English Pronunciation

Tutor Project

Jungsok Kwon (1242368)

Sookmyung womens university

Graduate school of TESOL

Dr. Stephen van Vlack

English pronunciation

Table of contents

1. Introduction

1.1 Backgrounds of the project

1.2 Overview

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2. Participants

2.1 Participant profiles

2.1.1 Tutee A

2.1.2 Tutee B

2.1.3 Tutor profile

2.2 Needs Interview Questions

2.3 Needs analysis survey

2.3.1 Needs analysis for Tutee A

2.3.2 Needs analysis for Tutee B

2.4 Reflection on the first meetings

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3. Diagnostic test

3.1 Overview

3.2 Discussion of diagnostic test

3.3 Diagnostic test

3.4 Rubrics for diagnostic test

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4. Analysis for diagnostic results

4.1 Tutee A

4.2 Tutee B

4.3 Reflection on diagnostic test

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5. Goals and objectives

5.1 Theoretical backgrounds

5.2 Goals

5.3 Objectives

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6. The action plan

6.1Theoretical backgrounds

6.1.1Task-based approach

6.1.2Strategy-based approach

6.2 Class 1

6.2.1 Lesson plan

6.2.2 Materials

6.2.3 Reflection

6.3 Class 2

6.3.1Lesson plan

6.3.2Materials

6.3.3 Reflection

6.4 Class 3

6.4.1 Lesson plan

6.4.2 Materials

6.4.3 Reflection

6.5 Class 4

6.5.1 Lesson plan

6.5.2 Materials

6.5.3 Reflection

6.6 Class 5

6.6.1 Lesson plan

6.6.2 Materials

6.6.3 Reflection

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7. Achievement test

7.1 overview

7.2 Discussion of the achievement test

7.3 Achievement test

7.4 Achievement test results

7.4.1 Tutee A

7.4.2 Tutee B

7.5 Analysis of achievement test results

7.5.1 Tutee A

7.5.2 Tutee B

7.6 Reflection on the achievement test

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8. Survey

8.1 Overview

8.2 Survey questionnaire

8.3 The results of survey

8.3.1 Tutee A

8.3.2 Tutee B

8.4 Analysis of the survey results

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9. Conclusions

9.1 Writing up the project

9.2 Reflection on the project

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10. Acknowledgement

11. References

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1. Introduction

1.1 Backgrounds of the project

In the globalization of the world, English has become a Lingua Franca (Jenkins, 2000), owned by speakers with different language backgrounds to communicate with each other. Theoretically, pronunciation research and pedagogy have long been influenced by two contradictory principles, the nativeness principle and the intelligibility principle (Levis, 2005). The nativeness principle holds that it is both possible and desirable to achive native-like pronunciation in a foreign language. The nativeness principle was the dominant paradigm in pronunciation teaching before the 1960s, but its influence was rapidly diminished by the logical conclusion that aiming for nativeness was an unrealistic burden for both teacher and learner. On the other hand, Jenkinss (2000) lingua franca core (LFC), focuses on the aspects that are most important for intelligibility in international contexts, instead of the huge workload that traditional English of English as Foreign Language (EFL) syllabuses include.

Now the Korean government has tried to construct the curriculum, considering the context of the majority of Korean students who would interact with other people in Korea and outside Korea, whether using online or offline. Therefore, beyond the lingua franca approach, students should focus on the multicultural basis and keep alerting they would interact with others of other different countries using English.

From this perspective, I think it is very important to start English pronunciation tutor project for the tutees to go beyond the core and intelligibility in communication. While both tutees are fluent and their English are intelligible, their pronunciation should be refined in the aspect of suprasegmental features such as word stress, intonation, and voice quality as well as segmental features. Once their needs and weaknesses of pronunciation are to be analyzed based on the interviews and the diagnostic test, they are to engage in five sessions of project and the achievement test would verify if the project sessions worked well.

1.2 overview

The plan for this project includes six stages. Table 1.1 shows a timeline and descriptions of each stage of the project in detail. First, the subjects of the project will be chosen with the help. Next, in the initial meeting, an interview will be conducted to find out the educational backgrounds, the needs in the aspect of pronunciation, and the future goal. Then, a diagnostic test will be given to them to identify their segmental and suprasegmental features of pronunciation. During a five sessions of the project, the tutees will meet the tutor for two hours once a week and practice developing their weaknesses regarding English pronunciation with materials created based on their test results. After each session, the tutees are supposed to monitor themselves with self-reflection questions and the tutor will give feedback which will help them enhance their needed skills. After all five sessions, they are supposed to take an achievement test, which could tell how much they improved compared to the results of the diagnostic test.

Table 1.1 Timeline of the project stage

Stage

(Timeline)

Descriptions

Stage 1 (March 23)

Find / select subjects

To conduct the pronunciation tutor project, at least one subject is needed. When choosing the subjects, their proficiency does not have to be the same.

Stage 2 (March 30)

Have a brief interview

To gather information on the subjects, contact them and interview them with the following questions. First, what is the educational background of the tutee, especially regarding pronunciation instruction? Second, how is the attitude toward the English speaking countries or people? Third, what is the needs of them regarding pronunciation?

(April 3) The diagnostic test

The diagnostic test is consisted of four parts:

1) word stress, sentence stress test

2) read-aloud test (This will be recorded.)

3) finish a story with pictures (This will be recorded.)

4) give their personal opinion (This will be recorded.)

Stage 3 (April 17)

Analyze the results of test

Devise a plan

Based on the analysis of the test results, coupled with the results of the needs analysis, a specific plan will be created for how they propose to help the participants develop/enhance those needed skills.

Stage 4 ( May 1) Create set of materials to meet goals

Meet and teach materials

This stage comprises several weeks of meetings and devised practice with the participants. Based on the plan created in stage 3, the students with put together specific materials to help their participants develop/enhance their pronunciation skills. The tutor is also expected to keep a journal on the progress of the sessions.

Stage 5 ( June, 5) Create achievement test

Assess progress

In this stage the tutor is to devise another measurement that can be used to assess the progress of the participants after the implementation of the plan and the practice sessions. In essence this is an achievement test. Having devised the test, tutor will use it to assess the results of the plan and sessions with the participants.

Stage 6 ( June 12) Write up report

In this the final stage students will write up the entire project from stage 1 to stage 5. This write up comprises the final project for this course. Mostly, tutor will be working to revise and combine the different parts to create a solid cohesive report of the entire project.

2. Participants

Two Korean tutees are involved in this project. Both are very passionate use English and toward English culture, so they have enjoyed speaking and listening in English for their own. In relation to the previous experience in learning pronunciation, both had no certain types of instruction. However, in the aspect of pronunciation, both tutees are aiming to be more native-like pronunciation with more natural accents and intonations.

2.1 Participant profiles

I interviewed both tutees on the different days. The interview survey questions will be followed by the participants profile which aimed at finding out the language background including general information and the needs in learning pronunciation.

2.1.1 Tutee A

Name: Jimin, Lee

Age/Grade: 24 years old, senior in Sookmyung Womens

Universtiy

Major: a double major in TESL and business administration

Language experience: