MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ PHAN THI TUNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GAMES IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION AT YEN THANH 2 HIGH SCHOOL, NGHE AN PROVINCE, VIETNAM MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ PHAN THI TUNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GAMES IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION AT YEN THANH 2 HIGH SCHOOL, NGHE AN PROVINCE, VIETNAM MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: ASSOC. NGO DINH PHUONG HUE, 2013 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- PHAN THỊ TÙNG KHẢO SÁT VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRÒ CHƠI TRONG DẠY PHÁT ÂM TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG YÊN THÀNH 2, TỈNH NGHỆ AN, VIỆT NAM LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60140111 GIÁO VIÊN HƢỚNG DẪN: PGS. NGÔ ĐÌNH PHƢƠNG HUẾ, 2013 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Phan Thi Tung iii ABSTRACT Using games is an useful method in teaching foreign language. Using games in teaching pronunciation not only motivates students but also brings to the effectiveness in learning. A study on the use of games in teaching pronunciation was done at Yen Thanh 2 high school and four classes of 152 students at grade 11 participated in the experiment. The data for the use of games was collected via questionnaires, interviews, pretest, and posttest.
In the experimental process, the researcher applied games to teach pronunciation from the unit 3 to unit 8 in the textbook for grade 11 in three months. Before the treatment, through the practice of teaching and from questionnaire the writer claimed that pronunciation was one of the weaknesses of students at the school. So, what the researcher wanted was applying games in teaching pronunciation with the hope that changing the learning pronunciation habits of students and developing the pronunciation for them. Besides, most teachers and students believed games would become an effective method if teachers use them appropriately.
Thus, in the experiment, simple games which were suitable to students‟ need and levels were to be used in teaching. After comparing the results of students in the pretest and posttest, the researcher provided credible evidence to claim that using games in teaching pronunciation could make the learning more effectively. The findings of the research also showed that there were some factors influencing on the teaching pronunciation at the school. From that, some solutions were given out to solve the problems and some suggestions from the teachers were shown to raise teachers‟ awareness of using games in teaching pronunciation.
iv Acknowledgements During the thesis – writing time, I fortunately received the help of many people, and I am extremely grateful to them. First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Assoc.Dr Ngo Dinh Phuong for his whole-hearted assistance and generous encouragement. Without his help, this thesis would not be finished. I would like to thank Dr.
Tran Van Phuoc, the head master, and the staffs of Hue University College of foreign languages who facilitated our training process and helped us with the procedure of writing and handing the thesis. I am grateful to my all instructors in MA course, who gave me much knowledge and valuable materials in the lectures during the course. Those were the valuable resources of knowledge for me to start my thesis. Many thanks to all my colleagues and my students at Yen Thanh 2 high school who enthusiastically cooperated with me during the experimental period.
Without their support, my experiment would not have been completed. Last but not least, I want to thank my family, my friends who faithfully gave me the valuable comments, the contributive adjustments and the useful suggestions for my thesis. v TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .v TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi LIST OF TABLE.
ix LIST OF FIGURE. ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION. Aims and objectives. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. The organization of the study. 5 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. The definitions of pronunciation.
The areas making up of pronunciation. Why teach pronunciation?. Approaches to the teaching pronunciation. Factors affecting teaching English pronunciation.
The definitions of game. Types of games. Why use games in teaching and learning?. Using games in teaching pronunciation.
Data collection methods. Data collection procedure. The pretest and posttest. 32 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.
Results from questionnaires. The reality of teaching pronunciation at Yen Thanh 2 high school. Teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of the role of teaching pronunciation. The English pronunciation teaching and learning practice at the school.
Teachers and students‟ perceptions of the role of games in teaching pronunciation. How games have been taught and studied?. Results from interviewing. Perceptions of teaching pronunciation and using games in teaching pronunciation.
How games have been used in teaching pronunciation?. Difficulties in designing and using games to teach pronunciation. Some solutions to overcome the difficulties in using games to teach pronunciation. Results from the pretest and posttest.
The development of students. 56 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION. For book designers. For educational administrators.
Contributions of the study. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies. 67 REFERENCES APPENDICES viii LIST OF TABLE Table 3.1: Result of the pretest .2: Result of the posttest .54 LIST OF FIGURE Figure 4.
Perceptions on the roles of pronunciation. The Students‟ Pronunciation Ability. The preferred time for playing games. The preferred giving instruction methods.
Some factors making effective contribution to learning English pronunciation through games. The development of two groups after 3 months of applying games into teaching pronunciation .55 ix Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, with the development of the world economy, the communication need of human beings is increasing rapidly. That changes the opinion of many people in using an international language as English in communication.
English is not viewed as a language which is used in some big countries any more. English become a communicative language all over the world. Therefore, the requirements of teaching English have changed. Teaching English does not stop at teaching students how to read and write.
In some recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to respond to the students‟ needs for effective communication. That is the reason why beside reading and writing, speaking and listening are paid more attention. In the combination with the four skills, especially speaking, pronunciation is viewed as an important part to help learners improve these skills and enhance students‟ communicative ability. 248) states that “Pronunciation teaching not only makes students aware of different sounds and sound features (and what these mean), but can also improve their speaking immeasurably”.
When students hear sounds properly, they can utter the sounds effectively. Harmer affirms the close relationship between pronunciation and listening. They help one another in the combination with students‟ communicative ability. Unfortunately, “Teaching pronunciation is often neglected by textbooks and teachers alike perhaps because this area of learning can seem mysterious” (Vernon S, 2009).
In Vietnamese textbooks, teaching pronunciation just stops at “Listen and repeat” the sounds and “Practise reading aloud these sentences / the dialogues”. Teachers can teach this part by playing the tape or they read aloud and ask students to listen and repeat. This may make students get bored if teachers teach by this way day after day. Therefore, using and varying the activities in teaching pronunciation is the best way to attract them into the lesson.
One of those solutions is using games. In the research “SPRING: Speech and 1 Pronunciation ImprovemeNt through Games, for hispanic children” Anuj Tewari and his co-author report that 7 out of 9 participants feel they are learning pronunciations during the games and 6 out of 9 participants say they will want to help from both their teacher and SPRING. The research also finds that SPRING is a pleasant change for a majority of the students. This research has shown the significance of using games in teaching pronunciation.
It not only motivates learners in learning, but also makes a good environment for students to learn. Located at a rural region, Yen Thanh 2 high school is a quite big school with more than 1300 students. However, as other schools in here, studying English to students is seen as a compulsory condition to pass the exams and many students learn English for that aim. They just pay attention to what may help them in the tests, on the exams.
On the other hand, all the exams that they have to pass are just written tests. Students are not checked their pronunciation ability in speaking. Therefore, for them, learning pronunciation is to know the pronunciation rules for doing the tests. Other students may want to learn English well to communicate in real life but there are limitations in their learning condition and the methods that their teachers often use.
As students in the other local schools, Yen Thanh 2 students have little chance to practice their pronunciation in the real life. They also lack of the learning aids, such as computers, cassette players or books. Most of their pronunciation knowledge is given by their teachers. However, in reality, the teachers do not care enough their methods in teaching pronunciation.
They usually follow the guide in the textbook and do not have much change in teaching for all pronunciation parts. For example, in ten or fifteen minutes of teaching pronunciation part, teachers usually instruct students how to read the sounds, ask them to listen and repeat after teachers or the tapes. Then, students will practice reading the sounds or the sentences. They rarely use supplementary activities, especially games to motivate students in learning.
As a result, students‟ pronunciation ability is really bad. They are taught pronunciation, but it‟s hard for them to remember the sounds and completely pay attention into the lessons. This situation makes many teachers ask themselves about what the most effective 2 methods to teach pronunciation for their students are in so many various teaching methods. For three years in teaching, the thing that makes the researcher feel uncomfortable is the actual situation of learning pronunciation at her school.
She wants to find out a suitable solution which can motivate students and make the lessons more interesting and more effective. Reading the application of games in teaching pronunciation on an article by chance and rethinking of what the games can do in her teaching practice, the researcher thinks about applying of this method into the teaching pronunciation. Although using games in teaching the English skills, vocabulary or grammar is quite familiar to many teachers, using games in teaching pronunciation is still not paid much attention. In this study, the researcher investigates the use of games in teaching pronunciation at Yen Thanh 2 high school in Nghe An province to see the actual situation of teaching pronunciation and the benefits as well as the difficulties teachers have encountered in teaching pronunciation with games.
From this study, teachers may have some changes in their minds about the use of games in teaching pronunciation and apply this method in their own teaching to help students in learning this English part. Aims and objectives 1. Aims This study has been developed with the aim of giving the contribution to help teachers understand the effects of using games in teaching pronunciation and support them some suggestions when using games to teach pronunciation.