Improving grade 6 students dipthongs of english pilot program at thuong xuan town secondary school

INITIATIVE EXPERIENCEIMPROVING THE WAY TO PRONUNCE ENGLISH THE DIPTHONGS SOUNDS OF GRADE 6 STUDENTS AT THI TRAN SECONDARY SCHOOL THUONG XUAN DISTRICT Impementer: Hoàng Thị Nga Position

INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE

IMPROVING THE WAY TO PRONUNCE ENGLISH THE DIPTHONGS SOUNDS OF GRADE 6 STUDENTS

AT THI TRAN SECONDARY SCHOOL

THUONG XUAN DISTRICT

Impementer: Hoàng Thị Nga

Position: Teacher

Place of work: Thi Tran secondary school

Initiative of experience in the field: English

THANH HOA, 2020

INDEX 1

1.2 The purpose of research

1.1 Reasons for choosing the theme

Education and training play a significant role in the development process

of the country In the current period, the country is on the path of reform,opening-up policy relations with the countries of the world increased

significantly Extensive communication with the countries in the world inEnglish, the international language, has become more more and common andattention.

In the process of teaching English I have noticed that practicing Englishpronunciation is the misery of our students, especially students in grade 6whether they have been studying for 3 years at the elementary level and in theend they still do not get the standard English pronunciation Is learning how topronounce so difficult that can not be learned? Or inappropriate teachingmethods? Is textbook structure irrational? Or Don’t they know how to learn? According to the old textbook program, the students did not learn aboutpronunciation so their spelling good or bad depends on the teachers They leantEnglish pronounciation without rules and methods That is why after 7 or 10years learning English, they still find difficulties in speaking and communicatingeven they can speak fluently, others can’t understand what they are expressing2opying of the mistakes Besides, the pilot program presents the vocabulary, thegrammar items tobe leaned and 2opying2e through the skills and activities of theunit, it also focuses on pronunciation Two or three sounds, which frequentlyappear in the unit are targeted and 2opying2e in isolation and in context of “Acloser look 1”

To help students participate in the English pilot program and overcome

this obstacle, I choose the content “Improving the way to pronounce English

dipthongs sounds of grade 6 students at Thi Tran Secondary School, Thuong Xuan district’’

1.2 The purpose of research

Aims

In order to help students in grade 6 of pilot program at Thi TranSecondary School, Thuong Xuan District, Thanh Hoa Province understand thesound system in English, especially combination vowel sounds (diphthongs) areenrolled at the second semester in the textbook 6 Thereby, the students haveaware of the importance of phonetics in learning English in general and inparticular to communicate in English so they can understand what other peoplesay and what they say that others can understand

Requirements

To success in the study, the requirement for the topic is that the teacher has

to help students know how to pronounce dipthongs /eә /; /iә /; / әu/; /ai/; /aʊ /;/ɔi/ and do exercises correctly Teacher provides them with the best way to assistthem how to pronounce these dipthongs correctly through the illusions andexamples Students have to attend regularly and obey their teacher’srequirements

1.3 Sores and objects of the study

Scores

As far as we know, teaching how to pronounce and how to do phoneticsexercises is a complicating and 3opying3e area specially 6 dipthongs /eә /; /iә /; /әu/; /ai/; /aʊ /; /ɔi/ with students in grade 6 There are a lot of things to mentionbut in this study I only focus on the following fields:

- Giving definition and how to pronounce these dipthongs

- Collect exercises containing these dipthongs to help students 3opying3listening and speaking at home

- How to do exercises relating to these dipthongs

Objectives

As I have said my study is aimed at improving my students’ pronounciation

of dipthongs and help them to solve some difficulties in doing phoneticsexercises so my objectives if the study is:

- Students in class 6A: 26 Studensts, and 6B: 32 students Total: 58 students

- School: Thi Tran secondary school, Thuong Xuan district

- The combination vowel sounds system in the lessons of the second semestertextbook 6 of the pilot program, including sounds:

Sounds Belong to Units

- Some exercises

1.4 Research methodology

In this study I have used the following methods:

- Investigating the reality

- Read documents that related to research

- Using opinion surveys

- Getting to know phonetic English

- Introducing phonetic symbols in the units

- Organizing to practice pronunciation with these audio visual media

- Doing exercises to check Students’ understanding

- Summarizing, comparing, drawing lesson

1.5 Innivation points

In 2017, I completed the initiative experience “Improving gade 7students’ pronunciation of English pilot program at ThuongXuan Town Secondary School” which refered how to pronounce thevowels and consonants The the initiative experience was admitted level C bythe council of experience innovators In the system of pronunciation, there are

12 vowels, 24 consonants and 8 dipthongs And I hope to continue focusing onthe pronunciation with the improving and applying theory in the real studying

2 CONTENTS

2.1 Theoretical background

Bases

- Basing an the international transcription

- Basing on theory of vowels and consonants

Background information

- Vowels

What are vowels?

A vowel is a speech sound in which airstream from the lungs is not blocked inany way in the mouth or throat and which is usually pronounced with vibration

of the vocal cords

- Dipthongs

Whats are dipthongs?

They are sounds consisting of a movement or gride from one vowel to another

In terms of length, dipthongs are like long vowels

How are dipthongs classed?

- “are” is often pronounced as / eә/

Ex: bare / beәI /

- “ai” + “r” is pronounced as /eә/

Ex: Air /eәI/

- “ea” + “+ “r” is pronounced as /eә/

Ex: bear /beәI/

- “ei” may be pronounced as /eә/

Ex: heir /eәI/

Identify the vowels which are pronounced /əʊ/

- “o” in stressed syllable with consonant or at the end of the word is

- “ow” is pronounced as /әʊ/ when it’s at the end of the word.

Ex: bike/ baik/

- “ui” + consonant + “e” is pronounced as /ai/

Ex: guide/ gaid/

- “y” in one sullable word is pronounced as /aɪ/

Ex: by/ bai/

- “ou” with a consonant is pronounced as / aʊ/

Ex: found /faʊnd/

- “ow” at the end of the word or with a consonant is pronounced as /aʊ/

Ex: tower /taʊәI/

/ɔi/

Description:

/ɔi/ fronting dipthong The tongue moves from //ɔ/ to the front vowel / i/

How to make the sound

Spelling

- “oi” and “oy” is pronounced as /ɔɪ/

Ex: coin /kɔɪn/

2.2 The status of the problem

For students in grade 6 at Thi Tran Secondary School, Thuong Xuandistrict, they have just learned English pilot program for 5 months so theirpronunciation still has many difficulties The pronunciation of the children areforced, many students are not willing to speak for fear of making errors thatalways leads to false in reading, speaking and recognizing the sound of thewords when making phonetic exercises

Through the survey to identify exercises sound /əi/ and /aʊ/ (English 6, page

60)

Exercise: Listen and put the word in the correct column.

Voice down around house boy toy noisy flower shout boilKey:

voiceboytoynoisyboil

downaroundhouseflowershout

* The results (The first semester- school year: 2017-2018)

Cl

ass

Num Correct 9-10 words Correct 7-8words Correct 5-6 words Correct 4words Correct 1-3words

The above results inspired me to do something to help them improve thisdifficulty, or at least help them not to feel afraid, find it less difficult to learnpronounciation.

2.3 Solutions.

Through many years of teaching I see that:

Most of the students pronounced these sounds in the words inaccurately.They also confuses with monopthongs They didn’t also do the phoneticsexercises relating to these sounds effectively Why?

The reasons are that these sounds are difficult sounds They are similar toeach other

The students didn’t give their whole mind to learn these sounds The timeand the exercises for the students to practise are limited

Besides that many of us – the teachers of English didn’t attach specialimportance to teaching phonetics in general and these consonant sounds inparticular We didn’t also have a suitable method to teach these sounds Some of

us only read and asked their students to repeat when teaching these sounds so wedidn’t achieve the good result as we expected

My solution to these is “Improving the way to pronounce English

dipthongs sounds of grade 6 students at Thi Tran Secondary School, Thuong Xuan district’’

The steps of teaching these sounds.

These dipthongs are taught in pairs in three unit 8, 9 and 12 in English 6

To teach these pairs of dipthongs I often follow the following steps:

- First, I divide board into 2 parts, I write two dipthongs on the board andpronounce them clearly twice Ask students to listen and observe

- Second, I show the mouth diagram of the sounds and explain how to makethese sounds

- Third, I pronounce these sounds again and ask students to repeat

- Next, I have students distinguish the sounds with the other dipthong ormonopthong Students listen and compare the differences between twodipthongs

Example: Distinguish sound / i:/ and / iə/

- Then, I read the couples of words and ask students to repeat.

- After that I ask students to look at the sounds in some words and read themloudly

Example: Look at the /iә/ sound in some words.ә/ sound iә/ sound in some words.n some words.

- Some experiences help students do phonetics exercises relating to the

dipthongs /eә /; /iә /; / әu/; /ai/; /aʊ /;/ɔi/

There are some letters transcribed in two different sounds that makestudents confuse easily For example “hear”/ hiә/ and hair / heә/ Someexperiences help students do phonetics exercises relating to the dipthongs /eә /; /

iә /; / әu/; /ai/; /aʊ /; /ɔi/ So in this study I also give out some of my experiences

when doing phonetics exercises – find out the word that has the underlined partpronounced differently from the others- relating to the sounds I often teach thispart in revisions or in extra-lessons because the time in class is not enough Inthis part, I often give out some signals to help students do this kind of exercisesbetter

Application

Unit 8: SPORTS AND GAMES

In this unit the students are gained 2 diphthongs / iә/ and / eә/

a Diphthong / iə/

* How to make the sound?

ɪә/ is a long vowel sound

It starts with /ɪ/ and moves to /ә/

It’s pronounced /ɪә/ /ɪә/

* Practice:

1 Distinguish sound / i:/ and / iә/

2 Have a beer, cheer! / hæv ә bɪәr tʃɪәr/

3 Is there a bank near here? /ɪz ðeәr ә bæŋk nɪәr hɪәr/

4 The meaning isn’t really clear /ðә ˈmiːnɪŋ ˈɪznt ˈrɪәli klɪәr/

5 I have these ears a hundred years /aɪ hæv ðiːz ɪәrz ә ˈhʌndrәd jɪәrz/

* Identify the vowels which are pronounced /ɪə/

* Exercise: Listen and under line the words which pronounce /ɪә/

Meterial here idea appear near parent

yeah

b Diphthong / eə/

* How to make the sound

/eә/ is a long vowel sound

It starts with /e/ and moves to /ә/ It’s pronounced /eә/ /eә/

2 Look at the /eə/ sound in some words.

3 Listen /eə/ sound in some sentences.

1 Look at that airplane /lʊk әt ðæt ˈeәpleɪn/

2 Up there, in the air, of course /ʌp ðeәr ɪn ði eәr әv kɔːrs/

3 The fair hair man ran in the sand /ðә feәr heәr mæn ræn ɪn ðә sænd/

4 Where are the spare pairs Stan and Dan wear? /weәr әr ðә speәr peәrz stæn әndæn weәr/

*Identify the vowels which are pronounced /eə/

1 “ear “ is often pronounced as / eә/

Fare /feәI/ tiền vé

* Exceptions:

2 “ai” + “r” is pronounced as /eә/

3 “ea” + “+ “r” is pronounced as /eә/

4 “ei” may be pronounced as /eә/

* Exercise:

1 Listen and underline the words have the / eə/ sound

2 Choose the word with underline part pronouced differently from that of the others.

chair

UNIT 9: CITIES OF THE WORLD

In this unit the students are gained 2 diphthongs / ai/ and /әʊ/

a Diphthong / əʊ/.

* How to make the sound

- /әʊ/ is a long vowel sound

It begins with /ә/ and move to /ʊ/.It’s pronounced /әʊ/ /әʊ/

* Practice

1 Distinguish /ɔ: / and /әʊ/ sound.

caught / k ɔ:t /nought / nɔ:t /bought / bɔ: t/

3 Look at the /əʊ/ sound in some sentences.

1 I don’t know /aɪ dәʊnt nәʊ/

2 My toes are cold /maɪ tәʊz әr kәʊld/

3 Is the window open? /ɪz ðә ˈwɪndәʊ ˈәʊpәn/

4 She phoned me in October /ʃi fәʊnd mi ɪn ɒkˈtәʊbәr/

5 They showed us their home /ðeɪ ʃәʊd әs ðer hәʊm/

*Identify the vowels which are pronounced /əʊ/

1 “o “ in stressed syllable with consonant or at the end of the word is

13opying13ed as /әʊ/ e

4 “ow” is pronounced as /әʊ/ when it’s at the end of the word.

tomorrow /tәˈmɒrәʊ/ ngày mai

* Exercises: Listen the dialogue and find out the /әʊ/ sound.

A: Hugo

B: Oh, no What’s the matter Amit?

A: Come, look at the window

B: No, my eyes are closed and I’m going back to sleep

A: Oh, no Hugo Don’t go to sleep Come look at the snow

B: Snow? But it’s only 15 opying I know there’s no snow

A: Come over there the window

b Diphthong /ai/

* How to make sound.

aɪ/ is a long vowel sound

It starts with /ɑː/ and moves to /ɪ/ It’s pronounced /aɪ/ /aɪ/

tour guide /tʊәr ɡaɪd/

2 Diә/ sound in some words.stiә/ sound in some words.nguiә/ sound in some words.sh two sounds / a:/ and /aiә/ sound in some words./

3 Look at the sound /ai/ in some sentences.

1 Drive on the right /draɪv ɒn ðә raɪt/

Why don’t you try? /waɪ dәʊnt juː traɪ/

2 Do you like dry wine? /du ju laɪk draɪ waɪn/

3 I’m twice your size, Lisa /aɪm twaɪs jʊr saɪz ‘lɪzә/

4 That guy might buy my cycle./ ðæt ɡaɪ maɪt baɪ maɪ ‘saɪkl/

* Identify the vowels which are pronounced /aɪ/

1 “i” the letter in one syllable word ending with a consonant is pronounced as /aɪ/

Site /saɪt/ nơi chỗ, vị trí

2 “ei” is pronounced as/aɪ/ in some case

Either /ˈaɪðәI/ một trong hai, cả hai

Seismic /ˈsaɪzmɪk/ (thuộc) động đất

3 “ie” at the end of the word is 16opying16ed as /aɪ/

4 “ui” + consonant + “ e” is pronounced as /ai/

Require /rɪˈkwaɪәI/ đòi hỏi, yêu cầu

5 “y “ in one sullable word is pronounced as /aɪ/

My /maɪ/ chàng trai

* Exercise: Listen and write the words you hear in appropriate column

1 New York is an exiting city with many skycrspers.

2 It’s very cold in Sweden in the winter with a lot of snow.

3 I like looking at tall buildings at night

4 You can go boating on the West Lake It’s nice.

5 Write and tell me how to cook Thai curry.

Unit 12: ROBOTS

In this unit students are gained two diphthongs /ɔi/ and /aʊ/

a Diphthong /ɔi/

* How to make the sound.

/ɔɪ/ is a long vowel sound

It starts with /ɒ/ and moves to /ɪ/.It’s pronounced /ɔɪ/ /ɔɪ/

3 Look at the /ɔi/ sound in some sentences.

1 Boy’s toys are noisy /bɔɪz tɔɪz әr ‘nɔɪzi/

2 Troy’s ploy was foiled /tʃɔɪz plɔɪ wәz fɔɪld/

3 Those are coins, not toys /ðәʊz әr kɔɪz nɒt tɔɪz/

4 The boy pointed to the poison /ðә bɔɪ pɔɪntd tә ðә ‘pɔɪzn/

5 The spoiled boys destroy Floyd’s joy /ðә spɔɪld bɔɪz dɪˈstrɔɪ flɔɪdz dʒɔɪ/

* Identify the vowels which are pronounced /ɔɪ/.