Improving the students’ english pronunciation through interesting phonic exercises ( grade 6 new english text book)

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

Page

Part B : Solution

III Measures of teaching english pronunciation by getting students do

phonetic exercises

Part C: conclusion

PART A 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 hear, we still understand them what they speak if we know how they link and 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 students' English pronunciation

through interesting phonic exercises."- (grade 6 -new English textbook)

PART B SOLUTION

I THEORITICAL BASIS

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

II THE RESULT OF THE REALITY

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

watches

7 a sandwich b chair

10 a listen b history

c village

c believe

c cook c

then c

classes c

museum c.

school c

photos c

student c

routine

d machine

d bread d

good d

throw d

offices d

sister d

chicken d

weeks d

museum 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 Account

of the for students (%)

1 realize how a letter is pronounced differently in the 2/ 34 5,9

other syllable or word

2 Realize that different letters can be pronounced as the 3/ 34 8,8

same sound

3 can listen and repeat the pronunciation of a word but 33/ 34 97

can’t remember or immagine it looks like

4 know how to integrate a vowel with consonants to 2/ 34 5,9

pronounce a syllable

5. pronounce a word without the stress and in slow 22/ 34 64,7

speed of pronouncing

III 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

- 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/) the word which is NOT pronounced as /∂Ʊ/ in each group below

5  one 6  also 7  notebook 8  borrow

overseas

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

KEY

E1. 1 brother 2 month 3 some 4 Monday

5 one 6 mother 7 love 8 wonderful E2:

1 student 2 put 3 usually 4 ruler

5 uniform 6 us 7 music 8 about

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/

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 messagesstages 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

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

KEY E1.

cups scissors eggs sandwiches glasses

carrots shoes clothes compasses

CONSONANTS /b/ /p/

Watch out!

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

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

-Give examples

- 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

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

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

KEY

building businessman cabbage doctor delicious

picture pig river delicious 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?

CONSONANTS /t/ /st/

Watch out!

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

-Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat

-Give examples

- 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 ………

KEY

1 highest 2 longest 3 largest 4 widest 5 hottest 6 best

consonant /∫/ & /s/

Watch out!

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

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

-Give examples

- 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/ 2 centre 3 call _ 4 socialize _ ocean _ /∫/_ special _ official _ ancient _

city _ /s/ could _ slice _ coral _

5 oceanic _ 6 cricket 7 science _ 8 commercial

cycle _ especially cartoon _ medicine

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

5.national 10 optional 15 statue

1 can _ /k/ 2 centre /s/ 3 call /k/

ocean _ / ∫ / special / ∫ / official / ∫ /

city _ /s/ could /k/ slice /s/

5 oceanic / ∫ / 6 cricket /k/ 7 science /s/

cycle /s/ especially / ∫ / cartoon /k/

cook /k/ centimeter /s/ facial / ∫ /

4 socialize / ∫ / ancient /s/

coral /k/

8 commercial /s/ medicine / ∫ /

complete /k/ E2.

5 / ∫ / 6 / ∫ / 7 /t/ 8 / ∫ /

9 /t ∫ / 10 / ∫ / 11 / ∫ / 12 /t ∫ /

13 /t ∫ / 14. /t/ 15 / ∫ /

CONSONANT / / & /ð/

Watch out!

- Introduce the transcription of consonants / / & /ð/

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

- Give examples

/ / think thin thank fifth

/ð/ this that there then

- 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 / / or /ð/ to show “ th”in the following words is pronounced.

…………

…………

…………

E2 Choose the word th in both pronounced diferently from the others in each group

1 a theme b then

2 a death b bath

3 a month b northern

4 a both b month

5 a toothache b another

6 a that b they

7 a thrill b clothe

8 a smooth b think

9 a theft b theory

10 a feather b asthma

11 a sixth b three

KEY

15./ /

E2 1 b 2.c 3.b 4.d 5.a 6.d

7.b 8.a 9.a 10 b 11.c

c three d tenth

c south d north

c cloth d weather

c feather d clothing

c breath d thatch

c thick d Thursday

c thing d themselves

c brother d mother

4./ / 5./ /

9 /ð/ 10 / /

DIPTHONGS /i∂/ & /e∂/

Watch out!

-Introduce the transcription of dipthongs /i ∂/ & /e∂/

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

-Give examples

- 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 Find a word which doesn’t have / I ə/

4 a dearth b career c engineer d volunteer

6 a fear b search c experience d beer

7 a atmosphere b cheerful c blear d pearl

KEY 1.d 2.b 3 c 4.a 5.c 6.b 7.d

E2 How many / e∂ / are there in each sentence? Underline it.

1 _ Where there is a will, where there is a way

2 _ Her parents often eat pears after dinner

3 _ Where did you get your hair cut?

4 _ There is a magazine under the chair

5 _ The man repairing the chair is Lan’s father

6 _ We don’t care if she dares to say the truth

7 _ She like wearing her long hair

8 _ I haven’t seen my pair of shoes

9 _ Have you looked upstairs?

10. _ It’s over there

KEY

E2 How many / e∂ / are there in each sentence? Underline it.

1 (4) Where there is a will, where there is a way

2 (2) Her parents often eat pears after dinner

3 (2) Where did you get your hair cut?

4 (2) There is a magazine under the chair

5 (2) The man repairing the chair is Lan’s father

6 (2) We don’t care if she dares to say the truth

7 (2) She like wearing her long hair