VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
=***=
PHẠM THANH MAI

DESIGNING SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES
IN TEACHING AFFRICATIVE SOUNDS
THROUGH THE BOOK “ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN USE”
BY MARK HANCOCK TO THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR
STUDENTS AT LANG SON TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE

THIẾT KẾ BÀI TẬP BỔ TRỢ DẠY PHỤ ÂM TẮC XÁT DỰA TRÊN GIÁO TRÌNH
“ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN USE” CỦA MARK HANCOCK CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM
THỨ NHẤT CHUYÊN ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG CĐSP LẠNG SƠN

(M.A MINOR THESIS)

Field: English Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Dr. Dương Thị Nụ

Hanoi, 2010 iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS


1.3.2.1. Criteria by Brian Tomlinson …………………………………… 12
1.3.2.2. Criteria by Hutchinson & Walters ……………… …………… 12
1.3.3. Types of Evaluation ……………………………………………………… 13
1.4. Materials adaptation ……………………………………………………………… 14
1.4.1. Reasons for adaptation ……………………………………………… … 15
1.4.2. Objectives for adaptation ……………… ………………………………… 15
1.4.3. Techniques for adaptation ………………………………………………… 16
Chapter II: THE STUDY ……………………………………………………………… 17
2.1. Subjects …………………………………………………………………………… 17
2.2. Context ……………………………………………………………………………… 17
2.2.1. The current situation of English teaching and learning at LSTC ………… 17
2.2.2. Teachers ………………………………………………………………… 18
2.2.2.1. Description …………………………………………………… 18
2.2.2.2. Teacher analysis ……………………………………………… 19
2.2.3. Learners …………………………………………………………………. 21
2.2.3.1. Description …………………………………………………… 21
2.2.3.2. Learner analysis ………………………………………………… 21
2.3. Summary …………………………………………………………………………… 29
Chapter III: SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES ……………………………………… 30
3.1. Brief evaluation of current coursebook …………………………… ……….…… 30
3.1.1. Objectives of the material ……………………………………………… 30
3.1.2. Organization and design …………………………………………………. 31
3.1.3. Activities and exercises ………………………………………………… 32
3.1.4. Methodology …………………………………………………………… 33
3.1.5. Summary ………………………………………………………………… 34
3.2. Proposed supplementary exercises …………………………………………………. 34
3.3. Suggestions for teachers and answer key ……………………………………………. 38
3.4. Summary …………………………………………………………………………… 38
Part C. CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………. 39 vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATION EFL: English Foreign Language
ICT : Information Communication Technology
LSTC: Lang Son Teachers’ training College
M.A Master of Arts
OHP Overhead Projector
PPP Presentation, Practice, Production
RP Received Pronunciation
VNU: Viet Nam National University
ULIS: University of Language & International Studies
The new trend of teaching EFL has undergone the shift from linguistic competencies to
broader communicative competencies. This leads to the fact that the need for the integration of
pronunciation with oral communication is clearly realized. Therefore, pronunciation is such an
integrated and integral part of EFL learning because of its direct effects on learners‘
communicative competencies that teaching pronunciation plays a really crucial role in
teaching EFL.
Despite the importance of pronunciation and teaching pronunciation to EFL students,
this aspect is less taken into consideration and takes much of teachers‘ ignorance in the EFL
classes - an idea shared by Kelly (1996) who dubs pronunciation the ―Cinderella‖ area of
foreign language teaching. This fact affects students' learning and they take little concern for
pronunciation. Consequently, many students have poor knowledge of this aspect. They often
make mistakes in articulating English sounds and they find it difficult to capture correct
pronunciation.
The above- mentioned matters are really true to the English teaching and learning
situation in Lang Son teachers‘ training college (LSTC). Many English major students have
trouble with pronunciation, especially with the English sounds. As a result, there are various
problems arising to the students. Firstly, because of the differences between sound systems of
English and Vietnamese, some English sounds do not exist in Vietnamese and vice versa and
thus many students do not know how to correctly pronounce some certain sounds such as /θ/,
/ð/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/ … and some other vowels. Secondly, ―each sound of English is
represented by more than one written letter or by sequences of letters‖ and ―any letter of
English represents more than one sound, or it may not represent any sound at all‖ (Paul,
1991:5) for example /tʃ/ in chip, future, watch ; /dʒ/ in jam, general, age, fridge or /g/ in 2
giggle, /ʒ/ in gigolo, /dʒ/ in giant …, the confusion among some sounds /dʒ/, /z/, /ʒ/ or / ʃ/,
/s/ frequently happens to these students who can scarcely be able to clearly distinguish these
sounds from others.
It's believed that this problematic issue results from teachers‘ ignorance and the fact

/dʒ/.
- Evaluate the course book ― English Pronunciation in Use‖ in terms of a single section
―Letters and sounds‖
- Propose a certain number of exercises on affricate sounds for the first - year English
major students at LSTC.
3. Research questions
To target the aims of the study, the following research questions are addressed:
(1) What difficulties do students have in dealing with affricative sounds?
(2) How suitable is the system of English sound in the course book ―English
Pronunciation in Use‖ for English major students at LSTC?
(3) What are supplementary exercises for affricative sounds?
4. Scope of the study
Obviously, pronunciation covers different features: segmentals (individual sounds) and
suprasegmentals ( intonation and stress). We must bear in mind that the sounds are considered
as the preliminary enquiry in teaching and learning pronunciation and they are also concerned
in teaching other aspect like vocabulary or teaching speaking skill. However, the researcher
does not have ambition to include the whole English sound system because it is a really time-
consuming and complex matter. Otherwise, the researcher would like to take only affricates -
two complex consonant sounds - which cause difficulties for students to do a different job
from the previous researchers': design the supplementary exercises with the hope that it could
be not only an improvement in reality of teaching and learning pronunciation but also the
sample to design exercises for teaching other sounds in the situation of LSTC and of teachers'
who are concerned with the same situation.
5. Methods of the study
The researcher, in this study, applies both quantitative and qualitative methods to
analyze the data which are collected by means of questionnaire to both teachers and students
in LSTC and the interviews to the teachers only in order to explore the aims of the study. 4

Part B
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1. Teaching pronunciation
With the rise of communicative approach in language teaching, pronunciation has so
far occupied a considerable place in EFL classes as it has direct influence on learners‘
communicative competence as well as performance to a substantial extent. Therefore, it would
be a mistake if there is no mention of various issues relating to teaching pronunciation to
foreign language learners.
1.1.1. Importance of teaching pronunciation in EFL teaching
Among the different subjects in English language teaching, pronunciation is
considered as an important component since it is ―a primary medium for communication of
information about ourselves as individual and as representatives of different groups‖
(Pennington, 1996:2). This idea is also shared by Stevick (1978, quoted in Pennington,
1996:2): “ pronunciation is the primary medium through which we bring our use of language
to the attention of other people‖.
It is a common view that correct pronunciation is necessary for a speaker to
communicate. A learner who consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes can be
extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand (Kelly,
2006:11). The consequence in which a learners of foreign language is not understood when
they articulate something make his process of learning meaningless. Thus, according to Kelly
(2006), it can be ―very frustrating for the learner who may have a good command of grammar
and lexis but have difficulty in understanding and being understood by a native speaker.‖
Apparently, the effects of pronunciation on the successful learning output are so
significant that teaching pronunciation is deservedly put in high position in teaching language.
Hence, for many recent years, teaching pronunciation has been taken into account due to the
changes in the purpose of foreign language learning in general and English in particular. 7
(Kelly, 2000: 13)
To summarize, the fact that the teachers wonder what and how to teach pronunciation
to their students is a noticeable problem because it is a determining factor towards the
pronunciation learning output. Therefore, good ideas for classroom activities such as
suggested exercises, activities, tasks, methods or approaches of teaching… are considered as
valuable resources for teachers to apply in their pronunciation teaching from which they can
create the interesting and effective lessons of pronunciation.
1.2. Affricative sounds
Although, English vowels exposure difficulties to Vietnamese learners, the researcher
has reasons to mention English consonants since, according to O‘Conner‘s, (1980: 24). ―There
are two good reasons for beginning with consonants rather than vowels. First, consonants
contribute more to making English understood than vowels do. Second, consonants are
generally made by a definite interference of the vocal organs with the air stream, and so are
easy to describe and understand‖
Among 24 consonant sounds in English, there are only 2 complex ones- affricates-
including /tʃ/ as in chug /tʃʌg/ and /dʒ/ as in jug /dʒʌg/. These affricates are post- alveolar
sounds in which /tʃ/ is unvoiced and fortis; /dʒ/ is voiced and lenis.
In order to make a clear description of these sounds, it is necessary to give the
definition of Affricates
1.2.1. Definition
In this study, the author really appreciates Cruttenden‘s definition. He defines: ―The
term „affricate‟ denotes a concept which is primarily of phonetic importance. Any plosive
whose release stage is performed in such a way that considerable friction occurs
approximately at the point where the plosive stop is made, may be called
„ affricative‟ ‖(Cruttenden, 2001: 171). To reach this definition, only 2 English sounds /tʃ/
and /dʒ/ are satisfactory.
1.2.2. Description of Affricative sounds

sounds, during both stop and fricative stages, the vocal folds are wide apart for /tʃ/, but may be
vibrating for all or part of /dʒ/ according to the situation in the utterance. Thus, /tʃ/ is
unvoiced and /dʒ/ is voiced.
1.2.3. Learners’ problems with affricates
1.2.3.1. Distribution/ Absence of sounds
As stated above, affricates / tʃ / & / dʒ / are two complex sounds in English. They are
complex in the way that they are sounds, in the progress of articulating, starting as stop
consonants and ending as fricatives.
However, Vietnamese consonant system, according to Đoàn Thiện Thuật (2003;153),
comprises three main categories of sounds: stops, nasal (sonants) and fricatives. This is an
indication that the Vietnamese consonantal inventory does not contain the same consonants as
its English counterpart. Particularly, the afficates do not exist in Vietnamese languages.
Naturally, the manner of articulation of stops and fricatives is quite differ from that of
affricatives which Vietnamese speakers find it uneasy and unfamiliar to pronounce. Instead,
they tend to make these sounds similar to the ones of their native language (such as they
pronounce / tʃ / as /t/ in trưa & / c / in chua.
Kelly (2000:58) supposes: ―Sometimes the difficulties may be due to the absence of a
phoneme in L1‖. He also takes an example: ― Italians, for example, does not have /
ʒ
/, and so,
understandably, Italians may have difficulties with this phoneme in English‖. This example
entails the Vietnamese speakers‘ difficulties in articulating affricative sounds are due to the
absence of these sounds in Vietnamese consonantal inventory. The causes are well explained
by Avery and Ehrlich as following: ― Difficulties may arise when a learner encounters sounds
in English that are not part of the sound inventory of the learner‘s native language‖ and ― the
pronunciation of sounds depends on the proper use of the musculature in the mouth. Thus
adult learners may be unable to produce new sounds because they have never exercised their
mouth in particular way required to pronounce certain English sounds‖ (Avery & Ehrlich,
1997: xv)


speakers. 11
However, when dealing with this, it is unavoidable to address / tʃ / & / dʒ /- two
affricates -which are often included in consonant clusters, especially, final clusters and these
clusters are usually considered as the difficult ones. The following table illustrates the
possible final clusters in English which contain affricates.
n
l
r
ntʃ
wrench
ltʃ
belch
rtʃ
arch
ndʒ
strange
ldʒ
bulge
rdʒ
barge

Table 1: Possible final clusters with affricative sounds
It‘s common view that speakers of different languages may employ different strategies
in dealing with consonant clusters which they find difficult to pronounce. What about
Vietnamese learners? According to Avery & Ehrlich (1997:59), ―in pronouncing English
words with initial or final consonant clusters, Cantonese and Vietnamese speakers tend to
delete one of the consonants of the cluster rather than insert a vowel‖ to make the word

- the validity of the materials (i.e. is what the teach worth teaching?);
- the reliability of the materials (i.e. would they have the same effect with different groups
of target learners?);
- the ability of the materials to interest the learners and teachers;
- the ability of the materials to motivate the learners;
- the values of the materials in terms of short-term learning (important, for example, for
performance on tests and examinations);
- the values of the materials in terms of long-term learning ( of both language and of
communication skills);
- the learners‘ perception of the value of the materials;
- the teachers‘ perception of the value of the materials;
- the assistance given to the teachers in terms of preparation, delivery and assessment;
- the flexibility of the materials (e.g., the extent to which it is easy for a teacher to adapt the
materials to suit a particular context);
- the contribution made by the materials to teacher development;
- the match with administrative requirements (e.g., standardization across classes, coverage
of a syllabus, preparation for an examination). 13
(B. Tomlinson, 2003:14)
It is the fact that, in different context, the evaluations are not the same as ―the needs,
objectives, backgrounds and preferred styles of the participants will differ from context to
context‖. To carry out an evaluation, the criteria are obligatory basis on which the evaluators
depend to come to end.
1. 3.2.2. Criteria by Hutchinson & Waters
In comparison with Tomlinson‘s checklist, Hutchinson & Waters introduce fewer
criteria one of which, although a bit different, seem to be more comprehensive and each
criterion can cover one or more than one criterion in the Tomlinson‘s.
By this way, Hutchinson & Waters (1993) suggest the criteria for materials evaluation

those practices‖, the author tends to make the evaluation in terms of the combination of these
two types.
1.4. Materials adaptation
In order to provide teaching and learning processes with better results, pedagogical
innovations must be implemented and adapted according to local condition, the strengths of
the individual teachers and students, the objectives, the learners‘ need …Thus, in order to
bring about good classes, the classroom teachers ―will still have to adapt the materials either
consciously or subconsciously‖ even when she ―selects the book, knows every student in the
class well and is using materials designed specifically for the context they are in‖ (Islam &
Mares, quoted in Tomlinson, 2003:86). That is why classroom materials need to be adapted to
reflect needs within particular teaching context, current understanding of second language
acquisition and good teaching practices (Tomlinson, 2003:100)
Pedagogically, adaptation is a process of matching and its purpose is to maximize the
appropriateness of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal
characteristics of a coursebook or a set of materials to better suit our particular situation.

1.4.1. Reasons for adaptation
Although there are several reasons for adapting materials in order to make them as
accessible and useful to learners as possible, these reasons have varied and changed as the
field has developed and views on language acquisition and teaching practice have become
better informed by research and experience. 15
McDonough and Shaw (1993) make a list of reasons for adapting unsystematic
approach to grammar presentation, and it seems to be quite a bit of overlap with
Cunningsworth‘s reasons (1995). However, the adaptation is appropriate when materials are
not ideal in:
 Methods (e.g., an exercise may be too mechanical, lacking in meaning, too
complicated).

1.4.3. Techniques for adaptation
Adapting materials is carried out as soon as a gap between publish teaching materials
and the needs and objectives of classroom is recognized. In order to adapt materials for a
particular situation in an effective way, the teacher needs to employ certain techniques that she
finds suitable amongst the different ones. Tomlinson (2003: 91) quotes a list of popular
techniques, offered by McDonough & Shaw (1993) and Cunningsworth (1995), which
includes: Adding; extending and expanding
Deleting; subtracting and abridging
Simplifying
Reordering
Replacing material
Some or all of these techniques may be used when adapting materials better to ‗fit‘ a
specific class. However, which techniques are employed bases on the teacher‘s decision at
the time she realizes which items of the materials should be adapted to meet her class
objectives more closely.
In summary, adaptation is a crucial job that the researcher needs to employ to break the
mismatch between the materials and the learners‘ needs and the classroom ‗s objectives alike.
All about theoretical background of materials adaptation is a really precious resources
for the researcher to apply as basis to reach the goal of the study.
17
CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 2.1. Subjects
This study was carried out with the participation of 88 first- years English major
students at LSTC. There average age was 19 ranging from 18 to 20. Approximately 82% (72
students) of these students were minorities coming far from the central city. They all stated

students. Furthermore, the lack of the training courses or seminars on English and English
teaching methods makes it difficult for the teachers to share the ideas or learn from the others.
The teaching and leaning facilities for environment of foreign languages are not suitably
taken care of. There is no available room with OHP. Once the teacher wants to apply ICT in
teaching to make the lessons more interesting and effective, she has to ask the administrators
before and it is admitted only when she has a laptop and the equipment is not occupied. This
is an indication that there are not free chances for the teachers to show their efforts as well as
to equip themselves with necessary skills in the teaching and for the students to absorb
language in the good ways.
2.2.2. Teachers
2.2.2.1. Description
Department of Foreign Language at LSTC has duty of teaching two languages: English
and Chinese with the participation of 19 teachers in which there are 15 teachers of English
aged from 24 to 46. With the enthusiasm and eagerness in improving knowledge of language
and teaching competence, 4 teachers have finished courses of M.A in Vietnam, two others are
studying for M.A degree in Australia and one teacher is taking the same course at ULIS-
VNU, Hanoi. Two teachers were trained in in-service training courses and they now have P.G
certificates. The rest are young and have less than 3 years of teaching experience. These
teachers are trying their best to earn their M.A degrees in the next few years.
At work, the teaching staff is a close knit community. Teachers take much interest in
their job and the classroom observations are usually held to share the ideas and learn from
each other.
However, teachers are always complaining about the lack of reliable reference books
or supplementary materials that they can apply in the situation of EFL teaching at LSTC. 19
Hence the teachers here show their desire for these sources very much and they are always
encouraged to adapt teaching materials for their own.
2.2.2.2. Teacher analysis