v TABLE OF CONTENT CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT. Error! Bookmark not defined.Error! Bookmark not defined.iError! Bookmark not defined. TABLE OF CONTENT…………………………………………………………………….…v LIST OF TABLES.Error! Bookmark not defined.i LIST OF FIGURES. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.
Rationale to the Study. Objectives of the Study. The scope of the study. Organization of the Study.
3 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE. Some main features of pronunciation teaching.1 The importance of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching.2 Models of pronunciation. Approaches of the teaching of pronunciation .1 Bottom-up and top-down approach.2 Intuitive-imitative and Analytic-linguistic approach. 9 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.4 An integrated approach.
Error! Bookmark not defined. Integrating pronunciation into listening. Error! Bookmark not defined. Empirical research on the integration of pronunciation into listening.
Error! Bookmark not defined. Error! Bookmark not defined.1 The context of the study. Error! Bookmark not defined. Data Collection Procedure.
19 CHAPTER 4 PRESENTATION AND THE ANALYSIS OF RESULTS. Error! Bookmark not defined.1 Results and analysis. Error! Bookmark not defined.1 Results from the pretest and six progress tests. Error! Bookmark not defined.2 Results from the pretest and post test.3 Results from the students’ questionnaires.
Error! Bookmark not defined.1 The students’ scores in pronunciation tests. Error! Bookmark not defined. 35 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.2 Limitations of the Study.3 Recommendations for Future Research.I TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com viii LIST OF TABLES.1 Comparison of the scores in the pre-test and week-2 progress test.2 Comparison of the scores in the pre-test and week-4 progress test.3 Comparison of the scores in the pre-test and week- 6 progress test.4 Comparison of the scores in the pre-test and week- 8 progress test.5 Comparison of the scores in the pre-test and week- 10 progress test.6 Comparison of the scores in the pre-test and week-12 progress test.7 Comparison of the scores in the pre-test and post test.8 Comparison of students’ scores during 12 weeks TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Students’ opinions toward English pronunciation study.2 Students’ opinions toward classroom pronunciation activities.3 Students’ opinions toward studying stress and intonation.4 Students’ opinions toward the usefulness of integrating stress and intonation into listening lesson is useful.5 Students’ likeness of integrating stress and intonation into listening lessons.6 Students’ opinions about the appropriation of lesson design. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale to the Study To many learners, learning English is very difficult because of many differences between it and Vietnamese. Pronunciation is considered as one of the most difficult one. It is the biggest challenge because a word pronounced incorrectly may lead to misunderstandings of listeners. These sometimes bring unexpected effects or even break communication.
The approaches to teaching pronunciation have been changed according to the EFL teaching methodological changes. However, EFL teachers still face up with many problems in finding ways to teach pronunciation effectively. In terms of an integrated approach to teaching English, many researchers have agreed with the views of integrating pronunciation into all the areas of language work. However, teachers mostly are confused about how to apply this approach in their classroom.
Levis and Grant (2003) have pointed out Approaches favoring the integration of pronunciation into oral communication have been espoused for more than 10 years, but teachers have received little clear direction about how to accomplish this.( Levis and Grant(2003:1) Teachers in Vietnamese schools and universities have applied different approaches and techniques in teaching pronunciation. However, the teaching and learning process still gained not much progress. In Backan Community College, the teaching of English pronunciation still faces up with many difficulties. With the aims of finding new ways for pronunciation teaching, the researcher would like to find out whether an integrated approach can be used in this context.
In order to investigate how an integrated approach of pronunciation teaching can be applied to help students improve their pronunciation, the researcher decided to do an action search on the teaching of stress and intonation entitled: “Integrating pronunciation elements into listening lessons for first- year students in Backan College of Community”. The study was conducted to seek the answers to which extent the integration of pronunciation elements into TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 listening lessons affects the improvement of L2 learners‟ pronunciation in an English classroom in Vietnam. It was expected that the findings of this research present to ESL teachers, especially Vietnamese ESL teachers, a set of general ideas about this approach. Then on the basis of these findings, some recommendations for English teaching pedagogy will be given.
Objectives of the Study. This study investigates the extent to which the integration of pronunciation elements improves students‟ English pronunciation. Specifically, the research has two main objectives: 1. To examine the extent to which integrating pronunciation elements into listening lessons improve L2 learners’ pronunciation.
To examine the attitudes of Vietnamese learners of English about the integration of pronunciation elements into listening lessons. The researcher aims at answering the two research questions: a. What are the effects of the integration of pronunciation elements into listening lessons to students’ pronunciation? b. What are the students’ attitudes toward and perceptions of the integration of pronunciation elements into listening lessons? 4.
The scope of the study. This is an action research with a focused group of 45 students in Backan Community College. This study was aimed exploring how the integration of pronunciation elements into listening lessons affect students‟ performance in pronunciation. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Organization of the Study. The thesis is structured in five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the study. It includes the objectives, the scope, and the significance of the study.
Chapter 2 provides a review of the literature on the approaches to pronunciation teaching with a focus on an integrated approach to pronunciation teaching, i., integrating pronunciation into listening lessons. Chapter 3 presents the research methodology and the instruments used to collect data. Chapter 4 presents the results of the study, along with analysis and discussion of the data. Chapter 5 offers a summary of the findings of the study, conclusions, and suggestions for future research.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Many researchers have pointed out the educational benefits of an integrated approach to second and/or foreign language teaching. A number of studies have examined the possibilities and advantages of integrating pronunciation integrating pronunciation into other language activities. However, relatively few studies on integrating pronunciation elements into listening have been documented in the ELT literature. In this chapter, the author will first define some important terms of teaching pronunciation and then review some studies on the integration of pronunciation into listening in different contexts so that their findings may be revealed in relation with the findings of the present context.
Some main features of pronunciation teaching.1 The importance of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching. Communication is the most important component of any human society. To communicate properly, we need intelligible pronunciation because pronunciation affects very much on the understanding of the meanings of the words. Mispronunciation or unintelligible pronunciation is likely to lead to misunderstandings and even communication breakdown.
The role of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching in second/foreign language learning has been acknowledged by many researchers. According to Morley (1998), the limitation of a learners‟ pronunciation may lead to the lack of self- confidence and reducing social interactions and affecting badly their credibility and ability. Celce-Murcia (1996) states that There is a threshold level of pronunciation in English for non-native speakers of English; if they fall below this threshold level, they will have oral communication problems no matter how excellent and extensive their control of English grammar and vocabulary might be. (p7) TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 5 She goes on to argue that the focus on language communication leads to “the urgency to the teaching of pronunciation”.
Hewings (2004) argues that an understandable pronunciation plays an important role to the students‟ communication skills and therefore pronunciation teaching should be integrated into other areas of language work. Generally speaking, there is no need in turning learners sounding like native speakers but teachers do need to get them to be capable of being understood by a variety of listeners. It is believed that teaching the right pronunciation of English to the learners is very important, so that they may communicate exactly what and how they want to communicate. Pronunciation is one of the most difficult areas for learners, as well as for teachers but their intelligibility can be greatly improved by effective pronunciation teaching.
Goodwin (2001) claims that “the teaching of pronunciation is so crucial to our students. According to Pennington(1989), teachers who are trained formally in pronunciation and teaching suprasegmentals in communicative language program can create a difference of learners‟ pronunciation. Harmer (2001) also argues that pronunciation teaching not only helps students to be aware of different sounds and sound features but also improve their speaking immeasurably. Subsequently, he claims .concentrating on sounds, showing where they are made in mouth, making students aware of where words should be stressed- all these things give them extra information about spoken English and help them achieve the goal of improved comprehension and intelligibility.
In short, all the researchers have an agreement on the role of the teaching of pronunciation and encourage teachers to play the role as facilitators in students‟ pronunciation learning.2 Models of pronunciation The choice of a pronunciation model for L2 learners has become an important issue among teachers and educators concerned with teaching English. They have tried to answer the question to what extent models of pronunciation should be explored to teach pronunciation. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 6 When an English language teacher conducts a pronunciation activity, he should be aware of what form of pronunciation that activity focuses on. In the literature, there are different models of teaching pronunciation.
According to Kelly (2000), the term “model” refers to the pronunciation characteristics of the language a teacher presents to learners in the classroom. Richards et al (1985), define model as " someone or something which is used as a standard or goal for the learners” (cited in Brown, 1994:36). There many models of English which can be a standard or dominant accent, for instance, the Queen‟s English, standard American or a locally produced variety like Indian Accent. Although we commonly talk about „English pronunciation‟ obviously not all speakers of English pronounce it in the same way.
Even among countries where English is the first language of the majority of the population there are considerable variations, and we can distinguish between the pronunciation of British English, American English, Australian English, South African English, and so on. And it is necessary to consider varieties of English used in Britain, Ireland, the USA, Australia and Canada. Traditionally, the most widely used pronunciation models for ESL/EFL learners was the Received Pronunciation accent of English. Received Pronunciation is firstly given by dialectologist, Ellis in 1969.
The pronunciation by which British speakers are distinguished in Received Pronunciation( RP), Oxford English, Public School English, BBC English or standard British English. Tench (2003) described RP as Educated Southern English and Southern British Standard. It is commonly known as Oxford accent, or the BBC accent. However, it has been recognized that there is no such thing as „received pronunciation‟.
Other alternatives for RP proposed includes General American (GA) and Scottish English( SE). Wells (1982:118) explained General American as the speech of „the two-thirds of the American population who do not have a recognizably local accent‟. The spread of this accent is related to the export of American TV programmes, films and pop music over the world. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 7 Dretzke (2008) explains that there is no recognized standard pronunciation for the whole of the United States as there is for England.
The author claims “American English pronunciation includes three major areas, ie eastern, southern and the rest of the country. The pronunciation in the rest of the country is particularly uniform and labeled General American English.