Running Head: LEARNING IPA THROUGH WEB PAGES 1
Running head: LEARNING IPA THROUGH WEB PAGES 1
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages
Andrés Felipe Galindo Cardona
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
Bogotá, Colombia
School of Science and Education
B.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language
2016 Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 2
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages
Andrés Felipe Galindo Cardona
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
Code: 20081165054
Bogotá, Colombia
A thesis submitted as a requirement to obtain the degree of B.A. in Teaching English as a
Foreign Language
School of Science and Education
B.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language
2016
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 3
Note of acceptance:
______
______
Advisor:
______
Jurors:
______
______
“La universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable por las ideas expuestas
en este trabajo”
(Acuerdo 19 de 1988, artículo 177)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 4
Abstract This paper presents a mixed model research conducted with English students in first and second semester from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas located in Bogotá. The goal was to understand the role of technology in the process of learning English phonology and the meaning that students give to phonetic symbols. The selected participants were three groups, two of them were composed of second semester students who finished a subject called “phonetics and phonology” and another group composed of first semester students who still have not studied this subject. The chosen instruments were surveys, worksheets (artifacts), students‟ journals and voice recordings. The data analysis showed preferences for some resources in particular, students‟ positive views about phonetic instruction, similar pronunciation mistakes and students‟ perceptions about the articulation of phonemes using their vocal tract. Keywords: Phonetics, phonology, pronunciation, web pages, phonetic symbols, technology.
Resumen Este artículo presenta una investigación de modelo mezclado conducido con estudiantes de inglés de primer y segundo semestre de la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas localizada en Bogotá. La meta era entender el papel de la tecnología en el proceso de aprendizaje de la fonología inglesa y el significado que los estudiantes le dan a los símbolos fonéticos. Los participantes seleccionados fueron tres grupos, dos de ellos estaban compuestos de estudiantes de segundo semestre que finalizaron una materia llamada “fonética y fonología” y otro grupo compuesto de estudiantes de primer semestre que aún no han visto esta materia. Los instrumentos escogidos fueron encuestas, hojas de trabajo (artefactos), diarios de estudiantes y grabaciones de voz. El análisis de datos mostró preferencias por algunos recursos en particular, visiones positivas de los estudiantes sobre las instrucción fonética, errores de pronunciación similares y las perceptiones de los estudiantes sobre la articulación de fonemas usando su tracto vocal. Palabras clave: Fonética, fonología, pronunciación, páginas web, símbolos fonéticos, tecnología.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my advisor Fabio Bonilla for supporting me and giving me his knowledge throughout this process. I also want to thank all my professors in my career, especially Alvaro Quintero, Paola Murillo, Eliana Garzón, Jairo Gutierrez, Adriana Cuevas, Sofia Castañeda, Silvio Puertas, Angélica Saenz, Maura Díaz, Emilena Hernández, Aurora Cardona, Janeth Velázquez and Rigoberto Castillo; they all shared all their valuable knowledge with great patience and professionalism. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to my family who has always supported me unconditionally: my dad, uncles Cristian, Patricia, Jenny and my grandmothers Angéla and Ana Silvia. I wouldn‟t be here, if it wasn‟t for you. I can‟t say any more than just thank you so much. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 5
Table of Contents Chapter 1 …………………………………………………………………………7
Introduction……………………………………………………………………….7
Statement of the problem…………………………………………………………...8
Research questions and sub-questions……………………………………………..10
Justification……………………………………………………………………….10
Chapter 2
Literature review
Phonetic, phonology, transcriptions and pronunciation……………………………12
Research about teaching pronunciation and evolution of materials………………..16
Beliefs and views about teaching and learning pronunciation……………………..22
Chapter 3
Research design……………………………………………………………………25
Research questions and objectives………………………………………………….25
Type of study……………………………………………………………………….26
Setting and participants…………………………………………………………….28
Data collection techniques and instruments………………………………………..29
Role of the researcher………………………………………………………………30
Validity, reliability………………………………………………………………….31
Ethics and consent form……………………………………………………………32
Chapter 4
Instructional Design
Visions of language………………………………………………………………..33
Visions of learning…………………………………………………………………34 Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 6
Visions of curriculum………………………………………………………………34
Methodology……………………………………………………………………….35
Role of the materials………………………………………………………………..36
Curriculum platform………………………………………………………………..37
Evaluation criteria…………………………………………………………………..41
Chapter 5
Data Analysis and Findings
Results survey………………………………………………………………………44
Results worksheet classification of sounds…………………………………………49
Pronouncing and transcribing phonetic symbols……………………………………53
Resources most used by students…………………………………………………...58
Definitions and perceptions about the International Phonetic Alphabet……………60
Previous experiences with IPA in secondary school………………………………..62
Students‟ journal……………………………………………………………………63
Chapter 6
Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………67
Limitations and further research…………………………………………………….68
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..69
Annexes…………………………………………………………………………….72
Annex A (consent form)…………………………………………………………….72
Annex B…………………………………………………………………………….73
Annex C…………………………………………………………………………….74
Annex D…………………………………………………………………………….75
Annex E…………………………………………………………………………….76
Annex F……………………………………………………………………………..77 Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 7
Chapter 1
Introduction
In the last years many internet web pages have been created, used and adapted for pedagogical purposes; for instance there are virtual dictionaries, translators, forums, blogs, video platforms and thousands of mobile phone applications which now can be used for language teaching and learning. Virtual dictionaries are those accessible via the internet through a web browser and finding words faster than printed dictionaries is one of their advantages. Some virtual dictionaries play audios with the pronunciation of words, sentences and usually include a phonetic transcription.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the most common system of phonetic notation and is not new in the field of English language teaching; it can be found in materials for teaching pronunciation, course books, printed dictionaries and virtual dictionaries.
Phonetic transcriptions have been widely used in language teaching, however not all English language learners understand these systems well or not even know their existence, especially most students from public schools .
The objective of this work is to understand the role that technology plays in the process of learning the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The participants I chose were three groups from first and second semester in the career of “Licenciatura en Educación Básica con
Énfasis en Inglés” at “Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas” Bogotá, Colombia.
These students must take a subject called “Phonetics and Phonology” which objective is to teach many concepts inherent in phonetics, phonology, pronunciation, articulation, etc.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 8
Many authors argue that the difficulty of learning how to pronounce a foreign language is cognitive rather than physical (Gilakjiani & Ahmadi, 2011; Kissling, 2015) although this represents a greater challenge for students, many of them try to use different learning strategies; for example searching web pages on the internet, installing applications on their mobile phones, or checking a printed dictionary. The use of online dictionaries has been increasing due to the technological advances and easier access to internet in many parts of the world as well as the inclusion of wireless internet in educational institutions. That is why the focus of this study was the technological tools used by learners specifically those that include the system of phonetic notation IPA; nevertheless printed materials received attention too.
This chapter explains how the research problem emerged and why this study is important.
Chapter two will define the main constructs, review the state of the art about pronunciation teaching during the last decades and describe some innovations made in this field. Chapter three will explain why mixed research was the chosen paradigm for this research and a detailed description about the population who participated in this study. Chapter four will explain the details of the pedagogical intervention and the characteristics of the web pages used. Finally chapter five will explain the methods used to manage and analyze data.
Problem Statement
Despite the International Phonetic Alphabet is widely known in EFL/ESL classrooms and it is included in language learning materials as well as dictionaries, not all English learners, especially those from public secondary school understand the use or nature of phonetic transcriptions; the collected data shows evidence of this fact. Besides, understanding phonetic transcriptions requires some knowledge about the sciences of phonetics and phonology
(Odden, 2005). Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 9
The “Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés” (LEBEI) program at
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas added the subject “phonetics and phonology” inside its new curriculum after the implementation of the credit system but it used to be an elective subject before year 2011. When this subject was elective instead of a subject in the curriculum, there were less hours of class. It means that some students may not have studied this subject before this period and previous generations were not benefited as the new ones. In addition, technological advances were not the same in that time
However, the IPA was also due to be taught in the subject “English language forms” which in my personal experience, it only focused on teaching the IPA ignoring other important concepts about phonetics and phonology. I think that teaching pronunciation should not be limited to only learning the International Phonetic Alphabet, mainly because it is not the only system of phonetic transcription and because success in pronunciation does not rely only on segmental aspects but also on supra-segmental aspects (Gilakijani & Ahmadi, 2011,
Lightbown & Spada, 2006).
Phonetics and phonology play an important role in understanding how sounds are produced in a foreign language, however the teaching of pronunciation in some EFL/ESL classrooms has been neglected and tended to be “sidelined” due to the changing views and beliefs about its importance and how should be taught (Lightbown & Spada, 2006; Gilakjani
& Ahmadi, 2011; Tudor, 2001). Internet has many web pages with online dictionaries which have the advantages of being fast, include phonetic transcriptions and reproduce sound.
However their usage is still limited or even absent in some EFL contexts. Both teachers and learners bring to the classroom a complex web of attitudes, experiences, expectations, beliefs Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 10 and learning strategies. As a result, attitudes towards learning, and the perceptions and beliefs that determine them may have a profound influence on learning behavior and on learning outcomes (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2011). That is why I formulate the following questions:
Research Question
What is the role of segmental aspects of pronunciation when students learn English?
Sub-questions
What is the importance of technology when students learn phonetic symbols?
What are students‟ favorite resources to improve their English pronunciation?
How do learners improve their knowledge about the International Phonetic
Alphabet?
Justification
This study is important because it contributes to the field of teaching English mediated by technology (Didáctica del inglés por medio de la tecnología). Language teacher colleagues could use the results of this study to reflect upon the role of pronunciation in their lessons, have into account the importance of technology in language instruction and improve their knowledge about phonology, phonetics and phonetic transcriptions.
Learners will be benefited from this study because they can share their favorite resources among partners and discover other tools which are unknown for them. This pedagogical implementation was also a review of what they studied during the career and subjects. Rajab
(2013) found positive effects on learners‟ pronunciation when they understood phonetic Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 11 transcriptions, they also started to use the dictionaries in an autonomous way; I expected the same from these groups of learners after my implementation.
The research community will be benefited from this study because it gives ideas about the inclusion of technology in the foreign language classroom. Researchers can explore the same tools used in this study but they can focus on other aspects of language learning. The integration of technological tools within printed materials will enable language teacher to understand their benefits and advantages. The research community can review some beliefs, views and misconceptions about how to teach pronunciation. Finally, I will be the most benefited person from this study because I will answer my research questions, learn more about this topic and deepen in it.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 12
Chapter 2
Literature review
This chapter presents the main constructs for this study and it is organized according to the following topics: First, a definition of the main constructs for this study; second a review about how materials to teach pronunciation evolved from printed books into technological devices and some research studies which looked into the effect of phonetic instruction. The last part will review some beliefs and views that experts, teachers and students have about teaching and learning pronunciation.
Phonetics, phonology, transcriptions and pronunciation
McCarthy (1978) defines phonetics as the subject dealing with the phenomena of spoken language and phonology as the organization and arrangement of the sounds of a spoken language considered as a system or set of systems. He also considers that both speaking and pronouncing relate both to the same activity but pronouncing concentrates on how the speaking is done. Pronunciation is viewed as a sub-skill of speaking. Both phonetics and phonology involve representation of sound (Odden, 2005). The goal of phonology is to represent the linguistic important details of an utterance using symbols whose interpretation is predefined. Katamba (1989) defines phonetics as the inventory of all speech sounds which humans are capable of producing. With “speech sounds” he means a subset of sounds that humans can produce with their vocal apparatus but are employed in speech. Couch, hiccup and snore are not examples of “speech sounds” because there is not any community that uses those sounds to form words. The domain of phonetics are the details about the physics of language sounds and those details can be represented in the form of acoustic waveforms (e.g. frequency, amplitude) (Odden, 2005). Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 13
The tool behind the conversion of the continuous stream of speech sound into units is the phonetic transcription. A phonetic symbol is a letter of a letter shape used to stand for a sound or sound feature of a language (McCarthy, 1978). The most common system of phonetic transcription is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) created by the International
Phonetic Association. This system aims at representing all sounds in all languages using symbols of the Latin alphabet plus some diacritics. This system can be represented in broad transcriptions and narrow transcriptions. Narrow transcriptions are written between square brackets [ ] and are used to include details of the pronunciation that may not be used for distinguishing words in the language being transcribed, but which the author nonetheless wishes to document. Slashes / / are used for phonemic notations, which note only features that are distinctive in the language, without any extraneous detail (Odden, 2005). For example
English “r” is different from French or Spanish “r” but in a broad transcription, it is not necessary to tell the apart.
As mentioned above, understanding phonetic transcriptions also requires understanding how vocal tract determines the acoustic output. The production of consonants involves four parameters (Katamba, 1989):
1. The airstream mechanism: This refers to the way in which the moving body of air that
provides the power for speech production is generated and the direction in which it
moves. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 14
(Katamba,1989. pg. 4. Introduction to phonetics)
2. The state of the glottis: Voiceless sounds are produced when there is a wide open
glottis, with a big space between the vocal cords; voiced sounds are produced when
the vocal cords are close together so that the air has to force its way through them,
making them vibrate in the process.
3. The place of articulation: This refers to the place in the vocal tract where the airstream
is obstructed in the production of a consonant.
Place Articulators Examples
Bilabial Both lips [p] peat [b] beat [m] meat Labio-Dental Lower lip and upper front teeth [f] fine [v] vine Dental Tongue tip and upper front teeth [θ] Thigh [ð] thy Alveolar Tongue tip or blade and the [t] tip [d] dip alveolar ridge [s]sip [z] zip [l] lip [r] rip [n] nip Palato-Alveolar Blade of the tongue rising [ ʃ ] sheep [ʒ] genre towards the alveolar ridge and [ tʃ ] cheap [dʒ] jeep the front of the hard palate Palatal Front of the tongue and the hard [j] yes palate Velar Back of the tongue and the [k] cot [g] got velum [ŋ] song Labio-velar Simultaneously using both lips [w] win and raising the back of the tongue towards the velum Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 15
Glottal Vocal cords [h] hot
4. The manner of articulation: This refers to the way in which the airstream is interfered
with in producing a consonant. Below there is a brief survey of manners of
articulation:
Stop: The articulators come together and completely cut off the flow of air
momentarily, then the separate abruptly. [p – b - t – d - k - g]
Affricate: In the production of an affricate, first the articulators come together and
completely cut off the flow of air, just as they do in a stop; then they separate
gradually. E.g. chain, Jane.
Fricative: The articulators are brought very close together leaving only a very narrow
channel through which the air squeezes on its way out, producing turbulence in the
process. E.g. [f – v - s – z - ʃ - ʒ - θ - ð].
Approximant: The articulators are brought near each other but a large enough gap is
left between them for air to escape without causing turbulence. E.g. [r - l - w - j].
Nasal: Nasal sounds are produced with air escaping through the nose; the velum is
lowered to allow access to the nasal tract. E.g. [n – m – ŋ].
Lateral: To produce a lateral, the air is obstructed by the tongue at a point along the
center of the mouth but the sides of the tongue are left low so that air is allowed to
escape over one or both sides of the tongue. E.g. [ l ].
The previous four parameters described the way in which we produce English consonants, but the production of vowels is more difficult to describe accurately than consonants. This is largely because there is no noticeable obstruction in the vocal tract during their production
(Katamba, 1989). It is not easy to feel exactly where vowels are made. Vowels are typically voiced, but they have no place or manner of articulation. Many languages also have Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 16 diphthongs, vowels whose quality changes during their production. E.g. [aʊ], [eɪ], [ɔɪ]. The phonetic properties of vowels are conventionally represented in this diagram:
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio
Thus, the goal of phonology is not to provide accurate symbolic representations of speech, rather the goal is to understand the linguistic rules which operate on sounds mentally represented as symbols, and the transcription is our means of representing the data which we discuss. A transcription is essentially a measurement of a physical phenomenon, and like all measurements can be made with greater or less precision (Odden, 2005).
Research about teaching pronunciation and evolution of materials
The International Phonetic Alphabet was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of oral language. This system is based Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 17 primarily on the Latin alphabet. Its goal is to represent human speech with a system of symbols. Many resources and materials have been designed specifically to teach the (IPA).
For example Dale & Poms (1985) have two books directed to Spanish speakers for learning
English pronunciation, one focuses on vowels and the other in consonants. Dale & Poms
(1985) argue that most of the available American English pronunciation texts are not directed to the particular problems of Spanish speakers and are too technical and confusing for self- teaching. They also say that having a foreign accent may hinder effective communication and as a result be misunderstood. “Ship & sheep” by Ann Baker (2006) is another example. These kinds of materials are characterized for having pictures showing the position of mouth, tongue, jaw, lips and usually include a CD ROM with audios. Printed materials focused on several aspects of pronunciation, such as the facial movement, management of breath, activity at the larynx and tongue activity.
The challenge of getting a more accurate pronunciation in a foreign language motivated linguists like Vila & Pearson (1990) to develop a computer program called BABEL which was an expert system able to animate (graphically) and reproduce (acoustically) a text in any language which uses the Latin alphabet. This system was developed to aid language learners and to help instructors leach the fine nuances of phonemes. Each phoneme had a unique sound and thus required a precise positioning of the vocal organs which were displayed on the screen in two different projections: a front view and profile cross view of a human face in synchronization with the output sounds of the speech synthesizer. Teacher could use BABEL Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 18 as an audio-visual aid and students could use it as a tutorial system to help them learn correct positioning of speech organs. Vila & Pearson (1990) concluded that learners benefited from realizing what was going on inside of their mouth. The fact that the students can see what they hear originated in them awareness of the speech process.
A more recent study involving technology was made by Al-Qudah (2012) who investigated the effect of using computer-assisted programs for teaching English pronunciation on students' performance in English Language pronunciation in Jordanian universities. The experimental group was trained on English pronunciation using computer- assisted program while the control group was trained using printed materials. His rationale was that computer assisted materials offered minimal pairs, sound animations, tongue twisters, step-by-step phonetic descriptions, songs and video animations, specific to segmental (consonant and vowel phonemes of English) and supra-segmental (pitch, loudness, tempo, and rhythm) aspects of pronunciation. His findings indicated that there were statistically significant differences in the post-test between the control and the experimental Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 19 groups in favor of the experimental group. Although replacing printed materials for technological material could have had a positive effect on learners‟ pronunciation, I consider that positivistic research makes many assumptions since in this study it is unclear if students improved their pronunciation due to the materials or because of their motivation.
Not only has research been focused on the role of materials but also on phonemic awareness which is defined as the ability to detect and manipulate the component sounds that comprise words, at the different psycholinguistic grain sizes of syllable, onset-rime and phoneme (Goouch & Lambirth, 2008). Koda (1998) carried out a research in which he explored the effects of disparate L1 alphabetic experience on L2 phonemic awareness and decoding among ESL readers with alphabetic and non-alphabetic L1 orthographic backgrounds. He hypothesized that amount of L1 alphabetic experience is causally related to the development of L2 phonemic awareness and decoding skills. His specific objectives were threefold: to compare varying aspects of phonemic awareness among Chinese and Korean
ESL learners; to explore the relationship between L2 phonemic awareness and decoding skills; and to examine the extent to which L2 text comprehension is facilitated by phonemic awareness and decoding skills. His data demonstrated that the two groups differed neither in their phonemic awareness nor in decoding; Koda (1998) finally concludes that little difference exists between the groups either in their perceptual ability to distinguish English phonemes or skills to conduct phonemic analysis and manipulation providing no empirical support for the hypotheses that L1 alphabetic experience is directly related to L2 phonemic awareness among
ESL readers. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 20
Finally, the following studies look into the effect of phonetic instruction. Rajab (2013) investigated the development of speaking and writing skills of L1 Arabic EFL learners based on their level of perception and understanding of phonetic transcriptions through visualization of letter-to-symbol representations using the IPA. His participants were 169 University-level
Preparatory Year (PYP) male Saudi EFL students. Students were introduced to the IPA phonetic codes in gradual increase of difficulty and were encouraged to use the monolingual dictionary. Two tests and one oral test were conducted and results were analyzed and interpreted. The results indicated that students reached a high level of understanding of letter- to-symbol representations and oral test results proved that phonological awareness could help
Saudi students improve their writing and speaking skills (Rajab, 2013). Ho also found that these learners also developed autonomy using printed dictionaries. Learners benefited from understanding IPA when they extracted precise information about pronunciation in monolingual dictionaries that contained IPA. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 21
A similar study was conducted by students from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de
Caldas. Carvajal, Cuellar & Silva (2013) explored the role of phonics based instruction in students‟ phonological awareness with third graders using printed materials. They used the
Phonics Based Instruction (PBI) as their methodology and concluded that the development of phonological awareness allowed their students to be conscious of the differences among sounds in both languages (Spanish and English) in spoken words and understand that words are made of individual sounds which let them manipulate English sounds with the main purpose of instill in them pronunciation abilities enhancing their oral production.
Nowadays, language teachers probably would not use BABEL for phonetic instruction because BABEL is not as known books like “ship and sheep” or “English pronunciation for
Spanish speakers” which are more popular. Another reason is that now we can find internet pages with the same or even more characteristics that BABEL had or search videos with people pronouncing the different phonemes. Whatever materials we use, the previous studies show evidence that there has been an increasing interest in phonetic instruction.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 22
Beliefs and views about teaching pronunciation
The previous studies suggest that phonetic instruction can help second language learners to moderately improve their pronunciation and other skills, but less is known about how instruction affects learners‟ perception even though there is evidence that perception and production are related (Kissling, 2015). Second language learners are often concerned about the “foreign” quality of their accent, and many express a desire to sound more like a native speaker. Their concerns are not unfounded, because some listeners do indeed judge “foreign accents” negatively even when those accents are perfectly intelligible (Derwing, 2013 cited in
Kissling, 2015). There is no simple answer to why pronunciation is so difficult to learn but what is generally accepted among psycholinguists and phonologists, is that the difficulty of learning to pronounce a foreign language is cognitive rather than physical (Gilajkiani &
Ahmadi, 2011).
Evidence for the critical period hypothesis suggested that native-language pronunciation was an unrealistic goal for second language learners, particularly older learners; this does not only affect pronunciation but also other language systems (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). The difference and distance among L1 and L2 also increases the difficulty of pronunciation, for example Spanish Speakers can get fluency and better pronunciation in romance languages like
Portuguese, Catalan or Italian but encounter more difficulties in Russian, Japanese, Chinese,
Arabic and other languages which are very different from Spanish.
As Gilakjani & Ahmadi (2011) describe, intelligibility rather than the native-like competence valued in traditional approaches became the goal of phonological instruction.
Intelligible pronunciation can be achieved through combination of instruction, exposure, experience and motivation (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). Hence, phonetic transcriptions can Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 23 play an important role in teaching pronunciation, even though some authors claim that pronunciation teaching has been a neglected field in language teaching and has tended to be
“sidelined” (Tudor, 2001; Lightbown & Spada, 2006; Kissling; 2015; Gilakjiani & Ahmadi,
2011).
Pronunciation was a central component in language teaching during the audio-lingual era.
When communicative language teaching was first introduced in the late l970s, little attention was given to the teaching of pronunciation. When attention to pronunciation was given, the focus was on supra-segmentals (rhythm, stress, intonation) areas considered more likely to affect communication rather than segmentals (distinction between single sounds e.g. /i:/ and
/I/) (Lightbown & Spada, 2006); learners who were instructed in supra-segmental aspects were judged to sound more intelligible than those who were instructed in segmentals
(Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). Teaching speech from the perspective of supra-segmentals seems indispensable within the communicative approach to teaching ESL.
One of the first authors who inquired about learners‟ beliefs regarding pronunciation was
Horwitz, (1987). He created the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) which was a Likert-scale survey and its objective to assess student opinions on a variety of issues and controversies related to language learning; learners had to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement. The 34 Likert-scale items have both research and training purposes (Wenden & Rubin, 1987). Beliefs about pronunciation were elicited in statements of
“It is important to speak the language with an excellent accent” and “I should not say anything in the foreign language until I can say it correctly”. Horwitz‟s results indicated that
90% of the students agreed that “it is important to speak English with an excellent pronunciation”, and 44% stated that they felt “timid” when speaking English with other people. This group of students therefore felt positively about speaking English, but their Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 24 shyness and over-concern with accent will probably inhibit their communication attempts
(Wenden & Rubin, 1987).
Bernat & Gvozdenko (2005) classify the approach used by Horwitz as the normative approach. They state that Horwitz‟s questionnaire has been used in many studies due to its popularity and its results indicated that learners‟ beliefs about language learning are context- specific. Vibulphol (2004) reported studies about how learners who are concerned about correctness in their performance in pronunciation and language learning in general may present experiences of anxiety. Reported beliefs about correct pronunciation and immediate correction by pre-service teachers showed concerns about the correctness of pronunciation and sentence structures when conducting conversational activities (Vibuphol, 2004). Most of them always monitored their students‟ language production and gave immediate correction.
This evidence confirms their reported beliefs about speaking practice that attends to form.
In brief, some researchers attempted to claim that some beliefs about learning and communication strategies may undermine learners‟ success in second or foreign language learning by misleading the learners‟ expectations on their own language learning, inhibiting their attempts, raising their anxiety, limiting their perceptions about new approaches to language learning, and reducing their use of the target language. However, little empirical evidence has been provided to support these claims (Vibuphol, 2004).
Concluding, the teaching of pronunciation has also been influenced by the views and beliefs about why and how pronunciation should be taught in the EFL/ESL. Despite the advantages that printed materials might offer, they are still limited in some ways. The technological advances in the sciences of phonetics and phonology opened a new path of options for teaching pronunciation. The previous research studies show evidence of the benefits of technology not only in phonetic instruction but language teaching in general. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 25
Chapter 3
Research Design
This chapter presents my research questions, research objectives, type of study, description of the context and participants, role of the researcher, techniques and instruments for data collection and type of data. I will also explain the criteria to select the participants, some ethical considerations as well as the validity and reliability of data.
Research question
What is the role of segmental aspects of pronunciation when students learn English?
Sub Questions
What is the importance of technology in the process of learning pronunciation?
What are students‟ favorite resources to learn pronunciation?
How do learners improve their knowledge about the International Phonetic Alphabet?
Research Objectives
To identify, describe and explain the learning strategies that students use to understand
English phonetic symbols.
Specific Objectives
To Identify students‟ current knowledge about the IPA
To understand the nature of mistakes students make when they pronounce English.
To describe and explain the interpretations that students give to phonetic symbols.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 26
Type of study
This study follows a mixed research paradigm because combining quantitative and qualitative paradigms offers complementary strengths and its potential gives a broader scope to analyze from different angles the impact of a pedagogical implementation (Johnson &
Christensen, 2004; Flick, 2004). Each paradigm has its own advantages, for example typical objectives of qualitative research are exploration and description; typical objectives of quantitative research are explanation, prediction and description. The combination of these paradigms also offers different types of data, numerical and standardized data can be complemented by words and narratives.
The approach chosen is Mixed Method Research which consists of using the qualitative paradigm for one phase of a study and the quantitative paradigm for a different phase of the study (Johnson & Christensen, 2004). The following chart describes the main features of each paradigm:
Quantitative research Mixed research Qualitative research Scientific Deductive or “top-down” Deductive and Inductive or “bottom- method The researcher test inductive up” The researcher hypotheses and theory generates new with data hypotheses and grounded theory from collected data during fieldwork. View of Behavior is regular and Behavior is Behavior is fluid, human predictable somewhat dynamic, situational, behavior predictable social, contextual, and personal Most common Description, explanation, Multiple objectives Description, research and prediction exploration, and objectives discovery Focus Narrow-angle lens, Multilens focus Wide, angle and “deep- testing specific angle” lens, examining hypotheses the breadth and depth of phenomena to learn more about them Nature of Attempt to study Study behavior in Study behavior in observation behavior under more than one natural environment. controlled conditions context or condition Study the context in Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 27
which behavior occurs Nature of Objective (different Commonsense Subjective, personal, reality observers agree on what realism and and socially constructed is observed) pragmatic view of the world (what works is what is “real” or true) Form of data Collect quantitative data Multiple forms Collect qualitative data collected based on precise (e.g. in-depth measurement using interviews, participant structured and validated observation, field notes, data collection and open-ended instruments (e.g. closed- questions. The ended items, rating researcher is the scales, behavioral primary data collection responses) instrument Nature of data Variables Mixture of variables, Words, images, words, and images categories Data analysis Identify statistical Quantitative and Search for patterns, relationships qualitative themes and holistic features Results Generalizable findings Corroborated Particularistic findings. findings may Representation of generalize insider (emic viewpoint) present multiple perspectives Form of final Statistical report (e.g. Eclectic and Narrative report with report with correlations, pragmatic contextual description comparisons of means, and direct quotations and reporting of from research statistical significance of participants findings Johnson & Christensen (2004) Educational research third edition.
Having into account the previous definition, the data in this study will be analyzed in this way:
Students‟ exercises (artifacts): Quantitative
Students‟ recordings: Quantitative
Survey: Quantitative and qualitative
Students‟ journal: Qualitative Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 28
Setting and participants
The participants were 3 groups of students from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de
Caldas located in Bogotá, Colombia; these students are enrolled in a bachelor degree for teaching English as a foreign language (Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en
Inglés - LEBEI). Their average ages are 16 to 24 years old. They have class with their regular professors; hence my role as a researcher was as student practitioner. Three professors gave me their permission to do a fast pedagogical intervention. One group is composed of first semester students who take around 10 hours per week of instruction in English language. This group has not been introduced to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet yet because they are supposed to study this topic in second semester in which they will take the subject
“Phonetics and phonology”. In other words they are taking regular English lessons.
The other two groups are composed of second semester students who were taking the subject “phonetics and phonology”; at the moment of this pedagogical intervention, they were almost finishing this course and both professors were also teaching the International Phonetic
Alphabet with similar exercises and materials used like in pedagogical intervention. The purpose of selecting students from different groups was to compare the results among the different groups, and have a significant sample. Therefore, the groups were named in the following way:
Group A: Second semester (Phonetics and phonology)
First group -17 participants
Group B: Second semester (Phonetics and phonology)
Second group – 19 participants
Group C: First semester (Basic English I). – 17 participants Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 29
Data collection instruments and techniques
Survey: This survey (annex C) is composed by two elements: the first part is a YES/NO questionnaire whose objective is to save time and will be counted in quantitative way. The second part is open and let me obtain a free and personal response form the participants; this part will be analyzed qualitatively. This survey is categorized as a non-observational technique (Burns, 2009); this type of data has to do with what people think, perceive, believe and how they explain their personal histories, experiences, and actions. Non-observational techniques or “introspective” data involves respondents reporting on themselves, their views, their beliefs and so on.
Exercises (Students’ artifacts): There are two exercises; one consists of transcribing two lists of words (annexes D and E) into IPA using any available resource (printed dictionary, internet, or mobile phone application). The other exercise consists of classifying a group of consonant phonetic symbols into the listed categories (annex F). This data will be analyzed quantitatively.
Recordings: I will record the students‟ voices to check the level of understanding between what they transcribe and what they pronounce. This will be analyzed in a quantitative way using some conventions that will be explained in more detail in the chapter “Data Analysis”.
Audio or video recordings provide objective records of what occurred which can be re- examined (Freeman, 1998).
Students’ journal: The last instrument will be students‟ journal (annex B), which will elicit information about how students perceive their own learning. Freeman (1998) define journals as dated accounts of teaching/learning plans, activities and classroom occurrences, including personal philosophies, feelings, reactions, reflections, observations, explanations.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 30
Freeman (1998) differentiates between first and second order data collection techniques. Second order techniques takes data from students to explore mainly their thoughts, for that reason I decided to use second order questions in the second part of the survey and the journal. This is also called emic perspective and refers to what insiders know.
Flick (2004) describes four ways of integrating quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. This study will follow the fourth way which coincides with Mixed Method Research
Approach (Johnson & Christensen, 2004). It means that the first survey applied will be complemented by the results found in the quantitative experiment and the students‟ journal.
Role of the researcher
In this pedagogical intervention, I was a student practitioner because the participants were students in a Bachelor Degree for teaching English at Distrital University. They had their regular professors teaching the assigned subjects. My tutoring professor suggested me to apply this pedagogical intervention in my own university instead of a secondary school. These students already come to the classroom with previous knowledge, ideas and beliefs about the topics studied. That is why I was more testing students‟ knowledge based on what they already knew and learnt in their lessons with a researchable purpose. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 31
Validity and reliability
Merriam (1998) discusses some strategies to ensure internal validity, external validity and reliability. The first aspect deals with the question of how findings match reality, how congruent are the findings with reality ad if findings capture what is really there. This can be addressed through triangulation. Triangulation is the process of using multiple methods, data collection strategies, and data sources to obtain a more complete picture of what is being studied and to cross-check information (Gay, Mills, Airasian, 2009). I will use data triangulation using four different instruments to collect data: a survey, students‟ artifacts, recordings and a journal. This is one of the reasons I decided to choose different groups.
Reliability refers to the extent to which research findings can be replicated (Merriam,
1998). Reliability is problematic in the social sciences simply because human behavior is never static. This study has both qualitative and qualitative data. If I applied the same instruments with other populations, some results would be similar and other different. In
Rajab‟s study (2013), he found that his students showed a pattern of mistakes because all they spoke Arabic as their native language. The same can be said about Spanish Speakers, some pronunciation mistakes can be predictable and other cannot because the words selected vary among studies and students have different proficiency. In this context all students speak
Spanish as their native language, and they had just started their career. However the views and perceptions about the lessons are context-dependent and results may vary, it is difficult to determine which factors the students consider important to establish their criteria about their lessons.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 32
Ethics and consent form
In order to preserve the rights of participants, ethical aspects must be considered. Burns
(2009) lists the following guidelines to have into account when considering ethical issues:
Whose permission do I need for my research?
Who will be affected by my research?
Who should be told about my research when it is completed?
Having into account these aspects, the following strategies will be carried out:
1. Having a consent form to ask for voluntary participation, the participants have the
right of withdrawing whenever they want give up research.
2. Telling the participants how their information and confidentiality will be reserved and
who will have access to that information.
3. Not revealing names of the participants or the professors, the participants will be
labeled as A1, A2, A3, A4 and professors as X, Y and Z.
4. Showing the participants a summary of the findings found when the research has
concluded.
All those elements will be addressed in the consent form (appendix H) in which the
students must agree with participating in the study. The professors gave me their oral
permission. Burns (2009) suggests that if learners still do not have the language
proficiency level to understand the consent form, it should be translated into their mother
tongue.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 33
Chapter 4
Instructional Design
This chapter presents the theories and visions about learning, language, classroom and the role of materials in this pedagogical intervention. The section of methodology explains what resources are going to be used and what methodologies are going to be applied during the lessons. The last sections: vision of curriculum and curriculum platform will explain the criteria in which the lessons are going to be sequenced.
Vision of Language
Tudor (2001) describes language as a complex phenomenon and can be seen as a linguistic system, a means of achieving functional goals, self-expression and a bearer of cultural values and of one or more ideologies. This pedagogical proposal will take into account only one of those visions: “language as linguistic system”. The components of the language system are grammar, vocabulary, phonology, discourse, style and appropriacy. Tudor (2001) argues that phonology - which includes the articulation of individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress, and aspects of intonation – has tended to be “sidelined”. Clear explanation of pronunciation and intonation can call for the use of phonetic transcription or a more or less complex metalanguage which can add to the total learning load of students. Nevertheless, the ability to understand the spoken language and to produce a comprehensible version of the language that is being learned are certainly very important aspects of “knowing a language and cannot be ignored (Tudor, 2001).
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 34
Vision of learning
This pedagogical intervention will have into account habit formation as the vision that will guide the methodology. Habit formation or developing automaticity if often related to behavioral psychology, which refers to the immediately perceptible aspects of linguistic behavior -the publicly observable responses- and the world surrounding them (Brown, 1980).
A behaviorist might consider effective language behavior to be the production of correct responses to stimuli. If a particular response is reinforced, it then becomes habitual, or conditioned.
A language teaching approach based on habit formation is audio-lingualism. Audio- lingualism has been often criticized because it has a particular emphasis on repetition and drilling which were perceived as ardous and stressful (Tudor, 2001). The main critics about audio-lingualism are that it focuses on accuracy leaving behind fluency and leaners find it difficult to produce authentic language. This does not, however mean, that the idea of automatisation or habit formation should be thrown out (Brown, 1980). You must have into account that this pedagogical intervention is not composed of regular English lessons, but tasks specifically focused on improving pronunciation.
Vision of curriculum
Although Henderson & Hawthorne (2000) state that curriculum has many definitions, I will take the most accurate definition for this study: a curriculum is a course of study, it means a plan for a pedagogical journey toward the good life or students‟ actual classroom engagements with ideas and ways of knowing. In other words, it refers to distinctive subject matter content or ways of knowing (Henderson & Hawthorne, 2000). Instructional objectives, arranged in an assumed hierarchy of tasks, are the keystone of the system, and lesson materials are built around that arrangement. The objectives are the intended outcomes of Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 35 instruction. Lesson materials are matched with the objectives and allow the pupil to proceed independently with a minimum of teacher direction. Having into account the previous vision of curriculum, I will follow the next guidelines:
1. Perceived purpose and advanced organizer. Learners are explained why it is important
to learn a certain objective or at least are given a clear explanation of what they are to
learn.
2. Appropriate practice. Learners have opportunities to practice both the prerequisite
skills not already attained and the behavior specified by the objective.
3. Knowledge of results. Pupils are given feedback indicating whether their responses are
adequate and are helped to make them more appropriate, if necessary.
Methodology
This pedagogical intervention will follow some principles of Phonics Based Instruction
(PBI). This approach aims at learning word recognition, it means, by using the grapheme- phoneme association method. A grapheme is the written letter (what you see on paper). A phoneme is the sound that the letter represents (what you hear). Learners are taught the vowels, consonants and blends. They are then taught to combine the sounds and blend them into words. In this way the learner can read unfamiliar words by using the association of speech sounds with certain letters or groups of letters (Goouch & Lambirth, 2008). This approach is somewhat related to audio-lingualism in the sense that students listen to a model of the target language and try to mimic this model as accurate as possible based on how it sounds, but the difference is that audio-lingualism focuses on helping learners respond to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement (Freeman, 2000). PBI only focuses on getting the students reproduce the target phonemes. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 36
Phonics based instruction is the way of teaching reading that stresses the acquisition of letter-sound correspondences and their use in reading and spelling. The primary focus of instruction is to help beginning readers understand how letters are linked to sounds
(phonemes) to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns and to help them learn how to apply this knowledge in their reading (Carvajal, Cuellar & Silva, 2012).
Role of the materials
Materials refer to anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of the language. Materials could be videos, CD ROMS, dictionaries, grammar books, workbooks or photocopied exercises (Tomlinson, 2011). Materials development refers to anything which is done by writers, teachers or learners to provide sources of language input and to exploit those sources in ways which maximize the likelihood of intake: in other words the supplying of information about experience of the language in ways designed to promote language learning. Tomlinson (2011) advices that what is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful. He lists the following criteria so as materials achieve impact:
a) Novelty (unusual topics, illustrations and activities).
b) Variety (breaking up the monotony of a unit routine with an unexpected activity).
c) Attractive presentation (use of attractive colors, lots of white space).
d) Appealing content (topics of interest to the target learners)
Curriculum Platform
Having into account the methodology and the role of materials in this pedagogical intervention, the following chart will describe how activities were carried out: Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 37
Activity Group Date Didactic Procedure Objective Materials
Survey A 21/04 The students will This instrument Annex C /2015 answer a survey. will search This survey is information about B 22/04 composed by two the most used /2015 items, the first will learners‟ be analyzed strategies and C 23/04 /2015 quantitatively and previous the second will be knowledge analyzed described in their quantitatively. own words
Drilling C 28/04 First semester Introduce the -Video beam /2015 students will be English phonetic vowels drilled in the 12 vowels to -Speakers English vowels students who still -Web page: using the PDF and a do not know the http://forvo.co web page displayed IPA. m/ in a videobeam so as students can -PDF: visualize the Sheep or ship phonemes, listen, and repeat.
Drilling C 30/04 First semester Introduce the -Video beam /2015 students will be English phonetic consonant drilled in the 12 consonants to -Speakers English consonants students who still -Web page: using the PDF and a do not know the http://forvo.co web page displayed IPA. m/ in a video beam so as students can -PDF: visualize the Sheep or ship phonemes, listen, and repeat
Transcribing C 05/05 The students will be Explore the tools Annex D /2015 given a worksheet in they use to look vowels which they will up the phonetic choose and use their transcription and favorite resource to the way the write write the phonetic the phonetic transcription transcription
Transcribing A 12/05 The students will be Explore the tools Annex E /2015 given a worksheet in they use to look Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 38 consonants C 14/05 which they will up the phonetic /2015 choose and use their transcription and favorite resource to the way the write write the phonetic the phonetic transcription transcription
Recording A 19/05 The students will Check learners‟ -Mobile phone /2015 pronounce the words pronunciation and recorder vowels they already their level of C 21/05 transcribed and I will understanding of -Annex D /2015 record them phonetic symbols
Recording A 26/05 The students will Check learners‟ -Mobile phone /2015 pronounce the words pronunciation and recorder consonants they already their level of C 28/05 transcribed and I will understanding of -Annex E /2015 record them phonetic symbols
Classification A 02/06 The students will be Asses what -Annex F /2015 given a worksheet in students learnt in of consonants which they will their “Phonetic -Web page: B 03/06 check their and phonology” http://soundsof /2015 knowledge about class about speech.uiowa. how to classify manners and edu/english/en English phonetic places of glish.html consonants. They articulation will do it without using internet. I will show the internet page used after the exercise to check their answers.
Journal A 04/06 The students will Explore learners‟ Annex B /2015 write their perceptions and reflections about the views about this lessons and the subject (phonetics knowledge acquired and phonology), in the subject its contents and “phonetics and activities. phonology”
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 39
These are the web pages and the book mentioned before in the curriculum platform. Forvo is a web page in which native speakers of each language can record their voices depending on their nationality and accent. Users can ask the web page for new words in case they are not in the data base yet. This web page includes a phonetic transcription in most words. I decided to use this web page with first semester and not second semester because these students has not studied the IPA yet and drilling seemed a good idea unlike second semester students who already received drilling and instruction on minimal pair in the class “phonetic and phonology”. This web page was combined with the projection of the PDF book “sheep or ship” (Baker, 2006) shown in the second picture.
The third picture shows the web page UIOWA – phonetics. This web page shows all the manner, places of articulation of vowels and consonants. I applied this web page with second semester students only because they already studied the places and manners of articulation in their phonetics and phonology class. I showed the page after the students completed the worksheet because I wanted to check what they learnt in their lessons. I also explained them that this would not affect their grades so as they would not cheat or worry about making mistakes. In this sense, this can assure more internal validity to my study. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 40
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 41
Evaluation criteria
In this section I will explain the criteria I used to analyze and assess students‟ exercises. As
I mentioned, I had to explain students that they were not going to a qualification that could
affect their grades in their subject since my purposes were only researchable. This made
them feel calm and answer without cheating or feeling stressed. They could also use this
pedagogical intervention as an assessment of what they learnt in class or already knew. In
the exercise of transcribing and pronouncing I used the following conventions:
Green: Well transcribed /well pronounced . In the case of vowels, I will not require
exact pronunciation of the phoneme but the most accurate. For example:
Cut /kʌt/= Perfect
Cut /kɑt/= Good
Cut /kʊt/= Wrong
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 42
Yellow: Well transcribed / wrong pronounced
Fuchsia: Wrong transcribed / well pronounced
Orange: Wrong transcribed / wrong pronounced
I will qualify as “wrong” those words which have a drastic change like additions, substitution or elimination of phonemes.
In the exercise of classifying consonants, I will use two colors: green if the phoneme is correctly classified and orange if the phoneme is classified wrong. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 43
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 44
Chapter 5
Data Analysis
In this chapter I give an account of the procedures I followed in order to organize and manage the collected data. I added my own interpretation, graphic organizers, an explanatory charts. Finally, I present how triangulation was applied to ensure validity to the study. The quantitative data will be presented first and then the qualitative data. I presented first the results of the survey, then the results of the exercises and finally the transcriptions of the journal.
Results survey The following graphics show statistically the answers that students gave in the survey.
Percentages were approximated only having into account the first figure after the point. Some items show a pattern but it is difficult to make generalizations since each student chooses his/her own learning strategies. These results should be taken only as a reference but not as an empiric proof to build a theory.
Item 1A: Look up in a printed dictionary
Group 17 Group 19 p. Group 17 p. Total 53 p. A participants B C
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
9 8 16 3 4 13 29 24 (52%) (47%) (84%) (16%) (24%) (76%) (54.7%) (45.2%)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 45
Group A Group B
52% 84% Yes 16% Yes 47% No No
Group C Total
24% Yes 55% Yes 45% 76% No No
In this first question, group C showed less preference for printed dictionaries than the other groups unlike group B which still have a considerable number of people who still use printed dictionaries. In general terms, preference for printed dictionaries are divided.
Item 1B: Look up in internet web pages
Group 17 p. Group B 19 p. Group 17 p. Total 53 p. A C
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
16 1 15 4 15 4 46 9 (94.1%) (5.8%) (78.9%) (26.3%) (88.2%) (23.5%) (86.7%) (16.9%)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 46
Group A Group B 6%
26% Yes Yes No No 79% 94%
Group C Total
23% 16% Yes Yes No No 88% 86%
Compared to the previous item, there is a high preference for using the internet among the three groups. People who answered “NO” might use internet as a resource but not necessarily as their first option. Anyway, most people agree that searching on the internet the words they can‟t pronounce is a good option.
Item 1C: Ask the English teacher
Group 17 p. Group B 19 p. Group 17 p. Total 53 p. A C
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
16 1 18 1 17 0 51 2 (94.1%) (5.8%) (94.75) (5.2%) (100%) (0%) (96.2%) (3.7%)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 47
Group A Group B 5% 6%
Yes Yes No No 94% 95%
Group C Total
0% 4%
Yes Yes No No 96% 100%
This result shows a positive tendency, the fact that they ask their teacher when they do not know the pronunciation of a word, shows confidence in the knowledge their teacher have.
Surprisingly, all first semesters trust their teacher and often ask her for help.
Item 1D: Ask a classmate
Group 17 p. Group 19 p. Group 17 p. Total 53 p. A B C
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No answer
13 4 14 4 12 5 39 13 1 (76.4%) (23.5%) (73.6) (21%) (71%) (29%) (73.5.2%) (24.5%) (1.8%)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 48
Group A Group B
5%
24% 21% Yes Yes No No 76% 73% No answer
Group C Total
2%
29% 24% Yes Yes No No 74% 71% No answer
These results, however, show a lesser confidence in their own partners than in their teachers, but most of them would even ask their partners just in case they know. If they do not know, they just use another resource. One person did not answer this item, but I never knew the reasons.
Item 1E: Guess its pronunciation
Group 17 p. Group B 19 p. Group 17 p. Total 53 p. A C
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No answer
7 10 13 4 14 3 34 17 2 (41.1%) (58.8%) (68.4%) (21%) (73.6%) (17.6%) (64.1%) (32%) (3.7%)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 49
Group A Group B
Yes 41% 21% Yes 68% No No 59% No answer 11%
Group C Total
Yes Yes 18% 32% 82% 64% No No No answer 4%
These graphics show a less clear pattern, since group A do not tend to guess the pronunciation of words; on the contrary groups B and C most people do not mind guessing the pronunciation and trusting in their decoding skills.
Results worksheet classification of sounds
The following charts show the results of the exercise which consisted in classifying consonants according to three categories (annex F): manner, place, and voice. Only groups A and B participated and they were not allowed to use any resource but they had to try to remember what they learnt in “Phonetics and phonology” class.
Classification of consonants according to manner: Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 50
Classification Symbol Correctly Correctly Total classified classified (36 participants) Group A Group B (17 participants) (19 participants)
Nasal /m/ 15 times 19 times 34 (94.4%)
Nasal /n/ 15 19 34 (94.4%)
Nasal /ŋ/ 14 19 33 (91.6%)
Fricative /f/ 15 15 30 (83%)
Fricative /θ/ 11 9 20 (55.5%)
Fricative /s/ 3 11 14 (38%)
Fricative /ʃ/ 3 9 12 (33.3%)
Fricative /h/ 8 1 9 (25%)
Fricative /v/ 10 13 23 (63.8%)
Fricative /ð/ 11 9 20 (55.5%)
Fricative /z/ 3 11 14 (38%)
Fricative /ʒ/ 1 7 8 (22.2%)
Glide /w/ 5 8 13 (36.1%)
Glide /j/ 2 3 5 (13.8%)
Affricate /tʃ/ 2 12 14 (38%)
Affricate /dʒ/ 4 9 13 (36.1%)
Liquid /l/ 11 16 27 (75%)
Liquid /r/ 10 13 23 (63.8%)
Stop /p/ 13 14 27 (75%)
Stop /t/ 12 12 24 (66.6%)
Stop /k/ 11 13 25 (64.4%)
Stop /b/ 11 12 23 (63.8%)
Stop /d/ 10 10 20 (55.5%)
Stop /g/ 11 10 21 (58.3%)
Classification of consonants according to place: Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 51
Classification Symbol Correctly Correctly Total classified classified Group A Group B
Glottal /h/ 2 9 11 (30.5%)
Bilabial /p/ 14 17 31 (86%)
Bilabial /p/ 14 19 33 (91.6%)
Bilabial /m/ 6 12 18 (50%)
Bilabial /w/ 0 1 1 (2.7%)
Lingua-Velar /k/ 4 13 17 (47.7%)
Lingua-Velar /g/ 3 14 17 (47.7%)
Lingua-Velar /ŋ/ 1 7 8 (22.2%)
Labio-Dental /f/ 7 16 23 (63.8%)
Labio-Dental /v/ 4 17 21 (58.3%)
Lingua-Palatal /ʃ/ 1 4 5 (13.8%)
Lingua-Palatal /ʒ/ 2 5 7 (19.4%)
Lingua-Palatal /r/ 2 2 4 (11.1%)
Lingua-Palatal /j/ 1 8 9 (25%)
Lingua-Dental /θ/ 9 9 18 (50%)
Lingua-Dental /ð/ 4 11 15 (41.6%)
Lingua-Alveolar /t/ 4 11 15 (41.6%)
Lingua-Alveolar /d/ 2 9 11 (30.5%)
Lingua-Alveolar /s/ 4 12 16 (44.4%)
Lingua-Alveolar /z/ 2 12 14 (38.8%)
Lingua-Alveolar /tʃ/ 0 1 1 (2.7%)
Lingua-Alveolar /dʒ/ 0 1 1 (2.7%)
Lingua-Alveolar /n/ 2 9 11 (30.5%)
Lingua-Alveolar /l/ 3 5 8 (2.22%)
Classification of consonants according to voice: Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 52
Classification Symbol Correctly Correctly Total classified classified Group A Group B
Voiced /b/ 8 12 20 (55.5%)
Voiced /g/ 9 17 26 (72.2%)
Voiced /v/ 7 14 21 (58.3%)
Voiced /z/ 12 17 29 (80.5%)
Voiced /dʒ/ 7 15 22 (61.1%)
Voiced /m/ 13 16 29 (80.5%)
Voiced /l/ 11 15 26 (72.2%)
Voiced /w/ 10 10 20 (55.5%)
Voiced /d/ 11 11 22 (61.1%)
Voiced /ð/ 9 15 24 (66.6%)
Voiced /ʒ/ 9 13 22 (61.1%)
Voiced /r/ 11 16 27 (75%)
Voiced /j/ 8 7 15 (41.6%)
Voiced /n/ 12 16 28 (77.7%)
Voiced /ŋ/ 11 14 25 (69.4%)
Voiceless /p/ 12 16 28 (77.7%)
Voiceless /t/ 13 16 29 (80.5%)
Voiceless /k/ 13 14 27 (75%)
Voiceless /f/ 8 17 25 (69.4%)
Voiceless /θ/ 12 14 26 (72.2%)
Voiceless /s/ 10 16 26 (72.2%)
Voiceless /ʃ/ 10 18 28 (77.7%)
Voiceless /h/ 12 15 27 (75%)
Voiceless /tʃ/ 9 10 19 (52.7%)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 53
In the first chart, the students classified the phonetic consonants according to manner. The most prominent percentages appeared when they classified /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ into the category
“nasals”. All students in group B were able to classify these phonemes correctly. One of the possible reasons for their success is that they can clearly feel these sounds in their nasal tract when they pronounce them. On the contrary, most of them were successful when they classified /h/ and /ʒ/ fricatives, /j/ and /w/ as glides. Fricative means a partial obstruction of air stream, but in these phonemes it is difficult to recognize how air is being obstructed. In the case of /j/ and /w/, the term “glide” may sound confusing, but refers to semi-consonants.
When classifying consonants according to their place, they were most successful with /p/ and /b/ as bilabials. You can feel your lips joining when these phonemes are pronounced, however this was not the case with /w/ which being bilabial might seem strange, but in fact we join slightly our lips when we pronounce it. /The students also failed when classifying /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ as lingua-alveolar since this term does not say too much about what part of our vocal tract should be used in order to articulate these sounds. The other results were average and some students did better than others. These terms might be confusing, that is why students did not as well as the previous chart because place is more difficult to identify; anyway I did not expect them to do it perfectly, these terms are actually confusing.
In the last chart, the results were more similar. These students understand that vibration is one important factor to determine if a consonant is voiced or unvoiced. In average 20 students answered right this point. Phoneme /j/ was the least perceived sound as “voiced”. Concluding,
I would say that students usually remember more the terminology that describes more accurately a concrete part of their vocal tract and is closely related to how they perceive a sound when they pronounce it. I would even find difficulties myself classifying these sounds and probably would have got similar results. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 54
Pronouncing and transcribing vowels
Vowels
Due to the fact that I had more time with first semester students than second semester students, I only was able to record the pronunciation of vowels with group C and I was only able to check with group B their pronunciation of consonants. I selected 28 words randomly
(annex D), some of them were contrastive and others not. Results may vary depending on what words are chosen, this could affect the transferability and generalization of the results into another study. The students were asked to write the resource they used to transcribe the words. The conventions are the same described in the evaluation criteria of the instructional design.
Participant Green Yellow Fuchsia Orange Resource used (well (Well (Wrong (Wrong transcribed / transcribed / transcribed / transcribed / well wrong well wrong pronounced) pronounced) pronounced) pronounced) C1 12 2 9 5 Phonetics.net
C2 14 10 2 2 Dictionary English offline (mobile app)
C3 3 0 21 4 I didn‟t use anything, just how I thought it was
C4 17 4 3 4 I searched in google: phonetic transcription
C5 16 3 4 5 Dictionary English offline (mobile app)
C6 23 3 1 1 www.upodn.com/
C7 22 2 4 0 Phoneticchart.com
C8 22 2 1 3 www.upodn.com/
C9 23 4 0 1 www.upodn.com/
C10 27 1 0 0 www.upodn.com/ Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 55
C11 25 2 1 0 Thefreedictionary.com
C12 22 0 3 3 Dictionary English offline (mobile app)
C13 27 0 1 0 Thefreedictionary.com wiktionary.com
C14 25 1 2 0 Wiktionary.com
C15 24 1 2 1 Dictionary English offline (mobile app)
C16 17 0 10 1 Phonetics.net
The codification of is data may be subjective because I will base my own criteria of what it acceptably pronounced or wrong pronounced. I considered “wrong pronounced” those words which had a drastic change in their target phoneme. The words that represented most difficulties were: Bird, fur, cut, camera and cheek. Bird was usually pronounced as /bi:(r)d/ and /be(r)d/ but not as /bɜː(r)d. Fur was usually pronounced /fʊ(r)/ or /fe(r)/ instead of /fɜː(r)/.
Camera was often pronounced /‟keimerə/ or /kəmara/. Cheek was sometimes pronounced as
/tʃi:k/. My criteria for transcriptions was that students wrote the correct IPA symbols and no other kind of symbols (figurative pronunciation), however participant C3 decided not to use any resource. Of course he was the students who had most mistakes transcribing. There are cases in which a word can be wrong transcribed but well pronounced; it is because the word selected was not difficult to pronounce. Here are some examples:
Wrong transcribed
Well transcribed
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 56
Wrong transcribed
Well transcribed
A particular thing about the web page www.upodn.com/ was that it changed slightly some symbols, but I still considered correct the transcription because it used authentic IPA symbols.
Dictionary English offline UPODN
Consonants
In this exercise I recorded the voices of 7 participants or group A and 10 participants of group C who accepted to be recorded. I also selected few participants from group A due to time issues. There was a little change of plans, so Group A transcribed the words using their favorite resource then they pronounce. In Group C instead, I gave the students words with the phonetic transcription included and they had to record these words twice. These are the results:
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 57
Participant Green Yellow Fuchsia Orange Resource used (well (Well (Wrong (Wrong transcribed / transcribed / transcribed / well transcribed / well wrong pronounced) wrong pronounced) pronounced) pronounced) A14 25 9 1 6 Phonetics.net
A19 26 15 0 0 Wordreference (mobile app)
A20 29 10 1 1 Wordreference
A5 25 8 1 7 Wordreference
A7 13 13 3 12 Wordreference
A1 15 0 15 11 My own knowledge
A3 18 23 0 0 -Wordreference -Tophonetics
Participant Duration recording #1 Duration recording #2 Sex C1 01:00 00:49 Female
C2 1:47 00:57 Male
C3 00:58 00:55 Male
C4 00:56 01:03 Female
C5 00:47 01:55 Male
C6 00:40 00:48 Female
C7 00:55 01:14 Male
C8 01:09 01:27 Female
C9 00:43 01:32 Male
C10 01:10 01:37 Female
In group A there was also a student who decided to transcribe the words using his own knowledge. Again, this student was the least successful transcribing words. It means that Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 58 second semesters still made mistakes either transcribing or pronouncing. The most common mistakes in both groups were found in the following words:
-Determine /dɪˈtɝmɪn/ was often pronounced as /ˈdetɝmɑɪn/, /dɪtɝˈmɑɪn/
-Throughout /θɹuːˈaʊt/ pronounced as /truːˈgaʊt/ /troʊˈaʊt/, /θɹɔːˈgaʊt/
-Though /ðəʊ/ as /θəʊ/, /təʊf/, /θəʊg/
-Retired /ɹɪˈtʌɪəd/ as /ɹeti:ɹeɪt/, /ɹɪˈtʌɪred/
-Island /ˈaɪ lənd/ as /ˈaɪ slənd/
-Television /ˈtɛləˌvɪʒən/ as /tɛləˈvɪtʃən/, /teleˈvɪʃɔːn/
-Mountain /ˈmaʊntɪn/ as /ˈmaʊnteɪn/, /ˈmoʊntaɪn/
-Impatient /ɪɪmˈpeɪʃənt/ as /ˈɪɪmpeʃənt/, /ˈɪɪmpaʃɪent/
-Equipment /ɪˈkwɪpmənt/ as /ˈekɪpmənt/, /eˈkwaɪpmənt/
-Breathing /ˈbɹiːðɪŋ/ as /ˈbɹeːθɪŋ/, /ˈbɹiːθɪŋ/, /ˈbɹeːdɪŋ/
There were other mistakes but the previous mentioned were the most frequent. The first mistake “detemine” pronounced as /ˈdetɝmɑɪn/ proves what Gilajkiani and Ahmadi (2011) claimed; difficulties in pronunciation are cognitive rather than physical. This word is not difficult to pronounce but student pronounce it wrong because they get used to patterns in other words such as “mine”, “lime”, “vine” and this makes them confuse its pronunciation.
There were also mistakes regarding stress, one aspect of supra-segmentals (/ˈtɛləˌvɪʒən/ →
/teleˈvɪʃɔːn/). Mistakes were also found in first semesters as well as second semesters, which means that students benefit from phonetic instruction in long term based on their language proficiency and not after the phonetic instruction was applied. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 59
Qualitative data
1- Resources most used by students:
This data will be analyzed quantitatively. I reported the exact words used by students without making any corrections and highlighting the key words and relevant text. I will use the strategies described by Strauss & Corbin (1990) to code my qualitative data. They define open coding as the process of breaking down data, examining, conceptualizing and putting it together in new ways. The strategies followed will be: naming, labeling phenomena, revising connections, provide explanations, and group codes into categories. Shagoury & Miller,
(2012) recommend using visual markers and developing a list, tally commonalities, describe trends and curiosities that may develop from data.
B1: I look in Chicago dictionary. C1: Sometimes traductor in google or other B2: Google translate, Larousse, any kind of the same pages. dictionary. C2: I use “bing translate” or “google B3: Larousse, translate google any translate” dictionary. C3: I search in google translate but just for B8: Cambridge dictionary and web pages. words never for sentences. B12: Translate google and wordreference. C4: Google translator, wordreference. B4: I use in internet the web page google, C5: I don‟t remember the page because I youtube and any dictionary. don‟t have a page fixed. B7: The university of Chicago dictionary, C7: Wordreference, Oxford dictionary google translate, wordreference. online). B17: Cambridge, Oxford, different web C8: Chicago dictionary, translators. www.politraductor.com, google translate, B9: Traductor de google, wordreference, youtube videos, smartphone programs. Cambridge dictionary (pocket). C9: I listen the words in google translator. B18: Cambridge, wordreference, norma C12: Larousse dictionary, google translator. dictionary (bilingüe plus). C16: Google translator. B6: I use a norma bilingual pocket dictionary C11: I use google translate just for look up and on web pages. I use Cambridge traductor for unknown words, not for sentences. Also, and sometimes google traductor. I use freedictionary.com. B16: Cambridge dictionary, wordreference. C13: I utilice normally google translate for B10: Wordreference, google translate, any single words „cause it pronunciation system dictionary. is very acerted. B11: I use the Cambridge dictionary or my C10: I use the google translater to get the own printed dictionary, I use google but only pronunciation of an English word. for words because the translation is so bad C14: I use google translate the most of time. and no more, that‟s all. C17: Dictionary: is good Larousse, B13: Larousse, Chicago, wordreference, latinoamerican. Internet: traductor, youtube, Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 60 traductor google. etc. B14: A dictionary with American phonetic transcription in translate pages that offer the option of listening. B15: I use the Cambridge and Chicago dictionary, I use traductor google because here I can listen the “native” sound of a word. I try to search the word‟s transcription. B19: Traductor google, wordreference and special cellphone‟s apps.
The previous data can be triangulated with the survey about leaners‟ strategies. I forgot to ask group A this question, but with groups B and C will be enough. Here, students show evidence that they use any dictionary available but they always have a preference for a brand of printed dictionary or web page. Some of them also download applications for their mobile phones in case they do not have internet. Tophonetics and English dictionary offline are examples of these applications. Some of these students also prefer listening to the pronunciation of words instead of reading the phonetic transcription. Google translate is a well-known page which plays the sound of words and even sentences but does not include a phonetic transcription.
Participant B11 thinks that google translate may make mistakes, and he is right, translators are not perfect because they do not always have the context of the sentence.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 61
2-A. Definitions and perceptions about the International Phonetic Alphabet: A1: It‟s the system used in almost all languages that have similar pronunciation and vocals/consonants. A2: I know that it‟s an alphabet of sounds that can be used in all languages and it is very useful to learn English pronunciation. A16: Is the way that exist for know the correct pronunciation of the words in anyone language. A17: Basically it works to know the correctly pronunciation of words and it‟s used for every language. A14: It is the instrument for everybody that want to have a good pronunciation in another language. A4: It‟s like a kind of tool who allows you to learn pronunciation in a good way. A13: The types of pronunciations (diferent pronunciation) of each phoneme. A9: Is more or less the rules of the pronunciation of the word. A12: Just I know that is the International Phonetic Alphabet and is used to maintain the same pronunciation on all the world. A7: I just know some uses about it, that the teacher has gave to us in class. Something related with the vowels, consonants and diptongs, the way to write them, and how to pronounce the according the context and the words. A11: I know some spellings, the diphthongs, the vowels and some consonants. A3: Is a rules‟ group that generalizes the international use of the letters and the equivalence in each or several languages. A15: It‟s the standard for sounds in English. Every sounds in English are there. A6: I think it‟s the group of all vowels‟ consonants and dypthongs that we can use as a lead for learning and for improving our English. A5: I only know what is but in Spanish. A10: It has to see with the rules we use to transcribe, but I don‟t know anything else. A8: The IPA is a norm which we can find every kind of phonem which are used in some language and this alphabet classify those phonemes in voice, voiceless manner and place.
B1: Is the system of phonetic based primarily on the latin alphabet. B17: Is the system used to identify the correct pronunciation of words, and the characteristics of vowels and consonants. B9: Is an international system that describe the correct pronunciation of the letters and their symbols. B6: It‟s a compilation about all of the phonemes of the different languages and show where is the place of articulation and mode artic. B10: The major part of singns and pronunciation. B11: The IPA is the symbols that we use to know the way to pronounce a word in different language. B13: I know that is an alphabet that it use for the pronunciation of the words in all languages. B12: It is an alphabet created to join all sounds of languages and represent them by symbols. B4: This is a alphabet that can use to form any word in the world. B15: The IPA is a standar sound is transcription that someone can understand even if this person talk chinesse, French Italian, etc. B8: The sounds and the use. B14: It‟s a useful way to learn a language and the correct speak, it help us to communicate us in a language with no born language person so it‟s easier. B16: It‟s an usual and good tool for the language. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 62
B18: I know some of the letters pronunciation so it‟s very useful for speaking English and other lenguages. B3: Yes, a little. B2: Yes, a bit. B7: I don‟t know about IPA. B19: No, I don‟t.
C9: I think IPA are the phonetic rules of a language and the way how you pronounce it. C11: I know that IPA has rules for correctly pronunciation or vowels, consonants and more. C12: Is the way to produce sounds in English in the right form. C13: The IPA shows the sound of the consonants and vowels in any language. C14: I think the IPA is the Alphabet with the phonemes necessary to speak English. C7: We studied it at linguistics class but only the phonemes used in Spanish. I studied some of the phonemes used in English when I was applying to a job in a call-center and at an English institute, where I studied. C6: I believe the IPA is the way which we speak correctly. C15: I have no idea about the international phonetic alphabet. C1: I don‟t know nothing. C10: I don‟t know anything about the IPA. C2: I don‟t know nothing about the international phonetic alphabet, C5: I don‟t have idea about the international phonetic alphabet. C4: I don‟t know anything about the international phonetic alphabet. C17: I have no idea. C8: I don‟t know. C16: Nothing. C3: Nothing.
In this data, all second semester students already have a definition of the IPA, they often relate it to “correct pronunciation” and consider it a tool and a system. In group C, half of them answered that they did not know the IPA, the reason is because they have not started the subject “phonetics and phonology” yet; however half of them already had an idea of it. They know it is composed by rules for pronouncing vowels and consonants.
2-B. Previous experiences with IPA at secondary school: A7: Never, at the school the B15: No, never. I just knew C15: No, for this reason I teacher just explained us the the IPA when I started my don‟t know about it. way to write something, but career here at university. C10: No, I didn‟t . I never the lessons were not in B14: No, the secondary have seen anything about it. practice. This is one of the school was very basic and C9: I have never used in a biggest problems at school. yet in the last year the topics formal way. A2: No, I didn‟t use it weren‟t advanced. C1: I don‟t know if I used because my secondary school B12: No, I never used IPA in that in any time. teacher never taught me my English lesson at C2: No, on my English Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 63 about it. secondary school, I haven‟t lessons I never used the IPA. A10: In school? No, I didn‟t knew it before to study at the C5: No, I don‟t use the IPA. use them. university. C3: I don‟t know because I A8: No, I didn‟t, I knew the B11: No, my school teachers don‟t know what is the IPA. IPA at the university. didn‟t teach us the IPA and I C8: No, I didn‟t. A12: Actually no, never think it‟s very important. If C6: No, I didn‟t. learned the IPA until the you don‟t know how to C13: No, I didn‟t. university. pronounce a word you don‟t C7: No, we did not. A15: No, I didn‟t. I heard know that word. C17: No, I didn‟t about it at the university. B6: When I was at secondary C4: No, I didn‟t. A11: No, we just asked the school I didn‟t know about C11: Not at all. teacher how to say IPA so I didn‟t use it. C14: No, I don‟t. something. B16: No, my teachers never C16: No. A14: No, I didn‟t. I repeated teached me the IPA. C12: Yes I did, with the that the teacher said me. B2: No, I don‟t used than in letter s and u. A13: No, I‟ve just repeat the school. word according to the B18: No, they never taught pronunciation. me that. A5: Never, in the school it B3: No, I don‟t believe. was not important because B17: No, I never did. the level is high. B19: No, I didn‟t. A17: I never used the IPA at B9: No, I didn‟t. school. B10: No, I didn‟t. A3: No, never. B13: No A4: Never. B1: No A16: No, never. B4: Yes, because so I know A9: I don‟t know all today. as pronounce, when I have a A1: Yes, but we didn‟t work dude. on it too much so the theme was practically incomplete. A6: I have a dictionary on my phone which can allow listening and reading of the words using the IPA.
This is the most surprising set of data and most interesting in my point of view, because three groups had negative views about what they learnt at school. The vast majority considered that this topic was never studied before entering the university and when it was, it was incomplete.
What is more, some students agree that this topic is important. In my personal case, I was not taught this topic in six years on English instruction during my secondary school. I had the same story than my participants, I only knew the IPA when I started my career but had a fainted idea about phonetic transcriptions because I used a printed dictionary at that time. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 64
Students’ journal Perceptions and views about the materials used in phonetics and phonology class.
A19: I think the materials helped me to have a better pronunciation and knew more words or vocabulary. The materials used in class are modern and useful so you can learn the modern English. A7: It helps so much to learn about the correct way to pronunciate and in this way we can improve our level in speaking. And also the activities make us practice so much. Also to repeat the way to say the words is a good method to do it. A6: There were good material which helped me to improve my knowledge about phonetic. For example now I can recognize the IPA symbols and also use them for transcribing words. I think this is a important tool for my future just because it will help to know the right pronunciation of any word. A22: The material used in phonetics class was useful because I could learn phonetic transcription, some new words and remember other are with their respective pronunciation. A16: I think that the electronic materials are the best at time to improve the skills: writing, reading, listening and speaking, because we can be in contact with people that have the English like mother language, and know the really pronunciation and manners that have the other countries. Too, with the application “sounds” was easier know and learn the IPA. A9: The materials are a good instrument for the class with that instruments I can practice in another places. A1: It helped me to identify more things and sounds and to get more vocabulary and fluency, although I already knew the phonemes it was good to see them again and learn some words on which I had doubts about their pronunciation. A18: Good materials and the technology helps to play the sounds high. A20: The materials in the lessons were photocopies and application for the cellphone. The practice with these materials is very modern and it lets me to got knowledge more easily. A21: We learned how to use the IPA correctly and we used to memorize a lot of words in phonetic transcription. A13: It helped me to memorize the phonetics of a lot of words. A10: The materials are not perfect but they helped me to mechanize the transcription process. A5: I think that the materials are dinamics and this help for the pronunciation, I think that we learn better about the differents ways for speak most better. A3: I think that the materials is suitable and a way to know the IPA, further the teacher indicated some applications that are helpful to develop knowledge and practice. A15: We used some papers and books from England. But they weren‟t so good. Moreover, simbols weren‟t so clear, so I don‟t know if they used IPA.
Perceptions and views about the activities done in phonetics and phonology class.
A12: This activities just generate the memory, but don‟t improve the capacity to create or understand the topic. A13: With the repetition and using mechanism was good learn, the IPA is not difficult for , I understand fast and I liked, so I learnt motivated. A20: The activities in the lessons were transcription from many words and to repeat the words with my voice. A21: A good exercise to learn something is repeating, we repeated a lot the whole sounds of the IPA. Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 65
A18: Is more or less to learn and memorize the sounds of the English. A6: At first I didn‟t even know that there were some specific symbols for representing words in phonetic. Now I know that the IPA is a well-known way for learning the pronunciation of the words. This is something that many people who‟s learning English don‟t know. A22: We focused only on transcription in workshops, it helped me only with pronunciation. A19: The activities like the transcription got better my pronunciation and understanding of the language. A5: The activities are very important because in this type the class have to do very dynamics and the teacher have good use the this activities. A10: Somehow in these lessons have helped me to improve my pronunciation by reading the word‟s phonetics. A9: The activities are good. I can practice a lot in class. But I would like to know more about some exceptions. A3: Specially I think that the practice is the most important to understand and learn to IPA‟s rules. A7: This activities develop our knowledge because it explains us exactly about consonants, vowels, the contrast between them, etc. A1: I already knew the IPA so it wasn‟t so hard for me to understand those things. A15: May recognizing different simbols, but they weren‟t clear, so I don‟t believe they really help me to understand IPA.
Perceptions and views about what students learnt in class.
A7: I learned about phonemes. I learned the correct way to talk. I learned the contrast between American and British pronunciation. A3: I did learn which do the phonetic transcription the correct pronunciation. A1: I learn more vocabulary and his correct pronunciation. A5: I learn a correct pronunciation. I learn the correct way to talk. I learn about the IPA. A18: The correct AFI. A16: I learn about the phonetics of the vowels, consonants, diphtongues and more. How to use and transcript correctly. About the phonology and the body of the human for the production of sounds. A6: I‟ve learned so much about the pronunciation and sounds in English too. And I think this is one of the important things that show how good we are at talking in English. A19: I learned a lot of things but the more importants are: more vocabulary, better pronunciation and more flow talking English. A21: How to use the IPA and understand the meaning of it. A12: From the memoristic strength, we learned to recognized some words and phrases. A10: In summary, I have learnt how to read the phonetics he showed us a useful list of connectors. A15: Not much, really. But at least, I can transcribe things that I couldn‟t. A9: I learned more differences between british English and American English and I learned to transcribe the words. A13: International Phonetic Alphabet. Poor pronunciation (confused with British and American pronunciation). A12: Again, only few pronunciation and some new words, I didn‟t like the way that the teacher imposed us sometimes the British English.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 66
These were written reflections by students in group A about the “phonetics and phonology” class, materials and activities. Unfortunately I could not apply this journal with groups B and C due to time issues. I did not want either to make students reflect about my intervention because it was short compared to the number of lessons thee had with their regular professors. That is why I decided that group A filled in a journal about their lessons. I must admit that the local professor did a good job because not only did he use printed materials but also interesting applications. These students in general have a positive view about the “phonetics and phonology” class. Most of them consider improvements in their pronunciation and contrasts between American and British English.
Some students had concerns about the methodology used by the professor. Memorization is a repeated idea in these reflections. The reason is that the local professor also used phonics based instruction as his main methodology as well as I did with group C. This methodology is often based on repetition, memorization, practice and feedback. Other students argue that symbols were not clear and it is true because understanding phonetic symbols may take more time than expected. Participant A12 says that the local professor imposed the British pronunciation. I think the main reason is because most dictionaries use the British variation as a standard when using broad transcriptions. Another reason is that the local professor lived many years in the United Kingdom and probably he felt more confident with the British pronunciation.
Categories. These sentences are the names chosen for the general categories found in my data:
1. Students‟ favorite learning strategies 2. Nature of students‟ mistakes 3. The role of phonetic instruction
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 67
Chapter 6
Conclusions
Students have positive views about the phonetic instruction they receive at university.
Students have negative views about the knowledge they acquired at school about the
International Phonetic Alphabet.
Students‟ mistakes in pronunciation can be predictable depending on their mother
tongue but mistakes can also be result of their language proficiency.
Terminology about manner, place and voice of articulation may sound confusing to
students and improvements in their pronunciation rely more on repetition and practice.
Students do not discard any resource which helps them improve their pronunciation or
solve any doubt, but they still have preferences for some particular printed materials
and technological resources.
Although focus on supra-segmentals is important for improving learners‟
pronunciation and intelligibility, the focus on segmentals must also be examined and
can play an important role.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 68
Limitations and further research
Time was one of the main limitations. I needed more time to explore more things and collect more relevant data. Each local professor only gave a limited amount of time to develop my activities and some plans did not turn out as planned. Another limitation was that not all students accepted to be recorded and my sample was less than expected. I could not check how students in group C transcribed consonants but it does not matter because they had not learnt the IPA yet. Fortunately, students could use internet to develop the tasks but my intervention was more like a surprise at the beginning since it was not announced in advanced.
For further research, I suggest exploring the supra-segmental aspects of pronunciation and using participants from different levels of proficiency and contexts. Some ideas I have in mind is to record them pronouncing complete paragraphs from a reading and record them speaking freely about a topic of interest. When I say other contexts, I refer to primary schools, secondary schools, institutes, autonomous learners and groups of students with different native languages.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 69
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Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 72
Annexes
Annex A
Consent form
Institución: Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. Bogotá, Colombia.
Consentimiento informado del proyecto de investigación
Título del proyecto: Aprendiendo el alfabeto internacional fonético a través de páginas web.
El estudiante investigador Andrés Felipe Galindo Cardona estudiante de la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas está conduciendo una investigación sobre el tema mencionado arriba. Si está de acuerdo en participar en esta investigación, se le pedirá que complete una serie de encuestas, grabaciones y ejercicios. Las grabaciones solo serán usadas por el estudiante investigador y no se rebelarán nombres de los participantes ni afectará las notas de la materia que esté cursando.
Su participación en esta investigación es voluntaria y puede retirarse en cualquier momento. Puede decidir si quiere que su voz sea grabada o no en uno de los ejercicios que se harán durante la intervención pedagógica. En caso de que no quiera participar en la investigación o en las actividades, no tendrá que explicar las razones ni tampoco tendrá consecuencias negativas. Antes de que el proyecto final esté preparado, se le enviará un resumen de los resultados preliminares de esta investigación y le podrá hacer comentarios sobre las descripciones e interpretaciones que crea incorrectas o poco precisas.
Cuando reporte la investigación, aseguraré de que no sea identificado. No se usarán referencias de nombres personales. Soy la única persona que tendrá acceso a los datos recolectados para el proyecto. Cualquier dato que use en reportes o publicaciones serás únicamente para ilustración. Si desea que le envíe una copia del reporte final, puede enviarme un correo electrónico a [email protected].
Consentimiento del participante:
Al participante se le ha dado una copia de este formato para que lo conserve.
Estoy de acuerdo en participar en esta investigación:
Firma del participante: ______Fecha: ______
Firma del profesor titular: ______
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 73
Annex B
Participant: ______Date: ______
Students’ journal
At the end of the lessons reflect on:
A. How do you think the materials used in these lessons helped you strengthen your knowledge about the International Phonetic Alphabet: ______
B. How do you think the activities in these lessons helped you strengthen your understanding of the International Phonetic Alphabet? ______
C. What do you think you learnt in these lessons? ______
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 74
Annex C
Name: ______Date: ______Survey
Item 1: Tick the answer If you do not know the pronunciation of an English word, you:
Yes No
A. Look up in a printed dictionary
B. Look up in internet web pages
C. Ask the English teacher
D. Ask a classmate
E. Guess the pronunciation
F. Other resource: ______
If you answered “YES” A. and B., please mention the web pages and dictionaries you use the most: ______Item 2: Answer the following questions:
A. What do you know about the International Phonetic Alphabet? B. Did you study the IPA in your English lessons at secondary school?
A.
B.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 75
Annex D
Name: ______Date: ______
Worksheet #1: Vowels 1. Look up the phonetic transcription for the following words in a printed dictionary or in internet web pages: Example: Sheep= /ʃiːp/
Lick: ______Cat: ______Pill: ______Cart: ______Cheek: ______Cut: ______Bin: ______Bug: ______Ben: ______Hot: ______Pen: ______Hat: ______Pan: ______Spot: ______Four: ______Sport: ______Bed: ______Pull: ______Camera: ______Pool: ______America: ______Fur: ______Wait: ______Bird: ______Boil: ______Buy: ______Cow: ______
2. When you have finished, please write down the dictionary or web page you used to do this exercise. I used: ______
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 76
Annex E
Name: ______Date: ______
Worksheet #2: Consonants 1. Look up the phonetic transcription for the following words in a printed dictionary or in internet web pages: Example: Bread: /bred/
Dutch: ______Island: ______Determine: ______Jealous: ______Phone: ______Honest: ______Bought: ______Thumb: ______Throughout: ______Thirst: ______Tough: ______There: ______Though: ______Dare: ______Curl: ______Breathe: ______Goat: ______Breathing: ______Massage: ______Win: ______Message: ______Wing: ______Insurance: ______Stink: ______Cash: ______Sting: ______Catch: ______Cough: ______Joke: ______Television: ______Choke: ______Disappointed: ______Whale: ______Mountain: ______Juice: ______Package: ______Use: ______Impatient: ______Retired: ______Equipment: ______Buzz: ______
2. When you have finished, please write down the dictionary or web page you used to do this exercise. I used: ______
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 77
Annex F
Name: ______Date: ______
Worksheet #3: Classification of sounds 1. Classify the following consonant sounds into the listed categories: /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ /f/ /v/ /ð/ /θ/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /dʒ/ /h/ /ʒ/ /tʃ/ /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ /l/ /r/ /w/ /j/
MANNER Nasal Fricative Glide Affricate Liquid Stop (Ligadura) (Oclusiva)
PLACE Glottal Bilabial Lingua- Labio- Lingua- Lingua- Lingua- Velar dental Palatal dental alveolar
Voiced
(Sonora)
Voiceless
(Sorda)