SKKN some measurements to improve pronunciation in class 4a at lam truong primary school

BA THUOC CHAMBER OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGACTION RESEARCH SOME MEASUREMENTS TO IMPROVE PRONUNCIATION IN CLASS 4A AT LAM TRUONG PRIMARY SCHOOL Performed by: Dao Thi Thu Job title: Teach

BA THUOC CHAMBER OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

ACTION RESEARCH

SOME MEASUREMENTS TO IMPROVE PRONUNCIATION

IN CLASS 4A AT LAM TRUONG PRIMARY SCHOOL

Performed by: Dao Thi Thu

Job title: Teacher

Organization: Lam Truong Primary School

The aspect of the action research: English

THANH HOA, 2021

1 INTRODUCTION -1

1.1 Reason to choose the topic -1

1.2 Purpose of the action research. -2

1.3 Subjects of the action research. -2

1.4 The methods of study. -2

2 CONTENTS -3

2.1 Theorical background. -3

2.2 Current status of the problem before applying action research. -3

2.2.1 To the general situation. -4

2.2.2 The reality of teaching English pronunciation at Lam Truong primary school. -4

2.2.3 Result and effect of the current reality. -4

2.3 Some solutions are used to solve the problems: -5

2.3.1 Solution 1: Teaching process -5

2.3.2 Solution 2: Teaching phonetic through games. -13

2.3.3 Solution 3: Teaching phonetic through “YouTube” channel. -15

2.4 The results of applying new solutions. -17

3 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. -18

3.1 Conclusion. -18

3.2 Recommendations. -18

REFERENCES -20

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Reason to choose the topic

In the time of global integration, English is an important language It is thekey to give us accessment to the development and progress of culture, education,science, technology and many different fields of humanity Therefore, it is asecond language, a compulsory subject of many countries around the world.According to forecasts of the analysts, by the end of this decade, more than athird of the world's population will be engaged in learning English This globalneed of learning English has shown that English is extremely important andessential for economic and social development at the national level as well as forindividuals in the society

From that real requirement, English has been included in the mainstreamcurriculum of all academic levels in our country The ultimate goal of teachingand learning English is that students can communicate in English The ability tocommunicate is manifested in two aspects: receiving (listening and reading) andproducing (speaking and writing) language However, to reach that ultimategoal, the first element students need to master is pronunciation

Phonetics is considered to be one of the basic elements of all languages in theworld If the pronunciation is correct, all skills such as listening, speaking,reading will become much easier On the contrary, if the pronunciation is wrong

or unclear, it will make the listener misunderstand or even not understand thespeaker's meaning

Having identified that importance, phonetic teaching and learning has beenincluded in the elementary English program However, the majority of studentsfeels strange and has many difficulties in pronouncing and memorizing learnedsounds, while materials for teachers and students are still limited

Compared to the English program at high school and secondary level,English for primary school students is still quite new, especially phonetics.Although each unit has one period to teach phonetics, the time of 40 minutes is

too little and the teaching method is not specific, which explains why theeffectiveness of phonetic teaching and learning is not high.

From the reality of the years I directly taught English at Lam Truong primaryschool together with the phonetic teaching methods I have learned from trainingsessions, good teacher classes and teaching sessions, I usually wonder abouthow to teach my students in a suitable way, help them no longer feel difficultand stress when pronouncing English

From the above thought, I have researched and done experiment in class 4A

at Lam Truong Primary School and got the desired results Therefore, I boldly

give my experience on "Some measurements to improve pronunciation in class 4A at Lam Truong primary school" for my friends and colleagues to refer.

1.2 Purpose of the action research.

The purpose of this action research is to investigate some problems thatelementary students often face up in studying pronounciation, the writer find outsome solutions to improving phonetics for students in class 4A at Lam Truongprimary school and to help students learn phonetics more easily

1.3 Subjects of the action research.

- Some measurements to improve pronunciation for students in class 4A atLam Truong primary school

- The steps taken in English phonetic lessons

1.4 The methods of study

During the study, I used the following methods:

- Survey and investigation are applied to investigate the quality of studentswhen they learn pronunciation through class activities and tasks in the textbook

- Observation is applied to observe the activities of students during the timethey are included in the pronouncing activities

- Practice is applied when the teachers organize activities for students topractice pronunciation

- Analysis, statistics, synthesis, comparation and assessment are applied toassess the progress of students when they make pronunciation with newmethods.

2 CONTENTS

2.1 Theorical background.

Today in Vietnam, learning one or more other foreign languages touse in daily communication as well as in work has become very important,especially English English is used everywhere and every time From childrenwho sell books for tourists can advertise their products in English toprofessionals, translators who are fluent in English However, the question iswhy so many people learn English for a long time but when communicatingwith native speakers, they do not understand or misunderstand what we aresaying The answer is due to incorrect English pronunciation

Phonetics in English can be understood including following elements:phonology, stress, rhythm and intonation According to phonetic research, forthe most successful communication, it needs to meet four criteria: Goodpronunciation, natural speech speed, natural rhythm and natural intonation

To meet these four criteria is ambition of all English learners However, this isbeyond the capability of the Vietnamese Although we cannot speak English like

a native speaker, we can practice speaking in an acceptable way: clearpronunciation means when we pronounce, the listeners can understand anddistinguish from other sounds

Determining the importance of phonetics in particular and English ingeneral, the Ministry of Education and Training is currently implementing theNational Foreign Language Project 2020 (approved by Decision No 1400 / QD-TTG of Prime Minister on September 30, 2008) to improve foreign languageskills for English teachers in the country

2.2 Current status of the problem before applying action research 2.2.1 To the general situation.

,

I realize that Lam Truong primary school is located in the mountainousarea The living condition is low A large number of parents work far from their

children and do not have time to teach them to study In addition, the number of

students in a class is large, so in the teaching process, teachers cannot cover andsupport students in time Moreover, infrastructure and teaching materials forstudents and teachers such as dictionaries, books, tapes, radio, projectors,… arenot fully invested

2.2.2 The reality of teaching English pronunciation at Lam Truong primary school

From the beginning stage of teaching English at Lam Truong primaryschool, through the test of the first semester, I noticed that the Englishpronunciation of students in class 4A was too weak, they were afraid of speakingEnglish, not focusing on the phonetic learning process, as well as havingdifficulties in writing or describing a problem even though it is very simple.Most students have no contact with native speakers, so they also havelimitations in reacting to English They also have difficulties in pronouncing ordistinguishing some similar sounds, especially ending sounds such as /s/ or /z/,/t/ or /d/; /∫/ or /s/, Some students often do not pronounce them when they are atthe end Moreover, there are some pairs of sound are pronounced similarly Notonly students but teachers also can not differentiate when they do not carefullynotice such as: /i/ or /i:/, /e/ or /æ/, /ð / or /θ /…

From the fact, I personally think that it is absolutely necessary to have amethod that helps my students learn phonetics faster and easier, so I havestudied and created a method of teaching phonetics for my students

2.2.3 Result and effect of the current reality.

In order to have measurements and methods to teach students how

to pronounce well and correct mistakes, I have surveyed the pronunciationability of students at class 4A from the beginning of the school year andobtained these following results

Class Total

Goodpronunciation

Not goodpronunciation

IncorrectpronunciationQuantity % Quantity % Quantity %

From the table, I can see that the pronunciation capacity is too bad, onlytwo students can pronounce correctly, while others pronounce badly orcompletely wrongly To improve the situation, I have researched and studiedsome measurements to improve the pronunciation for my students in class 4Aand get the hopeful result

2.3 Some solutions are used to solve the problems:

2.3.1 Solution 1: Teaching process

2.3.1.1 Presentation

The teacher shows the way to speak the sound she wants to teachand read aloud Then, explains the movements of mouth, lips, teeth and tongue.Example: Teaching sound /ʊ/, teacher hangs a picture of sound /ʊ/

- The teacher faces toward the students and read the sound / ʊ / a few times sothat the student can clearly hear and observe the teacher's mouth, lips, teeth, andtongue movements

Step 1: Tongue relaxes Place the tip of the tongue behind the incisors of thelower jaw

Step 2: Gently lift your tongue up a little

Step 3: The lip shape is slightly rounded, bring it to the front Pronounce /ʊ/naturally

Teacher reads a few words that contain the sounds they are learning, andstudents read along For example: book, put, foot, look …

- Teacher writes words on the board

- Ask students in whole class to repeat the words on the board and then call eachgroup to repeat Finally the teacher called some students to repeat individually.Following the above process, teachers teach other sounds similarly.

Example: When teacher teaches two sounds /e/ and / æ / Teacher readsthe pairs of words: that/ yes; hat/bed; thanks/pen … Students listen and repeat

Students practice reading phrases that contain the sounds they are learning

Example: Who’s that?

Yes, it is.

Fine, thanks

Students practice reading sentences (with many words containing thesound they are learning)

Example: Is that Tony? Yes, it is

I’m fine, thanks.

That’s a hat.

Students see, listen and repeat according to the teacher or follow a shortconversation in which there are many words containing the sounds they arelearning These conversations are usually already in the textbook

Students re-practice the conversation in pairs (after reading it proficiently,

if there is time, they can add a few words containing the current sound to theconversation but those words must involve the content of the lesson)

During the practice, the teacher monitors and promptly corrects if thestudent makes a mistake

2.3.1.3 Production

Teachers provide students with games or activities to reinforceknowledge Some games are simple but effective and easy to do Such as:

- Silent Sounds: Example: when teaching two sounds /e/ and /æ/,

Teacher writes on the board:

The teacher faces toward the students, pronouncing but not out loud.Students observe the teacher's mouth movements (tongue, lips, teeth ) andguess what sound the teacher is saying and point to that sound on the board Theteacher then divides the students into groups of 2 to 3 to play as above

- Bingo: This is a simple game but very enjoyable for students There are

many ways to conduct this game Here I give an example:

When teaching the sound / i: / and / i /, the teacher asks the students todraw a table with 12 -> 14 boxes, students select and fill in all the boxes, but thenumbers are from 13 to 99 for all boxes The teacher (or a student in the class)reads the numbers one by one, the students listen and observe if the audiblenumber is on their board, cross out the number The first listener and cross all oftheir boxes say aloud: Bingo The teacher checks for accuracy and declares thewinner

- Same or Different: Teacher writes international transcription on the

board (example: /i/) Teacher says a series of sounds that are similar to thesounds on the board (/i:/, /e/, /æ/) Students listen and tell whether the soundsabove are the same or different from the sounds on the board

- One or Two (or three): Teacher writes on the board two (or three)

international transcription (for example: 1 /i/, 2 /i:/, 3 /e/ then read the words one

by one: fifteen / fifty / bit / beat / eat / it / man / men) Students listen and say

"one" (1), "two" (2) or "three" (3)

- Correct or incorrect: Teacher writes one word or a series of words on

the board and pronounces some of the words correctly and some of the wordsincorrectly Students listen and say “correct” or “incorrect”

- Word Elicitation: Teacher writes the international phonetic on the board

and asks the students to list the word containing that sound in the first, the wordhas sound in the middle, and the word has sound in the end

- Minimal Pairs: Write international phonetics on the board and let

students freely list pairs of words that are close to match

Example: /i/ /i:/

Fifty Fifteen

It EatBin Beanill Eel ……

- Missing words: Teacher reads a sentence or a short phrase with a blank

word Students listen and guess a word to fill in the blanks, as long as the wordcontains the sound they are learning

For example: Practicing sound /3:/

a A boy and a ……… (girl)

b First, second and ……… (third)

c A pigeon is a kind of …… (bird)

- Sentences Construction: Teacher writes on the board two groups of

words that contain the sounds they are learning and asks students to makesentences that use at least two of the words in the two groups

Example: Practice sounds / θ / and /ð / (Grade 4 English textbook,semester 2, Education Publishing House of Vietnam)

Group 1: Thanks /thin /thick /think /thumb

Group 2: this /that /the /mother /brother

- Picture identification: The teacher draws or hangs a picture with two

things on the board For example, when teaching two sounds /i:/ and /i/ theteacher hangs two pictures of ship and sheep