Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến dạy và học phát âm tiếng Anh

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<b>NGUYỄN TRÍ DŨNG*_{, NGUYỄN THỊ BIÊN}**</b>
*_{Học viện Khoa học Quân sự, }
**_{Học viện Khoa học Quân sự, }

<i>Ngày nhận bài: 06/6/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 14/6/2018; ngày duyệt đăng: 20/6/2018</i>

<b>1. INTRODUCTION</b>

One of the complaints teachers and learners
of English make about English pronunciation is
that they have trouble dealing with pronunciation
which is considered one of the most complicated
but significant features of second language
teaching and learning. Indeed, good pronunciation
can promote language learning whereas poor
pronunciation can result in a great hindrance in the
second language learning. Many learners, though,
seek to master native-like pronunciation and want
to speak English accurately and fluently, they have
trouble with pronunciation on account of a wide
range of influencing elements.

Brown (2007) states that the influencing
elements of pronunciation not only include

CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN

DẠY VÀ HỌC PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH

<b>TÓM TẮT</b>

Phát âm giống như người bản ngữ là một trong những nhiệm vụ rất quan trọng nhưng cũng khá

phức tạp đối với cả người dạy và người học. Do đặc tính phức tạp của ngôn ngữ, phát âm đang
được xem là một kỹ năng cần được chú trọng nhiều hơn trong việc giảng dạy ngôn ngữ ở các
trường học và cơ sở đào tạo. Trong phạm vi bài báo này, người viết sẽ nhấn mạnh tầm quan trọng
của phát âm tiếng Anh. Bên cạnh đó, dựa trên một số nghiên cứu cũng như lý thuyết liên quan về
phát âm, người viết sẽ phân loại các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến quá trình dạy và học phát âm tiếng Anh,
đồng thời đưa ra một số đề xuất nhằm cải thiện chất lượng dạy và học phát âm hiện nay.

<b>Từ khố:</b><i>dạy và học phát âm, ngơn ngữ bản địa, phát âm</i>

phonetic symbols and rules, but also involve the
articulation of individual sounds and the distinctive
features of sounds like voice and aspiration,
voice-setting features and stress, intonation, and rhythm.
Meanwhile, Pennington and Richards (1996)
points out that there are a range of elements that
should be considered as part of pronunciation, such
as native language interference, age influence, etc.
So as to, therefore, make pronunciation teaching
and learning effective, it would be worthwhile to
take these elements into account.

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elements of English pronunciation acquisition are
categorized into two domains named as internal
and external ones.

<b>2. THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH </b>
<b>PRONOUNCIATION</b>

Learning a language means dealing with the
performance of sounds, utterances, and words

properly and precisely. One of the general goals
in the second language learning (L2), perhaps the
most important one, is speaking the target language
as accurately and fluently as native speakers.

When people communicate in English, the very
first thing to be noticed, which can make a good
impression on our language competence, is the
way in which English is pronounced. Indeed, poor
and incomprehensible pronunciation will surely
result in unpleasantness and misunderstanding
for both speakers and listeners. What’s more,
it is apparent that limited pronunciation skills
will lessen learners’ self-confidence and lead to
negative influence for learners to estimate their
credibility and abilities (Morley, 1998).

Lund (2003, p.16) argues that pronunciation
is the only aspect of language calling for a
close interaction between the cognitive and
physiological processes. In acquiring new sounds
we are also coping with a complex reorganizing
of the articulatory processes. Good English
pronunciation will make oneself easily understood;
contrarily, poor English pronunciation may confuse
people and result in unpleasant conversations
and misunderstandings even when someone uses
advanced English grammar or vocabulary.

Pronunciation has an important social value,

which is relevant to prestige, such as intelligence,
professional competence, persuasiveness,
diligence, and social privilege. Pronunciation
can provide information about the speaker’s
geographical and social origin, and in most cases
it is the most salient characteristic of non-native

Pronunciation, in addition, is vocalized in
communication and can be considered as a kind
of culture. In the process of communicating, the
speaker’s expression, describing or explaining
can build up their individual cultural space modus
vivendi, which the cultural space contains the
system and hierarchy of values and the individual
world view.

In conclusion, pronunciation in general and
English pronunciation in particular plays a very
important part in English language teaching and
learning. Its importance has been recognized by
many learners, teachers and researchers, but it
should be noted that language learners always have
difficulties with pronunciation. In fact, there are a
lot of researchers who have made contribution to
seek the elements affecting pronunciation teaching
and learning from various perspectives such as
physiology, psychology and linguistics.

<b>3. PREVIOUS STUDIES ON ENGLISH </b>
<b>PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND </b>

<b>LEARNING</b>

Kenworthy (1997) states that the history of
teaching English pronunciation is known as a study
in extremes. Some teaching approaches such as the
Reformed Method and Audio-lingual focused on
pronunciation and considered them as a pinnacle
of the English teaching and learning process,
while others such as the cognitive movement and
early communicative language teaching seemed to
ignore pronunciation.

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and Paul Passay who developed the International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). They advocated the
notions and practices suggesting that learners
should be given phonetic training to set up good
speech habits and the spoken form of a language
and should be taught first.

In 1940s and 1950s, teachers used both
Audio-lingual and Oral approaches their pronunciation
teaching classrooms in which the IPA and charts
demonstrating the articulation of sounds were
exploited. They also applied the minimal pair drill
which using words that differ by a single sound
in the same position. In addition, in the 1960s,
the Cognitive Approach, which used sound color
charts and Fidel word charts, were introduced.
(The Fidel is known as a set of rectangle charts
organized along articulatory lines and presenting

all the possible spelling patterns for each sound
in the language using the color code. Sounds
are seen in the same color and the same location
on each rectangle). In the color word charts, the
words which are grouped semantically in a way
allowing teachers to silently dictate or tap out
phrases, are then practised orally or written down
as a dictation. This silent way seemed to have a
special focus on teaching pronunciation, and many
language educators agree that the principle of
sound-color correspondence, which the silent way
invoked, provided learners with an “inner resource
to be used” (Nation and Newton, 2009).

The Communicative Approach took hold in
the 1980s and is currently dominant in language
teaching. According to Cele-Murcia, Brinton,
& Goodwin (1996), the primary purpose
of language is communication, the use of
language to communicate should be central in
all classroom instructions. Cenoz (1999) claims
that pronunciation has traditionally been taught
with a goal of “speaking like a native speaker,
but this is not practical. In fact, it is a recipe for
discouragement of both teachers and students.
This has been referred to “the perfection trap”.
A more practical approach is to aim to
“listener-friendly pronunciation”.

Currently, the following techniques and practice

materials are being used to teach pronunciation:
Listen and Repeat (a technique from the Direct
Method, e.g., <i>She sells seashells on the seashore</i>),
Phonetic Training (a technique from the Reform
Movement, e.g., using the correct IPA symbols
when identifying the correct vowel: leg [e] – lag
[æ], Minimal Pair Drills (a technique introduced
during Audio-lingual area, e.g., beg-bag/ ten-tan,
and Recording of learners’ production. Morley
(1998) supports the idea of critical listening; that is
to say, it is ideal if learners can listen to recordings
of their own voices, and especially if they can be
recorded saying similar things several times, and
then listen again to see if they can pick the various
pronunciation.

<b>4. ELEMENTS AFFECTING THE </b>
<b>ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TEACHING </b>
<b>AND LEARNING AMONG ADULT </b>
<b>LEARNERS</b>

Based on reviewing previous studies and
theories about pronunciation teaching and learning,
the article will categorize the influencing elements
of English pronunciation teaching and learning
into two areas: <b>internal </b>and <b>external.</b>

<b>4.1. Internal elements</b>
<i><b>4.1.1. Age</b></i>

Widely recognized by many researchers, age is
known as an element of great importance in SLA
field. There is general consensus that the younger
the better when acquiring a new language and the
more accurate their pronunciation will be in the
target language. Biologically, it has determined the
period of life when language can be acquired more
easily and beyond the period language, learning is
increasingly difficult to acquire.

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age, they cannot obtain a better pronunciation than
those who learn a foreign language at a proper
age. If a learner begins to speak a second language
before the age of six, there will be little or no
accent. If the learner begins to speak it between
at the age of 7-11, the learner is likely to have a
slight accent. If the learner begins to speak after
the age of 12, the learner almost always has an
accent (Nation and Newton, 2009, p.78).

<i><b>4.1.2. Brain </b></i>

It seems that children have an advantage over
adults in language learning. A child’s brain is
plastic to compare with an adult’s, but after nine
years old the brain is growing mature and some
functions are assigned to left and right hemispheres
and it will be difficult to approach native-like
pronunciation.

Some researchers and neurologists have
claimed that there is a strong relationship between
language learning and lateralization. Lenneberg
(1997) hypothesizes that lateralization is a slow
process, and it begins at the age of about two and
will be completed when reaching puberty. Before
two years old, the brain has not developed but
after puberty it develops so much and will lose
its plasticity and finish the lateralization of the
language function.

However, some researchers hold the opponent
point indicating that plasticity survives puberty
even till to twenties; they still have the possibility
to achieve native-like pronunciation (Lund, 2003).

<i><b>4.1.3. Ear-perception</b></i>

Ear perception is always ignored by many
people during the process of teaching and learning
pronunciation. There is a common sense that
different people have different levels of hearing
abilities (Hamers, 1994). Some people have a
better ear capacity for language learning than

easily discriminate two sounds more accurately
and be able to imitate different sounds better than
others and lead to their pronunciation approach to
native speakers.

It is noteworthy that ear capacity relates to
learners’ age. That is to say, learners may gradually
lose some of their abilities when they grow older,
and it might be difficult for them to pronounce the
target language with a native or native-like accent.

<i><b>4.1.4. Aptitude</b></i>

Some learners, indeed, have an aptitude for
language learning and seem to acquire a better
pronunciation than others. According to Carroll
(1992), four traits constitute language aptitude,
namely, phonetic coding ability, grammatical
sensitivity, inductive language learning ability and
memory. The first trait refers to “the capacity to
discriminate and code foreign sounds which can
be recalled”. Grammatical sensitivity concerns
“the ability to analyze language and figure out
rules”. Inductive language learning ability relates
to “the capacity to pick up language through
exposure”. The last component, memory, involves
“the amount of rote learning activity needed to
internalize something” (Cele-Murcia, Brinton, &
Goodwin, 1996, p.17).

In reality, aptitude plays a essential part in
learners’ pronunciation development. Though
many people have language aptitude ability, its
degree is variable. Some people have more ability
but some have less. It, however, does not mean

that learners who have higher aptitude will be
successful while others will not (Cele-Murcia,
Briton, & Goodwin, 1996).

<i><b>4.1.5. Personality (extraversion and </b></i>
<i><b>introversion)</b></i>

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characteristic plays a positive role in learning
native-like pronunciation; meanwhile, introversive one
does not. Learners, who are sociable, courageous,
talkative and like to make friends, tend to express
themselves and take part in activities actively.
Therefore, they have more opportunities to use the
target language and improve their pronunciation.
In contrast, a typical introverted person who is shy
and likes to stay alone and prefers reading books to
talking with people, cannot find any opportunities
to speak the target language and practise their
pronunciation.

<i><b>4.1.6. Attitude, motivation and identity</b></i>

Pronunciation learning is also affected by
learners’ learning identity and attitude. According
to Buranavityawut (2000), the accuracy of
learners’ pronunciation is like a person’s sense
of identity. Each learner has a distinct attitude
toward the target language and the target language
community, which can support or hinder the
development of pronunciation skills.

If a learner has some prejudices or a negative
attitude to the target language, it will have a bad
influence on his/her language learning. For example,
some people do not believe that it is necessary to
learn a second language, and they think language
learning will influence the learners’ cultural
development in a negative way, and their culture
will be imposed on the target language community.
Contrarily, if a learner has a positive attitude and
open mind for the target language or target culture,
it will promote her/his pronunciation development
easily and accurately and have a native-like
accent (Cenoz and Garcia Lecumberri, 1999).

Motivation is seen as one of the key elements
that influence the rate and success of language
learning (Dornyei, 1998). Motivation is described
as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that
moves one to a particular action. It is said that
high learning motivation can facilitate language
learning and lower learning motivation can
influence language learning rate.

There seems to be an intimate relation between
motivation and attitude. According to Gardner and
Lambert (1992), motivation can be divided into two
basic types, which are instrumental and integrative
motivation. The former relates to the utilitarian
gains such as getting a better job, going to a good

university, passing an exam. The latter involves
positive attitudes toward the target language and
target language community. Carroll (1992) claims
that instrumental motivation and integrative
motivation can promote language learning.

<i><b>4.1.7. Individual efforts and goal setting</b></i>
For many EFL and ESL learners, classrooms are
the only learning setting for L2 learning. However,
teaching never causes learning, but creates the
conditions in which learning can occur. Therefore,
individual efforts become a crucial factor for L2
learning. Having good pronunciation is not easy
for many learners and it needs persistence and a
long time to practise, just like making muscles.
The more time learners spend in pronunciation,
the better pronunciation they will get.

Most studies demonstrated that L2 learners’
goal is to produce and perceive the native-like
speakers. Nation and Newton (2009) argues that
there continues to be a debate about whether the
model for foreign language learners should be a
native speaker or non-native speaker, and if it is
an English native speaker, it should be British or
American or some other regional pronunciation.
Therefore, we should bear in mind that good
pronunciation does not mean perfect American
or British accent but sounds native-like and
intelligible pronunciation.

<b>4.2. External elements</b>
<i><b>4.2.1. Native language</b></i>

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That is to say, learner’s first language is a
significant factor to account for foreign accents
and influence the pronunciation of the target
language. It often relates to interference from the
mother tongue to errors in aspiration, stress, and
intonation in the target language. For instance,
Chinese is a tone language while English is highly
stressed language.

Brown (2007) points out all learners had
experiences that they met a great difficulty in
understanding what foreigners said. This is not
because of their lack of knowledge of vocabulary,
language structures or grammar, but the sounds
they produced seems peculiar and their voice rose
and fell in unexpected places.

Most teachers’ experiences and studies show
that the learners’ first language has a major
influence on learning the sound system of another
language (Nation and Newton, 2009). That is to
say, every language in the world has different
varieties and accents. “Needless to say, learners of
a language speak the target language in a different
way; sometimes slightly different and sometimes
highly different rather than native speakers do,

which we call foreign accents, the nature of which
is determined to a large extent by a learner’s native
language” (Avery & Ehrlich, 1997, p.18).

<i><b>4.2.2. Exposure</b></i>

It is not easy to define exposure (Brown, 2007).
Generally, it relates to the length of time that the
learners live in a target language environment. It
does not matter the place or country the learners
stay, but depends on how much they use English
in their daily life. The more time they spend in
listening and speaking English, the better their
English pronunciation will be. According to
Krashen (1992), learners acquire a L2 primarily
from input, which learners receive a large amount

However, it does not simply mean that learners
who live in the target language country will have
good native-like pronunciation. On one hand,
the key point is whether the learners grasp every
opportunity to use the target language and take full
advantage of the environment. If the learners live
in an English-speaking country, then the learners
will have many opportunities to listen to and use
English since they are surrounded by the English
speaking environment. On the other hand, it should
bear in mind that there are many people who live
in an English speaking country, but spend much
time with a non-English speaking environment

or stick to their native speaking groups. For this
reason, it is not merely exposure that matters,
but how the learners respond to the opportunities
(Senel, 2006).

<i><b>4.2.3. Education elements</b></i>

Educational system is an implicit but
indispensable element for L2 learning. It is affected
by national social politics, economic development
and national traditions. If a country implements
positive educational policies or creates a good
learning environment, the learners will benefit
greatly from it. Good educational conditions can
provide learners with opportunities to contact the
target language or the target language community.

It seems that if learners live in a non-English
speaking country, there will be no advantage for
them because they do not have opportunities to
use the target language in a real environment,
except their classrooms and they are only
exposed to focused-listening. On one hand,
schools should provide space and conditions for
students to practise. On the other hand, teachers
should encourage students to practise and create
opportunities for them to practise (Cele-Murcia,
Briton, and Goodwin (1996).

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burden will fall more on the teachers to provide

an adequate model of the target language, and to
ascertain that students have opportunities outside
the class (e.g, in the language laboratory or foreign
language learning centers) to experience samples
of the authentic oral discourse of native speakers
(Cele-Murcia, Briton, and Goodwin, 1996, p.17).

Teachers’ teaching methods have a big influence
on learners’ capability to absorb knowledge from
the teachers (Kenworthy, 1997). Good teaching
methods can inspire learners greatly during their
learning process. They seem to be excited to take
lessons rather than do them reluctantly. On the
contrary, poor teaching methods may discourage
or depress learners. That is to say, teachers’
performance in class plays a decisive part in
learners’ learning.

Many EFL teachers think pronunciation
is too complicated and difficult to teach and
ignore the importance of teaching students good
pronunciation. There is a fact that, however, the
students’ pronunciation mostly depends on the
teachers’ pronunciation. Therefore, it is important
and necessary that teachers should improve their
pronunciation first.

Apart from teacher-related elements, other
objectives ones such as classroom facilities,
curriculum, etc. may affect pronunciation teaching

and learning (Brown, 2007). Indeed, teachers
find hard to deliver their lectures if the
teaching-supported facilities do not work properly and
learners might feel depressed as a result of this
interruption. Furthermore, learners may get
confused if the curriculum is not suitable for their
levels which might be too difficult or too easy.

<b>5. SUGGESTION FOR ENGLISH </b>
<b>PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND </b>
<b>LEARNING</b>

It is very necessary for teachers and learners
of English to identify and deal with the elements

affecting the English pronunciation teaching and
learning. In reality, teachers play a crucial role
in students’ learning because pronunciation is
one of the significant aspects of foreign language
teaching. It must be also borne in mind that
teachers are the models for their students. Thus,
first of all, they should have good pronunciation;
otherwise they can mislead their students. That
is to say, the teachers should spend more time on
teaching pronunciation.

Besides, during the pronunciation teaching,
teachers should always come up with different
teaching methods that are suitable for different
groups of students who might differ in age,

aptitude, personality, and motivation. Also,
teachers should take much notice of how to help
learners overcome the influences of their mother
tongue which may take a long time to be improved.
Creating opportunities for learners to increase
their exposure to English pronunciation should be
teachers’ regular job.

In the overall process of pronunciation
teaching, it is difficult to teach without practice,
but students may feel bored and depressed for
drilling an individual sound for a long time.
Therefore, it is important to combine practice
pronunciation exercises with more interesting
ones. Apart from equipping learners with
knowledge, teachers should help students
establish an appropriate goal of pronunciation
and try to improve their learning motivation,
which are important parts in language teaching.

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