VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU HÀ INTEGRATION OF PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE INTO SPEAKING ACTIVITIES: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE Nghiên cứu hành động về việc kết hợp kỹ năng phát âm trong các hoạt động nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU HÀ INTEGRATION OF PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE INTO SPEAKING ACTIVITIES: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE Nghiên cứu hành động về việc kết hợp kỹ năng phát âm trong các hoạt động nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Associate Prof. Vo Dai Quang, Ph.
HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com i STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY I, Trần Thị Thu Hà, certify that the thesis “Integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities: An Action Research at Hanoi Tourism College” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own, except otherwise is acknowledged. Tran Thi Thu Ha Hanoi, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Vo Dai Quang, for his continuous assistance, guidance and critical comments at every stage of the study. I also wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to all the lectures provided by all the teachers during the M.A course, who have helped me to fulfill this thesis.
Finally, I would like to thank my mother, my colleagues and my friends for their encouragement, understanding and kind-hearted assistance in completing this research. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iii ABSTRACT Speaking a second language involves different skills such as grammar, vocabulary, and so on. Pronunciation plays a very important role in English Language Teaching. This action research is an attempt to investigate the effects of the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities on the students‟ achievement in speaking skills and give some pedagogical implications for the non- major first year students at Hanoi Tourism College.
On integrating pronunciation into speaking activities in oral lessons, we have discovered that activities structured by integrating pronunciation practice can help to improve students‟ intelligibility and achievement in speaking performance. In addition, some helpful techniques of integrating pronunciation into activities have been realized with a view to improve the quality of teaching the speaking skill. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES. viii LIST OF CHARTS. ix PART A: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale to the study. Aims and objectives of the research. Research questions for the study. Scope of the research.
Significance of the research. The design of the study .5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Review of previous studies about integrating pronunciation into speaking activities 5 1. Pronunciation in English language teaching.
What is pronunciation?. The importance of pronunciation in English language teaching. Speaking skill in English language teaching. What is speaking skill?.
The importance of speaking skill in English language teaching. Factors affecting the integration of pronunciation into speaking activities. 13 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Learning environment and text books.
Current situation of English teaching and learning at Hanoi Tourism College. Students and Teachers. The teaching facilities and the teaching materials. Course and syllabus.
An action research. Data collection instruments and procedure. Data analysis techniques and procedure. The Pre-Test.
The Post-Test. 34 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Finding 1 and comments on this finding. Finding 2 and comments on this finding.
Finding 3 and comments on this finding. Summary of the main points presented in the thesis. Concluding remarks on each of the thesis objectives. Concluding remarks on objective 1.
42 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Concluding remarks on objective 2. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for future study.
I APPENDIX 1: PRE-TEST. I APPENDIX 2: MATERIALS USED IN THE SPEAKING LESSON WITH STRESS AT THE SUPRASEGMENTAL LEVEL. IV APPENDIX 3: MATERIALS USED IN THE SPEAKING LESSON WITH RHYTHM AND INTONATION PATTERNS. V APPENDIX 4: POST-TEST.
VII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AMEP Adult Migrant English Program EFL/ESL English as a Foreign Language/ English as a second language ELT English Language Teaching HTC Hanoi Tourism College VNU Vietnam National University – Hanoi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Word stress Table 2 Sentence stress: Conversation 1-Emphasizing added details Table 3 Sentence stress: Conversation 2 – Emphasizing important words Table 4 Intonation: Conversation 5 - Intonation in making suggestions Table 5 Intonation: Conversation 6 - Tones in new and old information Table 6 Intonation: Conversation 8 - High tone Table 7 Word stress Table 8 Sentence stress: Conversation 1 - Emphasizing added details Table 9 Sentence stress: Conversation 2 - Emphasizing important words Table 10 Intonation: Conversation 5 - Intonation in making suggestions Table 11 Intonation: Conversation 6 - Tones in new and old information Table 12 Intonation: Conversation 8 - High tone LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ix LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Text 3: Rhythm and punctuation Chart 2: Text 4: Rhythm and pauses Chart 3 Intonation: Conversation 7 - Continuing or finishing tones Chart 4 Text 3: Rhythm and punctuation Chart 5 Text 4: Rhythm and pauses Chart 6 Intonation: Conversation 7 - Continuing or finishing tones LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale to the study As a teacher of English at present and a long- term learner of English in the past as well, I can see that pronunciation is one of the most important part for language learners. Pronunciation is the key element for the learners to understand what others talk to them, and to communicate successfully with other people. Many learners of English language have major difficulties with English pronunciation even after years of learning the language.
This often results in them facing difficulties in areas such as finding employment (Fraser, 2000a). The fault which most severely impairs the communication process in EFL/ESL learners is pronunciation, not vocabulary or grammar (Hinofotis & Baily, 1980). Davis (1999) stated that an area of concern and one of the top priorities of ESL students after completing elementary English courses is pronunciation. For these reason, it is very important for them to quickly learn how to pronounce sounds, words, sentences as well as stress, intonation exactly.
Terrible pronunciation leads to occasional misunderstanding. Therefore, words and sentences must be repeated due to serious errors in pronunciation (still sounds like steel and ship sounds like sheep), word accent (words are frequently accented on the wrong syllable, e., “content” meaning “pleased, satisfied” versus “content” “that which is contained”), and sentence pitch (statements have the „melody‟ of questions, etc. The student needs to know that improving pronunciation may have greater significance and importance as it supports some aspects like listening comprehension, spelling, reading, and grammar (Wong, 1993). Many studies have shown the strong links between precise pronunciation and speaking well.
However, teaching pronunciation in university or college is not really effective or nearly neglected during the process of teaching, whereas four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) are the main emphasis. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 While English is really important in almost every field of our life such as: economy, technology, science, education, trade, tourism and etc…, there are much more difficulties in teaching and learning English especially in teaching and learning pronunciation. At Hanoi Tourism College in particular, difficulties come from inconvenient working conditions like not well-equipped devices, low level students and too large classes, as a result, it‟s hard for students to study. In addition, the popular method here is that teachers pronounce new words and students repeat them during speaking periods.
However, the disadvantage is the pronunciation of teachers may not be really exact or repetition of students is not the same as what they hear from teachers. Therefore, the best way to help students to pronounce a word exactly and be able to apply the proper pronunciation to speaking is to teach them how to pronounce a word with phonetic and stress. Aims and objectives of the research This study is aimed to enhance the quality of English pronunciation of the first year students of non-major English at Hanoi Tourism College. The first and foremost objective of the study is by virtue of the students.
In addition, the research is expected to use as a source of reference for teachers of English on the teaching of speaking skills, especially for those who care pronunciation, one of the important elements which help to deal with listening and speaking. To be more specific, in realizing the study, the main objectives are: - To investigate the effects of the integration of pronunciation practice into speaking activities on the students‟ achievement in speaking skills. - To give some pedagogical implications for further development. Research questions for the study The purpose of the study is to find the answers to the following research questions: LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
What are the effects of integrating pronunciation into speaking activities on students‟ achievement? 2. What are possible pedagogical implications for further development? 4. Scope of the research This research focuses on studying the effectiveness of integrating pronunciation into speaking activities to improve English pronunciation of the first year students of non-major English at Hanoi Tourism College. In my research, I just focus on suprasegmentals of pronunciation including stress, rhythm and intonation in role – playing activity in speaking lessons.
Significance of the research The findings of the thesis will be useful not only to the researcher but also to teachers and students of HTC. They will contribute to the quality of teaching and learning pronunciation and speaking at HTC. Also, with good and intelligible pronunciation, the students‟ self-confidence will be increased and enables them to better understand their instructors, follow the news on TV or the radio more easily, or join English conversations, class discussions, role-plays, etc. The design of the study The study is divided into three parts, which are presented as follows.
Part A is the introduction, which states the rationale to the study, the aims and objectives, research questions and the scope as well as the significance and design of the study. Part B, including three chapters, reports on the main contents of the study: Chapter one – Literature review - presents an overview of theoretical issues of pronunciation discussed and analyzed by prominent and high-qualified ELT experts and researchers. The focus is exclusively devoted to pronunciation and speaking. Chapter two – Methodology – describes how we have carried out the study of the Faculty of Foreign Languages for Tourism at Hanoi Tourism College.
Sub LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 steps in this process consist of observing the learning situation, collecting data, analyzing data and summarizing findings. Chapter three – Findings and Discussions – deal with the summary, the findings as well as the comments for each finding. Part C is the conclusion where we summarize all the main contents of the study, give remarks on objectives, limitations of current research and show suggestions for further studies. Besides, there are also appendixes in which supplementary materials and list of references are provided.