Using software to improve first-Year English majors’ pronunciation: An action research at Hong Duc University

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PART I. INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study In the last decades, the general goals of teaching have primed the effective use of the spoken language to establish successful communication. That is why there has been a steady growth in the attention to the magnitude of speaking and pronunciation teaching. This fact has brought about an emergent debate about models, goals and particularly, the methodology used for speaking and pronunciation teaching. A number of research studies have dealt with pronunciation teaching and problems students face in English pronunciation. The research findings have revealed that pronunciation frequently interferes with communication. As a matter of fact, communication may break down when people pronounce incorrectly. Moreover, learners with good pronunciation are usually more proficient speakers and more successful language learners than those with poor pronunciation. Since I started teaching at Hong Duc University, I have taught speaking and pronunciation to first-year English majors many times. I have always been trying my best to help my students pronounce better. However, I have had many frustrations because my students always have many mistakes in their pronunciation. I have been investigating into the reasons for this, and I have found that my students, most of whom are from rural areas in the province, only learned grammar and never focused on pronunciation at secondary school. Moreover, they did not have much access to native speakers’ pronunciation. For non-English majors at other departments of Hong Duc University, they are required to have intelligible pronunciation. English majors at Foreign Department, however, must go far beyond the intelligibility to the point that they should sound like or nearly like native speakers because they will become teachers of English and their pronunciation will affect many generations to come. That is the reason why first-year English majors’ weak pronunciation has been a matter of serious concern among us.

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Due to the importance of pronunciation in language learning and the poor pronunciation of first-year English majors at Hong Duc university, I decided to introduce some changes into my speaking and pronunciation course for first-year English majors with the hope to improve their pronunciation. That was the reason why I conducted this study “Using software to improve first-year English majors’ pronunciation: An action research at Hong Duc University”, which tried to exploit the software programs available in my speaking and pronunciation lessons with an aim to improve first-year English majors’ pronunciation. 2. Purposes of the study The purpose of this study is to improve English pronunciation for first-year English majors at Hong Duc University. Specifically, it has three purposes as follows: - To identify students’ most common mistakes in their English pronunciation. - To exploit the software program, namely Pronunciation Power as an intervention in pronunciation lessons to improve students’ pronunciation. - To justify the effectiveness of using pronunciation software in teaching English pronunciation to first-year English majors. 3. Research questions Regarding the importance of pronunciation teaching, purpose of the research and statement of the problem, this study is accomplished to find the answer to the question ‘How effectively is software exploited to improve first-year English majors’ pronunciation at Hong Duc university?’. Specifically, the study addressed the following three research questions: * What are the students’ most common problems regarding their English pronunciation? * Is Pronunciation Power effective in teaching first-year English majors’ pronunciation? * If yes, how effective is it?

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4. Scope of the study The study concentrates on improving first-year English majors at Hong Duc University by using the pronunciation software named Pronunciation Power. Within its scope, the research was aimed at justifying the effectiveness of using this software program in teaching English pronunciation to first-year English majors at Hong Duc university. 5. Methods of the study This study is conducted as an action research because it is aimed at improving first-year English majors’ pronunciation. In order to get data, a combination of different instruments, namely class observation, informal interviews and audio-recording, is used. The data collected from the observation and interviews will be analyzed by qualitative method, and the data collected through the tape scripts will be analyzed by quantitative method. 6. Significance of the study Even though there have been numerous studies on pronunciation teaching, few investigations into the use of software in teaching pronunciation are conducted. This research provides an insight into the effectiveness of applying pronunciation software to the teaching of pronunciation to first-year English majors. The results of the study will, therefore, be much beneficial to both teachers who are considering whether to exploit software programs in their English pronunciation lessons and students who are interested in using software programs to improve their English pronunciation. 7. Design of the study The study consists of three main parts as follows. The first part deals with rationale, purposes, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study.

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The second part contains three chapters, in which chapter 1 reviews the literature focusing on the theoretical basis related to teaching pronunciation and using CALL programs in language learning and teaching, chapter 2 presents a detailed description of the research methodology, and chapter 3 discusses the findings of the study. The final part summarizes all the main ideas expressed throughout the research, provides pedagogical implications and suggests further research orientations.

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PART II. DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. Role of pronunciation in language learning According to Levis and Grant (2002: 13), most language teachers agree that “Intelligible pronunciation is vital to successful communication” and most students see “pronunciation as an important part of learning to speak...” Sifakis and Sougari (2005) states that pronunciation is crucial to language learning because of two reasons. First, it helps make communication in a certain setting among NNSs or between NNSs and NSs possible. This is performed by speakers’ use of intelligible sounds and prosodic features together with other aspects of language such as grammar, discourse, dialect and so forth. Second, pronunciation contributes to the establishment of their socio-cultural identity (pp.469 – 470). Kelly (2000: 11) also believes that it is vital for a language learner to have a good pronunciation of that language. Learners may have acquired a considerable amount of grammar and vocabulary, but still fail to communicate effectively due to their poor pronunciation. Pronunciation plays a vital role in learners’ speaking ability. Only when a learner is competent in pronunciation can his speaking skills be acclaimed. Kelly continues to emphasize that mispronunciation of sounds and misuse of prosodic features are responsible for the listeners’ failure to be comprehended and to interpret what the speaker means, which leads to the disappointment of the speaker. Furthermore, Stevick (1978) justifies that pronunciation is a primary medium for communication of information through which we bring our use of language to the attention of other people and the teaching of pronunciation should therefore be given priority in a language class.

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According to Murphy (1991), given that most courses emphasize general oral communication over pronunciation, teachers must seek creative ways to integrate pronunciation into speaking- oriented classes in a manner clearly related to the oral communication goals of the course. He also adds that pronunciation instruction needs to be integrated with broader level communicative activities in which speakers and listeners engage in meaning communication. It is obvious in my situation as a teacher of English that students’ weak pronunciation has negative effect on their ability to express themselves and their ability to listen to others, especially to native speakers. Speakers with wrong pronunciation find it difficult to make themselves understood by the teacher and other students, which makes them embarrassed and hesitant to continue speaking. Moreover, when a learner has already stuck to the wrong way of pronouncing a particular word, phrase or sentence, (s)he is unlikely to recognize the authentic pronunciation by a native speaker and fail to interpret what the speaker means. Therefore, it can be concluded that pronunciation play an essential role in learning a foreign language because it is intelligible pronunciation that make communication possible and even if a speaker uses the right words with the right structure but without correct or intelligible pronunciation, s(he) is likely to cause misunderstanding, communication interruption, or even communication breakdown. 1.2. Aspects of pronunciation teaching As regards what teaching pronunciation involves, Ur (1996:47) claims that “the concept of “pronunciation” may be said to include: - the sounds of the language, or phonology, - stress and rhythm - intonation.” Martin Hewings in his book Pronunciation Practice Activities presents that the following elements should be included in the English pronunciation teaching:

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- Segmental features with more focus on consonants, consonant clusters and vowel length - Suprasegmental features consisting of word stress, tonic words, weak and strong forms, connected speech and tone. (pp.15 – 16) 1.2.1. Vowel sounds Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., and Goodwn, J. (1996) defines vowels as “sounds in which there is continual vibration of the vocal cords and the air stream is allowed to escape from the mouth in an obstructed manner, without any interruption.” According to Roach (1998), vowels are “sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips.” Vowels can be classified in terms of: - the height of the bulk of the tongue in the mouth. - the front/back position of the tongue in the mouth.- the degree of lip-rounding. - the length of vowels. The classification can be shown in the following diagram: Diagram 1. English vowels

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1.2.2. Consonant sounds According to Kelly. G, (2003:24), “consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting the airflow in a variety of ways.” Roach (1998) define consonants as “sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips.” Consonants are classified according to: - the manner of articulation - the place of articulation - the force of articulation The classification of English consonants can be shown in the following table: Table 1. English consonants

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1.2.3. Word stress Avery and Ehrlich’s (1992) state that word stress involves making vowels longer and louder. Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaun (1973:450) defines stress as the prominence with which one part of a word or of a longer utterance is distinguished from other parts. According to Pennington, stress has at least three prosodic features, which are duration (or length), intensity (or loudness) and pitch (or fundamental frequency). Word stress is closely related to intelligibility because when a word is said with incorrect stress pattern, the listener may spend time searching for the word in the wrong stress category. A stress pattern mistake can, therefore, cause a great deal of confusion. That is the reason why Kelly (2000) emphasizes that it would be practical to base our teaching principle on a two- level division (stressed or unstressed). 1.2.4. Sentence stress According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992), in a particular sentence, one content word receives greater stress than all others, which is referred as the major sentence stress. In most cases, the major sentence stress falls on the last content word within a sentence. However, there are also cases in which the major sentence stress will not fall on the final content word of the sentence. It depends on the speakers who decide which word in their speech they want to give more or less prominence. A word may be given less weight because it has been said already, or it may be given more weight because the speaker want to highlight it. The use of incorrect stress in English can make it difficult for listeners to identify the meaning of the sentence. Kenworthy (1987) demonstrates that there is a great deal of evidence that native speakers rely very much on the stress pattern of words when they are listening, and that when a native speaker mishears a word, it is because the foreigner has put the stress in the wrong place, not because he or she mispronounced the sounds of the word.

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1.2.5. Rhythm Kenworthy (1987:30) claims that rhythm is a product of word stress and the way in which important items are foregrounded through their occurrence on a strong beat, and unimportant items are backgrounded by their occurrence on a weak beat. Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994) also give the similar description of rhythm concentrating on the contrast between stress and unstress, which states that “utterances are continuous strings of syllables, the stressed syllables provides the foreground and the unstressed ones the backgrounds.” English has a stress-timed rhythm, in which stressed syllables recur at equal intervals of time but unstressed syllables are unequally spaced in time. The amount of time it takes to say a sentence depends on the number of syllables that receive stress, not on the total number of syllables. This should be distinguished from syllable-timed rhythm like Vietnamese, in which all the syllables recur at equal intervals of time, stressed or unstressed, so that Vietnamese students can avoid the interference of their mother tongue in the target language. 1.2.6. Intonation According to Kelly (2000), intonation refers to the way the voice goes up and down in pitch when we are speaking. He also claims that “it is a fundamental part of the way we express our own thoughts and it enables us to understand those of others.” Four basic tunes of English are as follows: - The falling tune (the glide-down) - The first rising tune (the glide-up) - The second rising tune (the take-off) - The falling-rising tune. Intonation has the function as the expression of speaker’s attitude and purpose in saying something such as greeting you, telling you something, asking you, ordering you, pleading

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with you or thanking you etc… Intonation is therefore important for intelligibility. Inappropriate intonation pattern can lead to misunderstanding just as mispronounced sound can. The importance of raising students’ awareness of the uses of four basic tunes of English in order to improve their communicative performance is therefore can not be denied. 1.2.7. Other aspects of connected speech The following aspects appear when English is spoken in casual and rapid everyday speech. * Assimilation According to Kelly (2000), assimilation is the modification of sounds on each other when they meet, usually across word boundaries, but can also within words. Assimilation is said to be progressive when a sound influences a following sound, or regressive when a sound influences one which precedes it. * Word linking When a word finishes with a consonant and is followed by another word which an initial vowel, the final consonant of the first word will join with the first vowel of the second one. * Elision Kelly (2000) define elision as “the disappearance of a sound. In saying an utterance, some sounds are deleted due to the fast speed and also due to the economy of effort, when people do not want to try hard in pronouncing every single sound. 1.3. Approaches to pronunciation teaching 1.3.1. Explicit or Implicit In a summary of the application of explicit phonetic instruction in pronunciation teaching, Derwing and Munrol (2005:388) explain explicit phonetic instruction as follows: "Just as students learning certain grammar points benefit from being explicitly instructed to notice the

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difference between their productions and those of L1 speakers, so students learning L2 pronunciation benefit from being explicitly taught phonological form to help them notice the difference" In a well-known study by Derwing, Munrol and Wiebe (1998), explicit instruction was given to the experimental group and not to the control group. Both groups were evaluated before and after the experiment by both trained and untrained listeners. The results demonstrated that explicit phonetic instruction enhanced learners' pronunciation of the target language. Luchini in his article “Task-Based Pronunciation Teaching: A State-of-the-art Perspective” argues that “…the formal instruction of those common core features of English pronunciation – vowel length, nuclear stress (especially contrastive stress), and voice setting – which seem to be vital for establishing intelligibility enable learners to take utmost advantage of both their receptive and productive pronunciation skills.” (p.197) However, not all researchers agree that formal and explicit instruction can help students to improve their pronunciation. Roach,1983; Dalton and Seihofer, 1994; among others state that numerous students can not gain all the prosodic features when they are overly taught, which can only be implicitly learnt by long-term exposure to the target language. (p195) I myself believe that overt instruction is necessary in the speaking and pronunciation lessons, especially for my first-year English major students at Hong Duc university because they will become teachers of English and they need to know exactly how a sound, a word, a phrase, an utterance or a sentence is pronounced, so that they can teach their pupils in the forthcoming future, not just to learn pronunciation implicitly without thorough understanding of it. However, this does not mean that implicit learning is not important. Teachers should on the one hand give explicit phonetic instructions and on the other hand encourage students to continuously expose to the target language.

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1.3.2. Top-down or Bottom-up Pronunciation teaching consists of 2 parts: segmental (consonants, vowels and clustering) and suprasegmental (thoughts group, prominence, intonation and syllable structure). Dalton & Seidhofer in their book Pronunciation identify two approaches to pronunciation teaching including bottom-up and top-down. In bottom-up approach, the segmental features are to be taught first, then the suprasegmentals will naturally be gained. Whereas, in the top-down approach, the prosodic features are to be learnt before the segments. (pp.69-70) According to Celce-Murcia (2001), the top-down approach, in which suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation are addressed first, has been the main trend in pronunciation teaching. Field (2005:20) also states that suprasegmentals should be taught first in order to improve learners’ intelligibility. He explains that the results of numerous research have shown the importance of suprasegmentals over the segmentals. Moreover, segmentals are manageable because listeners can use their lexical knowledge to i