1
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST  GRADUATE STUDIES
 ĐÀO THỊ KIM NHUNG AN APPLICATION OF GAMES AND OTHER STIMULATING
ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION TO GRADE 10
ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT HA NOI SPECIALISED UPPER
SECONDARY SCHOOL (ÁP D MANG TÍNH KHÍCH L
KHÁC TRONG VIC DY PHÁT ÂM CHO HC SINH CHUYÊN ANH
LNG PH THÔNG CHUYÊN NG HÀ NI )

Course: Cohort 12
Supervisor: Dr. GARY CARKIN
Ha Noi 2013

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………….4
1. Rationale4


5. Dicussion 
6. The effectiveness game and other stimulating activities 
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………25
1. Conclusion
2. Implications
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………27
APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………… 28

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INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
It is undeniable that English has become a language of global
communication thanks to its contribution to different fields of our life such as:
science, technology, aviation, diplomacy and so on. No one can deny that the
rapid expansion of information technologies and the spread of globalization
have led to an explosion in the demand for English worldwide.
English is now taught throughout of Vietnam in different levels of
education from primary schools to universities because it serves as an
international language and as a mean to promote mutual understanding and
cooperation between Vietnam and other countries. In fact, more and more
people desire to know and master English in order to keep them up-to-date with
the global development. As a result, English is taught not only at schools and
universities but also at many foreign language centres, on radio, television and
even via the internet. However, both teaching and learning of English are still
far from being satisfaction. One main problem is that most Vietnamese learners
are rather good at English writtenly but not orally. Many of them have a good
command of grammar and vocabulary, which promises very high marks in
written tests, but cannot communicate successfully with foreigners. The reason
lies in the imbalanced development of four language skills. In most schools and
universities (except those whose major is English), teachers focus too much on

outside class. There are 4classes at grade 10 which consist of 160 students who
have to take pronunciation as a compulsory subject; however, this action
research was carried out in only two classes of which the researcher was in
charge. Thus, the questionnaire was delivered to only 50 participants.
4. Methods of the study
Action research is the method employed in this study. To achieve the aims
mentioned above, the researcher has used a number of instruments to collect
data for analysis which include a questionnaire distributed before the term
started and after it ended, 
5. Design of the study
This minor thesis is composed of three parts.
Part 1, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, aims, scope, methods and
design of the study.

6
Part 2, DEVELOPMENT, is divided into three chapters.
Chapter 1, Literature Review, presents relevant concepts to pronunciation
and pronunciation teaching.
Chapter 2, Methodology, involves the information about context,
participants and instruments of the study.
Chapter 3: Data Presentation, Analysis and Discussion, focuses on data
analysis to show student point of view towards pronunciation and the
effectiveness of different activities.
Part 3, CONLUSION, summarizes some major findings, provide
implications for pronunciation teaching, limitation of the study and suggestions
for further research. 7
DEVELOPMENT


8
English. Furthermore, Wong demonstrated that a lack of knowledge of
pr
2. Pronunciation in language teaching
2.1. The status of pronunciation in current language teaching
The status of pronunciation teaching in different schools of language
teaching has varied widely. According to Castillo (1990), pronunciation
teaching has no role at all in the grammar-translation method, but it is the main
focus in the audio-lingual method. The audio-lingual view of the pronunciation
class was also mirrored in situational language teaching, developed in Britain
(Richards and Rodgers, 1986
Nowadays, teachers and learners have realized the importance of
pronunciation in English teaching and learning, however, it still has not received
enough attention. In fact, pronunciation tends to be de-emphasized in most
English courses because many teachers believe that pronunciation cannot be
taught effectively and it is not worth spending time on this field because it
should be allowed to develop naturally by students.
Colin Mortimer (1985) claimed that elements of pronunciation teaching
include weak forms, clusters, linking-up, contractions and stress time. However,
according to Gerald Kelly (2000), teaching pronunciation involves: vowels,
consonants, word and sentence stress, intonation, other aspects of connected
speech and spelling. Jennifer Jenkins (2004) provided more comprehensive
elements of pronunciation teaching. This researcher stated that depending on the
second language in question, pronunciation teaching typically covers any or all
of the following: consonant and vowel sounds, changes of these sounds in the
stream of connected speech, word stress patterns, rhythm, and intonation, which
might be described as the nuts and bolts of pronunciation.
2.1.1. Consonant and vowel sounds
It is obvious that learners of English need to know and pronounce letter

students (Morley, 1991). Previously, teachers of pronunciation only focused on
teaching segmental features which started with a concentration on phonetic
alphabets during the Reform Movement (Celce-Murcia et. al., 1996). Phonetic
training was used in order to help learners establish good speech habits. Minimal
pair drills were used extensively to distinguish phonemes in listening practice
and oral production (Celce-Murcia et. al., 1996). McNerney and Mendelsohn
-term pronunciation course should focus first
and foremost on suprasegmentals, as they have the greatest impact on the

10
books for teachers have
largely encouraged the teaching of suprasegments at the production level to

4. Teachers’ roles
Some researchers (Suter and Purcell, 1980) have cast doubt on the
importance of pronunciation teaching because in their opinion, little relationship
exists between teaching pronunciation and attained pronunciation proficiency.
of accurate pronunciation in a second language
          
researchers including Pennington (1989) believed that teachers with formal
training in pronunciation play an important role in helping students improve
their pronunciation. A teacher of pronunciation often fulfills the following roles:
 Helping learners perceive sounds
 Helping learner make sounds
 Creating authentic activities and exercises
 Providing learners with feedback
 Accessing lear
5. Learners’ roles
There is no doubt that whatever the teacher does and however hard he/ she
tries, there is still no success in the teaching and learning process if students do

the main factors inhibiting language learners from using the target language in
front of other people (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986). In a game-oriented
context, anxiety is reduced and speech fluency is generated, so communicative
competence is achieved.
        

com
However, the problem of anxiety can also be resolved with games because
students will learn to relax and enjoy themselves, which encourages them to
participate and be more willing to experiment with new different sounds.
Richard-Amato (1988) and Uberman (1998) also shared the same view that the
variety and intensity that games offer may lower anxiety and encourage shyer
learners to take part especially when games are played in small groups.
More importantly, it is undeniable that games are advantageous in
pronunciation teaching in the way that they help teachers to create contexts in

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which the language is useful and meaningful. Games provide a context for
meaningful communication. Even if the game involves discrete language items,
such as a spelling game, meaningful communication takes place as students seek
to understand how to play the game and as they communicate about the game:
before, during, and after the game (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005). In
order to take part in games, learners must understand what others are saying and
they must speak in order to express their own point of view or give information.
By that way, teachers are successful in helping learners achieving the shift from
specific linguistic competencies to broader communicative competencies and the
change of emphasis from segmentals to suprasegmentals.
Apart from games, other communicative activities such as drama practice,
puppet-play, news reading, and video making which sometimes require
preparation before going to class are also effective in pronunciation teaching

student says it correctly, the whole class has 1 point. Otherwise, the T has 1
point. Every student in the class will take turns to do this until the end to see
who wins the game.
- students (Ss). At
the end of the game, T should stress that the ultimate purpose of the game is to
show Ss the difficulty of pronunciation
Single Sounds
- Material: 6 sets of cards, each set has 44 cards. On each card, there is one
sound (Appendix 5)

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- Rules: T divides class into 6 groups. Each group gets one set of card. T
gives Ss 2 min to revise all the sounds. Then, T will pronounce one sound at a
time and the groups will have to raise the correct symbol for that sound. The
group who raises the CORRECT symbol the QUICKEST will get one point. At
the end, the group with the most points will be the winner.
- Notes: T should ask one student (S) to act as assistant to ensure fairness. T
should be very careful and accurate in his/her own pronunciation.
- Notes:
             
notices that the top two cards have the same stress pattern, even if it is before the
card thrower pronounces his word.
 If someone uses incorrect pronunciation, tell the other Ss to help correct it.
 
put a card of his on the center pile as penalty.
 
game again
3. Instruments
In order to obtain in-depth information on the application of activities in
the course, the study used a variety of research instruments including an oral

nterest and improvement during
the course. The researcher also reflected on the teaching and learning process
after each lesson.(Appendix 2) 16
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

1. Responses to the questionnaire
Areas of investigation
The questionnaire includes 7 questions which cover three main areas of
investigation as follows:
Area of investigation
Question

pronunciation
Question 1, 2

pronunciation
Question 3, 4

Question 5, 6, 7

Analysis and findings
 
         
responses to a direct question about the importance of pronunciation in language
learning.
60%
32%

20%
Before the course
52%
20%
16%
12%
After the course
a. Yes, always
b. Yes, sometimes
c. Yes, but rarely
d. No, never

Chart 2: The influence of pronunciation on speaking and listening
Generally speaking, most of the students were aware of the role and
influence of pronunciation, which is illustrated by the fact that 80% of them
found it difficult to learn such skills as speaking and listening due to their poor
pronunciation. After the course, even more students (88%) realized the reason
for difficulty in listening and speaking was poor pronunciation.
Looking at the analysis, it was obvious that students were positive in
learning pronunciation. They had quite high awareness of the importance of
pronunciation in their language learning, especially speaking and listening.
 
There are three questions dealing with this matter. The first question is for
students to self evaluate their pronunciation. The responses before and after the
course were different in all options.
16%
18%
20%
46%
Before the course

8%
4%
After the course
a. Very high
b. High
c. Low
d. Very low

Chart 3: Students’ interest in learning pronunciation
Responding to question 5, only 60% of the students revealed that they had
very high or high interest in pronunciation, but after the course, the number went
up to 88%. In contrast, the number of students who showed their low or very
low interest decreased by 28% from 40% to 12%.
24%
34%
26%
16%
Before the course
44%
42%
10%
4%
After the course
a. Very high
b. High
c. Low
d. Very low3. Diagnostic Test Analysis

Word stress
Many students did not put any stress on multi-syllable words. They
pronounced every syllable with the same effort, which slowed down their speed
and made their speaking hard to listen to. A few students seemed to be
conscious of the necessity to put stress on multi-syllable words; however, they

20
do not stress on correct syllables. This problem led to the fact that multi-syllable
words they pronounced sounded strange and difficult to be recognized.
Sentence stress
It was obvious that my students had a really big trouble with sentence stress
due to their word stress. Most of the students are influenced by their mother
tongue which is totally different from English. Vietnamese is a syllable  timed
language, which explains why Vietnamese people tend to put equal stress on
each syllables. In the diagnostic test, most of my students applied that habit to
English sentences. This made their pronunciation sound unnatural and
monotonous. By putting equal effort to every syllable in a sentence, my students
tend to separate words so clearly that they did not have smooth reading but
choppy one.
Rhythm and Intonation
With the analysis of word stress and sentence stress above, it is clear that
the students could not have natural rhythm and intonation in reading English.
Most of them had flat intonation without the change of pitch due to the lack of
stressed and unstressed syllables.
4. The researcher’s observations during class time throughout the course
The information taken from the observations was divided in to three main

 
regularly. Only 5 students were absent from the class once or twice because of
their illness. The situation was much better than the previous years when many

the course, most of the students were more aware of the difference between long
and short vowel sounds and more careful in pronouncing words including those
sounds. Nevertheless, many of them still could not pronounce the vowel sound
/æ/. Additionally, diphthongs were not pronounced long enough. Such sounds as
//, //, //, //, /d/, /n/, /l/ were also difficult for many students even when
they performed in activities in the last lesson. As for word-stress, from the
beginning till the end of the course, many students still gave the last syllable
more force in their pronunciation, which made their speaking sound unnatural
and strange. That kind of mistakes happened most commonly in adjectives with
ese, -ous ending. With regards to intonation, the majority of students improved
their monotonous voice pitch while some others could not and gave each
individual word equal force. In the final test, the researcher witnessed a lot of

22
improvement in most of the students in all aspects of pronunciation. However,
some of them showed the same intelligibility as in the diagnostic test.
5. Discussion
The results analysed in this chapter derived from the diagnostic test and
           

pronunciation in terms of both segmental and suprasegmental features had been
improved a lot. After the researcher has worked hard on the data and
information, she would like to discuss the effectiveness of motivating activities
in the course and some disadvantages that led to difficulties she encountered
when applying those activities.
6. The effectiveness of games and other stimulating activities
It can be said that stimulating activities applied in the course had brought
        
intelligibility. Firstly, the researcher found that students in this course were
much more active, voluntary, and enthusiastic in the class than the students in

with. It is undeniable that teachers need to spend a lot of time reading different
books and reference documents to have a wide range of activities that they can
use in class. It may take them hours to think and consider whether the activities
are suitable and effective in their classes. When teachers can decide what kind of
activities to use in class, the next step is to make a careful lesson plan to ensure
that they will deliver the activities successfully. Teachers sometimes have to
adjust the rules or make some changes so that the activities will be suitable to
      
always handouts that they can use immediately for their students, so it will take
them more time to adapt or even design totally new handouts. More specifically,
if teachers want to apply lyrics completing, they will have to listen to many
different English songs just to choose one song which has suitable pace and
includes the sounds in focus they want to teach their students. Then, they need to
work with the lyrics to decide the blanks. Another evidence of vast time
investment is the preparation for subtitle reading. Not all movies and cartoons
can be used to help students practise the sounds and intonation. That is why
teachers must spend time watching and deciding which one to be used in class.
Then, they will invest more time extracting the pieces of the movies or cartoons
that will be used to avoid the complication of playing forward and backward. In

24
general, teachers need to be very flexible and creative in order to create useful
and interesting activities to their classes.
Another thing that challenges teachers relates to technology. Firstly,
teachers need to be familiar with computer and internet if they want to adapt or
design various activities for their students. For example, in order to extract one
piece of movie or cartoon to use in class, teachers have to proficiently use some
soft wares like Video Editor or Mc Fun Soft Editor. It is also very necessary for
them to be ready to fix some of the technical problems in class related to
computer, speakers or projector; otherwise, it will be a waste of time.

course still showed limited suitability and appropriateness.
2. Implications
Based on the findings and the discussion of the research, the following
implications for teaching pronunciation are suggested.
Firstly, more researches should be done in teaching pronunciation because
it is very important and useful, especially to English majored students. In order
to help students master pronunciation, the best way is to enhance their
motivation and interest which will then encourage them to self study. It is
understandable because the time they spend in class is not enough to make great
         
extrinsic motivation; however, pronunciation practice will soon become a
burden if students do not participate voluntarily. Therefore, teachers need to
make an effective and motivating learning environment in the class to raise

will not feel tired from learning, which will bring about long term benefit. One
of the best ways to create that motivating environment is to use games and

26
stimulating activities. However, teachers should be flexible in considering which
activities are suitable and how to have friendly atmosphere in the classroom.
Apart from some printed sources, teachers can also refer to some online sources
to have a wide range of activities in class as well as to share experience with
teachers all over the world. The researcher would like to recommend some
useful websites for teachers of pronunciation as follows:



 />effective
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