students’ attitudes towards using technology in language classes in learning pronunciation a survey at a vietnam-based international school

2. Aims and objectives of the study This thesis investigates the reality of the teaching English Pronunciation to the grade 9 students at HIBS. The main goal of the research is to determine factors that will inhibit or facilitate the implementation of technology in learning pronunciation and give reasonable, satisfactory suggestions and to make some recommendations, which can help students to reduce the difficulties. In details, it aims at: ➢ Investigating and finding out the major problems that HIBS GRADE 9 students face during English Pronunciation course. ➢ Determining the fact that to what extent technology contributes in teaching pronunciation to students, and students‟ attitudes towards technology. ➢ Giving some recommendations to students about how effectively, they can employ technology in improving pronunciation. 3.Research Questions Focusing on a case with a target on students at HIBS, this research examined the teaching of pronunciation effectively through utilizing technology. To achieve this, two research questions were proposed: (1) What are the main problems students face in learning pronunciation in HIBS? (2) To what extend does the technology contribute in teaching pronunciation? 4.Scope of the study Due to the limited time, the author only focuses on using Technology to promote grade 9 students learning English Pronunciation at HIBS because of the following reasons. Firstly, there are too many means of Information Technology in Vietnam, in recent years. It is obvious that, technology is making giant leaps in every aspect of life in Vietnam. Secondly, English far beyond being the global language has an enormous influence in every field, including education. Then, as Pronunciation is being a compulsory tool in English learning. Thirdly, by combining above reasons it is crystal clear that HIBS students are far beyond able to seize an enormous opportunity in learning English Pronunciation. 3 To study techniques for grade 9 students at HIBS, variety of methods can be made use of. However, within the framework of a minor thesis, researcher only intends to give an overview of the current situation of teaching and studying, speaking skill at HIBS and to give suggestions to help students improve their English Pronunciation skills and efficiently achieve the objectives of each unit of the syllabus book as well. The suggested methods will serve as a reference for both teachers and students to effectively acquire foreign language. The researcher has acted his mind about the situation in order that IT will be implemented more often and more efficiently for learning English Pronunciation in the coming time. If that comes true, English language in general and English Pronunciation in particular surely will get interest of non-English-major students and teachers of English. 5. Method of the study Quantitative methodology was selected for this case study. This involves the following methods: (1) Survey questionnaire (2) Analyzing the questions meticulously. The collected data comes from the 21 9th grade students studying at Horizon International Bilingual school. Then the analysis is carried out in the light of finding out the answers to the research questions. 6. Design of the study The study consists of six chapters. Chapter one, INTRODUCTION, presents the background and the aim of the thesis, defines the significance and scope of the study. The detailed aims of Chapter two, LITERATURE REVIEW, in this section author will provide a brief theoretical background about a Computer-based learning and English Pronunciation. Chapter two, METHODOLOGY deals with date analysis of a questionnaire administered to students to find out their attitudes towards technological devices in audio labs as well as discuss questions included in the questionnaire and main difficulties in learning English Pronunciation to junior year students and EFL teachers‟ solutions to these problems. Moreover, in this chapter the writer would like to list some information about the statistical results of a questionnaire. Finally, researcher focus on applying technology from students` perspectives only. 4 Chapter three, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION, is by far the most important of the whole research. It contains the real fact and data analysis and synthesis to answer the research questions with specific techniques; various types of exercises have been designed in order to drill as vivid illustrations. Chapter four emphasizes the implications of the study in which recommendations for the application of latest technological devices are proposed. Also, author would like to list some SUGGESTIONS for teachers as well as students from a personal point of view. Part C, CONCLUSION summarizes some major findings, provides recommendations for teaching pronunciation, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further research. This chapter provides an overview of the history of computers in English as a foreign language (EFL) and detailed development of English Pronunciation. 5 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. Pronunciation and communicative teaching Pronunciation is not an optional extra for the language learner, any more than grammar, vocabulary or any other aspect of language (Tench, 1981). „Pronunciation‟ is defined as „A way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood.‟ (American Heritage Dictionary, 1992). A reasonable pronunciation is important when a learner‟s general aim is to talk intelligibly to others in another language. Making yourself understood when you say something, besides grammar, lexis, function, and discourse, it has to be pronounced reasonably well. It is necessary for a teacher to give due attention to pronunciation along with everything else. Students can be expected to do well in the pronunciation of English if the pronunciation class is taken out of isolation and becomes an ''integral part of the oral communication'' class (Morley,1991). The goal of pronunciation should be changed from the attainment of ''perfect'' pronunciation (A very elusive term at the best of times.), to the more realistic goals of developing functional intelligibility, communicability, increased self-confidence, the development of speech monitoring abilities and speech modification strategies for use beyond the classroom (Morley, 1991). The overall aim of these goals is for the learner to develop spoken English that is easy to understand, serves the learner''s individual needs, and allows a positive image of himself as a speaker of a foreign language. The learner needs to develop awareness and monitoring skills that will allow learning opportunities outside the classroom environment. The communicative approach to pronunciation teaching requires teaching methods and objectives that include „whole-person learner involvement''‟(Morley,1991). Morley states there are three important dimensions the teacher should catered for in any pronunciation program; the learner''s intellectual involvement, affective involvement, and physical involvement. The learner''s involvement in the learning process has been noted as one of the best techniques for developing learner strategies, that is, the measures used by the learner to develop his language learning (Morley, 1991). It is the teacher''s responsibility to develop the learning process so the learner has the greatest chance to develop the learning 6 strategies that are unique to each individual learner. The teacher also has a special role to play in the communicative learning program, a role that Morley describes as one of „speech coach or pronunciation coach‟. Rather than just correcting the learner‟s mistakes, the „speech coach‟ „supplies information, gives models from time to time, offers cues, suggestions and constructive feedback about performance, sets high standards, provides a wide variety of practice opportunities, and overall supports and encourages the learner‟ (Morley,1991). It can be seen the teacher''s role is not only to „teach‟ but to facilitate learning by monitoring and modifying English at two levels, speech production and speech performance. 1.2. History and scope of teaching English pronunciation The role of pronunciation in the different schools of language teaching has varied widely from having virtually no role in the grammar-translation method to being the main focus in the audio-lingual method where emphasis is on the traditional notions of pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills and short conversations. (Castillo, 1990) During the late 1960s and the 1970s questions were asked about the role of pronunciation in the ESL/EFL curriculum, whether the focus of the programs and the instructional methods were effective or not. Pronunciation programs until then were „viewed as meaningless non-communicative drilland-exercise gambits‟ (Morley,1991). In many language programs the teaching of pronunciation was pushed aside, as many studies concluded „that little relationship exists between teaching pronunciation in the classroom and attained proficiency in pronunciation; the strongest factors found to affect pronunciation (i.e. native language and motivation) seem to have little to do with classroom activities‟ (Suter, 1976, Purcell and Suter, 1980). Pronunciation has been regarded as „the Cinderella of language teaching‟ (Kelly, 1969) The above view that „little relationship exists between teaching pronunciation in the classroom and attained proficiency in pronunciation‟ was supported by research done by Suter (1976) and Suter and Purcell (1980) on twenty variables believed to have an influence on pronunciation. They concluded that pronunciation practice in class had little affect on the learner''s pronunciation skills and, moreover „that the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is a matter substantially beyond the control of educators‟. They qualified their findings by stating that variables of formal training and the quality of the training in pronunciation could affect the results, as would the area of pronunciation that had been emphasized, that is segmentals (individual sounds of a language) or suprasegmentals. ( The „musical patterns‟ of English, melody, pitch patterns, 7 rhythm, and timing patterns (Gilbert, 1995) Pennington (1989) questioned the validity of Suter and Purcell‟s findings as the factors of formal pronunciation training and the quality of the teaching, if not taken into account, could affect any research results. He stated that there was „no firm basis for asserting categorically that pronunciation is not teachable or that it is not worth spending time on...‟. It is quite clear from the research mentioned above that the role of pronunciation training in the learner''s language development is widely debated, with researchers such as Suter, Purcell, and Madden (1983) all thinking that pronunciation training is relatively ineffective, and in opposition researchers such as Pennington believing that teachers, with formal training in pronunciation and teaching suprasegmentals in a communicative language program, can make a difference. Between these opposing views, Stern (1992) says „there is no convincing empirical evidence which could help us sort out the various positions on the merits of pronunciation training‟. There has been a move from teacher-centered to learner-centered classrooms, and concurrently, a shift from specific linguistic competencies to broader communicative competencies as goals for teachers and students. Morley states the need for the integration of pronunciation with oral communication, a change of emphasis from segmentals to suprasegmentals, more emphasis on individual learner needs, meaningful task-based practices, development of new teacher strategies for the teaching, and introducing peer correction and group interaction. (Castillo,1990) Research has shown that teaching phonemes isn''t enough for intelligibility in communication (Cohen,1977). With the emphasis on meaningful communication and Morley‟s (1991) premise, that „intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence‟ teachers should include pronunciation in their courses and expect students to do well in them. Without adequate pronunciation skills the learner‟s ability to communicate is severely limited. Morley believes that not attending to a student‟s pronunciation needs, „is an abrogation of professional responsibility (1991)‟. Other research gives support to Morley‟s belief in the need for „professional responsibility‟ when the results show that „a threshold level of pronunciation in English such that if a given non-native speaker‟s pronunciation falls below this level, he or she will not be able to communicate orally no matter how good his or her control of English grammar and vocabulary might be (Celce-Murcia,1987). Gilbert (1984) believes the skills of listening comprehension and pronunciation are interdependent: „If they cannot hear English well, they are cut off from the language...If they cannot be understood easily, they are cut off from conversation with native speakers.‟ Nooteboom 8