Game-based Teaching of Stress Placement on Multi-syllabic English Words
محورهای موضوعی : Journal of Teaching English Language Studies
Musa Nushi
1
,
Samaneh Shafeie
2
,
Meisam Shafiei
3
1 - Assisstant professor in TEFL, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran
2 - MA student in TEFL, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran
3 - MA student in TEFL, Islamic Azad University, Takestan
کلید واژه: Stress, EFL learners, Games, Pronunciation, Multisyllabic words,
چکیده مقاله :
Accurate pronunciation is an important component of language ability and the main outward linguistic sign of whether someone is a native speaker of a language or not. An area of particular difficulty for Persian-speaking learners of English, which may cause 'foreign accent' or misunderstanding in speaking, is placement of stress on multi-syllable words. Game-based pronunciation teaching can be a pedagogical option to tackle that problematic feature of English pronunciation as it incorporates both implicit and explicit approaches to instruction. This study, therefore, investigates the effects of using a pronunciation game on learning stress placement on multi-syllable English words by young Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Fifty-two intermediate EFL learners were randomly selected through administration of Preliminary English Test (PET) and divided into two groups: the experimental group (group A) containing 27 students and the control group (Group B) containing 25 students. The experimental group received game-based instruction and materials for eight class sessions. Two weeks after the final class, a post-test was conducted to find out the changes. The results showed a significant difference between the performance of experimental and control groups on the post-test. The experimental group outperformed the control group and indicated quite positive attitudes towards the use of the game-based learning of pronunciation. The researchers recommend using such games to EFL teachers in order to motivate and help their students learn pronunciation more effectively.
Bayliss, J. D. (2009). Using games in introductory courses: Tips from the trenches. ACM SIGCSE
Bulletin, 41(1), 337–341. doi:10.1145/1539024.1508989
Blumberg, F. (2014). Learning by playing: Video gaming in education. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Burzio, L. (1994). Principles of English stress. Cambridge University Press.
Çakır, İ., & Baytar, B. (2014). Foreign language learners’ views on the importance of learning the
target language pronunciation. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 10(1), 99-110.
Can, G., & Cagiltay, K. (2006). Turkish prospective teachers' perceptions regarding the use of
computer games with educational features. Educational Technology & Society, 9(1), 308-
321.
Celce-Murcia, Brinton, D., M., & Goodwin, J. M. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course book
and reference guide. Cambridge University Press.
Cornillie, F., Clarebout, G., & Desmet, P. (2012). Between learning and playing? Exploring
learners’ perceptions of corrective feedback in an immersive game for English pragmatics.
ReCALL, 24(3), 257– 278.
Culbertson, G., Wang, S., Jung, M., & Andersen, E. (May, 2016). Social situational language
learning through an online 3D game. In J. Kaya, & A. Druin (Eds.), Proceedings of the
2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 957-968). USA:
ACM.
Dalton‐Puffer, C., Kaltenboeck, G., & Smit, U. (1997). Learner attitudes and L2 pronunciation in
Austria. World Englishes, 16(1), 115-128.
Duong, N. C. (n.d). Do games help students learn vocabulary effectively? Lac Hong University.
Retrieved from https://en.lhu.edu.vn/139/664/Do-games-help-students-learn-vocabularyeffectively-
DUONG-NGOC-CHAU-03AV3.html
Flick, U. (2009). An introduction to qualitative research. New York: Sage.
Godwin-Jones, R. (2014). Games in language learning: Opportunities and challenges. Language
Learning & Technology 18(2), 9–19 Retrieved from
http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2014/emerging.pdf
Gordon, J., Darcy, I., & Ewert, D. (2013). Pronunciation teaching and learning: Effects of explicit
phonetic instruction in the L2 classroom. In Proceedings of the 4th Pronunciation in
Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference (pp. 194-206). Iowa State
University.
JOURNAL OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES, Vol. 5, NO. 4, Spring 2017
62
Hain, T. (2002). Implicit pronunciation modelling in ASR. In ISCA tutorial and research workshop
(ITRW) on pronunciation modeling and lexicon adaptation for spoken language
technology (pp. 129-134). Retrieved from http://www.isca-speech.org/archive_open/pmla/
Hancock, M. (1995). Pronunciation games. Cambridge University Press.
Hartshorn, K. J. (2013). An analysis of ESL learner preferences for native accent retention and
reduction. The Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, 3(2), 1-20.
Henry, L. (1999). Pronunciation card games. USA: Pro Lingua Associates.
Hromek, R., & Roffey, S. (2009). Promoting social and emotional learning with games:" It's fun
and we learn things". Simulation & Gaming, 40, 626-644.
Huyen, N. T. T., & Nga, K. T. T. (2003). Learning vocabulary through games. Asian EFL Journal,
5(4), 90-105.
Johnson, W. L., & Beal, C. R. (May, 2005). Iterative Evaluation of a Large-Scale, Intelligent Game
for Language Learning. In C. K. Looi, G. McCalla, & B. Bredeweg (Eds.), Artificial
intelligence in education: supporting learning through intelligent and socially informed
technology (pp. 290-297, vol. 125). Amsterdam: IOS Press.
Katayama, A. (2015). Two classes, two pronunciations: A postmodern understanding of power in
EFL students’ classroom performance. In S. Horiguchi, Y. Imoto, & G. S. Poole (Eds.),
Foreign Language Education in Japan (pp. 119–132). Japan: Sense Publishers.
Kelly, G. (2000). How to teach pronunciation. England: Longman.
Khaghaninejad, M. S., & Maleki, A. (2015). The effect of explicit pronunciation instruction on
listening comprehension: evidence from Iranian English learners. Theory and Practice in
Language Studies, 5(6), 1249-1256. doi:10.17507/tpls.0506.18
Khorasgani, Khorasgani & Aray (2015). A survey on several potentially problematic areas of
pronunciation for Iranian EFL learners. Indonesian EFL Journal, 1(2), 189-198.
Lee, S. K. (1995). Creative games for the language class. Forum, 33(1), 35-42.
Linehan, C., Kirman, B., Lawson, S., & Chan, G. (2011, May). Practical, appropriate, empiricallyvalidated
guidelines for designing educational games. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1979-1988). United States:
ACM.
Ludewig, A., & Swan, A. (2007). 101 great classroom games: Easy ways to get your students
playing, laughing, and learning. McGraw Hill Professional.
Makarova, V. (October, 1997). Fun games and activities for pronunciation and phonetics classes
at universities. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Japan Association for
Language Teaching. Japan
JOURNAL OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES, Vol. 5, NO. 4, Spring 2017
63
Morley, J. (1991). The pronunciation component in teaching English to speakers of other
languages. TESOL Quarterly, 25(3), 481-520.
Otlowski, M. (1998). Pronunciation: What are the expectations? The internet TESL journal, 4(1),
150-161. Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Otlowski-Pronunciation.html
Paganus, A., Mikkonen, V. P., Mäntylä, T., Nuuttila, S., Isoaho, J., Aaltonen, O., & Salakoski, T.
(August, 2006). The vowel game: continuous real-time visualization for pronunciation
learning with vowel charts. In T. Salakoski, F. Ginter, S. Pyysalo, & T. Pahikkala (Eds.),
Advances in Natural Language Processing: 5th International Conference (pp. 696-703).
Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Piirainen–Marsh, A., & Tainio, L. (2009). Collaborative game‐play as a site for participation and
situated learning of a Second Language. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research,
53(2), 167-183.
Rebuschat, P. & Williams, J. N. (2012). Implicit learning in second language acquisition. In C.
A. Chapelle (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Wiley-Blackwell.
Riding, R. J., & Rayner, S. (2001). Self perception (Vol. 2). Greenwood Publishing Group.
Rowe, E., Asbell-Clarke, J., & Baker, R. S. (2015). Serious games analytics to measure implicit
science learning. In C. S. Loh, Y. Sheng, D. Ifenthaler (Eds.), Serious games analytics:
Methodologies for performance measurement, assessment, and improvement (pp. 343-
360), Springer.
Sturm, J. L. (2013). Explicit phonetics instruction in L2 French: A global analysis of improvement.
System, 41(3), 654-662.
Swan, M. Smith, B. (2001). Learner English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems.
Cambridge University Press.
Tomlinson, M. (2005). Primary pronunciation box: Pronunciation games and activities for
younger learners. Cambridge University Press.
Varasarin, P. (2007). An action research study of pronunciation training, language learning
strategies and speaking confidence (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Victoria
University, Thailand. Retrieved from http://vuir.vu.edu.au/1437/
Vaughan-Rees, M. (2002). Test your pronunciation. Penguin English.
Wright, A., Betteridge, D., & Buckby, M. (2006). Games for language learning. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Young, S. S. C., & Wang, Y. H. (2014). The game embedded CALL System to facilitate English
vocabulary acquisition and pronunciation. Educational Technology & Society, 17(3), 239-
251.
JOURNAL OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES, Vol. 5, NO. 4, Spring 2017
64
Vahdat, S., & Rasti-Behbahani, A. (2013). The effect of video games on Iranian EFL learners’
vocabulary learning. The Reading Matrix, 13(1), 61-71.
Whitton, N. (2014). Digital games and learning: Research and theory. New York: Routledge.
Whitton, N. (2012). Good game design is good learning design. In N. Whitton & A. Moseley
(Eds.), Using games to enhance learning and teaching. A beginner's guide: New York and
London: Routledge.
Wright, A., Betteridge, D., & Buckby, M. (2006). Games for language learning. Ernst Klett
Sprachen.
