TEACHING STUDENTS IN GRADE 6 HOW TO USE PHONETICS TRANSCRIPTIONS IN LEARNING VOCABULARY

The factors that make students work on their pronunciation: • Students want to improve themselves • Students want to become a part of the target language community • Students need their

YEN DINH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

EXPERIENCED INITIATIVE

THE TITLE

TEACHING STUDENTS IN GRADE 6 HOW TO USE PHONETICS

TRANSCRIPTIONS IN LEARNING VOCABULARY

Written by: Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo Job : Teacher

Subject: English School: Le Dinh Kien secondary school

Yen Dinh-Thanh Hoa

YEN DINH, APRIL 2021

I, REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH

Despite the existence of thousands of languages all around the world millions of people speak English as their mother tongue Moreover, there are millions of others who use English either as their second language or an international language when communicating with people all around the world With the help of the developing technology, English has been playing an important role in many sectors including medicine, engineering and education Particularly,

as a developing country, Viet Nam needs to make use of this world- wide spoken language in order to prove its international power This can merely be based on the efficiency of education Therefore, English is a compulsory subject applied across the whole higher educational system in Vietnam

What do we learn English for? The answer is - for communication What do students learn English for? They learn English for the same reasons as we do Our job is to provide them with the basic skills they will need to practice the language and to make sure that they have the basic knowledge and skills that they need for future study In my teaching practice at a secondary school I face to unintelligible pronunciation of some students Intelligible pronunciation is essential during a listening process, clear and correct pronunciation makes a conversation more comfortable for both the speaker and the listener and even helps to avoid misunderstanding Therefore, I decided to focus this thesis on pronunciation teaching The final thesis is not only aimed at pronunciation teaching process but also at helping my students to be clearly and easily understood by others The topic

is “Teaching students in grade 6 how to use phonetics transcriptions in learning vocabulary ”.

II, AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

- To show some factors affecting students’ pronunciation

- To show some mistakes students often have

- To show the usefulness of the phonetic symbols

- To show how to pronounce English sounds with the phonetic symbols

- Give students confidence in learning and correcting their pronunciation

III, SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD

1, Scope : Researching in the process of teaching English at my school.

2, Object: This subject is concerned with ways of using the phonetic

transcription effectively in the class

3, Researching method: Reading reference books , discussing with other

teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences

PART 2: CONTENT

I, THE FACTORS AFFECT STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION:

1, The role of the mother tongue:

The mother tongue is the first reason that affects students’ pronunciation Pronunciation problems may occur when non-native speakers communicate because speakers are used to sounds that exist in their mother tongue but may not exist in the target language There are a lot of sounds that do exist or are similar in English and Vietnamese, however, there are sounds that are very different or do not exist in Vietnamese Students have problems with pronunciation mainly due to the fact that our native tongue may not have a particular sound In the system of phonetic transcriptions, it is not easy for the Vietnamese to pronounce some

consonants such as: / δ / , / θ /, /z/ , /s/ / ή / Furthermore, when an English

word has many syllables, one of them is always pronounced more strongly This is called word stress, and we say that the syllable is stressed It is the stress and the intonation that make an influence on students’ pronunciation

2, The age factor:

It is believed that prepubescent children learning second language with adequate exposure to the target language can attain near native-like pronunciation

We can say that it is important to start teaching pronunciation at the very beginning

of second language learning since children can attain near native-like pronunciation with ease This means that during the critical period a second language is acquired naturally and more easily since the brain is more flexible

3, Motivation :

Motivation appears to be a very influential factor as some of students are more concerned about their pronunciation than others Their desire to attain good pronunciation, usually influenced by their sense of responsibility, helps them to achieve comprehensible pronunciation The factors that make students work on their pronunciation:

• Students want to improve themselves

• Students want to become a part of the target language community

• Students need their speech to be intelligible to their children’s teachers

• Students want to improve their employment prospective

• Students want to improve their everyday communication skill

4, Learner’s attitude and sense of identity:

In language teaching process teachers cannot influence students’ age, motivation, nor they can have control over their attitude or sense of identity if students do not like the target language for any reason, they subconsciously build

up negative attitudes towards the language, which subsequently prevent them not only to achieve comprehensible pronunciation but also to learn the language itself

II, SOME COMMON MISTAKES IN PRONUNCIATION:

- Most of our students have bad habits in pronouncing English words Especially, such sounds as: / ei ; t∫; ʤ; ʧ; ʒ; θ; ʊə; æ; ŋ; b; p; f; a:/

- They confuse between the sounds /dʒ/ and /t∫/ or even never pronounce the

sound /dʒ/ at the end of the word

- Students are used to omitting the sound /s/ It makes the listeners misunderstand what they say

- Many a student cannot distinguish the voiced and voiceless sounds This happens even though pronunciation and signs of pronunciation are taught in an

senior high school level.

- The final sounds in English are very important to tell what the word means Students, for instance, do not pronounce the ending sounds t, θ, k, s, e, z; l, etc

- Some students cannot pronounce the sounds/ə℧; a℧ / appropriately

III, THE USEFULNESS OF PHONETIC SYMBOLS:

1, They help students use dictionaries effectively

2, Students can become independent learners They can find out the pronunciation of words by themselves without asking the teacher

3, Phonetic symbols are arranged in a chart Just as they have a grammar

table for grammar and a word store for vocabulary, students need reference

material for pronunciation too: the phonetic symbols are simple, keywords that show the sound of each symbol

IV, METHODS HELP STUDENTS IMPROVE THEIR PRONUNCIATION

Because of the factors that affect students’ pronunciation, some common mistakes which students cause as well as the roles of the phonetic transcriptions, I have applied some methods that help students improve their pronunciation

effectively in learning vocabulary

1, Ideally, copy the signs of pronunciation from teachers’ books adding signs

of the Vietnamese sound equivalent Ask students to bring the handouts with them all the time when they are at school and be ready to take them out to check any time when they want to Encourage students to learn at least five words for each English sound by heart

2, Apply the method through the lessons by reading and pronouncing the

words and sentences clearly, loudly and slowly Choose a reliable dictionary,

preferably the Word power dictionary for reference and software Siphonic for

learning and practicing

3, When students are unsure of pronunciation, ask them to mark the signs of

pronunciation above or under the words in their textbooks and then learn them by heart Study the signs of pronunciation given thoroughly

4, Practise pronunciation frequently to get it fluent Students should listen to

the cassette tapes; radio or English TV programmes regularly to verify the way to pronounce the words they have already learnt

5, Whenever meeting a strange word, ask students to learn the sign(s) of its

pronunciation by heart as well as its meanings

6, Give compliments to students by rewarding them with extra encouraging

marks Ask them to write down the phonetic symbols on a large sheet of paper and put it in a special place so that they can see it every day

7, Encourage students to mark directly the signs of pronunciation of the

words beside the words as many times as they can in order that when they see them, the way to pronounce comes to them spontaneously

8, Give students short paragraphs or beautiful sentences to learn by heart in

each unit Make sure they are not given the paragraphs that are too long or too difficult

V, THE PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTIONS AND HOW TO TEACH

STUDENTS TO USE THEM IN LEARNING VOCABULARY:

The following are signs of transcription used in school textbooks

1, Vowels and diphthongs

ILLUSTRATION

/i/ happy / ‘hæpi / study, busy, ready, really /I/ sit / sIt / fix, with, witness, liter, hit

/a:/ father / fa:ðә(r) / farm, calm, star, park, car

/۸/ cup / c۸ p / young, among, enough, stuff /ɜ:/ fur / f ɜ:(r) / stir, nurse, shirt, skirt /ə/ about / ə’baʊt / today, ago, nature, colour

/ə℧/ go / gəʊ / show, hold, phone, coat

/iə / hear / hiə / near, tear, fear, steering /eə/ hair / heə / share, where, care, fair, stair /℧ə/ pure / pjʊə (r) / sure, tour, pure, cure

2, Consonants

ILLUSTRATION

/ t∫/ chain / t∫ein / chip, choice, teach, cheers

/ dʒ /

jam / dʒæm / bridge, village, join, jam, June

/ θ /

thin /θin / think, thirty, thoughts, with

/z/ zoo / zu: / zip code, zero, zebra, zipper

/z/ vision / ‘vizn / measure, decision, usually

/ ή / sing /siή / song, singer, nothing, strong /l/ leg / leg/ lie, long, tall, lip, leave, stall

/j/ yes / jes / you, yell, yard, yesterday

3, How to teach English sounds

At the beginning of the school year, teachers should copy a phonetic symbol board It is better for us to copy the source from school textbooks and give the Vietnamese sound equivalent beside each sound

3.1, Teaching vowels

Method 1:

- Drawing the symbols on the board and eliciting whether any of the students know them After drilling the sounds a few times, students will then attempt to write the correct spelling of certain words from the phonemic script For example, after drilling the sounds of /i:/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /u:/ students would then have to write the word under the phonemic script

/bi:k/ 2) /bɪn/ 3) /bʊk/ 4) /blu:/

(beak) (bin) (book) (blue)

Method 2:

The focus is on minimal pairs I systematically go through the chart and

focus on two symbols (normally quite similar) per class I use this minimal pairs website and find four or five words with each sound and write them on the board Before telling students the sound they have to separate the words into two groups

For example, I may write the following words on the board randomly.

see, she, knee, eat, tree

fit, ship, lit, chip, bin

Students then have to separate the words into the correct group under the sounds

of /i:/ and /ɪ/ I will then write the symbols of each sound and they will record them

in their notebooks I also give them a phonemic chart so they can write a word

under each symbol.

3.2, Teaching diphthongs

These aren’t too tricky either A quick way of teaching them is to cut each of the diphthong symbols in two and then do a dictation activity where they have to put the symbols together

So cut up each of these symbols: /ɪə/, /ʊə/, /eə/, /eɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aɪ/, /əʊ/, /aʊ/

and then give each pair a set and dictate each symbol We can dictate the sounds in the order above so they notice how the diphthongs end

3.3, Teaching consonants

A lot of the consonants are similar to the alphabet so students can normally

figure out which words go with the sounds However, there are a few consonants

sounds that need to be taught

A good way is to use the following table:

- Get the students to match these words to the symbols, but only to those which are similar to the alphabet

snake television moon nose light rabbit

worm yes ball table house three

zoo shoe fishing pen chicken then

They should find it easy and get something like this:

Then we have to teach them the difference between the following sounds The difference is that one is voiced and the other is unvoiced

voiceless Voiced

ʧ - chicken ʤ- Germany

θ – three ð – then

ʃ - shoe ʒ - television

They normally get the nasally /ŋ/ sound in fishing

Once we have our own actions, this is a good order of doing the activity

• Show the action and mouth movements to the students (without making the sound)

• Get them to copy the action, paying particular attention to their mouths Make sure they have the correct shape

• Students listen as we do the action and make the sound 3 times

• Students copy the action and make the sound

• Do some individual drilling

• Ask students which two words have the sound and write them up next to the symbol Students copy the words

• Repeat for the next symbol

• Don’t forget to recap all the sounds and symbols each time (repetition is key)

4, Motivating students to learn vocabulary

Besides the sound we can teach students accurate pronunciation by giving them information on the pronunciation of difficult words We can possibly give Vietnamese transcription equivalents of the words provided Students can learn, step by step, each of the international phonetic symbols and this will help them practice pronouncing at home by themselves without any problems We can use variety in our pronunciation lessons, our students will be more successful with English pronunciation and gain the confidence that comes with it by these activities:

4.1,

Listen and repeat

This will be the first and most common method of teaching sound specific pronunciation in English If we are teaching a long word with multiple syllables, start with the final syllable of the word and have our class repeat it Then add the penultimate syllable and say the two together having our class repeat after us Work backwards in this manner until our students are able to pronounce the entire word correctly

4.2, Isolation

When working on a specific sound, it may help our students to isolate that particular sound from any others Instead of presenting a certain sound as part of a complete word in English, we can simply pronounce the sound itself repeatedly When we do, our students can say it along with us repeatedly, focusing on the small nuances in the correct pronunciation and also engraining the sound pattern into their minds This is especially helpful when we have several students

struggling with a specific sound delineation

4.3, M inimal pairs

Minimal pairs are a great way to focus pronunciation on just one sound If you are not familiar with linguistics, a minimal pair is two words that vary in only one sound

4.4,

Show a vowel diagram

If we are using phonetic symbols to help you teach vowel pronunciation, a diagram of where each English vowel sound is produced can be eye opening for

your students Print copies to distribute in class or show your students where they

can find this diagram online When students know which area of the mouth in which they should be making their sounds, they may have an easier time

distinguishing between similar sounds because they are produced in different areas

of the mouth

4.5,

Sing

Surprisingly enough, singing can be a good way for our students to practice their vowel pronunciation Because singing requires a person to maintain vowel sounds over more than just a moment, it can give our students a chance to focus in

on the target sound and adjust what sound she is making

4.6,

Tongue twisters

Try some tongue twisters This can be a fun way to practise sounds with older children Here are some popular English tongue twisters

• She sells sea shells on the sea shore

• A proper copper coffee pot

• Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran

• Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry

• A big black bug bit a big black bear