of
information production and routing within the Internet leads to an inevitable
overload of useless information, which raises certain criticisms concerning the
pedagogic value and relevance of the web. According to Luhmann (1996), as cited
in Sofos & Kostas (2009), the amassing of information follows a non-systematic
pattern because the organization and presentation of information on the Web is

quite different from those taking place within the classical media. Kron & Sofos
(2007), as cited in Sofos & Kostas (2009), stated that within the online context, the
user can be a content “producer” and “consumer” simultaneously, thus leading to a
huge amount of raw information, produced by a huge number of different users
without any educational information applied and incapable to support classroom
learning design. As a result, evaluation of information resources is a basic
requirement for content published on the web. Sofos & Kostas (2009) added:
If we focus on the learning and teaching process, then we have to consider
evaluation through a pedagogical approach and a media-didactic theory and so, web
resources are able to support active learning by using various media elements, are
considered as quality content. (p.2)
17

Many scholars and organizations have developed criteria for judging
educational websites. They usually specify criteria about platform requirements,
goals and objectives, the content, the pedagogy, ease of use, and costs. However,
the criteria can be modified according to your needs. Kapoun (1998) mentioned five
criteria to evaluate a website, including accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency
and coverage. While Jackson (2000) listed six: platform requirements, goals and
objectives, content, pedagogy, ease of use and cost. He also asserted that we need to
undertake our own assessment of the websites based on the criteria which were
previously prepared by scholars and organizations, you might adapt those criteria to
your organization’s own priorities, or you might develop new criteria. According to
Hsu, Yeh & Yen (2006) “Standardized and objective design criteria for evaluating
web-based learning platforms can effectively distinguish the quality of a platform
and, therefore, contribute in improving web-based learning outcomes”.
The three websites used for the research were selected and evaluated
thoroughly from the pronunciation websites available based on such criteria as
Authority, Purpose, Accuracy, Currency, Content, Functionality, Cost and
Accessibility. General speaking, the three selected websites meet quite well the

criteria. The first selected website is:


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This website, which is mainly designed for English learning, is ideal for
guiding students to pronounce correct vowels and consonants in English since there
are series of video clips directing students how to pronounce properly. Besides, it
also consists of quizzes, and other activities for students to practise and test their
own pronunciation. It is written and designed by the BBC (The British Broadcasting
Cooperation) which has gained reputation throughout the world over years. The
working team are experienced native teachers, editors, producers and programmers,
who have been working for BBC for many years and very professional in designing
a very interesting and user-friendly website with easy navigation. In addition, this
website is frequently updated and in terms of functionality, it works well with no
broken links. The page is incorporated with Video Media, PDF, audio and some
links with other websites like: Youtube, Google, Encyclopedia and Wiki. Another
advantage of the website is that this is a free website on a consistent basis and quick
accessibility.
The second website is:



This website is especially ideal for the students to practice minimal pairs. It
is mainly created for learning English pronunciation and promoting English
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speaking. This is a copyright website which is written and designed by Tim Bowyer
who has taught English, authored courses, trained teachers and directed schools in
England, France, Spain, Italy, Iran, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Jordan, the

UAE and Lebanon. He is the founder of the British Institute schools in Indonesia
and creator of the Fonetiks family of websites. The pronunciation of the words is
American English. It is the same as other reliable websites and dictionaries. The
website is up-to-date (2012) and has been designed with effective animated
illustrations and audio sounds which are fast and easy for learners to access and
practise. In addition, this is a website with many free entries except some requiring
membership fees.
The third website is:

It is a free and award winning new system for learning to speak English. It is
ideal for practice the pronunciation of word, word stress and intonation. The
program contains lessons that give special attention to English pronunciation and
everyday language. With over 100 lessons, this website provides a large amount of
audio content. Users have access to two different speeds, normal and slow playback
speeds for each conversation, sentence, and word. It also includes analysis of
features pronunciation, literal translation, meaning, and characters of 2500 common
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vocabulary and phrase items. Each English lesson simulates a conversation between
the user and a native speaker. There is a tremendous emphasis put on pronunciation.
This is a copyright and updated website (2012), which has been designed with
effective audio sounds that are fast and easy for learners to access and practise. In
terms of functionality, the website logically works well with normal speed of
loading, good sound quality and no broken links.