Some pronunciation problems and tips to improve them

So English learning is also very important for students as well as for their future.That’s why the Ministry of Education and Training has decided to teach english for children at primary

1.1 The reasons for this topic

Nowadays English has been accepted as the dominant means of communication, both written and spoken in most of the world Especially, in the period of global intergration and development ,the world becomes smaller and smaller So English learning is also very important for students as well as for their future.That’s why the Ministry of Education and Training has decided to teach english for children at primary school.Although english has being tought

at primary school for several years, the quality of teaching and learning this subject is not good,especcially a lot of students have met difficulties in communication.There are many different reasons which effect on it.One of the reasons is that we did only take care of teaching vocabulary and grammar for students without paying attention much in developing skills as well as pronunciation.Even if their vocabulary and grammar are perfect,it can be still difficult to understand and communicate in english because of pronunciation During the daily communications, we often find some misunderstandings being caused by inappropriate pronunciation Sometimes such mispronunciations will offend the international guests Thus mispronunciation is significant and we should pay close attention to the problem I decided I would try to tackle the teaching of pronunciation in order to help my students with their English pronunciation

In my opinion, to be a good English teacher in Primary school, the key issue is to make the children learn English by listening and speaking in the way they learn their mother-tongue This helps them to have more fluent second-language acquisition in oral English Above all, the most important part of learning a second language rests on pronunciation And this has concerned me most from the very beginning of my teaching-career These particular learning-needs intrigued me and influenced my point of view about how to guide students

in their English study as a second language

In order to help the English learners in my school express themselves in as clear and accurate way as they can, basic knowledge of phonetics and pronunciation is very important to them from the outset If they don't know how

to pronounce each word or sentence in the right way, this is sure to lead to the failure of communication or even develop a vicious circle in which they will involve their future job-market later They would still have a long way to go before they could master English and use it well as a tool to communicate with native English speakers Furthermore, in order to do more research work, basic knowledge became even more important as the world was now changing so rapidly

We have changed our minds and are beginning to meet the demands of society, and for a better situation of our teaching I am a teacher of language, so

I want to breathe new life into my work to enable it to step onto this new stage I have been trying to change, not only myself, but also my students - the coming

future owners of our country I enjoy teaching English and thus I care about what is happening to it That is the reason I decided to spend much time on

studying “ Some pronunciation problems and tips to improve them”.

1.2 The aim of reseaching.

Pronunciation is the basic skill of mastering a foreign language, language

skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Pronunciation and intonation practice will help them form the right habit to enable them to acquire the appropriate information for themselves for their overall learning

Good knowledge of pronunciation will also make students become autonomous learners, and this is fundamental for their life-long learning What the students got from this learning process rightly meets the standards on helping students to acquire the necessary critical thinking skills

In order to help the English learners in my school express themselves in as

clear and accurate way as they can, basic knowledge of phonetics and pronunciation is very important to them from the outset If they don't know how

to pronounce each word or sentence in the right way, this is sure to lead to the failure of communication or even develop a vicious circle in which they will involve their future job-market later They would still have a long way to go before they could master English and use it well as a tool to communicate with native English speakers Furthermore, in order to do more research work, basic knowledge became even more important as the world was now changing so rapidly

Learning to pronounce English correctly can be one of the hardest parts of learning English The English laguage has some sounds that our native language might not, so we have to know how to make completely new sounds Plus, English vowels make really stricky to know how to say a word “way”,“weigh” and “whey” are all said the same, for example, while “comb”, and “tomb” are all pronounced differently.So, that’s why we have the tips to help students pronounce English words better

1.3 The subject of reseach

To be a primary teacher of english,I realise that pronunciation is the tissue which I am concerned to research.It is necessary for students to get correct pronunciation That is why I choose this subject to reseach

1.4 The methodology

I conceive that a variety of potential ways to reseach were also listed in these categories: theory foundation, existing information, tests, statistics and survey, interviews, questionnaires All these tools shared three important characteristics that must be considered in selecting or creation them: reliability, validity, and usability

2.1 The theory

My concern reveals itself to be closely associated with the bases of the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing I put forward a case that the effort to master the sound system and to pronounce correctly,are key aspects of learning a second language As clarification I give some technical details on aspects of sounds of speech, including articulation, vowel formation, accent, inflection, and intonation, with reference to the correctness or acceptability of the speech sounds I also provide some descriptions of new classroom teaching-methods for pronunciation I include comments from students, reveal statistics of their scores, quote from expert sources in linguistics, and show the results of a questionnaire

Good knowledge in spoken English can help my students speak good English and can also help them form a good basis for further English study Pronunciation plays an important role in its spelling, grammar, and even the meaning of a sentence Literature shows us panoramas of ancient masterpieces, the knowledge of phonetics can help us read them freely And from the spelling

we also get to know the changes of English Language through history

Giving a special training in teaching pupils English in the right way without a Vietmanese accent or Vietnamese way of speaking English, for better and accurate communication

Certain skills for language study are very important for my students in order to help them overcome language problems Solving the problems can be attempted under my guidance Each week I tried to teach them the right pronunciation of the international alphabets and correct them one by one

For a beginning student, adequate pronunciation will include control of the vowel and consonant phonemes, statement and question intonation, and stress and rhythm, patterns for simple utterances, At intermediate and advanced levels, pronunciation practice should concentrate on the allophonic variants, intonation patterns of complex sentences, contrastive stress patterns and the affective devices by which native speakers indicate anger, amusement, sympathy, etc which, of course, will not be dealt with by high school students, but we can help

the students to get the feel of them anyway

2.2Current status of subject.

Are people having trouble understanding us when we speak, but we’re not really sure why? The hardest part about improving our English pronunciation is figuring out what we might be doing wrong Here are the top 6 reasons why people might be misunderstanding us

1. Stressing individual words incorrectly and stressing the wrong words in

a sentence.

a.Word stress

If we usually speak with native English speakers, this will be the number one reason why they misunderstand us It’s very hard for native English

speakers to ‘translate’ a word spoken as ‘caLENdar’ to the way they would pronounce it, ‘CALendar’

Non-native English speakers don’t have as much of a problem with this, and will probably still understand what we’re trying to say

Remember that we can completely change the meaning of a sentence by stressing different words in that sentence For example, we could say this sentence in a number of different ways:

“I didn’t say we should drive this way.”

If we stress “ I”, we emphasize that taking that route wasn’t our idea On the other hand, if we stress “ drive”, we emphasize the mode of transport

If we don’t pay close attention to the words that you stress, we could end up sending a completely different message than the one you intended

To communicate clearly when we are speaking in English, it’s important

to stress the correct syllables in each word This is called word stress, which means pronouncing one syllable of a multisyllabic word with greater emphasis (stress) than the other syllables in the word

b Sentence Stress

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, even rapid spoken English

Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat" You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence

Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds

"music" to the language It is the rhythm of the English language It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language The time between each stressed word is the same

2 Intonation

Intonation and stress are closely linked In fact it's impossible to dissociate them They go hand in hand

Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the way the voice rises and falls when speaking, in other words the music of the language

Just as words have stressed syllables, sentences have regular patterns of stressed words In addition, the voice tends to rise, fall or remain flat depending

on the meaning or feeling we want to convey (surprise, anger, interest, boredom, gratitude, etc.) Intonation therefore indicates the mood of the speaker

3 Pronouncing certain consonant sounds incorrectly

If people are misunderstanding you, it could very well be due to you confusing what we call ‘voiced’ and ‘unvoiced’ sounds You might substitute ‘p’ for ‘b’ or ‘t’ for ‘d’, for example These sounds are so easily confused because their only difference is whether or not you use your voice to produce them If you aren’t careful, you could be making mistakes like saying ‘tuck’ for ‘duck’ or

‘pay’ for ‘bay’

4 Mixing up short and long vowel sounds

Vowel sounds, like consonant sounds, can also be confused easily The main problem with vowels happens when you mix up long and short vowel sounds For example, the long ‘ee’ sound in ‘seat’ with the short ‘i’ sound in

‘sit.’ If you confuse these sounds, you end up saying completely different words This can get confusing in conversation and forces people to draw much more from the context of your speech than the speech itself

5 Connected speech

Pronunciation is crucial, but it’s not everything You can pronounce every individual word like a native speaker, but still not talk like one That’s because you also need to have the right flow

So, what exactly makes the flow of English?

One important element is “connected speech.” This refers to the way the end of one word and the beginning of the next word sometimes interact in English.If we do not know it we will have difficulty in communicationThese are popular ways of connecting speech

- Join two sounds

-Link two sounds

-Get rid of a sound

-Use contractions

6 Forgetting to finish your words

Do you have a tendency to let your word endings drop? I often hear people drop the ‘ed’ ending off of words in the past tense, for example This is a dangerous mistake because not only is your pronunciation wrong, but it also sounds like you’re making a grammatical mistake People could judge you based

on this type of error

Infactly,The students have poor pronunciation, perhaps very weak in oral skills.Though the students may have learned a lot about the rules of the language, they cannot apply them in writing, much less in speaking.The class tends to be dull, and the students are often overloaded

From the traditional ways of learning English, we often found that the

students neglected the basic knowledge of speaking In the years when we had less communication with foreign countries, this may have been enough to meet the demands of English However, the situation changed greatly when we stepped into the new century, with the internet, and with these extended forms ofcommunication with Western countries, oral communication began to be more and more important than at any other time Understanding by reading or writing would no longer be sufficient for the development of the economy We needed to understand and communicate face to face personally or through the internet This initiative stems students who mispronounce and be not self-confident in communication.Through many years of teaching experience shows that students often mispronunce, be not self-confident in using English to communicate

This is the result of survey in class 4A and 4B before I apply this initiative:

2.3 The solutions I used for improving pronunciation are the following: 2.3.1 Add stress to sounds and words

English is a stressed language.That means some words and sounds are more important than others.We can hear this when we say a word out loud.For example, the word “ introduce” is pronounced with the stress at the end of the word, so it sounds like this : “ in-tro-DUCE”

Sometimes where we put the stress in a word can change the word’s meaning For example: if we said “ PREsent”, you are talking about a noun that means a gift If you said “ PreSENT”, you are talking about a verb that means “

to give”.Most two –syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable,and most two-syllable verbs are stressed on the second syllable.Sentences have stresses too.Some words are more important and said with more clarity and strength than the rest of the sentence.Notice our students that we slow down every time we get

to an important word, and quickly pass over the less important ones

Listen carefully to the way people around you pronounce their words If you hear a pronunciation that is different from yours, check the dictionary (even

if it’s a common word) to be sure that you’re stressing it correctly

Think about placing added emphasis on the word that is most important to your meaning You can add emphasis by lengthening the word, saying it slightly louder and/or changing the pitch of your voice slightly

a Word stress

To communicate clearly when we are speaking in English, it’s important to stress the correct syllables in each word This is called word stress, which means pronouncing one syllable of a multisyllabic word with greater emphasis (stress) than the other syllables in the word Here are four general rules to keep in mind about word stress as you practice pronunciation:

-Stress the first syllable of:

+Most two-syllable nouns (examples: CLImate, KNOWledge)

+Most two-syllable adjectives (examples: FLIPpant, SPAcious)

-Stress the last syllable of:

+Most two-syllable verbs (examples: reQUIRE, deCIDE)

-Stress the second-to-last syllable of:

+Words that end in -ic (examples: ecSTATic, geoGRAPHic)

+Words ending in -sion and -tion (examples: exTENsion, retriBUtion)

-Stress the third-from-last syllable of:

+Words that end in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy (examples: deMOCracy,

unCERtainty, geOGraphy, radiOLogy)

+Words that end in -al (examples: exCEPtional, CRItical)

Keep these simple rules in mind and you will soon find your pronunciation getting better and better!

b Sentence Stress

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, even rapid spoken English Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat" You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence

Most sentences have two basic types of word:

-Content words

Content words are the key words of a sentence They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense—the real content

-Structure words

Structure words are not very important words They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically They give the sentence its correct form , its structure

If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence

If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will not understand the sentence The sentence has no sense or meaning

Imagine that you receive this telegram message:

This sentence is not complete It is not a "grammatically correct" sentence But you probably understand it These 4 words communicate very well Somebody wants you to sell their car for them because they have gone

to France We can add a few words:

The new words do not really add any more information But they make the message more correct grammatically We can add even more words to make one complete, grammatically correct sentence But the information is basically the same:

In our sentence, the 4 key words (sell, car, gone, France) are accentuated

or stressed

Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds

"music" to the language It is the rhythm of the English language It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language The time between each stressed word is the same

In our sentence, there is 1 syllable between SELL and CAR and 3 syllables between CAR and GONE But the time (t) between SELL and CAR

and between CAR and GONE is the same We maintain a constant beat on the

stressed words To do this, we say "my" more slowly, and "because I've" more quickly We change the speed of the small structure words so that the

rhythm of the key content words stays the same

2.3.2 INTONATION

There are two basic patterns of intonation in English: falling intonation and rising intonation We sometimes use a combination of rising and falling intonation in the same sentence

The combination is called Rise-Fall or Fall-Rise intonation

In the following examples a downward arrow (➘) indicates a fall in intonation and an upward arrow (➚) indicates a rise in intonation

Again, these are not rules but patterns generally used by native speakers of English

Just remember that content words are stressed, and intonation adds attitude

or emotion

This explanation on intonation is intended to serve as a general guide to help learners

It should in no way make them unnecessarily anxious!

It should be remembered that a written explanation can never be a substitute for a 'live' conversation with a native speaker

Attitudinal intonation is something that is best acquired through talking and listening to English speakers

a Falling Intonation (➘)

(The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.)

Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern in English

It is commonly found in statements, commands, wh-questions (information questions),confirmatory question tags and exclamations

- Statements

Nice to meet ↘you

I’ll be back in a ↘minute

Here is the weather ↘forecast

I'm going for a walk in the ↘park

- Commands

Write your name ↘here

Take that picture ↘ down

Put your books on the ↘table

Take your hands out of your ↘pockets

- Wh- questions (requesting information.)

(questions beginning with 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and

'how')

Where do you come ↘from?

Where do you ↘work?

How many books do you ↘have?

Whose bag is ↘this?

- Questions Tags

Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than questions

Not all tag questions are really questions

Some of them merely ask for confirmation or invite agreement, in which case we use a falling tone at the end

He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘he?

She's such a nuisance, isn't ↘she?

I failed the test because I didn't revise, did ↘ I?

It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ↘ it?

- Exclamations

How nice of ↘ you!

That's just what I ↘need!

What a beautiful ↘ voice!

That's a ↘surprise!

b Rising Intonation (➚)

(The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.)

Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking

It is normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags that are real questions

- Yes/no Questions

(Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.)

Do you like your new ➚teacher?

Have you finished ➚already?

May I borrow your ➚dictionary?

Do you have any ➚magazines?

- Questions tags

Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real questions)

We've met already, ➚haven't we?

You like fish, ➚don't you?

You're a new student ➚aren't you?

The view is beautiful, ➚isn't it?

c Rise-Fall Intonation (➚➘)

(The intonation rises and then falls.)

We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and conditional sentences

- Choices (alternative questions.)

Are you having ➚soup or ➘salad?

Is John leaving on ➚Thursday or ➘Friday?

Does he speak ➚German or ➘French?

Is your name ➚Ava or ➘Eva?

- Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling)

Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is finished

We've got ➚apples, pears, bananas and ➘oranges

The sweater comes in ➚blue, white pink and ➘black

I like ➚football, tennis, basketball and ➘volleyball

I bought ➚a tee-shirt, a skirt and a ➘handbag

-Unfinished thoughts

(partial statements)

In the responses to the following questions, the rise-fall intonation indicates reservation

The speaker hesitates to fully express his/her thoughts

Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚leather is ➘nice ( but I don't like it.)

What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚fish was ➘good (but the rest wasn't great)

So you both live in Los Angeles? Well ➚Alex ➘does (but I don't)

- Conditional sentences

(The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the second clause.)

If he ➚calls, ask him to leave a ➘message

Unless he ➚insists, I'm not going to ➘go

If you have any ➚problems, just ➘contact us

d Fall-Rise Intonation (➘➚)

(The voice falls and rises usually within one word.)

The main function of fall-rise intonation is to show that the speaker is not certain of the answer they are giving to a question, or is reluctant to reply (as opposed to a falling tone used when there is no hesitation) It is also used in polite requests or suggestions

- Hesitation/reluctance:

So you'd be willing to confirm that? Well I ➘sup➚pose so

You didn't see him on Monday? I don't quite ➘re➚member

- Politeness-Doubt-Uncertainty:

(You are not sure what the answer might be.)

Perhaps we could ➘vis➚it the place?

Should we ➘cop➚y the list?

Do you think it's ➘al➚lowed?

A good exercise to improve pronunciation would be to listen to short recordings of everyday dialogues and then 'shadow read' the script, or read it along with the tape using the same stress and intonation as the speaker Students