iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration i
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract iii
Table of contents iv
List of charts vi
INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Objectives of the study 2
3. Scope of the study 2
4. Methods of the study 3
5. Design of the study 3
DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Pronunciation 4
1.1.1. Definition of pronunciation 4
1.1.2. The importance of pronunciation 4
1.2. Pronunciation in language teaching 5
1.2.1. The status of pronunciation in current language teaching 5
1.2.2. Elements of pronunciation teaching 7
1.2.3. Current ideas on pronunciation teaching and learning 8
1.2.4. Teachers‟ roles 10
1.2.5. Learners‟ roles 10
1.3. The use of games and other communicative activities in pronunciation
teaching 11

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LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1: Students‟ scores in diagnostic test and final test
Chart 2: The role of pronunciation in language learning
Chart 3: The influence of pronunciation on speaking and listening
Chart 4: Students‟ evaluation of their own pronunciation
Chart 5: Students‟ evaluation of the difficulty of pronunciation
Chart 6: Students‟ interest in learning pronunciation
Chart 7: Students‟ effort in learning pronunciation
Chart 8: Students‟ self-studying time
Chart 9: Students‟ evaluation of pronunciation lessons
Chart 10: Students‟ evaluation of the effectiveness of pronunciation lessons
Chart 11: Students‟ evaluation of class activities
Chart 12: Students‟ preference of activities inside class
Chart 13: Students‟ preference of activities outside class

1

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,

We have questioned ourselves about how to motivate our students to
maximize their time of practising in class and even outside class, which leads to the
use of games and other stimulating activities. We have tried activities collected
from different sources, which seems to bring about great effect. However, we just
have the feeling but not a specific study on how effective they are. Therefore, I have
conducted an action research on the application of games and other activities in
teaching pronunciation to first year students at English Department, HANU in order
to investigate the effectiveness and to help other teachers choose suitable activities
for their classes.
2. Objectives of the study
The study is aimed at:
 Finding out their advantages and disadvantages.
 Helping pronunciation teachers choose suitable activities for their classes.
Thus, this thesis is to answer two research questions:
 How effective is the use of games and some other stimulating activities?
 What are students‟ attitude towards the use of games and some other
stimulating activities?
3. Scope of the study
To create motivation for students in pronunciation classes, teachers at
English Department, HANU, have applied a lot of games and activities. However,
the researcher in this study only focuses on and analyzes some typical ones (which
will be presented in the following parts) and then suggests some effective activities
that teachers can introduce to students so that they have more practice outside class.

3

There are 10 first year classes which consist of 250 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. Additionally, the study was

There are various ways to define pronunciation. Macmillan Dictionary gives
an easy-to-understand definition, that is “the way in which a word or language is
pronounced”.
Similarly, Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary defines pronunciation as
the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced or the way
in which a particular person pronounces the words of a language.
More specifically, pronunciation can be understood as one of the three
explanations given in the :
 The act or manner of pronouncing words; utterance of speech.
 A way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally
understood.
 A graphic representation of the way a word is spoken, using phonetic
symbols.
According to Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre,
pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning. It
includes attention to the particular sounds of a language (segments), aspects of
speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress,
timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality)
and, in its broadest definition, attention to gestures and expressions that are closely
related to the way we speak a language.
It is obvious that the four sources above do not have the same way to define
pronunciation but they share a common knowledge that pronunciation is how words
or sentences are spoken.
1.1.2. The importance of pronunciation
Nowadays, no one can deny the significant role of pronunciation in language
teaching and learning. Pronunciation is one of the most important aspects of
language. We may be proficient at grammar and have a huge store of vocabulary,

5


teaching of pronunciation was pushed aside in many language programmes and

6

many studies concluded that little relationship exists between teaching
pronunciation in the classroom and attained proficiency in pronunciation. They also
found out that the strongest factors that affect pronunciation seem to have little to
do with classroom activities'
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.
Although Morley (1991) insisted that it is necessary to teach English
pronunciation in the ESL or EFL classroom, this important area is still neglected at
many universities and colleges around the world. According to Michael Wei, in
China, there is no place for English phonetics courses in English teaching and
learning and a pronunciation course is still only an elective in the universities or
colleges. According to Lin, Fan and Chen (1995) some teachers in Taiwan might
argue that English pronunciation is not important at all, for very few tests would
require students to show abilities related to pronunciation or speaking. Michael Wei
also pointed out that in the U.S., many students and teachers believe that it is
useless spending time on pronunciation because it would be difficult, if not
impossible for students to hear differences. English pronunciation is simply ignored
in the curriculum of some universities in Thailand (Wei and Zhou, 2002). In
Mexico, pronunciation was described as “the Cinderella of language teaching”; that
means an often low level of emphasis was placed on this very important language
skill (Dalton, 2002).
As mentioned above, pronunciation is still neglected in EFL/ESL classrooms

of pronunciation teaching.
Word stress patterns
Word stress must highly be focused on at the beginning of any pronunciation
courses because without correct word stress, speakers of English cannot have
understandable pronunciation. In every two or more-syllable words, one of the
syllables is stressed, which means it is higher, louder and longer than the others.
This stressed syllable is very important because it helps listeners distinguish the
word from others. Therefore, listeners often find it hard to understand what the
speaker is saying when he or she misuses word stress. 8

Rhythm
Rhythm is the obvious feature of every language. Rhythm or beat of a
language is the product of word stress and the way in which important items are
emphasized. The combination of strong beats (the occurrence of important items)
and weak beats (the occurrence of unimportant items) makes rhythm easy to be
recognized. Thus, after dealing with word stress patterns, teachers of pronunciation
should introduce to their students the rhythm of English which is characterized by
the alteration of strong and weak syllables (Kenworthy, 1987).
Intonation
Even if you pronounce each word clearly, if your intonation patterns are non-
standard, your meaning will probably not be clear. Also, in terms of comprehension,
you will lose a great deal of information if you are listening for the actual words
used. Intonation refers to the intention and feelings of the speaker. An important
feature of English intonation is the use of an intonational accent (and extra stress) to
mark the focus of a sentence. That is the reason why students need to have good
knowledge of sentence focus in order to have good intonation. Moreover, intonation
is an abstract concept which can be vague to students while sentence focus is more

suprasegmentals, as they have the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of
learners‟ English”. So far a lot of books for teachers have largely encouraged the
teaching of suprasegments at the production level to improve learners‟
intelligibility. In the same spirit, Morley also states the need for the integration of
pronunciation with oral communication, a change of emphasis from segmentals to
suprasegmentals, more emphasis on individual learner needs, meaningful task-based
practices, development of new teacher strategies for the teaching, and introducing
peer correction and group interaction. According to Cohen (1977), teaching
phonemes is not enough for intelligibility in communication. With the emphasis on
meaningful communication and Morley's (1991) premise, that 'Intelligible
pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence' teachers
should include pronunciation in their courses and expect students to do well in
them. It is certain that the learner's ability to communicate is severely limited
without adequate pronunciation skills. Morley believes that not attending to a
student's pronunciation needs „is an abrogation of professional responsibility
(1991)'.
Other research gives support to Morey's belief in the need for 'professional
responsibility' when the results show that 'a threshold level of pronunciation in
English such that if a given non-native speaker's pronunciation falls below this

10

level, he or she will not be able to communicate orally no matter how good his or
her control of English grammar and vocabulary might be' (Celce-Murcia, 1987).
Gilbert (1984) believes the skills of listening comprehension and pronunciation are
interdependent: 'If they cannot hear English well, they are cut off from the
language. If they cannot be understood easily, they are cut off from conversation
with native speakers.' Nooteboom (1983) has also suggested that speech perception
has great influence on speech production; the hearer has become an important factor
in communication discourse. This illustrates the need to integrate pronunciation

learner strategies, that is, the measures used by the learner to develop his language
learning (Morley, 1991). Thus, students must become part of the teaching and
learning process, actively involve in their own learning. Ultimate success in
pronunciation surely depends on learners‟ attitude and how much attempt they put
into the process of learning.
1.3. The use of games and other communicative activities in pronunciation
teaching
As discussed above, pronunciation is an essential part in language learning
and teaching. Many people believe that in language learning, effort is required at
every moment and must be maintained over a long period of time. It is also
obviously true with pronunciation learning. There are a few pronunciation teachers
who think that teaching pronunciation means helping students perceive and produce
English sounds correctly. That is why they often ask their students to repeat the
sounds times and times again after introducing them, which makes students get
bored with studying pronunciation. Once students get bored, they will get nothing
from the studying.
Talking about the advantages of games, Thiagarajan (1999); Wright,
Betteridge, & Buckby (2005) claimed that games add interest to what students
might not find very interesting. Sustaining interest means sustaining effort. After
all, learning a language involves long-term effort because games offer students a
fun-filled and relaxing learning atmosphere. Thanks to that, they learn and practise
the sounds in a non-stressful way. Games ease the fear of negative evaluation, the
concern of being negatively judged in public, and which is one of 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.
According to Shalley Vernon in the article “Teaching English Pronunciation
Using Role Playing and Other Games”, anxiety is one of the most common

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thousands of teachers all over the world are exploring those activities from different
printed and online sources to apply in their pronunciation classes with hope that
they can help their students gain the greatest improvement in this subject.

13 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Context of the study
The study was carried out in two first year classes at English Department,
HANU. To tell the truth, English proficiency of students here is much lower that
that of previous years because they have easier access to the Department with lower
marks at the entrance exams.
However, the Department is still one of the best places for those who want to
be good interpreters and teachers of English. There are normally 10 or 11 first year
classes with about 25 students in each class. Most students here come from different
Northern provinces such as Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen, Bac Ninh, Thai Binh, and
Nam Dinh where they get used to passive ways of learning, which is embedded
deeply in their mind from primary school. Frankly speaking, they have had more
difficulties in learning English than students from big cities in terms of ability and
condition. Moreover, almost all students here have had no training in listening and
speaking, especially in pronunciation. However, when they are in English
Department, HANU, they have a favorable English learning environment because
they can work with qualified teachers, have more access to resources of reference
books in the library or via the internet, and more chance to meet foreigners. Thus, a
good way to enhance students‟ improvement is to motivate them to make most use
of all the external conditions to self study.
With the main purpose of training students to have high communicative
competence, the Department realizes that teaching and learning pronunciation play
an important role in the training process. Therefore, the subject has been taught

enthusiastic to practice inside and outside classes. That fact, of course, led to little
improvement in their pronunciation. Thus, when doing this action research, I have
applied some games and stimulating activities to encourage them to make more
effort in this subject.
 Games
Most of the games applied in my classes are taken from the book
“Pronunciation Games” by Mark Hancock. I have chosen some games that were
suitable for my students when they practised individual sounds, word stress,
sentence stress and intonation (Appendix 8). All the games were used in classes at
different stages of the lesson.

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Besides, I have also designed some other games that drew much attention
and interest from my students.
Teacher vs. Class
- Material: One set of cards, on each card, there is one word which is familiar
but commonly mispronounced; make cards out of the game words (Appendix 9)
- Rules: Teacher (T) raises one card for each student to pronounce. If that
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.
- Notes: T is expected to win but don‟t forget to encourage 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 10)
- 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

- Notes:
 Any person in the group can yell out “SAME!” Whenever he first
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.
 If someone yells “SAME!” and it is not the same stress, then he must
put a card of his on the center pile as penalty.
 If someone runs out of cards, they can still yell “SAME!” and join in
the game again
 Other stimulating activities
Sounds in focus
- Rules: T asks Ss to work in pairs and make up sentences or stories which
include some particular sounds in focus. (/i:/ and // for example) T then calls some
Ss to read their sentences or stories to see who has the most given sounds and who
has the most interesting products. (Appendix 13)
e.g.: There is a very big sheep licking milk and eating some meat in a pink
ship.

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- Note: This activity can be used in class or assign as homework.
Poem composing
- Rules: T tells Ss a particular rhyme of a poem and then makes the first
sentence that includes the rhyme. T then points at a S at random; that S must create
and read aloud the next sentence of the poem. If the S cannot make a sentence, T
calls another one. (Appendix 14)
- Note: This activity can be assigned as homework with Ss working in pairs
or groups.
News reading

- Notes: This activity can be adapted to Lyric Correction if the lyrics of the
songs had some changed words pronunciation of which is similar to the original
ones‟. Ss listen to the song and correct the wrong words.
Video making
- Materials: Computer or VCD player, a large screen, a projector, and
speakers (Attached VCD).
- Rules: Ss work in groups of maximum six members. They have to make the
plot by themselves and practise acting in their own play. Ss then videotape their
play in which each member has to speak at least some sentences. Ss hand in their
play at the end of the term so that T can show to the whole class. Ss then vote for
the most interesting one with the best pronunciation.
- Notes: This activity is a minor project of the term. T must assign the project
some weeks before the term ends so that Ss have enough time for preparation.
2.4. 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 diagnostic
test, questionnaire, classroom observation and teacher‟s notes, and final
examination. There are a number of reasons why I chose these tools in my study. I
carried out the oral diagnostic test because it would give me true information on my
students‟ pronunciation before I decided which fields to focus on during the whole
course. The final examination was really necessary because it was an effective tool
to measure my students‟ improvement. The result of the final examination worked
as a good reference to see how much they had gained after the course. Besides the
two tests, I used questionnaire because it was easy to manage and obtain big-scale
data. Questionnaires are familiar to most people and nearly everyone has had some

19

experience completing questionnaires, so they generally do not make people
apprehensive. Moreover, questionnaires reduce bias. There is uniform question


20

2.4.4. Teacher’s notes
The researcher carried out classroom observation in order to take notes of
changes in the students‟ attitude, motivation, interest and improvement during the
course. The researcher also reflected on the teaching and learning process after each
lesson.(Appendix 7) 21

CHAPTER 3: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
This action research was conducted to evaluate the application of games and
other stimulating activities in teaching pronunciation to first year students in
English Department, HANU. The main purpose is to investigate whether the
activities were effective to increase students‟ intelligibility and motivation in
learning pronunciation. This chapter presents the results of all the data gathered
throughout the research. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the
collection of information reported in this chapter. Quantitative results involved in
participants‟ scores in diagnostic test, final oral exam and their responses to the
questionnaire. Qualitative results were the information taken from the researcher‟s
notes and observation.
3.1. Quantitative results
3.1.1. Scores in diagnostic test and final oral exam
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%

students got 7 or 7.5 (54%) in the final test compared to 22% in the diagnostic test.
More specifically, students with mark 7 made up the largest percentage of all
(30%).
The researcher‟s anecdotal notes in tests and examination revealed that after
the course students showed much improvement in pronouncing consonant sounds
although some needed further practice. The problem of word stress seemed to be
solved quite successfully with the habit of using dictionary and motivating
activities, which was illustrated by the fact that the number of the students who put
stress on the correct syllable increased considerably. Despite that positive finding,
sentence stress and intonation were still the problems for many students and they
needed much more practice on these aspects.
3.1.2. Responses to the questionnaire
Areas of investigation
The questionnaire includes 12 questions which cover five main areas of
investigation as follows:
Area of investigation
Question
Students‟ evaluation of the importance of pronunciation
Question 1, 2
Students‟ evaluation of their aptitude to learn
pronunciation
Question 3, 4
Students‟ evaluation of their interest and motivation
Question 5, 6, 7
Students‟ evaluation of pronunciation lessons
Question 8, 9
Students‟ evaluation of activities in the course
Question 10, 11, 12

Analysis and findings