The effect of material variation on Iranian high school
students’ pronunciation
Firoozeh Falakbaz , Shahrokh Jahandar
Department of TEFL, Guilan Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Guilan, Iran.
Corresponding Author email: Firoozehfalackbaz@yahoo.com
Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of material
variation on Iranian high school students’ pronunciation accuracy. To this
end, 40 participants who were studying at the first grade of Maleki high
school in Rasht, Iran were selected and divided into two groups of
experimental and control. In order to have two homogeneous groups, an
OPT test was administered. A pre- test of pronunciation was given to both
groups. The experimental group practiced pronunciation through working
on ‘pronunciation plus’ book as the supplementary book. The control
group practiced pronunciation through the existing method. Finally, after
duration of eight sessions the participants took another pronunciation test.
The data obtained from the tests showed that there was a significant
difference between the qualities of pronunciation in experimental and
control.
Keywords:
course
books,
mispronunciation,
Supplementary books, word stress
school
curriculum,
INTRODUCTION
A good pronunciation is vital for the speakers to communicate well. The better
the pronunciation is, the better people can understand each other. As Richards
(2008) claims a bad pronunciation puts the foreigner at a disadvantage when it
comes to social interaction with native speakers. Fraser (2000) explains that with
good pronunciation a speaker is intelligible despite other errors. With poor
pronunciation, understanding a speaker will be very difficult, despite accuracy in
other areas. Considering these points, it’s clear that learning English for non- native
speakers has become so important and it can't be restricted to formal school
curriculum. It is what people need for their lives. By the study of Yarbakhsh (2000)
the most important problem that a learner faces with is the matter of correct word
pronunciation and fluent pronunciation ability.
In the importance of teaching pronunciation Nakashima (2006) states that the
importance of instruction for increasing the ineligibility of pronunciation is usually
ignored in classrooms and many teachers may give up their effort at teaching
pronunciation in the classroom.
According to Hill (1980), one of the most important matters in any language
course is the textbook. Celce-Murcia (1997) puts emphasis on the value of textbooks
and argues that they are an effective resource for learning effectively. As a result it is
vital to choose the most useful textbook for the learners in particular settings. But the
way that pronunciation is treated in the course books of Iranian high schools shows
that pronunciation is ignored. According to Ansari and Babaie (2002) no textbook is
perfect so teachers should have the permission to assign Supplementary materials
based on the needs of the teaching situation.
According to Gilakjani (2012) all learners can pronounce well in learning the
pronunciation of foreign language if the teacher and learner participate together in
the process of learning and also the important role of the materials being used in this
process must not be ignored.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
There have always been different kinds of idea about teaching pronunciation.
In grammar translation method, teaching pronunciation was ignored and the main
focus was on teaching grammar. In 1886, International Phonetic association was
created by some phoneticians such as: Henry Sweet, Wilhelm Vietor, and Paul
Passy which had a great effect on teaching pronunciation. Reform Movement played
a very important role in development of Audiolingualism in the US and also the Oral
approach in Britain during the 1940s and 1950s. In these approaches pronunciation
is taught explicitly and the aim is achieving a native-like accent. There are minimal
pairs, drills and short conversations to practice pronunciation. (Celce Murcia and
Goodwin 1991: 136).
But as it ignored what actually happens in real world dialogues, it was
recognized that native-like pronunciation could not be totally taught. As the result in
the 1960s the cognitive approach minimized the importance of pronunciation in favor
of grammar and vocabulary and language was considered as rule governed behavior
rather than habit formation.
In the silent way method the attention was paid to accuracy of production of
sounds and structures of target language from the initial stage of instruction. The
method appears to have a special focus on teaching pronunciation without having to
learn a phonetic alphabet or a body of explicit linguistic information. Learners’
attention is concentrated on individual sounds and also on how words combine in
phrases.
After developing Community language learning by Charles A. Curran (1976),
it was understood that good pronunciation cannot be achieved through some drilling
practices. Better options were necessary to teach pronunciation. The goal became
gaining communicative competence and also generating pragmatically appropriate
utterances and using them in a given context besides applying grammatical rules. It
maximized meaningful interaction but it had less emphasis on correct articulation of
L2 specific vowels and consonants. As the result, L2 learners such as immigrants
and international students faced problems because of their foreign accent. So it is
concluded that there is no way of teaching pronunciation within communicative
method. Due to this problem, new perspectives on pronunciation teaching and
learning were developed and researchers, linguistics, and teachers found ways to
meet L2 learners’ pronunciation needs according to the need for international
communication.
In the 1990s, pronunciation was viewed as an important element of
communication. The emphasize was on how suprasegmentals were used to
communicate meaning. (Morely, 1991).
In our times, the need for international communication makes achieving
proficiency in English more outstanding and this should cover not merely vocabulary
and grammar, but good pronunciation as well (Lord, 2008).
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Pronunciation is one of the most important aspects of leaning English. But it is
one area of leaching which is often neglected. at Iranian educational system. It is
clear in the way that pronunciation is treated in the course books. Most teachers also
limit themselves to the course books and majority either do very little or none to do
some pronunciation in the lessons. So in many English language class rooms,
teaching pronunciation is granted the least attention.
As a result the students can use vocabularies correctly with an appropriate
grammar, the can also be successful in doing the mechanical exercises but they face
serious problems in speaking and communicating in real world. Students’ translation
abilities can also be improved in Iranian educational system because the medium of
instruction is Persian but they cannot use the language communicatively (Ghorbani,
2011). Although most of the learners can master the related prescribed textbooks
and pass their examinations with good scores , few of them can speak English
affectively.
Since the high school students can translate, do the exercise and use the
appropriate grammar, but not communicate well, one may ask what the reason is .It
may have different reasons but as it is said by Jahangir (2007), it is mainly caused
by insufficient instruction of teachers, textbooks and curriculum planning.
This study suggests that the problem is caused by the inappropriateness of
the textbooks being taught in the class.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This study is aimed to investigate the effect of material variation on the ability
for learners to learn word pronunciation.
The main purpose of the study is to provide answer for the following question:
1. Can the quality of students’ pronunciation be improved by the material being
used?
HYPOTHESIS
H0: Martial variation has no effect on Iranian high school students’ English
word pronunciation.
METHODOLOGY
Participants
The participants were all female students aged 15 studying in Maleki high
school in Rasht, Iran. To make sure of the homogeneity of the participants, a
proficiency test called OPT was administered between 100 students. Participants
with the score one SD above the mean have been selected. 40 participants were
selected for this study. Their native language was Persian. 20 participants were
assigned to experimental and control group randomly.
Procedures
The participants of this study were given pronunciation test because the goal
of this study is investigating the effect of material variation on pronunciation so in
order to reach this aim providing a pronunciation test as the learners were supposed
to pronounce the words loudly was necessary. Their voices have been recorded and
then have been phonemic transcribed. The learners got familiar with phonetics and
phonology rules by working on the ‘pronunciation plus’ book during eight sessions.
Then both groups were supposed to pronounce a new list of words in order to
be compared with the first pronunciation test. The learners were supposed to
produce the sounds and stress patterns in a phonemically accepted way loudly and
their voices have been recorded and transcribed phonemically.
Data Analysis
In the present study after determining pronunciation accuracy by the test
mentioned there were one set of score for each group of participants. The
differences between mean scores of pre-test and post-test of control and
experimental group were calculated through ANCOVA. Using SPSS was necessary
to analyze the data.
RESULTS
The descriptive statistical analysis done on the collected data of pre-test and
post-test is shown in table 1.
Table 1: Descriptive statistical analysis done on the collected data of pre-test and
post-test
Group
Pre-test
Experimental
Mean
N
Control
20
68.4
20
SD
4.8
4.7
Mean
58.45
58.1
N
Total
59.9
Post-test
20
20
SD
5.64
5.2
Mean
59.15
63.25
N
SD
40
5.216
40
7.121
In this study, in order to investigate the research hypothesis “the quality of
students’ pronunciation cannot be improved by using materials such as a
supplementary book” , the differences between mean scores of pre-test and posttest of control and experimental group were calculated through ANCOVA. Sum of
analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of quality of pronunciation in experimental and
control group after eliminating between-subjects effect is demonstrated in table 2:
Table 2: Sum of analysis of covariance
Source Type lll Sum of Square
df
Corrected Model 1879.415
2
Mean Score F
939.71
Sig Partial Eta Squared
354.48 .00
.95
Pretest
818.52
1
818.52
308.76 .00
.89
Group
805.42
1
805.48
303.84 .00
.89
Error
98.08
37
2.65
Total
46200
40
As it can be seen, the corrected model (f=00, F=354.48) is statistically significant.
The results (F=303.84 , Sig=.00, Eta=.89) shows that there is a difference between
two groups. It means that there is significance difference between experimental and
control group. The finding of the study showed that the treatment had a significant
effect on students' pronunciation. It means that there is significance difference
between experimental and control group. As a result the null hypothesis “the quality
of students’ pronunciation cannot be improved by using materials such as a
supplementary book” will be rejected, so it can be concluded that the quality of
students’ pronunciation can be improved by using materials such as a
supplementary book.
To clarify the result, the data will be demonstrated in graph 1. The vertical axis
represents the post-test and the horizontal axis represent experimental and control
group.
The graph shows that there is a significant difference between the quality of
pronunciation in experimental and control group. It clearly shows that the
experimental group who received treatment on the basis of pronunciation had better
scores on post-test.
DISCUSSION
The findings and results of this study completely support the claim that
material variation affects the high school students’ pronunciation. By reviewing the
previous studies on the shortcomings of the English course books being used in
Iranian educational system and relating the results and findings of this study, it is
clear that there is a need to use new materials to improve the students’
pronunciation when the text books ignore the pronunciation part. As cited in the
study of Sohrabi(2012) It's necessary to have up to dated materials and methods of
teaching. By using the new method and materials the ability of high school students
to learn English can be improved.
The result of this study can have some pedagogical implication as well. This study
raised awareness of the importance of pronunciation and the material being used. It
is hoped that the result of this small-scale enquiry would serve as a template for
further research into pronunciation training in Iran. Classroom teachers could
upgrade their knowledge about language teaching and expose themselves new
teaching materials. Teachers could be encouraged to complement their textbooks
with additional materials that they consider beneficial to their students.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to express my deep gratitude firstly to merciful God, then to my supervisor Dr.
ShahrokhJahandar. It is impossible to adequately thank him for his insightful
guidance throughout this research. I should also thank Dr. Morteza Khodabandelou
and Dr. Ramin Rahimi for their kind corporation and insightful comments. At last, I
would like to appreciate my mother who has supported and helped me to continue
my work.
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