Input Modifications in Teaching Pronunciation at Basic Level

Abstract

The research entitled Input Modification in Teaching Pronunciation at Basic Level has been conducted with the main objective to identify the features of modified input used by the lower secondary English teachers. To proceed the study, 5 community schools and 5 institutional schools that lie in Arjundhara Municipality, Jhapa were selected on random sampling basis. Then 5 grade eight English teachers from institutional schools and 5 grade eight English teachers from community schools were selected as the sample for the study on purposeful sampling basis. The data were collected through the class observations and analyzed and interpreted qualitatively as well as statistically. After the analysis and interpretation, it was found that most of the cases the teachers made their speech slower while teaching. The teachers were separating the word/syllable and made more and longer pauses between sentences. In majority of the cases the teachers put stress heavily on the stressed words and increased their volume on key (main) words. The teachers used simple vocabulary and also restricted their vocabulary. They replaced the difficult items with more frequently occurring items, repeated the words, analytically paraphrased the words, gave contextual information and explained while defining the words. This thesis consists five chapters. The first chapter of the study deals with the general background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study and delimitations of the study. The second chapter deals with review of theoretical and empirical literature, implication of the study and theoretical framework. The third chapter deals with the methodology used in the study. Design of the Study, Population and Sample, Sampling Procedure, Tools for Data Collection, Process of Data Collection, Ethical Consideration are described in this chapter. The fourth chapter is the results and discussion. The collected data have been analyzed and interpreted under different headings and sub-headings. The last chapter, i.e. chapter five includes the summary, conclusion and implications. On the basis of the analyzed data, the summary and conclusion have been extracted and in turn, on the basis of the summary, some implications for the policy, practice and further research levels have been made. The main portion is followed by references and the appendices which include research tools and other information.