VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHƢƠNG THỊ THẢO IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION FOR GRADE-10 STUDENTS BY USING PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT IN A HIGH SCHOOL IN HAI DUONG (Cải thiện phát âm cho học sinh lớp 10 việc sử dụng kí hiệu phiên âm: Nghiên cứu hành động trường trung học phổ thông Hải Dương) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: Teaching English Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi - 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHƢƠNG THỊ THẢO IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS BY USING PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT IN A HIGH SCHOOL IN HAI DUONG (Cải thiện phát âm cho học sinh lớp 10 việc sử dụng kí hiệu phiên âm: Nghiên cứu hành động trường trung học phổ thông Hải Dương) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: Teaching English Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, PhD Hanoi - 2019 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this research report is my own unaided work It is being submitted for the Master Degree of English Language Teaching, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi It has not been submitted to any other degree or examination at any other university i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the following people for their contribution to this study Dr.Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, my research supervisor, for her valuable guidance, commitment and support Ms Duong Thi Loan and Ms Nguyen Thu Thao, for their support and care, which helped me through many difficulties My parents and my two beloved sisters for a great source of inspiration and encouragement which help me to achieve my goals throughout my years of study The teacher and the students participating in my study, for their time, assistance and enthusiasm ii ABSTRACT This action research aims to improve the pronunciation of vowel sounds for high school students by using phonetic transcription In order to achieve the aim, the study identified the mistakes in vowel sounds made by the students through pre-test and pre-questionnaire and then implemented a plan to help the students improve such mistakes using phonetic transcription Finally, the study evaluated the improvement of the students after applying the technique by employing post- tests, questionnaire and teacher‘s journal The findings of the study revealed that the students made a certain progress in pronouncing vowel sounds after learning with phonetic transcription They also showed a positive attitude towards the use of phonetic transcription in pronunciation learning and wished to receive further training using this technique Keywords: phonetic transcription, vowel sounds, high school students, action research iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i LIST OF FIGURES vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Research aim 3 Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study .4 Design of the thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Pronunciation 2.1.1 Definition of pronunciation .6 1.1.2 Definition of vowel sounds .6 2.2 Phonetic transcription 2.2.1 Definition of phonetic transcription 2.2.2 The benefits of phonetic transciption in pronunciation learning 2.3 Teaching pronunciation 10 2.3.1 The aim of teaching pronunciation 10 2.3.2 Techniques in teaching pronunciation 11 2.3.3 The difficulties in pronouncing vowels and using phonetic transcription of the students 13 2.4 Related studies 15 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18 3.1 Research design 18 3.2 The subjects of the study 20 3.3 Data collection instruments 21 3.3.1 Pre-test and post-test 21 iv 3.3.2 Pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire .22 3.3.3 Teacher‘s journal .23 3.4 Data collection and analysis .23 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25 4.1 The mistakes and difficulties of students in pronouncing vowel sounds 25 4.2 The improvements of students after learning with phonetic transcription .32 4.3.The opinions of the students after learning with phonetic transcription .36 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .40 5.1 A summary of the major findings 40 5.2 Implications of the study 41 5.3 Limitations of the study .41 5.4 Recommendations for further study 42 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES I v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1:Table lists of English vowels ( Kelly, 2000) Figure 2: Sound Foundations (Under Hill, 1994) .9 Figure 3: The percentage of students making mistakes in each vowel sound in the pre-test .26 Figure 4: The difficulties of the students in pronouncing vowel sounds and phonetic transcription .Revision Date: 9/4 Time: 135 minutes - After four lessons, the teacher helped the students to review all 20 vowel sounds in English They were shown a full chart of 20 vowel sounds and asked to pronounce them all Among them, the most difficult ones were /a:/ / ɔ: / /3:/ /u:/ - long monophthongs and some short monophthongs like /æ / - The teacher wanted to check if the students remembered the phonetic symbols of those sounds as well as if they were able to pronounce these sounds probably Some students performed better than the others in the sense that they could pronounce them quite accurately, so the teachers asked them to be tutor and helped other weaker students to practice - Then the students were provided with exercises to practice all the sounds individually and in groups It seemed that students could pronounce all the sounds quite well with the help of phonetic transcription Session 16, 17, 18: Revision Date: 16/4 Time: 135 minutes - When the teacher provided exercises mixed of all twenty sounds for students to practice, some of them performed quite well Other students seemed to recall quite well the symbols and their sounds They could pronounce words properly by looking at the phonetic symbols However, when it came to recognizing the sounds themselves, the students had more difficulties in getting them corrected Many of them, about one third, mispronounced unfamiliar words without phonetic transcription provided It seemed that it might take more time for the students to get used to the sounds and its common patterns before they could nail the pronunciation of vowel sounds without the help of phonetic transcription XX Appendix 10 Sample marking paper of a student Students‘ number: 09 PRE-TEST Exercise 1: Read out loud these following words Words Sweep Expensive Food Cookery Anger Preference Hard Another Earth 10 Suppose 11 Support 12 Pot 13 Allowance 14 Promotion 15 Labour 16 Bride 17 Employ 18 Fare 19 Tourist 20 Meal Phonetic transcription /swiːp/ /ɪkˈspen.sɪv/ /fuːd/ /ˈkʊk.ər.i/ ˈæŋ.ɡər/ /ˈpref.ər.əns/ /hɑːrd/ /əˈnʌð.ər/ /ɜːθ/ /səˈpəʊz/ /səˈpɔːt/ /pɒt/ /əˈlaʊ.əns/ /prəˈməʊ.ʃən/ /ˈleɪ.bər/ /braɪd/ /ɪmˈplɔɪ/ /feər/ /ˈtʊə.rɪst/ /mɪəl/ XXI Mark Correct = Incorrect =1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 Note /e/ /u/ “ ăng” /i/ /a/ “ơ” /o/ “âu” /e/ Exercise 2: Read out loud these following sentences My sister and I take turns laying the table for meals, sweeping the house /tɜːnz/ ( 1- ―ơ‖) /haʊs/ and feeding the cat /fiːdɪŋ/ It can help you lose weight, build healthy bones and also prevent diseases ( ―âu‖ – 1)/luːz/ /weɪt/ / bɪld/ /bəʊnz/ /prɪˈvɛnt/ ( 1- ―ư‖) (1- iu) like cancer /ˈkænsə/ (1-/e/) The food most commonly causing allergies are milk, wheat, eggs, soya /kɒmənli/ /ˈkɔːzɪŋ / / ˈæləʤiz/ /ɑːr/ /ˈsɔɪə/ (1- ―au‖) (1- ―a‖) peanuts, shellfish /ˈpiːnʌts/ (1- ―u‖) Result Sounds Mistakes Sounds Mistakes /iː/ 11 /ɔː/ 2 /ɪ/ 12 /ɒ/ /uː/ 13 /aʊ/ /ʊ/ 14 /əʊ/ 0 15 /eɪ/ /æ/ /e/ 16 /aɪ/ /ɑː/ 17 /ɔɪ/ /ʌ/ 18 /eə/ 1 /ɜː/ 19 /ʊə/ 10 /ə/ 20 /ɪə/ ( * Note: These above words and sentences were extracted from English 10 Textbook – The second semester – New Curriculum – Vietnam Education Publishing House and Pearson Cooperation) XXII ... GRADE 10 STUDENTS BY USING PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT IN A HIGH SCHOOL IN HAI DUONG (Cải thiện phát âm cho học sinh lớp 10 việc sử dụng kí hiệu phiên âm: Nghiên cứu hành động. .. phát âm cho học sinh lớp 10 việc sử dụng kí hiệu phiên âm: Nghiên cứu hành động trường trung học phổ thông Hải Dương) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: Teaching English Methodology Code: 8140231.01... 15.38% 10. 26% 12.82% /ə/ 37.18% 35.90% 36.54% /ɔː/ 47.44% 42.31% 44.87% /ɒ/ 8.97% 10. 26% 9.62% /aʊ/ 29.49% 28.21% 28.85% /əʊ/ /eɪ/ 39.74% 42.31% 41.03% 20.51% 15.38% 17.95% /aɪ/ 10. 26% 10. 26% 10. 26%