SOME EFFECTIVE METHODS AND TIPS OF PHONETICS TEACHING AND TRAINING FOR GRADE 10 TSUDENTS IN ENGLISH LESSONS

Effective English language teaching and learning programs are constantly being applied in order to improve professional compentence and pedagogical quality for both teachers and students

1 INTRODUCTION.

1.1 THE REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC.

Vietnam is in the process of industrialization , modernization and integration with international communities Therefore, Vietnamese people in general, the Youth in particular must have advanced knowledge to meet the higher and higher demands of the country, keep pace with the storming development as well as the changes of social and economic life nowaday It is strongly believed that reforming education and training is an essential factor to provide the young generation with standard qualities, such as good professional ability, being hard - working, confidence and foreign language proficiency, especially English That is the reason why the goverment has urgently been reforming education and training, in the recent years

We are in the 21st century - the century of globalization, so English has

a very important meaning The popularization of English in our country today is being given special attention by the Party and the government The strategies of teaching foreign languages in general, and teaching English at uper secondary schools in particular are posing new tasks, requiring teachers to deeply grasp purposes, objects and principles Effective English language teaching and learning programs are constantly being applied in order to improve professional compentence and pedagogical quality for both teachers and students Moreover,

to fulfill their tasks well, teachers must also love their jobs, love their students, regularly raise teaching competence, propose creative ideas and effective methods in teaching activities

Stemming from the characteristics of a English language, learners must pay intense attention to four main skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing In learning speaking skill, students often face with pronunciation difficulty and how to disguise the sounds Thus, I sincerely would like to

present the experience initiative named "SOME EFFECTIVE METHODS

AND TIPS OF PHONETICS TEACHING AND TRAINING FOR GRADE

10 TSUDENTS IN ENGLISH LESSONS”

1.2 THE PURPOSE OF STUDY.

In the scope of this experience initiative, I would like to mention teaching and practicing correctly pronouncing English sounds, words, and phrases for students, aiming to meet the development process of modern English language The ultimate goal is to help students solve pronounciation difficulties, be confident in speaking and communicate in English

I sincely hope that this topic will contribute to raise the quality of learning English for my students Moreover, in more and more increasing globalisation context, I sincerely desire to share my experience of teaching and testing phonetics through some types of exercises for grade 10 students in English lessons with my colleagues

1.3 THE OBJECT OF STUDY

In this topic, my main concerns are to reseach effective methods and tips for teaching and practising phonetics through some types of exercises for grade 10 students in English lessons From that, I would like to form the true consciousness and confidence for my students in well solving pronuciation mistakes to obtain correct pronunciation, good intonation and fluent English speaking skill

I also would like to research to find out the most suitable methods in order to raise the students’ passion in learning English in general, speaking English in particular in uper secondary level

1.4 THE METHODS OF STUDY.

In the studying course of my own topic, I myself carry out investigation and analyse methods from the practical requirements with the learned knowledge to draw conclusions for the study, such as:

- Theoretical and experimental experience in present environment to build up the subject

- Read and study the related documents to draw good experiences to apply for my own teaching

- Observe and collect information about students’ speaking and pronuciation learning as well as their feelings, thoughts and opinions about the subject

- Having statistics and compare the result of study of students through tests and surveys

2 THE CONTENTS OF INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE.

2.1 THE THEORETICAL BASIC OF THE TOPIC.

2.1.1 RELATED GUIDELINES AND DOCUMENTS.

2.1.1.1 Circular No 14/2002/ Cir - MOE issued on April 1st, 2002 to direct and thoroughly grasp innovation policy in secondary school

2.1.1.2 According to Official document No 463 / MOE issued on January 28th,

2015 to direct the deployment and realisation of life skill education in indergaten schools, secondary schools and continuing education centers

2.1.1.3 According to Official document No 3131/CT-BGDĐT issued on August

25th, 2020 to guide the realisation of the mission of school year 2020- 2021

2.1.2 DEFINITIONS.

2.1.2.1 Linguistics.

- Linguistics is the scientific study of language including:

+ its sound systems called PHONETICS and PHONOLOGY

+ its word structures called MORPHOLOGY

+ its sentense structures called SYNTAX

+ its word formation called LEXICOLOGY

+ its word meaning called SEMANTICS

+ its social context called SOCIO-LINGUISTICS

- Phonetics and phonology is a branch of linguistics

2.1.2.2 Phonology or phonemics.

- Phonology or phonemics is the scientific study of the system of phonenems in spoken languages It also studies how languages or dialects systematically organise their sound (or sign in sign language) Phonology is a branch of linguitics that deals with functional or practical aspect of sounds Phonemic transcription without allophones is used in this field of study

- The term of PHONEMICS has been used by American linguists Lately, the term PHONOLOGY has been preferred

2.1.2.3 Phonetics.

- Phonetics is the scientific study and classification of speech sounds made by the human voice Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and percieve sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign The field of phonetics is traditionally divided into three

sub-disciplines based on the research questions involved such as how humans plan and execute movements to produce speech (articulatory phonetics), how different movements affect the properties of the resulting sound (acoustic phonetics), or how humans convert sound waves to linguistic information (auditory phonetics)

- Phonetics broadly deals with two aspects of human speech: production—the ways humans make sounds—and perception—the way speech is understood The communicative modality of a language describes the method by which a language produces and perceives languages Languages with oral-aural modalities such as English produce speech orally (using the mouth) and perceive speech aurally (using the ears) Sign languages, such as Auslan and ASL, have a manual-visual modality, producing speech manually (using the hands) and perceiving speech visually (using the eyes) ASL and some other sign languages have in addition a manual-manual dialect for use in tactile signing by deafblind speakers where signs are produced with the hands and perceived with the hands

as well

2.1.2.4 Phoneme.

- Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words

- Both phonetics and phonology study and describe the distinctive sound units or phonemes of a language and the relationship to one another

- English has 44 phonemes which are classified into 24 consonants, 12 vowels and 8 diphthongs

2.1.3 FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH PRONONCIATION.

Marx said: "The spider performs the weaver's manipulation, the bee builds the wax hive, which may make any architect ashamed; but no matter how bad an architect is, in the first place, he is different from the best bee in the point that before using wax to build his nest, he built it in his own mind" Humans are different from animals in their thinking ability and language Language is the most special and important means of communication for humans to form society

In the process of learning English, four skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing are always paid more attention, but in fact, phonetics is an indispensable factor contributing to communicating or practicing the skills In

my opinion, there are a number of factors that affect English pronunciation

2.1.3.1 Mother tongue migration: Because the learners 'mother tongue

influences the pronunciation of English, teachers need to have a certain

understanding of the sound system of the learners' native language to be able to give a suitable teaching method Affirm the difficulties as well as advantages in learning English pronunciation so that you can guide and correct for learners in pronunciation of difficult sounds - most of these sounds are not included in the sound system of their native language Vietnamese learners of English often have difficulty in pronoucing the beginning sounds such as: / δ / and / θ /, and the ending sounds like: / z /, / s / and / ή /, /ʃ /, /tʃ /, /dӡ/, / ӡ /, are also difficult sounds for Vietnamese people to learn English In addition, in some cases, the change of stress and intonation which leads change of the semantics of words and sentences are also problems that Vietnamese people are not familiar with in the phonetic and intonation system of Vietnamese language

2.1.3.2 Age of learners: The younger the learner, the easier it is to learn to

speak English According to a research, under 12 year- old children learning to speak English will be less affected by the Vietnamese accent than older learners

2.1.3.3 Exposure to English: It is necessary to take into account both the time

and level of exposure to the English language The more time learners have to interact with English, the better their pronunciation is Learners will also achieve more progress if they are exposed to good pronunciation patterns or have a thorough explanation about the English pronunciation system and pronunciation methods

2.1.3.4 Learners' innate pronunciation ability: Many learners have an innate

ability to imitate and easily speak English sounds unfamiliar to them Such learners will progress faster than those who do not have similar abilities

2.1.3.5 Attitudes and feelings: The student's attitude toward the language they

are learning is also a factor that influences on pronunciation learning The better the learning attitude of the learners, the better the pronunciation because they will try their best to imitate the way native speakers speak

2.1.3.6 Learners' motivation and their interest in good pronunciation: This

is a very important factor in pronunciation teaching If learners have good pronunciation motivation, they will invest more time and effort in learning pronunciation from this, they will have more progress

2.2 THE REAL STATE OF TOPIC.

2.2.1 Advantages

Teaching and learning in schools today have had many prosperity Beside the fully teaching facilities and equipment , the contingent of teachers is highly standardized Particularly, the movement of innovating teaching methods has been promoted powerfully Most teachers know how to choose suitable

methods, elicit the positivity and creativeness of students Thus, the innovative method of teaching and learning foreign languages is a method for students to learn actively To achieve that goal , in a English language lesson, the teacher plays an important role in creating the good habit for students through the topics and situations and teaching activities that takes place “Light, lively and effective "

2.2.2 Disadvantage

For a long time before the educational reform, traditional teaching method considered the teacher as the center factor, and focused on teaching theory Teaching students how to learn, how to actively practice, how to apply their knowledge , how to proactively grasp problems was ignored This teaching method profoundly influenced on cognitive ability and independence of students in all subjects, especially English language - a subject with the unique characteristics that students are trained independently as much as possible and during class hours, students must be stimulated with communicative contexts and situations in relation to using language in their own ability

2.2.3 Some issues in phonetics teaching in my school.

Through the actual process of teaching phonetics at my School, I have drawn a number of advantages and disadvantages in the practice of teaching phonetics to students as well as the situation of learning English in upper secondary schools

2.2.3.1 Advantage:

Teaching and learning phonetics as required is a means and skill that helps students as well as foreign language teachers to pronounce correctly and speak better, closer to modern languages Therefore, teaching and learning according to the requirements of the phonetic part is invested and supported by teachers, students as well as students’ parents Moreover, meeting the requirements of phonetics is the factor that helps students to become more confident in their ability to communicate and speak English properly, so they learn phonetics seriously, excitedly That creates favorable conditions for teachers to apply new methods in the lesson well

2.2.3.2 Disadvantages:

Although the English language has been introduced to upper secondary schools in for a long time, the clear awareness and interest in this subject is not good in some children

In fact, many teachers only focus on writing and grammar, and teaching phonetics is still sketchy

In a large class with 45 students , it is very difficult for the teacher to make students to fully and properly learn and understand the requirements of a phonetic lessons as well as help practice and correct pronuciation mistakes for each student In addition, some students themselves study poorly, they are not aware of the importance to their studies This affect the quality of their lessons

2.2.4 The results of state

Faced with that problem of teaching and learning, I focused on finding out effective methods of teaching phonetics and tips in helping students confidentially practise English speaking

Well kwowing phonetics and tips in pronuciation will helps student create an actively English-learning atmosphere and correctly pronounce sounds, words, phrases and sentences in the lesson.The purpose of teaching phonetics in

a language class is not to make learners immediately have the same pronunciation ability as native speakers because this is not practical, except that the learner has a very special talent and very high motivation The goal of teaching phonetics is to help learners achieve a certain degree of correct pronunciation so that they can communicate what they want to express with others

2.3 THE SOLUTIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION.

"SOME EFFECTIVE METHODS AND TIPS OF PHONETICS

TEACHING AND TRAINING FOR GRADE 10 TSUDENTS IN ENGLISH

LESSONS” 2.3.1 TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

2.3.1.1 Introduction:

In teaching English, It's very important to teach Students pronunciation because of the following reasons:

- Pronunciation relates to speaking and listening

- It's used to help speaker express his idea and get himself understood

- It helps listener understand the speaker and give corect respones

- It helps speaker and listener much in communication because if we pronunce wrongly (mis pronunce) we can communicate or remain cause misunderstanding

2.3.1.2 English sounds:

There are 26 letters and 24 sounds in English They devided into consonants, vowels and simivowels (dipthongs)

+ Consonants: b, p, m, n, f, v, l, t,, s,, d, h, g, ŋ, z, з, æ,

+ vowels: i: i, e, æ, a:, o, u

+ semivowels

2.3.1.3 Some of the VietNamese students' problems in English pronunciation.

When learning English VietNamese students' often make these common mistakes

* Sounds:

They have difficulty in pronuncing sounds which do not exist in their own language

Ex:

- They confuse the similar sound

- They often use simple vowels stead of simivowels

For example: /ɪ/ instead of /iə/

/e/ instead of /eə/

/ə/ instead of /əu/

- They have difficulty in pronuncing in consonant cluster such as: /str/, /pts/, /fθs/, etc

* Stress and intonation:

- Stress:

Most English words are poly- syllabic One word will have one main stress syllable and two or more unstress syllables The vowels in the unstress

syllable is usually reduced, but vietnamese students often give equal stress on

all sylables

- In English, there are two basic intonation patterns

+ Rising tone: The voice rises on the stress word or phrase It's used in Yes - No question or to express surprise or uncertainly

+ Falling tone: The voice rises earlier in the sentences, and falls on the last stress syllable It's used for normal sentences and most “Wh- question” but vietnamese students have a tendence to use falling tone in their speech

2.3.1.4 Techniques for teaching pronunciation.

Normally, teachers do not need to teach English sounds individually because students are able to pick up to sound system of the language by listening

to the teacher and by practicing words and structures However, there may be particular sounds or sound combinations which students find difficult or students may easily make mistakes in pronunciation without being aware of it In such case It's useful to focus on the sounds or group of which cause the difficulties

In teaching there is no single correct way but in order to help students with a difficult sound, teacher could use the following techniques:

- Firstly, the teacher could say the sound clearly in seperatetly so that students

can focus on it and get students to repeat the sounds in chorus and individually

- Secondly, say the sound in one or two words and get the students to repeat in

chorus and individually

- Thirdly, say the sound in one or two words and get the students to repeat in

chorus and individually

- Fourthly, Use the sound in a certain sentence.

- Fifthly, If students have difficulties in pronuncing a particular sound (usually

because it does not exist in their own language) It is often useful to clearly discribe how this sound is pronunced

- Sixthly, If students confuse to similar sounds, It is obviously useful to contract

them so that students can hear the difference clearly

- Sevenly, normaly in teaching individual English sounds , you can divide them

into 3 stages: +Stage 1: Recognition

+Stage 2: Repetition (practice) + Stage 3: Production

2.3.1.5 Technical training.

* Word Repeat: Students listen to and repeat words in a pattern (teacher / audio

tape)

Ex: Practice Phonics / i / and / e /

T: Listen and repeat: Hill

Ss: Hill

T: Tell

Ss: Tell

* Sentence Repeat: Students repeat a sentence that contains words having

sounds to be practiced

Example 1: / s /: She sells seashells on the seashore

/ z /: Suzie is your sister, isn’t she?

-T: Listen and repeat: She sells seashells by the seashore.

+Ss: She sells seashells by the seashore

Example 2: / i /and / i:/

T: Good Now once more Don't sit on that seat

Ss: Don sit on that seat

T: Correct once more Don’t (sleep / slip) on the floor

Ss: Don’t (sleep / slip) on the floor

* Minimal pair: Teachers need to explain to the students how to pair at least

two words that contain only one sound Different sounds can be at the beginning

of words like 'hat- bat', or in the middle of words like 'pen- pan', and at the end

of words like 'thin- thing', etc Minimal pairs are often used to compare the difference between vowels and consonants

Teacher reads the minimal pairs, then writes up on the board in two columns

T: Listen: Will Well Bill Bell Hill hell

Now repeat Will

Ss: will

T: Well

Ss: Well

After presenting by slides and reading all the words, the teacher said

T: Now listen and tell me the number

Will Which number? One or Two

Ss: One

T: That's correct Now once more hell

Ss: Number two