Evaluation of Pronunciation Games: Are They Effective in Improving Elementary Students’ Learning

of Pronunciation?Khoo Hooi Shyan

University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

Introduction

• There is a lack of interests among teachers and applied linguists towards pronunciation (Jenkins, 2002; Derwing & Munro, 2005).

• Yet pronunciation is integral in shaping young learners’ speaking skills for effective communication (Lenneberg, 1967; Hancock, 1995; Cruttenden, 2008).

• For teachers who integrated pronunciation in their teaching, drilling is the most commonly used technique (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011).

• However, young learners cannot relate to the technique used (Kelly, 2000 Gilbert, 2008).

• Proponents of pronunciation games hailed the approach as “useful”, “informative” and “fun”.

Objective

1. The study wishes to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating games in teaching pronunciation.

2. It hopes to reformulate effective teaching methods of pronunciation to young learners through aligning research with theoretical backing.

3. From here, potential improvement can be brought to young leaners’ speech acquisition.

Key references:

Kelly, G. (Eds.). (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Harlow, Essex: Pearson

Education Limited.

Theoretical Framework

Source: Kelly, 2000

Phonetics and Phonology

Pronunciation

Phonemes Suprasegmental features

Consonants Vowels Intonation Stress

Voiced

Unvoiced

Single vowels

Sentence stress Diphthongs

Word stress

Methodology• Sampling method: Action research (4 research sessions)

• Participants: Two classes of 16 students (8 each) of ages 8 to 10 years old at beginner’s level

• Instrument: Classroom observation, audio recording and grading of pronunciation exercises

• Procedure: There will be two sessions of the classes with the two groups of participants. The pronunciation games will be utilized in pronunciation teaching for the first group (experimental group) while absent from the second group (control group).

• For ethical concerns, the games (treatment) were taught to the second group of students after the data was collected.

Data AnalysisClassroom observation

Audio recording Grading of pronunciation

exercises

(both groups)

Example of Games and Exercises