How to teach the sound / u: / and / ʊ /

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ 
TRƯỜNG THPT THẠCH THÀNH 3
SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
 HOW TO TEACH THE SOUND /u:/ AND / ʊ /
Người thực hiện: Đỗ thị Thu Nga
Chức vụ: Giáo viên - TTCM
SKKN thuộc lĩnh môn: Tiếng Anh
THANH HOÁ NĂM 2016
CONTENTS
I. REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH
II. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
III. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD
IV. MAIN CONTENT
	1. LESSON ONE: The sound / u:/
	2. LESSON TWO: The sound / ʊ /
 3. Practice activities for both / u:/ and / ʊ /
	4. Some useful tips.
V. RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
VI. CONCLUSION
I. REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH
	Seeing students do tasks randomly and discouragingly, I decided to choose this subject as my research.Many of my students confessed that they couldn’t recognize if /u/ sound in the word they were given to was long/ u/ sound or short /u/ sound year after year and that I am their teacher of English, but my teaching remedies didn’t help them much made me always make questions to myself such as “How must I do to help the students recognize the two vowels correctly?”and “ how should the practice activities be to get their high attention to them?”
It can’t be denied that recognizing long vowel “u” and short vowel “u” is not easy at all. They themselves are fairly different in differrent cases. In addition the rules of generalisation of them not fixed. Thus they make us confused. 
Little understanding, no practice led into the fact that many students couldn’t find out the two vo wel sound correctly and read the word wrongly,which cause them to make mistakes in speaking and pronunciation exercises.	
The repeated mistake long “u” for short “u” or short “u” for long “u” forced us to ask ourselves once again:
+ Why can't they recognize the two vowels correctly?
+ How do we teach them ?
+ What practice activities should we use for students to practice?
+ How do we test ?
II. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
- To help students recognize and pronounce the two vowels correctly . 
III. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD
- Scope : Researching in the process of teaching English at Thach Thanh 3 High school.
- Object: This subject is concerned with ways of practice activities in the class. 
- Researching method: Reading reference books , discussing with other teachers of english, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences.
IV. CONTENT:
The sound /u:/ and /ʊ/.
1. LESSON ONE: The sound /u:/
In this unit we will study the various letters which represent or include the sound / u: / for example,/u:/ in blue, too, who and chew
1.1)Teaching /u:/ sound.
-Describe the way of pronouncing /u:/ 
/uː/ is a long vowel sound. Make a lip into a circle.Put your tongue up and back. 
It's pronounced /uː/....../uː/.
- Write some words that includes /u:/ on the board and read them out.
Blue,Chew,Route,Two,Cruise,Boot,Hoop,Goose,bamboo
 Ask students to compare the words.They recognize that the letters pronounced /u:/ are different.After that we teach them how to identify the vowels pronounced /u:/.
* WRITE ON THE BOARD:
+ “o” is pronounced /u:/ in some common words that end by “o” or “o” with some certain consonants.
Example: Do,To, Lose,Tomb.
+) “u” is pronounced as /u:/ in words having “ue”, “u-e”, “uit”, “ui-e” , as in glue, June, fruit, cruise.
+) “oo” is pronounced as /u:/ when standing at the end of a word or a sound or being followed by some consonants: l, d,t,n,th(e) as in school, tooth, noon,soot,food, sooth except for “oo” followed by k as in book, look, and some words such as “foot”, “floor”.
+) “ou” is pronounced as /u:/ in some words when it is followed by “p”, “pe”, “ch-”, “nd”, “ff” as in loup, troupe, douche,wound, boudoir, bouffant. Words similar to (because they are derived from) French words tend to have /u/, e.g. "soup", "route" [for UK speakers], "group" etc;
+) “ew” is also pronounced /u:/.For example: crew, grew, bedew, jewel
1.2 Practice activity:
- For beginners: 
a) Reoder:Students can reoder the letters given to make a fully worked-out word.
 Teacher writes some jumble letters on the board or hang on a sub-board or deliver worksheets to students for them to reoder the letters.
For example:
1. w t o .
2.o d .
3.g o r u p .
4.ch s e o .
5.b r i u s e .
6. s m th o o .
7.b e h s r e w .
8.f u t l e .
9. g o g o l e .
10. t b e u .
The answer:
1.two 	6.smooth
2.do	 	 	7.beshrew
3.group 	8.flute
4.chose	9.google
5.bruise	10.tube
b)Fill in the missing word.
Students can be given partially written words and then fill in the missing letters. To make it easier, pictures are included.
1.s - - - 
2.j - - - - 
3.t - - - 
4.h-m- - - 
5.sa - - - 
6. W - - ( Capital letters) 
7. re - - - - 
8.w - - - - 
The answer:
1.soup	6.remove
2.juice	7.remwove
3.tooth	8.wound
4.humour
5.salute
c)Categories:Students can work in pairs or in groups to write words containing /u:/ through an activity like the following one: Teacher prepares many words in different categories. A student goes to the board and picks one word up then the others try to guess the word by asking him/ her questions.For instance, he picks a word relating to appliance of family.Through questions are made, students can find the word “broom”.
Suggestions for categeries:
+Appliance of family: broom, duvet, bathroom scales, stool,spoon,cruise
+Animals:baboon, gnu,goose,rooster,moose, raccoon,bluebird
+Vegetables and fruits:mushroom,prunello,ugli fruit,jackfruit,star fruit,blueberry
+Clothes: uniform, suit, hood, swimsuit, tunic, bloomers, pantsuit
+Jobs-occupation-professions: supervisor,musician,student,music teacher, computer programmer 
-For intermidiate:
Limit time for students to write as many words including long vowel u relating to a certain category as possible.They can work individually, in pairs or in groups.
The categories can be
Sports
Foods
Verbs
personality
Tools
Examples: judo, canoeing,rude, beshrew..
For advanced:
Ask students to work in groups of 5. Each group is given one of these tasks following:
Write as many words as you can that contain “oo”.
Write as many words as you can that contain “u-e”, “ue”.
Write as many words as you can that contain “ui”.
Write as many words as you can that contain “ou”.
Write as many words as you can that contain “ew”.
Allow students to use dictionary duringthe activity.When the time is over , students hang their posters on the board.All groups can check and add more words for eachother with teacher’s controlling. 
* Suggested answers:
- oo:cartoon, moon, monsoon, good Friday, food, noon, spoon, doomsday
-u-e, ue: flute, June, cue, cube, cute, huge, plume, true..
-ui: accruing,bruin,ruin,bruise
-ou:through, croup, troupe, douche
-ew:chew, grew, crew, blew,yew, 
2. LESSON TWO: The sound /ʊ/
In this lesson we see the letters pronounced /ʊ/.
2.1)Teaching / ʊ / sound.
-Describe the way of pronouncing / ʊ / 
/ʊ/ is a short vowel sound.
Make your lip a little rounded.
Your tongue is not so far back as for /u: /.
It’s pronounced /ʊ//ʊ/. 
Write some words on the board and read them out.
/ʊ/  /u: /
Book 	 tooth 
Cook	 cartoon
Full	June
Put
It can be easily seen that there the same letters but they are pronounced differently as book and cartoon.
+) "o" is pronounced /ʊ/ in some words such as wolf , 
woman ,bosom.
+) "ou" is pronounced /ʊ/ in some model verbs : should, would, could
+) "oo" " is pronounced /ʊ/ if it is followed by k, d, t as in book, good, sooth. Now we can see that it is difficult to recognize /ʊ/ or /u: / in a word with “oo” when we compare it to it in the previous lesson because“oo” itself has 2 ways of pronunciation.Therefore we must learn the cases by heart.
Note: g,st or h precedes ood then oo is pronounced /ʊ/.
+) “u” is pronounced /jʊ/ when we find it in the pattern : “u + r + a vowel” such as in cure, furious.
+) “u” is pronounced /ʊ/in some words when it is followed by “sh”, “ ll”, “t”. For example: pull, push, foot except for boot,soot, cull,lull or ush follows b .
2.2 Practice activity:
For beginners:
1. Vowel /ʊ/ game: Finding words.
Students can do it individually, in pairs or in groups to find out the given words in the table.
W
S
O
N
G
B
O
O
K
T
R
O
H
T
B
X
R
B
H
T
O
N
M
O
M
C
Q
U
J
O
O
E
H
A
U
V
D
L
M
O
K
Z
E
I
N
L
P
L
N
F
S
Y
E
N
E
P
D
E
E
N
U
M
H
O
T
O
O
T
O
P
N
I
L
B
U
L
L
U
O
U
O
O
U
D
H
J
L
K
I
L
G
O
O
D
H
X
W
U
E
L
2. Limited time writing:
Divide the class into groups. Give them 5 minutes to write as many words as 
possible that containing short vowel u. The team whose most and most correct words are the winners. Help the teams by writing on the board: ull, ush,ook,ould, ur-
For intermidiate: 
* Groupwork: Ask students to work in groups of 5. All groups do the same task at the same time
First, Write as many words as you can that contain “ur-”.
Second, Write as many words as you can that contain “ush”.
Third, Write as many words as you can that contain “ull”.
Last,Write as many words as you can that contain “ook”.
Limit the time. Allow students to use dictionary during the activity.When the time is over , students hang their posters on the board.All groups can check and add more words for eachother with teacher’s controlling. 
* Suggested answers:
-cure,pure, during, curious, furious,durra, pure, lure,bureau
-bush,push,push-cart, pushchair, ambush,pusher.
-bull, full, pull, bell-pull, bulldog, mournfull.
-cook, book, look, crook, gook, shook
For advanced: puzzle. Teacher prepares many questions for words containing short vowel /ʊ/. Students try to guess the word to fill in the table.After the correct answer are filled, they have a special word. For example:
1.
V
A
L
U
E
R
2.
C
R
O
O
K
E
D
3.
W
O
L
F
B
U
S
H
E
L
L
E
R
4.
5.
B
U
L
L
E
T
6.
C
O
U
L
D
1. A person whose job is to say how much something is worth.
2. the shape of a witch’s nose.
3.Origin of the domestic dog.	
4. Your skirt is torn, but you still want to wear it.So you take it to this person.
5. A metal projectile for firing from a rifle.
6. A modal verb shows ability in the past.
3.Practice activities for both / u:/ and / ʊ /
a. / u:/ or / ʊ /: Students are given a list of words containing long vowel u or short vowel u.They have to decide which words belong to long vowel u group or short vowel u one.
 / u:/
 / ʊ /
1. boot 	2. tube 	3.hook 4.suit	5.good 6.pool	7.pussy cat
8.undertook	9.soot	10.do	11.should	12.woman
13.food	14.full	15.push	16.tooth
The answer:
The / u:/ sound: boot,tube,pool,suit,pussy cat,do,food,tooth.
The / ʊ / sound: hook,good,undertook,soot,should,woman,full,push
b.find / u:/ or / ʊ / way
 Start 
goon
groom
bull
put 
chew
took
flew
druid
who
spoon
would
glue
food
gune
pool
facebook
good
soot
stood
croup
c)Write the words you hear.Teacher read a list of words containing long vowel u or short vowel u out. Students write the word they think of.After reading, teacher takes some of students’ papers to check. Both teacher and students correct the answer. Students can do the practice in dividually, in pairs or in groups.
4. Some useful tips:
Here are some helpful tips I got after the lessons.
1. Teach one lesson every week.
2. model each sound after explaining the way of pronounciation and ask students to do it the same.
3. My students are ethnic minority students so I do not teach all the irregular cases.
4.Check if students always remember the rules and if they can write long or short vowel u by oral test, five minute test or fifteen minute test after teaching .
5. Give them homework for example, practice reading sentences, write 5 or more words containing / ʊ / sound ect and you have to check and correct home work for them.
6. Teach words listed as " common exceptions" only if they are fairly important words that your students are likely to need and try to use pictures, images and games to reduce difficulty and tension .
7. Encourage students by good marks if they do well.
V. RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
Students became more attentive and conscientious in lessons.
I was really happy when I saw my students look at the board and listened to my teaching concentratively.They asked me questions during the lessons to catch on the knowledge instead of sitting and listening quietly. When they practiced, they discussed altogether in groups and good learners help the weak ones. These positive changes shown that my trying was helpful and useful.
Students became more enthusiastic
I used to be so depressed and angry when looking at their uncompleted homework exercises. After applying the research in teaching I was satisfied with my students’ homework. Most of them finished their homework except for three particular boys who had intention of not going to school anymore. Of course, there were still some wrong answers, but that they did their whole homework regularly could be regarded a great achievement.
Students recognize two vowel sounds and they can explain the answer.
My students told me that they could recognize two vowel sounds after lessons.Here is one of four groups’ correct answer for a practice activity within 3 minutes photograped in our lesson with the students in 10 C7 who are not good at English at all.They did it without looking at their notebook .We were proud to see the following perfect answer. 
Students like this way of teaching
Clear sound model, rules and interesting practice activities interested students much. They were also eager to take their homework notebook back to see my feedback after I had checked their answer. 
VI. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I found my teaching effective. My students made much progresss in learning. In terms of their behaviors, they studied seriously. 
I have learnt that a sucessful lesson includes many factors: teacher, students, environment,so to make classroom teaching more effective and useful for students, teachers have to try to make each lesson purposeful and interesting and students have careful prepararion before class hours. Teachers should also try to make the classroom environment relaxing in order that students do not feel tense while learning. 
One more important thing is that when you test your students, notice to their different abilities to give them suitable tasks.
In short, the research I made was well effective.I am so thankful to receive more contributive ideas to make it more improvable. 
XÁC NHẬN CỦA 
THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ
Thanh Hóa, ngày tháng 05 năm 2016
I assure that this is my own work.
Đỗ thị Thu Nga