VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF
TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH
PRONUNCIATION SKILLS TO THE 11
TH
GRADERS
AT KIEN AN HIGH SCHOOL

(Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy và học kỹ năng pht âm tiếng Anh
đối với học sinh lớp 11 tại trường trung học phổ thông Kiến An) M.A. MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 601410
Hanoi, 2012

Hanoi, 2012
iv

TABLE OF CONTENT

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 2
2. Aims of the study 3
3. Research questions 3
4. Scope of the study 4
5. Methods of the study 4
6. Design of the study 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
1. Definitions of pronunciation 6
2. Features of pronunciation 6
3. Pronunciation teaching 9
3.1. The importance of pronunciation teaching 8
3.2. The teacher' s role in pronunciation teaching 9
3.3. Approaches, techniques and activities in pronunciation teaching 12
3.3.1. Approaches 12
3.3.2. Techniques and activities 14
4. Pronunciation learning 16
4.1. Factors affecting pronunciation learning 16
4.2. The student's role in pronunciation learning 18
5. Common problems in pronunciation teaching and learning 18
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 20
1. An overview of current situation of teaching and learning speaking skills 20
at Kien An high school 20
1.1. The school 20

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR STUDENTS) VII
APPENDIX 3 XI
CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET XI
APPENDIX 4 XI
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS XI1

LIST OF FIGURES

Chart 1: Students' background
Chart 2: Students' experience
Chart 3: Teachers' problems in teaching pronunciation
Chart 4: Teachers' problems in teaching stress and intonation

pronunciation from learners. However, at many schools in Vietnam,
compared with other skills such as reading, writing or grammar and
vocabulary, speaking skills in general as well as pronunciation skills in
particular has been paid less attention to. In the past, there was no place for
pronunciation in English textbook. In recent years, English textbook for high
school students has been designed for not only grammar and vocabulary but
also pronunciation. Nevertheless, the part for pronunciation is still limited and 3

there is no exercise for pronunciation practice. On the other hand, no oral test
is designed during the process of learning English at school to evaluate
students' speaking proficiency. This leads to students' lack of motivation in
learning pronunciation as well as other speaking skills. Therefore, speaking
English fluently and pronouncing English correctly is still a big problem to
most of Vietnamese students.
In terms of my experiences of teaching English at Kien An high school,
I found that there are rather many worrying problems in the reality of teaching
and learning speaking skills, especially pronunciation, at my school.
However, what are those problems in detail? And what are the suitable
solutions to those issues? These burning questions urge me to carry out the
study, namely "A study on the reality of teaching and learning English
speaking skills to the 11
th
graders at Kien An high school" for the purpose of
answering the questions above in order to distribute partly to improving the
quality of teaching and learning pronunciation at Kien An school.

2. Aims of the study

students will be identified and some feasible solutions will be suggested to
help the students to master pronunciation in English. This is also the
limitation of the minor thesis.

5. Methods of the study
To fulfill the aims of the study, both quantitative and qualitative
methods are used for this case study.
The data serving the research analysis and findings are collected by the
following instruments:
- Questionnaire for teachers
- Questionnaire for students
- Classroom observations
- Interviews 5

6. Design of the paper
This minor thesis is divided into three main parts.
Part A, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the research
questions, the scope, the methods and the design of the study.
Part B, Development, consists of three chapters as follows:
- Chapter I, Literature Review, presents the various concepts
most relevant to the research topic.
- Chapter II, Methodology, describes an overview of the context
of investigation, the participants and the instruments.
- Chapter III, Findings, analyzes the collected data to answer the
research questions.
- Chapter IV, Recommendations, suggests some solutions in
teaching and learning pronunciation at Kien An high school.

The concept of pronunciation is also described as "a way of speaking a word,
especially a way that is accepted or generally understood" in American
Heritage Dictionary (1992)
In the book "A course in language teaching: Practice and Theory"
published in 1996, Ur states that pronunciation is "the sounds of the language
or phonology, stress and rhythm, intonation, combination sounds, linkage of
sound". Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994) consider pronunciation "as the product
of significant sound in two senses". In the first sense, these two writers
explain that sound is used "as part of code of a particular language". That is
the reason why English sounds are distinguished from sounds of other
languages. Therefore, pronunciation in this sense can be talked about "as the
production and reception of sounds of speech". In the second sense,
pronunciation can be talked about "with reference to acts of speaking"
because the authors clarify that sound is used "to achieve meaning in contexts
of use" and "here the code combines with other factors to make
communication possible". 7

2. Features of pronunciation
According to Kelly (2000), main features of pronunciation can be
presented as the following diagram: Features of
pronunciation

8

As can be seen from the above diagram, pronunciation includes
phonemes and suprasegmental features, in which consonants and vowels are
two main parts of phonemes meanwhile intonation and stress belong to
suprasegmental. On the other hand, pronunciation is a broad subject with the
boundaries of various items such as consonants, vowels, stress and intonation.
In the scope of this study, the two pronunciation features, stress and
intonation, are focused and deeply investigated.
Quirk & Greenbaum (1973) state that "stress is the prominence with
one part of a word or longer utterance is distinguished from the other parts".
It can also be said that stress is the relative degree of force used by a speaker
on the various syllables he is uttering.
Kelly (2000) considers intonation as an important part "that most
teachers have to deal with when teaching connected speech". It refers to the
way the voice "go up and down in pitch" when we are speaking. Intonation
plays an important role in helping speaker express his opinions and
understand others' thought and meaning.
To sum up, pronunciation includes various sub-items listed above such
as consonants, vowels, intonation and stress. Paying attention to
pronunciation features, especially stress and intonation, and master them is
one of the ways to help language teachers and learners succeed in teaching
and learning pronunciation in particular and speaking skills in general.

3. Pronunciation teaching
3.1. The importance of pronunciation teaching
It can be said that, in English language, it is pronunciation that is
considered as the first and most important factor native speakers notice during
conversations. Mastering grammar and vocabulary is good and important, too.

10

He claims that "concentrating on sounds, showing where they are made in the
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".

3.2. The teacher' s role in pronunciation teaching
The reality of teaching pronunciation to English as Foreign Language
learners in many countries in the world points out that there are problems
arising in the classroom such as grammar and vocabulary are often given
precedence over pronunciation by both teachers and students although they
understand the importance of pronunciation, which Kelly (2000:1) call
"paradox". Whilst Kenworthy (1987) states that learners who are learning
pronunciation of a foreign language may sometimes not be able to realize
whether they "got it right", comprehend correctly or not. In order to deal with
this problem, it must be understood that the role of the teacher is significant in
the process of teaching pronunciation. According to Kenworthy (1987), in the
process of teaching English pronunciation, the teacher take responsibility for
the following:
 Helping learners hear
One of the important tasks of the teacher is to help learner perceive
sounds. "Teachers need to check that their students are hearing sounds
according to the appropriate categories and help them develop new
categories if necessary." (Kenworthy, 1987:1)
 Helping learners make sounds
It cannot be negated that there are some sounds in English which do not
exist in several other languages. Thus, learners may get into difficulties when

best result. In devising activities for learning pronunciation, the teacher also 12

think about certain activities suitable for the learning styles and approaches of
some learners better than others.
 Assessing progress
One of the important roles of the teacher in pronunciation teaching is to
assess progress. Assessing progress is actually a type of feedback. Most of
learners find it difficult to assess their own progress, so the teacher must
provide them accurate information. Tests and marks at appropriate times may
serve as a strong motivation for learners in the progress of learning.

3.3. Approaches, techniques and activities in pronunciation teaching
3.3.1. Approaches
According to Celce – Murcia, Briton and Goodwin (1996, Teaching
Pronunciation), there are two general approaches to the teaching of
pronunciation.
 Intuitive – imitative approach
An intuitive – imitative approach appearing before the late 19
th
century is
occasionally supplemented by the teachers' impressionistic observation about
sounds based on orthography (Kelly, 1969). This approach "depends on the
learners' ability to listen to and to imitate the rhythms and sounds of the
target language without the intervention of any explicit information" (Celce –
Murcia, et al., 1996:2). It means, with this approach, the teaching of
pronunciation mostly depends on how many times the teacher turns on the
cassette or CD player while the main activities in the class are listening and

 Top-down Approach
Top-down Approach gets the idea of contextualized sounds in
connected speech. The teacher goes from the biggest elements to the smallest
ones of pronunciation: from intonation or contextualized sounds to individual
sounds. 14

3.3.2. Techniques and activities
It is no doubt that making pronunciation lessons effective and fun by
using variety of techniques and activities is what the teachers want and need
to do. According Chomsky - Halle (1968), Celce – Murcia (1996), Kelly
(2000), et al., the following common techniques will become helpful and
effective when the teachers use them appropriately and flexibly in the class.
 Listen and imitate
The teacher provides learners with the pronunciation of the target
language pronounced by teacher him/herself or tape recorders or language
labs, etc., then asks learners to listen to sounds and repeat them.
 Drilling
Drilling is one of the main ways to teach pronunciation. With this
technique, the teacher speaks a word or a structure in model, then has learners
repeat it. Through this basic form, pronunciation is practiced easily in the
class.
 Phonetic training
Articulator description, articulator diagram as well as the phonetic
alphabet are applied in this technique because learners are provided with basic
theoretical knowledge about how sounds are formed and also helped by the
teacher to produce correct sounds.
 Chaining

 Tongue twisters
This is a technique from speech correction strategies for native speakers.
Sounds in tongue twister drills which are difficult to differentiate are put
together to make meaningful sentences. This type of drills is not easy but a 16

more delighting way to practice pronunciation.
 Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by affixation
According to Celce – Murcia (1996:10), this is "a technique based on
rules of generative phonology (Chomsky and Halle 1968) used with
intermediate or advanced learners. The teacher points out the rule-based
nature of vowel and stress shifts in etymologically related words to raise
awareness; sentences and short texts that contain both members of a pair may
be provided as oral practice material:
Vowel shift: mime /ai/ mimic /i/
Sentence context: Street mimes often mimic the gestures of passersby.
Stress shift: PHOtograph phoTOgraphy
Sentence context: I can tell from these photographs that you are very
good at photography."

4. Pronunciation learning
4.1. Factors affecting pronunciation learning
Kenworthy (1987:4, as cited in Nunan 1991) points out the following
factors that affect the learning of pronunciation.
 The native language
The native language is an important factor in learning to pronounce. The
more differences there are between the native and the target language, the
more difficulties will be encountered by the learners. When a particular sound
18

their pronunciation is. This factor should not be neglected as it is considered
to be one of the most important factors affecting pronunciation learning.
4.2. The student's role in pronunciation learning
The learner's role plays an important part in learning any subject in
general as well as in English pronunciation in particular. It means a learner
has to take his or her own responsibility and be willing to learn. When
learners really pay attention to their pronunciation, they will become more
cautious about their speaking, which helps them build up their own good
pronunciation gradually. In teaching and learning pronunciation, besides the
help from the teacher, self-correction is also good for learners to find and
make correction to their pronunciation mistakes themselves.
5. Common problems in pronunciation teaching and learning
It is known that teaching and learning pronunciation involves a variety
of challenges which both teachers and learners cannot overcome successfully
if they do not really have a deep understanding of these problems. The
difficulties in pronunciation lessons arise not only from the nature of
pronunciation itself, but also from other various subjective and objective
factors. In the light of the previous and current studies, several major
problems both teachers and students often encounter in the pronunciation
classes are mentioned as follows:
 The nature of pronunciations
As mentioned above, mother tongue is a factor which has a great
influence on pronunciation learning of a foreign language. Nunan (1991)
states that the problems of acquiring the phonology of the second language
presents formidable challenge to any theory of second language acquisition.
The more differences there are between the native and the target language, the
20

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY
1. An overview of current situation of teaching and learning speaking
skills at Kien An high school
1.1. The school
Founded in 1959, located in Kien An district, Hai Phong city, Kien An
high school has been know as one of the leading choices of parents and
students living in Kien An district and some suburbs nearby when they finish
the secondary school. It has 36 classes with over 90 teachers of different
subjects and about 1650 students of three grades: 10, 11 and 12. On the
average, there are 42 to 50 students in a class.
1.2. The course
At Kien An high school, English is taught as a compulsory subject with
three or four classes a week. During three years of learning English at school,
students use three English textbooks (English 10, English 11 and English 12)
focusing on four skills including listening, speaking, reading, writing and
language focus part. Of those skills, most of students are not good at
speaking, especially pronunciation, although they have studied English before
at primary and secondary school. In the textbook, pronunciation part is
designed to be found in the language focus part and generally taught within 5
to 7 minutes in a 45 minute period. It means, after a year of learning English
with 16 lessons, each student spends only about an hour and a half on average
to learn pronunciation in class.

2. The study
2.1. Research methods
This study was carried out in the form of survey questionnaires,

learning English speaking skills for the study. The researcher observed the
two classes, 11B7 and 11B11, taught by two English language teachers with