USING TONGUE TWISTER TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

Abstract

Currently, English has been used as an international language by people all over the world. In Vietnam, English is taught from primary schools or even from kindergarten to university; however, there are numerous Vietnamese students still find it is hard to speak English well. Especially, many Vietnamese first-year English majors often feel confused in pronouncing because of some inappropriate approaches or techniques. Thus, the aim of this study is to find out the result of using the tongue twister technique to help students improve their pronunciation. The participants of this study are first-year English major students at Thai Nguyen University of Education. Through the application of the student's practical approaches, the study found out the current state of using tongue twisters technique in learning pronunciation and the effectiveness of using tongue twister technique to enhance students’ pronunciation skills at Thai Nguyen University of Education. Classroom observation checklist, pre-test and post-test were employed as data collection instrument with the purpose of achieving data for the study. The findings of the study will be useful for both teachers and students’ English speaking teaching and learning at Thai Nguyen University of Education in particular as well as all of the universities in general.