CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
This study aimed at helping low achievers acquire the basic skill of pronunciation, improve their strategies of reading and spelling, enhance their word recognition
competence, and build their confidence in learning English. The results of this study also present the limitations, pedagogical implications and suggestions for further studies.
Conclusions
The six participants lacked prior pronunciation knowledge, so they were unable to distinguish the consistency between letters and sounds, or pronounce English words correctly. In addition, they had difficulties with word recognition. Their weak
pronunciation impeded their ability to learn English. To solve this problem, the researcher designed the K.K. phonetic symbols remedial program to teach them a dependable
linguistic tool that would enable them to read out English words accurately and enhance their pronunciation knowledge. Through the 12-session K.K. phonetics instruction, the participants developed the skills of reading and spelling. The ability to read words aloud, effectively and effortlessly, enhanced their word recognition and memorizing skills. Once English became easier, their anxiety reduced, and confidence in learning English was built.
Above all, the K.K. phonetic symbols remedial program paved the way to learn English.
Limitations of the Study
The results of the study revealed positive effects on low achievers’ spelling and reading performance. However, there were two limitations to the study. First, the remedial program was designed to improve each participant’s basic skill of pronunciation. To meet each individual’s needs and support them, the number of participants in the study was kept low. Consequently, though the six participants’
word production and spelling competence improved, the results of the study are not representative. Since the size of the sample was not substantial, the improvement of the participants cannot be used to include all other junior high school students in Taiwan. Second, through the remedial program, the participants learned the basic skill of pronunciation. They understood how to combine vowels and consonants,
decompose syllables, and identify stressed syllables in multisyllabic words. However, according to the results of Test 2, none of their correct rates was a hundred percent.
This indicated that the teacher would need to offer more time and practice to the participants to improve their performance. However, the time provided to implement the instruction was limited due to two reasons. First, the participants had other commitments like a Math or Chinese remedial program and playing on the school baseball team. Therefore, it was difficult for them to make more time for this program.
Second, the participants lacked self-discipline and would not practice or review the
lessons without the teacher’s prompting. If the session was too long, the participants forgot what they had learned before. Thus, the researcher designed the 12-session remedial program to deliver complete, intensive phonetics instruction to improve the participants’ learning. Moreover, to compensate for the limitation of time, the
researcher used the lunch break every day to work on the participants’ weaknesses, and foster their pronunciation competence in order to help them operate the linguistic system independently.
Pedagogical Implications
The participants were not good at pronunciation, so the teacher had to offer suitable assistance to help them solve their leaning problem and manipulate various teaching strategies to enhance the effectiveness of the remedial program.
Realia. The K.K. phonetic symbol cards played a major role in teaching
pronunciation. The teacher employed it to implement class activities. In addition, the teacher used the cards to deliver phonetic lessons, and made the low achievers practice pronunciation with these cards as visual aids. Furthermore, the phonetics board, which consisted of all the consonants and vowels, was useful in presenting the syllable structures.
Gestures. When the teacher wanted to teach the participants new speech sounds,
she used different gestures to show them the places of articulation, apart from giving
detailed explanations on how to produce them. These gestures assisted the participants in visualizing the concept of pronunciation before producing the speech sounds.
BoPoMoFo. The low achievers required more aid in recognizing new symbols.
Therefore, the teacher employed the BoPoMoFo script to help the participants directly perceive the sounds of the new symbols. Initially, the teacher had the participants practice reading out the symbols with BoPoMoFo continuously. Then, the teacher removed the BoPoMoFo script and asked the participants to keep practicing until they were able to recognize the new symbols. With the assistance of BoPoMoFo, the participants learned the new symbols more easily.
Class Activities. Competing with each other while playing games made learning
more interesting and exciting for the participants. In addition, completing a task with their fellow students helped the low achievers develop interpersonal relations and learn how to cooperate with others. Through class activities, the low achievers became more actively involved in this study.
Small Class Teaching. A remedial program should ideally have 6 to 12
participants. Since this group consisted of six participants, it helped the teacher notice each participant’s difficulty and performance, and she provided support or praise, to him/her, immediately. Moreover, all the participants had more opportunities to practice with each other.
Compliments and Encouragements. When the low achievers performed well
during class, the teacher would give compliments and emphasize their successful learning experiences, to counteract their passivity about learning. If the low achievers were shy to answer questions, or afraid of making a mistake in front of their peers, the teacher would use positive words to encourage them. This made the low achievers more willing to engage in the learning activity.
Suggestions for Further Studies
Based on the limitations of this study, here are three suggestions for further studies. First, the 12-session K.K. phonetic symbols remedial program helped the participants develop the basic skill of pronunciation in six weeks. The participants were able to sound out vocabulary words accurately and effortlessly, though they still had some problems with pronunciation. To get a higher result, it was concluded that each participant needed more time and practice to master the linguistic system.
Therefore, in the future, a researcher has to modify the time span of the program to meet each participant’s distinctive need. Second, the results of the study show that K.K. phonetic symbols are beneficial for learning English. Through K.K. phonetics instruction, the participants’ strategies of spelling and reading improved, competence in word recognition increased, and the anxiety of memorizing words reduced. The remedial program provided several positive improvements, but the sample was too
small to be used to include all junior high school students. However, since teenagers are at the formal operational stage, they are able to manipulate symbols. Thus, it is suitable to organize K.K. phonetic symbols instruction in junior high schools where a teacher may employ different research methods to teach this to the students. Third, Celce-Murcia et al. (2011) noted that pronunciation instruction includes two major parts: segmentals and suprasegmentals. Low achievers might have acquired
knowledge of K.K. phonetic symbols and improved their competence in word
pronunciation, but knowledge of suprasegmentals (stress, contraction, and intonation) is also an important element in reaching the threshold of intelligible pronunciation.
Thus, suprasegmental instruction may be embedded into pronunciation courses when segmental competence was raised.
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Appendix A
11.你認為學習 K.K.音標能提升單字拼讀能力。
□ 是 □ 否
12.請問你八年級上學期的英文學習表現為何?
□ 優 90～100 □ 甲 80～89 □ 乙 70～79 □ 丙 60～69 □ 丁 0～59 13.你認為英文發音困難。
□ 是 □ 否
14.你認為背單字很困難。
□ 是 □ 否
15.你願意參加 K.K.補救教學課程。
□ 是 □ 否