Analysing Needs for English Pronunciation Instruction for Vietnamese English Majors

Abstract

Despite resources invested in English education, pronunciation teaching in Vietnam is still underemphasized and predominantly delivered through traditional, passive teaching approaches. Such practices often result in limited learner engagement and inadequate application of pronunciation skills in communicative contexts. To address this issue, as part of an instructional development (ID) project, this mixed-methods study investigates the needs for English pronunciation instruction for first-year English-major students at a Vietnamese public university, where a dedicated pronunciation course has become a compulsory component of the curriculum. However, notable discrepancies persist between the intended communicative outcomes and students’ actual pronunciation competence. Guided by Kemp’s ID model, the study developed and validated data collection instruments, including questionnaires and semi-structured interview protocols, administered to 153 freshmen, five lecturers, and two program administrators. The results offer critical insights into Vietnamese learner profiles, pronunciation instructional challenges, and desired pedagogical improvements, thereby proposing the integration of active learning, crosslinguistic awareness-raising instruction and communicative pronunciation teaching for the ID project. Findings also highlight the value of AI-generated speech for exposing learners to English pronunciation varieties, and the role of generative AI in supporting them with idea generation, visualisation, and role-play scripting for communicative practices.