VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************
TRẦN THỊ TUYẾT MAI USING ENGLISH TRADITIONAL SONGS TO IMPROVE
STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT
DUY TIEN C HIGH SCHOOL
SỬ DỤNG BÀI HÁT TRUYỀN THỐNG ANH ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN
KHẢ NĂNG PHÁT ÂM CỦA HỌC SINH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU
HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG PTTH C DUY TIÊN

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi - 2010

Hanoi - 2010

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Table of contents

Acknowledgements i
Declaration ii
Abstract iii
List of abbreaviations iv
List of charts and tables v
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Method of the study 2
6. Design of the study 3
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Definition of pronunciation? 4
1.2. The teacher’s and students’ role in teaching and learning pronunciation 4
1.2.1. The teacher’s role 4
1.2.2. The students’ roles 6
1.3. Pronunciation and communicative teaching 6
1.4. Review of traditional methods and approaches for teaching pronunciation 7
1.4.1. Traditional methods of teaching pronunciation 7
1.4.2. Approaches for teaching pronunciation 8
1.5. Songs as motivator for students to improve pronunciation 9
1.6. Aspects of pronunciation that can be improved through songs 10
1.6.1. Sounds 10

3.1.1.3.6. Some disadvantages of using songs in teaching pronunciation 23
3.1.2. Questionnaire for teachers 24
3.1.2.1. Aims 24
3.1.2.2. Participants 24
3.1.2.3. Data analysis 24
3.1.2.3.1. Teachers’ frequency of using songs to teach pronunciation for students 24
3.1.2.3.2. Kinds of songs teachers used to teach pronunciation 25
3.1.2.3.3. Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of songs. 25
3.1.2.3.4. The sources of songs 26
3.1.2.3.5. Difficulties of designing the pronunciation lesson with the use of songs 26
3.2. Tests 26

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3.2.1. Aims 26
3.2.2. Participants 26
3.2.3. Test description 26
3.2.4. Data analysis and finding 27
3.2.4.1. Pre-test (At the beginning of the term) 27
3.2.4.1.1.Frequency distribution 27
3.2.4.1.2. Correlation 28
3.2.4.2. At the end of the term (Post-test) 29
3.2.4.2.1. Frequency distribution 29
3.2.4.2.2. Correlation 30
Chapter 4: implication 31
4.1. The effectiveness of using songs to teach pronunciation for high school students 31
4.2. How to use songs to teach pronunciation for students 31
4.2.1. Suggestions for task designing 31
4.2.2. Suggestions for choosing the topic of the songs 32
4.2.3. How to select the songs 32
4.3. A sample lesson plan 33
v
LIST OF CHART AND TABLES

Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards English song
Chart 2: Students’ improvement after they had been taught with the use of songs
Chart3: Activities students do during the pronunciation lesson
Chart 4: Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of songs
Chart 5: Raw marks in pronunciation test ( Pre-test)
Chart 6: Raw marks in pronunciation test (Post-test)
Table 1: Students’ favorite tasks while listening to songs
Table 2: The effectiveness of using songs in teaching pronunciation
Table 3: Teachers’ frequency of using songs to teach pronunciation for students
Table 4: Kinds of songs teachers used to teach pronunciation
Table 5: The sources of songs
Table 6: Frequency distribution (pre-test)
Table 7: Mean and Std. Deviation (pre-test)
Table 8: Frequency distribution (post-test)
Table 9: Mean and Std. Deviation (post-test)


“If we can make our classrooms places where students enjoy coming because the content is
interesting and relevant to their age and level of ability, where the learning goals are
challenging yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere is supportive and non-
threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students‟ motivation to learn.” They
also show that students never learn everything they are taught, they only learn what they
are interested in. However, interest is something very unstable and unpredictable because
it depends on many factors. Sesnan, B. (1997 :33-35) describes a good teacher as the one

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who does not only use a good teaching method, but also takes into consideration of how to
teach students, how to learn effectively by themselves and helps them to involve
themselves with interest in the learning process, suggests some main ways to hold
students‟ interest such as: audio-visual aids including objects, pictures, language activities
like games, songs, story-telling, project. Of all the items, songs seem to be the most
interesting to exploit to the author. Therefore, the researcher chooses songs to teach
pronunciation for students at Duy Tien C high school.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims at:
(1): finding out whether the use of English traditional songs to teach pronunciation
for high school students is effective or not.
(2): working out the most effective ways of using English songs to teach
pronunciation for high school students.
3. Research questions
With above aims, the researcher hopes to conduct this study to answer the following
questions:
(1) To what extent can English songs help students to improve their pronunciation?
(2) How to use songs in teaching pronunciation in classroom?
4. Scope of the study
The study mainly focuses on exploiting English songs as supplementary material to
improve the pronunciation of the 10

and the use of songs in the lessons.
Chapter 3: This chapter include data analysis and findings
Chapter 4: Implication of the study
Part 3: Conclusion summaries the major findings discussed in part 2, gives out the
limitation of the study and suggestions for further study. 4
Part 2: development
Chapter 1: literature review

1.1. Definition of pronunciation?
The notion of pronunciation is defined in many ways by many authors. Generally
speaking, pronunciation is simply defined as “the way in which a language is spoken”
(Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Encyclopedic, 1992:718).
In addition, Jones (1998:5) defines that pronunciation is “the way in which people
pronounce words.”
Pronunciation is also defined in an article on the internet as follows:
(http://www.en.wikipedia. org/wiki/pronunciation): “Pronunciation refers to the way a
word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word.”
Since pronunciation is a complicated concept that involves many aspects, it is difficult to
make clear what definition is the most precise one. In this paper, the definition by Jones
(1998) is picked up for the purpose of the study that is using songs to teach pronunciation.
1.2. The teacher’s and students’ role in teaching and learning pronunciation

for the most part unconsciously controlled, learners may miss something important.
Teachers need to make learners aware of the potential of sounds the resources available to
them for sending spoken massages.
Establishing priorities
Students need the help of teachers in establishing a plan for action, in deciding what to
concentrate on and when to leave well enough alone.
Devising activities
Because of the fact that learning pronunciation is very complex, teachers should design or
select suitable and helpful activities for students to practice. They also explore which
activities provide the most opportunities for practice. However, teachers must also keep in
mind that certain activities suit the learning styles and approaches of some students better
than others.
Assessing progress
Another important role of a foreign language teacher is to assess students‟ progress and
provide information about it because students find it hard to do by themselves.
Kenworthy, J. (1996: 9) also mentioned one special important role of a teacher: “A teacher
who clearly demonstrates concern for the pronunciation and speaking skills of learners will
stand a good chance of instilling a similar concern in the learners themselves”. In addition,

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other researchers (Moore, 1992: 173; Pintrich and Strunk, 2002: 245) also claim that the
desire to do well is a kind of “achievement motivation”, if one does not care about a
particular task or does not see the value of it, one will not be motivated to do well.
In brief, it is very clear that a formal teacher plays a very important role in the students‟
learning process. The teacher should always bear in mind the above duties so that the
pronunciation lesson will be made enjoyable and effective.
1.2.2. The students’ roles
Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2001: 7-15) have mentioned some roles of students as
follows: They have to perceive the model as exactly as they can because failing to do so,
students will not be able to pronounce the model correctly. In addition, they need to

by speech perception; the hearer has become an important factor in communication
discourse. Therefore, there should be the need to integrate pronunciation with
communicative activities, to give the students situations to develop their pronunciation by
listening and speaking.
The communicative approach to pronunciation teaching requires teaching methods and
objectives that include “whole person learner involvement”(Morley, 1991:501). Three
important dimensions are also suggested to focus on in any pronunciation programs: the
learner‟s intellectual involvement, affective involvement and physical involvement. In the
communicative learning program, the teacher also has a special role to play- supplies
information, sets high standards, provides a wide variety of practice opportunities and
overall supports and encourages the learners.
All students can do well in learning the pronunciation of a foreign language if they have set
the learning goals for themselves. Pronunciation must also be viewed in the same light as
grammar, syntax, and discourse, which is a crucial part of communication. The content of
the course should be intergrated into the communication class. If these criteria are met,
learners can be expected to do well in learning pronunciation of a foreign language.
1.4. Review of traditional methods and approaches for teaching pronunciation
1.4.1. Traditional methods of teaching pronunciation
The role of pronunciation in foreign language teaching is very different among various
schools of language teaching. In grammar-translation method, there is no place for
teaching pronunciation. In contrast, pronunciation is the main focus in audio-lingual
method where emphasis is on the traditional notions of pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills
and short conversations. During the late 1960s and the 1970s, many questions were raised
about the effectiveness of teaching pronunciation in an EFL curriculum. However, there
has been a move from teacher-centered to learner-centered classrooms. Morley (1991: 481-
521) states the need for the integration of pronunciation with the oral communication;

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emphasis changes from segmental to suprasegmental, more emphasis on individual learner
needs, meaningful task-based practices, development of new teacher strategies for the


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1.5. Songs as motivator for students to improve pronunciation
Since our motivation in language teaching has shifted from grammar-translation method to
communicative approach, the teaching and learning pronunciation is considered to be vital
in language classroom. However, teachers should take into consideration that students can
be expected to do well in the pronunciation of English if the pronunciation class is taken
out of isolation and becomes an integral part of the oral communication class (Morley,
(1991: 496)). The goal of pronunciation should be changed from the attainment of perfect
pronunciation to the more realistic goals of developing functional intelligibility,
communicability. The main aim of this change is to develop spoken English for learners‟
individual needs.
There have been a lot of researches on the role of attitudes and motivation in second
language learning. The overall findings show that positive attitudes and motivation are
related to success in second language learning (Gardner (1985: 10)). Motivation is believed
to play an important role in the process of acquiring an additional language because
motivated students are usually those who participate actively in the class, express interest
in the subject matter and study a lot. Davies, P. (2000: 13) states that most teachers
consider motivation essential for successful language learning. However, motivation is
difficult to define and measure and is a complex phenomenon, and not all learners respond
to teaching in the same ways. Therefore, it is not easy to motivate students in a
pronunciation lesson.
Moreover, students are those who still like playing, so the teacher is expected to be
imaginative and creative in developing their teaching techniques to make the English
lessons more exciting. Teachers should make students feel they need English and English
is interesting. Davies, P. (2000: 12) also mentions that more important factors for
successful language teaching and learning are plenty of opportunities for learners to
participate in class and an atmosphere in which they feel motivated to learn. One way to
arise their enthusiasm is by the use of songs.
English songs are widely used in language teaching for a number of outstanding features.

songs go from low to high, up and down, which is a very good condition to practice stress
and intonation in English. To be brief, elements of pronunciation needs to be taught in this
study are as follows:
1.6.1. Sounds
According to Gimson (1962), English sounds consist of two types, they are vowels and
consonants. Vowels and consonants have different functions in a syllable. Since English
has borrowed a lot of words from other languages such as: Eskimo, Farsi, ancient Latin,
Greek and France, sounds and phonetic transcription are confusing aspects of English

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pronunciation. Homographs and homophones are two typical examples of unequivalence
of sound and phonetic transcription. Therefore, the most important elements need teaching
are vowels and consonants, syllables, phonetic transcription and ending sounds.
1.6.2. Word stress
In English, stress is one of the most prominent features that cause difficulties to learners. In
words of two or more syllables, one of them is stressed and stronger, louder and longer
than the other(s). This stressed syllable is very important because speakers rely on patterns
of stress to identify the words and phrases they hear (Grant, L. (1993: 241)). Therefore,
word stress must be highly focused on at the beginning of any pronunciation course to help
learners to have understandable pronunciation.
1.6.3. Rhythm
According to Kenworthy (2000:30) rhythm is characterized by the alternation of strong and
weak syllables. Rhythm is, therefore, a product of word stress and the way in which
important items are fore-grounded through their occurrence on a strong beat.
1.6.4. Intonation
Being aware of intonation in English is very important because the ways the speaker puts
stress and intonation in a sentence can carry different meanings. “Intonation in English is
the rise and fall of pitch in order to convey a range of meanings, emotions or situation”.
(www. American accent. com). So, students need to know about intonation right from the
start of any courses. In this point, songs seem to give a great help to improve English

due to the time limitation of each pronunciation lesson, only short and simple songs are
chosen to improve students‟ word stress, intonation, rhythm and so on.

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Chapter 2: methodology

2.1. The context of the study
2.1.1. Physical conditions which affect students’ participation in a pronunciation lesson
The environment in which students learn can greatly influence their performance and well-
being at school. The learning environment can be seen as physical conditions including
class size, chairs, desks, tables, lights, boards. Harmer, J. (1992:271) argued that physical
conditions have great impact on students‟ learning as well as their attitudes towards the
subject matter. In fact, the better learning environment is, the more it inspires the people
inside it.
Furthermore, the text books and authentic materials can be considered important resources.
Textbooks specify goals and objectives of a language teaching program so they are
considered greatly important. Krashen, S. (1981:126) states that “children progress by
understanding the language that is a little beyond them”. It means that if the contents of the
textbooks are suitable and up to the students‟ knowledge, they will be of great benefit to
develop students‟ language competence. Authentic materials can be seen as an important
factor affecting students‟ learning situation. Authentic materials may include: tapes, tape-
recorders, language laboratories, wall-pictures, wall charts, other display facilities, slides,
film trips, films, televisions, radios, record players, video recorders, and libraries. It is true
that authentic materials motivate students much, particularly when they are too tired of
doing many exercises. Students realize that learning with authentic materials is so
interesting and they will continue more on the lesson. When talking about this, Bowen, B.
M. (1982:1) says that authentic materials “encourage the learners to lift their eyes from
their books, which makes it easier and more natural for one to speak to another”. In fact,
different types of authentic materials can help to change the atmosphere of a classroom and
bring in the „real world‟ which makes students think and act just as in daily life.

vocabulary and there is no place for teaching pronunciation. When working with the new
syllabus, they feel it difficult to initiate activities and manage the class. Fortunately, all of
them are young teachers and have just graduated from the college and they have great
desire and motivation to acquire knowledge of communicative competence to apply in
teaching English.
2.1.3. Background information of the phonetics lessons at upper secondary school
Phonetics is designed to be taught together with grammatical items. All these two items
take up of 45 minutes teaching. Frequently, the author spends about 7 to 10 minutes
teaching phonetics because grammatical items are always considered to be more important
and need more concentration. During five years of teaching English at Duy Tien C high

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school, the reearcher has found that the students pay little or no attention to phonetic part.
Some students are not motivated and others are not absorbed in the lesson. Later, after
talking with some of the students, the author realized that the students found the class
boring and didnot feel they had learnt much in the class. Basing on feed backs from the
students, some changes were introduced to the phonetic lessons.
2.2. Data collection instruments
Both questionnaires and tests were employed in this research so as to get the accurate data.
These two interuments help the researcher get more in-depth data for analysis.
2.2.1. Questionnaires
The questionnaire is exploited in this research since it is one of the most popular
instruments in gathering data. Questionnaires are easy to prepare and can be given to large
groups of subjects at the same time. It also help the researcher get a large amount of
information within a short period of time.
The questionnaire for students aims at finding out their opinions and attitudes towards the
use of English songs. It consists of six questions which focuses on six main aspects that the
researcher would like to investigate as follows: question 1 aimed at finding students‟
attitude towards English songs in general; question 2 worked out the degrees in which
songs can help students to improve their pronunciation; question 3 found out the activities

taught without using English songs. The data was collected in the following steps:
Step 1: 2 classes (10A2 and 10A3) were given a pronunciation test as a pre-test.
Step 2: a post-test was used in both classes to find out the results of the teaching and
learning pronunciation.
Step 3: the survey questionnaire for students was delivered to the experimental class to
find out what they thought, how much they enjoyed the effectiveness of using songs in
pronunciation lessons. In addition, a survey questionnaire was also delivered to the English
teachers at Duy Tien C high school to find out how they used songs in the class.
2.4. The use of songs in the lessons
In this study, English songs were designed in the form of tasks for students to perform at
the beginning of each language focus lesson. They were commonly taught in about ten to
fifteen minutes via the following steps:
In the first step, the teacher presented briefly the background of the songs (the composer,
the singers, or the circumstance in which it was written), explained some new words of the
tasks. Secondly, the teacher put students into groups and asked them to skim through the
handouts and made some guess about the tasks. Finally, the teacher played the songs and
let students to listen once from the beginning to the end to get the general picture, tones of
the songs. The tape was played for the second time, pausing at the key words so that the
students had time to do the tasks. After three times, teacher asked students to give the
answers and then corrected them.

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2.5. Summary
In this chapter, the author presents the context of the study, the teaching and learning
conditions at Duy Tien C high school. The physical conditions which affect students‟
participation in pronunciation lesson are also made clear in order to find out the most
effective condition for the learning pronuciation of English. In addition, the researcher
gives some background information about the phonetics lessons at upper secondary school.
Tests and questionnares are the data collection instruments of this study. In the last part,
the author describes the use of songs in the pronunciation lesson.

Not at all
A bit
Much
Very much

This pie chart illustrates the students‟ attitude towards the English songs very clearly. From
the chart, it can be seen that most of the students were interested in English songs which
takes up for 89% of them. More than half of them (56%) expressed their great love for this
way of teaching. However, a significant number of them (11%) stated that they didnot like
the use of English songs. These students said that they were not familiar with listening to
songs because there are a lot of linking and connected words. In their opinion, they liked