Action Research
The effectiveness of
learning
listening to model speakers on pronunciation
Wong Siu Fun
Introduction
Pronunciation is part of language teaching. The correct pronunciation can
bring a systematic and well-structured spoken language. That is why pronunciation is
very important to communication. With an appropriate pronunciation, message can
be clearly conveyed. However, compared with the teaching of grammar, reading,
writing, listening and even vocabulary, the teaching of pronunciation gains less
teachers’ attention. Since pronunciation tends to be neglected by most English
teachers, pronunciation problems are easily found in every student’s spoken English.
After analyzing the recorded utterances elicited by various means:
conversation, reading aloud, picture description, a common pronunciation error has
been discovered in my school is the substitution of [d] as in “ladder” for [ð] as in
“lather”.
The research presented here focuses on two aspects: first, to examine the
effectiveness of the most dominant and traditional strategy: listening to model
speakers in dealing with the target pronunciation problem; second, to find out
whether learners enjoy learning pronunciation through this approach.
This research was done with forty-two Secondary Two students who are of
mixed ability. Measurement of the subjects’ performance was made by means of one
performance test. Interviews were conducted with the six selected subjects to find out
the learners’ experiences and feelings towards the target approach.
Rationale
It is accepted that intelligibility is the most sensible pronunciation goal for most
learners. Kenworthy stated that intelligibility means “ being understood by a listener
at a given time in a given situation”( p.13 ). That means, the more words a listener
can identify accurately when said by a particular speaker, the more intelligible that
speaker is. Conversely, if a speaker substitutes one sound ( e.g., /d/ )for another (
e.g., / ð/ ), the result is that the listener hears a different word ( e.g., ladder ) from the
one the speaker was aiming to say( e.g., lather ), then the speaker’s speech is
unintelligible.( Kenworthy, 1987 ).
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The pronunciation problems Chinese speakers tend to have are caused by the
difference between the pronunciation of English and Chinese. In order to cope with
that problem, Chinese learners tend to employ a learner pronunciation strategy ( i.e.
sound substitutions ). For instance, as Chinese does not have the “th” sound, /ð/ as
in “lather” will be substituted by the sound /d/ as in “ladder”, however, it inevitably
creates a potential source of intelligibility.
Among the numerous approaches to pronunciation teaching, listening to
model speakers on a cassette and repeating what is heard is a dominant and
traditional strategy. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that there are a great
deal of oral/aural exercises and material found in many pronunciation and phonetics
textbooks. Kenworthy (1987) pointed out that “many learners will be able to produce
new sounds simply by imitating what they hear”( P.69 ). MacCarthy (1978) also
thought that “ in the end hearing is more important than either seeing or feeling”
( p.28 ). These imply that listening to model speakers can help learners produce new
sounds.
Methodology
To examine whether the effectiveness of the inferring strategy in dealing with
the target pronunciation problem and also the feelings towards pronunciation learning
through the target strategy, three sets of data were collected:
First, the result of the diagnostic test which was conducted to check how
serious the students’ pronunciation problem was.( substitution of [d] for [ð] )
Second, the result of the performance test which was conducted to find out the
learning outcomes after the experiment.( the trial )
Third, the result of the interviews which were conducted with the six selected
subjects to find out the learners’ experiences and feelings towards the target
approach.
Implementation of the action research
The subjects of the research come from a Form Two Class of mixed ability.
The class consists of 42 students and they had to finish a diagnostic test (Appendix
A) before the experiment. The diagnostic test consists of words in which the [ð]
sound occurs. It aims at checking if the subjects produce the [ð] sound accurately. All
speech samples were tape recorded for data analysis. The findings of the test were
tabulated and analysed for being compared with the results of the performance test
(Appendix A) to check if the effectiveness of the target strategy in dealing with the
inferring pronunciation problem.
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A brief summary of the activities in the experiment is displayed in the following
table:( Appendix B )
Lesson Task
1-2
Learners’ activities
Class
organisation
Skills
Teacher models the [d] sound
as in “dance”, “reduce” and
“panda”
T→Ss
Listening
Imitate the sound
Ss→T
Speaking
Listen to the tape and repeat
the words in Part A
M→Ss
Listening and
Speaking
Teacher models the [ð] sound
T→Ss
Listening
Imitate the sound
Ss→T
Speaking
Listen to the tape and repeat
the words in Part B
M→Ss
Listening and
Speaking
3
Listen to the tape and repeat
the words in Part C
M→Ss
Listening and
Speaking
4
Listen to the tape and repeat
the words in Part D
M→Ss
Listening and
Speaking
1
2
as in “they” and “mother”.
Followed the trial, interviews were conducted with the six selected subjects to
find out the learners’ experiences and feelings towards the target approach. The
interviews were conducted individually and recorded for analysis.
Findings and Discussion
In the research study, there were two pronunciation tests (one was a
diagnostic test and another one was a performance test) examining the effectiveness
of listening to model speakers. Each pronunciation test was divided into three parts.
There were altogether thirty words in which the [ð] sound could be found. The results
of the two pronunciation tests were tabulated in the table below:
Diagnostic Test
Performance Test
Number of Number of Percentage Number of Number of Percentage
occurrences students ( of students ( occurrences students ( of students (
n=42 )
%)
n=42 )
%)
26-30
3
7%
26-30
0
0%
21-25
12
29%
21-25
9
21%
16-20
15
36%
16-20
9
21%
11-15
6
14%
11-15
12
29%
6-10
6
14%
6-10
12
29%
0-5
0
0%
0-5
0
0%
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As mentioned earlier, there were altogether thirty words, which are composed
of the [ð] sound, in each pronunciation test. It is assumed that the subjects whose
pronunciation problem occurred less than 15 times were classified as “acceptable”.
The results of the diagnostic test showed that the percentage of the students who
were classified as “acceptable” is 28%. After the trial, the percentage of students
classified as “acceptable” is 58% in the performance test. The difference between the
percentage of students in the two tests is 30%. Apart from this, the figure showed
that the subjects under the range from 16-20 occurrences of the pronunciation errors
decreased from 15 to 9. Even under the range from 21-25 occurrences and from 2630 occurrences, the percentage also dropped from 29% to 21% and from 7% to 0%
respectively. It can be seen that the subjects had great improvement after the trial
and it is quite an effective strategy in dealing with the target pronunciation problem.
From the interviews conducted with the selected subjects after the trial, one of
them stated that she eventually learnt how the[d] and [ð] sounds were produced
differently simply by imitating what she heard. This findings was supported by the
Innocence Principle mentioned by Strevens (1974).
Although listening to model speakers is an effective approach to pronunciation
learning, one of the subjects mentioned in the interview that it was quite boring to
listen to the model speakers and repeat after them and they were losing interests
after several trials. It indicated that the subjects did not really enjoy learning through
listening to model speakers though it helped them achieve better results in the
performance test.
It is found in the data collected from the interviews conducted with the six
selected subjects who are of different ability that students who were less capable
may find it useful in mastering the sound production and they did enjoy learning
through the target strategy.
Conclusion
It is believed that more than one approach to pronunciation teaching should be
employed at a time. One of the reasons is that all the strategies have their strengths
and weaknesses. Therefore, as a teacher, should not over-emphasis on one of the
strategies. Another reason is that different learners enjoy learning through different
strategies. A variety of strategies can suit the majority needs.
It is interesting to find out that though the strategy of listening to model
speakers is quite effective in dealing with the target pronunciation problem, it may not
be favoured by all the learners. It seems that not many research studies focus on
exploring learner’s preference. What’s more, it is suggested that further studies
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should not only investigate the effectiveness of a strategy but also find out how it can
match the personality and the needs of the learners as to maximize the effectiveness
of the strategies.
References
Kenworthy, J. (1987). Teaching English Pronunciation. London: Longman Group UK Limited.
MacCarthy, P. (1987). The Teaching of Pronunciation. Cambridge [Eng.]: Cambridge It can be seen
that the subjects had great improvement after the trial.University Press.
Strevens, P .( 1974) . A rationale for teaching pronunciation: the rival virtues of innocence and
sophistication. ELT Journal. 28:185.[ Oxford, Eng ] : Oxford University Press.
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Appendix A
Pronunciation Test
Date:
Name:
Class: F.1
Marks:
Part I
)
Say These words.
their
brothers
the
mother
rather
gather
then
this
that
these
another
there
others
leather
together
they
Part II
Say these sentences.
1.
They’re brothers, aren’t they?
2.
Is there any milk in the fridge?
3.
Who is taller than Paul?
4.
I’m sorry I missed that word. Did you say ‘those’?
Part III
(
them
Read the paragraphs aloud.
My name is Candy. I live with my parents and my brother in Causeway Bay.
My father is a teacher. He enjoys playing tennis and watching videos. My mother
works in a cake shop. She likes cooking.
My family often do things together at weekends. We go to restaurants and
visit my cousins. We play tennis on Saturdays and sometimes we walk in the park.
We are a very busy family.
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Appendix B
Experiment (Trial 1)
Part A
Listen to the tape and repeat these words after you hear each one.
1.
dog
5.
adapt
2.
daughter
6.
calendar
3.
director
7.
confident
4.
dollar
8.
product
Part B
Listen to the tape and repeat these words after you hear each one.
1.
they
5.
feather
2.
their
6.
whether
3.
there
7.
mother
4.
then
8.
either
Part C
Listen to the tape and repeat these words after you hear each pair.
1.
dare
there
2.
Dan
than
3.
day
they
4.
drill
thrill
5.
doze
those
6.
door
thaw
7.
ladder
lather
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Part D
1a)
b)
2a)
b)
Listen to the tape and repeat these sentences after you hear each one.
Is ‘dare’ a pronoun or a verb?
Is there any sugar in the cupboard?
Who is taller, Dan, Sam or Paul?
Who is taller than Sam?
3a)
Day came suddenly.
b)
They came suddenly.
4a)
b)
We had a big drill at school today.
He gets his thrills from rock-climbing.
5a)
I’m sorry I missed that word. Did you say ‘doze’?
b)
I’m sorry I missed that word. Did you say ‘those’?
6a)
Look at the door.
b)
Look at the thaw.
7a)
b)
Did you put up the ladder here?
Dad always works up a lather on his chin before shaving.
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