Using English traditional songs to improve students' pronunciation Sử dụng bài hát truyền thống Anh để cải thiện khả năng phát âm của học sinh một nghiên cứu h

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



TRẦN THỊ TUYẾT MAI


USING ENGLISH TRADITIONAL SONGS TO IMPROVE
STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT
DUY TIEN C HIGH SCHOOL
SỬ DỤNG BÀI HÁT TRUYỀN THỐNG ANH ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN
KHẢ NĂNG PHÁT ÂM CỦA HỌC SINH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU
HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG PTTH C DUY TIÊN




M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10




Hanoi - 2010

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



TRẦN THỊ TUYẾT MAI


USING ENGLISH TRADITIONAL SONGS TO IMPROVE
STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT
DUY TIEN C HIGH SCHOOL
SỬ DỤNG BÀI HÁT TRUYỀN THỐNG ANH ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN
KHẢ NĂNG PHÁT ÂM CỦA HỌC SINH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU
HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG PTTH C DUY TIÊN


M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Mai Thị Loan, M.A.

Hanoi - 2010

42
Table of contents

Acknowledgements i
Declaration ii
Abstract iii
List of abbreaviations iv
List of charts and tables v
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Method of the study 2
6. Design of the study 3
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Definition of pronunciation? 4
1.2. The teacher’s and students’ role in teaching and learning pronunciation 4
1.2.1. The teacher’s role 4
1.2.2. The students’ roles 6
1.3. Pronunciation and communicative teaching 6
1.4. Review of traditional methods and approaches for teaching pronunciation 7
1.4.1. Traditional methods of teaching pronunciation 7
1.4.2. Approaches for teaching pronunciation 8
1.5. Songs as motivator for students to improve pronunciation 9
1.6. Aspects of pronunciation that can be improved through songs 10
1.6.1. Sounds 10

1.6.2. Word stress 11
1.6.3. Rhythm 11
1.6.4. Intonation 11
1.7. Choosing songs 11
1.8. Summary 12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13

43
2.1. The context of the study 13
2.1.1. Physical conditions which affect students’ participation in a pronunciation lesson . 13
2.1.2. Teaching and learning conditions at Duy Tien C high school 13
2.1.3. Background information of the phonetics lessons at upper secondary school 14
2.2. Data collection instruments 15
2.2.1. Questionnaires 15
2.2.2. Tests 16
2.3. Data collection procedures 16
2.4. The use of songs in the lessons 16
2.5. Summary 17
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 18
3.1. Questionnaires 18
3.1.1. Questionnaire for students 18
3.1.1.1. Aims 18
3.1.1.2. Participants 18
3.1.1.3. Data analysis 18
3.1.1.3.1. Students’ attitude towards English songs 18
3.1.1.3.2. The improvement of students’ pronunciation after they had been taught with the
use of songs 19
3.1.1.3.3. Activities students do during the pronunciation lesson 20
3.1.1.3.4. Students’ favourite tasks while learning pronunciation lesson with the use of songs 21
3.1.1.3.5. The effectiveness of using songs in teaching pronunciation 21

3.1.1.3.6. Some disadvantages of using songs in teaching pronunciation 23
3.1.2. Questionnaire for teachers 24
3.1.2.1. Aims 24
3.1.2.2. Participants 24
3.1.2.3. Data analysis 24
3.1.2.3.1. Teachers’ frequency of using songs to teach pronunciation for students 24
3.1.2.3.2. Kinds of songs teachers used to teach pronunciation 25
3.1.2.3.3. Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of songs. 25
3.1.2.3.4. The sources of songs 26
3.1.2.3.5. Difficulties of designing the pronunciation lesson with the use of songs 26
3.2. Tests 26

44
3.2.1. Aims 26
3.2.2. Participants 26
3.2.3. Test description 26
3.2.4. Data analysis and finding 27
3.2.4.1. Pre-test (At the beginning of the term) 27
3.2.4.1.1.Frequency distribution 27
3.2.4.1.2. Correlation 28
3.2.4.2. At the end of the term (Post-test) 29
3.2.4.2.1. Frequency distribution 29
3.2.4.2.2. Correlation 30
Chapter 4: implication 31
4.1. The effectiveness of using songs to teach pronunciation for high school students 31
4.2. How to use songs to teach pronunciation for students 31
4.2.1. Suggestions for task designing 31
4.2.2. Suggestions for choosing the topic of the songs 32
4.2.3. How to select the songs 32
4.3. A sample lesson plan 33

4.4. Summary 34
Part C: conclusion 35
1. Summary of the results 35
2. Limitations of the study 35
3. Suggestions for further study. 36
4. Conclusion 36
References 38
APPENDIces i
Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students i
Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for teachers iii
APPENDIX 3: Pre-test v
APPENDIX 4: Post-test vi
Appendix 5 : Sample tasks vii
iv
LIST OF ABBREAVIATIONS


1. EFL: English as Foreign Language
2. CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
3. CFL-VNUH: College of Foreign Language- Viet Nam National University, Hanoi.
4. L2: Second Language.
5. No: Number
6. Std. Deviation: Standard Deviation.

v
LIST OF CHART AND TABLES

Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards English song
Chart 2: Students’ improvement after they had been taught with the use of songs
Chart3: Activities students do during the pronunciation lesson
Chart 4: Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of songs
Chart 5: Raw marks in pronunciation test ( Pre-test)
Chart 6: Raw marks in pronunciation test (Post-test)
Table 1: Students’ favorite tasks while listening to songs
Table 2: The effectiveness of using songs in teaching pronunciation
Table 3: Teachers’ frequency of using songs to teach pronunciation for students
Table 4: Kinds of songs teachers used to teach pronunciation
Table 5: The sources of songs
Table 6: Frequency distribution (pre-test)
Table 7: Mean and Std. Deviation (pre-test)
Table 8: Frequency distribution (post-test)
Table 9: Mean and Std. Deviation (post-test)

1
Part 1: introduction

1. Rationale of the study
Nowadays, English plays an extremely important role in helping people communicate with
the rest of the world. It also becomes a golden key to open the door of many fields such as
commerce, communication, science, and technology throughout the world. Therefore,
English has been taught and learnt in all schools in our countries.
One of the most important goals of learning a foreign language is to communicate. The fact
is that communication of human beings bases on sounds. If people do not pronounce
correctly, they will have many difficulties in exchanging information or it may lead to
misunderstanding or the communication breakdown. Therefore, teaching and learning
pronunciation becomes one of the most important parts in studying a foreign language.
Traditional ways of teaching phonetics to non-native speakers of English have usually
followed the same way. First, the segmental level of phonetics description is introduced,
then the suprasegmental features (such as stress, rhythm, and intonation) are presented. In
most pronunciation courses, teachers spend a lot of time teaching vowels and consonants
and ask students to practice these segmentals individually, in words and in sentences.
However, this approach leaves little time for suprasegmentals and they are usually treated
with less depth and concentration then the segmental features. The good sides of this
method are that students know how to produce and distinguish the vocalic and consonantal
contrast of English, yet when they speak the language, they still have the very strong
foreign accent which sometimes causes misunderstanding or no understanding at all.
Therefore, the questions what teachers should do to teach pronunciation effectively and
how teachers do to make students become interested in learning pronunciation are really
big issues that need to be answered. Lightbrown, P.M.and Spada, N. (1999:57) state that:

“If we can make our classrooms places where students enjoy coming because the content is
interesting and relevant to their age and level of ability, where the learning goals are
challenging yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere is supportive and non-
threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students‟ motivation to learn.” They
also show that students never learn everything they are taught, they only learn what they
are interested in. However, interest is something very unstable and unpredictable because
it depends on many factors. Sesnan, B. (1997 :33-35) describes a good teacher as the one

2
who does not only use a good teaching method, but also takes into consideration of how to
teach students, how to learn effectively by themselves and helps them to involve
themselves with interest in the learning process, suggests some main ways to hold
students‟ interest such as: audio-visual aids including objects, pictures, language activities
like games, songs, story-telling, project. Of all the items, songs seem to be the most
interesting to exploit to the author. Therefore, the researcher chooses songs to teach
pronunciation for students at Duy Tien C high school.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims at:
(1): finding out whether the use of English traditional songs to teach pronunciation
for high school students is effective or not.
(2): working out the most effective ways of using English songs to teach
pronunciation for high school students.
3. Research questions
With above aims, the researcher hopes to conduct this study to answer the following
questions:
(1) To what extent can English songs help students to improve their pronunciation?
(2) How to use songs in teaching pronunciation in classroom?
4. Scope of the study
The study mainly focuses on exploiting English songs as supplementary material to
improve the pronunciation of the 10

th
-form-students.
Moreover, the theory of English te aching pronunciation is complex comprising a number of
components. However, as this study is concerned with the study of using English traditional
songs, it is confined with only some basic elements such as sound, stress and linking.
Songs may include many types such as: pop, rock, rap, hip-hop, jazz, classical, traditional
or country songs, etc. This present study focuses on the use of famous traditional songs
that have soft music with quite simple words, catchy tunes and are easy to listen to.
5. Method of the study
In order to achieve the aims of the study, the following data collection instruments were used:
(1): pre-test and post-test for both experimental and control groups.
(2): a survey quetionnaire for experimental group.
(3): a survey questionnaire for English teachers at Duy Tien C high school.

3
The collected data come from 6 teachers of English and 90 students at Duy Tien C high
school. The data collection time lasted 13 weeks during the second term of the school year
2009-2010.
6. Design of the study
The study includes three parts:
Part 1: Introduction presents rationale, aims, reseach questions, scope, method, and design
of the study.
Part 2: Development consists of 4 chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature review sets up some theoretical background that are relevant
to the purpose the study: pronunciation and communicative teaching, review of traditional
methods and approaches for teaching pronunciation, songs as motivator for students to
improve pronunciation, aspects of pronunciation that can be improved through songs and
choosing songs.
Chapter 2: Method of the study focuses on the present conditions of teaching and
learning at Duy Tien C high school, data collection instruments, data collection procedures

and the use of songs in the lessons.
Chapter 3: This chapter include data analysis and findings
Chapter 4: Implication of the study
Part 3: Conclusion summaries the major findings discussed in part 2, gives out the
limitation of the study and suggestions for further study.








4
Part 2: development
Chapter 1: literature review

1.1. Definition of pronunciation?
The notion of pronunciation is defined in many ways by many authors. Generally
speaking, pronunciation is simply defined as “the way in which a language is spoken”
(Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Encyclopedic, 1992:718).
In addition, Jones (1998:5) defines that pronunciation is “the way in which people
pronounce words.”
Pronunciation is also defined in an article on the internet as follows:
(ipedia. org/wiki/pronunciation): “Pronunciation refers to the way a
word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word.”
Since pronunciation is a complicated concept that involves many aspects, it is difficult to
make clear what definition is the most precise one. In this paper, the definition by Jones
(1998) is picked up for the purpose of the study that is using songs to teach pronunciation.
1.2. The teacher’s and students’ role in teaching and learning pronunciation

1.2.1. The teacher’s role
There is still a debate in the language teaching world about the effectiveness of teaching
pronunciation. Some researchers (Purcell and Suter (1980: 271-87); Morley (1991: 485-6))
claim that teachers can make little or no difference in improving students‟ pronunciation.
In other words, the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is a matter of
substantially beyond the control of educators. However, Pennington (1989: 203-227)
indicates that teachers can make noticeable difference if certain criteria are fulfilled.
The fact is that teachers play a very important role in teaching and learning pronunciation.
Kenworthy, J. (1996:1) has mentioned some roles of a typical teacher of teaching
pronunciation as follows.
Helping learners hear
Teachers of pronunciation have very important roles in helping learners perceive
individual sounds. Learners often have a strong tendency to hear the sound of English in
terms of the sounds of their native language. Teachers should describe the position of the
tongue and show how these foreign language sounds are physically articulated. They also

5
need to check that their learners are hearing sounds according to the appropriate categories
and help them to develop new categories if necessary.
Helping learners make sounds
Another important role of the teachers in teaching pronunciation is to make sounds,
especially sounds of English that donot occur in the mother tongue. Moreover, teachers
help students to imitate the new sounds or give some hints which may help them to make
new sounds.
Providing feedback
Besides helping students produce sounds, teachers are also required to tell learners how
they are doing. In other words, the teachers must provide them with information about their
performance because learners cannot be aware of whether they have got it right.
Pointing out what is going on
Learners need to know what to pay attention to and what to work on. Because speaking is

for the most part unconsciously controlled, learners may miss something important.
Teachers need to make learners aware of the potential of sounds the resources available to
them for sending spoken massages.
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.
Devising activities
Because of the fact that learning pronunciation is very complex, teachers should design or
select suitable and helpful activities for students to practice. They also explore which
activities 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.
Assessing progress
Another important role of a foreign language teacher is to assess students‟ progress and
provide information about it because students find it hard to do by themselves.
Kenworthy, J. (1996: 9) also mentioned one special important role of a teacher: “A teacher
who clearly demonstrates concern for the pronunciation and speaking skills of learners will
stand a good chance of instilling a similar concern in the learners themselves”. In addition,

6
other researchers (Moore, 1992: 173; Pintrich and Strunk, 2002: 245) also claim that the
desire to do well is a kind of “achievement motivation”, if one does not care about a
particular task or does not see the value of it, one will not be motivated to do well.
In brief, it is very clear that a formal teacher plays a very important role in the students‟
learning process. The teacher should always bear in mind the above duties so that the
pronunciation lesson will be made enjoyable and effective.
1.2.2. The students’ roles
Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2001: 7-15) have mentioned some roles of students as
follows: They have to perceive the model as exactly as they can because failing to do so,
students will not be able to pronounce the model correctly. In addition, they need to

respond to the recognition, imitation and repetition activities. Finally, students should do
self-correction of their pronunciation mistakes.
Moreover, it is also proved that ultimate success in pronunciation will depend on how
much effort the learners put into it (Morley, (1991: 481-520)). The teacher may be highly
skilled at teaching but if the learners take no action and do not try to monitor their own
efforts, then the change or improvement is minimal. Therefore, the very important role of
learners is to respond actively during the lesson.
Generally speaking, in teaching a foreign language, it is hard to find the improvement of
the learners if they take no notice or no action in the study. Therefore, the teacher should
find the best way to motivate students to learn.
1.3. Pronunciation and communicative teaching
In grammar-translation method, there is no place to teach pronunciation because high
emphasis was put on grammar and vocabulary. In fact, pronunciation is not an optional
extra for the language learners, any more than grammar, vocabulary or any other aspects of
language (Tench (1981: 22-32)). With the purpose of communication, pronunciation
correctly is of vital importance, because “a learner who consistently mispronounces a
range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from a language community to
understand” (Gerald, K., 2000:12). Therefore, “a major goal of all English teaching classes
should be to enable learners to use English effectively, as far as possible accurately, in
communication” (Davies, P. (2000:15)). Therefore, teachers should bear in mind that
memorizing language forms and rules is valid as a short term objective, but not as the main
goal. In the past, the goal should always be native-like pronunciation; however, most

7
people now think that this is an inappropriate goal for most learners. Kenworthy, J.
(2000:3) suggested that “for a majority of learners, a far more reasonable goal is to be
comfortably intelligible”.
Castillo (1990: 4) shows that in order for students to do well in the pronunciation of
English, the pronunciation lessons need to be taught in conjunction with communicative
practices. Nooteboom (1983: 183-94) has also suggested that speech production is affected

by speech perception; the hearer has become an important factor in communication
discourse. Therefore, there should be the need to integrate pronunciation with
communicative activities, to give the students situations to develop their pronunciation by
listening and speaking.
The communicative approach to pronunciation teaching requires teaching methods and
objectives that include “whole person learner involvement”(Morley, 1991:501). Three
important dimensions are also suggested to focus on in any pronunciation programs: the
learner‟s intellectual involvement, affective involvement and physical involvement. In the
communicative learning program, the teacher also has a special role to play- supplies
information, sets high standards, provides a wide variety of practice opportunities and
overall supports and encourages the learners.
All students can do well in learning the pronunciation of a foreign language if they have set
the learning goals for themselves. Pronunciation must also be viewed in the same light as
grammar, syntax, and discourse, which is a crucial part of communication. The content of
the course should be intergrated into the communication class. If these criteria are met,
learners can be expected to do well in learning pronunciation of a foreign language.
1.4. Review of traditional methods and approaches for teaching pronunciation
1.4.1. Traditional methods of teaching pronunciation
The role of pronunciation in foreign language teaching is very different among various
schools of language teaching. In grammar-translation method, there is no place for
teaching pronunciation. In contrast, pronunciation is the main focus in audio-lingual
method where emphasis is on the traditional notions of pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills
and short conversations. During the late 1960s and the 1970s, many questions were raised
about the effectiveness of teaching pronunciation in an EFL curriculum. However, there
has been a move from teacher-centered to learner-centered classrooms. Morley (1991: 481-
521) states the need for the integration of pronunciation with the oral communication;

8
emphasis changes from segmental to suprasegmental, more emphasis on individual learner
needs, meaningful task-based practices, development of new teacher strategies for the

teaching.
The language teaching world has now witnessed a change from the teacher centred to
learner centred classrooms. The emphasis of every course also shifts to meaningful
communication. Consequently, intelligible pronunciation must be the goal for any courses.
1.4.2. Approaches for teaching pronunciation
Tench (1981), Pennington (1989), Jones and Evans (1995), Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994)
mentioned two approaches to teaching pronunciation: bottom- up and top-down.
In bottom-up approach, the teaching of pronunciation begins with the articulation of
individual vowels and consonants and continues with intonation. A bottom-up model of
speech perception assumes that “We perceive speech by building up an interpretation in a
series of separate stages, beginning with the lowest level unit and gradually working up to
a larger unit (Anderson and Lynch (1988: 22)). The basic idea is that if you teach
segments, the suprasegmental features will be learnt naturally. This approach has been
considered as traditional way of teaching pronunciation focusing more on segmental
elements than suprasegmental ones. The benefit that learners get from this approach is that
they could personalize individual sound correctly. However, they could lack the idea of
contextualized sounds in connected speech. Therefore, this approach should be focused
from the very beginning of a course.
In contrast with the bottom-up approach, the top-down one which “uses knowledge and
expectation to guess, predict or fill in the perceived event or message” (Pinker (1994: 474))
emphasizes on the idea of contextualized sounds in connected speech. The assumption is
that once the prosodic features of pronunciation are in place, the necessary segmental
discriminations will follow naturally. Wrong (1993: 45) reminds us that the most relevant
features of pronunciation- stress, rhythm, and intonation- play a greater role in English
communication than the individual sounds themselves. Therefore, teaching speech from the
perfective of suprasegmentals seem indispensable in a CLT setting. Yule, G., Hoffman, P.
and Damico, J. (1987:768) also claim that “learning pronunciation should not be limited to
finding primary stress and comparing individual vowel and consonant sounds in a given
word. Focusing on individual vowel and consonant sounds is only the first step in learning
English speech.”

9
1.5. Songs as motivator for students to improve pronunciation
Since our motivation in language teaching has shifted from grammar-translation method to
communicative approach, the teaching and learning pronunciation is considered to be vital
in language classroom. However, teachers should take into consideration that students can
be expected to do well in the pronunciation of English if the pronunciation class is taken
out of isolation and becomes an integral part of the oral communication class (Morley,
(1991: 496)). The goal of pronunciation should be changed from the attainment of perfect
pronunciation to the more realistic goals of developing functional intelligibility,
communicability. The main aim of this change is to develop spoken English for learners‟
individual needs.
There have been a lot of researches on the role of attitudes and motivation in second
language learning. The overall findings show that positive attitudes and motivation are
related to success in second language learning (Gardner (1985: 10)). Motivation is believed
to play an important role in the process of acquiring an additional language because
motivated students are usually those who participate actively in the class, express interest
in the subject matter and study a lot. Davies, P. (2000: 13) states that most teachers
consider motivation essential for successful language learning. However, motivation is
difficult to define and measure and is a complex phenomenon, and not all learners respond
to teaching in the same ways. Therefore, it is not easy to motivate students in a
pronunciation lesson.
Moreover, students are those who still like playing, so the teacher is expected to be
imaginative and creative in developing their teaching techniques to make the English
lessons more exciting. Teachers should make students feel they need English and English
is interesting. Davies, P. (2000: 12) also mentions that more important factors for
successful language teaching and learning are plenty of opportunities for learners to
participate in class and an atmosphere in which they feel motivated to learn. One way to
arise their enthusiasm is by the use of songs.
English songs are widely used in language teaching for a number of outstanding features.

Firstly, songs make learning enjoyable and fits with the aim of English. They also have
great attraction to the students that other forms of the mass media lack. Secondly, the use
of songs makes learning enjoyable and fits with students‟ psychological features and
emotional requirements. Students are often willing to learn to sing a song in a foreign

10
language even if they do not fully understand or partially understand the meaning of the
words. Learning songs allows them a chance to feel relaxed from the pressure of the study.
Songs have been an amusing companion for human beings for a long period of time. As an
integral part of our language experience, it can be of great value to foreign language
teaching. Thirdly, various types of songs are produced for learners of different levels of
language proficiency. No matter what kind of language class, appropriate songs materials
can always be found. Lastly, using the present authentic materials like English songs can
provide a lot of cultural background which has proved to play an important role in second
language learning. Zhu Weifang (2008: 2-3) states that “Being a combination of music and
language, songs have innumerable virtues that deserve our attention. Their richness in
culture and themes, their idiomatic and poetic expressions, their therapeutic functions and
so on make them an impeccable tool for language teaching.”
1.6. Aspects of pronunciation that can be improved through songs
Many authors all over the world provide different point of views about elements of
teaching pronunciation. According to Gerall, K. (2000: 10-15), teaching pronunciation
concludes: vowels, consonants, words and sentence stress, intonation, other aspect of
connected speech and spelling. On the other hand, Colin, M. (1985:4-27) argues that
elements of teaching pronunciation are weak forms, clusters, linking-up, contractions and
stress time. Moreover, Grant, L. (1995:118-120) provides a more comprehensive and
authentic elements of teaching. She organized the teaching elements from sounds to
syllables and words, to sentences and finally to discoursal segments.
However, within the boundaries of this thesis, only very basic elements will be considered
to be taught. The author of this study found that students like to imitate singers; therefore,
students would likely to imitate their ways of making sounds. In addition, the tune of

songs go from low to high, up and down, which is a very good condition to practice stress
and intonation in English. To be brief, elements of pronunciation needs to be taught in this
study are as follows:
1.6.1. Sounds
According to Gimson (1962), English sounds consist of two types, they are vowels and
consonants. Vowels and consonants have different functions in a syllable. Since English
has borrowed a lot of words from other languages such as: Eskimo, Farsi, ancient Latin,
Greek and France, sounds and phonetic transcription are confusing aspects of English

11
pronunciation. Homographs and homophones are two typical examples of unequivalence
of sound and phonetic transcription. Therefore, the most important elements need teaching
are vowels and consonants, syllables, phonetic transcription and ending sounds.
1.6.2. Word stress
In English, stress is one of the most prominent features that cause difficulties to learners. In
words of two or more syllables, one of them is stressed and stronger, louder and longer
than the other(s). This stressed syllable is very important because speakers rely on patterns
of stress to identify the words and phrases they hear (Grant, L. (1993: 241)). Therefore,
word stress must be highly focused on at the beginning of any pronunciation course to help
learners to have understandable pronunciation.
1.6.3. Rhythm
According to Kenworthy (2000:30) rhythm is characterized by the alternation of strong and
weak syllables. Rhythm is, therefore, a product of word stress and the way in which
important items are fore-grounded through their occurrence on a strong beat.
1.6.4. Intonation
Being aware of intonation in English is very important because the ways the speaker puts
stress and intonation in a sentence can carry different meanings. “Intonation in English is
the rise and fall of pitch in order to convey a range of meanings, emotions or situation”.
(www. American accent. com). So, students need to know about intonation right from the
start of any courses. In this point, songs seem to give a great help to improve English

intonation and stress.
1.7. Choosing songs
Choosing songs is one of the most important stages since song materials are related to the
success of teaching pronunciation in an EFL class. This step can be done not only by
teachers but also students. Students always select songs that are popular or easy to listen to.
As a guider, the researcher in this study compares these songs, and tries to find out the
most suitable songs to teach pronunciation for students, especially students at Duy Tien C
high school. When choosing songs, the following aspects are considered: songs can be
clearly listened; some words of songs are submerged in music, even the teachers can not
hear the lyrics clearly; the content of the songs should be filled the wholesome thought and
without negative influence; there should not be any new vocabulary or out-of-date slangs
(Eken, D.K. (1996: 46-47)). There are various types of western songs, such as: pop music,

12
jazz music, classical music, rock music and traditional songs. In my opinion, traditional
songs are the ones which best suit to the age of 10
th
-form-students because their melody is
wonderful and their lengths are suitable for the time of teaching pronunciation in
secondary schools.
1.8. Summary
This chapter has reviewed the teacher‟s and students‟ role in teaching and learning
pronunciation. It is obvious that the teacher plays a very important role in helping students
to learn. However, the learning process of the students gets no or little improvement if they
themselves take no action. In addition, traditional methods and approaches of the
pronunciation teaching are also revised in order to find out the most effective way to teach
pronunciation with the use of songs. In this chapter, it is also made clear that pronunciation
is very important in the communicative curricular nowadays. Therefore, the question that
how to teach pronunciation effectively has been answered by the use of songs in this thesis.
The reason for using songs is that songs seem to motivate students very well. However,

due to the time limitation of each pronunciation lesson, only short and simple songs are
chosen to improve students‟ word stress, intonation, rhythm and so on.

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Chapter 2: methodology

2.1. The context of the study
2.1.1. Physical conditions which affect students’ participation in a pronunciation lesson
The environment in which students learn can greatly influence their performance and well-
being at school. The learning environment can be seen as physical conditions including
class size, chairs, desks, tables, lights, boards. Harmer, J. (1992:271) argued that physical
conditions have great impact on students‟ learning as well as their attitudes towards the
subject matter. In fact, the better learning environment is, the more it inspires the people
inside it.
Furthermore, the text books and authentic materials can be considered important resources.
Textbooks specify goals and objectives of a language teaching program so they are
considered greatly important. Krashen, S. (1981:126) states that “children progress by
understanding the language that is a little beyond them”. It means that if the contents of the
textbooks are suitable and up to the students‟ knowledge, they will be of great benefit to
develop students‟ language competence. Authentic materials can be seen as an important
factor affecting students‟ learning situation. Authentic materials may include: tapes, tape-
recorders, language laboratories, wall-pictures, wall charts, other display facilities, slides,
film trips, films, televisions, radios, record players, video recorders, and libraries. It is true
that authentic materials motivate students much, particularly when they are too tired of
doing many exercises. Students realize that learning with authentic materials is so
interesting and they will continue more on the lesson. When talking about this, Bowen, B.
M. (1982:1) says that authentic materials “encourage the learners to lift their eyes from
their books, which makes it easier and more natural for one to speak to another”. In fact,
different types of authentic materials can help to change the atmosphere of a classroom and
bring in the „real world‟ which makes students think and act just as in daily life.

2.1.2. Teaching and learning conditions at Duy Tien C high school
The study was conducted at Duy Tien C high school, which was founded 20 years ago and
situated far from the centre of Phu Ly town. English is comparatively new subject at this
school and was just introduced into the school curriculum around 10 years ago.
Although founded not long ago, the school has enough classrooms but does not have a
language lab for English classes. In the school, there is a serious shortage of modern

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facilities such as overhead projectors. The school has only 2 overhead projectors for 23
classes and nearly 50 teachers of 12 different subjects.
Since 2006, the school has used the new syllabuses published by the ministry of education
and training which are regarded as updated but difficult ones. The difficulties in teaching
and learning come firstly from students. In general, students in the school differ in their
level of language proficiency. Most students have been learning English since grade 6, but
a small number of students who come from the centre of the town started in grades 3 to 5.
All of the students live in the remote rural area where the living and learning conditions are
difficult.
Although most of the students started learning English at the early age, many of them have low
proficiency of English because of their wrong attitudes towards English learning as well as the
shortage of time for English. Besides, all the new syllabuses of other subjects which are
considered difficult and overloaded have greatly affected students‟ English learning.
Despite of the above difficulties, the English teachers at Duy Tien C high school are
young, well-trained and energetic which is the very good condition for CLT. The school
has 6 English teachers consisting of 5 females and 1 male. They are from 22 to 35 years
old. Of all the English teachers who got the B.A. degrees, four from the CFL-VNUH, one
from Hanoi university and one from Thai Nguyen university. The youngest teacher
finished university last year, so she has nearly one-year teaching experience. The oldest
has over 10 years of teaching experience.
In terms of language teaching method, most of the teachers at Duy Tien C high school are
familiar with the traditional teaching method which put a great emphasis on grammar and

vocabulary and there is no place for teaching pronunciation. When working with the new
syllabus, they feel it difficult to initiate activities and manage the class. Fortunately, all of
them are young teachers and have just graduated from the college and they have great
desire and motivation to acquire knowledge of communicative competence to apply in
teaching English.
2.1.3. Background information of the phonetics lessons at upper secondary school
Phonetics is designed to be taught together with grammatical items. All these two items
take up of 45 minutes teaching. Frequently, the author spends about 7 to 10 minutes
teaching phonetics because grammatical items are always considered to be more important
and need more concentration. During five years of teaching English at Duy Tien C high

15
school, the reearcher has found that the students pay little or no attention to phonetic part.
Some students are not motivated and others are not absorbed in the lesson. Later, after
talking with some of the students, the author realized that the students found the class
boring and didnot feel they had learnt much in the class. Basing on feed backs from the
students, some changes were introduced to the phonetic lessons.
2.2. Data collection instruments
Both questionnaires and tests were employed in this research so as to get the accurate data.
These two interuments help the researcher get more in-depth data for analysis.
2.2.1. Questionnaires
The questionnaire is exploited in this research since it is one of the most popular
instruments in gathering data. Questionnaires are easy to prepare and can be given to large
groups of subjects at the same time. It also help the researcher get a large amount of
information within a short period of time.
The questionnaire for students aims at finding out their opinions and attitudes towards the
use of English songs. It consists of six questions which focuses on six main aspects that the
researcher would like to investigate as follows: question 1 aimed at finding students‟
attitude towards English songs in general; question 2 worked out the degrees in which
songs can help students to improve their pronunciation; question 3 found out the activities

students do while they listening to songs; question 4 clarified what type of tasks students
like to do in the pronunciation lesson with the use of songs; question 5 clarified students‟
awareness of using songs in teaching and learning pronunciation; question 6 worked out
the drawback of using songs.
When delivering the questionnaire, students were encouraged to make questions and to
have these questions answered to make sure they understood the questions completely.
Especially, students were allowed to write in Vietnamese about the drawbacks of using
songs to make sure that they could express their feeling completely.
The questionnaire for teachers consists of five questions which aims at finding out the
ways and what kind of songs the teachers used to teach pronunciation: question 1 aimed at
finding out the frequency the teachers use songs to teach pronunciation; question 2 made
clear about the kind of songs the teachers use to teach; question 3 found out the tasks
which the teachers designed to teach with the use of songs; question 4 found out the
available sourses the teachers use to exploit songs question 5 clarified difficulties the

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teachers encountered while designing the lessons.
2.2.2. Tests
The aims of the tests were to answer the question that how songs can help students
progress in their pronunciation lesson. The time allowance for each test was fifteen
minutes. The test consists of two parts with different levels for both class 10 A2 and 10
A3. The first test was delivered to students as pre-test after the first week of the second
term and the second test were finished by the students as post-test at the end of this term.
2.3. Data collection procedures
The author carried out this study in 2 10
th
-grade-classes during the second term of the
school year 2009-2010. There were 45 students in each class with various levels of
English. Phonetics is only a small part in a language focus lesson and the author applied
English traditional songs in the pronunciation part just in class 10 A2 and class 10 A3 was

taught without using English songs. The data was collected in the following steps:
Step 1: 2 classes (10A2 and 10A3) were given a pronunciation test as a pre-test.
Step 2: a post-test was used in both classes to find out the results of the teaching and
learning pronunciation.
Step 3: the survey questionnaire for students was delivered to the experimental class to
find out what they thought, how much they enjoyed the effectiveness of using songs in
pronunciation lessons. In addition, a survey questionnaire was also delivered to the English
teachers at Duy Tien C high school to find out how they used songs in the class.
2.4. The use of songs in the lessons
In this study, English songs were designed in the form of tasks for students to perform at
the beginning of each language focus lesson. They were commonly taught in about ten to
fifteen minutes via the following steps:
In the first step, the teacher presented briefly the background of the songs (the composer,
the singers, or the circumstance in which it was written), explained some new words of the
tasks. Secondly, the teacher put students into groups and asked them to skim through the
handouts and made some guess about the tasks. Finally, the teacher played the songs and
let students to listen once from the beginning to the end to get the general picture, tones of
the songs. The tape was played for the second time, pausing at the key words so that the
students had time to do the tasks. After three times, teacher asked students to give the
answers and then corrected them.

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2.5. Summary
In this chapter, the author presents the context of the study, the teaching and learning
conditions at Duy Tien C high school. The physical conditions which affect students‟
participation in pronunciation lesson are also made clear in order to find out the most
effective condition for the learning pronuciation of English. In addition, the researcher
gives some background information about the phonetics lessons at upper secondary school.
Tests and questionnares are the data collection instruments of this study. In the last part,
the author describes the use of songs in the pronunciation lesson.

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Chapter 3: Data analysis and findings

3.1. Questionnaires
3.1.1. Questionnaire for students
3.1.1.1. Aims
The questionnaire was used to explore students‟ attitude towards the use of English songs
in teaching pronunciation and to what extent they got engaged in the pronunciation lesson.
3.1.1.2. Participants
The participants of this survey questionnaire is 45 ten-grade-students in class 10 A2 who
were taught with the use of songs.
3.1.1.3. Data analysis
In this section, the following results will be analysed:
3.1.1.3.1. Students’ attitude towards English songs
Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards English song
11%
33%
27%
29%

Not at all
A bit
Much
Very much

This pie chart illustrates the students‟ attitude towards the English songs very clearly. From
the chart, it can be seen that most of the students were interested in English songs which
takes up for 89% of them. More than half of them (56%) expressed their great love for this
way of teaching. However, a significant number of them (11%) stated that they didnot like
the use of English songs. These students said that they were not familiar with listening to
songs because there are a lot of linking and connected words. In their opinion, they liked