NAUCZYCIELSKIE KOLEGIUM JZYKW OBCYCH W TYCHACH

AGNIESZKA UNY numer albumu: 808

DIPLOMA WORK

Effective Techniques of Teaching English Pronunciation to Primary School Pupils

SUPERVISOR: Dr Elbieta Krawczyk-Neifar Dr Agnieszka lzak-wiat

TYCHY, 2009 NAUCZYCIELSKIE KOLEGIUM JZYKW OBCYCH W TYCHACH

AGNIESZKA UNY numer albumu: 808

PRACA DYPLOMOWA

EFEKTYWNO RNYCH TECHNIK NAUCZANIA WYMOWY ANGIELSKIEJ WRD UCZNIW SZKOY PODSTAWOWEJ

PROMOTOR: Dr Elbieta Krawczyk-Neifar Dr Agnieszka lzak-wiat

TYCHY, 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Chapter I: Theoretical Background 1.1 Literature overview 1.2 Mental profile: Middle childhood Chapter II: Description of the Research Design Chapter III: Quantitative Analysis of the Research Results 3.1 Quantitative analysis of the interview with the teacher 3.2 Quantitative analysis of the semi experiment. 3.3 Quantitative analysis of the questionnaire with the pupils Chapter IV: Qualitative Analysis of the Research Results Chapter V: Conclusions and Teaching Implications Bibliography Webgraphy Appendix I Appendix II Appendix III Appendix IV 39 43 44 45 46 47 49 35 18 19 25 15 5 12 4

Introduction
Being one of the language skills, pronunciation is a very important aspect of language and therefore, crucial to speak it perfectly. That is why in the diploma work entitled Effective Techniques of Teaching English Pronunciation to Primary School Pupils will cover the problem of teaching pronunciation of English, more precisely, whether it is taught and how it is done in primary school. Moreover, it is to investigate which techniques of teaching pronunciation are most useful and effective, and which of the exercises children like most and practice most eagerly. Although there is a wide variety of the techniques of teaching and exercises to improve pronunciation of English, it is considered difficult to choose those which are best for teaching young learners. Also, many teachers seem not to pay enough attention to teaching pronunciation and often neglect it as a language skill. It may result in the fact that they do not know how to teach it and consequently, children do not get interested in learning and practicing pronunciation. The research on the topic will take place in a primary school in Tychy, namely in Szkola Podstawowa nr 10 in February and March 2009. The research tools used for the purpose of this work will involve an interview with the teacher of English tutoring classes in the primary school, a semi-experiment and a questionnaire. The subjects of the semi-experiment will be a group of pupils consisting of 24 girls where the average age is 12. Their level of proficiency can be described as pre-intermediate. Also, a pretest and a post-test will be conducted in the process. After that, a questionnaire concerning the semi-experiment will be held with the group of pupils who took part in it. However, there are some limitations which can prevent the author from exploring the topic thoroughly. Some of them are: limited time to conduct the research, which is only two months, and limited scope of the diploma work. The other problem is limited access to the research tools and random selection of the subjects taking part in the experiment. Due to these limitations, the research can not provide all the information on the topic, however, the author of the work is hoping to gather enough data to find out which techniques are most effective in teaching pronunciation and which exercises are most appealing to children. Chapter I will be devoted to the theoretical background of pronunciation teaching and description of a mental profile of pupils in the middle-childhood.

Chapter I Theoretical background

1.1.

Literature overview
In the first chapter the theoretical background concerning pronunciation as a language skill, as well as most important approaches and techniques of teaching pronunciation will be presented and explained. Moreover, a description of a mental profile of pupils in the middle childhood will be shown, more precisely their physical, cognitive and emotional development. 1.1.1. General information about pronunciation and teaching pronunciation a) The definition of pronunciation According to Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics pronunciation is described as:
the way a certain sound or sounds are produced. Unlike articulation, which refers to the actual production of speech sounds in the mouth, pronunciation stresses more the way sounds are perceived by the hearer, and often relates the spoken word to its written form

A similar viewpoint is shared by Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994; 3) who claim that: we can define pronunciation in general terms as the production of significant sound in two senses. The first one is concentrated on distinctive sounds of speech and the second one is connected with context, act of speaking and its role in social interaction. Moreover, Goodwin (2001) states that lately more emphasis in teaching pronunciation has been put not only on the articulation of a particular sound (consonants or vowels) but also on suprasegmental features (stress and intonation) in order to draw more attention to the communicative aspect of pronunciation.

b) The importance of teaching pronunciation Among all the language skills taught at school pronunciation seems to be neglected and not planned strategically, which is due to the lack of knowledge about methodology of teaching pronunciation (Kelly, 2000 ). According to Hewings (2004; 19): [] pronunciation is given a lower priority than other components of language such as grammar and vocabulary, and is sometimes relegated to an end-of-the-day activity or a five-minute filler []. Although the aim of teaching pronunciation is not to make students speak exactly like native-speakers, a considerable amount of thought should be given to pronunciation in order to make the learner understandable: (Kentworthy, 1987; 3):[] for the majority of learners a far more reasonable goal is to be comfortably intelligible.. Also Tench (1981) pays attention to intelligibility of speakers language and emphasizes that there is not always the context from which the speaker can presume what was said so the message needs to be clear to understand. A similar opinion is presented by Hewings (2004) who says that due to wrong pronunciation the speaker may not only fail to convey the message but also be understood in the way they did not intend to. A crucial thing to mention is also the passive knowledge of pronunciation. Hewings (2004; 16) states that: Pronunciation is an important aspect of both speaking and listening. Not only is it about correct articulation, but it helps in listening and understanding the speaker, too. Jassem (1971) presents the view that if one did not master the correct pronunciation of the target language, one would have no comprehension of what one hears and would have serious problems to understand the native-speaker of the language. c) The model of pronunciation Furthermore, what needs to be taken into consideration is the model of English pronunciation which a tutor decides to teach. The English language has a wide variety of accents and dialects and that is why teachers often have problems which to choose. However, most linguists think that Received Pronunciation (RP) should serve as a model to be taught. Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994; 6-7) present two arguments supporting that opinion: firstly, that it is easy to get information about it, as it is the most fully described accent and the second one is that the prestige forms tend to be more widely accepted in a wide range of communicative situations []. In addition to that, each time the model must be pronounced in the same way, must be consistent and spoken in a natural pace (Lewis, Hill, 1992). At the same time, Tench (1981) 6

draws attention to the importance of stressing the differences between RP and American pronunciation, or other variations of English pronunciation. d) Various approaches to pronunciation, techniques of teaching and exercises to improve pronunciation Speaking about the way of teaching pronunciation, an important aspect to mention is when to start. There are many discussions whether to teach it in a primary school, secondary school or only to advanced learners of English. Baker (1992) presents the viewpoint that the main reason for pronunciation problems of advanced students is that they are not taught the correct articulation from the beginning of their language learning. She also believes that more stress should be laid on teaching pronunciation at the beginner rather than at later levels. Lewis and Hill (1992; 71-72) share the opinion that teachers frequently feel [] that phonetics is an added confusion, especially with young students, students at lower levels, and with those who find language learning difficult. What is more, they claim, on the example of words church, machinery and chemistry that spelling does not determine the pronunciation of the word. This is one of the aspects of pronunciation, namely different realizations of the same letter. Hewings (2004) enumerates more and less important features of pronunciation which should be taught. They are as follows: consonants consonant clusters vowel length word stress tonic words the exact shape of vowels weak and strong forms connected speech tones/intonation pitch of voice

However, although some of the features must be taught with greater emphasis, Jassem (1971) remarks that in teaching pronunciation all the features are important and the material which is to be covered must not be screened nor limited.

In teaching pronunciation many things have to be taken into consideration. Dalton and Seidlhofer say that (1994; 69): We can talk about approaches to teaching pronunciation [] by reference to selection how the items to be taught are to be defined and presentation how they are to be actually taught in the classroom. When it comes to selection, they (ibid.; 71) place different approaches along two dimensions. The first of them is the size of the unit which is taught whether it is one segment of a sound or a longer prosodic unit. There are two approaches: one them being bottom-up, the idea of which is to teach segmental features, and the second one is the top-down approach in which students concentrate mostly on prosodic features and achieving meaning in their speech. The second dimension is to do with (ibid.; 71)whether the focus of attention is primarily on where the students are coming from or where they are going to. In the case of their origin the important aspect is possible first language interference and then the attention is given to preventing the students from making mistakes resulting from that. In the second case the students focus on what aspects of pronunciation are significant in their learning it. (ibid.; 71)with reference now to presentation, we can [] distinguish three kinds of procedure: exposure, exercise, and explanation []. The exposure to language is basically about listening to the language and acquiring pronunciation. The exercises are for the students to practice articulation, intonation or other aspects. Last but not least, the explanation has to do with some theory about phonetic and phonological facts about the language. Whereas in the first and second procedure it is the student who has to be exposed to the language and it is his task to practice the pronunciation, the phonetic knowledge is important for the teacher rather than for the student. OConnor (1973; 278) believes that the learner himself does not need to know a lot of phonetic theory, but the certain amount plus a lot of pertinent practice under close supervision. Explaining how to pronounce certain sounds is, however, a very common and helpful technique of teaching pronunciation, especially when students have problems with articulating some sounds. When it comes to focusing on individual sounds which are problematic, Doff (1991; 114) suggests that: the basic steps are for the teacher to say the sound clearly in isolation (so that students can focus on it) and in one or two words and for students to repeat the sound, in chorus or individually. If they confuse two sounds, the best way it to contrast them in order that they hear the difference, while when the problem lies in articulating a particular sound, it may be useful to explain to students or describe how to produce it. On the other hand, writing the word on the board can be confusing as the spelling does not relate to pronunciation. 8

A very common way of teaching separate sounds is by using so called minimal pairs which are words differing in only one sound, e.g. road and load. The exercises with use of minimal pairs are described by Kenworthy (1987). The basic form of this exercise is that the students listen to the minimal pairs they have written on the paper and circle the one they hear. One of the variations is that students have only one word written on the paper, hear three possibilities and are to say which of the words they heard was the one they have. Some other tasks may be to mark in which order the words were heard or simply write the word you hear. (ibid.) The other variation is about which sounds students heard, whether they heard the same or a different sound. Kenworthy (ibid.; 48) also describes the popular type of exercise which is odd one out in which the teacher says a series of three or four words and asks the students to identify which, if any, was the odd one out. The last variation presented by Kenworthy (ibid.) is the exercise in which students are to notice how many times they heard a certain sound. Because of the fact that there are so many possibilities and forms of the tasks, this kind of exercise seems to be interesting and varied. The most popular and the basic technique of teaching pronunciation, not only of individual sounds, is repetition, or imitation. Lewis and Hill (1992) draw attention to choral and individual pronunciation technique - CIP work. Choral repetition is very useful, especially students who are not very self-confident may benefit from it, as they have a feeling of anonymity. After a number of choral repetitions, the teacher may ask some individuals to do the exercise and therefore control the students more precisely. However, the technique of Say after me followed by the CIP work may need some variations and alternatives so as not to bore students with it. As it is suggested by Lewis and Hill, (1992; 70) the class can be divided into halves and speak alternatively; into lines or rows which speak consecutively. Kelly (2000) calls this method drilling and suggests a couple of variations to make the technique more interesting for students. One of them is known as open pair drilling in which question and answer drills might be set up across the class, with one student asking, another responding, and so on. (ibid.; 17) Another one, which may be used in the previous technique, is the substitution drilling that involves repeating the structure, but substituting some items of vocabulary in it. It practices not only the structure, but also vocabulary that is used in sentences. Some other variation of drilling is the so called chaining. It is basically used when students have problems with sentences, especially long ones and is done in a way that: the teacher isolates certain parts of the sentence, modeling them separately for students to repeat, and 9

gradually building he sentence up until it is complete(ibid., 16). There are two kinds of the method: back chain, which means that the sentence is drilled from the end, and front chain, in which it is drilled from the start. The method is very often used for teaching stress or intonation, especially the method of back-chaining, because, according to Lewis and Hill (1992; 72) Because of the importance of the intonation of the end of the sentence in English, it is usually better to begin to break the sentence down from the end, rather than the beginning. What is more, they suggest demonstrating the intonation rather than just explaining it. It can be done by drawing arrows on the board, or simply by using gestures, which is more effective and fun for students. In addition to that, Doff (1991) draws attention to the importance of teaching intonation, as it expresses meaning, shows speakers feelings and sometimes is used instead of such structures as formulating questions. It is also helpful in emphasizing some parts of the sentence that we want to give prominence to. That phenomenon can also be called sentence stress. The best way to teach prominence is to do it during conversation, by paying attention to what message is most important in the sentence. To help students it that, such things as gesturing or clapping hands may be useful. This kind of helpers are also suggested for practicing word stress or rhythm. As Goodwin (2001; 126) states, the best way of teaching rhythm is by using rhymes, poetry and jokes: Nursery rhymes, limericks, and many poems all have strong patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables that help our learners hear (and to a certain extent feel) the rhythm of English. She also pays attention to using drama in teaching pronunciation because various components of communication can be practiced in an integrated way. It is much fun to students, who, very often, have to exaggerate sounds and therefore learn correct articulation. Great fun can be also achieved by using media and technology tools, such as audio, video or computers. Kelly (2000; 21) presents some ideas of using pronunciation teaching by listening activities: the listening exercises can then require students to listen out for [] area of language and listen out for how it is used and pronounced in the context of a narrative, or, say, conversation. The reverse action can be done, as well, precisely taping the students. He advises teachers to tape their students not only to make them entertained but according to him, this activity helps to listen out for mistakes students make.

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Last but not least, Hewings (2004) suggests concentrating on features that cause most troubles, developing general techniques for modeling and correcting pronunciation and using different kinds of activities, such as: developing awareness information transfer games analysis (e.g. sorting, matching, working out rules) prediction reflection using reference sources

However, while planning teaching pronunciation certain factors that affect pronunciation learning have to be taken into account (Kenworthy, 1987). Those are: the native language, amount of exposure, phonetic ability, attitude and identity, motivation and the age of the learner.

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1.2. Mental profile - Middle childhood

According to different sources, middle childhood refers to the years between six and twelve or eight and thirteen. It is the period of time when children attend primary school, years between early childhood and adolescence. This age group is not easy to characterise because the changes that children undergo are very individual. Collins (1984, 2-3) claims that The period is clearly not a static one developmentally. and adds: We have viewed the middle childhood years as part of a continuous process as well as a period characterized by distinct abilities and agerelated changes. There are at least three aspects of the development that are worth paying attention to: physical, cognitive and emotional. In the middle childhood children start to grow up, the period of puberty begins, thinking and many skills develop and improve the relations with other people change. 1.2.1 Physical development As for the physical development, during middle childhood, children vary in physical size, weight, and coordination. (MSN Encarta Online Encyclopedia). Growth is rather slow and steady until the onset of puberty, which differs across gender and can start at the age of nine for boys and 8 for girls. Then they start to acquire more strength, endurance and certain skills such as precision in writing with a pen. Also, children tend to get slimmer as their body proportions change. Consequently, they learn to care for their bodies in terms of bathing, grooming and dressing. Generally children feel good about how they look, but this is the time when they start to pay attention to criticism and compare themselves with others. 1.2.2. Cognitive development When it comes to the cognitive development, intellectual skills improve, children start to reason logically and systematically, they can concentrate better and longer and realize when they make a mistake and try to correct it. Also, they are able to combine logical and abstract thinking, which helps in doing mathematical tasks. According to Mayer, Anastasi and Clark (2006), children work hard to learn new skills, like sorting, counting and language skills, they want to feel proud and show what they can do. A similar opinion is shared by Feiler and Tomonari (http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1826/Child-Development-Stages-

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Growth.html">Stages of Growth Child Development - Early Childhood (Birth to Eight Years), Middle Childhood (Eight to Twelve Years)</a>,k): Middle childhood is a time when children can gain enthusiasm for learning and work, for achievement can become a motivating factor [...]. Furthermore, children expand knowledge about topics of their interest, hobbies and sports they practice, for example, they have no problems remembering names of the characters from their favourite serials, games or sport teams. 1.2.3. Emotional development Last but not least, middle childhood is the time when children develop their self-image and relations with peers and adults. They gain self-confidence, begin to perceive themselves as skilled in certain domains, such as school, sport etc. As well, children try to be more independent, make decisions on their own, but still they need support from family. That is the time of intense self-focus, they care about what others think about them, they want to be in the centre as leaders, so as to feel accepted and appreciated. What is also mentioned in the MSN Encarta Encyclopedia is the differences between children's behaviour at school and at home, their learning to manage their emotions and calibrating behaviour to the expectations of others. Children tend to be altruistic towards people they care about, friends are of great importance to them, they usually have a group of friends and at least one enemy. In the MSN Encarta Encyclopedia a statement can be found, that in middle childhood: [.....] children begin to face issues of acceptance, fitting in, exclusion, and social comparison in peer groups. As they grow older, some romances may begin, children become more affectionate, they may find someone they adore. In relationships with adults and parents, some conflicts may start to occur, due to changing expectations and priorities. Children object to parental limitations, develop their own hierarchy of what is important for them but at the same time they find some idols or heroes they want to identify with. To sum up, young people experience many changes and developments in the period of middle childhood. They develop physically and enter the time of puberty which may lead to mood swings. At the same time children develop mentally and intellectually, learn to deal with successes and failures at school and within peer groups. They grow up, become more selfconfident and start to decide for themselves, which prepares them for adolescence. Peer groups and friendships are crucial for building social relations and learning to cooperate. Although children try to be independent, they still need and value parental control and support. 13

The following chapter will present the description of the research design.

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Chapter II Description of the Research Design

The following chapter will aim at the description of the research design. The author of the diploma work will present the research questions and research tools which will be used during an interview with the teacher, an experiment with the class and the questionnaire for the pupils.

2.1. Research questions

The research questions will all be connected with teaching and learning English pronunciation. The answers to the following questions are to be revealed thanks to this research: Is pronunciation taught in a primary school? Which techniques are used to teach pronunciation in a primary school? What is pupils attitude towards learning pronunciation? Do pupils enjoy the exercises used by the teacher? Do pupils find learning pronunciation useful and helpful? Which techniques and exercises are most useful when teaching pronunciation in primary school? Should pronunciation be taught in a primary school?

2.2. Subjects of research

The subjects of the research will be the pupils from the primary school and their English teacher. This will be the 6th grade class from Szkoa Podstawowa nr 10 in Tychy. The class consists of 24 girls, whose average age is 12. The level of proficiency may be estimated as preintermediate. The teacher who will be the subject of the interview will be the teacher of English who has taught the subjects for three years.

2.3. Date and place of the research

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The research will take place in Szkoa Podstawowa nr 10 in Tychy in 6th grade class. It will be conducted in February and March 2009 and will last for five to six weeks.

2.4. Research tools

The tools used for the purpose of the research will be: an interview with the teacher, a semi-experiment and a questionnaire for the pupils.

2.4.1. Interview with the teacher

An interview will be conducted at the beginning of the research. It will be to obtain general information about the teachers experience in teaching English in primary school and her attitude towards teaching pronunciation in the class and the pupils pronunciation. Moreover, the teacher will be asked about ways of teaching pronunciation that she uses and exercises that she finds most efficient. Some of the questions will be devoted to the problems that occur when teaching pronunciation and mistakes that pupils make.

2.4.2. Semi-experiment
The semi-experiment will be conducted in the group of 24 girls in 6th grade of primary school. Firstly, their knowledge and skills in English pronunciation will be checked in the pretest. It will check whether they hear the differences between certain sounds in minimal pairs and sentences. The sounds that will be checked are: ///:/, //and // and there will also be an exercise on syllables. Then, a series of classes will be conducted during which these sounds will be taught and practiced. Different techniques will be used, such as choral and individual repetition, listening and repeating sounds, words and sentences, odd-one-out exercises, pronunciation games etc. After all the exercises have been done, the pupils will take a post-test which will check whether there has been any progress or improvement.

2.4.3. Questionnaire for pupils

After the experiment the pupils will fill in the questionnaire of 21 questions about teaching and learning pronunciation. There will be some background information questions

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about the pupils, their education and attitude towards English pronunciation and learning it. Then there will be some questions concerning the experiment: whether they liked the exercises, whether they found them useful and which of them they find most interesting. The questionnaire will also investigate the problems that the pupils had while learning English pronunciation.

2.5. Research procedure

The first research tool to be used will be an interview with the teacher of primary school. Then the semi-experiment will be conducted in a primary school class. It will consist of a pretest, a number of exercises concerning teaching pronunciation and a post-test. The last step in the research procedure will be a questionnaire which the pupils will fill in after the semi-experiment.

2.6. Research data analysis

The data obtained during the research will be analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative analysis will be shown in the form of diagrams and tables and short descriptions of the data whereas the qualitative analysis, consisting of the depiction of the data, will investigate the reasons of the results. The analyses will be presented in chapters 3 and 4 respectively.

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Chapter III Quantitative analysis of the research results

Chapter III of the diploma work will be devoted to the presentation of the research data on the basis of an interview with a teacher, experiment carried out among primary school pupils and a questionnaire conducted among the same group of learners.

3.1. Interview with the teacher

The interview was composed of fifteen questions concerning the teachers education, experience and her ways of teaching pronunciation in primary school. The interviewed teacher did a Masters degree in Pedagogy at the University and a Bachelor degree in English at Teacher Training College. She has been teaching pupils at grades 1 6 in a primary school for 10 years. When it comes to pronunciation, the teacher thinks that it is important to teach it in primary school from the very beginning. To her mind, teaching pronunciation is useful for the pupils in a way that they are aware of the differences between similarly looking words. When asked about how good the pupils pronunciation should be, she answered that: they should be easy to understand and the older they are, the better their pronunciation should be. The teacher admits that she does teach pronunciation, particularly British accent, but only in the context through reading and repeating. According to the teacher, only some of the pupils pay attention to learning pronunciation and not everyone is concerned about that. What the teacher finds problematic is that teaching pronunciation to children takes a lot of time, especially that the pupils have problems with reading words that look alike. In addition, their most common mistakes are mispronunciations of // and //sounds, which occur to sound more like Polish sounds, for example /t/ or /d/. However, the teacher allows those mistakes as long as the subjects are easy to understand and the words are not too confusing. On the other hand, the teacher corrects the mistakes by saying the word in a proper way and making the student repeat it correctly.

3.2. Semi-experiment.

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The semi-experiment was conducted in the 6th grade class of primary school. 24 pupils took part in the semi-experiment which consisted of three parts: a pre-test, three lessons of pronunciation practice and a post-test. The results of the tests and the lessons plans are presented below. 3.2.1. Pre-test. The pre-test consisted of five tasks concerning pronunciation of /:/, //, //, / / and syllables. The test was carried out by the author of the diploma work, who read the words and sentences in the exercises. All the words were read twice. In the first exercise (ex. 1.1) the pupils were to circle which word from a minimal pair (minimal pairs of words with /:/ or //) was read by the speaker. Out of 24 pupils, 3 of them (13%) circled no correct words, 6 pupils (25%) had one answer correct, 10 pupils (42%) scored two points, 3 pupils (13%) got three points and only one person (4%) scored the maximum number of points for the exercise.

Ex. 1

50 40 percentage 30 of pupils 20 10 0 0 1 2 scores 3 4

Fig.1. Results of Exercise 1.

In the next exercise (ex.1.2.) the speaker read the sentences which contained a minimal pair of words with /:/ and //. Pupils task was to listen to these sentences and circle the word from the minimal pair which was read. The results of this exercise are as follows: 4 pupils (17%) got no points, 14 of them (58%) scored one point, 4 pupils (17 %) had two correct answers and 2 pupils (8%) got maximum points.

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Ex. 2

60 50 40 percentage 30 of pupils 20 10 0 0 1 scores 2 3

Fig. 2. Results of Exercise 1.2.

The third exercise (2.1.) was to check whether the pupils hear the difference between // and // sound. Again, the speaker read one word from a minimal pair and the pupils were to circle the read one. The data show that 2 pupils (8%) got one point, 4 of them (17%) scored two points, 9 learners (38%) had three answers correct, 6 pupils (25%) got 4 points and 3 pupils (13%) had all the answers correct.

Ex. 3

40 35 30 25 percentage 20 of pupils 15 10 5 0

2 scores

Fig. 3. Results of Exercise 2.1.

The next exercise (ex.2.2.) was very similar to the second one with the difference that the sentences included minimal pairs of words with // and // sounds. As a result, 6 pupils (25%) scored two points, 8 of them (33%) three points and as many as 10 pupils (42%) did the whole exercise with no mistakes.

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Ex. 4

50 40 percentage 30 of pupils 20 10 0 0 1 2 scores 3 4

Fig. 4. Results of Exercise 2.2.

The last exercise concerned the number of syllables in the words. The pupils were to count the number of syllables by themselves. Out of 24 pupils 3 of them (13%) had only one answer correct, 5 of them (20%) scored two points, 7 pupils (30%) got three points, 4 pupils (17%) made one mistake and 5 of them (20 %) had all the answers correct.

Ex. 5

30 25 20 percentage 15 of pupils 10 5 0 0 1 2 scores 3 4 5

Fig. 5. Results of Exercise 3.

3.2.2. Lessons. The author of the work gave a series of three lessons during which the pupils practiced /:/, // vowels, // and // sounds and syllabification. During the first lesson the pupils were to practice /:/ and // vowels. At first, they were explained the difference between the two sounds and between realisations of English and Polish // sound. First, they practiced the sound /:/ separately and after that they read the words

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including this sound, such as tree, seen or leave. They chorally repeated the words after the speaker and then, one by one, read the words individually. In the next exercise the pupils were to listen to minimal pairs and note down how many times each word was said by the speaker. They repeated the words with the aim of making the clear distinction between the sounds /:/ and //. As the next exercise the pupils practiced the sound // and repeated the words with this sound chorally and individually, as in the first exercise. Next, they did the exercise known as odd one out in which they marked the word that did not match the set. They did it on their own, and then listened to the speaker saying these words. As the last exercise the pupils played a game Bingo to practice numbers that include the sound /:/ - exactly 13 19, and numbers that include // that is 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90. At the beginning it was the speaker who read the numbers and the pupils were to cross them out, and then some of the pupils read the numbers. The aim of the second lesson was to practice // and // sounds. The speaker explained the difference between particular // and // sounds and showed how they should be pronounced. The pupils practiced the sounds separately, making a distinction between voiced and voiceless sound. Then they repeated the words with // chorally and individually. After that the pupils practiced the sets of words and sentences: 3, 33, 333, 3333 and some tongue twisters. They were taught these sentences by using back chain drills. Some of the pupils presented the sentences to the class. Next, they repeated the words with //. After that, they were to create sentences with these words and read them to the class, pronouncing the sounds clearly. As a pair work, they read the dialogue. Having repeated the dialogue after the speaker, they practiced it in pairs. The last exercise concerning // and // sounds was so called Pronunciation Journey game. The pupils were given some maps and by reading words with // or // they followed some paths on the map. At first the words were read by the speaker, then the pupils read the list of words that was given to them by the teacher and finally, they made their own examples up. During the third lesson the pupils practiced syllabification. The author of the work explained to them how the process differs in English and Polish. Firstly they syllabified some words in Polish and then they practiced the English words. Some words were written on the board and the pupils task was to pronounce the words and clap the number of syllables in each word. Then, they clapped some number of syllables and other pupils had to guess which word that was. Next, the pupils were given a list of words and they were to write them in columns with the same number of syllables. In the following exercise they got pairs of syllables and their task was to check whether these words have the same number of syllables. They read it and clapped it individually so that each person had a chance to practice it.

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3.2.3. Post-test. After the series of lessons the author of the work conducted a post-test which consisted of the same questions as the pre-test, with the variation that different words/sentences were read by the speaker. The exercises in the post-test had exactly the same structure as those in the pre-test. The results of the first exercise (ex.1.1.) are that 3 pupils out of 24 (13%) had all the answers wrong, 2 pupils (8%) scored two points, 10 pupils (42%) made only one mistake and 9 pupils (37%) got maximum number of points.
Ex.1
50 40 percentage of pupils 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 scores 3 4

Fig.6. Results of the Exercise 1.

In the second exercise (ex.1.2.) 9 pupils (37%) had one answer correct, 7 learners (30%) scored two points and 8 pupils (33%) made no mistakes.
Ex. 2

40 35 30 25 percentage 20 of pupils 15 10 5 0

1 scores

Fig.7. Results of the Exercise 1.2.

The pupils scores in the third exercise (ex.2.1.) are as follows: 3 pupils (13%) got two points, only one person (4%) got three points, 8 pupils (33%) scored four points and as many as 12 pupils (50%) had all their answers correct.

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Ex. 3

50 40 percentage 30 of pupils 20 10 0 0 1 2 scores 3 4 5

Fig.8. Results of the Exercise 2.1.

In the fourth exercise (ex.2.2.) out of 24 pupils: 14 of them (58%) made only one mistake and 10 pupils (42%) made no mistakes at all.
Ex. 4

60 50 40 percentage 30 of pupils 20 10 0 0 1 2 scores 3 4

Fig.9. Results of the Exercise 2.2.

In the last exercise concerning syllables the results are that one person (4%) got two points, one person (4%) scored three points, 3 pupils (13%) had only one answer incorrect and as many as 19 pupils out of 24 (80%) scored maximum points.

24

Ex. 5

80 70 60 50 percentage 40 of pupils 30 20 10 0

2 scores

Fig.10. Results of the Exercise 3.

3.3. Questionnaire
The questionnaire was conducted among 24 pupils who took part in the semi-experiment carried out by the author of the work. It consisted of 21 questions concerning pupils knowledge about English pronunciation, their opinion about it and the semi-experiment. As far as the first and second questions are concerned, all of the subject are girls at the age of 12 (54%) or 13 (46%). As well, all of them (24) have 3 lessons of English per week at school. In the fourth question they were asked to say how long they have been learning English. The results are as follows: 2 (8%) of the subjects have learnt English for 2 years, 2 pupils (8%) have learnt for 3 years, 2 of them (8%) for 4 years, 2 pupils (8%) for 5 years, whereas 8 pupils (33%) have learnt English for 6 years and 8 (33%) for 7 years.

question 4: How long have you been learning English?

35 30 25 percentage 20 of pupils 15 10 5 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 length of learning English (years)

Fig.11. Length of learning English.

25

In the following question the pupils were asked whether they attended extra classes of English in some language school or private lessons. 13 of the pupils (54%) answered yes and 11 of them (46%) attended no extra classes.
question 5: Do you attend extra classes of English?

46% 54%

yes

no

Fig.12. Attendance of extra lessons of English.

The next question showed that out of 24 pupils 14 of them (58%) were in an Englishspeaking country or spoke to a native speaker of English, whereas 10 pupils (52%) have no such experience.
question 6: Have you ever been to an Englishspeaking country or spoken to native speaker?

42%

58%

yes

no

Fig.13. Contact with native English language.

In the seventh question the pupils were asked to state whether they know the rules of English pronunciation. 6 pupils (25%) admitted that they knew the rules, none of them marked the answer no and 18 pupils (75%) know some of the rules.

26

question 7: Do you know the rules of English pronunciation?

25% 0% 75%

yes

no

partly

Fig.14.Knowledge of rules of English pronunciation.

The next question concerned pupils knowledge of differences between Polish and English pronunciation of sounds. As a result, 17 pupils (71%) answered yes, none of them said they did not and 7 (29%) reported to know only some of the differences.

question 8: Do you know the differences between English and Polish pronunciation?

29%

0% 71%

yes

no

partly

Fig.15. Knowledge of differences between Polish and English pronunciation.

As far as the ninth question is concerned, 15 learners (63%) stated that they took care of their pronunciation while speaking English, no one is careless about it and 9 (37%) said they did it only sometimes.

27

question 9: Do you pay attention to your pronunciation when you speak English?

38%

62% 0%

yes

no

sometimes

Fig.16. Attention paid to pronunciation.

Asked whether they would like to improve their pronunciation, 15 pupils (63%) admitted that they wanted to sound better, one person (4%) decided no and 8 of them (33%) did not consider it.
question 10: Would you like to improve your pronunciation of English?

33%

4%

63%

yes

no

no opinion

Fig.17. Will to improve pronunciation.

In the eleventh question, in which the pupils were asked whether correct English pronunciation is important while speaking, all of them (10%) answered positively.

28

question 11: Do you believe that correct English pronunciation is important?

0% 0%

100% yes no no opinion

Fig.18. Importance of correct pronunciation.

The next question was to find out whether the pupils believe that learning English pronunciation is helpful and useful to speak correctly. As many as 20 pupils (83%) agreed with the statement, none of them answered no and only 4 pupils (17%) had no opinion.

question 12: . Do you believe that learning English pronunciation is helpful or useful?
17%

0%

83%

yes

no

no opinion

Fig.19. Opinion about usefulness of English pronunciation.

In the thirteen question the pupils were asked to choose in what way they think correct English pronunciation may be helpful. The results are as follows: 9 pupils (37%) believe that English pronunciation is useful in being understood when speaking, 11 of them (46%) are of the opinion that it helps in understanding the person who is speaking and 4 subjects think that it makes a person more self-confident when speaking.

29

question 13: How is pronunciation usefull?

50 40 percentag 30 e of pupils 20 10 0 a b answ e rs c

Fig.20. Usefulness of English pronunciation.

Next, when the subjects were to state whether learning English pronunciation is difficult, 4 pupils (17%) agreed with that, 5 pupils (21%) said no and 15 of them (62%) reported that it was only slightly difficult.
question 14: Do you think that English pronunciation is difficult?

17%

62%

21%

yes

no

slightly

Fig.21. Difficulty of English pronunciation.

As far as thefifteenth question is concerned, the author of the work wanted to explore what caused most difficulties for the subjects in learning English pronunciation. 2 pupils (8%) answered that pronouncing sounds /:/ and // was most problematic, 10 pupils (42%) found it most difficult to pronounce sounds // and //, 5 of the subjects (21%) had problems in understanding words/sentences that were read by the speaker and for 7 pupils (29%) it was difficult to show clear distinction between sounds when pronouncing them.

30

question 15: What did you find most difficult in the exercises?
50 40 percentage 30 of pupils 20 10 0 a b answ e rs c d

Fig.22. Most difficult exercises in pronunciation practice.

Asked about what was most difficult to pronounce, 9 pupils (37%) answered that separate sounds were most problematic, 5 pupils (21%) found the words most difficult and 10 of the subjects (42%) had most problems in pronouncing the whole sentences.

qestion 16: What aspects did you find most difficult?

percentage of pupils

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 a b answers c

Fig.23. Most difficult aspects of pronunciation practice.

The next question was posed to find out whether the subjects enjoyed the exercise practiced during the semi-experiment. The majority (20 pupils 83%) found the exercises pleasant, no one answered negatively and 4 pupils (17%) believed that the exercise were of average interest.

31

question 17: Did you like the exercises?

17% 0%

83%

yes

no

so so

Fig.24. Likeness of exercises.

In the eighteenth question the subjects were asked about their preferences concerning exercises that were done during the pronunciation practice. The results show, that only one person (4%) enjoyed pronouncing separate sounds the most, 6 out of 24 subjects (25%) preferred repeating the words, 3 pupils (12%) found reading a dialogue most enjoyable, 2 subjects (8%) liked marking the words they heard, as many as 10 pupils (42%) chose pronunciation games (Bingo, Pronunciation Journey) as their preference and 2 pupils (8%) enjoyed writing words with the same number of syllables in the appropriate column.

questions 18: Which of the exercises did you like the most?
45 40 35 30 percentage 25 of pupils 20 15 10 5 0 a b c d e f

answ ers

Fig.25. Exercises that students liked the most.

The next question was to find out which exercises the subjects liked least. The majority (11 pupils 46%) did not enjoy repeating separate sounds, 4 pupils (17%) stated that they found reading words boring, the same number of pupils (17%) did not like reading the dialogue, both

32

crossing out the heard words and pronunciation games were not favoured by 8% of subjects (2 pupils), while only one person (4%) liked grouping words with the same number of syllables the least.
question 19: Which of the exercises did you like the least?
50 45 40 35 30 percentage 25 of pupils 20 15 10 5 0 a b c d e f answ ers

Fig.26. Exercises that students liked the least.

As far as question 20 is concerned, the results show that 15 pupils (63%) preferred to do the exercise individually, 6 of the subjects (25%) enjoyed practicing in pairs most and 3 pupils (13%) preferred choral repetitions.

question 20: Which kind of exercises did you prefer?

70 60 50 percentage 40 of pupils 30 20 10 0 a b answ ers c

Fig.27. Preferences concerning the exercises.

In the last question, in which the subjects were asked whether they would like to have more lessons of English pronunciation, as many as 18 pupils out of 24 (75%) wanted to attend

33

more pronunciation lessons, only one pupil (4%) would rather not have more pronunciation practice and 5 subjects (21%) did not consider it.
question 21: Would you like to have more classes of pronunciation practice?

21% 4%

75%

yes

no

no opinion

Fig.28. Will to participate in more pronunciation practice.

The following chapter will be devoted to the qualitative analysis of the research results.

34

Chapter IV Qualitative analysis of the research results

The aim of this chapter will be to present the qualitative analysis of the research results. The author of the work will attempt to analyse the research results and correlate them in order to obtain answers to research questions and justification for the outcomes. The author pondered over the effectiveness of different techniques of teaching English pronunciation to primary school pupils. Before conducting the research, the author of the work asked herself several questions to which she hoped to find the answers by interviewing a teacher of English, carrying out a semiexperiment in a group of primary school learners and administering the questionnaire among them. The interview served the purpose of providing background information about pupils pronunciation and techniques of teaching it used by their teacher. The author of the work managed to conduct a series of lessons with the pupils in order to check their pronunciation skills and practice particular elements of English pronunciation. The post-test conducted after the semi-experiment and a questionnaire were to find out how effective and enjoyable certain techniques were. Also, she wanted to investigate what young learners attitude towards English pronunciation is. Considered to be too young too practice such advanced aspects of the language as pronunciation, pupils are often not exposed to this knowledge, therefore make many mistakes which in their later education may cause more serious problems. Apart from that, many teachers are of the opinion that what matters in language teaching is just communication and pronunciation practice is an additional skill taught to advanced learners. That is mostly due to the fact that pronunciation teaching to children may be a time-consuming, monotonous and difficult process with no greater results. The interview which the author of the work managed to carry out proved that, even though the teachers opinion about pronunciation was that it was a very important aspect of language and that it should be taught from the very beginning, the teacher restricts teaching pronunciation only through the context by reading and repeating certain words or chunks. Although the mistakes made by learners are corrected immediately, many pupils may not be aware of why it was a mistake as they had no knowledge about English pronunciation. The teacher emphasises that most of the mistakes are caused by the absence of certain sounds in the Polish language or by similarly looking words in target and mother languages. What also was 35

noticed by the teacher during her teaching experience is that not many pupils pay attention to pronunciation practice. In order to find out more information about pupils attitude and their pronunciation skills the author of the work carried out a semi-experiment to a group of pupils at primary school. 24 girls at the pre-intermediate level took part in a series of 3 lessons in which the author of the work explained certain sounds and made the pupils practice them through different sorts of exercises. Before the pronunciation practice the pupils took a pre-test which presented their general knowledge and pronunciation skills. Then, during the first lesson, the pupils practiced /:/ and // sounds. Their knowledge about different realisations of /i/ sounds was slight but after having explained to them how different /: // and Polish /i/ are, they found it easier to practice the words. The author of the work was positively surprised by the girls enthusiasm about pronunciation practice and their involvement in the exercises. Although they had problems with correlating spelling with pronunciation at first, after some time they were able to remember how these two aspects are related and how particular words or combinations of letters are pronounced. Having problems, many pupils asked for help and tried many times until they pronounced the words correctly. Even though every one took part in choral repetitions, only thanks to the individual exercises was the author of the work able to hear what mistakes the subjects make and correct them. Fortunately, as relations between the pupils were proper, they were not ashamed of being corrected and enjoyed practicing the words and sentences. The second lesson was devoted to // and // sounds practice. Before the proper exercises the pupils were explained and showed how // and // sounds are produced. Firstly, they practiced separate sounds until they could pronounce them in both voiceless and voiced variations. Repeating words and sentences took a lot of time, as the pupils needed much practice. The most problematic exercise for them was pronouncing minimal pairs of words with //, //, /t/, /d/, /s/ and /z/. Only clearly and slowly pronounced words were possible to be distinguished. Although the pupils needed much support and help to do the exercises, they did not give up and practiced them quite eagerly. What was noticed by the author of the work was that the pupils much more enjoyed the exercises in which they could use their creativity, such as practicing self-written examples of sentences or choosing their way of performing the pronunciation game. The last lesson, aimed at syllabification, caused fewer problems because syllabifying occurred to be rather easy for the pupils. What was very important and helpful for the learners was the exact explanation and exemplification of the differences between English and Polish 36

process of syllabification. The students thought that the word in English can be divided into syllables exactly as words in Polish, that every vowel in a word represents a syllable. After explaining the differences, pupils practiced the process on some words by grouping words with the same number of syllables, guessing whether the words have the same number, giving their own examples. The author of the work noticed that the subjects found it enjoyable and helpful to clap the number of syllables. They clapped the number of syllables of some word on a list and the other person had to say which word that was. The pupils eagerly worked individually and in pairs, practiced the words and their pronunciation. The author of the work applied a post-test to check whether the pupils made any progress. The results were quite surprising to the author as by comparing pre and post-test it occurred that all the results were actually better. In the exercise concerning words with /:/ and // the pupils average score was 40% in the pre test and 73% in the post test. The second exercise was still problematic for the pupils as the average score increased from 38% to only 65%. The reason of that might have been the context in which the words were in the sentences. The pupils might have not concentrated hard enough on what the speaker read but chose the words which were more suitable in the context. The results of exercises devoted to // and // sounds were very good in the pre test 63% and 79% and still there was some progress as in the post test the pupils average scores were 84% and 85%. What was interesting and surprising for the author of the work while performing the post-test was that the pupils looked carefully at the speakers mouth in order not only to hear the sound but also to see whether the sound was alveolar (/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/) or whether the tongue was visible and it was dental (//,//). The pupils remembered the hints and tips given by the author of the work during the experimental lessons. The last exercise showed incredible results as the average score in the pre test was 62% which changed into 93% in the post-test. The pupils helped themselves by clapping or pronouncing the words and they did not take spelling into consideration when syllabifying. All the pupils were very satisfied with the fact that they had learnt some English pronunciation. To gather more information, the author of the work carried out a questionnaire among the pupils who took part in the semi-experiment. The results gave answers to some questions and doubts about teaching pronunciation in a primary school. Only after a couple of lessons did the vast majority of the subjects believe that they know some parts of English pronunciation and the differences between Polish and English ones. Most of them also said that they tried to care about their pronunciation but they would like to make it better. All of the pupils found correct pronunciation important and helpful and the majority stated that it helped in better understanding what the other person is saying. Although many of them believed that learning pronunciation 37

was not very difficult, they had problems especially with pronouncing // and // sounds and saying the clear difference between sounds. Apparently, separate sounds and sentences were most difficult when it came to practicing. Asked about the techniques and kind of exercises used during the practice, they preferred the individual tasks and repetitions and favoured pronunciation games and repeating words as most enjoyable and effective. At the same time, repeating separate sounds occurred to be boring and unpleasant. All in all, the vast majority of the subjects enjoyed the exercises provided by the author of the work and they stated that they would like to have more lessons of pronunciation, which is the reason to believe that teaching pronunciation may be interesting and useful even for younger learners. The following chapter will be devoted to presenting the conclusions from the research and providing teaching implications.

Chapter V

38

Conclusions and teaching implications

The purpose of this chapter is to present final conclusions from the research and provide useful implications for the teachers. The main purpose of this work was to find out whether pronunciation of English should be taught in primary schools and most importantly, how it should be done. In order to obtain answers to these questions, the author of the work conducted some research and an experiment in a primary school, during which she wanted to check which techniques can be used to work with pupils at this age. The author had assumed that despite the fact that there are many techniques of teaching English pronunciation it is very often neglected in primary schools. The teachers do correct the pupils if they mispronounce the word, but omit the proper pronunciation practice. One of the reasons is that pronunciation is thought to be a difficult and advanced skill of English and it is not inevitable in an efficient communication in English language. That is why it is believed that pupils in primary school would neither understand the complexity of this skill nor take it seriously and therefore would be unwilling to practice it. However, what the experiment showed was that the pupils were very eager to cooperate and did the exercises with great interest and enthusiasm. The author of the work did not introduce the phonetic symbols and made an attempt to explain the pronunciation rules in the simplest way. The pupils seemed to have no problems to understand what the differences between sounds were and how the sounds were pronounced. The most complicated thing for them was to remember that the words were pronounced differently from the spelling. The author of the work had highlighted the way in which certain sounds are spelled but wanted the pupils to notice it rather by themselves during the practice. The author managed to make the subjects more conscious of how important and helpful pronunciation is and at the same time the pupils had fun and enjoyed the practice. The great majority of them admitted that they would like to take part in more pronunciation classes. The author of the work has come to certain conclusions and hopes that they would be beneficial for teachers in their work with children.

39

Firstly, what is worth highlighting is that the earlier the student starts to practice correct pronunciation, the better results they will achieve. As pronunciation is a difficult skill, there is no need for introducing phonetic scripts or explaining the rules of pronunciation or stress, but it is advisable to make them aware of how to pronounce the sounds and words and practice it. Also, explaining the differences between pronunciation and syllabication in Polish and English language is very beneficial for the students. Young learners are curious about many aspects of language so if they get interested in pronunciation practice, they will eagerly do it. Moreover, pronunciation practice has to be done regularly, so correcting students who mispronounce words during the classes is a necessity but with proper pronunciation exercises the effects would be much better. However, as conducting a series of pronunciation classes which can be boring in a long run, the teacher could devote some time of one lesson per week to do some exercises concerning sound production. The emphasis should be put not only on how to produce sounds, but also on practising listening, namely whether the pupils hear the differences between different sounds and words before the proper pronunciation practice. It can be achieved by doing minimal pairs or odd one out exercises in which students listen to the speaker reading the words. Thanks to this the pupils learn to distinguish the sounds and get accustomed to them. Later on, when they get better in sound production, they can read the words in minimal pairs tasks to other pupils. Many teachers do not conduct pronunciation classes or exercises because they do not have much knowledge about it or they feel that their pronunciation is not correct enough. Instead of reading the words to students by themselves, there are many recordings that can be used. Recordings are for many children the only possible way to have contact with native English accent but at the same time the teacher has to explain how exactly the sound are produced so that children can imitate what they hear in the recording. What needs to be taken into consideration is that the young learners get easily bored with monotonous exercises such as repeating sounds. That is why the best possible kinds of exercises are pronunciation games. They enable children to learn by having fun and playing either individually or with their peers. Pronunciation practice, although rather difficult and timeconsuming, can be done in a simple and enjoyable way. There are a number of books which provide teachers with implications or exercises which make the practice more fun. Furthermore, it has to be remembered that pupils at this age are very vivid and it is sometimes difficult to maintain discipline at the class. The solution to the problem is to make the children involved in the exercises. Apart from repeating the words that they hear, they can 40

dictate the words to other pupils in the games create sentences or play different roles in dialogues. They are very creative which can be used in a number of ways, for example in acing some dialogues out. The other thing is whether the exercises should be done individually or in groups. Each type has its benefits so they all should be used in the practice. In order not to discourage pupils, the practice can begin with choral repetitions followed by individual exercises or pair work when the pupils feel more confident with their pronunciation. At the same time, it is easier for the teacher to monitor pupils practice if they work on their own or in pairs. Pair work allows the pupils not only to produce sounds but also listen to other people speaking so both listening and speaking skills are practiced. In addition to that, children can learn more from the peers by explaining difficulties to each other and motivating one another to repeat the words. Peer correction is also believed to be a very useful method in language learning. Moreover, the method called e-learning, which is very popular recently, can also be used in pronunciation teaching. At first, it should be discussed with the parents who need to help or motivate their children to devote some time to pronunciation practice at home. There are numerous websites which enable children to learn pronunciation on their own in an amusing and educative way. The teacher may first conduct some lesson and then recommend the online exercises to practice the sounds at home. Some of such pages are: http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/Pron/, where the pupils can find lots of practice, exercises and tests, http://www.howjsay.com/, where the student type in the word and the speaker reads it. It may be helpful in preparing some presentation or texts which the teacher told them to practice reading, http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/preint/c_pronunciation on which students of English may learn different aspects of pronunciation, or http://www.englishmedialab.com/pronunciation/odd%20sound%20out.htm and http://www.esltower.com/PRONUNCIATION/interactive/vowelsoundsquiz.qzpp/index.ht ml, where they can do odd one out exercises or match the words they hear.

41

Fig. 29. http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/Pron/

Fig. 30. http://www.howjsay.com/

What is important when recommending a website to the pupils is to check whether the exercises concern the accent that we teach them at school and whether the students are able to understand how to use the pages. If there is an opportunity, some of the pronunciation lessons at school could be conducted in the computer room so that the teacher can monitor their work. Last but not least, the more often children do tasks that are riveting for them, the better their pronunciation is. Not all of the children get so interested in learning pronunciation that they practice on their own but if they see the effects and realise how useful it is to speak correct pronunciation, they might enjoy the practice during the lessons. In conclusion, the author realises that the outcomes of the work may not be relevant due to various limitations, especially the size and time limit of the research. Also, the research was conducted on a group of girls at the age of 12 or 13 so it is hard to estimate whether the results of the research and conclusions of the work could be applied to younger primary school pupils.

42

Bibliography:
Baker, A., 1992: Introducing English Pronunciation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Collins, W. Andrew (ed.), 1984: Development During Middle Childhood: The Years From Six To Twelve, Washington D.C.: National Academy Press Dalton, Ch. and B. Seidlhofer, 1994: Pronunciation, Oxford: Oxford University Press Doff, A., 1991: Teach English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press in association with The British Council Goodwin, J., 2001: Teaching Pronunciation, in Celce-Murcia, M. (ed.): Teaching English as a second or foreign language, Boston: Heinle & Heinle Hewings, M., 2004: Pronunciation Practice Activities. A Resource Book for Teaching English Pronunciation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Jassen, W., 1971: Podrcznik wymowy angielskiej, Warszawa: Pastwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe Kelly, G., 2000: How to teach pronunciation, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited Kenworthy, J., 1987: Teaching English Pronunciation, New York: Longman Group Limited Lewis, M. and J. Hill, 1992: Practical Techniques for Language Teaching, Hove: Language Teaching Publications Mayer, R., Anastasi J.M. and E.M. Clark, 2006: What to expect and when to seek help: A bright futures tool to promote social and emotional development in early childhood, Washington: National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, in collaboration with the Mational Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health O'Connor, J.D., 1973: Phonetics, Harmondsworth: Penguin Group Richards, J.C. and R. Schmidt, 2002: Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Tench, P., 1981: Pronunciation Skills, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

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Webgraphy:
Child development, Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2008 http://encarta.msn.com (accessed: 22.11.2009) Feiler, R. and D. Tomonari, Stages of Growth Child Development, <a href="http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1826/Child-Development-StagesGrowth.html">Stages of Growth Child Development - Early Childhood (Birth to Eight Years), Middle Childhood (Eight to Twelve Years)</a>, (accesses: 22.11.2008) Ozretich, R.A. and S.R. Bowman, 2001: Middle childhood and adolescent development http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1527 (accessed: 22.11.2008) http://www.esltower.com/PRONUNCIATION/interactive/vowelsoundsquiz.qzpp/index.html (accessed: 29.04.2009) http://www.englishmedialab.com/pronunciation/odd%20sound%20out.htm (accessed: 29.04.2009) http://www.howjsay.com/ (accessed: 28.04.2009) http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/Pron/ (accessed: 28.04.2009) http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/preint/c_pronunciation/ (accessed: 28.04.2009)

44

Appendix I: Interview with the teacher

Questions in the interview: 1. What education have you got? What qualifications? How long have you been teaching English? 2. Which grades do you teach? 3. Do you think that teaching pronunciation is important or should it be reduced to minimum? 4. At which age/level do you think students should be taught pronunciation? 5. Do you think that teaching pronunciation is useful for students? In what way can it be helpful? 6. How good should students pronunciation be? 7. Do you teach pronunciation? 8. How do you teach pronunciation? Which techniques do you use, what kind of exercise do you use? 9. How often do you teach pronunciation? 10. What accent do you teach? 11. Do students pay attention to pronunciation learning? 12. What problems do you find in teaching pronunciation? 13. What problems do students have? 14. What mistakes/ mispronunciations are most common? Which of them do you allow and why? 15. Do you correct pronunciation mistakes? How?

45

Appendix II: Pre-test/ Post test

Pronunciation test:

1. In each pair of words/ sentences, circle the word you hear:

1.1. a) seen b) sit c) been d) feet 1.2. 1. The beans/bins were quite cheap. 2. Im going to leave/live with my brother. 3. Did you feel/fill it? sin seat bin fit

2. In each pair of words/ sentences, circle the word you hear

2.1. a) thin b) thirst c) clothing d) breathe e) then 2.2 1. 2. 3. 4. Be careful. Hes thinking/sinking. Does Peter play in that team/theme? Every mouth/mouse is different. I like him although/also he lies. tin first closing breed Zen

3. Write the number of syllables in the words:

3.1. a) b) c) d) e) University Magazine Before Dress Information -

46

Appendix III: Questionnaire for the primary school pupils

Questionnaire for 6th grade pupils Dear student, I would like to ask you to fill in the questionnaire concerning the pronunciation classes you had taken part in, the exercises that you had done and your general opinion about learning English pronunciation. The questionnaire is anonymous and only for the purpose of my research. 1. Sex F/M 2. Age . 3. Number of lessons of English in school (per week): 4. How long have you been learning English language 5. Do you attend extra classes of English/ private lessons/ language school (Please, circle one answer) Yes No 6. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country or spoken to native speaker? (Please, circle one answer) Yes No 7. Do you know the rules of English pronunciation? (Please, circle one answer) Yes No Partly 8. Do you know the differences between English and Polish pronunciation? (Please, circle one answer) Yes No Partly 9. Do you pay attention to your pronunciation when you speak English? (Please, circle one answer) Yes No Sometimes 10. Would you like to improve your pronunciation of English? (Please, circle one answer) Yes No I have no opinion 11. Do you believe that correct English pronunciation is important? (Please, circle one answer) Yes No I have no opinion 12. Do you believe that learning English pronunciation is helpful or useful? (Please, circle one answer) Yes No I have no opinion 13. If yes, how? (Please, circle one answer) a) in being understood when speaking English b) in understanding the person who is speaking c) it makes you feel mores self-confident when speaking 14. Do you think that English pronunciation is difficult? (Please, circle one answer) Yes No Slightly 15. What did you find most difficult in the exercises? (Please, circle one answer) a) pronouncing sounds /:/ and // b) pronouncing sounds //, c) understanding words/sentences that were read by the speaker d) showing clear distinction between sounds when pronouncing them 16. The most difficult to pronounce were: (Please, circle one answer) 47

a) separate sounds b) words c) sentences 17. Did you like the exercises? Yes No So so 18. Which of the exercises did you like the most (Please, circle one answer) a) repeating separate sounds b) repeating words c) reading the dialogue d) crossing out the heard words e) pronunciation games (Bingo, Pronunciation Journey) f) grouping words with the same number of syllables 19. Which of the exercises did you like the least (Please, circle one answer) a) repeating separate sounds b) repeating words c) reading the dialogue d) crossing out the heard words e) pronunciation games (Bingo, Pronunciation Journey) f) grouping words with the same number of syllables 20. Which kind of exercises did you prefer? (Please, circle one answer) a) individual b) pair work c) choral 21. Would you like to have more classes of pronunciation practice? Yes No I have no opinion

Thanks you for your participation in the experiment.

Appendix IV: Outlines of the lessons conducted in the primary school

48

Lesson plan 1 Topic: The practice of // and /:/ sounds. Number of pupils present: 24 Time 5 minutes Teachers activities The teacher explains the difference between Polish and English /i/ sounds and presents the correlation between the sounds and spelling. She pronounces the long vowel /:/. Ex.1. The teacher reads the words with /:/ sound, helps students to pronounce them correctly. Ex.2. The teacher reads the words from the exercise. Students activities The whole class repeats the /:/ sound after the teacher. Purpose To introduce material about pronunciation, to practice separate sounds.

6 minutes

6 minutes

The students repeat the words after the teacher chorally, then each of the students repeats a word individually. The students have to write how many times they heard each word.

To practice the words with /:/ sound. To hear the words with // sounds To practice separate sounds. To practice the words with // sound. To practice the words with // sound.

3 minutes

The teacher pronounces the The whole class repeats the // shirt vowel //. sound after the teacher Ex.3. The teacher reads the words with // sound, helps students to pronounce them correctly. Ex.4. The teacher explains the odd one out exercise, then checks the exercise with the pupils by correcting them pronouncing the words or reading the words. Ex.5. The teacher explains the Bingo game to students. Then she gives them the list of words, they pronounce them to show the difference between the sounds and after that the teacher reads the words in the game. The students repeat the words after the teacher chorally, then each of the students repeats a word individually. The pupils are to circle the word which is different from the other words in the set. Then they check it with the teacher by reading the words and showing the difference in pronunciation. The students listen to and read the words from the list and then they play the Bingo game. They cross out the numbers they heard and they had written in their Bingo chart. Then some of the students play as the speakers in the game and dictate the numbers.

6 minutes

6 minutes

15 minutes

To distinct from numbers: 13-19 and 30, 40, 50 etc., to practice the words with // and /:/ sounds.

Exercises used during the lesson:

Ex.1. Listen and repeat the words chorally and individually: 49

tree key sea tea be she

cheap week seen seat feet leave

Ex.2. Write how many times you hear each word: Sheep Leave Been ship live bin.

Ex.3. Listen and repeat the words chorally and individually: Big Pig Bin Fit Fill kid ship live trick busy fitted fish

Ex.4. Circle the word in each set that differs from the others: Sheep Win Leave Trick Read meet ship big feel pig fill kid read live bin seen cheap feet fish still

Ex.5. Listen and practice the words from the list; then play the Bingo game: write nine different numbers from the list in the Bingo chart, then listen to the speaker saying the words and cross out the numbers you have in the chart: Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen Seventeen Eighteen Nineteen thirty forty fifty sixty seventy eighty ninety

Lesson 2 Topic: The practice of // and // sounds Number of students present: 23

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Time 5 minutes

Teachers activities The teacher explains the // and // sounds and how to pronounce them.

Students activities The whole class repeats the // sound after the teacher.

Purpose To introduce material about // pronunciation, to practice separate sounds. To practice the words with // sound. To practice //, sounds in clusters.

5 minutes

6 minutes

3 minutes

Ex.1. The teacher reads the words with // sound, helps students to pronounce them correctly. Ex.2. The teacher reads the numbers: 3, 33, 333, 3333, 33333 so that students know how to pronounce them. Then the teacher reads the sentences to present how to pronounce them. The teacher pronounces the sound // Ex.3. The teacher reads the words with // sound, helps students to pronounce them correctly. The teacher gives an example of the sentence which is full of words with // Ex.4. The teacher reads the dialogue out loud, presents the pronunciation of the words and draws attention to particular words. Ex.5. The teacher explains the Pronunciation Game, then reads the words from the list.

The students repeat the words after the teacher chorally, then each of the students repeats a word individually. The pupils practice reading the numbers in pairs, then they present it out loud. After that the pupils practice the sentences in pairs and present them to the class. The whole class repeats the // sound after the teacher The students repeat the words after the teacher chorally, then each of the students repeats a word individually. The pupils create a sentence with as many words with // as possible and practice it, them present to the teacher. The pupils practice the dialogue in pairs, then switch roles and present it to the class.

To practice separate sounds. To practice the words with // sound. To practice // sound in sentences. To practice // and // in words and sentences.

5 minutes

3 minutes

6 minutes

15 minutes

The pupils listen to the words To practice words that the speaker reads and with // and // follows the map in the game. and distinction Then some of the pupils dictate between them. the words and lead the game.

Exercises used during the lesson:

Ex.1. Listen and repeat the words chorally and individually: Think Thin Thousand three thanks through bath earth healthy

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Ex.2. Listen and practice in pairs: 3, 33, 333, 3333 Through trick and thin Set a thief to catch a thief Ex.3. Listen and repeat the words chorally and individually: They This Though Bathe breathe father weather together another

Ex.4. Practice the dialogue in pairs: A: Hi Heather. B: Hi Elizabeth. A: This is my father Jonathan. He is thirty eight this week. B: Happy birthday. My father is thirty nine and plays in a team. A, B: And we are thirteen and we like dancing. Ex.5. Play the Pronunciation Game. Listen to the words, if you hear the word with //, turn left, if the //, turn right. Thin Think Healthy Thirst that they breathe together

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Lesson 3 Topic: Practicing syllabication in English. Number of students present: 23 Time 5 minutes Teachers activities The teacher explains to the students the differences between syllabification in English and in Polish and provides some examples. Ex.1. The teacher together with the class syllabifies some words in English. They clap their hands to indicate how many syllables the word has. Then she gives them a list of words and the students task is to write down in columns how many syllables the words have. The teacher monitors and helps students if they need it. Ex.2. The teacher gives the students lists of words and sets the task. She monitors their work. The teacher sets the task and monitors the pupils. Students activities Purpose To introduce material about syllabification and show how words in English are syllabified To practice syllabification.

15 minutes

The students syllabify some words with the teacher, then individually count the syllables in the words from the list. Instead of saying the word out loud, they clap their hands as many times as many syllables the word has. Only then do they say the word. The pupils are to write down words they know, different from the ones on the list, in the appropriate columns. The subjects work on the words. They are to check whether the words in pairs have the same number of syllables. The students work in pairs, they clap their hands to indicate how many syllables the word should have, and then the other person has to say a word with this number of syllables.

5 minutes

To practice syllabification

10 minutes

To practice syllabification.

10 minutes

To practice syllabification.

Exercises used during the lesson:

Ex.1. Group the words in the columns of words with: 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 syllables: dress, boat, winter, before, magazine, difficult, supermarket, information, congratulations, university, house, houses, umbrella, individual, beautiful, supernatural, dangerous, feel. Ex.2. Check whether the two words have the same number of syllables:

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Sandwich April Pollution competition Helicopter museum Before homework Exercise guitar Communication - January

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