Exploring student attitudes towards learning English pronunciation online during the Covid-19 pandemic at FPT University.

Abstract

The rapid spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide has caused almost all educational institutions to gradually convert offline, face-to-face classes to distance learning. Within the last two years, multiple studies in educational and applied linguistic research have investigated how teachers and students cope with the abrupt shift from onsite to online learning. Researchers in previous studies have examined several aspects of online learning in general, such as difficulties in online learning and solutions to overcome those difficulties. However, little has been done to investigate students' attitudes towards learning English pronunciation online in particular. Our research was then carried out to fill in this gap. In this study, we investigated students' attitudes towards learning English pronunciation online. The participants of this study were 67 second-year English-major students at FPT University. By applying an exploratory sequential research design, student interviews and a questionnaire survey were carried out to collect data. The interview data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach suggested by Clarke and Braun (2014). The questionnaires were analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods, depending on question types. The results showed the lack of interactions between teachers and students, as well as between students and students, were the biggest problems in online pronunciation classes. Besides that, inadequate in-class activities were another challenge. Based on the findings above, we suggest that teachers organise more activities during class. That way, students would feel more motivated and more likely to engage in the lessons when learning online. We also suggest that students actively participate in class activities to benefit from lessons. Overall, the results of this study have contributed to improving the quality of English pronunciation learning during the Covid pandemic.