VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THÚY ANH

TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TO 10th GRADE

STUDENTS AT THANH LIEM C HIGH SCHOOL
(DẠY PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT
THANH LIÊM C, HÀ NAM)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410

Hanoi, 2012
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS iv
INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 3
5. Method of the study 3
6. Significance of the study 3
7. The design of the study 4
8. Previous studies on teaching and learning English pronunciation 4
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7
1.1. Definition of pronunciation. 7
1.2. The importance of teaching and learning pronunciation 7
1.3. The teacher’s roles and student’s roles in teaching and
learning pronunciation 8
1.3.1. The teacher's roles in teaching pronunciation 8
1.3.2. The student's roles in learning pronunciation 9
1.4. The pronunciation components 10
1.4.1. Gerald Kelly’s ideas about pronunciation components 10
1.5. Factors affecting pronunciation learning 12
1.5.1 The interference from the mother tongue 12
1.5.2 The age factor 12
1.5.3. Amount of exposure 12
1.5.4. Phonetic ability 13
1.5.5. Attitudes and identity 13
1.5.6. Motivation and concern for good pronunciation 13
1.6. Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning

v
pronunciation 13
1.6.1. The nature of pronunciation 14
1.6.2. Class setting 14
1.6.3. Teaching model 14
1.6.4. Intelligibility 15
CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16
2.1. Methodology 16
2.1.1. The research questions 16
2.1.2. The participants 16
2.1.3. The instruments 17
2.1.4. Data analysis process 19
CHAPTER THREE: THE STUDY 20
3. Data presentation 20
3.1 Survey questionnaires 20
3.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and
learning pronunciation 20
3.1.2 Students’ pronunciation level 21
3.1.3 The purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation 21
3.1.4 The attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation 22
3.1.5 Pronunciation teaching and learning time 22
3.1.6 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning
vowels and consonants 23
3.1.7 Teachers and students’ problems in teaching and learning
pronunciation 24
3.1.8. The causes of the difficulties in teaching and learning
pronunciation 25
3.1.9. Causes of the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation
in English 10 26
3.1.10 Classroom approaches, techniques and activities used by teachers 27
3.1.11. Students’ expectations and teachers’ recommendations
to teaching and learning pronunciation 28
3.2 Classroom observations 30
3.2.1 Teaching and materials and curriculum 30

vi
3.2.2 Students’ activities and their mistakes in producing long,
short vowels and fricative consonants 30
3.3 Interviews and discussions 31
4. Data analysis and discussion 34
CONCLUSIONS 39
1. Summary of the findings 39
2. Pedagogical implications 40
2.1. Increasing teaching and learning time for pronunciation 40
2.2. Contracting various techniques and activities in teaching
pronunciation 41
2.3. Motivating students in learning pronunciation 43
2.4. Increasing teacher’s and student’s roles in teaching and
learning pronunciation 43
3. Limitations of the study 44
4. Recommendations for a further study 44
REFERENCES 46

APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESIONNAIRE (for students) I

APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (for teachers) IV
APPENDIX 3: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET VIII
APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IX

vii
 INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study.

Despite the fact that pronunciation is one of the most important skills in
English Language Teaching, incorrect pronunciation leads to occasional
misunderstandings, at the upper-secondary school level in Vietnam, in language
teaching and learning, compared with vocabulary, grammar and language skills,
pronunciation has so far been paid less attention to. In the official textbooks used
for teaching English at high school level, there are few exercises for pronunciation
practice. To make the matter worse, all important English exams at schools as well
as the entrance exam to universities are always in written form so most teachers as
well as students have little motivation to teach and to learn pronunciation, therefore
they generally spend little time on teaching and learning pronunciation in order to
spend valuable class time on other area of language. As a result, students are often
shy and unconfident to speak in English. Many students cannot pronounce English
words and sentences correctly. English pronunciation seems has become the most
serious problem that students meet when they learn English. This is happening at
almost upper secondary schools in Vietnam. And that is the reason why the
effectiveness of teaching pronunciation still remains one of the most widely
problematic subjects in the field of language teaching.
Situated in a mountainous area in Thanh Liem district, Ha Nam province,
Thanh Liem C High School is even far weaker than other schools in terms of
learning different school subjects, of which English language teaching seems to be
the worst. And if some students are said to be good at English, it means they are
good at English grammar. Most of them find it hard to express themselves orally. If
anyone can, he has problems in pronouncing English words and sentences. In the
English lessons, only teachers speak, and most of the time, teachers have to speak
Vietnamese because they are afraid that their students do not understand what they
are speaking. Students often complain about difficulties they get in learning English
speaking skill in general and in pronunciation in particular. And we ourselves
realize that our students really have bad pronunciation. This is a serious problem not

1
only at Thanh Liem C High School but also at many other mountainous schools. In
addition, no research on teaching English pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High
School has been done so far.
Coping with this pressing fact, as a language teacher teaching English at
Thanh Liem C high school (TLCHS), the author always thinks of some questions:
What are the attitudes of teachers and students towards teaching and learning
pronunciation? What are the problems teachers and students face in teaching and
learning pronunciation? How to find suitable methods to teach pronunciation? What
should teachers do to teach pronunciation effectively? How should teachers make
students become interested in learning pronunciation? The answers to these
questions will help language teachers improve their students‟ pronunciation as well
as help them make progress in effective communication. For the above reasons, the
author decides to carry out the study entitled: “Teaching English pronunciation to
grade 10 students at Thanh Liem C High school” with the focus on the reality of
teaching and learning pronunciation, problems then suggests some solutions.
2. Aims of the study.

This study mainly focused on discovering the reality of teaching and

learning pronunciation at Thanh Liem C high school, especially to find out
problems that teachers and students often have in pronunciation lessons. The
writer also hopes to make some suggestions that can help the English teachers
overcome those problems and improve students‟ pronunciation.

In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are posed for exploration as
follows:
- To find out the teachers‟ and students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School.
- To find out the difficulties and the causes of difficulties in teaching and
learning pronunciation.
- To suggest some recommendations.
3. Research questions.
The above aims of the study can be realized by answering the following
research questions:

2
 (1) What is teachers‟ and students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School?
(2) Which problems do the teachers and students at TLCHS face in
pronunciation lessons?
From the findings, the researcher would recommend some pedagogical
implications with the hope to help teachers and students at TLCHS identify their
problems and self-improve their pronunciation.
4. Scope of the study.
This study investigated the difficulties of teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C high school with the focus on two aspects of
English pronunciation: short, long vowels and fricative consonants for the 10th
form students at Thanh Liem C high school. The subjects of the study are 10th
form students those are beginner with learning pronunciation at high school.
English pronunciation would not be deeply investigated in this research.
5. Method of the study.
This is a qualitative piece of research including such techniques as: survey
questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews. Firstly, the survey
questionnaires were delivered to both teachers and students to investigate the
difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation at TLCHS. Then, some
classroom observations and interviews with some English teachers have been also
conducted to get supplementary information. Finally, the results obtained from
questionnaires, observations and interviews have been discussed and analyzed
with a hope for providing language teacher with some teaching techniques to
work successfully with their students.
6. Significance of the study.

Because the study was conducted on a small scale with a group of 10th
grade students at a high school, the researcher hoped to make contribution to
teaching pronunciation at TLCHS. The result of the study is considered to be
useful for teachers and students at this school. Thus, this study will be an
interesting reference material for teachers of English at TLCHS, especially for those
who are in favor of improving their students' pronunciation. This research will help

3
teachers and students identify their problems in teaching and learning pronunciation
and self- improve their pronunciation.

7. The design of the study.

The study was designed with the first part as an INTRODUCTION to the
rationale, the aims, and the significance of the study, the research questions, the
method, the scope and the design of the study.

The next part provides the DEVELOPMENT of the thesis with 3 chapters.

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background with definition of

pronunciation; the importance of teaching pronunciation; the teacher's and student's
roles in teaching pronunciation; the pronunciation components, factors affecting
pronunciation learning, , teachers‟ and students‟ problems in teaching and learning
pronunciation, intelligibility, and some techniques of teaching pronunciation.

Chapter 2 is research methodology. In this chapter, the focus will be on

background information of the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect
data and the procedure of data collection as well. Chapter 3 is the body of the study,
presents a description of data analysis and discussions. With the description of data
analysis through three instruments: questionnaire, classroom observation and the
interview, I explored some interpretations of the findings.

The last part CONCLUSION is devoted to the summary of the findings and
some pedagogical suggested recommendations to help teachers and students in
upper secondary schools to overcome difficulties in learning and teaching English
pronunciation. This chapter also provides the limitations of the study as well as
some recommendations for further study provides the summary of the thesis,
limitations and some suggestions for further study.

8. Previous studies on teaching and learning English pronunciation.

There have been various arguments and support for the effectiveness of
pronunciation t r a i n i n g on learners‟ achievement in communicative competence.
Morley (1998) states that pronunciation plays an important role in overall
communicative competence. Yong (2004) asserted that understanding by reading
or writing would no longer be sufficient for the development of the economy and

4
that communicating face to face personally or through the internet needed to be
understood.
Carter and Nunan (2001) describe the complexity of the process of second
language acquisition as an organic rather than linear process and students need
to start pronunciation lessons early and continue through high-level Academic
English levels. In addition, pronunciation teaching methods should more fully
address the issues of motivation and exposure by creating awareness of the
importance of pronunciation and providing more exposure to input from native
speakers (Jones, 2002).
Poor pronunciation can condemn learners to less social, academic and work
advancement than they deserved (Fraser, 1999, 2000). Good pronunciation
may make the communication easier and more relaxed and thus more successful
(Dan, 2006). Almost all learners rate pronunciation as a priority and an area in
which they need more guidance (Willing, 1993; Australian Bureau of Statistics,
1997). Although the study of foreign accents has always been a
fascination for some researchers, the teaching of pronunciation and oral
skills in general in foreign and second language classrooms has often been
low on the list of priorities (Peterson, 2000).

The 16th Educational Conference held in Melbourne in 2003 by

Germana Eckert, In search Language Centre concerning Productive Skills in the
Academic English Curriculum showed that the importance of good writing
ability in academic English and teachers spend more time working on students‟
writing and grammar skills in order that students are best prepared for exams
and especially written exams together with main focus of the current academic
English curriculum are factor which cause students and teachers to leave little
time for pronunciation in the classroom (Germana Eckert, 2003)
Most of the literature on pronunciation deals with what and how to teach,
while the learner remains a silent abstract in the classroom. Morley (1994)
underlines that the prevalent focus on pronunciation teaching nowadays
should be on designing new wave instructional programs. Moreover she
stresses that these instructional designs should take into account not only

5
language forms and functions, but also issues of learner self-involvement and
learner strategy training. In other words, students who have developed the skills
to monitor and modify their speech patterns if necessary should become active
partners in their own learning.
Kriedler (1989) states that correct and clear pronunciation are considerably
important in language learning. Without them, learners may not be understood and
may be poorly perceived by other English speakers. They need to have confidence
in their ability to speak. Good pronunciation takes time to build up, as there are
many factors involved. Learners need to hear a lot of English before they can
develop a feel for the sounds of English. The learners become more confident and
motivated in learning the language because of the teaching aids and materials such
as tape recordings of native speakers, pictures of mouth and articulations used in
the class along with the provision positive reinforcement (Phinit-Akson, 2002;
Quilter, 2002; Estrada & Streiff, 2002; Wu, 2002; and Jay, 1966).

6
 DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1. Definition of pronunciation.

The notion of pronunciation has been defined in many different ways by
writers. Generally speaking, pronunciation is simply defined as “the way in which a
word is spoken” (Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Encyclopedic, 1992) or “the way in
which a word is usually pronounced” (Longman dictionary of contemporary
English, 1978). In the book “Pronunciation” published in 1994, Christiane Dalton
and Barbara Seidlhofer (1994:3) consider pronunciation “as the production of
significant sound”. They look at the word in two senses. First, it is used as part of a
code of a particular language. That is the reason why English sounds are
distinguished from sounds of other languages. In this sense, pronunciation can be
told as the production and reception of sounds of speech. Second, sound is used to
achieve meaning in contexts of use. Here the code combines with other factors to
make communication possible. In this sense pronunciation is referred with reference
to acts of speaking.
In the scope of this study, the concept of pronunciation can be described as “a
way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood”
(American Heritage Dictionary, 1992).
1.2. The importance of teaching and learning pronunciation.
“A learner who constantly mispronounces a range of phonemes can be
extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand.
A consideration of learners‟ pronunciation errors and of how these can inhibit
successful communication is a useful basis on which to assess why it is important to
deal with pronunciation in the class”. Gerald Kelly (2000:11).
While saying about why it is important to teach pronunciation, Martin
Hewings (2004:10) adds “Difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students
fail to get their message across, even when the correct words are being used, or they
might fail to understand what is said to them.”

Sound is the core of the language so that is the reason why when teaching a
language the first thing the teachers should do is to let the learners have chances to
explore to the sounds of that language. Moreover, communicative approach is

7
considered as the major language teaching in the twenty first century as what the
learners really need after graduating is that they can communicate successfully in
their work and their life. That is the reason why pronunciation teaching has been
paid more and more attention by all the teachers.

Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of language like syntax

and vocabulary. Speech is much more than pronunciation of course, but speech is
impossible without it. Correct pronunciation, in fact, is considered to be a
prerequisite to develop the speaking skill. That is why teaching pronunciation
should occupy an important place in the study of any language.
1.3. The teacher’s roles and student’s roles in teaching and learning
pronunciation.
Because of the importance of teaching pronunciation mentioned above,
teachers play a key role in teaching and learning pronunciation. Many authors share
this idea and they all give out the similar roles of teacher's and students' in
pronunciation practice. However, in this study, the literature of Kenworthy (1987:
1-2) about the teacher's role was chosen. The roles of the teacher and students can
be derived in the following parts.
1.3.1. The teacher's roles in teaching pronunciation.
1.3.1.1. Helping students hear and perceive the model as exactly as possible.
Students often have a strong tendency to hear the sounds of English in terms
of the sounds of their native language. The teacher needs to check that their students
are hearing sounds according to the appropriate categories and help them to develop
new categories if necessary.
1.3.1.2. Helping students make sounds intelligible.
Some sounds of English do not occur in Vietnamese. Therefore, the teacher
has to give some hints which help them to produce the new sounds intelligibly.
1.3.1.3. Providing students with feedback of their pronunciation.
Students need to be told how they are doing as sometimes they themselves
cannot tell if they have pronounced correctly. The teacher must provide them
feedback about their performance.
1.3.1.4. Pointing out what is going on.

8
 It is important for students to know what to pay attention to and what to work
on. Because speaking is for the most part unconsciously controlled, students may
miss something important. For example, they may not realize that when a particular
word is stressed or said in a different way this can affect the message that is sent to
the listener. Teachers need to make students aware of the potential of sounds - the
resources available to them for sending spoken messages.
1.3.1.5. 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.
1.3.1.6. Devising activities.
Because learning pronunciation is very complex, teacher should design or
select the suitable and helpful activities for students to practice. They might explore
which activities will 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.
1.3.1.7. Assessing progress.
It is difficult for students to assess their own progress so teachers must provide
the information about progress. It is often a crucial factor in maintaining motivation.
1.3.2. The student's roles in learning pronunciation.

In teaching a foreign language in general, and in teaching pronunciation in

particular, whatever the teacher does, the learner's improvement and prospects of
change are minimal if the learners take no action and do not try to monitor their
own efforts. What all learners are required to do in pronunciation learning is
response. But it is not as simple as that. Ultimate success in pronunciation will
surely depend on learners' attitude and how much attempt the learner puts into. In
other words, the most decisive factor of improving pronunciation is the learner's
willingness to take responsibility for his/her learning process.

In addition, students also have some following roles: Firstly, they have to
perceive the model as exactly as they can. If cannot acquire it, they will not be able
to pronounce the model correctly. Students need to respond as much and as well as
they can to the recognition, with repetition activities because "practice makes

9
perfect". Finally, students should correction of their pronunciation mistakes.

1.4. The pronunciation components.

1.4.1. Gerald Kelly’s ideas about pronunciation components.
According to Colin Mortimer (1985), elements of teaching pronunciation are
weak forms, clusters, linking - up, contractions and stress time. Linda Grant (1993)
provided a more comprehensive and authentic elements of teaching. She organized the
teaching elements from sounds to syllables and words, to sentences and finally to
discourse-segments. According to Gerald Kelly (2000: 1), teaching pronunciation
includes: phonemes, vowels, consonants, stress, intonation, other aspects of connected
speech and spelling. However, this study only emphasizes on phonemes aspect of this
diagram.

Phonemes are the different sounds within a language. Although there are slight
differences in how individuals articulate sounds, we can still describe reasonably
accurately how each sound is produced.

Vowels.
Vowels are made by voiced air passing through different mouth-shapes; the
differences in the shape of the mouth are caused by different positions of the tongue
and of the lips. The quality of vowels is determined by the particular configuration
of the vocal tract. Different parts of the tongue may be raised or lowered. The lips
may be spread or pursed. The passage, through which the air travels, however, is
never so narrow as to obstruct free flow of the air stream. Thus vowels have been
traditionally classified according to the three questions:
How high is the tongue?
What part of the tongue is involved; that is, what part is raised? What part is
lowered?
Is the vowel rounded or not?
Due to typographic difficulties, detailed description of vowels will not be

10
presented (refer to Tam, 1999 for more information).
Consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting the airflow in a
variety of ways. There are three ways of describing the consonant sounds: the
manner of articulation, the place of articulation and the force of articulation.

In English, there are twenty vowels and twenty-four consonants which are
divided into groups according to the place, manner of articulation and voicing. This
study, basing on manner of articulation, does not aim at finding all the sounds
causing Thanh Liem C students‟ difficulties but long and short vowels and fricative
consonants /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ/.
Fricatives.
Fricative occurs when two vocal organs come close enough together for the
movement of air to be heard between them. (Kelly, 2000)
Fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced,
air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound. (Roach,1998).
Below are the description and the characteristics of the fricatives sounds:
Fricative
Characteristics
sounds
Labio-dental sounds. The lower lip makes light contact with the
/f/ and /v/ upper teeth. The soft palate is raised. /f/ is unvoiced and fotis. /v/ is
devoiced at the end of the word.
Dental sounds. The tongue tip makes light contact with the back of
the top, front teeth. Or, tongue tip may protrude between upper and
/θ/ and /ð/
lower teeth. The soft palate is raised. / θ / is unvoiced and fotis. /ð/
is voiced and lenis. / ð / is devoiced at the end of a word
Alveolar sounds. The tongue blade makes light contact with the
/s/ and /z/ alveolar ridge. The soft palate is raised. /s/ is unvoiced and fortis.
/z/ is voiced and lenis. /z/ is devoiced at the end of a word.
Palato-alveolar sounds. The tongue blade makes light contact with
the alveolar ridge, and the front of the tongue is raised. The soft
/ʃ/ and /ʒ/
palate is also raised. / ʃ / is unvoiced and fortis. / ʒ / is voiced and
lenis. / ʒ / is devoiced at the end of a word.

11
1.5. Factors affecting pronunciation learning.
There are many factors affecting the learners' pronunciation. According to
Kenworthy (1987:4-9), factors such as the native language, the age factor, amount
of exposure, phonetic ability, attitude and identity, motivation and concern for good
pronunciation have great influence on Pronunciation learning.
1.5.1 The interference from the mother tongue.
The native language plays an important role in learning to pronounce English
as it is clearly seen that a foreign accent is influenced by some of the sound
characteristics of the learner's native language. These can be used to distinguish
between the native speakers and non-native speakers (untrained as well as trained
speakers). Due to the role of native language, there has been a great deal of research
on the differences between sound systems of English and other languages in terms
of sound system as well as problems, difficulties the learners face when studying
English. According to Kenworthy, (1992: 4): "To put it very crudely, the more
differences there are, the more difficulties the learners will have in pronouncing
English.”.
1.5.2 The age factor.
It is commonly assumed that people can pronounce a foreign language like a
native if they start learning it as a child and vice versa even though the adults have a
good knowledge of English or they live in the countries where the language is a
native one. This leads to a question that whether there is an age-related limit on the
mastery of pronunciation. There have been many studies on this question and the
results are conflicting because these studies have assessed pronunciation in different
ways and it is extremely difficult to control other factors which may be involved
such as ability, motivation or opportunity to use and to hear the language.
1.5.3. Amount of exposure.
Another factor is the amount of exposure to English the learner receives. Some
people view this as a matter of whether the learner is living in an English-speaking
country or not. This means that the learner surrounded by English will have more
advantages than who is not living in an English-speaking environment. However, it

12
is difficult to get an accurate picture of how much exposure to English a learner has
received, and of what kind. Moreover, it is not merely exposure that matters, but
how the learners respond to the opportunities to listen and use English. Based on
some recent studies, it seems that amount of exposure is not a necessary factor but a
contributory factor for the development of pronunciation skills.
1.5.4. Phonetic ability.
Researchers demonstrate that some people are able to mimic sounds more
accurately than others. These abilities are innate, so this factor seems to be out of
the teacher's control. What the teacher can do is to investigate the abilities of the
learners and provide a variety of tasks so that something will suit the needs and
ability of each learner.
1.5.5. Attitudes and identity.
It has been claimed that factors such as a person‟s „sense of identity‟ and
feelings of „group affiliation‟ are strong determiners of the acquisition of accurate
pronunciation of a foreign language. In many studies of attitude and motivation in
language learning, it has been shown that those learners who show positive feelings
towards the speakers of the new language tend to develop more accurate, native-like
accents.
1.5.6. Motivation and concern for good pronunciation.
It cannot be denied that motivation is an important factor which determines the
people's participation in every activity especially in language learning. Motivation
makes people more active in learning. The more motivated the people are, the
greater the cognitive process is. The learner's attitude towards the language they
are learning or going to learn also affects the process of learning pronunciation.
Their positive attitudes will help students a lot in learning this language, including
learning its pronunciation.
1.6. Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunciation.
Both teachers and students encounter various problems in the process of
teaching and learning pronunciation. These problems do not only arise from the
nature of pronunciation itself, but from various subjective and objective factors. In

13
the light of the previous and current studies, some major problems that teachers and
learners face in teaching and learning pronunciation are:.
1.6.1. The nature of pronunciation.
According to Nunan (1991), the problem of acquiring the phonology of a
second or a foreign language presents a formidable challenge to any theory of
second language acquisition. In teaching and learning pronunciation, the biggest
problem that most of the English teachers and students complain come from nature
of pronunciation. English pronunciation itself contains so many complicated factors
and invisible rules.
In the light of this problem, Doff A. (1988) listed some common problems
that learners often make when they speak English. The first is difficulties in
pronouncing sounds which do not exist in the students‟ own language. The second
is the problems with similar sounds that often cause learners‟ confusion. The third is
difficulties in pronouncing consonant clusters. And the last problem mainly comes
from English stress and intonation. Students seem to have a tendency to give all
syllables equal stress and “flat” intonation.
1.6.2. Class setting.
A lot of problems in teaching and learning pronunciation come from class
setting such as classroom size, quality of the teaching staff, teaching and learning
equipment. Firstly, a large class causes difficulty in teaching pronunciation. At high
school, on average, there are over 50 students per class. With such a high student-
teacher ratio, it is impossible to make sure that the teacher could carry out
successful teaching techniques and activities, and the learner is not able to listen and
receive what the teacher is saying. The quality of teaching staff is also a big
problem. Most teachers of English are non-native speakers, and a few of them can
have a native-like pronunciation. As a result, the language input that students
receive every day is from non-native people. Therefore, it is impossible to require
students to achieve perfect pronunciation.
1.6.3. Teaching model.
According to Kelly (2000), in the past, the model of teaching English
pronunciation was “received pronunciation”, the pronunciation of people in the

14
southwest England. Today, there are a vast number of English: American English,
Australian English, etc. Thus, it is difficult for teachers to choose what model to
teach. In fact, each teacher often cannot produce a “perfect” accent without being
affected by his own language. This fact sometimes causes both teachers and
students problems in teaching and learning pronunciation. Some teachers do not feel
confident with their own voice and students do not know what input language is
perfect to receive.
1.6.4. Intelligibility.
Beside factors from the nature of pronunciation, class setting, etc. teaching and
learning pronunciation involves in its own problem that Kenworthy (1987) calls it
as “intelligibility”. He defines “intelligibility” as “being understood by a listener at
a given time in a given situation”. This means that intelligibility is affected by a
number of factors: the speaker, the listener, the time, and the situation. This also
means that teaching and learning pronunciation depends on many factors, causing
many problems for both teachers and students

15
 CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research methodology was presented briefly in the first chapter, the
Introduction. In this chapter, once again, it will be discussed in more details.
2.1. Methodology.
2.1.1. The research questions:
The study was designed to seek the answer to the three following questions:
(1) What is teachers‟ and students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School?
(2) Which problems do the teachers and students at TLCHS face in
pronunciation lessons?
With these two research questions, the study will investigate teachers‟ and
students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning pronunciation as well as their
difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School
in English 10 together with the causes of these difficulties then giving some
pedagogical implications.
2.1.2. The participants:
With the questionnaire and classroom observation instruments, the
participants are 100 randomly selected students. They are both male and female.
Among 100 respondents, 59 were female and 41 were male. All of them are 10th
grade students who are going to finish their 10th grade school year. They have
learned English for nearly five years.
These 100 students were chosen randomly without any criteria set before.
With this random selection, I hope to receive the most reliable and honest data
from the questionnaires. In the questionnaires, I explained that their answers
would be anonymous and my aim at giving them the questionnaires are just to
get the data for the research without any other aims.
With another questionnaire and interview instrument, the participants were
five teachers of English at Thanh Liem C High School. Among them, there was
one male teacher and four female ones. They have been teaching at that school
from one to six years.

16
 2.1.3. The instruments.
As I stated in the Introduction part, the research will be carried out by
classroom observation, questionnaires and interviews
The questions and interviews are designed into investigate these main
following categories:
- General attitude to teaching and learning English pronunciation.
- Teachers‟ and students‟ main difficulties in teaching and learning English
pronunciation.
- The main causes of those difficulties.
2.1.3.1. The questionnaires:
As we know, one of the most popular means of collecting data is using
questionnaires. The reason for this is that, firstly, it is easy for us to construct
and it does not either consume time or cost money. Secondly, questionnaires can
help us to collect data in field setting, and the data themselves are more
amenable to quantification then discursive data such as free-form field-notes,
participant observers‟ journals or transcripts of oral language (David Nunan
1992:143). Furthermore, we can achieve respondent anonymity when applying
this type of instrument. There are two types of questions, closed and open-ended
questions. The former kind of questions are often used to get answers which are
factual or fairly predictable, meanwhile open-ended questions are preferred when
the researchers expect to get answers which are in terms of opinions, beliefs or
judgments. Furthermore, open-ended questions also give the respondents
chances to express more opinions individually. Because of these above reasons,
both two types of questionnaires were employed to get the data.
To get the data reliably and avoid problems such as respondents‟ shyness,
the questionnaires were started with explanations about its aims as well as its
respondent anonymity. In order that the students had no pressure of time and
freedom, they were let to finish the questions at home for one day. Furthermore,
all the questions were written in Vietnamese so that they could be at their best to
understand the questions and express their thoughts and ideas.

With the aims stated in the Introduction part, I handed out the
questionnaires to the teachers and students. These questions were aimed at
exploring the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation and teachers‟ and
students‟ general attitude towards learning English pronunciation.

17
 2.1.3.2. Interview.
Interview, as we know, is a very useful tool to get the data. According to
Hopkins (cited in McDonough & McDonough (1997:181), there are three
applications of interview in classroom research. The first application is to focus
on a specific aspect of classroom life in detail, the second is to get diagnostic
information, and the third is to improve the classroom climate.
Nunan also gives more uses of interview instrument such as needs analysis,
program evaluation, individual case studies and mini- surveys.
From these above uses of interview, we can see that with this study, using
interview instrument is very suitable to be applied. The questionnaires were used
to investigate teachers‟ and students‟ general attitude towards teaching and
learning English, English pronunciation and their difficulties in teaching and
learning English pronunciation, This second instrument, the interview, was used
to investigate what difficulties students meet when they learn English
pronunciation.
So, five teachers of English teaching at Thanh Liem C High School were
selected for a follow- up interview for more details in difficulties that students often
meet when learning English pronunciation.
2.1.3.3. Classroom observation:
I also employed classroom observation for more data. Certainly, classroom
observation is instrument that can help researchers bolster the qualitative and
quantitative results. Hopkins (1993) described classroom observation as a “pivotal
activity” with a crucial role to play in classroom research, teachers‟ personal
professional growth, and school development as a whole ( as cited in McDonough, J
and McDonough, S 1997:101). McDonough, J and McDonough also stated that
observation with its associated, so it can help me test the validity of the data
obtained about students‟ attitude towards learning English pronunciation and their
difficulties.

When observing the class, I did a lot of note taking. To make the students feel
comfortable in the lessons, I just sat at the last row and took part in five different
lessons as a non-participant observer to have a naturalistic observation.

18
 2.1.4. Data analysis process.

The data collected from three different sources, the questionnaires, interview
and classroom observation, were classified into different categories to analyze:

- Teachers and students‟ attitude towards teaching and learning English

pronunciation.

- Teachers and students‟ difficulties in teaching and learning English

pronunciation.

- The causes of the difficulties

All the data were gathered to analyze both descriptively and interpretively.

19
 CHAPTER THREE: THE STUDY

3. Data presentation.

3.1 Survey questionnaires.

3.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning

pronunciation.

Assuming that the consideration of the teachers‟ and students‟ attitude towards
teaching and learning pronunciation would be beneficial to the research, at the
outset, these factors were surveyed. The results, shown in below, reflect that
grammar is the most concerning aspect in learning English at high school.
Surprisingly, only 20% of the teachers think that pronunciation is the most
necessary for their students. They always pay much attention and time and energy
on grammar. In contrast, teaching and learning pronunciation as well as developing
listening, speaking or reading skills do not receive enough attention to.

20
 3.1.2 Students’ pronunciation level.

From the chart 2, we can see the reality of students‟ level in learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C high school. Being asked about this, all the teachers
said that students‟ level is not equal. Only 20% teachers said that their students‟
level at pronunciation is at average; and even 60% of the students get under average
level. None of the teachers evaluate their students‟ level at pronunciation is good or
excellent.
3.1.3 The purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation
Table 1: The purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation
PURPOSES TEACHERS STUDENTS
To help students to communicate better 100% 100%
To provide students with the knowledge about 29% 30%
English language
To help students to get better results in the 43% 48%
exam
To help students distinguish the differences 29% 22%
between English and Vietnamese
Others: (Please specify) 0 0
It is obvious that there is a similarity between the teachers and students‟
purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation. All the teachers (100%) agree that
teaching pronunciation is to help students to communicate better and the most

21
purpose of learning pronunciation is also to communicate better. 43% of the
teachers and 48% of the students think that teaching and learning pronunciation is to
get better results in the exam.
3.1.4 The attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation.

Chart 3: The attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation

The chart shows that there is a strong agreement of the teachers and students
about the attraction of teaching and learning pronunciation. 60% of teachers and
63% of students find teaching and learning pronunciation is not very interesting.
19% of the students and 20% teacher respondents are neutral with it. Only 20% of
teachers and 18% of student respondents find teaching and learning pronunciation
interesting. Nobody considers it as very interesting. We can see that the attitudes of
teachers and students towards teaching and learning pronunciation are negative.

3.1.5 Pronunciation teaching and learning time.

Chart 4 presents time that teachers and students spend on teaching and
learning pronunciation. One more time teachers and students share the same ideas
about the fact that too little time is on pronunciation. 80% of the teachers and 43%
of the students said that they did not have time to spend on teaching and learning
pronunciation in one teaching session (45 minutes); 20% of the teachers and 32% of
the students spend less than 20 minutes on teaching pronunciation. None of the
teachers and a very small number of the students teaches and learns pronunciation
for more than 20 minutes.
The overall results indicate that the reality of teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C high school is not positive as expected. Both

22
teachers and students are not very optimistic towards teaching and learning
pronunciation, students‟ level is not good as well as time spent on teaching
pronunciation is limited during one normal teaching session.

3.1.6 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning vowels

and consonants
4.1.6.1 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning vowels
Question 6 was given to the students to check their understanding about
English vowels. It was shown in the result of this question that 18 % students
understand clearly about short and long vowels while 42 % respondents said that
they understand quire well with English short and long vowels. 21% respondents
said that they don‟t understand anything about English short and long vowels.
Noticeably, 19 % expressed that they understand quite well about short and long
vowels but they still get problems in distinguishing and pronouncing these vowels.
To the teachers this question used to address their difficulties in teaching
English vowels. 40% teachers find it is easy to teach English short and long vowels
while 20% respondents said that it is neither difficult nor easy for them to teach this
issue. 20% other participants said that English vowels is quite difficult to teach
while the rest thought that English vowels are very difficult to teach to students.
Despite the result, we should consider whether these respondents could realize
their problems and express them or not. This will be complemented by other
instruments: classroom observation and interview.
3.1.6.2. Students’ difficulties in acquiring English consonants.
With the aim at investigating the problems that students may get when they
acquiring English consonants, I designed question 6 as following:

23
 - Among English consonants, which ones do you find hard to learn?
And it can be clearly seen from the result that they had more problems with
English consonants than vowels. The most common problems with English

consonants were fricative consonants / θ/, /ð/, /ʒ/ and /ʃ/ (86 respondents), two
word- final fortis stops consonants /p/ and /t/ (61 respondents), /k/ and /g/ (35
respondents), and two dental consonant stops /f/ and /v/ (34%). They also
expressed that they had difficulties with some similar pairs such as / θ/ in English
vs. /t/ in Vietnamese and /ð/in English vs. /d/ in Vietnamese.
3.1.7 Teachers and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunciation

Chart 5: Teachers and students’ problems in teaching and learning

pronunciation

Chart 5 shows that both the teachers and the students face many problems
during the process of teaching and learning pronunciation. The biggest problem that
both teachers and students face comes from the nature of pronunciation. The next
two factors preventing students from gaining good pronunciation are students‟
motivation and teaching time. 25 % student respondents said that they had no
motivation in learning pronunciation and that maybe one of the reasons why they
difficult to learn pronunciation while 10% teachers thought that students‟

24
motivation affected their pronunciation learning, 20% of the teachers and 18% of
the students said that they do not have enough time on pronunciation. 10% of the
teachers considered that their students‟ competence in pronunciation is too low and
14% students also agreed with that idea. Class setting is the next factor that 20%
teachers chose. In contrast, only 10% of the students agreed with this. It is clear that
quality of teaching staff is not good enough to come over all the difficulties in
teaching pronunciation.
3.1.8. The causes of the difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation
TEACHERS

90
80
70
60
50
40 Strongly agree
30
20 Agree
10 Neutral
0

STUDENTS

80
70
60
50
40 Strongly agree
30
Agree
20
Neutral
10
0 Not strongly agree

Chart 6: The causes of the difficulties in teaching and learning

pronunciation

25
 It is clear that almost teachers and students agree that these factors have
influence on the teaching and learning pronunciation process. However, the levels
of the effects are different. Most of teachers and students (more than 50%) strongly
agree that amount of exposure is one of the most main causes of difficulties in
teaching and learning pronunciation. All of them believe that if a learner is
„surrounded‟ by English and this constant exposure should affect pronunciation
skills. People who speak English more often at school or at work will have better
pronunciation skills than those who do not. Attitudes and motivation also have
strong agreement. If a learner has good attitudes and motivation towards learning
pronunciation, he will try to learn it more. As a result, he will have better
pronunciation. One of the causes which have great influence in teaching and
learning pronunciation is the differences between English and Vietnamese. There
are some sounds in English that Vietnamese does not have, which makes it difficult
for the Vietnamese to pronounce like native speakers. Especially, there are few
teachers and students paying much attention to age and phonetic ability. Maybe they
think that it is never too late to learn and everyone has ability to learn pronunciation
well.
3.1.9. Causes of the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in English 10.
TEACHERS

70
60
50
40
30 Strongly agree
20
Agree
10
0 Neutral
Not strongly agree

26
 STUDENTS

100
90
80
70
60
50
40 Strongly agree
30
20 Agree
10
0 Neutral
Not strongly agree

Chart 7: Causes of the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in English 10

The finding shows that, nearly all the teachers (80%) and students (90%)
agree that one of the main causes of difficulty in teaching and learning
pronunciation in English 10 is the time for each lesson is too short. The time for
each lesson is so short that teachers do not have enough time to list the main rules
and practice them. While there are too many relative rules for students to remember
(60% teachers and 93% students). In addition to that, reference books for
pronunciation are not as available as those for other language skills such as reading,
listening and writing. Remarkably, all the teachers (100%) and students (100%)
agree that practice activities in the book are so boring and monotonous. 80%
teachers and 92% students strongly agree with this cause. There are only two kinds
of practice activities through unit 1 to unit 16 (in language focus periods). This
explains why many students find the lessons not interesting enough. In addition to
that, there are some teachers and students say that the teaching techniques are not
attractive enough to make the lessons more interesting. What is more, the number of
students in each class is about 45 to 50, it is too crowded for a language class, and
pronunciation class in particular. Moreover, with the teaching and learning
condition in Vietnam in general and at TLCHS, a lab for studying foreign language
is not available.

3.1.10 Classroom approaches, techniques and activities used by teachers.

27
 Chart 8: Teachers' activities in pronunciation lessons

As seen from the chart, 40% of the teachers used different techniques
including listen and imitate, drilling, reading aloud etc. to teach pronunciation;
however; 20% of the teachers also said that they often ignore teaching
pronunciation. No one uses authentic materials as well as on-going assessment to
attract students in learning pronunciation. 40% of the teachers choose their own
ways in teaching pronunciation. Most of the teachers teach pronunciation through
teaching vocabulary. They often read the words, and then ask students to repeat.
Sometimes during the lessons, if their students make pronunciation mistakes, they
will correct them.
3.1.11. Students’ expectations and teachers’ recommendations to teaching
and learning pronunciation.

28
 Chart 9: Teachers’ suggestions and students’ expectations in teaching
and learning pronunciation

From the chart above, we can see that both teachers and students share nearly
the same ideas about the way to improve teaching and learning pronunciation. They
agree that it is necessary to do many things at the same time and it is a must to
improve teaching methods. Although ideas are different, percentage of choosing
ideas is nearly equal. All of them agree that combining all these factors is the best
way to get the target in teaching and learning pronunciation.
When being asked detailed about techniques can be used in pronunciation,
teachers and students have the following choices:

Table 2: The favorite techniques of teaching and learning pronunciation used

in teaching and learning pronunciation lessons at Thanh Liem C High School

Techniques Teacher Student

Listen and imitate 100% 90%
Drilling 60% 50%
Minimal pair drills 80% 90%
Reading aloud 100% 80%

29
 Phonetic training 80% 80%
Tongue Twisters 60% 90%
Recording students‟ production 20% 40%
Chaining 20 % 10%
Visual aids 40% 50%
Others: (Please specify) 0% 0%
Table 2: The favorite techniques of teaching and learning pronunciation
used in teaching and learning pronunciation lessons
From the table above we see that almost teachers and students vote for some
techniques those are often applied in teaching pronunciation such as: listen and
imitate, reading aloud and Tongue Twisters after that is minimal pair drills (80% for
teachers and 90% for students), and phonetic training (80%). Then drilling with
60% teachers and 50% students choose.
3.2 Classroom observations.
6 classroom observations were done in two weeks to get more practical
information. During the process of observations, the author focused on some
aspects taking in class as: teaching and learning materials used in class, students‟
activities and their mistakes in producing pronunciation, and teachers‟ approaches
and techniques used in teaching pronunciation.
3.2.1 Teaching and materials and curriculum.
As observed, all the materials used for teaching and learning are in the
textbook: “English 10”, published by Vietnamese education publisher. In only 1/6
teaching sessions the teacher used a cassette to teach listening. However, the teacher
did not focus on checking pronunciation of the students. The teacher did not use any
additional materials for the teaching pronunciation. They complained that there are
so many things to teach and train for the tests and exams while the teaching time is
limited. Similarly, the students‟ learning materials are also in the students‟
textbooks. Only a small number of them own some dictionaries to check
pronunciation at home.
3.2.2 Students’ activities and their mistakes in producing long, short vowels
and fricative consonants.

30
 As a matter of fact, during 6 classroom observations, the author could see few
activities carried out by teachers or students. Their main duties of students in these
lessons are listening to and writing down what the teacher said. Sometimes, they do
nothing. Regarding to speaking and pronunciation learning, there is a few chances
for them to stand up and express their ideas in English. Therefore, the teacher has
almost no opportunities to check their students‟ pronunciation.
Because of the fact that students do not spend much time on speaking in class,
it is very difficult for the observer to discover mistakes and errors that the students
produced. However, there are some main mistakes that the students often make in
pronouncing long, short vowels and fricative consonants. They often pronounce
long and short vowels with the same manner. They meet difficulties in
distinguishing vowels pairs such as /e/ vs. /æ, /Λ/ vs. /a/, short “I” vs. long /i:/, /ə/
vs. /ɜ:/, /ɒ/vs. /ɔ:/. This can cause misunderstanding to listeners. Moreover, the
problems that they have with English consonants seem to be many more than the
ones that they have with English vowels. They often omit fricatives: /f/, /v/, / θ/,

/ð/, /s/,/z/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ at the ends of the sounds. Many students are unable to
distinguish voiced and voiceless fricatives. Most commonly, they will be able to
produce voiceless fricatives but not voiced ones. For example, /f/ may be
substituted for /v/ so that a word such as “leave” is pronounced as “leaf”. Similarly,
/s/ may be substituted for /z/, so that a word such as “peas” is pronounced as
“peace”. Students also find it difficult to distinguish with these / θ/ and /ð/. That is
why they often substitute a /d/ for /ð/ and a “t” for / θ/.
3.3. Interviews and discussions.
After collecting data from the survey questionnaires and classroom
observations, the author used the post interviews in order to get the in-depth
discussions about Students‟ difficulties in learning English pronunciation as
experienced by teachers at Thanh Liem C High School and techniques that the
teachers used to improve students‟ pronunciation.
With eleven questions in the questionnaires, I investigated students‟ attitude
towards learning English and English pronunciation. The instrument also helped me
to confirm that students‟ difficulties in learning English pronunciation do exist.

31
However, with the students' level, it is very difficult for them to express their
problems. That is why I employed the third instrument, the interview, to the
teachers, to get more data about problems that students here often meet when
learning English pronunciation with my belief that the teachers are better at
grouping and expressing the pronunciation problems.
In order to obtain more in-depth data, five teachers of English teaching at
Thanh Liem C High School School were selected for a structured interview. The
questions of the interview were made in Vietnamese so that the teachers had no
difficulties in expressing their ideas. Moreover, giving those interviews in
Vietnamese made them more confident and natural to answer the questions in order
to guarantee the truthfulness of the information for data analysis. All the interviews
were audio-taped and transcribed for translation. The full transcript of the interview
is given in the Appendix. All the interviewees were asked five same questions in the
structured interview:
1. Do you find that your students have difficulties in learning English
pronunciation?
2. In your opinion, what are the main problems that students often meet when
they learn English pronunciation?
3. Do your students have difficulties when they learn English vowels? What
are they?
4. Do your students have difficulties when they learn English consonants?
What are they?
5. Can you think of the possible reasons for these difficulties?
For question 1, all of ten respondents agreed that their students do have
difficulties in learning English pronunciation. According to these teachers, their
learners make a lot of mistakes when producing any English, from single words to
complex utterances. These teachers also added that their students made so many
mistakes in pronunciation when they spoke English that they daren‟t speak English
in the class.

With question 2 which investigated students‟ main difficulties in learning

English pronunciation as experienced by the teachers, the respondents gave a lot of

32
problems that their students often meet. However, the following are some main
ones:

• Teacher 1: It is very difficult to talk about all the problems that my students
have in English pronunciation. I am just able to give out some main ones such as
ending word sounds, long and short vowels. That‟s the main ones; there are a lot to
talk about. For example, they also get difficulty in distinguish the two pairs /æ/ and

/e/ or between /ð/ and /dʒ/.

• Teacher 3: I do not know what to talk about this because there are so many
mistakes those students often make in my English lessons. The main ones may be
the mistakes in producing fricative consonants, long and short vowels

Question 3 concerns vowel problems that students here often meet. According
to these ten teachers, the main vowels that were problematic for their students were
the vowel pair /æ/ and /e/. They also expressed that the students here often made

mistakes between the pairs /ɒ/ and /ɔ: /, /ɪ/ and /i: /, /ǝ/ and/ɜ: /, /ʊ/ and /u: /.

They complained that their students often substitute the long vowels by the

short ones, except the last pair, the /ʊ/ and /u: /, the students there often have a long

/u: / substitute for the short /ʊ/.

Teacher 3 also added more examples as below:

-“good” is pronounced /gu:d/

-“see” is pronounced /sɪ/

-“read” is pronounced /rɪd/.

Question number 4 of the interview regards to the problems students at that

school often meet with English consonants. With the question “Do your students
have difficulties when they learn English consonants?” all the five answers were
“yes”. The teachers gave many mistakes that students often made with English
consonants. After doing analysis from the record, I had some main conclusions as
followings:

33
 - The most serious problems with English consonants for the students there,
according to five interviewed teachers, are final position consonants. The students
often ignored the last consonants, especially the six consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /v/,
/ð/.
- Many students also substitute Vietnamese consonants for some English ones

such as /t/ for /θ/, /d/ for /ð/, /z/ for / dʒ/, /ʃ/ for /s/ and /f/ for /p/.
Question 5 concerns the main reasons for these above difficulties. With this
question, the respondents seem to get difficult to express their ideas although the
questions were given in Vietnamese. I audio taped and then found their main
thoughts as followings:
- Most teachers thought that the main reason for this was lack of opportunity
for students to practice English. They all shared a common thought that their
students did not have much time to practice English.
- Furthermore, some respondents here also added that the students were very
lazy in speaking English. They just studied for exams which focused much on
grammar. The objectives of the exams also made them lazy in learning English
pronunciation.
- Another negative reason that the respondents gave for students‟ bad
pronunciation is that teachers‟ pronunciation seemed to be not good enough for
them to listen. They also complained that some teachers did not pay much attention
to teaching pronunciation.
In short, from the interview, we can get some brief conclusions as followings:
- According to these teachers, students at Thanh Liem C High School have
difficulties in learning English pronunciation.
- The main problems, as experienced by these teachers, are fricative
consonants and short and long vowels.
The main reasons for pronunciation problems, in the teachers‟ opinions, are
the influence of the mother tongue, the limited time used in teaching and learning
pronunciation, students motivation and the lack of opportunity to practise speaking
English.

34
 4. Data analysis and discussion.
This study is into the difficulties of teaching and learning pronunciation at
Thanh Liem C high school. The author examined the aspects of teaching and
learning overview, classroom techniques and activities, difficulties in teaching and
learning pronunciation; students‟ expectations and teachers‟ recommendations in
teaching and learning pronunciation. All these aspects were analyzed to answer two
research questions.
1. What is teachers’ and students’ attitude toward teaching and learning
pronunciation at Thanh Liem C High School?
Firstly, the findings show that a great number of teachers and students at
Thanh Liem C High School believe that teaching and learning grammar is more
necessary than teaching and learning pronunciation. Only 20% of teachers and 15%
of the students think that learning pronunciation is necessary. This comes to a fact
that students and teachers do not spend time on pronunciation but on grammar and
vocabulary. Regrettably, 80% of the teachers and 43% of the students said they did
not have time on pronunciation. The reason for this fact may come from the
influence of the teachers‟ habits on teaching pronunciation at this school for a long
time. Teachers tend to pay great attention, time and energy on grammar. In contrast,
teaching and learning pronunciation as well as developing skills including listening,
speaking or reading do not receive time and energy equally. Some teacher‟s blame
that they do not have much time to cover all aspects in pronunciation, the priority is
how to help students get general knowledge in English that help them deal with the
tests and pass the exams. Moreover, teaching and learning facilities are poorly
equipped. There are no authentic materials but the textbooks and some cassettes.
Only a small number of students have their own dictionaries. That is the reason why
pronunciation sessions do not receive good results. To make the matter worse,
techniques and activities used in teaching and learning pronunciation are not widely
applied.
2. Which problems do the teachers and students at TLCHS face in
pronunciation lessons?
Teachers’ problems in teaching pronunciation

35
 The first problem that most of the teachers meet in teaching pronunciation is
the teaching time. The teaching time spent on pronunciation is limited. On average,
each pronunciation session lasts less than 20 minutes. They cannot meet the
students‟ demands to deal with all problems appearing in pronunciation lessons.
Because of the limited time, they could not apply many classroom activities, use
authentic materials or various techniques to increase the effectiveness of the
lessons, even to increase students‟ motivation. The worst influence of limited time
is that there is no pronunciation lesson in the best meaning of these words. The
teachers only teach pronunciation through reading new words, and deal with some
errors in pronunciations when they appear. There is no plan, no strategy, and no
assessment in teaching pronunciation.

The second problem that some teachers meet comes from the nature of
pronunciation. There are many consonants that exist in English but do not exist in
Vietnamese. So, Vietnamese learners of second English language often have many
problems with the system of English consonants. In Vietnamese, fricatives /f/, /v/, /

θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ do not occur at the final position of a word, but in English,
they do. That is why Vietnamese students often omit these fricatives at the ends of
the sounds and students at Thanh Liem C high school is not an exception. The only
thing they can do in teaching pronunciation is reading, and then asking students to
repeat. They even do not know techniques in teaching pronunciation. The only two
techniques that the teachers often use are drilling, listen and imitate.

Thirdly, students‟ competence and learning motivation in pronunciation are

matters causing teachers difficulties in teaching pronunciation. As a matter of fact,
the teachers have to teach mixed level classes, in which students with high and low
levels of language competence study together. Thus, the teachers have to encounter
many difficulties in shortening a big gap among these students. And in one class,
there are some students who always want to speak out in English while there are
some others who never want to speak. It is difficult for the teachers to encourage
these students to practice speaking and to correct their mistakes.

36
 Class setting is a problem that most teachers meet in teaching pronunciation.
A lot of problems in teaching and learning pronunciation come from class setting:
large classroom size, low quality of the teaching staff, poorly equipped teaching
facilities, etc. As a matter of fact, not all teachers have been well trained enough to
meet deal with problems in teaching pronunciation and this is the reason why they
often ignore teaching pronunciation. These teachers do not feel confident in
pronouncing a word or use phonetic alphabet to guide students how to pronounce.
They do not welcome correcting students‟ mistakes, or provide them with feedback.

Students’ problems in learning pronunciation

When learning pronunciation, most students find some barriers that impede
their pronunciation competence. These barriers include the nature of pronunciation;
class setting and students‟ ability.

The collected data shows that most of the students reveal that their background
knowledge especially pronunciation ability is at low level although they have
learned English for at least more than six years. The biggest problem they pointed
out is that pronunciation nature is too difficult, especially in long and short vowels
as well as fricative consonants. From the questionnaires, interview and classroom
observation, I found out that students have difficulty in distinguishing long and

short vowels such as /e/ vs. /æ, /Λ/ vs. /a/, short “I” vs. long /i:/, /ə/ vs. / ɜ:/, /ɒ/vs. /ɔ/
or mispronounced /d/ vs. /ð/, /t/ vs. / θ/.

The next barrier is the students‟ language competence. 14% of the students
said that they do not have ability in pronunciation. Lack of confidence in
pronouncing prevents them from practicing pronunciation in class, and getting
expected results in pronunciation.

Pronunciation learning time is another problem. 22% students said that time
on teaching and learning pronunciation does not meet the demand. There is no time
to practice and correct pronunciation in class.

Some students also complain that class setting and students‟ themselves
motivation are problems preventing them from teaching and learning pronunciation.
They said that the class size is too large and the number of students is too high, they

37
could not hear what their teachers is saying, and even, they feel bored with the
teachers‟ accent and unvaried teaching methods.

In conclusion, problems that teachers and students meet are nearly the same
such as: teaching and learning time; nature of pronunciation; class setting; students‟
competence and students‟ motivation. Though percentage of opinion is different;
these problems are still the main barriers those prevent teachers and students at
Thanh Liem C high school in teaching and learning pronunciation. Finding
solutions for these problems are essential needs to improve and increase students‟
pronunciation.

38
 CONCLUSIONS

In this last chapter, the findings of the study will be summarized first, and then
some pedagogical implications for teaching English pronunciation will be followed.
This chapter also discusses the limitations if the study as well as some
recommendations for further research.

1. Summary of the findings.

With the aims stated in the first Introduction part, I did my research with some
issues concerning English pronunciation teaching and learning. These issues include
teachers and students‟ general attitude towards teaching and learning English
pronunciation, teachers and students‟ difficulties in teaching and learning English
pronunciation.

Firstly, the findings show that most of the teachers and students at Thanh Liem
C high school have negative attitude toward teaching and learning English
pronunciation. Although all of them said that the purpose of their teaching and
learning pronunciation is to help students to communicate better, most of them
considered grammar is the most important and concerning aspect in teaching and
learning at high school. The time they spend on pronunciation is little and they find
teaching and learning pronunciation not very interesting. To make the matter worse,
the traditional English tests and teaching have not focused much on pronunciation,
so they are not familiar with teaching and learning it. That is why they want to
neglect it.

The second findings to the question proposed is that both teachers and students
have difficulties in teaching and learning English pronunciation. From the
questionnaires, interview and classroom observation, I found out that the main
problems are long and short vowels and fricative consonants. They can‟t distinguish
clearly the differences between long vowels and short ones. They also make
mistakes with some English couples such as /e/ vs. / æ /, /I/ vs. /i: / /z/ vs. /ð/, /t/ and
/ θ/.

Thirdly, there are many causes of these difficulties. They are both internal and
external reasons. The causes which there are strong agreement of teachers and

39
students are the differences between English and Vietnamese, the influence of
mother tongue, phonetic ability, students‟ motivation and attitude toward learning
pronunciation and amount of exposure. Another cause is the time for each lesson. It
is rather short. Especially the practice activities for each lesson in English 10; they
are too boring and monotonous. Some teaching techniques are used but they are not
interesting and effective enough to attract students.

The last issue that was investigated from the study was about teaching English
pronunciation methods. From my observation and interview, I found out that
although the teachers at the school did some attempts to help their students
overcome pronunciation problems, they did not employ enough various techniques
to make the lessons more interesting and easier to understand. The lessons seemed
to be rather boring, and even I heard some teachers make serious pronunciation
mistakes. So the problems here may be not only for the students but also for the
teachers of English to think. Teachers should try to improve their pronunciation and
their teaching methods to help their students overcome the problems.

2. Pedagogical implications.

As a matter of fact, pronunciation plays an important role in teaching and

studying foreign language. However, teaching and learning pronunciation does not
receive the appropriate attention and the expected results. Therefore, it is an
essential need for teachers teaching English a foreign language to find out solutions
in improving the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation. The analysis of the
problems that teachers and students meet in teaching and learning pronunciation is
very useful. This study convinces the author that teaching and learning
pronunciation is an on-going process which requires all the efforts of both teachers
and students. Language teachers should spend more time teaching pronunciation
and correcting their students‟ pronunciation mistakes. With the help of concerned
and responsible teachers, students will have more motivation and positive attitude
towards learning pronunciation, and consequently, they will be more successful in
language learning and in real communicative situations.

2.1. Increasing teaching and learning time for pronunciation.

40
 The findings show that most of teachers and students at Thanh Liem C High
School believe that teaching and learning grammar is more necessary than teaching
and learning pronunciation. The teaching time spent on pronunciation is limited.
This comes to a fact that students and teachers do not spend time on pronunciation
but on grammar and vocabulary. Teachers tend to pay great attention, time and
energy on grammar. The teachers only teach pronunciation through reading new
words, and deal with some errors in pronunciations when they appear. There is no
plan, no strategy, and no assessment in teaching pronunciation. Therefore, it is
necessary to increase the time for teaching and learning pronunciation. Teacher
should spend more time on pronunciation part as well as increase the time for
correcting students‟ mistakes in pronunciation during all the English lessons.

2.2. Contracting various techniques and activities in teaching

pronunciation.

The teachers‟ methods of pronunciation teaching play a very important role in

motivating and improving students‟ English in general and students‟ pronunciation
in particular. If the techniques employed in the lessons are various and suitable, they
will make the lesson easier to understand and more interesting to follow. As a
result, the students will be motivated to study. With the fact that most classes in
Vietnamese high schools are large and heterogeneous, it is very difficult for
teachers to individualize their teaching. So, teachers should be aware of this
difficulty and vary their techniques and activities so that they can involve more
students in the lessons. By doing so, they can also reduce the boredom of the lesson
at the same time. There is a saying that “no method is best”. There are many
different techniques for teachers to choose. What teachers have to do with these
various techniques is to choose suitable ones to the students‟ level, teaching
conditions and learners‟ motivation. The followings are some suggestions for
teachers to help students overcome problems in learning pronunciation. However,
as I mentioned earlier, no method is best. In this study, after the data collection, the
data analysis and data discussion process the followings are just some suggested
techniques received high appreciation from teachers and students.

41
 Listen and imitate

The pronunciation of the target language is provided by the teacher or tape

recorders, language labs, etc. Students are to listen to a sequence of sounds or
sentences and repeat it.

Minimal pair drills:

These relate to words which differ from each other only one phoneme.
Normally, students are allowed to listen to the tape and distinguish between the two
sounds. This type of activities is particularly useful to teach sounds which causes
difficulties for learners or sounds that are mismatched. For example, /sheep/ and
/ship/, /caught/ and /cot/, /worse/ and /worth/ or /ass/ and /ash/, etc.

Tongue Twisters:
This technique rooted from speech correction strategies for native speakers.
When other techniques look serious and sometimes put learners under pressure,
tongue twisters provide a more delighting way to learn pronunciation. Sounds
which are difficult to differentiate are put together to make meaningful sentences.

For example,
She sells seashells by the seashore, and the shells she sells are seashells.
The sixth Sikh Sheik's sixth sheep's sick.
Lot lost his hot chocolate at the loft.

Phonetic training:
If teachers want to save the time, increase effectiveness of teaching and
learning pronunciation, it is a must to train students to get on well with phonetic
training. This technique makes use of articulator descriptions, articulator diagrams
and a phonetic alphabet. Learners are provided with basic theoretical knowledge
about how sounds are formed. They are also aided by the teacher to make genuine
sound production. When students have background knowledge of pronunciation,
and understand how to pronounce through phonetic transcription, they can
themselves correct pronunciation errors. To gain the maximum effectiveness of this

42
technique, teachers should encourage students to use dictionaries or a least the
phonetic transcription at their text books. Phonetic transcription gives both teachers
and students “a way of accurately recording to the pronunciations of words or
utterances” (Kelly, 2000).
Drilling:

According to Gerald Kelly, one of the main ways in which pronunciation is

practiced in the classroom is through drilling. In its most basic form, drilling simply
involves the teacher saying a word or a structure, and getting class to repeat it.
However, the teachers when using this technique should try pronounce correctly as
much as possible, and they ensure that all the students can hear what said.

2.3. Motivating students in learning pronunciation.

Among barriers preventing students from acquiring good pronunciation are

students‟ language competence, students‟ negative attitude toward learning
pronunciation and their lack of motivation. The learner's attitude and motivation
towards the language they are learning or going to learn do affect the process of
learning pronunciation. Their positive attitudes and motivation will help students a
lot in learning this language, including learning its pronunciation. So that teachers
should help students aware of the importance of learning pronunciation. What is
more, teachers need to make the pronunciation lessons more comfortable and
interesting by using different techniques such as reading, listening, playing games.

2.4. Increasing teacher’s and student’s roles in teaching and learning

pronunciation.

Teachers play a very important role in teaching and learning pronunciation.

They not only help students hear and perceive the model as exactly as possible, but
also help students make sound intelligible, providing students with feedback of their
pronunciation and assessing their progress. Therefore, teachers should be the perfect
model to provide students with correct pronunciation of sounds and encourage their
learners to study pronunciation. What is more, teachers need to make the
pronunciation lessons more comfortable and interesting by using different
techniques such as reading, listening, playing games.

43
 In teaching a foreign language in general, and in teaching pronunciation in
particular, whatever the teacher does, the learner's improvement and prospects of
change are minimal if the learners take no action and do not try to monitor their
own efforts. Success in pronunciation will surely depend on learners' attitude and
how much attempt the learner puts into. In other words, the most decisive factor of
improving pronunciation is the learner's willingness to take responsibility for his/her
learning process. So it is crucial to increase the students‟ role in learning
pronunciation.

3. Limitations of the study.

Although the study has obtained its objectives, like many other studies, there
are some limitations.

From the scope of the study, the results of the study are only applied for grade
10 students at Thanh Liem C High School. The study only focuses on investigating
teachers‟ and students‟ attitude toward teaching and learning English pronunciation,
finding the difficulties and the causes in the pronunciation teaching and learning
process at Thanh Liem C High School. Only some implications are suggested for
teachers and students at Thanh Liem C High School

In addition, ability of the students, the differences between English and

Vietnamese are also the causes of difficulties. Which sounds are the most difficult
to the Vietnamese and how to overcome it have not been mentioned carefully in this
thesis.

What is more, the findings of the thesis and suggested techniques are only
based on the opinions of the teachers and students.

4. Recommendations for a further study.

On the basis of the findings and limitations of the study, the following
recommendations are made for further research:

First, the subjects of the study were 5 teachers and 100 10th-grade students at
TLCHS so the results would not be applied in all high schools. It would be
interesting to conduct a similar study on teachers and students from other schools.

44
 Second, the study only comment to techniques received highly
recommendation from teachers and students at the survey questionnaires and the
interviews. Other techniques such as: visual aids, recording students‟ pronunciation
should be studied to find out the best techniques in teaching and learning
pronunciation.

Third, the suggested techniques are based on the results selected from the
questionnaires and interviews. So experiment research should be carried out to
check students‟ pronunciation improvement.

45
 REFERENCES
1. Avery, P. and Ehrlich, S. (1992). Teaching American English Pronunciation.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2. Bowen, T., and Marks. J. (1992). The Pronunciation Book: student-Centred

Activities for Pronunciation Work. Harlow: Longman

3. Bowler, B. (2008). Timesaver pronunciation activities. Mary Glasgow Magazines

4. Cruttenden, A. (2001). Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. London: Arnold

5. Dalton, C., and Seidlhofer, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University

Press

6. Dalton, D.F. (1997). Some Techniques for Teaching Pronunciation. The Internet
TESL Journal, Vol. III, No. 1, January 1997.

7. Grant, L., (1993). Advanced English Pronunciation. Heinle: Heinle

8. Hancock, M. (1995). Pronunciation Games. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

9. Hewings, M. (2004). Pronunciation Practice Activities. New York: Cambridge

University Press

10. Hinst and Cristo. (1998). The Pronunciation Component in Teaching English to
Speakers of Other Languages

11. Kelly, G. (2000). How to teach Pronunciation. Harlow: Pearson.

12. Kenworthy, J. (1987). Teaching English Pronunciation. London: Long man House

13. Larsen, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford:

Oxford University Press.

14. McNeil, D (1987). Some characteristic aspects of Vietnamese English

pronunciation' and “Teaching pronunciation to Vietnamese students”. A Program Support
Group Research.

15. Mortimer, C. (1985). Elements of Pronunciation: Intensive Practice for

Intermediate and More Advanced Students. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

16. Nunan, D. (2004). Listen in book 3. 2nd edition. HoChi Minh city: HoChiMinh city

17. O‟Connor, J.D. (1967). Better English Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

46
18. O‟Connor, J.D. (1989). Sounds English. London: Longman

19. Pennington, M. (1996). Phonology in English Language Teaching: An

international Approach. Harlow: Pearson

20. Roach, P. (1998). English Phonetics and Phonology. Nhà Xuất Bản Trẻ.

21. Tam, Ha Cam. (2005). Common Pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of

English. Journal of Science. Foreign Languages, T.XX1, No.1, 2005, p. 35-46.

22. Ur, Penny. (1996). A course in language teaching: practice and theory. New York:
Cambridge University Press.

23. Wajnryb. Ruth (1992). Classroom Observation Tasks. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

47
 APPENDIX 1
SURVEY QUESIONNAIRE (for students)

Phiếu điều tra này được thiết kế nhằm tìm hiểu nhu cầu, thái độ, khó khăn của học
sinh trong việc học phát âm tiếng anh từ đó tìm ra giải pháp tốt nhất giúp các em
nâng cao khả năng phát âm của mình. Vì vậy sự hợp tác của các em đóng vai trò rất
quan trọng trong sự thành công của đề tài. Rất mong nhận được sự hợp tác của các
em. Xin chân thành cảm ơn.

Để hoàn thành phiếu điều tra này, các em hãy khoanh tròn hoặc trả lời đáp án mà
các em cho là đúng và thích hợp nhất.(các em có thể chọn nhiều hơn một đáp án).

Phần thông tin cá nhân:

- Giới tính của em a) Nam b) Nữ
- Em đã học Tiếng Anh được bao lâu rồi?
a) > 1 năm b) > 3 năm c) > 7 năm d) > 10 năm
Phần câu hỏi:
1. Em nghĩ thế nào về trình độ tiếng Anh của em?
a) Rất kém b) Kém c) Bình thường d) Tốt e) Rất tốt
2. Theo em, phần nào sau đây quan trong nhất khi học tiếng Anh?

a. Ngữ pháp b. Từ vựng

c. Phát âm d. Phát triển kỹ năng

3. Mục đích học phát âm của em là gì? (em có thể đánh dấu hơn một lựa chọn)
a, Để giao tiếp tốt hơn
b, Để biết kiến thức về ngôn ngữ Tiếng Anh
c, Để đạt kết quả cao hơn trong các kì thi
d, Để phân biêt được sự khác nhau giữa Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt
e, Mục đích khác……………………….
4. Bạn thấy học ngữ âm như thế nào?
a, Rất thú vị
b, Thú vị
c, Bình thường
d, Không thú vị lắm
e, Không thú vị
5. Một tuần em học phát âm bao nhiêu thời gian?

I
 a. Dưới 20 phút
b. Từ 20 phút đến 45 phút
c. Nhiều hơn 45 phút
d. Không có thời gian riêng dành cho học phát âm

6. Em có hiểu gì về nguyên âm ngắn và nguyên âm dài không?

a. Có, hiểu rất kỹ
b. Có, hiểu một chút
c. Không hiểu chút nào
d. Ý kiến khác
7. Trong số các cặp phụ âm đã học em thấy cặp phụ âm nào khó để học? (em
có thể đánh dấu hơn một lựa chọn)

a. /b/ và /p/
b. /d/ và /t/
c. /s/ và /z/
d. /f/ và /v/
e. /g/ và /k/
f. / θ/ và /ð/
g. /ʒ/ và /ʃ/
h. Ý kiến khác
8. Bạn thấy học ngữ âm khó vì những nguyên nhân sau:

S Rất Bình Không Không

Các nguyên nhân Đồng ý
TT đồng ý thường đồng ý lắm đồng ý
1Sự khác biệt trong phát âm
Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt
2Ảnh hưởng của cách phát âm
Tiếng Việt
3Càng nhiều tuổi học ngữ âm
càng khó
4Ít có cơ hội giao tiếp với người
bản xứ
5Khả năng phát âm của bạn
6Bạn không thích học
7Bạn thấy học ngữ âm là không
cần thiết
8Những nguyên nhân khác (Hãy
ghi cụ thể)
9. Em thấy các bài học phát âm trong SGK 10 khó vì những nguyên nhân sau:
S Các nguyên nhân Rất Đồng ý Bình Không Không

II
TT đồng ý thường đồng ý lắm đồng ý
1Thời gian trên lớp ít cho luyện
tập
2Bài tập thực hành đơn điệu
3Các quy tắc phát âm nhiều và
khó nhớ
4Ít tài liệu tham khảo
5Lớp học quá đông
6Không có phòng học tiếng
riêng
7Các hoạt động giảng dạy của
giáo viên chưa hấp dẫn, bài
giảng đơn điệu, nhàm chán
8Các nguyên nhân khác (Hãy
ghi cụ thể)
10. Để việc học phát âm đươc tốt hơn em có nguyện vọng.
a. Học phát âm thường xuyên hơn trong tất cả các tiết học tiếng Anh
b. Được kết hợp nhiều kỹ năng, hoạt động phong phú trong giờ học
d. Có một phần riêng và tiết học dành riêng cho học phát âm
e. Thaỳ cô giáo hướng dẫn cụ thể và cẩn thận hơn.
f. Được sử dụng tài liệu học hấp dẫn hơn
g. Thày cô giáo tiến hành các phương pháp đánh giá, kiểm tra chất lượng của
việc học phát âm.
11. Trong những hoạt động học phát âm dưới đây (những) hoạt động nào
em thấy có hiệu quả và giúp em học phát âm tốt hơn? (em có thể đánh dấu hơn
một lựa chọn).
a. Nghe và nhắc lại
b. Làm các bài tập luyện tập
c. Đọc thành tiếng
d. Học cách phiên âm
e. .Luyện tập cách đọc các cặp từ có các âm tiết giống nhau như: sheep, ship
hay ban,pan,etc.
f. Sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan
g. Ghi âm cách đọc của mình
h.Luyện tập cách đọc các từ có cách đọc dễ gây nhầm lẫn trong cùng một câu
như she sells seashell at the seaside.
i.Luyện tập cách đọc theo chuỗi
j. Các hoạt động khác ( em hãy ghi cụ thể).

III
 APPENDIX 2
SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (for teachers)

The survey questionnaire is designed for my thesis: “Teaching English

pronunciation to grade 10 students at Thanh Liem C High school: reality, problems
and solutions” with the focus on the difficulties in teaching and learning
pronunciation then suggests some solutions. It is highly appreciated if you spend a
little time completing truthfully the question. All the information provided by you is
solely for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified
in any discussion of the data.
Please respond to each statement or question and complete all of them as
frankly and accurately as you can.
Personal information
- Sex: a) Male b) Female
- How long have you been teaching English?
a) 1-5 years b) 6-10 years c) 11- 15 years d) >16
years
Questions
1. Specify the level of your students’ pronunciation level:
a. excellent b. good c. above average
d. average e. under average
2. Which of these following aspects in English do you think the most
necessary for your students?
a. grammar b. vocabulary c. pronunciation d. skills

3. What is your purpose of teaching Pronunciation? (more than one choice)

a, To help students to communicate better
b, To provide students with the knowledge about English language
c, To help students to get better results in the exam
d, To help students distinguish the differences between English and
Vietnamese
e, Others:……………………….

4. How do you find teaching pronunciation?

IV
 a, Very interesting
b, Interesting
c, Neutral
d, Not very interesting
e, Not interesting at all
5. Do you have enough time to teach pronunciation as you want? How often
do you teach pronunciation a week?
a. Less than 20 minutes
b. From 20 minutes to 45 minutes
c. More than 45 minutes
d. No time on pronunciation

6. Do you find it difficult to teach English short vowels and long vowels
a. Yes, very difficult
b. Yes, rather difficult
c. So so, neither difficult nor easy
d. No, very easy
7. Among English consonants, which ones do you find hard to teach ? ( more
than one option)

a. /b/ và /p/
b. /d/ và /t/
c. /s/ và /z/
d. /f/ và /v/
e. /g/ và /k/
f. / θ/ và /ð/
g. /ʒ/ và /ʃ/

8. You find Pronunciation difficult because of some following reasons:

Strongly Not strongly Not
Causes Agree Neutral
agree agree agree
The
1 differences between
Vietnamese and English
Pronunciation
The
2 influence of Vietnamese
Age
3 factors
Amount
4 of exposure

V
 Phonetic
5 ability
Attitudes
6 and identity
Motivation
7 and concern for
good pronunciation
Others:
8 (Please specify)

9. You find Pronunciation lessons in English 10 difficult because of some

following reasons:

Strongly Not strongly Not

Causes Agree Neutral
agree agree agree
The
1 time for each lesson is
too short
Practice
2 lessons are boring
and monotonous
There
3 are too many relative
rules and they are difficult to
remember
There
4 are so few reference
books
The
5 class is too crowded
There
6 is no lab for foreign
language class
Teaching
7 techniques are not
attractive enough
Others:
8 (Please specify)

10. Do you think that we should teach pronunciation at high school?

(yes/no), what should we do to improve students‟ pronunciation?
a. Increasing teaching and learning time
b. Contacting various teaching approaches, techniques and activities
c. Teaching pronunciation strategically
d. Using authentic materials
e. Increasing teachers‟ roles.
f. Carrying out on-going assessment
g. Your own ideas (please specify………………………)
11. In the following techniques and activities, what do you think possible and
effective to improve students’ pronunciation? (more than one choice)

VI
a. Listen and imitate
b. Drilling
c. Reading aloud
d. Phonetic training
e. Minimal pair drills
f. Visual aids
g. Recording students‟ production
h.Tongue Twisters
i. Chaining
j. Your suggestions (please specify……………………………………)

-Thank you very much –

VII
 APPENDIX 3
CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET

Name of observer: Tran Thuy Anh

Date and time of observation:
Length of observation: 45’ Grade level: 10 th grade.

Objective of observation: to find out teaching and learning materials,

students’ activities/mistakes and teachers’ teaching techniques in teaching and
learning long and short vowels and fricative consonants.
Name of lesson: Unit…../
Method: note-taking
Stage/ Procedures
Techniques
time Teachers’ work Students’ work

VIII
 APPENDIX 4
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Anh/ Chị có thấy học sinh của mình có khó khăn gì khi học phát âm
Tiếng Anh không?

2. Theo anh/ chị đâu là khó khăn chính mà học sinh gặp khi học phát âm
Tiếng Anh?

3. Học sinh của anh/ chị có khó khăn gì khi học phát âm các nguyên âm
Tiếng Anh không? Đó là những vướng mắc gì?

4. Học sinh của anh/ chị có khó khăn gì khi học phát âm các phụ âm Tiếng
Anh không? Đó là những vướng mắc gì?

5. Theo anh/ chị đâu là nguyên nhân của những khó khăn nêu trên?

IX