Improving the pronunciation of English words for sixth form students learning new English textbook b...

Improving the pronunciation of English words for sixth form students learning new English textbook by eliciting students to do phonetic exercises interestingly NONG CONG DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND RA[.]

NONG CONG DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND RAINING

TRUNG CHINH SECONDARY SCHOOL

“TEACHING EXPERIENCE”

“ Improving the pronunciation of English words for sixth

form students learning new English textbook by eliciting students to do phonetic exercises interestingly.”

Name : Lê Thị An

Job : Teacher

Place of work : Trung Chinh secondary school Subject : English

THANH HOA - 2018

SangKienKinhNghiem.net

I INTRODUCTION

In curent time, Our beloved country, Viet Nam is carrying out much renovation in many fields One of the most renovations which has been corncerned by people at all age from the city to the country is the renewably educational and training program from grade one to grade twelve People believe that renovating the shooling program will take much advantages in other that we may train young generations to have ability to support the country later

to the trend of modern thought basing on national soul and integrating international community To make sure that the second purpose “integrating international community” can be successful, Viet Nam’s Ministry of Education and Training has taken more care of teaching foreign languages for its students and English is the most popular foreign language choosen in Vietnam’s educational program which can be seen in the project of foreign language during the period 2012 – 2020

Facing the new requirements of the nation and date, I should think each of the teachers ought to make more efforts to get practical results in teaching career Being a teacher of English I always wonder and find out how to teach my students to communicate in English successfully In English, listening and speaking skills play an important role in creating speech and if learners want to listen and speak English well, the first and foremost thing they need is the right prounciation of English words Why can I say so? We strongly notice that when one don’t pronounce words well, he or she may make the listeners laugh at him/her, moreover, he/she can not understand what the other is speaking because their sounds are not similar to his/hers Another reason, it will be very difficult for him/ her to correct the pronunciation later

The question which makes me corncern about most is how to teach the students to pronounce English words rightly and help them use English fluently and confidently Is teaching pronunciation enough only in teaching new words?

I think that it is not enough because in conversation we need more the words in textbook, and native speakers often speak more quickly and link the words in some ways which causes us much difficult in understanding and speaking as well as they do However, it is not necessary for us to speak everything as we

need to pronounce words exactly Therefore, the first key of this problem is how

to pronounce English words exactly because words are the smallest unit of a sentence

During a few years teaching and studying, I have collected, studied and taught students how to pronounce English in a variety of phonetic exercises In this school year, I take a special duty on teaching the new English textbook for grade 6 in the project of foreign language during the period 2012 – 2020 This new English textbook has created many interesting things It gives some phonic exercises in each unit I am always fond of teaching this section and have supplied my students some more ones afterwards The result is so good that I

encourage me to write the creative experience called “Improving the pronunciation of English words for sixth form students learning new English textbook by eliciting students to do phonetic exercises interestingly".

II CONTENT Part 1 Theoretical background

Speaking English as well as the native speakers is the strong hope of almost people who are learning English However, it is not easy to do it in a few days “ How can we use English fluently and confidently? Do we do need a variety of words or Do we need a further understdanding of English structure and grammar ? Many people say that learners need all above: I believe in this idea; however, I think it is not enough because pronuncing the words exactly plays an important role in orders to define a successful conversation

For young learners, the way they pronounce a word may last forever and

it is very difficult for them to correct it if they do it wrongly Moreover, they are not possible to correct their pronunciation by themselves

In fact, knowing the English phonetics symbols as vowel sounds, dipthongs and consonants is very useful because it helps learners not only specialize the pronunciation of a word easier, but also create a total knowledge

of pronouncing a word by looking the letters, Apart from this, many dictionaries use the tanscription (the English phonetics symbols) to show the pronunciation

of a word and it’s easier to remember a word if learners know both its meaning and its pronunciation

Although new English textbook established by Viet Nam’s Ministry of Education and Training is more interested in teaching pronunciation for students, pronunciation is the biggest problem of English learners that’s why I always wonder how to help my students improve their English pronunciation, ease their nervous thing and use English fluently, accuracy and confidently Therefore, I have collected, chosen and created some more exercises for students in grade 6 ( learning new English text books ) according to the pronunciation section in textbook, I elicit students to do some more exercises introducing the English phonetics symbols; practiceing exericises to specialize a pair of vowels, a vowel and a diphthong, two or three consonants, etc

Part 2: Practical background

In order to know how exactly my students pronounce the English word, I gave them the following exercises : class 6 A ( 34 students )

Exercise: Choose a word which has the underlined part pronounced

different from the others

1 a arrive b banana c village d machine

2 a meet b meat c believe d bread

3 a food b foot c cook d good

4 a that b they c then d throw

5 a likes b watches c classes d offices

6 a visit b season c museum d sister

7 a sandwich b chair c school d chicken

8 a days b friends c photos d weeks

9 a study b music c student d museum

10 a listen b history c routine d quarter

Steps of checking students’ pronunciation

Step 1: Get student 5 minutes to choose and circle the answer

Step 2: Check and correct the student’s work

Step 3: Let Ss listen and repeat

Step 4: Call each read aloud a group (4 groups) and 34 students read aloud one by one

By checking in this way and directly teaching students, I realized the problem is that

N The feature of students’ pronunciation

Number

of the students

Account for (%)

1 Rrealize how a letter is pronounced differently in

the other syllable or word

2/ 34 5,9

2 Realize that different letters can be pronounced as

the same sound

3/ 34 8,8

3 Can listen and repeat the pronunciation of a word

but can’t remember or immagine it looks like

33/ 34 97

4 Know how to integrate a vowel with consonants

to pronounce a syllable

2/ 34 5,9

5. Pronounce a word without the stress and in slow

speed of pronouncing

22/ 34 64,7

Part 3: The solutions

1 Measures of teaching english pronunciation by getting students do phonetic exercises

Diphthong /∂Ʊ/ & vowel /ʌ/

Watch out!

- Introduce the transcription of dipthong /∂Ʊ/ & vowel /ʌ/

- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)

- Give examples

/∂Ʊ / go know boat

/ʌ/ son sun country

- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook

- Use the exercises below for further practice

- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud

E1: Put a () the word which is NOT pronounced as /∂Ʊ/in each group below

1  judo

 going

 brother

2 month

 open

 homework

3  rode

some

 close

4  hope

Monday

 post

5  one

 oh

 overseas

6  also

 mother

 no

7  notebook

 ok

 love

8  borrow

 only

 wonderful

E2: Put a () the word which is NOT pronounced as / ʌ/ in each group below

1  club

 study

 student

2  sun

 put

 lunch

3  usually

 subject

 rubber

4  run

 but

 ruler

5  uniform

 much

 hungry

6  us

 under

 discuss

7  uncle

 mum

 music

8  country

 cousin

 about

KEY

E2:

Consonants /S / , /Z / or /IZ/ in “s/ es ” ending

Watch out!

- Introduce the transcription of consonants /s/, /z/ and semi-syllables /iz/

- Explain that they normally come from the “S/ES” ending after plurals, verbs

in the third singular person

- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)

- Give examples

1 The ending “s/es ” is pronounced as /s/ when the verbs ends with the

soumd as /f/, /k/, /p/, /t/, //, /k/

Ex: maps cats laughs books baths

2 The ending “s/es ” is pronounced as /iz/ when the verbs ends with the

soumd as /s/, /ks/, /ʃ/,/dʒ/, /ʒ/, /z/

Ex: misses mixes washes matches messages stages bruises

3 The ending “s/es ” is pronounced as /z/ when the verbs ends with the soumd

as the odd (except the sounds above)

Ex: pens lives

- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook

- Use the exercises below for further practice

- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud

E1 Devide the following things into three groups of plural form which has s/ es pronounced as /S/, /Z/ or /IZ/

E2 Choose a word which has different pronunciation of the underlined

part

1 a opens b gets c.lives d.does

2 a trips b as c does d.listens

3 a drinks b walks c.wants d.finds

4 a.watches b pubblishes c.helps d.passes

5 a sings b meets c.laughs d.stops

6 a eats b talks c.meets d.plays

7 a watches b arranges c.goes d.washes

8 a books b buses c.oranges d.washes

9 a lakes b flowers c trees d stores

10 a yards b fields c books d rivers

KEY E1

bikes

grapes

cups

carrots

beans peas tomatoes scissors eggs shoes clothes

matches boxes oranges fishes sandwiches glasses compasses

Watch out!

- Introduce the transcription of consonant /b/ & /p/

- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)

- Give examples

/b/ bike book buy

/p/ pen put pick

- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook

- Use the exercises below for further practice

- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud

E Write words for the things in the pictures Then read aloud

E2

1.b 2 a 3.d 4.c 5.a 6.d 7.c 8.a 9.a 10 c

KEY bear buicuits peach apple

Vowels /I/, /I:/, /∂/

Watch out!

- Introduce the transcription of vowel /I/, /I:/ &/∂/

- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)

- Give examples

/I/ sit hungry busy orange eraser build

/I:/ he tea green receive people key

/∂/ sister family banaba autumn doctor

dangerous

- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook

- Use the exercises below for further practice

- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud

E1 Write words for the things in the picture in the correct part of the table

building businessman cabbage

family village fish

picture pig river delicious

doctor delicious family picture banana river

E2 Read aloud the following sentences The sentences contain /I/ and /I:/

1 Is he coming to the cinema?

2 We’ll miss the beginning of the film

3 Is it an interesting film, Jim?

4 The beans and the meat were quite cheap

5 He’s going to leave here for the Green Mountains

6 Would you like to have meat, peas and cheese?

Watch out!

- Introduce the transcription of consonant /t/ & /st/

- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat

- Give examples

/t/ ten out top

/st/ street best tallest

- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook

- Use the exercises below for further practice

- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud

E Complete each sentence with a superlative adjective Then read the sentences aloud

1 Mount Everest is the ……… mountain in the world

2 Nile river is the ………river in the world

3 Ba Be lake is not the ……… lake in Viet Nam

4 The Amazon is the ……… river in the world

5 The Sahara is the ……… desert in the world

6 Swimming in the sea in Summer is ………

Consonant / ∫/ & /s/

Watch out!

- Introduce the transcription of consonants /∫/ & /s/

- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)

- Give examples

/ ∫/ she sugar brochure special ocean nation

/s/ sea practice pass city pratise

- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook

- Use the exercises below for further practice

- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud

E1: Write /s/ , / ∫/ or /k/ for the bold letter in the words below.

1 can _ /k/

ocean _ /∫/_

city _ /s/

2 centre _

special

could

3 call

official

slice

4 socialize ancient coral

5 oceanic _

cycle _

cook _

6 cricket

especially _

centimeter _

7 science _

cartoon _

facial _

8 commercial medicine complete E2 Write the sound /t/ , / ∫/ or /t ∫/ for the underline lettter in each word

below.

Ex: tell /t/ picture /t ∫/ nation / ∫/

1 tomorrow 6 motion 11 essential

2 sentence 7 computer 12 century

3 suggestion 8 yesterday 13 future

4 culture 9 natural 14 today

KEY E1.

1 can _ /k/

ocean _ / ∫/

city _ /s/

2 centre /s/

special / ∫/

could /k/ 3 call /k/ official / ∫/

slice /s/ 4 socialize / ∫/

ancient /s/ coral /k/ 5 oceanic / ∫/

cycle /s/ cook /k/ 6 cricket /k/ especially / ∫/ centimeter /s/ 7 science /s/ cartoon /k/ facial / ∫/

8 commercial /s/ medicine / ∫/

complete /k/ E2 1. /t/ 2 /t/ 3./t ∫/ 4, /t ∫/ 5 / ∫/ 6 / ∫/ 7 /t/ 8 / ∫/

9 /t ∫/ 10 / ∫/ 11 / ∫/ 12 /t ∫/ 13 /t ∫/ 14 /t/ 15 / ∫/

2 Result After the lessons above, I had my students taking the following exercises to check how effectiently the research got. E1 Read the word in normal spelling that is pronounced as: 1 / fi∫/ 2 / haus / 3 /mʌnθ/ 4 /di'pend/ 5 /taip/ 6 / 'pi:pl/ 7 /'prɔmis/ 8 / lɑ:dʒ/ 9 /'edju:keit/ 10 /ri'dju:s/ 11 /dʒɑ:/ 12 /jes/ 13 /'ru:lə/ 14 /klaim/ 15 /θɔ:t/ 16 /'bju:tiful/ 17 /'kemist/ 18 /'si:zn/ 19 /si:t/ 20 / sit / 21 /'ti:t∫ə/ 22 /'ti:pɔt/ 23 /'mesidʒ/ 24 /'enədʒi/ 25 /əd'vaiz/ 26 /'krisməs/ 27 /'fɑ:đə/ 28 /'mʌđə/ 29 /'nju:zpeipə/ 30 /,mægə'zi:n/ E2 Write the word in normal spelling that is pronounced as: 1 / mi:t / 11 / bəʊt/

2 / hɔ:s/ 12 / faind/

3 / θru:/ 13 / θi ŋk /

4 /aʊ(r) 14 / ni:d /

5 /sait/ 15 / pein /

6 / flu:/ 16 / pr æktis/

7 / si:n/ 17 / dʒiɒgrəfi/