Teaching English Pronunciation To 10th Grade Students At Thanh Liêm C High School = Dạy phát âm tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 trường trung học phổ thông Thanh L

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






TRẦN THÚY ANH






TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TO 10th GRADE
STUDENTS AT THANH LIEM C HIGH SCHOOL

(DẠY PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT
THANH LIÊM C, HÀ NAM)



M.A. Minor Programme Thesis





Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410






Hanoi, 2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS iv
INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 3
5. Method of the study 3
6. Significance of the study 3
7. The design of the study 4
8. Previous studies on teaching and learning English pronunciation 4
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7
1.1. Definition of pronunciation. 7
1.2. The importance of teaching and learning pronunciation 7

1.3. The teacher’s roles and student’s roles in teaching and
learning pronunciation 8
1.3.1. The teacher's roles in teaching pronunciation 8
1.3.2. The student's roles in learning pronunciation 9
1.4. The pronunciation components 10
1.4.1. Gerald Kelly’s ideas about pronunciation components 10
1.5. Factors affecting pronunciation learning 12
1.5.1 The interference from the mother tongue 12
1.5.2 The age factor 12
1.5.3. Amount of exposure 12
1.5.4. Phonetic ability 13
1.5.5. Attitudes and identity 13
1.5.6. Motivation and concern for good pronunciation 13
1.6. Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning
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pronunciation 13
1.6.1. The nature of pronunciation 14
1.6.2. Class setting 14
1.6.3. Teaching model 14
1.6.4. Intelligibility 15
CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16
2.1. Methodology 16
2.1.1. The research questions 16
2.1.2. The participants 16
2.1.3. The instruments 17
2.1.4. Data analysis process 19
CHAPTER THREE: THE STUDY 20
3. Data presentation 20
3.1 Survey questionnaires 20

3.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and
learning pronunciation 20
3.1.2 Students’ pronunciation level 21
3.1.3 The purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation 21
3.1.4 The attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation 22
3.1.5 Pronunciation teaching and learning time 22
3.1.6 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning
vowels and consonants 23
3.1.7 Teachers and students’ problems in teaching and learning
pronunciation 24
3.1.8. The causes of the difficulties in teaching and learning
pronunciation 25
3.1.9. Causes of the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation
in English 10 26
3.1.10 Classroom approaches, techniques and activities used by teachers 27
3.1.11. Students’ expectations and teachers’ recommendations
to teaching and learning pronunciation 28
3.2 Classroom observations 30
3.2.1 Teaching and materials and curriculum 30
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3.2.2 Students’ activities and their mistakes in producing long,
short vowels and fricative consonants 30
3.3 Interviews and discussions 31
4. Data analysis and discussion 34
CONCLUSIONS 39
1. Summary of the findings 39
2. Pedagogical implications 40
2.1. Increasing teaching and learning time for pronunciation 40
2.2. Contracting various techniques and activities in teaching

pronunciation 41
2.3. Motivating students in learning pronunciation 43
2.4. Increasing teacher’s and student’s roles in teaching and
learning pronunciation 43
3. Limitations of the study 44
4. Recommendations for a further study 44
REFERENCES 46

APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESIONNAIRE (for students) I
APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (for teachers) IV
APPENDIX 3: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET VIII
APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IX










1

INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study.
Despite the fact that pronunciation is one of the most important skills in
English Language Teaching, incorrect pronunciation leads to occasional
misunderstandings, 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 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, therefore
they generally spend little time on teaching and learning pronunciation in order to
spend valuable class time on other area of language. As a result, students are often
shy and unconfident to speak in English. Many students cannot pronounce English
words and sentences correctly. English pronunciation seems has become the most
serious problem that students meet when they learn English. This is happening at
almost upper secondary schools in Vietnam. 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.
Situated in a mountainous area in Thanh Liem district, Ha Nam province,
Thanh Liem C High School is even far weaker than other schools in terms of
learning different school subjects, of which English language teaching seems to be
the worst. And if some students are said to be good at English, it means they are
good at English grammar. Most of them find it hard to express themselves orally. If
anyone can, he has problems in pronouncing English words and sentences. In the
English lessons, only teachers speak, and most of the time, teachers have to speak
Vietnamese because they are afraid that their students do not understand what they
are speaking. Students often complain about difficulties they get in learning English
speaking skill in general and in pronunciation in particular. And we ourselves
realize that our students really have bad pronunciation. This is a serious problem not
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only at Thanh Liem C High School but also at many other mountainous schools. In
addition, no research on teaching English pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High
School has been done so far.

Coping with this pressing fact, as a language teacher teaching English at
Thanh Liem C high school (TLCHS), the author always thinks of some questions:
What are the attitudes of teachers and students towards teaching and learning
pronunciation? What are the problems teachers and students face in teaching and
learning pronunciation? How to find suitable methods to 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: “Teaching English pronunciation to
grade 10 students at Thanh Liem C High school” with the focus on the reality of
teaching and learning pronunciation, problems then suggests some solutions.

2. Aims of the study.
This study mainly focused on discovering the reality of teaching and
learning pronunciation at Thanh Liem C high school, especially to find out
problems that teachers and students often have in pronunciation lessons. The
writer also hopes to make some suggestions that can help the English teachers
overcome those problems and improve students‟ pronunciation.
In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are posed for exploration as
follows:
- To find out the teachers‟ and students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School.
- To find out the difficulties and the causes of difficulties in teaching and
learning pronunciation.
- To suggest some recommendations.

3. Research questions.
The above aims of the study can be realized by answering the following
research questions:

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(1) What is teachers‟ and students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School?
(2) Which problems do the teachers and students at TLCHS face in
pronunciation lessons?
From the findings, the researcher would recommend some pedagogical
implications with the hope to help teachers and students at TLCHS identify their
problems and self-improve their pronunciation.
4. Scope of the study.
This study investigated the difficulties of teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C high school with the focus on two aspects of
English pronunciation: short, long vowels and fricative consonants for the 10th
form students at Thanh Liem C high school. The subjects of the study are 10th
form students those are beginner with learning pronunciation at high school.
English pronunciation would not be deeply investigated in this research.
5. Method of the study.
This is a qualitative piece of research including such techniques as: survey
questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews. Firstly, the survey
questionnaires were delivered to both teachers and students to investigate the
difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation at TLCHS. 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
with a hope for providing language teacher with some teaching techniques to
work successfully with their students.
6. Significance of the study.
Because the study was conducted on a small scale with a group of 10th
grade students at a high school, the researcher hoped to make contribution to
teaching pronunciation at TLCHS. The result of the study is considered to be

useful for teachers and students at this school. Thus, this study will be an
interesting reference material for teachers of English at TLCHS, especially for those
who are in favor of improving their students' pronunciation. This research will help
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teachers and students identify their problems in teaching and learning pronunciation
and self- improve their pronunciation.
7. The design of the study.
The study was designed with the first part as an INTRODUCTION to the
rationale, the aims, and the significance of the study, the research questions, the
method, the scope and the design of the study.
The next part provides the DEVELOPMENT of the thesis with 3 chapters.
Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background with definition of
pronunciation; the importance of teaching pronunciation; the teacher's and student's
roles in teaching pronunciation; the pronunciation components, factors affecting
pronunciation learning, , teachers‟ and students‟ problems in teaching and learning
pronunciation, intelligibility, and some techniques of teaching pronunciation.
Chapter 2 is research methodology. In this chapter, the focus will be on
background information of the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect
data and the procedure of data collection as well. Chapter 3 is the body of the study,
presents a description of data analysis and discussions. With the description of data
analysis through three instruments: questionnaire, classroom observation and the
interview, I explored some interpretations of the findings.
The last part CONCLUSION is devoted to the summary of the findings and
some pedagogical suggested recommendations to help teachers and students in
upper secondary schools to overcome difficulties in learning and teaching English
pronunciation. This chapter also provides the limitations of the study as well as
some recommendations for further study provides the summary of the thesis,
limitations and some suggestions for further study.
8. Previous studies on teaching and learning English pronunciation.

There have been various arguments and support for the effectiveness of
pronunciation tr ain ing on learners‟ achievement in communicative competence.
Morley (1998) states that pronunciation plays an important role in overall
communicative competence. Yong (2004) asserted that understanding by reading
or writing would no longer be sufficient for the development of the economy and
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that communicating face to face personally or through the internet needed to be
understood.
Carter and Nunan (2001) describe the complexity of the process of second
language acquisition as an organic rather than linear process and students need
to start pronunciation lessons early and continue through high-level Academic
English levels. In addition, pronunciation teaching methods should more fully
address the issues of motivation and exposure by creating awareness of the
importance of pronunciation and providing more exposure to input from native
speakers (Jones, 2002).
Poor pronunciation can condemn learners to less social, academic and work
advancement than they deserved (Fraser, 1999, 2000). Good pronunciation
may make the communication easier and more relaxed and thus more successful
(Dan, 2006). Almost all learners rate pronunciation as a priority and an area in
which they need more guidance (Willing, 1993; Australian Bureau of Statistics,
1997). Although the study of foreign accents has always been a
fascination for some researchers, the teaching of pronunciation and oral
skills in general in foreign and second language classrooms has often been
low on the list of priorities (Peterson, 2000).
The 16
th
Educational Conference held in Melbourne in 2003 by
Germana Eckert, In search Language Centre concerning Productive Skills in the
Academic English Curriculum showed that the importance of good writing

ability in academic English and teachers spend more time working on students‟
writing and grammar skills in order that students are best prepared for exams
and especially written exams together with main focus of the current academic
English curriculum are factor which cause students and teachers to leave little
time for pronunciation in the classroom (Germana Eckert, 2003)
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)
underlines that the prevalent focus on pronunciation teaching nowadays
should be on designing new wave instructional programs. Moreover she
stresses that these instructional designs should take into account not only
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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.
Kriedler (1989) states that correct and clear pronunciation are considerably
important in language learning. Without them, learners may not be understood and
may be poorly perceived by other English speakers. They need to have confidence
in their ability to speak. Good pronunciation takes time to build up, as there are
many factors involved. Learners need to hear a lot of English before they can
develop a feel for the sounds of English. The learners become more confident and
motivated in learning the language because of the teaching aids and materials such
as tape recordings of native speakers, pictures of mouth and articulations used in
the class along with the provision positive reinforcement (Phinit-Akson, 2002;
Quilter, 2002; Estrada & Streiff, 2002; Wu, 2002; and Jay, 1966).
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DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1. Definition of pronunciation.
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).
1.2. The importance of teaching and learning pronunciation.
“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”. Gerald Kelly (2000:11).
While saying about why it is important to teach pronunciation, 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.”
Sound is the core of the language so that is the reason why when teaching a
language the first thing the teachers should do is to let the learners have chances to

explore to the sounds of that language. Moreover, communicative approach is
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considered as the major language teaching in the twenty first century as what the
learners really need after graduating is that they can communicate successfully in
their work and their life. That is the reason why pronunciation teaching has been
paid more and more attention by all the teachers.
Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of language like syntax
and vocabulary. Speech is much more than pronunciation of course, but speech is
impossible without it. 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.
1.3. The teacher’s roles and student’s roles in teaching and learning
pronunciation.
Because of the importance of teaching pronunciation mentioned above,
teachers play a key role in teaching and learning pronunciation. Many authors share
this idea and they all give out the similar roles of teacher's and students' in
pronunciation practice. However, in this study, the literature of Kenworthy (1987:
1-2) about the teacher's role was chosen. The roles of the teacher and students can
be derived in the following parts.
1.3.1. The teacher's roles in teaching pronunciation.
1.3.1.1. Helping students hear and perceive the model as exactly as possible.
Students often have a strong tendency to hear the sounds of English in terms
of the sounds of their native language. The teacher needs to check that their students
are hearing sounds according to the appropriate categories and help them to develop
new categories if necessary.
1.3.1.2. Helping students make sounds intelligible.
Some sounds of English do not occur in Vietnamese. Therefore, the teacher
has to give some hints which help them to produce the new sounds intelligibly.
1.3.1.3. Providing students with feedback of their pronunciation.

Students need to be told how they are doing as sometimes they themselves
cannot tell if they have pronounced correctly. The teacher must provide them
feedback about their performance.
1.3.1.4. Pointing out what is going on.
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It is important for students to know what to pay attention to and what to work
on. Because speaking is for the most part unconsciously controlled, students may
miss something important. For example, they may not realize that when a particular
word is stressed or said in a different way this can affect the message that is sent to
the listener. Teachers need to make students aware of the potential of sounds - the
resources available to them for sending spoken messages.
1.3.1.5. Establishing priorities.
Students need the help of teachers in establishing a plan for action, in deciding
what to concentrate on and when to leave well enough alone.
1.3.1.6. Devising activities.
Because learning pronunciation is very complex, teacher should design or
select the suitable and helpful activities for students to practice. They might explore
which activities will provide the most opportunities for practice. However, teachers
must also keep in mind that certain activities suit the learning styles and approaches
of some students better than others.
1.3.1.7. Assessing progress.
It is difficult for students to assess their own progress so teachers must provide
the information about progress. It is often a crucial factor in maintaining motivation.
1.3.2. The student's roles in learning pronunciation.
In teaching a foreign language in general, and in teaching pronunciation in
particular, whatever the teacher does, the learner's improvement and prospects of
change are minimal if the learners take no action and do not try to monitor their
own efforts. What all learners are required to do in pronunciation learning is
response. But it is not as simple as that. Ultimate success in pronunciation will

surely depend on learners' attitude and how much attempt the learner puts into. In
other words, the most decisive factor of improving pronunciation is the learner's
willingness to take responsibility for his/her learning process.
In addition, students also have some following roles: Firstly, they have to
perceive the model as exactly as they can. If cannot acquire it, they will not be able
to pronounce the model correctly. Students need to respond as much and as well as
they can to the recognition, with repetition activities because "practice makes
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perfect". Finally, students should correction of their pronunciation mistakes.
1.4. The pronunciation components.
1.4.1. Gerald Kelly’s ideas about pronunciation components.
According to Colin Mortimer (1985), elements of teaching pronunciation are
weak forms, clusters, linking - up, contractions and stress time. Linda Grant (1993)
provided a more comprehensive and authentic elements of teaching. She organized the
teaching elements from sounds to syllables and words, to sentences and finally to
discourse-segments. According to Gerald Kelly (2000: 1), teaching pronunciation
includes: phonemes, vowels, consonants, stress, intonation, other aspects of connected
speech and spelling. However, this study only emphasizes on phonemes aspect of this
diagram.

Phonemes are the different sounds within a language. Although there are slight
differences in how individuals articulate sounds, we can still describe reasonably
accurately how each sound is produced.
Vowels.
Vowels are made by voiced air passing through different mouth-shapes; the
differences in the shape of the mouth are caused by different positions of the tongue
and of the lips. The quality of vowels is determined by the particular configuration
of the vocal tract. Different parts of the tongue may be raised or lowered. The lips
may be spread or pursed. The passage, through which the air travels, however, is

never so narrow as to obstruct free flow of the air stream. Thus vowels have been
traditionally classified according to the three questions:
How high is the tongue?

What part of the tongue is involved; that is, what part is raised? What part is
lowered?
Is the vowel rounded or not?

Due to typographic difficulties, detailed description of vowels will not be
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presented (refer to Tam, 1999 for more information).
Consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting the airflow in a
variety of ways. There are three ways of describing the consonant sounds: the
manner of articulation, the place of articulation and the force of articulation.
In English, there are twenty vowels and twenty-four consonants which are
divided into groups according to the place, manner of articulation and voicing. This
study, basing on manner of articulation, does not aim at finding all the sounds
causing Thanh Liem C students‟ difficulties but long and short vowels and fricative
consonants /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ/.
Fricatives.
Fricative occurs when two vocal organs come close enough together for the
movement of air to be heard between them. (Kelly, 2000)
Fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced,
air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound. (Roach,1998).
Below are the description and the characteristics of the fricatives sounds:
Fricative
sounds
Characteristics
/f/ and /v/

Labio-dental sounds. The lower lip makes light contact with the
upper teeth. The soft palate is raised. /f/ is unvoiced and fotis. /v/ is
devoiced at the end of the word.
/θ/ and /ð/
Dental sounds. The tongue tip makes light contact with the back of
the top, front teeth. Or, tongue tip may protrude between upper and
lower teeth. The soft palate is raised. / θ / is unvoiced and fotis. /ð/
is voiced and lenis. / ð / is devoiced at the end of a word
/s/ and /z/
Alveolar sounds. The tongue blade makes light contact with the
alveolar ridge. The soft palate is raised. /s/ is unvoiced and fortis.
/z/ is voiced and lenis. /z/ is devoiced at the end of a word.
/ʃ/ and /ʒ/
Palato-alveolar sounds. The tongue blade makes light contact with
the alveolar ridge, and the front of the tongue is raised. The soft
palate is also raised. / ʃ / is unvoiced and fortis. / ʒ / is voiced and
lenis. / ʒ / is devoiced at the end of a word.

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1.5. Factors affecting pronunciation learning.
There are many factors affecting the learners' pronunciation. According to
Kenworthy (1987:4-9), factors such as the native language, the age factor, amount
of exposure, phonetic ability, attitude and identity, motivation and concern for good
pronunciation have great influence on Pronunciation learning.
1.5.1 The interference from the mother tongue.
The native language plays an important role in learning to pronounce English
as it is clearly seen that a foreign accent is influenced by some of the sound
characteristics of the learner's native language. These can be used to distinguish

between the native speakers and non-native speakers (untrained as well as trained
speakers). Due to the role of native language, there has been a great deal of research
on the differences between sound systems of English and other languages in terms
of sound system as well as problems, difficulties the learners face when studying
English. According to Kenworthy, (1992: 4): "To put it very crudely, the more
differences there are, the more difficulties the learners will have in pronouncing
English.”.
1.5.2 The age factor.
It is commonly assumed that people can pronounce a foreign language like a
native if they start learning it as a child and vice versa even though the adults have a
good knowledge of English or they live in the countries where the language is a
native one. This leads to a question that whether there is an age-related limit on the
mastery of pronunciation. There have been many studies on this question and the
results are conflicting because these studies have assessed pronunciation in different
ways and it is extremely difficult to control other factors which may be involved
such as ability, motivation or opportunity to use and to hear the language.
1.5.3. Amount of exposure.
Another factor is the amount of exposure to English the learner receives. Some
people view this as a matter of whether the learner is living in an English-speaking
country or not. This means that the learner surrounded by English will have more
advantages than who is not living in an English-speaking environment. However, it
13

is difficult to get an accurate picture of how much exposure to English a learner has
received, and of what kind. Moreover, it is not merely exposure that matters, but
how the learners respond to the opportunities to listen and use English. Based on
some recent studies, it seems that amount of exposure is not a necessary factor but a
contributory factor for the development of pronunciation skills.
1.5.4. Phonetic ability.
Researchers demonstrate that some people are able to mimic sounds more

accurately than others. These abilities are innate, so this factor seems to be out of
the teacher's control. What the teacher can do is to investigate the abilities of the
learners and provide a variety of tasks so that something will suit the needs and
ability of each learner.
1.5.5. Attitudes and identity.
It has been claimed that factors such as a person‟s „sense of identity‟ and
feelings of „group affiliation‟ are strong determiners of the acquisition of accurate
pronunciation of a foreign language. In many studies of attitude and motivation in
language learning, it has been shown that those learners who show positive feelings
towards the speakers of the new language tend to develop more accurate, native-like
accents.
1.5.6. Motivation and concern for good pronunciation.
It cannot be denied that motivation is an important factor which determines the
people's participation in every activity especially in language learning. Motivation
makes people more active in learning. The more motivated the people are, the
greater the cognitive process is. The learner's attitude towards the language they
are learning or going to learn also affects the process of learning pronunciation.
Their positive attitudes will help students a lot in learning this language, including
learning its pronunciation.
1.6. 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
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the light of the previous and current studies, some major problems that teachers and
learners face in teaching and learning pronunciation are:.
1.6.1. The nature of pronunciation.
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.
1.6.2. 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.
1.6.3. Teaching model.
According to Kelly (2000), in the past, the model of teaching English
pronunciation was “received pronunciation”, the pronunciation of people in the
15

southwest England. Today, there are 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 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.
1.6.4. 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
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CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research methodology was presented briefly in the first chapter, the
Introduction. In this chapter, once again, it will be discussed in more details.
2.1. Methodology.
2.1.1. The research questions:
The study was designed to seek the answer to the three following questions:
(1) What is teachers‟ and students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School?
(2) Which problems do the teachers and students at TLCHS face in
pronunciation lessons?
With these two research questions, the study will investigate teachers‟ and
students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning pronunciation as well as their
difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School
in English 10 together with the causes of these difficulties then giving some

pedagogical implications.
2.1.2. The participants:
With the questionnaire and classroom observation instruments, the
participants are 100 randomly selected students. They are both male and female.
Among 100 respondents, 59 were female and 41 were male. All of them are 10th
grade students who are going to finish their 10th grade school year. They have
learned English for nearly five years.
These 100 students were chosen randomly without any criteria set before.
With this random selection, I hope to receive the most reliable and honest data
from the questionnaires. In the questionnaires, I explained that their answers
would be anonymous and my aim at giving them the questionnaires are just to
get the data for the research without any other aims.
With another questionnaire and interview instrument, the participants were
five teachers of English at Thanh Liem C High School. Among them, there was
one male teacher and four female ones. They have been teaching at that school
from one to six years.

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2.1.3. The instruments.
As I stated in the Introduction part, the research will be carried out by
classroom observation, questionnaires and interviews
The questions and interviews are designed into investigate these main
following categories:
- General attitude to teaching and learning English pronunciation.
- Teachers‟ and students‟ main difficulties in teaching and learning English
pronunciation.
- The main causes of those difficulties.
2.1.3.1. The questionnaires:
As we know, one of the most popular means of collecting data is using

questionnaires. The reason for this is that, firstly, it is easy for us to construct
and it does not either consume time or cost money. Secondly, questionnaires can
help us to collect data in field setting, and the data themselves are more
amenable to quantification then discursive data such as free-form field-notes,
participant observers‟ journals or transcripts of oral language (David Nunan
1992:143). Furthermore, we can achieve respondent anonymity when applying
this type of instrument. There are two types of questions, closed and open-ended
questions. The former kind of questions are often used to get answers which are
factual or fairly predictable, meanwhile open-ended questions are preferred when
the researchers expect to get answers which are in terms of opinions, beliefs or
judgments. Furthermore, open-ended questions also give the respondents
chances to express more opinions individually. Because of these above reasons,
both two types of questionnaires were employed to get the data.
To get the data reliably and avoid problems such as respondents‟ shyness,
the questionnaires were started with explanations about its aims as well as its
respondent anonymity. In order that the students had no pressure of time and
freedom, they were let to finish the questions at home for one day. Furthermore,
all the questions were written in Vietnamese so that they could be at their best to
understand the questions and express their thoughts and ideas.
With the aims stated in the Introduction part, I handed out the
questionnaires to the teachers and students. These questions were aimed at
exploring the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation and teachers‟ and
students‟ general attitude towards learning English pronunciation.
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2.1.3.2. Interview.
Interview, as we know, is a very useful tool to get the data. According to
Hopkins (cited in McDonough & McDonough (1997:181), there are three
applications of interview in classroom research. The first application is to focus
on a specific aspect of classroom life in detail, the second is to get diagnostic

information, and the third is to improve the classroom climate.
Nunan also gives more uses of interview instrument such as needs analysis,
program evaluation, individual case studies and mini- surveys.
From these above uses of interview, we can see that with this study, using
interview instrument is very suitable to be applied. The questionnaires were used
to investigate teachers‟ and students‟ general attitude towards teaching and
learning English, English pronunciation and their difficulties in teaching and
learning English pronunciation, This second instrument, the interview, was used
to investigate what difficulties students meet when they learn English
pronunciation.
So, five teachers of English teaching at Thanh Liem C High School were
selected for a follow- up interview for more details in difficulties that students often
meet when learning English pronunciation.
2.1.3.3. Classroom observation:
I also employed classroom observation for more data. Certainly, classroom
observation is instrument that can help researchers bolster the qualitative and
quantitative results. Hopkins (1993) described classroom observation as a “pivotal
activity” with a crucial role to play in classroom research, teachers‟ personal
professional growth, and school development as a whole ( as cited in McDonough, J
and McDonough, S 1997:101). McDonough, J and McDonough also stated that
observation with its associated, so it can help me test the validity of the data
obtained about students‟ attitude towards learning English pronunciation and their
difficulties.
When observing the class, I did a lot of note taking. To make the students feel
comfortable in the lessons, I just sat at the last row and took part in five different
lessons as a non-participant observer to have a naturalistic observation.
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2.1.4. Data analysis process.
The data collected from three different sources, the questionnaires, interview

and classroom observation, were classified into different categories to analyze:
- Teachers and students‟ attitude towards teaching and learning English
pronunciation.
- Teachers and students‟ difficulties in teaching and learning English
pronunciation.
- The causes of the difficulties
All the data were gathered to analyze both descriptively and interpretively.
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CHAPTER THREE: THE STUDY

3. Data presentation.
3.1 Survey questionnaires.
3.1.1 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 20% 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.



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3.1.2 Students’ pronunciation level.

From the chart 2, we can see the reality of students‟ level in learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C high school. Being asked about this, all the teachers
said that students‟ level is not equal. Only 20% teachers said that their students‟
level at pronunciation is at average; and even 60% of the students get under average
level. None of the teachers evaluate their students‟ level at pronunciation is good or
excellent.
3.1.3 The purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation
Table 1: The purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation
PURPOSES
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
To help students to communicate better
100%
100%
To provide students with the knowledge about
English language
29%
30%
To help students to get better results in the
exam
43%
48%
To help students distinguish the differences
between English and Vietnamese
29%
22%
Others: (Please specify)
0
0
It is obvious that there is a similarity between the teachers and students‟

purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation. All the teachers (100%) agree that
teaching pronunciation is to help students to communicate better and the most