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IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ WORD STRESS ACCURACY: INVESTIGATING TEACHERS’ ACADEMIC DEGREE, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, GENDER, TEACHING METHOD AND AGE

Name: IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ WORD STRESS ACCURACY: INVESTIGATING TEACHERS’ ACADEMIC DEGREE, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, GENDER, TEACHING METHOD AND AGE
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تعداد66صفحه در فایل word

M.A. Thesis in

English Language Teaching – TEFL

IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ WORD STRESS ACCURACY: INVESTIGATING TEACHERS’ ACADEMIC DEGREE, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, GENDER, TEACHING METHOD AND AGE

ABSTRACT

Pronunciation teaching has been long neglected due to a number of reasons. Supra-segmental features of pronunciation, especially stress have an important effect on both learners and teachers’ performance and negotiation of meaning and hence can have a great impact on learners’ achievement. However, no study has been conducted yet to examine Iranian EFL teachers’ stress accuracy in the pronunciation of multi-syllabic words of English. The present study was carried out to determine the extent to which Iranian EFL teachers are competent in their pronunciation of English words in terms of placement of stress on multi-syllabic words, and checked whether the teachers’ method of teaching, gender, academic degree, age and teaching experience had any relationship with their ability to pronounce words correctly. Sixty teachers of different ages and years of experience of English in two institutes of Shiraz, Iran following two different methods of teaching (i.e., the Communicative Language Teaching/CLT and the Audio-Lingual method/ALM) took part in the study. The participants were 30 male and 30 female English teachers chosen based on convenient sampling. Two instruments were employed in the study. The first instrument was a list of 33 isolated error-provoking English words with different number of syllables and the second one a test in which the same 33 items were included in a context. The participants were first asked read the words in isolation and then in context. Descriptive statistics of the results were obtained and then chi-square tests were run to answer the research questions. The results of the study showed that, all in all, Iranian EFL teachers had relatively acceptable pronunciation accuracy in terms of both words in isolation and words in the text with no significant differences. Moreover, their accuracy varied across words with different number of syllables. Gender showed to play a significant role in the teachers’ stress accuracy, but no significant difference was found regarding the teachers’ academic degree. Although the older participants were more accurate in assigning word stress, teaching experience showed no significant effect on the participants’ accuracy of pronunciation. Finally, the performance of teachers who taught based on the principles of the ALM was found to be significantly better than those following the CLT.

Key Words: Stress Accuracy, Pronunciation, Supra- Segmental Features

دسته: زبان خارجه, زبان خارجه برچسب: Key Words: Stress Accuracy, Pronunciation, Supra- Segmental Features

توضیحات

CONTENT PAGE

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Preliminaries …………………………… 2

1.1 The significance of learning and teaching pronunciation ……. 2

1.2 The Relationship between Speaking, Listening, and Pronunciation 4

1.3 Negligence of Pronunciation in Language Classrooms …….. 5

1.3 The role of pronunciation in communication ………….. 6

1.4 The importance of stress accuracy and its role in speaking ….. 7

1.5 Objectives of the study………………………. 8

1.6. Research questions………………………… 8

1.7 Significance of the study……………………… 9

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Preliminaries ……………………………. 11
- History of English Pronunciation Instruction………….. 11

2.1.1 Definition of pronunciation…………………. 11

2.1.2 Levels of pronunciation……………………. 11

2.1.3 Stress-timed and Syllable-timed languages…………. 13

2.2 Pronunciation in ELT……………………….. 13

2.3 Whether to teach or not to teach pronunciation…………. 15

2.4 Approaches to pronunciation teaching……………… 16

2.5 Factors that affect pronunciation…………………. 17

2.5.1 Age……………………………….. 17

2.5.2 Exposure to the target language……………….. 18

2.5.3 Amount and type of prior knowledge……………. 18

Aptitude, attitude and motivation……………… 18

2.6. Empirical studies done on pronunciation……………. 19

2.7.The relationship between learner variables and pronunciation

accuracy…………………………………. 21

2.8The relationship between teaching method and pronunciation

accuracy…………………………………. 22

2.9 Errors and mistakes………………………… 23

CHAPTER THREE: METHOD

3.0 Preliminaries ……………………………. 25

3.1 Participants…………………………….. 25

3.1. A Participants as teachers of the ILI ………………. 25

3.1. B Participants as teachers of BLI ………………… 26

3.2 Instrument …………………………….. 27

3.3 Data collection procedure …………………….. 27

3.4 Data Analysis ……………………………. 28

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.0 Introduction…………………………….. 30

4.1. Research question 1: How accurate is Iranian EFL teachers’ pronunciation in terms of stress accuracy?………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30

4.2. Are there any significant differences in the accuracy of teachers’ pronunciation of two-, three-, four-, five,- syllable words?………………………………………………………………….. 31

4.3. Are there any relationships between teachers’ gender, academic degree, teaching experience, age, teaching method and accuracy in stressing

words?…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 34

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION

5.0 Introduction …………………………….. 44

5.1 Summary and Conclusion…………………….. 44

5.2 Pedagogical implications ……………………… 45

5.3 Limitations of the study………………………. 46

5.4 Suggestions for further research …………………. 46

References……………………………….. 48

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………………. 57

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

Table 4.1 Isolated and in-text words stress accuracy ………… 30

Table 4.2 Isolated words stress accuracy based on the no. of syllables 32

Table 4.3 In-text words stress accuracy based on the no. of syllables . 33

Table 4.4 Relationship between gender and isolated words stress

accuracy ………………………………… 35

Table 4.5 Relationship between gender and isolated words stress

accuracy ………………………………… 35

Table 4.6 Relationship between teaching experience and isolated words

stress accuracy …………………………….. 36

Table 4.7 Relationship between teaching experience and in-text words

stress accuracy……………………………… 37

Table 4.8 Relationship between academic degree and in-text words

stress accuracy……………………………… 37

Table 4.9 Relationship between teaching method and isolated words

stress accuracy……………………………… 38

Table 4.10 Relationship between teaching method and in-text words stress accuracy 39

Table 4.11 Relationship between age and isolated words stress accuracy 40

Table 4.12 Relationship between age and in-text words stress accuracy 40

Table 4.13 Relationship between age and isolated words stress accuracy 41

Table 4.14 Relationship between age and in-text words stress accuracy 42

IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ WORD STRESS ACCURACY: INVESTIGATING TEACHERS’ ACADEMIC DEGREE, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, GENDER, TEACHING METHOD AND AGE

تعداد66صفحه در فایل word

M.A. Thesis in

English Language Teaching – TEFL

IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ WORD STRESS ACCURACY: INVESTIGATING TEACHERS’ ACADEMIC DEGREE, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, GENDER, TEACHING METHOD AND AGE

ABSTRACT

Key Words: Stress Accuracy, Pronunciation, Supra- Segmental Features

Table of Contents

CONTENT PAGE

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Preliminaries …………………………… 2

1.1 The significance of learning and teaching pronunciation ……. 2

1.2 The Relationship between Speaking, Listening, and Pronunciation 4

1.3 Negligence of Pronunciation in Language Classrooms …….. 5

1.3 The role of pronunciation in communication ………….. 6

1.4 The importance of stress accuracy and its role in speaking ….. 7

1.5 Objectives of the study………………………. 8

1.6. Research questions………………………… 8

1.7 Significance of the study……………………… 9

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Preliminaries ……………………………. 11

History of English Pronunciation Instruction………….. 11

2.1.1 Definition of pronunciation…………………. 11

2.1.2 Levels of pronunciation……………………. 11

2.1.3 Stress-timed and Syllable-timed languages…………. 13

2.2 Pronunciation in ELT……………………….. 13

2.3 Whether to teach or not to teach pronunciation…………. 15

2.4 Approaches to pronunciation teaching……………… 16

2.5 Factors that affect pronunciation…………………. 17

2.5.1 Age……………………………….. 17

2.5.2 Exposure to the target language……………….. 18

2.5.3 Amount and type of prior knowledge……………. 18

Aptitude, attitude and motivation……………… 18

2.6. Empirical studies done on pronunciation……………. 19

2.7.The relationship between learner variables and pronunciation

accuracy…………………………………. 21

2.8The relationship between teaching method and pronunciation

accuracy…………………………………. 22

2.9 Errors and mistakes………………………… 23

CHAPTER THREE: METHOD

3.0 Preliminaries ……………………………. 25

3.1 Participants…………………………….. 25

3.1. A Participants as teachers of the ILI ………………. 25

3.1. B Participants as teachers of BLI ………………… 26

3.2 Instrument …………………………….. 27

3.3 Data collection procedure …………………….. 27

3.4 Data Analysis ……………………………. 28

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.0 Introduction…………………………….. 30

4.1. Research question 1: How accurate is Iranian EFL teachers’ pronunciation in terms of stress accuracy?………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30

4.2. Are there any significant differences in the accuracy of teachers’ pronunciation of two-, three-, four-, five,- syllable words?………………………………………………………………….. 31

4.3. Are there any relationships between teachers’ gender, academic degree, teaching experience, age, teaching method and accuracy in stressing

words?…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 34

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION

5.0 Introduction …………………………….. 44

5.1 Summary and Conclusion…………………….. 44

5.2 Pedagogical implications ……………………… 45

5.3 Limitations of the study………………………. 46

5.4 Suggestions for further research …………………. 46

References……………………………….. 48

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………………. 57

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

Table 4.1 Isolated and in-text words stress accuracy ………… 30

Table 4.2 Isolated words stress accuracy based on the no. of syllables 32

Table 4.3 In-text words stress accuracy based on the no. of syllables . 33

Table 4.4 Relationship between gender and isolated words stress

accuracy ………………………………… 35

Table 4.5 Relationship between gender and isolated words stress

accuracy ………………………………… 35

Table 4.6 Relationship between teaching experience and isolated words

stress accuracy …………………………….. 36

Table 4.7 Relationship between teaching experience and in-text words

stress accuracy……………………………… 37

Table 4.8 Relationship between academic degree and in-text words

stress accuracy……………………………… 37

Table 4.9 Relationship between teaching method and isolated words

stress accuracy……………………………… 38

Table 4.10 Relationship between teaching method and in-text words stress accuracy 39

Table 4.11 Relationship between age and isolated words stress accuracy 40