THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF BASIC SCIENCES

NGO THI QUYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO USING SONGS TO TEACH PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCES, TNU

THAI NGUYEN, APRIL, 2011

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF BASIC SCIENCES

NGO THI QUYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO USING SONGS TO TEACH PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCES, TNU

SUPERVISORS NAME : NGUYEN THI TUYET

THAI NGUYEN, APRIL, 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With the accomplishment of this graduation paper, I want to give my gratitude for many people who helped, advised and supported me in doing my paper, without their assistance and guidance I could not finish my final graduation paper. In the first place, my great appreciation goes to my supervisor Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tuyet, who directly guided me to do this graduation paper. Her valuable guidance, and detail comments have helped me to shape my ideas and realize my aims in doing this graduation thesis. Next, I would like to give my sincere thanks to other lectures in the Department of Basic Sciences for their help and guide which help me fulfill this graduation paper. Besides, I would be also greatful to the English teachers of Department of Basic Sciences and the first year students in College of Sciences for their cooperation and enthusiasm in completing my survey questionnaires. Last but not least, I would like to give my deepest gratitude to my lovely family and all my friends for their love, support, and encouragement in finishing my graduation paper. And I want to thank all people who can not be mentioned one by one who helped me in writing this final people, thanks a lot. Hopefully, success and luck come to them all.

Thai Nguyen, April 2011 The writer Ngo Thi Quyen

ABSTRACT

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It is undeniable that English has become the most popular foreign language in Vietnam nowadays. English is the most popular foreign language to be used as a mean of communication in Vietnam, nevertheless Vietnamese people in general face to many difficulties when learning English as a second language. Among millions of people speaking English in Vietnam, there are many people who make mistakes in pronunciation. Pronunciation plays an important role when leanrning a second language. Right pronunciation wil make others understand and listen to you, but wrong pronunciation may cause misunderstanding from others. It can be said that many years ago, when learning English from the very beginning, Vietnamese learners were taught much about the grammar or vocabulary, so that they became good at grammar and vocabulary, but not good at pronunciation. To be honest, in the past, when teaching English, pronunciation was usually considered not important as grammar. Consequently, pronunciation seemed to be a weakness of many people. Many Vietnamese speakers feel embarrassed when communicate with the native foreigners or foreigners, they are difficult to understand what the foreigners said and also not being understood easily. Nowadays, English has become a compulsory subject in most Vietnamese schools so there have been a lot of changes in methods of English teaching and learning. Consequently, pronuncation is considered as an important aspect to teach for students. There have been many methods are exploited to teach pronunciation for students. Among of these, using songs to teach English pronunciation is an useful way to help students learn English better. However, in fact the roles of songs have not been fully grasped by most teachers and students. Some of their drawbacks have prevented teachers from using them more often. The objective of this study is to investigate whether songs have been exploited to teach pronunciation for students at the College of Sciences or not, and the attitudes of both teachers and students at the Collge of Sciences, TNU to using songs in teaching and learning pronunciation. In constructing this study, the writer collected data from the classroom action research, which was carried out through five activities. The activities were begun from selecting subjects, preparing the instruments for collecting the data, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting the data, taking action and find out the teachers and students reflection.

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The subjects of the study were 215 first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU and 7 English teachers in the Department of Basic Sciences, College of Sciences, TNU. This graduation paper has been made more reliable through the results from data collection of the survey questionnaires and from the inteviews. Based on this study, it is found that the use of songs in teaching English is effective to improve the students pronunciation and very beneficial for the students in order to facilitate them in learning English. Based on this finding, it is suggested that songs in teaching English can be recommended for the English teachers. To get a wider generalization, research of similar kind should be done with different subjects. Errors and mistakes are unavoidable, therefore, comments and criticisms are always welcomed by the author in order to make this graduation paper better.

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

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List of tables: Table 1: Teachers opinion about the most difficult aspect of teaching English Table 2: Teachers criticism on the importance of pronunciation Table 3: The use of songs in some skills Table 4: Teachers point of view about songs can be an effective tool for teaching pronunciation or not Table 5: The attitudes and feelings of students towards songs basing on
teachers point of view

Table 6: Time when songs are used in the class Table 7: Students opinion of using songs can help they have better pronunciation Table 8: The frequency of listening to English songs Table 9: The teachers frequency of using songs to teach pronunciation, in students point of view List of figures: Figure 1: The material teachers often use to teach pronunciation Figure 2: The problems when teachers teaching English sounds Figure 3: Teachers exposure in using English songs Figure 4: The percentage of teachers prefering teaching pronunciation
through songs

Figure 5: Purposes of using songs in teaching English Figure 6: The frequency of using songs Figure 7: Teachers perception on the effectivenes of using songs in teaching pronunciation Figure 8: The advantages of using songs in the lesson Figure 9: The difficulties in using songs in the class Figure 10: Time spent in using songs Figure 11: The students ability of speaking English Figure 12: The aspect of learning English is the most difficult in students point of view Figure 13: The importance of pronunciation in learning a language, in students opinion Figure 14: The students preference of listening to English songs Figure 15: Students preference of having songs in the lesson Figure 16: The purposes of using songs from students opinion Figure 17: Students experience in learning English pronunciation through songs

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Figure 18: Students opinion about advantages of using songs in learning pronunciation Figure 19: The students problems when listening to English songs Figure 20: The number of songs used in class, in students point of view Figure 21: Students opinion about teachers should use songs teach pronunciation or not

TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Acknowledgements..................................................................................................................I Abstract.................................................................................................................................II List of tables and figures......................................................................................................III Table of contents..................................................................................................................IV

PART A INTRODUCTION

I. State of the problem and reasons for choosing the topic....................................................1 II. Aims of the study........................................................................................................... III. Research questions...................................................................................................... IV. Significance of the study................................................................................................. V. Scope of the study............................................................................................................ VI. Methods of study........................................................................................................ VII. Design of the study....................................................................................................... PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND......................................................... 1.1. Introduction of the chapter........................................................................................ 1.2. An overview of songs in teaching language.............................................................. 1.2.1. Songs as teaching media......................................................................................... 1.2.2. Definition of songs.................................................................................................. 1.2.3. Elements of songs................................................................................................... 1.2.4. Types of songs........................................................................................................ 1.2.5. The roles of songs in the foreign language classroom............................................ 1.2.6. The reasons why songs are useful in teaching pronunciation................................ 1.2.7. The drawbacks of using songs................................................................................ 1.2.8. Selection of songs................................................................................................... 1.2.9. Procedure in applying the songs............................................................................. 1.3. Theory of pronunciation............................................................................................ 1.3.1. Definition of pronunciation...................................................................................

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1.3.2. The importance of teaching pronunciation............................................................ 1.3.3. Elements of pronunciation..................................................................................... 1.4. Literature review....................................................................................................... 1.4.1. Students pronunciation problems in pronuncing English sounds......................... 1.4.2. General views on pronunciation teaching strategies.............................................. 1.5. Songs to improve achievement in pronunciation...................................................... 1.6. Summary of the chapter............................................................................................ CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY.................................................................................. 2.1. Introduction of the chapter....................................................................................... 2.2. Selection of the subjects........................................................................................... 2.3. Data collection instruments...................................................................................... 2.3.1. Questionnaires....................................................................................................... 2.4. Procedures of data collection................................................................................... 2.5. Procedures of data analysis...................................................................................... 2.6. Summary of the chapter........................................................................................... CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION............................................................ 3.1. Introduction of the chapter....................................................................................... 3.2. Results............................................................................................................................ 3.2.1. Data collection and analysis of the findings from the teacher survey...................... 3.2.1.1. The opinions of teachers about the difficulty level of pronunciation among other elements of teaching English........................................................................................... 3.2.1.2. Opinions of teachers at the College of Sciences, TNU about the importance of pronunciation.......................................................................................................................... 3.2.1.3. The material teachers often use to teach pronunciation............................................. 3.2.1.4. The problems when teachers teaching English sounds............................................. 3.2.1.5. The situation of using songs to teach pronunciation.................................................. 3.2.1.6. The attitudes of teachers towards using songs to teach pronunciation....................... 3.2.1.7. The purpose of using songs in teaching process........................................................ 3.2.1.8. The frequency of using songs in teaching pronunciation........................................... 3.2.1.9. The effectiveness of using songs in teaching pronunciation.....................................

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3.2.1.10. The attitudes and feelings of students towards songs basing on the teachers view.. 3.2.1.11. The advantages of using songs in the lesson.......................................................... 3.2.1.12. The difficulties in using songs in the class.............................................................. 3.2.1.13. The time when songs are used in the class and how long it takes......................... 3.2.2. Data collection and analysis of the findings from the student survey....................... 3.2.2.1. The students ability of speaking English................................................................ 3.2.2.2. The aspect of learning English is the most difficult................................................. 3.2.2.3. The importance of pronunciation in learning a language, in students opinion........ 3.2.2.4. The attitude of the first year students towards learning pronnciation through songs 3.2.2.5. The situation of learning pronunciation by using songs at the College of Sciences, TNU..................................................................................................................................... 3.2.2.6. The advantages of using songs in learning pronunciation......................................... 3.2.2.7. The students problems when listening to English songs........................................... 3.2.2.8. The number of songs used in the class and students opinion about using songs to teach pronunciaton............................................................................................................ 3.4. Discussion....................................................................................................................

PART C SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

I. Summary of the findings............................................................................................. II. Suggestions for English teachers.................................................................................. III. Limitations of the research.........................................................................................

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PART A INTRODUCTION This part presents statement of the problem and also the reasons for choosing the topic. Moreover, it indicates the aims, research questions, significance of the study, scope and method of the study. Finally, it gives the design of the whole study.

I. State of the problem and reasons for choosing the topic Nowadays English has become an international language of the world. It is a mean of international communication to help people from different countries communicate and understand each others easily. Actually, English is used in all fields of our today lives, as in: communication, commerce and trade, travel, medicine, study, science, etc. In our country, English is also an important language. It is one of the compulsory subjects in the curricula of High Schools up to Universities in the whole country. In recent years, the course of teaching and learning English has gone through many changes, especially when the communicative approach became a buzzword among people in the fields of language education. As a result, the English curriculum has been geared more toward communication because the educators hope that with communicative teaching oriented syllabus students would be much improved in oral communication. Thus, the English teaching and learning curriculum in Viet Nam has been reformed in 2004, English teaching and learning activities combine four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These four skills are combined to teach closely in the class to improve learners English skills. Although these four skills are all taught in the class, pronunciation seems to be not easy to teach. Pronunciation is one of the most important parts when one learns English as a second language. The fact that bad English pronunciation may confuse people even if you use advanced English grammar. We can use simple words and simple structures that make people understand you but we can not use simple pronunciation. On the contrary, good English pronunciation will make people understand you easily and be willing to listen to you. Thus, when we communicate with other people we should not only have good vocabulary and grammar but also have good pronunciation. Wong, R. (1987) pointed out that: ...even when the non-native speakers vocabulary and grammar are excellent, if their pronunciation falls below a certain threshold level, they are unable to communicate effectively.... Therefore, teaching pronunciation plays an important role in teaching a

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foreign language, as stated by Harmer (2000: 183) that: ...for all people, being made aware of pronunciation issue will be of immense benefit not only to their own production but also to their own understanding of spoken language... Besides, Vietnamese learners may cope with many problems when pronouncing English sounds. There are many reports indicated that: ...up to a certain proficiently standard, the fault which most severely impairs the communication process in Vietnamese learners is pronunciation, rather than vocabulary or grammar... (Best, J. D, 1981). This may be caused by many factors such as motivation, interest, aptitude, intelligence that come from learners, or condition and situation of the environment, learning materials, and the teachers ability in handing the English teaching and learning process that come from outside of learners. As a result, many foreigners have commented that: ...Many Vietnamese can speak English, but only a few have right English pronunciation so that they can be understood easily in direct communication with foreigners... (Hinofitis and Baily, 1980). The fact that English learners need a way of teaching that is interseting as well as practical so that finally they can achieve better pronunciation. Therefore, English teachers should have effective methods to motivate their students in learning English. In reality, some recent changes in language teaching have shown that creating English environment or organizing activities in the classroom have helped learners learn better. Moreover, boredom and tiredness have been driven away by the interesting activities during the lesson. In fact, a lot of specific pronunciation activities and effective teaching methods have been suggested. One of them is using songs to teach pronunciation for students. Songs can get students integrated to English because songs can bring students great interest and strong motivation instead of boredom during the lesson. Songs provide examples of authentic, memorable, and rhymthmic language. They can be motivating for students keen to repeatedly listen to and imitate their musical heroes. Moreover, songs can help teachers design various tasks in a foreign language classroom. It is assumed that they can contribute many things to improve students capabilities. However, until now, songs if ever used in teaching activities, just aim at creating pleasure and change the class atmosphere after long and hard practice, not fully exploited to teach pronunciation for students. Based on the reasons mentioned above, the writer would like to carry out the research on An investigation into using songs to teach pronunciation for the first year students at the College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University with the aims to find out whether songs can be exploited as an interesting and effective tool to teach pronunciation for first year

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students at the College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University or whether teaching pronunciation by using songs can improve learners ability in English pronunciation or not? II. Aims of the study This thesis is expected to investigate some main issues: The primary goal is to discover whether songs have been exploited to teaching pronunciation for the first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU or not. The second aim is to find out the opinions of both English teachers and the first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU about using songs in teaching and learning pronunciation. In addition, some suggestions for teachers of English in improving the effectiveness of teaching pronunciation by using songs based on the findings from the study are introduced. III. Research questions On this study, the writer would like to find out the answers for these following questions: 1. What are the opinions of the English teachers and the first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU to using songs in teaching and learning pronunciation? 2. What is the situation of using songs to teach pronunciation for the first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU? 3. What are the English teachers and the first year students opinions about advantages and disadvantages of using songs in teaching and learning pronunciation? IV. Significance of the study The results of the study are expected to be able to give the following benefits: (1) For English teachers: the results of the study are expected to be used as a consideration in teaching pronunciation for learners. This research is carried out to provide teachers with some effective techniques to exploit songs in teaching pronunciation. (2) For the readers: it is expected that this study will be useful for further research and enlarge the readers knowledge in using songs as media. V. Scope of the study

Within the limitation of knowledge, time and experience, the writer only focuses on investigating how to teach English pronunciation by using songs, not any other stimulating activities to teach pronunciation, just among the English teachers and the first year students at the College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University. VI. Methods of study In order to collect appropriate data throughout process of carrying out this research, some suitable methodologies are used: Firstly, the researcher consults the information from many documents, books and materials, etc. which provide plenty of information related to the topic, and several websites and materials from the internet which are relevant to the topic of using songs to teach pronunciation for students. Secondly, the study is conducted on the real- life teaching and learning circumstances of some non-English major classes at the College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen university. The results taken from the survey questionnares will be of a great help for the writer of the study to find out basic problems facing ESL students and teachers. VII. Design of the study In order that this study is easier to follow, it is organized as follow: Part A deals with the Introduction. This includes the state of the problem and reasons for choosing the topic, aims of the study, research questions, significance of the study, scope, method and design of the study. Part B is Development which includes three main chapters: (1) Chapter I is Theoretical background which provides fundamental and theoretical concepts related to the purpose of the study by discussing an overview of songs in teaching language, theory of pronunciation and a literature review that mentions to some related topics carried by some other authors. (2) Chapter II is Methodology which describes the methods have been used and the procedures have been followed when researcher conducted the study.

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(3) Chapter III is Results and Discussion which presents the data and procedure of data analysis. Part C is the Conclusion of the study that summarizes the main points, revealing the limitations and suggesting for further studies.

PART B DEVELOPMENT This is the focus of the study which consists of three chapters: Chapter 1: Theoretical background Chapter 2: Methodology

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Chapter 3: Results and Discussion.

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1. Introduction of the chapter This chapter provides fundamental and theoretical concepts related to the purpose of the study. It includes three main parts: An overview of songs in teaching language, the Theory of pronunciation, and A literature review that related to this topic. 1.2. An overview of songs in teaching language 1.2.1. Songs as teaching media Media is derived from the Latin word medium that means between. The term refers to anything that links two things together or carries information between a source and reciever. In general, media is a mean of communication. In teaching, media is also considered as instructural system of teaching and learning process. Thus, media is also called teaching aid. It is used to facilitate the teacher to achieve her goal in teaching process (Hannah. H, 1999) In fact, songs are very important in every one's life. Today's life is full of work tensions and people hardly find time to relax. When someone wants to relax and look for a peaceful life then he may looks and urges to hear a song because it is food for his soul. Music makes our lifes peace and happiness. Thus, music plays a vital role in our daily life. It is a way of expressing our feelings and emotions. It is a way to escape life, which gives us relief in pain and helps us to reduce the stress of the daily routine. It helps us to calm down, an even excites us in the moment of joy. Moreover, it enriches the mind and gives us self confidence. Sometimes we just only listen to a song without realizing that from songs we can also learn many things such as we can get more new words or we can learn how the words are pronounced. Thus, songs not only like a magic in daily life but also have magical effects in teaching and learning process. Harmer (2000 : 242) stated that: Music is a powerful stimulus for students engagement precisely because it speaks directly to our emotions while still allowing us to use our brain to analysis it and its effect if we so wish. It can make a satisfactory connection between the world of leisure and the world of learning. And according to Harmer, songs are a good resource for English teaching for these following

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reasons: First, they are funny and interesting: Songs enable learners to relax in a learning atmosphere. Songs help to create a soothing and enjoyable environment for learning. Songs reduce pressure and tension in the class. Therfore, students do not feel threatened. Second, songs can bridge the gap between teachers and students: songs help to bring teachers and students closer together. They share the same interest, which is music. They participate in various academic and social activities together to pursue and promote music. Teachers who can sing and like to sing with students are normally very popular. Third, songs are good to introduce suprasegmental phonetics such as stress, rhythm and intonation. Fourth, songs can be applied to comprehension stages (listening) or production (singing). Fifth, songs promote mimes and gestures, etc, associated to the meaning. Sixth, students learn English easily through echoic memory. Seventh, there are appropriate songs for all levels and ages. 1.2.2. Definition of songs Before talking about the roles as well as the usefullness of songs, the writer would like to quote some definitions of songs from the reliable sourses: (1) Hornby, AS (1995) defines songs as a short poem or a number of verses set into music and intened to be sung (2) The Encyclopedia of Americana (1998) defines songs as a short musical work set to o poetic text, with equal important given to the music and to the words. It may be writen for one or several voices and is generally performed with instrument accompaniment. (3) Jamalus (1988: 5) states that songs can be said as art work if they are sounded (sung) with the accompaniment of musical divices. (4) Song - a short musical composition with words, a successful musical must have at least three good songs (http://www.Allwords.com/word-song+thrush.html) From the definitions of songs mentioned above, the writer concludes that song is a kind of arts work that are intended to be sung either with or without the accompaniment of musical divices. 1.2.3. Elements of songs When one listens to a song, he enjoys not only the melody, harmony, ryhthm but also the lyrics of the song. That means a song is a combination of many music elements. It will be helpful for the readers to know something about the various elements of a song.

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According to Jamalus (1988: 7), the elements of songs are devided into two categories: main elements and expression elements. The first category is the main elements. It concludes measure (bar), melody, harmony, rhythm, time signature, and lyrics. Following are the definitions of musics elements: Measure (Bar): A segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. The word "measure" is heard more frequently in the U.S., while bar is used in other Englishspeaking countries. Melody: The part of a song that can be sung alone so that the song is recognizable; the "lead". Elements of the melody include:
o o o o o

Motif: a short group of notes Phrase: Two motifs combined Sentence or period: Two phrases combined Paragraph: A group of sentences Sequence: a melodic phrase that is repeated but is transposed

Harmony: The notes that compliment or support the melody line. These may be sung or played. In music theory, they are described as the vertical structure. If the singers use a chord progression format, they should base the harmony of the song upon the progression and only vary a bit. Rhythm: The pattern of beats to which the words are sung. There are two versions: The traditional, where every note is played as shown, and the "swing", used in Blues and Jazz, where, for example, two half-beats go "bomp-bomb" (kind of like heartbeat). Time Signature: 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, etc. the top number relates to amount of beats in a measure/bar and the bottom number relates to the value of the notes in the bar. i.e 4/4 = four Quarter/crochet notes in a bar. 6/8 = six eighth/quaver notes in a bar. Lyrics: A set of words that make up a song. The second category is the expression elements. It is the way that musicians express their mind and feeling which consists of tempo, dynamic, and voice color. Besides, it is also the way of singers introduce a song. Each singer sings a song in different ways. In short, all the elements above are needed when someone creates a song.

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1.2.4. Types of songs Songs can be broadly divided into many different types, depending on the criteria used. Before introducing some types of songs, we should know that there are many ways of clarifying types of songs. According to Laroy (1993:7), there are three main types of songs which are classified in culture criteria: (1) Art songs: songs created for performance in their own right, usually with piano accompaniment, the lyrics are often written by a poet or lyricist and the music separately by a composer. (2) Folk songs: songs of often anonymous origin that are transmitted orally. (3) Popular songs: songs are played on the radio, through all other mass media.

Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.). With songs used for language teaching, there are three main kinds as followings (Murphey, 1992): (1) List songs: Songs in which structures, lexis are repeated again and again. E.g. Twinkle, twinkle, a little star, Money, money, money, We wish you a merry Christmas, etc. (2) Story songs: Songs telling a story. E.g. Dont cry Jony, Those were the days, etc. (3) Action songs: Songs requiring listeners to do some actions while singing. E.g. If you are happy, etc. 1.2.5. The roles of songs in the foreign language classroom The benefits of songs have been well-documented by many researchers. Falioni (1993: 98) pointed out that : ...practically all grammar points can be found in music text, and the texts also offer a wide variety of vocabulary, all of which can be utilized to practice the four

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communication skills... . Other authors, Claerr and Grgan (1984: 31) stated that: ...with some imagination, songs cab be used to teach all aspects of foreign langages... In this part, the author is going to discuss some outstanding bebefits of songs to foreign language learners. First of all, motivation is one of the things that can be gained by using songs in foreign language classroom. Most of the methodologists agree that motivation is a crucial factor in language learning process. Motivation may be defined as: some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something (Harmer 2000: 51), and Scott Thornbury (2003: 97) added that it is a key factor in determining success or failure in language learning. When one thinks of music, the first thing in mind is enjoyment. Its entertaining function is widespread in many human activities, individually and collectively. Halpern (1999, p1,) stated that "of the many factors that influence learning, few are as farreaching - or little understood - as sound and music". The sound of music brings into the world its magic power to activate the mind when it is dormant, to soothe the soul when it is in turmoil, and to heal the body when it is hurt. Its magic power is the reason why children love to play with songs and rhymes even at an early age in life. It is unthinkable to see human existence without music. In the classroom, music has the ability to produce greater student motivation. Accoding to Falioli (1993: 104) : the addition of songs to the foreign language classroom as a teaching method may be a way to focus students attention, and produce a more committed learner. Songs invite the students to become active in the learning practice. Songs also help creating more student involvement. When students have fun singing songs in their English class, they develop improved attitudes toward class. Teachers resort to numerous ways and means to encourage their students to like learning English. One way which is not uncommon is the use of songs. Songs provide a non-threatening atmosphere for students compared to speaking formally in English in the classroom for example. They offer teachers the much needed change from a routine procedure. They provide valuable language and cultural input in the classroom. Whatever those reservations may be, the use of songs in the language classroom is one of the ways to motivate students to learn English. Students love listening to music outside the language classroom and songs become a major source of English for them. Notice how those who are usually quiet become very talkative when discussing songs. Songs then, have the power to capture students attention. In addition, ESL practitioners (Reeve & Williamson, 1987) have widely acknowledged the role of songs in enhancing learner

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involvement. Together with the teachers ability to present songs meaningfully in the classroom, we have an inspiring way of motivating our learners to learn English. Secondly, songs can help students remember vocabulary, grammatical structures and aid in comprehending the general meaning. Music and rhythm make it much easier to imitate and remember language than words which are just spoken (Cakir, 1997: 35). Practically all grammar points and a wide variety of structures can be found in musical texts. As Falioni (1993): stated that: The new structures that may seem isolated or out of context pattern drills, are seen in a different perspective when they are part of a song (p.101). Songs are useful tool to help learners memorize phrase constructions. They are more easily learned and tend to stick longer than straight-out grammatical examples. Thirdly, using songs can create a pleasant enviroment in learning. Rogers (1999) found that ...the use of songs creates an atmosphere of interese in the study of English and can lead from a teacher-centered to a student-centered class. Using songs can lift the atmosphere in the class, or develop a non-threatening classroon atmosphere. There are many fun and silly songs that make off-beat, interesting changes of pace in the classroom. Music establishes a positive learning state and energizes learning activities. In the article Using ESL Songs, the author-Lems (2002) expressed: Unlike other recording materials, songs are catchy and fun and ESL students will feel happy to hear them many times till they can sing along. Besides, songs related to cultural aspects could be chosen to present to students about social situations, historical events, geographical descriptions and others. According to Jolly (1975): The use of songs gives students the opportunity to acquire a greater understanding of the culture underlying the target language. The author of the article Using ESL Songs also cited Cutural Literacy as one of positive contributions to language learning songs can make. He said: Songs used in English classes can shed light on interesting musical traditions in countries, but can also teach teens, young adults, and adults to appreciate other cultures. For adult learners they can be a rich mine of information about human relations, ethic, customs, history, humor, and regional and cultural differences ( Lems, 2002). Pronunciation also can be taught to students by using songs. Leith (1979) stated that There is probably not a better nor quicker way to teach phonetics than with songs (as cited in Nguyen, D. N. H 2007, p.21). The melody, along with lyrics, provides an excellent opportunity to review pronunciation and enjoy music at the same time. The next part of this research is going to discuss the reasons why song are useful in teaching pronunciation.

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1.2.6. The reasons why songs are useful in teaching pronunciation The roles of using songs in language classroom are undeniable. However, the value of songs as teaching tool for pronunciation teaching has not been fully explored by teachers. Hans (2009) pointed out that: ...through songs, learners have opportunities to listen to pronunciation in a wide range of varieties of the language. Songs will help learners become familiar with words stress and intonation, and the rythm with which words are spoken or sung also helps memorization. In teaching pronunciation, songs are valued for its unsefulness because songs usually have words repeated over and over again in choruses. The repetition of words help students get familiar with the sounds they hear, therfore, they can pronounce them more accurately. While students listen to English songs, they create the need of imitating the singers so that they can sing along with the singers. As Hannah, H (1999) stated that ...repetition does not only create familiarity but also leads to understanding, as it gives time for the penny to drop. What at first may be strange and unfamiliar, repeated exposure becomes clear and understandable. This is especially important for learning a brand new foreign language. Moreover, English songs are part of authentic matrials, which gives chances for learners to be exposed to native speakers pronunciation. As in Emi. Y (2009), ...learning English through songs can be effective to assist pronunciation, since students can directtly get the knowledge on how to pronounce the words from the songs they hear, when students learn in an enjoyable situation, they can digest the lesson easily. 1.2.7. The drawbacks of using songs Nothing is perfect. It means that everything has good side and also bad side. Realizing many advantages of using songs in the language classroom, the author also discovers the disadvantages of using songs. In this part, the author wants to mention the drawbacks of using songs that teachers may face in the class. First of all, not all the songs have good grammars and vocabularies. There are alot of songs that have much slang words so that listeners can not understand them. If the teachers choose a song like that she or he can not use it to teach the students. Secondly, most English songs have too many words as they are written for native speakers so the first year students have no hope of being able to sing along. Next, many popular songs have inappropriate content for the classroom at least in many cultures. Onother problem is using songs can disturb neighbouring classes. When

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playing songs, the neighbouring classes can hear the sounds and they may be bothered. So the teachers can not play songs too loud. Besides, when teachers play songs the studentsjust want to listen to songs, not to work. It is true when the songs are so fantastic or when the students are too tired. They just want to listen to songs to relax and do not want to work. One more problem is the words in the songs are spoken too quickly. Because the singers sing so quickly, even they link the sounds together, or sometimes use dialects. It is difficult for the listeners to hear the words in the songs. 1.2.8.Selection of songs Songs represent valuable teaching material. However, not all the songs are appropriate for teaching purposes. To overcome the disadvantages of using songs in the class, teachers should choose the suitable songs for the lessons. When the teachers use songs for the teaching process, she/ he should know what kinds of songs she/ he would bring into the class. This seems not easy for every teacher. There are no specific rules of selecting a song but there are several things to take into consideration when teachers take songs to the class:

Selection: What is the purpose to take that song? To reinforce grammar points or to
improve listening skills, for example.

The class: number of students and their ages, the students language level, how much
time do you have?

Students interests: It is important to ask students about their favourite songs and
singers. With that information you have a picture about the possible selection of songs. If you want you can make a list of different songs for the students to select. By doing so, you involves students in their own learning and motivation. However, students may select rap or heavy metal which is either not very clear or too fast, or contain too much slang. Frodden (1991: 4 Citing Dommel and Sacker, 1986) addressed this problem of perception of the singers voice. There are songs which appeal students a lot through their rhythm and music, yet they are quite difficult to understand. The reason for this may be that the instruments cover the singers voice, the words are spoken too quickly, the language variety is unfamiliar, there are too much slang or the students just do not know enough English yet.

14
Consequently, the teacher should know the students interest and try to find out the songs that suitable for the students, and suitable for the purpose of teaching. If possible try to select not only a song that deals with love but also a song that deals with social, ecological and human issues. For teaching pronunciation, teachers should choose songs that have clear sounds, the sounds are not sung qickly as well as do not contain slang. 1.2.9. Procedure in applying the songs To apply songs in the classroom and to achieve teachers goal in teaching, the teachers should plan application sequence of the songs. Here the author suggests two procedures in applying songs: - Preparation: This step is quite important because the more careful teachers prepare, the more effective she perform the songs. Some factors teachers should take into consideration in this first step are selection of songs, the students language level, class activities, time using and words handout of the songs. - Pre-listening stage: the aim of this stage is to prepare students with everything necessary for listening the songs. Therefore, in this step teachers should: warm up the class, introduce the songs, give listening time and also give students listening task. - While-listening stage: In this stage, learners listen to the songs directly in individuals. So teachers will play the song on the tape as many times as necessary, show the words of the song , then ask the students to follow the words. Because the purpose of listening to a song is to teach English pronunciation for the students so teachers will be the corrector and try to find out the students mistakes and correct for them. - Post-listening stage: After listening to the song, teachers should give the feedback and comment on the students job. 1.3. Theory of pronunciation 1.3.1. Definition of pronunciation Pronunciation has been defined by many authors with different expressions. In this paper the author would like to quote some definitions from the reliable sources: Simply defined, pronunciation is the way in which a language is spoken ( Oxford Advanced learners Encyclopedic, 1997, p.1164). According to Jones, D, (1998), pronunciation involves

15
the production and perception of segmental (sounds), both alone and in the stream of speech, where they undergo number of modifications and interact with suprasegmental (prosodic) features, particulary stress and intonation. Pronunciation is defined as: the act or manner of pronouncing syllables, words and phrases with regard to the production of sounds and the placing of stress, intonation, etc, any accepted or standard ways of pronouncing a word, the transcription in symbols of such a way of pronouncing a word ( www.yourdictionary.com). As all the definition mentioned above, the writer concludes that pronunciation is: - The standard way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. - The way in which a person sounds the words of a language when speaking. 1.3.2. The importance of teaching pronunciation Communication is the most important component of any human sociaty. In this aspect, they adapted English as the international language of the world. So, to communicate properly we need good pronunciation, because pronunciation affects very much on the understanding of the words meanings. If the sound of the word is different it may lead the listeners to some other meanings, and if this happens, it is obvious that this is not a proper communication. This is, in fact, confusion. For this reason, it is very nesessary to teach correct pronunciation. Pronunciation involves far more than individual sounds. Word stress, sentences stress, intonation, and word linking all influence the sound of spoken English, not to mention the way we often slur words and phrases together in casual speech. For example, what are you going to do? becomes Whadda ya gonna do? English pronunciation involves too many complexities for learners to strive for a complete elimination of accent, but improving pronunciation will boost self esteem, facilitate communication, and possibly lead to a better job or aleast more respect in the workplace. Effective communication is gvery important. So we should choose first to work on problems that significantly hinder communication and let the rest go initially. We should remember that students also need to learn strategies for dealing with misunderstandings, since native pronunciation is for most an unrealistic goal. A students first language often interfers with English pronunciation. For example, /p/ is aspirated in English but not in Vietnamese, so when a Vietnemese learner pronounces pig without a puff of the air on the /p/, English may hear big instead. Sometimes, the students will be able to identify specific problem sounds and sometimes they wont. It is often difficult for a student to reach the exact pronunciation by spellings because English phonemes are not much in tha order in which the spellings are

16
in practice. So only a teacher can move away student from spelling to phnomic script to learn correct pronunciation. Teaching pronunciation is also essential because learning the phonemic script involves not just getting to know the symbols but also making sure you can say the right sound for each one, so the teachers help is very important. 1.3.3. Elements of pronunciation According to Jones, D, (1998), pronunciation involes the production and perception of segmental (sounds), both alone and in the stream of speech, where they undergo number of modifications and interact with suprasegmental (prosodic) features, particulary stress and intonation. It means that the author will discuss about two kinds of features: segmental features and suprasegmental features. 1.3.3.1. Segmental features Segmental features include consonant sounds and vowel sounds. The classification is based on the differences in their functions in an utterance and their way of production (Ramelan, 1985:55) Consonants are, or contain, noises that are pronounced with a blockage of some sort of the air passage ( As an explaination by Scarcella and Oxford, 1994). The English consonant sounds consist of twenty-four. Those are: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, / /, /g/, /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /h/, /l/, //, //, m/, / /n/, /r/, /w/, /y/, English consonants can be classified in different ways: - Accoding to the place of articualation, they may be dental, bilabial, alveolar, palatal, velar. - According to the manner of articualation they may be plosive, affricate, fricative, nasal, lateral. - According to the involvement of vocal cords they may be voiced or voiceless. Each English consonants has all the features of these classifications, for example: Consonant /k/ in kick /l/ in long Place Velar Alveolar Manner Plosive Lateral Voice Voiceless Voiced

Vowels are articulated when a voiced air stream is shaped using the tongue and the lips to modify the overall shape of the mouth (Gerald, 2003, p.29). English vowel sounds are divided into two kinds: long vowels and short vowels. Long vowels include /i:/, /a:/, /u:/, /o:/, /:/ while short vowels include /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/, //, //, / /. Besides, there are also vowel clusters include dipthongs and tripthongs. Dipthongs /ei/, /ai/, /oi/, /o/, /i/, /a/, /u/, /e/, /au/, /u/ and tripthong /ei/, /ai/, /oi/, /u/, /au/ which are, in fact, the glide from one vowel to another

17
(dipthong) then to a third (tripthong). They may cause trouble for any learner who is incapable of gliding from one vowel to another smoothly and properly, causing misunderstanding to the listener. 1.3.3.2. Suprasegmental features Suprasegmental features refer to stress, rhythm, intonation and other features that always accompany the production of segmental. There are three main kinds of suprasegmental features: The first is stress. Stress is meant the degree of force or loudness with which a syllable is pronounced so as to give it prominence (Ramelan, 1985: 25). In English, there are word stress and sentence stress. Stress plays an important role in English because different stress will express different meaning. The second is rhythm. The literal meaning of rhythm is a strong regular repeated pattern of sounds or movements ( New Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary 7th edition , 2005) . The two most common rhythm noticed in the languages spoken around the world are : Syllable timed Rhythm and Stress - timed Rhythm. In English, rhythm is Stress - timed. This means that the time between two primary stresses is the same,if there are many words between the two primary stresses, then these syllables will be pronounced fast, if, on the other hand, there is only small mumber of syllables between the primary stresses, then these syllables will be pronounced slowly and more clearly (Syafei, 1988:33). For example, Can you see the man?, the words see and man take primary stresses. The third is intonation. Intonation is the change in pitch of a sentence, up and down The sequence of pitches that produces the 'tone' of an utterance and plays an important part in conveying the meaning (Ramelan, 1985: 25). For example, the intonational tone of a question usually features a rising pitch at the end. 1.4. Literature review 1.4.1.Students pronunciation problems in pronuncing English sounds There are many researches about English pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners such as Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English (Ha Cam Tam, 2005), Difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English sounds ( Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, 2007), and the findings of these also revealed the common mistakes in English pronunciation of Vietnamese learners. These researches found that there are three main mistakes caused by Vietnamese

18
learners: Sound omitted, sound confusion, and sound redundancy. Among of these, sound omitted is the most common mistake that was caused by most learners. The reason is Vietnamese learners have to face to many difficulties when learning English as a second language. These difficulties prevent them from reaching the right English language. Like learners elsewhere in the world, Vietnamese learners encounter great obstacles in learning English pronunciation because of the two reasons that come from foreign language: Firstly, the English sound system has several sounds foreign that do not occur in Vietnemese sound system.According to the findings of Nguyen Thi Thu Thaos research (Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, 2007: Difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English final consonants), there are five consonants that are not familiar to Vietnamese learners: /s, z, f, d, l/. They often cause Vietnamese learners unavoidable errors when pronouncing English, even worse when these sounds appear in word-final position. This is explained why there is a tendency to move the foreign English sounds towards the similar sounds in Vietnamese among learners. In addition, Vietnamese learners are certainly confused between voiceless and voiced sounds which happen fairly commonly between /t/ and /d/, /s/ and /z/ while it is clearly that in Vietnamese sounds, we do not have voiced as well as voiceless sounds. Secondly, the way English speakers pronounce the ending sounds is completely different from the Vietnamese speakers that make it more difficult for them to achieve appropriate English pronunciation. It is true that in English, they pronounce the final sounds but in Vietnamese we do not pronounce the final sounds. It is quite difficult for Vietnamese learners to pronounce the final sounds. For this reason, omission mistake is very popular among Vietnamese learners. Moreover, the difficulties also come from the influence or interference of the mother tongue. Our first language is Vietnamese that is quite different from English in the ways of pronouncing. Firstly, Vietnamese is not classified as voiced and voiceless sounds, all the Vietnamese sounds are pronounced in equal voice. Besides, English has stress, speakers emphasize on the words that carry stress as nouns, main verbs, etc, Vietnamese, however, has no stress so that all the words are produced in the same tone. These affect the way of pronouncing of Vietnamese learners and cause many difficulties when they learning English. 1.4.2. General views on teaching pronunciation

19
1.4.2.1. Related studies abroad Using songs in language teaching and learning is not a new idea. The exploitation of songs has been widely researched. There is some literature on the usefulness of songs in a language class as reviewed in the previous part. Besides, the use of songs in teaching pronunciation can be found in some of the books about techniques to teach pronunciation: Laroy (2001), in his book named Pronunciation published by Oxford English, cited a lot of activities to teach English sounds including using music. According to Laroy, teachers can utilize musical sounds in pronunciation lessons. In other words, teachers can improve the pronunciation of speech sounds through rhythm, singing and movement (p.95). He also thought that correcting words and sounds through sining is advisable because learners have an opportunity to try again and again without being exposed to the scrunity of the teacher and the other students all the time (p.1212). Silvia, C. B., Eva, E. V., Isabel, S,. (2005) conducted a research on Teaching phonetics throug singing and reciting. This research presented the results of the investigation into the role of singing and reciting in the teaching and learning of English phonetics to non-native speakers. There is also a relating research named Teaching English using songs to improve students pronunciation in PG and TK Alam Surya Mentary Kerten conducted by Emi, Y. (2009) as a Fulfillment for Requirement foe getting Bachelor Degree of Education in English Department, Indonesia. Besides, Balbina, E.&Marta. J. S., Brishtish Council Cameroon (2005) suggested some activities based on songs rhytms to fosuc learners on particular sounds in their article named Developing pronunciation through songs 1.4.2.2. Related studies in Vietnam In Vietnam, although there are alot of researches have been conducted to investigate te exploitation of songs in language classroom, for example, to teach listening comprehension, few have been conducted to find out the situation of using songs to teach pronunciation in general and to teach pronunciation to non-major English students inparticular. Using songs in teaching sounds and words at Nguyen Trai high scholl (2008-2009) is the related study

20
the researcher of this can find in Vietnam. However, this research only pointed out problems in teaching pronunciation and has no suggestions to solve them. Another study is Using songs to teach English sounds to 11th form at Nguyen Gia Thieu high school (Lai Thanh Tinh) In conclusion, using songs to teach pronunciation for the students is familiar with foreign language teachers abroad, it is quite new to Vietnamese teachers. 1.4.3. Songs to improve achievement in pronunciation Teaching pronunciation is done orally. One very effective thing to teach students pronunciation is by having the students train themselves in daily lives through their own interests. Some students probably prefer to play a game to enrich their vocabulary, other may sing or listen to English songs or may read poetry to improve their listening ability, pronunciation and the English fluency. Paul (1996: 7) states that .....if she is singing or playing something she really enjoys, and suddenly encounters a word or structure she does not know, but which she feels she needs in order to sing or play successfully, she will feel an emotion need to learn. It means that someone will learn something when they need to learn. No one can force his/ her to learn something if he/ she does not want to learn. If the teachers want the students achieve something, they should not teach them formally. The more the teachers teach, the less the students learn. By using songs, teachers may keep students emotionally involved in the learning process and keep them interested in making sense of this fascinating word of English. The aim is for students to feel excited by getting better at English (Paul, 1996: 8). So it is better for the teachers to give extensive listening task to train their pronunciation by listening songs they like. There are two kinds of listening activities that can be done by the students. Those are extensive listening and intensive listening. Extensive listening usually takes place outside of the classroom. It can be done at home or any places that the students want to have listening activities. They can also choose the way and the material they want. For example, the students may have songs or English news on the radio as the listening materials. While intensive listening is usually done in the classrooms, and the teachers usually have the materials and the way of listening activities for the students. Intensive listening can be done in some ways by using taped material and life listening. It can be in the form of reading aloud, story telling or conversation. Both ways are very important to improve the students acquisition of the language.

21
Songs as one of listening materials can be applied in both ways. While the students listening to the music or song, they will learn many things, such as learning grammar and pronunciation. They could also train themselves for the listening comprehension. When they are listening they will not realise that they are improving their achievement of the language. While listening to songs, the students may follow to sing the songs. So they can train their pronunciation ability unconsciously.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1. Introduction of the chapter The preceding chapter has reviewed the theoretical basic of the whole study. In this chapter, the researcher discusses the methodology used to investigate the using of songs to teach pronunciation for the first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU. The chapter includes four main parts: the selection of subjects, data collection instrument, procedures of data collection and procedures of data analysis. 2.2. Selection of the subjects The subjects of the study are two groups of teachers and students The first group includes seven English teachers of Department of Basic Sciences, College of Sciences, TNU. All of these teachers have experienced teaching English for students from 4 to over 20 years. The teacher survey was carried out in the form of questionnaires which included 17 questions. The second group consists of 215 first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU. They range from 18 to 23 years old, with the majority in their age of 20-21. Female accounting for

22
69% outnumbers male which are 31%. All subjects had been studying English for at least 4 years before entering college. 2.3. Data collection instruments Instrument is a tool that is used by a researcher when he or she applies certain method to get the data (Syakur, 1995: 85). In doing research, there are various methods of data collection: field notes, audio tape recording, pupil diaries, interviews and discussions, video tape recording, questionnaires, slide/ tape photography, documentary evidence, case study (Mc Niff, 1992: 76). The instrument exploited in the study were survey questionnaires. Questionnaire is one of the most efficient research instruments to collect information as much as possible in short of time. Moreover, questionnaire is considered to be more objective and low-cost than other types of research instrument. Two sets of questionnaire were utilized, one for the first year students and one for English teachers at the College of Sciences, TNU. They were both combination of close and openended questions, which gave the researcher the chance to take control of the content as well as get in-depth information. The study used questionnaires of 7 English teachers and 215 first year students from the College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University. The questionnaires for teachers consist of 17 questions and the questionnaires for students conclude 15 questions which were designed by the researcher in order to find out the attitudes of both teachers and students to using songs in teaching and learning pronunciation. First of all, the author used questionnaires as the main source for data collection because it has its own strengths in helping the author to find out satisfactory and sufficient information. Questionnaires are any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers (Brown, J. D. 2001:6) Besides, this instrument was used because it enables the researcher to collect information from students easily and quickly. Moreover, in a form that lends itself perfectly to the purpose of the study (Verma & Mallick, 1999), this instrument allowed the subjects to give suggestive data to test the researchers hypothesis.

23
Therefore, by using questionnaires we can have more in-depth information on certain aspects. Hence, any clarification or further inquiry towards a question can be made convenient. To be specific, the questionnaire for teachers consists of 17 questions. The first question is designed to find out how many years these teachers have been teaching English to define whether they are experienced or not. The next question aims at discovering the opinions of teachers about the difficulty level of pronunciation among other elements of learning a language and in comparison with four skills also. The third question helps to find out the importance of pronunciation in teaching a foreign language according to teachers perception. In the fourth question, teachers were asked about the materials they often choose to teach pronunciation in class and problems they have when teaching English sounds. Then, the teachers were asked about their problems when teaching English sounds. The next seven questions were designed on the purpose of investigate the situation of using songs to teach English pronunciation to the first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU. Then, teachers were asked about their opinion that using songs can be an effective tool for teaching pronunciation or not. The next two questions aim at finding out the advantages and disadvantages of using songs in teaching pronunciation from the teachers points of view. The two last questions aim at finding out when teachers use songs in their classes and how long they apply songs in the classes. The questionnaire designed for students consists of 15 questions with the aim at finding the attitudes of students towards English songs, towards using songs in lessons, and how songs are actually exploited in their class. The first questions were designed with the same objective as the first one in teachers questionnaire. In the second question, students were asked about their level of speaking English. Then, the third question aims at discovering the opinions of students about the difficulty level of pronunciation among other elements of learning a language and in comparison with four skills also. The next six questions aim at finding out whether students like English songs or not, how often they listen English songs and their attitudes towards having songs in lessons. The frequency of using songs in pronunciation class is studied through the ninth and eleventh question. Then, the students were asked about using songs can help them improve pronunciation or not. The three next questions aim at finding the usefulness and problems of listening English songs in learning

24
pronunciation, in students opinions. In the two last questions, students were asked about the number used in the class and should their teachers use songs in teaching activities, in their opinions. The two sets of questionnaire were both designed in English. However, the questions are not difficult for students to understand. Moreover, the researcher was willing to answer any questions from students about what they did not understand.

2.4. Procedures of data collection Data are facts we have about people, situations, events, things, and relationships (Tripp, 1996: 15). Gathering data is the most important thing in doing research. In doing this study, there are three main stages in the data collection procedure: 2.4.1. Step 1 In the first step, the questionnaire of 17 questions was designed for the teachers and the questionanire of 18 questions was designed for the first year students. In the questionnaire, the subjects were asked to check the best answers. Most of the questions were multiple choices, so they could read and check more than one answer. The questions would not take respondents much time to complete and answer quickly. After the first draft of the questionnaire was made, it was sent to the supervisor to be commented and edited. At the end of the first stage, the questionnaire was revised for the second time with the suggestions and corrections from the supervisor. 2.4.2. Step 2 The completed version of the questionnaire was delivered to all the subjects at the College of Sciences, TNU. The subjects were not required to write their names so that they are not identified in the paper. The subjects of this study belonged to two different groups of teachers and students, and the group of students belonged to 4 different classes, so it took the researcher a lot of time to collect all the responses. 2.4.3. Step 3 In this last step, the answered questionnaires are collected and analyzed by the researcher. The findings of the study are analyzed according to every question and illustrated in the charts with the real data from the subjects.

25
2.5. Procedures of data analysis The process of data analysis is carried out carefully based on the collected data from the subjects. The numbers are calculated according to number and then percentage, and presented in tables to help viewers easily to understand. Through the process of data analysis, the research questions are answered and the researchers hypothesis is confirmed. Based on categories established, data were then analyzed by using both descriptive statistics (percentage) and qualitative statistics (answers to open-ended questions in questionnaires and interviews). Pie charts and graphs were mainly employed to analyze and compare figures. Moreover, typical quotations from the interviews, the answers to open-ended questions in the questionnaires, and classroom observations were cited when necessary. Interpretation and conclusions were drawn after analyzing the data.

2.6. Summary of the chapter To sum up, this chapter has justified the methodology applied in this research: the selection of subjects, the data collection instruments, three steps of data collection procedures and lastly, procedures of data analysis. Such clarification of methodology would help pave the way for the analysis of the collected data in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1. Introduction of the chapter In this chapter, data collected from the three collection instruments is analyzed and interpreted to reveal answers to each research question of the study: First, the attitudes of the teachers and the students at the College of Sciences, TNU to using songs in teaching pronunciation. Second, the situation of using songs to teach pronunciation at the College of Sciences, TNU. Next, teachers and students opinions about advantages and disadvantages of using songs in teaching pronunciation. 3.2. Results 3.2.1. Data collection and analysis of the findings from the teacher survey 3.2.1.1. The opinions of teachers about the difficulty level of pronunciation among other elements of teaching English

Question 2: In your opinion, what aspect of teaching English is the most difficult?

27
This question is designed to ask teahers about which aspect of teaching English they found it as the most difficult to teach. And the result was shown in the following table:

Aspect of teaching English Grammar Pronunciation Vocabulary 4 skills: reading, writing, listening, speaking

Most important 0% 0% 0% 100%

Table 1: Teachers opinion about the most difficult aspect of teaching English From the table above, we can see that the answers are the same from all the teachers. Among 4 given answers, the number of teachers who considered 4 skills: reading, writing, listening, speaking are the most difficult accounts for 100%. None of them considered grammar or vocabulary or pronunciation as the most important.

3.2.1.2. Opinions of teachers at the College of Sciences, TNU about

the importance of pronunciation

Question 3: In your opinion, how important is pronunciation in

learning a language? Range of the importance Very important Important Not important Percentage 83,3% 16,7% 0%

Table 2: Teachers criticism on the importance of pronunciation

When asked about their opinions on the importance of pronunciation, 83,3% % of teachers said that pronunciation is very important while only 16,7 % considered it as an important

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skill. None of them think that pronunciation is not important at all in language teaching and learning.
3.2.1.3. The material teachers often use to teach pronunciation

Question 4: Which material do you often choose to teach English

pronunciation? This question aims at investiaging the methods and materials that teachers usually use to teach pronunciation for their students. The result was shown in the following pie chart:

Figure pronunciation

1: The material teachers often use to teach

As we see in the pie chat, 57,1% of teachers often use video or tape recording to teach pronunciation, in fact, this is quite effective way to teaching English pronunciation. It helps students pronounce English sounds more accurate and they can immitate as the native speakers ways. 28, 6% of teachers teach pronunciation in the traditional method, it means

29
teachers read sounds a loud and then their students repeat. This method seems quite popular in universities, but teach pronunciation by this way have many disadvantages such as: students can not pronounce the sounds as the way of native speakers, or even sometimes teachers pronounce the sound wrong. 14,3% left chose pictures to teach pronunciation. 3.2.1.4. The problems when teachers teaching English sounds

Question 5: What are your problems when teaching English

sounds? ( Teachers can choose more than 1 answer) Athough most of the teachers said that 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing are the most difficult to teach, not pronunciation, but teaching pronunciation is not easy work. This question aims at finding out the problems when teaching English sounds. The result showed that the problem is not teachers can not find the suitable materials to teach pronunciation, but the problem are: the English sounds are different from Vietnamese sounds and the students feel discouraged when they can not produce the sounds correctly. These two choices took the equal percentage of 66,7%.

Others

0%

You can not f ind the suitable materials to teach pronunciation Students f eel discouraged when they can not produced the sounds correctly The English sounds are dif f erent f rom Vietnamese sounds 0,00%

0%

66,70%

66,70%

20,00%

40,00%

60,00%

80,00%

Figure 2: The problems when teachers teaching English sounds

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3.2.1.5. The situation of using songs to teach pronunciation

Question 6: Have you ever used songs in your teaching process?

Figure 3: Teachers exposure in using English songs As can be seen from the pie chart, the percentage of teachers who have been used English songs in their teaching process is 83,3%. There is 16,7% of teachers have not used songs in their teaching process. To some extend, 16,7% of teachers may be not aware of the effectiveness of using songs in teaching process. 3.2.1.6. The attitudes of teachers towards using songs to teach pronunciation

Question 7: Do you like teaching English pronunciation through

songs?

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Figure 4: The percentage of teachers prefering teaching pronunciation through songs

Firstly, the researcher explored the attitudes of teachers towards English songs, whether they like or dislike. Surprisingly, all surveyed teachers, 100%, like English songs. The rate
of 100% expressed the reality of teachers interest towards teaching pronunciation through songs. This will give the students a chance to practice English pronunciation in interesting environment.

3.2.1.7. The purpose of using songs in teaching process

Question 8: What are your purposes of using songs in your

teaching process?

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Figure 5: Purposes of using songs in teaching English The result from question 8 showed that all of the teachers want to use songs for both learning and relaxing. None of them wanted to use learing or entertaning perpose separately. This proves that all the teachers use songs with a clear purpose. They wanted to create a comfortable learning atmosphere for their students in which learning and relaxing are combined to reduce the boredom in the class and students stress.

Question 9: Which aspect of English do you want to use songs to

teach most? From the table, we can see that the choices for the question 9 are quite different among teachers. The largest purpose in their using songs was for listening skills, about 50% of teachers. 33,3% used songs to teach vocabulary and the same percentage used for integrated skills. In compared with vocabulary and integrated skills, 16,6%of teachers wanted to use songs to teach pronunciation, the equal percentage wanted to use for speaking skills. None of the teachers chose songs for teaching writing and reading skills.

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Aspect of English Listening skills Speaking skills Writing skills Reading skills Integrated skills Grammar Vocabulary Pronunciation

Percentage 50% 16,6% 0% 0% 33,3% 0% 33,3% 16,6%

Table 3: The use of songs in some skills 3.2.1.8. The frequency of using songs in teaching pronunciation

Question 10: How often do you use songs?

34

Figure 6: The frequency of using songs According to the chart, it can be seen that the frequency of using songs in the lessons varies from teacher to teacher. About 42,8% of teachers sometimes used songs in their teaching process while 14,3% of them very often used and 28,6% of them often used. About 14,3% of the teachers rarely used and no one has never used songs in the lessons. So we can come to a conclusion that all of the teachers at the Collge of Sciences, TNU have used songs in their lesson, however, the amount of using them is not much.
3.2.1.9. The effectiveness of using songs in teaching pronunciation

Question 11: What do you think about the use of songs in teaching
pronunciation?

35

Figure 7: Teachers perception on the effectivenes of using songs in teaching pronunciation For question 11, approximately 66,7% of teachers remarked songs as an effective way to teach pronunciation. About 33,3% thought that songs are very effective way to teach pronunciation. No one found songs as an ineffective way and no one kept neutral idea for this question.

Question 13: Do you think that songs can be an effective tool for
teaching pronunciation Teachers point of view Yes No Percentage 100% 0%

Table 4: Teachers point of view about songs can be an effective tool for teaching pronunciation or not All of teachers, 100%, agreed that using songs can be an effective way to teach pronunciation. It can be drawn from this result that most teachers have positive attitudes

36
towards influence of songs in teaching and learning a language in general and teaching and pronunciation in particular They stated in the survey : When students listening to songs, they can immitate the sounds. Some said that students can listen to songs and learn by heart and others said that listening to songs will encourage the students in the lessons.. None of them said that songs are not an effective tool for teaching pronunciation. In compared with analysis of question 11, we can conclude that all of the teachers are aware of the effectivenes of using songs in teaching pronunciation, although in fact not all of them have used songs in teaching pronunciation.
3.2.1.10. The attitudes and feelings of students towards songs basing on the teachers view

Question 12: Do your students like listening to songs?

Students feeling Yes, very much Yes, but not much Not at all Percentage 100% 0% 0%

Table 5: The attitudes and feelings of students towards songs basing on teachers point of view As can be seen from the table, all the teachers realized clearly that their students like songs or not like at which level. They were all sure that their students like listening to songs in the lesoos vey much. This proves that the attitudes of the students towards songs are positive. 3.2.1.11. The advantages of using songs in the lesson

Question 14: In your opinion, what are the advantages of using

songs in the lesson?( Teachers can choose more than 1 answer)

37
Look at the chart below, we can see that there is a broad and almost absolute consensus among teachers. 83,3% of teachers agreed that songs can help students relax during the lesson. The same percentage of teachers thought that songs can encourage the students to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words in the songs.

Figure 8: The advantages of using songs in the lesson 66,7% of teachers supported for the benefit of songs in creating a high motivation towards learning English of the students. About 50% of teachers agreed that songs can reduce the boredom of students in the class, 33,3% of teachers said that the bebefit of songs is the rhythm in songs provide listeners with the repetition of similar sounds.

3.2.1.12. The difficulties in using songs in the class

Question 15: In your opinion, what difficulties do you cope with

when using songs in teaching pronunciation?

38
The aim of asking question 15 takes an important role in this study. Finding out the difficulties in applying songs in the class help us to solve the problem partly. Clearly, based on some suggested difficulties, the greatest obstacles of using songs in the class was the sounds are not clear because singers usually link sounds together, holding 66,7%. 33,3% of teachers agreed that Class time is limited is the difficult when using songs in teaching pronunciation, 17% of them thought that the difficulty is The class becomes noisy and out of control. 33,3% left said that mixed-ability of students caused problem when applying songs. No one chose students are distracted by the music or teachers can not find the suitable songs for the lesson in the curriculum.

Figure 9: The difficulties in using songs in the class These obstacles prevented teachers from using songs in the class. And the finding suitable songs are not a big problem for teachers.

3.2.1.13. The time when songs are used in the class and how long it takes

39 Question 16: When do you use songs in the class?

Time At the beginning of the lesson At the end of the lesson In the middle of the lesson Percentage 16,7% 50% 16,7%

Table 6: Time when songs are used in the class

The result of question 16 pointed out that the number of teachers used songs at the
beginning of the lesson and in the middle of the lesson are not much, hoding the same percentage 16,7%. 50% of teachers want to use song at the end of the lesson.

Question 17: How long does it take you to apply songs in the class?

Figure 10: Time spent in using songs

40
As we can see, an important issue that teachers had to take into consideration is amount of time need for applying a song. 16,7% of teacher wanted to use songs in about 5 to 15 minutes. Usually, teachers spent about 10 minutes or 10 to 15 minutes so two these choices took equal 33,3% of teachers. May be because the class time is limited so no one wanted to apply songs in about 20 to 25 minutes. Hence, it can be summed up that the amount of time to apply songs of teachers was different. It depens on the chosen songs and the stable time of teachers.

3.2.2. Data collection and analysis of the findings from the student survey 3.2.2.1. The students ability of speaking English

Question 2: Your speaking English is at which level?

From the students self-criticism about their own abilities of speaking English according to the chart above, we can see that although on average they have been learning english for 4 to 9 years, the number of students admiting their abilities at normal was largest, with 50%. Less than some percentage was group of students at bad level with 44,4%. There is 2,2% of student said that they are at excellent level and 3,4% is at good level. This fact showed that although learning English for a quite long time, the first year students at the Collge of Sciences, TNU have seen not much improvement in pronunciation.

Figure 11: The students ability of speaking English

41
This may be due they paid attention too much on grammar, vocabulary and other aspects of English, not pronunciation. Therefore, to help students improve their pronunciation, teachers need to find out effective methods in teaching English pronunciation. 3.2.2.2. The aspect of learning English is the most difficult

Question 3: In your opinion, what aspect of learning English is the most difficult?
From the chart below, we can see that most of the students at the College of Sciences found that 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading , writing as the most difficult, holding 60,6%. Only 8,3% of students found vocabulary as the most difficult while 11,7% of students found grammar as the most difficult. For pronunciation, there is 19,4% considered it as the most difficlut aspect of English to learn. The result showed that both teachers and students at the Collge of Sciences found that 4 skills are the most important for them, not other skills.

4 skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing

60,60%

Vocabulary

8,30%

Grammar

11,70%

Pronunciation

19,40%

0,00% 10,00%20,00%30,00%40,00%50,00%60,00%70,00%

Figure 12: The aspect of learning English is the most difficult in students point of view
3.2.2.3. The importance of pronunciation in learning a language, in students opinion

Question 4: In your opinion, how important pronunciation in learning a

language?

42

Figure 13: The importance of pronunciation in learning a language, in students opinion As can be seen in the pie chart, most of the students said that learning pronunciation is very imporatnt in learning a language. This proves that almost students are aware of the importance of learning pronunciation. 13,7% of students regarded pronunciation is important and only 2,9% of students said that it is not important. 3.2.2.4. The attitude of the first year students towards learning pronnciation through songs

Question 5: Do you like English songs?

43

Figure 14: The students preference of listening to English songs Song help creating an interesting environment among students and encourage them in learning. It is the reason why 90,6% of students liked listening to English songs. However, there is 9,4% of students dislike listening to songs. Some said that they do not like English songs because when listening to English songs they do not understand anything.

Question 8: Do you like having songs in the lesson?

This question aimed at asking about students preference of having songs in the lesson. Knowing their likes or dislikes of having songs in the lesson plays an important role in this study. The result of question 10 was showed in the chart below:

44

Figure 15: Students preference of having songs in the lesson 94,9% of students said that they like having songs in the lesson. Not as the authors prediction, there is 5,1% of students did not like having songs in the lesson. According to these group of students, they said that songs are used only for entertainment, not for studying.

Question 10: In your opinion, songs help you?

45

Figure 16: The purposes of using songs from students opinion From the chart, we can see that the majority of the students were aware of the value of songs in their studying. 92,7% of them regarded the benefit of songs as the combination of relaxing and studying. While 6,2% of them thought that songs help they learning only, there was still 1,1% of students said that songs help them relaxing only. Anyway, the combination between, learning and relaxing was the greatest advantage that songs help students to learn English better.

Question 11: Do you think that usings songs can help you to have better
pronunciation? Students opinion Yes No Percentage 79,9% 20,1%

Table 7: Students opinion of using songs can help they have better pronunciation

46
As we can see in the table above, 79,9% of students thought that using songs can help they have better pronunciation while 20,1% of them thought that using songs can not help they improve their pronunciation. 3.2.2.5. The situation of learning pronunciation by using songs at the College of Sciences, TNU

Question 6: How often do you listen to English songs?

As we can see in the table 8, the largest percentage of students said that they sometimes listen to English songs, holding 60,8%. 15,9% of students usually listen to English songs and only 4,2% of students always listen to English songs. Frequency of listening to English songs Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never Percentage 4,2% 15,9% 60,8% 19% 3,7%

Table 8: The frequency of listening to English songs There was 19% of students said that they rarely listen to English songs. From the result bove we can conclude that most of the students have ever listened to English songs, although the number of students have never listened to English songs is not much, only holding 3,7%. The reason was that they did not like English songs or some said that they did not understand any thing.

Question 7: Have you ever been taught English pronunciation by songs?

47

Figure 17: Students experience in learning English pronunciation through songs As the result refered from the question 9, 73,6% of students said that they have never been taught pronunciation through songs. On the other hand, the rate of students who have ever been taught pronunciation through songs accounts for 26,4%. The results collected in the part of the Students experience in learning English pronunciation through songs play an important role in investiagting some next questions.

Question 9: How often does your teachers of English use songs to teach
pronunciation? The frequency of using songs to teach pronunciation Very often Often Sometimes Rarely Never 2% 2% 38,6% 31,8% 27,4% Percentage

Table 9: The teachers frequency of using songs to teach pronunciation, in students point of view

48
The result we got from question 9 showed that only 2% of students said that their teachers very often use songs to teach pronunciation. The same percentage chose Often and the largest percentage of students chose Sometimes, held 38,6%. 31,8% said that their teachers rarely using songs to teach pronunciation.27,4% of students left said that their teachers of English have never used songs to teach pronunciation. 3.2.2.6. The advantages of using songs in learning pronunciation Question 12: What do you think are the advantages of listening to English songs in learrning pronunciation?

Figure 18: Students opinion about advantages of using songs in learning pronunciation From the chart above, it can be seen that there is few differences between students rating of advantages of listening to songs in learning pronunciation. At the top is both the number of students who agree that songs can reduce the bodedom in the class, making up 45,5%. Around 42,1% of students find that songs can help them to relax during the lesson and 41,6% of them said that songs can encourage them to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words in the songs. Nearly 25,3% of them think the repetition in songs is an advantage.

49
3.2.2.7. The students problems when listening to English songs

Question 13: What are your problems when listening to songs?

You can not hear clearly because the singers usually link sounds together

68%

The accents of the singers are not always of standard English

8,40%

You can not f ollow thw speed of almost songs

38,80%

You are distracted by music

14,60%

0,00% 10,00% 20,00% 30,00% 40,00% 50,00% 60,00% 70,00%

Figure 19: The students problems when listening to English songs

As clearly shown in the chart, the idea that songs usually contain sounds that are unclear because singers link sounds together is agreed by the largest number of students (68%) . Nearly 38,8% of surveyed students find it difficult for them to follow the speed of almost songs. The number of students agreeing that accents of singers are not always Standard English makes up 8,4%.The remaining 14,6% of the students stated that they are distracted by music. 3.2.2.8. The number of songs used in the class and students opinion about using songs to teach pronunciaton

Question 14: In your opinion, the number of songs used in the class is?

50

Figure 20: The number of songs used in class, in students point of view From the chart above, most of the students thought that the number of songs are used in class is too few, making up 78%. However, 17,9% of them thought that it is enough. Surprisingly, 3,9% students said that the number of songs are used in class is a lot.

Question 15: In your opinion, should teachers use songs to teach pronunciation?

Figure 21: Students opinion about teachers should use songs teach pronunciation or not

51
From the pie chart above, 63,6% of students thought that teachers should use songs to teach pronunciation. 35% of students wanted teachers sometimes use songs to teach pronunciation. Only 1,7% of students thought that teachers should not use songs to teach pronunciation. 3.4. Discussion Basing on the result we got, this part mainly focuses on the discussion from findings, stating some advantages and disadvantages of using songs to teach pronunciation for the first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU. 3.4.1. Some advantages of using songs to teach pronunciation for the first year students The analysis of the results help us to have an overview on the practical use of English songs in learning English , especially pronunciation. In general, the use of songs in teachinglearninmg process is now very popular. Al most English teachers have ever used songs in their teaching process. The most important thing here is that whether using songs to teach pronunciation is enough and effective or not. The advantage is most of the students like listening to songs and want to have songs in the lessons. There is a common point of view betwwen English teachers and the first year students at the Collge of Sciences on the effectiveness of songs in the teaching and learning English. Most of them appreciate the vital role of songs because of their advantages. The combination of relaxing and learning is the biggest support to them. It must be admitted most teachers and students have a positive attitudes towards songs. Many students have a desire of using songs more and more in class because they want to practice English more under the teachers guidance together with getting of relaxing. 3.4.2. Some difficulties when using songs to teach pronunciation for the first year students Some difficulties when using songs are shown clearly from the results. Although the first year students at the Collge of Sciences, TNU have experienced in learning English for many years, their ability of speaking of English on average is not so good. This causes difficult for teachers in helping them improve their speaking skills. To help students learning speaking

52
better, it is necessary for teachers to take into consideration students abilities in order to find out suitable methods as well as other support. The most difficult for students when listening to English songs is they can not hear clearly because singers usually link sounds together. Besides, students can not follow the speed of almost songs is a also disadvantage when they learning pronunciation through songs. In addition, using songs in class consisting of too many students is one of the difficulty for the teachers. It becomes more difficult to choose the suitable songs for their students because of students differences about inrerest, level, experience, etc.

PART C: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

53

In this chapter, the writer will draw some conclusions about the research that has been reported on the previous chapters and give some suggestions as the contribution to support the teachinglearning process and also give the limitation of the study. I. Summary of the findings To sum up, this study investigated the situation of using songs to teach pronunciation for the first year students at the College of Sciences, TNU. From the data collection instruments, namely questionnaires, the analysis and discussions of findings achieved the following results: Firstly, it is necessary to make pronunciation lessons more enjoyable and easier for students to memorize. Because a large number of teachers and students find pronunciation difficult, it is recommended that teachers should design more interesting tasks and create pleasant atmosphere in order to avoid frustration and tensions for students. To arouse passion for learning is essential but difficult. So, what is an effective way to reduce boredom and encourage students to learn pronunciation? Secondly, the use of songs in the teaching-learning process have some benefits for the students. The students not only learn about how the words pronounced but also master English vocabulary. Moreover, most of the student are interested in learning pronunciation by using songs. It seems that they feel more relax during the lesson. Finally, using songs may be an effective way to teach pronunciation, but some problems still exist as follows: One is a need to equip teachers with specific kind of background in phonetics and its application in communicative approaches. Another is how to design tasks and activities basing on authentic materials. This depends on the ability of the teachers and their enthusiasms in teaching career because looking for suitable materials and designing tasks both interesting and effective may take a lot of time and is quite difficult. Moreover, in a 45- minute class of language focus, it is hard to have enough time to teach both pronunciation and grammar as regulated in the curriculum. To find a helpful song is really a problem to some teachers who cannot apply information technology or do not have facilities for it. Finally, to teachers who do not have a good voice and sense of music. Although songs can be played by tapes or discs, etc. it is better for teachers to motivate students by singing

54
as a model or simply by singing together with them. If teachers sing with wrong rhythm, they may lose confidence or be laughed at by their students. II. Suggestions for English teachers It is better for English teachers to use songs on their teaching - learning process since songs have a very big benefit for the students. Songs can be implemented when teachers want to teach vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation. It is known that most of the students like songs, so it can be used as one of the ways to get the students participation in teaching - learning process. III. Limitations of the research As a self-criticism, the researcher had made the best efforts to accomplish the research. However, because of the limitation of time, scope as well as knowledge, the findings of this research are therefore very limited to certain degree. The method of this study is only based on the data collection through questionnaires and class observation, and if it has chance to develop in the future it should be carried out by interviewing so that the results would be more interesting and convincing. Furthermore, the investigation focused only on the first year students who are studying in College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University. In addition, if time allowed, interviews and class observation should have been selected to collect data in a larger scope. In short, these limitations should be taken into consideration when further are conducted in the future. In this paper, the scope of study is limited only in the College of Science, TNU. The research is restricted to only a small number of objects and the researcher can only look at the situation of using songs to teach English pronunciation for the first year students. Hence, the results cannot be generalized to all colleges. Hopefully, this research brings some insight into one of strategies to teach pronunciation.

REFERENCES

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1, Ha Cam Tam, 2005. Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English. 2, Lai Thanh Tinh, 2007. Using songs to teach English sounds to 11th form at Nguyen Gia Thieu high school. 3, Nguyen, D. N. H. (2007). Teaching English through songs to children from 6 to 10 years of age at Han Thuyen primary school. Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies; unpublished . 4, Nguyen, T. T. M (2008). Research methodology. Vietnam National University, University of Languages and International Studies. 5, Nguyen Thi Thu Thao (2007): Difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English final consonants. 6, Balbina, E.&Marta. J. S., Developing pronunciation through song. Brishtish Council Cameroon (2005). 7, Best, J.D, 1981: Research in Education, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. 8, Brown, J. D. 2001. Teaching the spoken language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 9, Cakir, 1997 , A. Musical activities for young learners of EFL. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Cakir-MusicalActivities.html. 10, Claerr, T., & Gargan, R. (1984). The role of songs in the foreign language classroom. OMLTA Journal, 28-32. Also in Snyder, B. (Ed). Look out World, Her we come! (Eric document Reproduction No. ED 254). 11, Emi, Y. (2009). Teaching English using songs to improve students pronunciation in PG and TK Alam Surya Mentary Kerten. School of Teacher Training and Education Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta. 12, Falioni, J.W. (1993). Music as means to enhance cultural awareness and literacy in the foreign language classroom. Mid-Atlantic Journal of Foreign Language Pedagogy, 7, 97. 108. Eric Document Reproduction No.ED 335 796 13, Frodden , C, 1991. Enjoying and Learning English Through Music, Memoirs of the third English Language Teaching Conference, Medellin. 14, Gerald, K. (2003). How to teach pronunciation. Oxfordshire, UK: Longman. 15, Halpern, 1999. Teaching English Pronunciation. New York: Harcourt Brace Javannovich. 16, Hannah. H, 1999. Nine reasons why you should use songs to teach English as a Foreign Language. Retrieved February 24, 2011 from

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http: //ezineariccles.com/?9-Reason-Why-You-Should-Use-Songs-to-Teach-English-as-a-

Foreign-Language&id=104988. 17, Hans, M. (2009). Using songs in the English classrooms. Retrieved March 30, 2010 from websitehttp://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr09/less01.htm. 18, Harmer, J. 2000. The practice of English language teaching. London: Longman Group Ltd. 19, Hinofotis, F and Baily, K., 1980. American undergraduate reaction to the communication skills of foreign teaching assistants, TESOL80 Building Bridges: Research and practice in TESL, Alexandria, V.A, 1980. 20, Hornby, A.S. 1995. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 21, Jamalus, 1998. Belajar Musik. Jakarta: Depdikbud, Dijren Dikti. 22, Jolly, Y. 1975. The use of songs in teaching foreign language. Modern language Journal, 59, 11-14. 23, Jones, D. 1998. The pronunciation of English, definite ed.,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 24, Laroy, C. 1993. Using songs and music. An Educative Approach to Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford English Marianne, 25, Laroy, 2001. Teaching pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 26, Leith, 1979. Language Teaching: A Scientific Approach. (pp 79-84). MC Graw-Hill, Inc. 27, Lems, Kristin, 2002. Using music in the Adult ESL classroom, national Centre for ESL Literacy Education. 28, Mc Niff, J. 1992. Action research: Principles and Practice. London: Routledge. 29, Murphey, T, 1992. Music and Song, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 30, New Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary 7th edition , 2005. Retrieved April 22, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/song 31, Nunan, D. (1991). Language teaching methodology. Hertfordshire: Prentic Hall International. 31, Oxford Advanced learners Encyclopedic, 1997, p.1164011. Retrieved April 14, 2011 from http://www.allwords.com/query.php?SearchType=3&Keyword=song&goquery=find+it %21&Language=ENG&v=65646309 30, Paul, D. 1996. Song and Games for children, New york: Macmillan publishing Co.inc.

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31, Ramelan, 1985. Songs in Language Teaching. A guide for English teachers. Cambridge University Press. 32, Reeve & Williamson, 1987. Look what youve done to my songs. Modern English Teacher, p.p 33-36. 33, Rogers, P. 1999. Advantages of songs. Published in: Using inexpensive technologies to promote engaged learning in the adult education classroom, Project INTER-ALT (Interactively Advancing Literacy). 34, Scarcella, R.C., & Oxford, R.L. .1994. The Tapestry of Language Learning: The Individual in the Communicative Classroom. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. 35, Scott Thornbury, 2003. (p.p 97). Discourse analysis for language teachers. New York: Oxford University Press. 36, Silvia, C. B., Eva, E. V., Isabel, S. 2005. Teaching phonetics through singing and reciting. Financed by the Madrid regional Government (ref. no. 06/HSE/0123/2004). 37, Syafei, A. 1988. English pronunciation: Theory and Practice. Jakarta: Depdikbud, Dirjen dikti. 38, Syakur, 1995. Effective tools for Teaching English. China: Oxford University Press. 39, The Encyclopedia of Americana, 1998. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopediacenter.com/Encyclopedia-Americana-1998-p/americana2011.htm 40, Tripp, D. 1996. SCOPE: Supporting Work Place Learning Education Department of Western Australia. Eaglewood. 41, Verma, G. K. & Mallick, K. (1990). Researching Education: Perspectives and Techniques. Falmer Press. 42, Wong, R. 1987. Teaching pronunciation: focus on English rhythm and itonation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents. Wesite visisted: http://www.Allwords.com/word-song+thrush.html http://www.yourdictionary.com
APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONNAIRES FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

58
I am conducting the graduation thesis on An investigation into using songs to teach English pronunciation for the first year students at College of Sciences, TNU which aims at investigating the reality of exploiting songs to teaching pronunciation. I would be grateful if you could spend some of your precious time completing this questionnaire. Please read the questions carefully and tick on the answer you agree most for each question. It is assured that your personal opinions will be kept secret under all circumstances. Thank for your cooperation! SURVEY QUESTIONS - You are:............... (male/female) - Your age:............. 1. How many years have you been learning English? .................................................................................................................................................. 2. Your speaking English is at which level? a, excellent b, good c, normal d, bad 3. In your opinion, what aspect of learning English is the most difficult? a, pronunciation b, grammar c, vocabulary d, 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing 4. In your opinion, how important pronunciation is in learning a language? a, very important b, important c, unimportant 5. Do you like English songs? a, yes b, no 6. How often do you listen to English songs? a, always

59
b, usually c, sometimes d, rarely e, never 7. Have you ever been taught English pronunciation by songs? a, yes b, no 8. Do you like having songs in the lesson? a, yes b, no 9. How often does your teacher of English use songs to teach pronunciation? a, very often b, often c, sometimes d, rarely e, never 10. In your opinion, songs help you: a, relax b, study c, relax and study 11. Do you think that using songs can help you to have better pronunciation? - yes, in what way?................................................................................................................... - no, why?................................................................................................................................. 12. What do you think are the advantages of listening to English songs in learning pronunciation? You can choose more than one answer. a. Songs can reduce the boredom in the class b. Songs can help you to relax during the lesson c. Songs can encourage you to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words in the songs d. The rhythm in songs provide listeners with repetition of similar sounds e. Others, please specify.............................. 13. What are your problems when listening to songs? a, You are distracted by music b, You can not follow the speed of almost songs c, The accents of singers are not always of standard English

60
d, You can not hear clearly because singers usually link sounds together 14. In your opinion, the number of songs used in the class is: a, a lot b, enough c, too few 15. In your opinion, should teachers use songs to teach pronunciation? a, yes b, no c, sometimes Thank you for your cooperation!

APPENDIX 2 QUESTIONNAIRES FOR TEACHERS

61

I am conducting the graduation thesis on An investigation into using songs to teach English pronunciation for the first year students at College of Sciences, TNU which aims at investigating the reality of exploiting songs to teaching pronunciation. I would be grateful if you could spend some of your precious time completing this questionnaire. Please read the questions carefully and tick on the answer you agree most for each question. It is assured that your personal opinions will be kept secret under all circumstances. Thank for your cooperation! SURVEY QUESTIONS - You are: ................(male/female) - Your age: ........................ 1. How long have you been teaching English? ................................................................................................................................................. 2. In your opinion, what aspect of teaching Enlish is the most difficult? a, grammar b, pronunciation c, vocabulary d, 4 skills: reading, writing, listening, speaking 3. In your opinion, how important is pronunciation in learning a language? a, very important b, important c, not important 4. Which material do you often choose to teach English pronunciation? a, Live speech (Teacher reads sounds aloud and students repeat) b, Video or tape recordings c, Others, please specify.......................................................................................................... 4. What are your problems when teaching English sounds? (You can choose more than one answer) a. The English sounds are different from Vietnamese sounds b. Students feel discouraged when they cannot produce the sounds correctly c. You cannot find suitable materials to teach pronunciation d. Other, please specify

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5. Have you ever used songs in your teaching process? a, yes b, no 6. Do you like teaching English pronunciation through songs? a, yes b, no 7. What are your purposes of using songs in your teaching process? a, to relax b, to learn c, to relax and to learn 8. Which aspect of English do you want to use songs to teach most? a, listening skills b, speaking skills c, writing skills d, reading skills e, integrated skills f, grammar g, voacabulary h, pronunciation 9. How often do you use songs? a, very often b, often c, sometimes d, rarely e, never 10. What do you think about the use of songs in teaching pronunciation? a, very effective b, effective c, ineffective d, neutral 11. Do your students like listening to songs? a, yes, very much b, yes, but not much c, no, not at all

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12. Do you think that using songs can be an effective tool for teaching pronunciation? -Yes, in what way?................................................................................................................... -No, why?................................................................................................................................. 13. In your opinion, what are the advantages of using songs in your lesson? (you can choose more than 1 answer): a, Songs can reduce the boredom of students in the class b, Songs can help students relax during lesson c, Songs can create high motivation towards learning English of students d, Songs can encourage students to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words in the songs e, The rhythm in songs provide listeners with repetition of similar sounds f, Others, please specify.......................................................................................................... 14. In your opinion, what difficulties do you cope with when using songs in teaching pronunciation? (you can choose more than 1 answer): a, The class becomes noisy and out of control b, Class time is limited c, Students are distracted by the music d, The sounds are not clear because singers usually link sounds together e, You can not find suitable songs for the lesson in the curiculum f, Mixed-ability of students g, Others, please specify....................................................................................................... 15. When do you use songs in your class: a, At the beginning of the lesson b, At the end of the lesson c, In the middle of the lesson 17. How long does it take you to apply songs in the class? a, About 5 to 10 minutes b, About 10 minutes c, About 10 to 15 minutes d, About 20 to 25 minutes Thank you for your cooperation!

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