Students' autonomy in learning English pronunciation skills at Bim Son upper secondary school, Thanh Hoa = Tính tự chủ của học sinh trong việc luyện tập kĩ năng20150227

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ABSTRACT

English is now considered to be one of the most popular means of communication
in the world. One of the most important goals of learning a foreign language is to
communicate while oral communication of human beings bases on sounds. Learning good
pronunciation is a vital part of learning a new language. If people do not pronounce
correctly they will have many difficulties in exchanging ideas or sometimes it may lead to
the communication breakdown.
In fact, up to now, in language teaching and learning at upper-secondary
school level, pronunciation is paid less attention compared with vocabulary, grammar and
language skills. This is because of a number of reasons: First, the textbooks (English 10 -
11 - 12) have few focuses on pronunciation knowledge and practice and therefore,
teachers often find that they do not have enough time in class to give proper attention to
this aspect of English instructions. Second, all important English exams at schools as
well as college entrance exams to universities are always in written form, so most
teachers and students have little motivation to teach and learn pronunciation. As a result,
students are often shy and unconfident to speak in English. This situation calls for the
urgent need of cultivating learner autonomy in their pronunciation learning.
The concept of learner autonomy has long been introduced and applied to the
process of language learning. However, research focusing closely on learner autonomy in
pronunciation learning is few and far between. This is inappropriate because pronunciation
is central to language learning and learners’ abilities to build, expand and refine their
pronunciation on their own outside their classrooms can be the deciding factors in their
language learning success. In an attempt to investigate this topic, the researcher has
decided to conduct a study on “Students’ Autonomy in Learning English Pronunciation
Skills at Bim Son High School, Thanh Hoa”.
As one of the first attempts to explore the application of learner autonomy in the
context of learning English pronunciation skills at Bim Son High School, this paper seeks
to explore the current techniques utilized by teachers and learners in fostering learner

autonomy in pronunciation learning and students’ perceptions about those techniques. The
paper begins by reviewing the current literature on learner autonomy, pronunciation
learning and related studies. This is a case study conducted with 6 teachers of English and

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160 students, at Bim Son High School, who undertook the triangulated data collection
method of interviews, questionnaires and classroom observations. The analysis of the
collected data demonstrated teachers’ and students’ learning and teaching realities in the
process of developing learner autonomy within the learning of pronunciation.
The findings analyzed suggest a way of gauging students’ responsibility for their
own learning and that learner autonomy, as a life-long mode of learning, can only be
achieved with the efforts of both the teachers and the learners.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration………………………………………………………………………… i
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………ii
List of charts and tables………………………………………………………… iii
Table of contents…………… ……………………………………………………iv
Abstract………………………………………………………………… …………v

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the research … ……………………1
2. Aims and objectives of the study……………………………………………… 1
3. Scope of the study………………………………………………………… ……2
4. Signification of the study……………………………………………………… 2
5. An overview of the rest of the paper…………………………………………… 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………… ………4
1. Learner autonomy ……………………………………………………………… 4
1.1. Definition of learner autonomy ……………………………………… 4

1.2. Classifications of learner autonomy……………………………………5
1.3. Characteristics of learner autonomy……………………………………5
1.4. Roles of learner autonomy…………………………………………… 6
1.5. Teacher’s roles in learner autonomy………………………………… 7
1.6. Ways to develop autonomy………………………………………… 10

2. Pronunciation……………………………………………………………………12

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2.1. Definition of pronunciation………………………………………… 12
2.2. The importance of teaching pronunciation ………………………… 12
2.3. Roles of learner autonomy in teaching and learning pronunciation… 13

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY………………………………………………15
1. An overview of the situation of teaching and learning English at Bim Son Upper
Secondary School………………………………………………………………………….15
1.1. Current learning and teaching of English at Bim Son Upper Secondary
School…………………………………………………………………………… 15
1.2. Participants……………………………………………………………16
2. Data collection instruments …………………………………………………….17
2.1. Questionnaires ……………………………………………………… 17
2.2. Interviews…………………………………………………………… 18
2.3. Classroom observation ……………………………………………….19
3. Data collection procedure……………………………………………………….19
4. Data analysis methods and procedure………………………………………… 21

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND FINDINGS……………………………………22
1. The nature of learner autonomy………………………………………… 22
1.1. Students’ main goals in learning pronunciation …………………… 22
1.2. Students’ behaviours as autonomous learners……………………… 22

1.3. Affective factors………………………………………………………24
1.4. Attitudes towards tasks and assignments…………………………… 25
2. The factors that affect learner autonomy in learning pronunciation skills
………………………………………………………………………… ……25
3. Techniques have been utilized by the students for their learning
pronunciation autonomously…………………………………………………………… 26
3.1. Students’ sources of pronunciation learning ……………………… 26

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3.2. Techniques utilized by the students to learn pronunciation………… 27

PART C: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………… 29
1. Major findings of the research …………………………………………….……29
2. Pedagogical implications ……………………………………………………….30
3. Limitations and Suggestions for further studies……………………………… 32

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………… ……34

APPENDICE………………………………………………………………….……………I
Appendix 1: Student Survey Questionnaire…………………………………………I
Appendix 2: Teacher Survey Questionnaire…………………………………… XII
Appendix 3: Questions for Semi-Structured Student Interview…………………XIX
Appendix 4: Questions for Semi-Structured Teacher Interview…………………XX
Appendix 5: Classroom Observation Sheet…………………………………… XXI

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the research
Learner autonomy, a concept promoted by Holec (1981) and others in the context
of European language education, has become a favorite topic for analysis for the last
twenty years. In fact, the idea of striving to learn the process, not the product, has been
noted since the ancient time. Over the history, many great thinkers such as Galileo,
Rousseau, Dewey, Kilpatrick, Marcel, Jacotot, Payne and Quick have touched upon the
importance of autonomy by elaborating their ideas on education in different times
(Balcikanli, 2008).
Students who depend on themselves in learning pronunciation are more able to
succeed academically and more motivated than those who do not have effective strategies in
learning by themselves Holec (1981).
Despite being widely discussed worldwide, learner autonomy remains a fairly
novel concept in Vietnam. Whether or to what extent learner autonomy is developed and
practiced in Vietnamese schools is still open to question.
Due to very limited time spent on teaching and learning pronunciation in the
classroom, it has become increasingly essential to provide them with useful learning

strategies so that they can employ in their self-study time. In this case, the success of
learning pronunciation depends very much on how effectively and autonomously the
students practice pronunciation self-study.
For all the reasons above, I have decided to undertake a study on Students’
Autonomy in Learning English Pronunciation Skills at Bim Son Upper Secondary
School, Thanh Hoa.
2. Aims and objectives of the study
The study mainly looks at learner autonomy in pronunciation learning at Bim
Som Upper Secondary school in Thanh Hoa: the nature of and the factors affecting the
learner’s ability to take charge in learning pronunciation skills.
From the picture of current issues, the researcher hopes to propose some solutions
to help teacher’s instruction better facilitate students’ autonomy in pronunciation learning.
In brief, the study would seek to answer the following questions:
- What is the nature of learner autonomy – the ability to take charge of their own
learning English pronunciation skills at Bim Son Upper Secondary School?

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- What are the factors that affect the learners’ autonomy?
3. Methods of the study
In order to collect data for this study, a survey questionnaire is delivered to 6
teachers and 160 students at Bim Son Upper Secondary School. Some observations and
interviews with some teachers and students were also conducted for supplementary
information. Then, the results obtained from questionnaires and observations were
discussed and some useful pronunciation teaching techniques were recommended.
4. Signification of the study
This study provides a closer look at learner autonomy in teaching and learning
pronunciation skills at upper secondary school, from which constructive suggestions are
hoped to be found in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning these skills.
5. An overview of the rest of the paper
In this part (Part A. Introduction), the researcher has elaborated about:

1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the research
2. Aims and objectives of the study
3. Scope of the study
4. Signification of the study
5. An overview of the rest of the paper
In short, these points justify the contents and structure of the study. In addition,
they serve as the guidelines for the rest of the paper. The rest of the paper includes five
chapters as follows:
Part B. Development
The development is divided into three chapters:
Chapter 1 – Literature Review – provides the background of the study, including
definitions of key concepts, theories, current application and discussions of related study.
Chapter 2 – Methodology – describes the participants, data collection instruments
as well as data collection procedures, data analysis methods and data analysis procedures.
Chapter 3 – Results and Findings–presents, analyzes and discusses the findings
that the researcher found out in order to answer the research questions.
Part C. Conclusion

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The main issues in the paper will be summerized; the pedagogical implications
concerning the research topic, the limitations of the research and suggestions for further
studies. Following this chapter are the References and Appendices.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter addresses a review of the literature related to learner autonomy and
pronunciation learning and teaching. In each section, the definition or explanation of the
key terms is presented together with the studies worldwide.
1. Learner autonomy
1.1. Definition of learner autonomy
The term “learner autonomy” was first introduced formally by Henri Holec in 1981
when he wrote Autonomy and foreign language learning - his contribution to the Council
of Europe’s work in adult education. The so-called “father” of learner autonomy, provides

a broad definition which considers learner autonomy “the ability to take charge of one’s
own learning”. Scharle and Szabo (2000,) turning attention to the aspect of attitudes, seem
to share the same interest with Holec (1981) when they present a persuasive analysis of the
interrelationship between autonomy and responsibility. According to the authors,
autonomy is defined as “the freedom and ability to manage one’s own affairs, which
entails the right to make decisions as well” whereas responsibility is understood as “being
in charge of something, but with the implication that one has to deal with the consequences
of one’s own actions.” (Scharle & Szabo, 2000: 4). They argue that autonomy and
responsibility are interrelated and both require learners’ active involvement.
Benson (2001: 47), however, states that it is preferable to define autonomy as the
capacity to take control of one’s own learning, largely because the construct of “control”
appears to be more open to investigation than the constructs of “charge” or
“responsibility.” In his definition, he specifies three levels of control that a learner should
take in order to develop his/her learning autonomy: “An adequate description of autonomy
in language learning should at least recognize the importance of three levels at which
learner control may be exercised: learning management, cognitive processes and learning
content” (Benson, 2001: 50).
I am in favour of Henri Holec’s definition of learner autonomy as learners’ “ability
to take charge of their own learning”. This general but concise definition, from the
researcher’s view, really touches upon the spirit of autonomy. It is obvious from Holec’s

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definition that an autonomous learner not only possesses a sense of responsibility for his
learning but he/she is also self-conscious of that responsibility.
All in all, in second language learning, learner autonomy is a stimulating,
multifaceted concept which can be interpreted from different viewpoints. Learners’
autonomy encompasses not only their attitudes but also their behaviors. It is both a process
and a goal in language learning, in education and in living; therefores, to develop learner
autonomy, it is important to find a way to help students to be aware of what they have done
and further reflect on it so that they could achieve personal awareness, process and

situational awareness, and task awareness.
1.2. Roles of learner autonomy
Learner autonomy can be regarded as an offspring of learner-centered approach,
which is an innovative and effective one in the literature of second language learning. The
benefits of cultivating autonomy in learners have been disclosed by a variety of researchers
and practitioners. Learner autonomy can lead to increase in motivation and cooperation as
well as responsibilities in their studying process, which means more effective learning
(Deci, 1995, p.2). Furthermore, the concept of autonomy is not restricted in school aspect.
Once students acquire autonomy in learning in the school curriculum, they slip easily into
autonomy for other activities outside class. In other words, autonomous learners evolve
life-long learning and hereby they are capable of authoring the world in which they live.
1.3. Characteristics of learner autonomy
Many scholars agree on the hypothesis that learner autonomy entails reflective
involvement in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating learning. However,
different scholars may contribute additional attributes of learner autonomy to these core
features.
According to Scharle and Szabo (2000), an autonomous student must have built
four blocks, such as: motivation and self-confidence, monitoring and evaluation, learning
strategies, and cooperation and group cohesion. While motivation and self-confidence refer
to the intrinsic motivation and willingness to take responsibility in learning, cooperation
and group cohesion indicates that learners should liaise with each other in the learning
process. The second and third factors cover the same notion as the core features.
Monitoring skills emphasize the need to focus on the process of learning rather than the
product. This step is followed by self-evaluation, which means learners judge their own

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works as objectively as they can, acknowledging their level of proficiency, their strong and
weak points.
1.4. Teacher’s roles in learner autonomy
Autonomous learning must be the characteristic expected to nurture in students

with the aids from teachers. Teachers take responsibility for managing and consulting
during the process. It is not leaving students to fend by themselves or sitting students in
front of computers and hoping they will learn.
First and foremost, teachers become less of a knowledge transmitter and more of a
facilitator. Relinquishing teacher’s control is parallel with providing sufficient guidance to
smooth learners’ way into autonomous learning, and into developing purposefulness and
creativity in doing so (Dickinson, 1995). Teachers supervise students in their own learning-
preference discovery and create opportunities for their experience.
Autonomous learning magnitude necessarily entails difficulties in many aspects,
and different students may have problems in different ways. To that end, teachers are also
the counselors helping students with individual obstacles. Both facilitators and counselors
provide psychology-social and technical supports, the difference between the two is that
while the former mainly works with groups, the latter in one-to-one situations (Voller,
1997). According to Riley (1988), counseling involves a great deal of work such as
eliciting information about aims, needs and wishes, helping with planning, suggesting
materials and sources, taking part in interaction, offering alternatives, listening and
responding, interpreting information, giving feedback on self-assessment, and being
positive and supportive, etc.
Furthermore, facilitating and counseling learners is not just a matter of pointing
them in the right direction - it is also to do with motivation, behaviors, and practical and
emotional support. Teachers, therefore, should motivate students in acquiring learning
independence as well as language skills. Beside stimulating factors, autonomy requires a
conscious awareness of the learning process, strategies and styles. Learner strategies are a
key to and “prerequisite” for learner autonomy (Weden, 1998). Learners can take care of
their own learning only when he has become more mature and made use of the pertinent
strategies. Thus, teachers have to expedite learners to know what learning strategy is and
how imperative it is in enhancing autonomous learning.
To sum up, the teacher’s function should become less dominant, but not less
important. Instead of absolving themselves of all responsibility teachers, they play more

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roles than before as facilitators, counselors, motivators, awareness raisers as well as
resources in this development. This implies the “reappraisal of teachers and learners’
roles” (Lynch 2001, p. 394). Autonomy inevitably involves a change in power
relationships and in both teachers’ attitudes.
However, this change cannot occur effortlessly. It is a process and it should be
characterized as “a continuum” (Voller, 1997, p. 100). In accordance with this viewpoint,
Sharle and Szabo (2000) illustrate a continuum of teacher attitudes ranging from traditional
to learner autonomy attitude and suggest that teachers should move toward the right hand
side of the continuum (teacher autonomy attitude). They further denote that this transition
should be gradual rather than abrupt and dramatic to allow time for the involved parties to
adapt themselves to the new practices. It is worth noticing that however difficult and time-
consuming the transformation will be, it is the first priority for the teachers to modify
themselves first if they expect to change their students’ attitudes.
1.5. Ways to develop autonomy
As learner autonomy is so pivotal in second language acquisition, scholars,
researchers and teachers have long been searching for methods to magnify this character in
learners. It is suggested that this transition must be taken through raising awareness,
changing attitudes, and transferring roles (Scharle & Szabo, 2000).
The starting stage in cultivating autonomy in learners is raising awareness of
pedagogical goals, contents and strategies (Nunan, 1997). This phase functions as an
impetus to initiate learning the second language and “opening the learner’s eyes to new
ways of thinking about their learning” (Scharle & Szabo, 2000, p. 15). It is grounded in the
belief that even when teachers provide all the necessary circumstances and input, learning
cannot happen if learner is not willing to contribute. Thus, teachers must initially present
new perspective and new experience to learners and encourage them to think consciously
in their inner learning processes. This is a tightly-teacher-controlled stage on the
consumption that learner are not yet responsible in their learning.
However, only raising students’ awareness cannot guarantee students’ self-
directed learning. Once they take on new viewpoints in learning purposes, processes and

the nature of language learning, they should accustom these attitudes and strategies
introduced in the first phase. This can be done by a series of activities in which students
“consciously practice learning strategies” which requiring more learner initiative and
higher level of responsibility (Scharle & Szabo, 2000, p. 50). Additionally, group work and

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pair work are encouraged to heighten cooperation, which reduces the dominance of
learner-teacher interaction, encourages students to rely on each other and on themselves,
and spreads responsibility for the achievement of a task more evenly among students. To
achieve the openness (allowing more room for learner imitativeness), negotiation activities
are often the best options. However, it takes time to change someone’s belief and habit,
especially when it is the deeply-rooted one. Accordingly, repeatability in doing these
activities are momentous to shape and consolidate new beliefs and habits.
The last and simultaneously effort-intensive phase is transferring roles as the result
of a considerable change in classroom management. Transferring roles is decisive in that
“For one, learners can only assume responsibility for their learning if they have some
control over the learning process. For the other, increasing independence may evoke and
reinforce responsibility and autonomous attitudes” (Scharle & Szabo, 2000, p. 80).
Teachers handle over roles that are traditionally held by themselves. However, these
loosely structured activities do not entail teacher’s freedom of charge. It is crucial for the
teacher to establish a good relationship providing a harmonious supportive environment,
facilitating the process of reorientation and personal discovery (Kelly, 1996, cited in Lee,
1998). Furthermore, peer support in this environment is weightier pushing learners in
acquiring “a capacity and willingness to act independently and in cooperation with others,
as a socially responsible person.” (Dam, 1995, p. 1, cited in Lee, 1998).
Sharle and Szabo (2000) hold that this three-phase process should be seen as a
smooth process where one stage develops into the next. The activities they provide in their
book should be considered as suggestive ones since “autonomy has to be adapted to
different cultural contexts” (Holec, 1981) and accordance with students’ level of autonomy
at different stages.

Different classroom cultures may entail different teachers’ responsibilities and
students’ roles, which means the borderline between the suggested activities in changing
awareness and transferring attitudes are vague. In other words, to cultivate learner
autonomy, learners should first have the right attitude towards learning and knowledge of
strategies in second language learning. Secondly, they must involve in the learning process
themselves as “language learning depends vitally on language use” (Deci, 1995).
Practitioners, researchers have suggested a number of activities for learners’ involvement.
They have reported on the effectiveness of using motivating activities (Barrett & Daborn,
2001; Kavaliauskiene, 2003; Luchini & Rosello, 2007); portfolios, assignments, projects

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and homework (Coombe, 2001; Ali, 2000; Malcolm, 2001; Nakayama, 2000;
Kavaliauskiene, 2003), self evaluation and peer assessment, diary and journal keeping on
strengthening their responsibility and nourish this activities.
In short, there are three phases in culminating learner autonomy, namely raising
awareness, changing attitudes and transferring roles. The activities in each part should be
adapted in line with students’ level of self-direction and educational milieu. During the
transition, motivation is crucial as learning is usually most efficient and rapid when the
learner is motivated and attentive. A range of current perspectives has now put motivation
on a different footing, integrating psychological considerations with social conditions. The
question is how to make students like what is required. The answer lies in the students’
investment in studying. Even when students like the subject, learning will not happen if
they do not invest enough time, money and energy. “Required motivation” is now said to
be “more important to acknowledge the diversity of motivations and reorient them in a
more holistic and richer framework of SLA” (Zuengler & Miller, 2006). Bony Norton
Peirce (1995) used the term ‘investment’ to emphasis on the commitment to target
language study. students’
Whereas other researchers often focus on one of these three steps to promote
students’ learning responsibility (only raising students’ awareness of the matter, or asking
students to keep portfolio and assignment, or letting them to self-assess, the researcher

decided to take the first and the second stage, bearing in mind the low level of autonomy
and little speaking lesson experience of her students as well as the time constraint of the
study. As there is not enough time and the students are not mature enough to reach the
other end of the autonomy continuum, the final stage is left to maybe the next terms.
Consequently, the author of this research decided to adopt selective activities in the
first two stages suggested by Scharle and Szabo (2000) and her tailored assignment setting
for the students to make ensure that they invest adequate time, effort and money in their
learning. Also, students’ signing a learner contract is used to ascertain their commitment to
what they are required to do. Like other researchers investigating the realm of learner
autonomy, the researcher also uses assignments to boost learner responsibility, but in other
forms to suit her own teaching lieu. As they have never learn speaking before, they must
be well-equipped by having chances to practice functional language and speaking
techniques. Thus, the intervention starts first with raising matter awareness and subject

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awareness then and regular assignment to implant the independent learning style in the
students.
1.6. Principles of developing autonomy
The literature on principles of developing autonomy is all concerned with explicit
teaching and providing opportunities for learner autonomy to express and develop.
Firstly, in order to foster learner autonomy, it is crucial to increase a sense of
responsibility. A complete analysis of how to build up learner responsibility is presented
by Scharle and Szabo (2000). They identify the building blocks of responsibility and
autonomy on the part of learners and teachers. The building blocks required of learners
include motivation and self-confidence, monitoring and evaluation, learning strategies and
finally cooperation and group cohesion. Particularly noteworthy is their emphasis on
monitoring and evaluation. According to Scharle and Szabo (2000: 7), “when we
encourage students to focus on the process of their learning rather than the outcome, we
help them consciously examine their own contribution to their learning.” This is really the
vital step to the development of a responsible attitude. Another key point is the teaching of

learning strategies, which are regarded as the tools for students to expand their language
competence and to undertake their own learning responsibility. Students should be shown a
variety of available strategies and encouraged to find out which strategies work best for
them in certain contexts. Meanwhile, certain attitudes are also required of teachers. They
should be willing to share information with the learners in terms of both short and long
term objectives, to take consistent control by clearly establishing expectations towards
learners and lastly to delegate tasks and decisions to learners.
With a view to reinforcing these skills and attitudes for learners and teachers,
Scharle and Szabo (2000) go on to detail the process of developing responsibility that
learners and teachers go through. This process is divided into three phases: raising
awareness, changing attitudes and transferring roles. First, the stage of raising awareness
includes highly controlled activities which are intended to present new experiences to
learners and to make them conscious of the inner processes of their learning. Second, the
changing – attitude – stage allows repeatable, less controlled activities through which
students practice and reinforce their new roles and habits. Finally, the stage of transferring
roles contains loosely structured activities that give students considerable freedom. It is
clear that as learners move from one phase to the next, they are facilitated to exercise
greater autonomy and more responsibility.

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More specifically, Vieria (2003) puts principles in a common framework for learner
and teacher development. This framework should be highly recommended for its thorough
presentation of action principles to promote learner autonomy. Besides, it nicely compares
autonomous learner development side by side with reflective teacher development.
However, for the scope of the present study, the researcher will only make use of the
principles concerning learners. According to Vieria (2003: 226), the action principles to
develop learner autonomy include:
Reflection: Developing language / learning awareness
 Developing awareness of language (formal and pragmatic properties; socio-cultural
dimension)

 Developing awareness of learning (sense of agency; attitudes, representations,
beliefs, preferences and styles; aims and priorities; strategies: cognitive, meta-cognitive,
strategic, socio-affective tasks: focus, purpose, rationale, demands; instructional / didactic
process: objectives, activities, materials, evaluation, roles)
Experimentation: Experiencing learning strategies
 Discovering and trying out learning strategies (in class and outside class)
 Exploring resource materials (pedagogical and non-pedagogical)
Regulation: Regulating learning experience
 Identifying learning problems or needs
 Setting learning goals
 Planning learning strategies
 Monitoring/evaluating attitudes, representations, beliefs, strategic knowledge and ability
 Assessing learning outcomes and progress
 Evaluating the instructional / didactic process
Negotiation: Co-constructing learning experience
 Working in collaboration
 Taking the initiative, choosing and deciding
The four principles presented above indicate “major learner roles that bring the
language learner closer to the learning content and process” (Vieria, 2003: 227). As can be
seen, each principle paves the way for a particular realization of autonomy. Within the
scope of this study, the researcher will exploit the first two principles: reflection and
experimentation.

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2. Pronunciation
2.1. Definition of pronunciation
The notion of "pronunciation" has been defined in different ways by many writers.
Ur (1996: 47) defines that "The concept of "pronunciation" may be said to include sounds
of the language or phonology; stress and rhythm; intonation; combination of sounds;
linkage of sounds".

Dalton, (1994: 3) describes pronunciation in general term "as the production of
significant sound in two senses. First, sound is significant because it is used as part of a
code of a particular language. In this sense we can talk about pronunciation as the
production and reception of sounds of speech. Second, sound is significant because it is
used to achieve meaning in contexts of use. Here the code combines with other factors to
make communication possible. In this sense we can talk about pronunciation with
reference to acts of speaking".
In this paper, the author has no intention of pointing out which definition of
pronunciation is the most precise but only wishes to find an appropriate definition
facilitating the understanding of pronunciation in language study. Therefore, the definition
of pronunciation proposed by Ur (1996) is adopted.
2.2. Roles of learner autonomy in teaching and learning pronunciation
Among many other factors, learner motivation and autonomy play a vital role in
learning in general, and learning a foreign language in particular; learning pronunciation
skills is included.
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. According to Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2001), students need 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.
2.3. 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.

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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.

2.3.1. The teacher's roles in teaching pronunciation
First and foremost, teachers help 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.
Secondly, teachers help 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.
Thirdly, teachers provide 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.
Fourthly, teachers design effective 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.
Fifthly, teachers assess learners’ 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.
2.3.2. 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

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model correctly. Students need to respond as much and as well as they can to the
recognition, with repetition activities because "practice makes perfect". Finally, students
should correction of their pronunciation mistakes.


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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is devoted to presenting the methodology of the current research,
including the research design, the participants, the data collection instruments and
procedure, and data analysis.
In the preceding chapter, the literature on the research topic was reviewed for the
theoretical basis of the study. In order to lay a practical background for the study, the
research was carried out with strictly justified methods of data collection and analysis.
The study was carried out in 4 months from May to September of 2011 among 160
students of all grades and 6 teachers teaching English at Bim Son Upper Secondary
School.
1. An overview of the situation of teaching and learning English at Bim Son Upper
Secondary School
1.1. Current learning and teaching of English at Bim Son Upper Secondary School
There are 6 teachers of English at Bim Son Upper Secondary School. All the
teachers are very eager for knowledge, enthusiastic with teaching, ready to change for the
better, willing to apply better ways to fortify their teaching quality and improve the quality
of English teaching and learning.
In the light of communicative approaches, Pronunciation is designed in English
books for high-school students. For each book among English 10, 11 and 12, pronunciation
accounts for 10 percent of the designed amount of knowledge. More precisely, in English
textbook in particular, each unit (among 16 units of the whole book) is made up of by five

parts. The first four parts are to help learners develop their language skills of Reading,
Speaking, Listening, Writing and the last part is Language Focus which consists of
Pronunciation and Grammar.
By the end of 2006, the 10
th
form class that I taught at Bim Son Upper secondary
school seemed to have a declining performance in English. They showed a lack of interest
in speaking lessons and their first-term test results on pronunciation skills were rather low.
Teaching them for six successive semesters, I realized that they had some problems
learning English pronunciation skills.

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In other words, unfavorable language environment and non-autonomous learning
methods have triggered difficulties for the teachers in improving the students’ English
proficiency.
I decided to investigate the situation with an open talk with the whole class. The
talk turned out to be a lively discussion in which my students expressed their feelings
about learning English. Most of them shared the view that learning pronunciation skills
was very difficult but really important to them. More specifically, lack of pronunciation
skills prevents them from improving communicating skills. To make the matter worse,
only three English periods per week meant that the in-class time for pronunciation learning
was inadequate. In order to help my students overcome their difficulty in improving their
pronunciation skills, I intended to further investigate the situation and then design a
remedy plan. Considering that the time in class was so restricted, the first thought that
came across to my mind then was how to teach my students to learn pronunciation
effectively in their self-study time. That idea was then further clarified into two tasks. First,
I needed to raise my students’ awareness of learner autonomy in learning pronunciation.
Second, I wanted to teach them some pronunciation-learning strategies that might help
them to learn pronunciation effectively on their own. To fulfill these tasks, I decided to
carry out a survey first to get a whole look at the reality of pronunciation learning in the

self-study time and then I will suggest a pronunciation-learning strategy training
programme with my students. I have been working at Bim Son Upper secondary school for
six years. In this case study, I was the practitioner and the researcher at the same time.
1.2. Participants
Teachers are considered to play an important part in guiding and monitoring the
development of learner autonomy in their students. The study, therefore, invited for the
participation of six teachers in the foreign language group.
The subjects are 160 students at Bim Son Upper Secondary School. All of them
have learned English since 6
th
grade (about 12 years old) at least. They are chosen at
random basing on their order number in the attendance register then the name attached to
these numbers were collected. Most of them can do written English tasks quite well, but
rather badly with spoken language with a lot of mispronounced words. They demonstrate
very little knowledge about phonetics.
The above things can conclude that the subjects of the study are compatible in
terms of age, gender and knowledge of both mother tongue and foreign language.

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2. Data collection instruments
In order to obtain in-depth, rich data and information for investigating the situation
and the difficulties that teachers and students have in teaching and learning pronunciation,
the study used three methods of data collection: questionnaire (conducted in late June
when students generally fulfill their pronunciation lessons in English Textbook), classroom
observation (done from June to late August) and informal interview (done from July to
August).
2.1. Questionnaires
Basing on certain knowledge about students’ problems in pronunciation learning,
the investigator designed two kinds of questionnaires which include both closed questions
(students and teachers only choose one option) and open- ended questions (with more

possibilities at their disposal). The purpose of the questionnaire is to find out participants’
attitude towards pronunciation teaching (or learning), realities of pronunciation teaching
and learning in their class and difficulties they encounter. Besides main part,
questionnaires for students and teachers both have a question to find out how long the
participant has taught/ learnt English pronunciation skills.
2.1.1. The students’ survey questionnaire
The survey questionnaire for students consists of 7 big questions with 20 extra
questions are for participants to choose one option among the given; and leaving comment
space for students as they wish basing on their own problems and situation.
The first question is to find out how important pronunciation learning is among
students. The second one is for students to express their attitudes towards pronunciation
learning. The next five are to investigate the reality of pronunciation teaching and learning
in the students’ opinion about difficulties they have to face in pronunciation learning, some
typical pronunciation matters that students often find challenging and the ways they solve
pronunciation problems. In these questions, if there is any personal pronunciation problem,
participants can write down (in English as well as in Vietnamese). With the extra
questions, the researcher intends to find out students’ ways of learning pronunciation in
detail.
2.1.2. The teachers’ survey questionnaire
The teachers’ survey questionnaire consists of 15 questions with the hope to
indicate the current teaching methods taken by the teachers teaching English for students at

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Bim Son Upper Secondary School. Among the questions, half of them are one- option, the
other half allow the participants to choose more than one answer. The first question is to
ask whether phonetics and phonology is important in pronunciation teaching or not. The
next two questions are about the practices of teaching pronunciation for students. In the
extra question, the researcher tries to investigate students’ attitude towards pronunciation
teaching and learning through the eyes of the teachers. This is the chance for the
participant to talk about the challenges they have to face when teaching pronunciation. And

in the last question, techniques to promote learners’ autonomy in improving pronunciation
skills that the participant is using are listed, the teachers can tick at as many options as they
wish.
After collecting all the questionnaire responses from both teachers and students, the
researcher has calculated the numbers of responses and the percentages respectively of the
questions in each questionnaire. The results, then, have been arranged to two main items
based on the first two research questions.
 Reality of teaching and learning pronunciation at Bim Son Upper Secondary
School.
 The ways that teachers and students promote autonomy in learning
pronunciation skills.
2.2. Classroom observation
Apart from two survey questionnaires for teachers and students, classroom
observation is also applied in order to clarify and test the validity of information about the
current situation of teaching and learning pronunciation, the challenges in teaching and
learning have to face up with. The observation was carried out before the time the
questionnaires were conducted in Language Focus periods of different classes taught by
three different teachers. Hopefully, the results from the classroom observation will
contribute much to finding out the solutions to the improvement.
2.3. Interviews
In order to understand better about the reality of pronunciation teaching and
learning and challenges that teachers have to face during pronunciation lessons, the
researcher had unconventional talk with some students and teachers. The questions in the
interview were basically based on those in the questionnaire in order to find out real
reasons for their answers as well as to understand more about reality of teaching and

26
learning pronunciation through points of view that the researcher could not think of when
designing the questionnaires. Therefore, the data of the informal interview will be shown
as the explanation after analysis of every question in both questionnaires instead of

appearing as a separate part in the next chapter of data analysis and discussion.
3. Data collection procedure
The procedure of data collection could be put into four phases as follows.
Phase 1: Preparation
In this phase, the researcher managed to 1) design the questionnaires, the interview
questions and the observation checklist; 2) pilot the questionnaires and the interview
questions with three students; 3) make adaptations and finalize the design of data
collection instruments and 4) set up schedule for collecting data.
Phase 2: Disseminations of questionnaires
In this phase, the researcher contacted 3 teachers. Soon after that, the
questionnaires were sent to the teachers via email as they suggested. In a few days, the
completed questionnaires were sent back.
Student questionnaires: The questionnaires were handed out to the students at the
beginning of the class time. The researcher briefly explained the purpose and the terms to
the students. Confirmation of confidentiality was also made so that the students would be
more willing to state their opinions in the questionnaires. The students were encouraged to
look quickly at the questionnaires and questions for clarification were encouraged to be
raised. Then the researcher suggested the classes finish the questionnaires in their break
time and the monitors collect all the papers. After that, the researcher contacted the
monitors to get back the questionnaires.
Phase 3: Carrying out the interviews
Teacher interviews: At the time of sending the questionnaires to the teachers via
email, the researcher also asked for convenient time to conduct the interviews. Shortly
before each appointment, the researcher telephoned the teachers to confirm. Each interview
began with a short informal talk, in which the teachers were reminded of the questionnaires
and questions about the research topic were encouraged. Then permission was asked to
record the interviews. During the interviews, questions were asked one at a time and
neutrality was kept consistently. Whenever unexpected answer came up or new aspects
were revealed, extra questions were added accordingly to exploit in-depth information

27
from the interviewees. The interviewees were encouraged to speak out whatever they
thought about the subject matter. However, reorientation was made when necessary so as
to bring focus onto the investigated areas.
Student interviews: Getting personal contacts from the questionnaires, the
researcher asked for the participation of ten students in the interviews. The procedures of
conducting the student interviews were similar to those of the teacher interviews.
Phase 4: Observation
Observation was done when the subjects were speaking English naturally without
awareness of being observed in the classroom lasting from my start of teaching the
subjects’ class to the start of research. After each time of teaching the subjects’ class, I
took notes carefully in a notebook immediately. At the time of the study, I have been
teaching the informants about 20 hours.
Thanks to the practicum the researcher asked for permission to observe four
classes. An observation checklist was completed. Besides, further notes were taken and
revised. Short discussion about the lessons was conducted with the teachers and the
students right afterwards to get the immediate general impression and feedbacks.
Information was refined within the day to get the next observation better structured and
informed.

4. Data analysis methods and procedure
The collected data was first classified according to the research questions. The
students’ responses were considered first. Teachers’ responses were analyzed in
comparison and contrast with the students’ responses. Interview responses and classroom
observation served to solidify the conclusion.
The questionnaires had already been divided into sections from the design stage
basing on the research questions. Therefore, it was convenient to classify the information
gathered. Data collected from the questionnaires was then synthesized and illustrated by
diagrams or tables according to each research question. As for the data collected from the
interviews, they were first transcribed. The information was then classified to see which

area of the research it supports so that the researcher could refer to for more information
when necessary.