Some solutions to help the 12th graders at ham rong high school master the word stress in english

Practical basis: From the fact of teaching English for many years, I found that the languageknowledge in general and knowledge of English stress in particular are beingtaught in high sc

English is currently being taught in a communication-oriented, student-centeredway To be able to communicate in English, students must use both listening andspeaking skills well So what must teachers and students do to achieve this goal?The problem requires a lot of factors, in which it is important to help studentsmaster word stress in English The correct pronunciation of English word stresswill help communicate in English more smoothly, avoiding unfortunatemisunderstandings in communication.

2 Practical basis:

From the fact of teaching English for many years, I found that the languageknowledge in general and knowledge of English stress in particular are beingtaught in high school programs only at the level of awareness, imitation andpractice , no explanation, no in-depth Students only need to listen and repeat forthe correct number of given words

The content of English stress is only introduced in the Language focus part ofthe lessons Unit 3, Unit 4 and Unit 5 of Grade 12 Textbooks repeat However, inexams and exam questions for high school graduation or university and collegeentrance exams, there is often a question about stress Through studying the results

of students' tests, I found that students, especially those in rural areas with lesspractice conditions, often made mistakes in the stress knowledge In addition, Ifind that most of the students who speak English do not pay attention to the stress

of words but only speak evenly, which reduces the effectiveness of using English

in communication

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INITIATIVE

From the theoretical and practical bases mentioned above, I have decided to

implement a topic called "Some solutions to help 12th grade students at Ham Rong High School master word stress in English" with the following purposes:

Firstly, make students aware of the importance of using correct English wordstress, thereby helping them have a sense of stress in training their communicationskills

- Second, help students speak English correctly, ensure subject knowledgestandards, thereby helping students solve the questions about stress knowledge inexams or graduation exams , college and university

- Third, this topic can help teachers of foreign languages have a few smallsuggestions in training students' speaking skills and stress-related homework skills

1.3 OBJECT AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This topic is researched and implemented with students in grade 12A1 andcompared with students of grade 12A7 at Ham Rong High School in the schoolyear 2020-2021, and with consultation with English teachers at the ForeignLanguage Group, Ham Rong High School, English-teaching colleagues at highschools in Thanh Hoa city

1.4 METHODS OF THE STUDY

- The methods used to implement the research are as followed:

+ Attend the lessons of colleagues

+ Interview and test to find out the problems

+ Experimental measures with control comparison

+ Check the results after the implementation

- Time to implement the initiative in the school year 2020-2021

2 CONTENTS 2.1 THEORY BACKGROUND

1 What is stress?

In Peter Roach's book "English phonetics and phonology", the stress of aword is pronounced more prominently than the other Stressed syllables have atleast four distinct characteristics:

- Have a louder volume (loudness) than the other sounds

- Have a longer length than the other sounds

- There is a higher pitch (pitch) than the other sounds

- The vowel of a stressed sound has characteristics different from thecharacteristics of the other vowels in the same word

Usually the above four factors often appear together in an accented sound.However, sometimes just one or two factors contribute to the stress of a word Theabove factors are of different importance, in which pitch and lentgh are the twomost important factors, helping listeners easily recognize the stress of a word.Stressed sounds are read about a half-way above other sounds and read almost like

a stretched sound

2 Why do you need to master stress?

Stress is an integral part of English Mastering stresses helps learners comecloser to their ability to use English fluently and accurately, making thecommunication process more natural, avoiding unfortunate mistakes and incommunication

In addition, for high school students, mastering the correct pronunciation ofstress also helps them to give the correct answers about stress knowledge in testsand examinations such as semester exams, graduation exams and entrance exams

3 How to learn stress?

Like all language knowledge, stress has its own rules Learners can buybooks about stress and follow the rules introduced in these books With fixed rules,learners only need to memorize and do lots of exercises to master However, the

rules have many exceptions, so learners need to pay more attention to theseexceptions.

In addition, learners can learn stress in many different ways such as:learning in communication, learning while listening to the teacher lectures,learning when listening to programs played in English, or by looking up adictionary And only by regularly practicing can learners master successfully alanguage on the path of conquering a foreign language

2.2 THE REALITY OF THE STUDY

Through surveys of many colleagues and students, and through practicalteaching, I find that when students learn English from elementary, junior highschool to the end of grade 11 of high school almost do not learn about Englishword stress The teaching and learning instructional materials also do not mentionthis knowledge Most teachers do not have the time or pay attention to instructstudents on this knowledge Teachers, when correcting mistakes for students, onlypay attention to word usage, grammatical errors or incorrect pronunciation, notstress-stress errors Most students have no concept of stress in Englishpronunciation

Students can learn about stress by looking at the Glossary section at the end

of a textbook However, many students do not watch this part or watch but onlynotice the meaning of the word without paying attention to the pronunciation orstress of the word

Especially, there are a number of teachers who are not aware of theimportance of correctly pronouncing English word stress in communication, sothey have not focused on training to speak correctly

Before doing the research, I have done 2 surveys on students' understanding

of stress and the current situation of teaching stress

1 Survey 1:

It is a survey on the ability to use English stress of students in grades 12A1and 12A7 of Ham Rong High School with the same level, with equivalent Englishlearning results in Grade 11 I have given each student a 5-question English stress

questionnaire and asked them to do it within 5 minutes The words on thequestionnaire were selected from unit 1 of the 12th grade English program whenthe student had finished this lesson The questionnaire is as follows:

Choose the word whose stress pattern is different from that of the rest.

1 A family B active C discuss D happy

2 A garbage B mischievous C daughter D member

3 A caring B secure C willing D project

4 A secondary B attempt C biologist D obedient

5 A reserved B importance C photograph D decide

The results of the number of students correctly completing the number of questions

in each class are as follows:

Class No of

STs 5 correct

answers

4 correct answers

3 correct answers

2 correct answers

1 correct answers

none correct answer s

12A1 55 4hs

7,27%

10hs18,2 %

10hs18,2 %

10hs18,2 %

11hs20%

10hs18,2 %12A7 55 3hs

5,45 %

10hs18,2 %

9hs16,35 %

12hs21,8 %

10hs18,2 %

12hs21,8 %

From the above results it can be seen that only about 20% of studentsachieve the average or above with knowledge of stress and more than 20% ofstudents do not have any correct answers about stress After the students hadfinished their answers, I continued to ask some students to pronounce words on theballot at random As a result, most of the children did not pronounce the wordstress correctly, even if they answered all 5 questions on the questionnairecorrectly Thus, it can be seen that students' knowledge of stress is relatively weak,still at a vague level Even those who understand the theory are weak in practice

2 Survey 2:

I have conducted a survey on teaching status of English language stressknowledge of English teachers at Ham Rong High School After attending somelessons, I noticed that teachers mentioned stress from the time they taught new

words, but not focused and infrequent In the Language focus part of Unit 3, Unit 4and Unit 5 of grade 12 textbook, the teacher only allows students to repeat words

in the textbook, without adding exercises or explaining any more about word stress

in the language Brother

From the above situation, I have taken a number of measures to improve theability of students to use English stress in grade 12A1 and control in grade 12A7.Students in these 2 classes have similar qualifications The measures are dividedinto two groups: group one includes measures taken during distributed Englishlessons and group two includes measures taken during English extracurricularhours

2.3 MEASURES TAKEN TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM

2.3.1 During the English courses

a) Measure 1:

When teaching new words I always focus on the stress of words by usingthe stress marks for new words and ask students to write this part in theirnotebooks When I let students read words, I also pay attention to correct them if Ifind that they are not reading the correct stress by correctly re-pronounce the wordthey read wrong and ask them to read it correctly

c) Measure 3:

This measure is taken in Language focus periods of Unit 3, Unit 4 and Unit

5 Because the time for stress in each Language Focus period is only from 10 to 15minutes, so there is only enough time for students to listen to tapes and repeat thepronunciation of words Teachers don't have time to explain to students somegeneral rules regarding stress Students only grasp the stresses of words in thetextbook So before each Language Focus lesson of Units 3, Unit 4 and Unit 5, I

ask the students to preview the “stress” part at home, divide the class into groups

of 5 and ask the groups to find more words with similar stress patterns, write them

as multiple-choice questions about stress in the sub-chart first Each group prepares

3 questions

In class, I proceed to teach stress as follows:

- First, let students listen to the tape for the first time to recognize word stress andthen ask students to repeat the tape twice

- Then check to see if the students have grasped the word stress positions

- Next tell students to listen to the part "Practise reading the sentences" and callsome students to read it again

- Finally, organize groups to exchange sub-boards with each other, doing theexercises on those sub-boards

d Measure 4:

This is the most important measure of this reserach based on the idiom

"Practice makes perfect" Before each lesson, I prepare 2 multiple-choice questionsabout stress with the requirement “Choose the word whose stress is differentlyplaced from the others” The words selected in these 2 questions are the words thatwill be used in that class These two questions can be written in advance on thesupplementary board, or written on an electronic lecture to show on the projector

At the end of each class, I spend 30 seconds to 1 minute for students to answer thetwo questions and pronounce the words in the two questions The student whocorrectly answers and pronounces the word stress will receive a report card Thiscard is used to add points for students to tests of 15 minutes, 45 minutes orsemester tests in proportion:

+ 3 votes = 1 point for the 15-minute test

+ 6 votes = 1 point for the 45-minute test

+ 9 votes = 1 semester test score

This measure is administered during the lessons of the 14 unit lessons andTest Yourself Thus, after each lesson, students will master the stress of 8 wordsand after the lessons of 14 unit units and 6 Test Yourself, students have beenpracticing word stress of many words

When I take this approach, I realize that students who want to answercorrectly and read correctly will have to listen more attentively and have moreinterest in learning phonetics At the same time, the scorecard has the effect ofstimulating students to pay attention to study and actively volunteer to answerquestions In addition, it also helps students to improve their scores in a legitimateway and helps teachers evaluate more accurately and objectively with students'abilities.

The questions for this section are listed in the following table

(The following words are taken from text book and homework book for 12 th grade

students)

Unit 1 Lesson A : Reading

1: A pressure B supportive C possible D parents

2: A caring B household C believe D problem

Lesson B : Speaking

1:A.before B.decision C.important D.personal

2:A.family B secret C person D member

Lesson C : Listening

1:A.together B dinner C leftover D children

2:A.excited B often C crowded D rarely

Lesson D : Writing

1:A.prepare B allow C finish D discuss

2:A.permit B different C grandfather D idea

Lesson E : Language Focus

1: A.party B listen C.enjoy D married

2: A central B expensive C interesting D anywhere

_

Unit 2 Lesson A : Reading

1:A.traditional B contractual C marriage D.difference

2:A maintain B.physical C majority D reject

Lesson B : Speaking

1:A.generation B.happy C.public D grocery

2:A.country B.holiday C.precede D income

Lesson C : Listening

1:A.banquet B.ceremony C.exchange D.altar

2.A.envelope B.attend C.ancestor D.schedule

Lesson D : Writing

1.A.conical B.picture C.symbol D.Vietnamese

2.A.culture B.attractive C protect D.material

Lesson E : Language Focus

1.A.police B.decide C arrest D.neighbour

2.A.several B.grateful C photography D.thousand

_

Unit 3 Lesson A :Reading

1:A assistance B.attention C.situation D.attract

2.A.appropriate B.verbal C.signal D.airport

Lesson B : Speaking

1.A beautiful B perfect C.today D.terrible

2.A colour B dancer C.really D.American

Lesson C : Listening

1.A.marvellous B.argument C.adult D.maximum

2.A consider B.installed C.attack D.regulation

Lesson D : Writing

1.A depend B.observe C.Abruptly D.necessary

2.A action B.apology C.common D.difficult

Lesson E : Language Focus

1 A.company B.successful C because D discuss

2.A explain B marketing C.office D.visit

Test yourself A

1 A education B necessary C parent D languages

2 A gestures B interest C example D movement

Unit 4 Lesson A : Reading

1.A.compulsory B.September C.January D.curriculum

2 A.system B environment C.goverment D.February

Lesson B : Speaking

1.A.secondary B.primary C.education D.nursery

2.A.examination B.national C.optional D.lower

Lesson C : Listening

1.A.methodical B.teacher C.actually D.carefully

2.A behave B.always C.listen D.struggle

Lesson D : Writing

1.A.early B.upper C.formal D academic

2.A.follow B suggestion C system D.writing

Lesson E : Language Focus

1.A.algebra B.chemistry C.physical D.computing

2.A.typical B.normally C.surprise D medicine

Unit 5 Lesson A : Reading

1.A.roommate B.campus C.graduate D.engineer

2.A.colleges B.challenge C.inflation D.library

Lesson B : Speaking

1.A.applicant B.entrance C.letter D.result

2.A.application B.certificate C.identity D.require

Lesson C : Listening

1.A.proportion B.rural C.majority D.tutorial

2.A.appointment B.international C.agriculture D.university

Lesson D : Writing

1.A.tertiary B.undergraduate C.information D.introduction

2.A.supply B.tuition C.provide D.section

Lesson E : Language Focus

1.A.mathematics B.geographical C.archeology D.proficiency

2.A.allow B philosophy C.address D.language

Unit 6 Lesson A : Reading

1.A stressful B.impression C.candidate D.concentrate

2.A.vacancy B.experience C.position D.enthusiasm

Lesson B : Speaking

1.A fascinating B.customer C.irrigation D.waiter

2.A pilot B.construct C.condition D.computer

Lesson C : Listening

1.category B.retail C.workforce D.wholesale

2.A.service B.lawyer C.economy D.worker

Lesson D : Writing

1.A.accompany B diploma C.express D.interest

2.A.apply B.character C.level D.travel

Lesson E : Language Focus

1.A.classroom B.schoolyard C.cowboy D.discover

2.A.several B.recovered C.arrow D.money

Test yourself B

1 A qualification B normally C common D possible

2 A discover B intensive C computer D independent

Unit 8 Lesson A : Reading

1.A pessimistic B.optimistic C.unexpected D.contribute

2.A.security B technology C.disappear D.invention

Lesson B : Speaking

1.A.Chinese B declare C.Standard D.Disease

2.A.atmosphere B.prediction C.science D fatal

Lesson C : Listening