Improving gade 7 students’ pronounciation of english pilot program at thuong xuan town secondary school

THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT
THUONG XUAN EDUCATION AND TRAINING DIVISION
EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
IMPROVING GADE 7 STUDENTS’ PRONOUNCIATION
 OF ENGLISH PILOT PROGRAM
AT THUONG XUAN TOWN SECONDARY SCHOOL
 The writer: Hoang Thi Nga
 Position: Teacher- Thuong Xuan Town Secondary school
 Experience initiative: Enghlish
THANH HOA, 2017
INDEX
CONTENTS
PAGE
Index
Page 1
1. Introduction.
	1.1. Reasons for choosing the theme.
Page 2
	1.2. The purpose of research
Page 2
	1.3. Object of research
Page 2
	1.4. Research methodology
Page 3
2. Contents
 2.1. Theoretical background 
Page 3
 2.2. The status of the problem 
Page 3
	2.3. The solutions and implementation.
Page 4
	2.3.1. Learning about phonetic English
Page 4
	2.3.2. Learning the phonetic symbols
Page 5
	2.3.3. Organization of implementation
Page 6
	2.4. The effects of experience initiative
Page 16
3. Conclusions and recommendations 
 3.1. Conclusions
Page 16
 3.2. recommendations
Page 17
	LIST OF REFERENCES
Page 18
 LISTS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Page 19
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Reasons for choosing the theme.
	 Education and training play an important role in the development process of the country. In the current period, the country is on the path of reform, opening-up policy relations with the countries of the world increased significantly. Extensive communication with the countries in the world in English , the international language , has become more more and common and attention.
	In teaching English I have noticed that practicing English pronunciation is the misery of our students, especially students in grade 6 and grade 7 whether they have been studying for 3 years at the elementary level, ... and in the end they still do not get the standard English pronunciation. Is learning to pronounce so difficult that can not be learned? or inappropriate teaching methods? Is textbook structure irrational? or Don’t they know how to learn? 
 According to the old textbook program, the students did not learn about pronunciation so their spelling good or bad depends on the teachers.They leant Enlish pronounciation without rules and methods. That is why after 7 or 10 years learning English, they still find difficulties in speaking and communicating even they can speak fluently, Others can’t understand what they are expressing beacause of the mistakes. Besides, the pilot program presents the vocabulary, the grammar items tobe leaned and practised through the skills and activities of the unit, it also focuses on pronunciation. Two or three sounds,which frequently appear in the unit are targeted and practised in isolation and in context of “ A closer look 1”.
To help students participate in the English pilot program and overcome this obstacle, I choose content " Improving gade 7 students’ pronunciation of English pilot program at Thuong Xuan Town Secondary School".
1.2 The purpose of research.
 In order to help students in grade 7 of pilot program at Town Secondary School, Thuong Xuan District, Thanh Hoa Province understand the sound system in English, especially those sounds are enrolled at the first semester in the textbook 7. Thereby, the students have aware of the importance of phonetics in learning English in general and in particular to communicate in English so they can understand what other people say and what they say that others can understand.
1.3 Object of research.
Students in class 7A: 35 students
School: Thuong Xuan Town secondary school.
The sound system in the lessons of the first semester textbook 7 of the pilot program, including sounds:
Sounds
 Belong to Units
 ə/; /ɜ:/
Unit 1
/f/; /v/
Unit 2
/k/; /g/
Unit 3
/ʃ/; /ʒ/
Unit 4
/ɒ/; /ɔ:/
Unit 5
/ʧ/; /ʤ /
Unit 6
1.4 Research methodology.
To complete this experience initiative, I have thought and practiced and have chosen several methods:
- Investigating the reality.
- Read documents that related to research.
- Using opinion surveys.
- Getting to know phonetic English.
- Introducing phonetic symbols in the units.
- Organizing to practice pronunciation with these audio visual media.
- Summarizing, comparing, drawing lessons.
2. CONTENTS
2.1 Theoretical background.
          English is an important subject in the general education program in schools in Vietnam. Basically, students start learning from grade 3, but the reading and speaking English standard has also been faced many difficulties. To improve this requires a huge effort by a team of teachers and students.
10-year language program is a breakthrough in the implementation of the Scheme language 2020. Structure of book focus part of pronouncing on teaching and learning English more comprehensively.
2.2 The status of the problem before applying teaching experience
 For students in grade 7 at Thuong XuanTown Secondary School, Thuong Xuan district, they have learned English pilot program for 3 years but their pronunciation still has many difficulties. The pronunciation of the children are forced, many students are not willing to speak for fear of making errors that always leads to false in reading, speaking and recognizing the sound of the words when making phonetic exercises. 
 Through the survey to identify exercises sound / ə / and / ɜ: / ( English 7, page 9) 
Exercise: Listen and put the words in the correct column /ə/ or /ɜ:/ 
answer - burn - birth - away - hurt - common - neighbour - heard
* The correct answer:
/ə/
/ɜ:/
answer
burn
away
birth
common
hurt
neighbour
heard
* The results
Class
Num
Correct 8 words
Correct 7 words
Correct 6 words
Correct 5 words
Correct 4 words
Correct from 1 to 3 words
Num
%
Num
%
Num
%
Num
%
Num
%
Num
%
7A
35
4
11,4
5
14,3
4
11,4
7
20
9
25,7
6
17,2
	The surveys of students’feelings when they have learned phonetics I obtained the following results:
Class
Num
Very difficult
Difficult
Easy
Very easy
Note
Num
%
Num
%
Num
%
Num
%
7A
35
17
48,6
15
42,8
3
8,6
0
0
	The above results inspired me to do something to help them improve this difficulty, or at least help them not to feel afraid, find it less difficult to learn pronounciation.
2.3 The solutions and implementation.
	2.3.1 Learning about phonetic English
	So what is phonetic? It is intonation and sound. Any language has its own intonation and sound. In Vietnam, in particular, and many countries in the world people find it difficult to learn English pronunciation like a native standard for sound and intonation .The main factors cause this problem may be mentioned.
	Firstly, new sounds appear in English that do not appear in Vietnamese , and they make the students feel hard to be accurate pronunciation. Take for example: with audio /ʤ /. When listening through the spelling of this consonant, the student think that it is simple, but the reality is quite different. Many students can not pronounce properly and easily frustrate with the way of pronoucing, not to mention the other sounds.
	Secondly, The students have already been accustomed to the sounds in Vietnamese, the parts make up the sound, especially as the tongue, lips, teeth are very difficult to adjust to the correct pronunciation in English. Students find themselves powerless to control them according to his will. When you want to put a tip of the tongue between the teeth to pronounce sound / ð /, the teeth firmly are bited and the tongue dropped behind.
	Thirdly, the word stress in English. The words that have two syllables or more are received the accent. Word stress will fall into one of certain syllables, and syllables that will be stressed more than the rest while Vietnamese has one syllable, no word stress. This is further difficulty with the students.
	Finally, the intonation of sentences in English varied and plentiful. Maybe the same sentence, but we can raise our voice, or down at the end of a sentence to convey different information to the listeners,Vietnamese too. But the similarity makes the students feel confused. They were familiar with the up and down of the sentence in Vietnamese, so the switch to English, more or less, the intonation of sentences in Vietnamese into English will be affected, or if not, it will take a lot of time to study and modify.
	In general, when learning phonetic of a foreign language, students see eye to eye with difficulties of intonation and sounds.So the important thing is how to overcome them and achieve the ultimate goal to use that language as a second language. Effortly, perseverance and impatience have helped many people succeed in learning foreign languages.
2.3.2 Learning the phonetic symbols used in the lessons of practising phonetic in English 7.
	Everyone who starts learning a foreign language must learn the rules of pronunciation because it is very important to correctly pronounce. The main purpose of language learning is to be able to communicate with people, but bad pronunciation can cause unnecessary misunderstandings. Therefore, the rules of pronounciation is important for foreign language learners. From the first period of the program in English 7 (an introduction), I spent a lot of time to introduce the students to pass on the international phonetic symbols that they will have to get used to in the process of studying English. At first, they might not understand and know nothing about it. But that does not mean that later they will not understand anything about it. In introducing the symbols table, there is the International Phonetic symbols and its corresponding sounds in Vietnamese to make students easy to imagine. Even though, getting to know deeply about International Phonetic symbols helps the students pronoun correctly every word they meet in the dictionary. Here is the table of the international phonetic symbols at the first semester of English 7 .
A. Vowels.
Sounds
In words
Transcription 
Illustration
Unit
/ə/
about
/ ə’baʊt /
today, connect, elephant
Unit 1
/ɜ:/
fur
/ fɜ:(r) /
stir, nurse, shirt, skirt
Unit 1
/ɒ/
got
/ gɒt /
hot, cod, spot, cock, slot
Unit 5
/ɔ:/
saw
/ sɔ: /
more, course, store
Unit 5
 B. Consonants
Sounds
In words
Transcription
Illustration
Unit
/f/
fall
/ fɔ:l /
photo, finish, fat, cough
Unit 2
/v/
van
/ væn /
voice, very, violent, move
Unit 2
/k/
cat
/ kæt /
cow, copy, skull, thank
Unit 3
/g/
get
/ get /
game, bag, gather, guide, gun
Unit 3
/ʃ/
shoe
/ ʃu: /
show, sheep, wash, sheet
Unit 4
/ʒ/
vision
/ ‘viʒn/
measure, decision, usually
Unit 4
/ʧ/
chain
/ ʧein /
chip, choice, teach, cheers
Unit 6
/ʤ/
jam
/ ʤæm /
bridge, village, join, jam
Unit 6
	Once the students have transliteration table, with the help of the teachers, they are guided to pronounce the words that they often mispronounce. Encouraging them to memorize each day at least 2-3 words with symbols of pronunciation .
2.3.3 Organization of implementation
	To help the students excting and not feel stressed during school hours ,I personally have taken advantages of the infrastructure of the university such as radio, interactive panel power mail, Internet connection service of teaching and learning.By collecting English pages about teaching pronounciation to illustrate such as: 
	In addition, organizing for the students and training with the visual media to know the extent of their progress, so that teachers and students have the correction.The training mainly focuses on reinforcement learning lessons.
	The solution that I have personally applied to my students may be also used in other schools. However, this is the first time I have applied and initially brought excitement for students.The sounds in the English textbook 7 of the pilot program will be introduce the students in each unit of study with the process: the students observe image export, find out how it formed, understand single words containing sounds, learn the sentences with examples and finally apply.
UNIT 1: MY HOBBIES
	In this unit, the students are gained two vowels /ə/ and /ɜ:/
	a) Short vowel /ə/ 
- /ə/ is a short vowel sound. 
- Open your mouth very slightly and simply. 
- The lips and tongue are relaxed. 
- It's pronounced /ə/...../ə/
ago/əˈɡəʊ/ 
open /ˈəʊpən/
mother/ˈmʌðər/ 
picture /ˈpɪktʃər/
I suppose it's possible. 
/aɪ səˈpəʊz ɪts ˈpɒsəbl/ 
That's an excellent question. 
/ðæts ən ˈeksələnt ˈkwestʃən/
	1. "a" is pronounced as / ə /
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
banana
/bəˈnænə/
quả chuối
national
/ˈnæʃnəl/
Có tính quốc gia
	2. "e" is pronounced as / ə /
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
answer
/ˈænsər/
trả lời
silent
/ˈsailənt/
Im lặng
	3. "o" is pronounced as / ə /
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
compare
/kəmˈpeə(r)/
so sánh
control
/kənˈtrəʊl/
kiểm soát
	4. "u" is pronounced as / ə /
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
survey
/səˈvei/
khảo sát
suggest
/səˈdʒest/
gợi ý
	5. "ou" is pronounced as / ə /
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
famous
/ˈfeɪməs/
nổi tiếng
dangerous
/ˈdeɪndʒərəs/
nguy  hiểm
	b) Long vowel /ɜ:/
- /ɜː/ is a long vowel sound. 
- Your mouth and tongue should be relaxed. 
- It’s pronounced /ɜː/.... /ɜː/.
bird /bɜːrd/ 
turn /tɜːrn/
occur /əˈkɜːr/ 
early /ˈɜːrli/
The girl saw the circus first.
/ðə ɡɜːrl sɔː ðə ˈsɜːrkəs fɜːrst/
That is the worst journey in the world. 
/ðæt ɪz ðə wɜːrst ˈdʒɜːrni ɪn ðə wɜːrld/
	Identify the vowels which are pronounced /ɜː/ 
	1. "o" is pronounced as /ɜː/ 
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
worse
/wɜːs/
xấu hơn
world
/wɜːld/
thế giới
	2. "u" is pronounced as /ɜː/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
hurt
/hɜːt/
làm đau
fur
/fɜː/
bộ lông da thú
	3. "i", "e", "ea" and "ou" are sometimes pronounced as /ɜː/ when stress is on these.
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
bird
/bɜːd/
con chim
girl
/gɜːl/
cô gái
	UNIT 2: HEALTH
	In this unit, the students are gained two consonants /f/ and /v/
	a) Consonant /f/
- /f/ is the voiceless consonant sound. 
- To make this sound, touch your top teeth with the bottom lip. 
- Blow out air between your lip and teeth and don't use your voice. 
- It's pronounced /f/...../f/.
five /faɪv/ 
half /hæf/
coffee /ˈkɔːfi/ 
photo /ˈfəʊtəʊ/
This is my family photo. 
/ðɪs ɪz maɪ ˈfæməli ˈfəʊtəʊ/ 
Ralph’s life is tough, but he laughs. 
/rɑːfs laɪf ɪz tʌf bʌt hi læfs/
	Identify the letters which are pronounced /f/ 
	1. "f" is pronounced as /f/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
fan
/fæn/
cái quạt
feel
/fiːl/
cảm thấy
	2. "ph" và "gh" is pronounced as /f/ in every siuation.
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
photo
/ˈfəʊtəʊ/
bức ảnh
rough
/rʌf/
nhám
	b) Consonant /v/ 	
- /v/ is the voiced consonant sound. 
- To make this sound, practise this sound /f/ first, then use your voice to say /v/......./v/. 	
live/lɪv/ 
have /hæv/
very/ˈveri/ 
Invite /ɪnˈvaɪt/
Steven lives in a village. 
/stivn lɪvz ɪn əˈvɪlɪdʒ/ 
We’re leaving at five past seven. 
/wɪr liːvɪŋ ət faiv paːst 'sevən/
	Identify: Only "v" is pronounced as /v/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
view
/vjuː/
nhìn, quan sát
heavy
/ˈhevi/
nặng
UNIT 3: COMMUNITY SERVICE
	In this unit, the students are gained two consonants /k/ and /g/
	a) Consonant /k/	
- /k/ is a voiceless consonant sound. 
-To make this sound: 
- Stop the air with the back of your tongue.
- Then move your tongue to release the air and don’t use your voice. 
- It’s pronounced /k//k/ 
car/kɑːr/ 
key /kiː/
kitchen/ˈkɪtʃɪn/ 
karefully /ˈkerfəli/
I’ll make a cake for Mike.
/aɪl meɪk ə keɪk fər maɪk/
Pick the music up tomorrow.
/pɪk ðə ˈmjuːzɪk ʌp təˈmɔːrəʊ/
	Identify the letters which are pronounced /k/ 
	1. "k" is pronounced as /k/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
look
/lʊk/
Nhìn
milk
/mɪlk/
sữa
	2. "c" is pronounced as /k/ when it is in front of “ a, u, o, r và l”
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
can
/kæn/
có thể
carrot
/ˈkærət/
cà rốt
	3. "qu" is pronounced as /k/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
quay
/kiː/
bến cảng
quarel
/ˈkwɔrəl/
cãi nhau
	Note: "qu" is pronounced as /kw/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
quality
/ˈkwɒlɪti/
chất lượng
quiet
/ˈkwaiət/
yên tĩnh
	4. "x" is pronounced as /ks/ and /kʃ/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
mix
/mɪks/
pha trộn
luxury
/ˈlʌkʃəri/
sự xa hoa
	5. "ch" is pronounced as /k/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
scheme
/skiːm/
kế hoạch
chemistry
/ˈkemɪstri/
hóa học
	b) Consonant /g/	
- /g/ is a voiced consonant sound. 
- To make this sound: 
- Practice the sound /k/ first, then use the voice to say /g/ ....../g/
girl/ɡɜːrl/ 
big /bɪɡ/
begin/bɪˈɡɪn/ 
again /əˈɡen/
Go get your mother’s glasses.
/ɡəʊ get jər ˈmʌðər ɡlæsɪz/
Peggy begged to go to the art gallery.
/'pegi begd tə ɡəʊ tə ði ɑːrt ˈɡæləri/
	Identify: Only "g" is pronounced as /g/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
guess
/ges/
đoán
game
/geim/
trò chơi
UNIT 4: MUSIC AND ARTS
	In this unit, the students are gained two consonants /ʃ/ and /ʒ/
	a) Consonant /ʃ/	
- /ʃ/ is a voiceless consonant sound. 
- To make this sound: 
- Put your tongue up and back a little.
- Push your lip forward into a circle. 
- It’s pronounced /ʃ/..../ʃ/ 
she/ʃi/ 
sure /ʃʊər/
ocean/ˈəʊʃn/ 
nation /ˈneɪʃn/
Share the sugar with Charlotte.
/ʃeər ðə ˈʃʊɡər wɪð ˈʃɑːrlət/
She wished she had gone shopping.
/ ʃi wɪʃt ʃi həd ɡɔːn ˈʃɑːpɪŋ/
	Identify the letters which are pronounced /ʃ/ 
	1. "c" is pronounced as /ʃ/ when it is in front of “ ia, ie, io, iu, ea”.
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
social
/ˈsouʃl/
mang tính xã hội
musician
/mjuːˈzɪʃən/
nhạc sĩ
	2. "s" is pronounced as /ʃ/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
pressure
/ˈpreʃə/
sức ép
insure
/ɪnˈʃɔː(r)/
bảo hiểm
	3. "t" is pronounced as /ʃ/ when it is inside a word and before “ ia, io”.
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
ambitious
/æmˈbiʃəs/
tham vọng
intention
/ɪnˈtenʃn/
ý định
	4. Note: "x" is pronounced as /kʃ/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
anxious
/ˈæŋkʃəs/
lo âu
luxury
/ˈlʌkʃəri/
sự xa xỉ
	5. "ch" is pronounced as /ʃ/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
machine
/mə'ʃɪːn/
máy móc
chassis
/ˈʃæsi/
khung xe
	6. "sh" is pronounced as /ʃ/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
shall
/ʃæl/
sẽ, phải
sheet
/ʃiːt/
lá, tờ
	b) Consonant /ʒ/
- /ʒ/ is a voiced consonant sound. 
- To make this sound: 
- Practice the sound /ʃ/ first 
-then use the voice to say /ʒ/ ....../ʒ/
Asia /ˈeɪʒə/ 
Usual /ˈjuːʒuəl/
Measure /ˈmeʒər/ 
Television /ˈtelɪvɪʒn/ 
Take the usual measurements.
/teɪk ðə ˈjuːʒuəl ˈmeʒərmənts/
They found the treasure in Asia.
/ðeɪ faʊnd ðə ˈtreʒər ɪn ˈeɪʒə/
	Identify the letters which are pronounced /ʒ/ 
	1. "g" is pronounced as /ʒ/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
massage
/məˈsɑːʒ/
xoa bóp
mirage
/məˈrɑːʒ/
ảo tưởng
	2. "s" is pronounced as /ʒ/ 
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
division
/diˈviʒn/
sự phân chia
measure
/ˈmeʒə/
sự đo lường
	3. "t" is pronounced as /ʒ/
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
equation
/ɪˈkweɪʒən/ 
phương trình 
	UNIT 5: VIETNAMESE FOOD AND DRINK
	In this unit, the students are gained two vowels /ɒ/ and /ɔː/
	a) Short vowel /ɒ/
- /ɒ/ is a short vowel sound. 
- To make this sound, round your lips a little. 
- The front of your tongue is low and towards the back of your mouth. 
- It's pronounced /ɒ/.../ɒ/.
Dog/dɒg/ 
Box /bɒks/
Hobby/'hɒbi/ 
Coffee /'kɒfi/
John’s gone to the shops
/dʒɒnz gɒn tə ðə ʃɒps/ 
Have you got a lot of shopping? 
/hæv ju gɒt ə lɒt əvˈʃɒpɪŋ/
	Identify the vowels which are pronounced /ɒ/ 
 	"o" is pronounced as /ɒ/ 
Examples
Transcription
Meaning
dog
/dɒg/
con chó
stop
/stɒp/
dừng lại
	b) Long vowel /ɔː/
- /ɔː/ is a long vowel sound. 
- Put the front of your tongue down 
- Round your lips. 
- It’s pronounced /ɔː/ .... /ɔː/ 
ball /bɔːl/ 
saw /sɔː/
water /ˈwɔːtər/ 
daughter /ˈdɔːtər/
It's all wrong. 
/ɪts ɔːl rɔːŋ/
How much does coffee cost? 
/haʊ mʌtʃ dəz ˈkɔːfi kɔːst/
	Identify the vowels which are pronounced /