Improving the pronunciation of English words for sixth form students learning new English textbook by eliciting students to do phonetic exercises interestingly

NONG CONG DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND RAINING
TRUNG CHINH SECONDARY SCHOOL
“TEACHING EXPERIENCE”
 “ Improving the pronunciation of English words for sixth form students learning new English textbook by eliciting students to do phonetic exercises interestingly.”
 Name : Lê Thị An
 Job : Teacher
 Place of work : Trung Chinh secondary school
 Subject : English
THANH HOA - 2018
Nông Cống, tháng 03 năm 2017
NÔNG CỐNG NĂM 2017
I. INTRODUCTION
In curent time, Our beloved country, Viet Nam is carrying out much renovation in many fields. One of the most renovations which has been corncerned by people at all age from the city to the country is the renewably educational and training program from grade one to grade twelve. People believe that renovating the shooling program will take much advantages in other that we may train young generations to have ability to support the country later to the trend of modern thought basing on national soul and integrating international community. To make sure that the second purpose “integrating international community” can be successful, Viet Nam’s Ministry of Education and Training has taken more care of teaching foreign languages for its students and English is the most popular foreign language choosen in Vietnam’s educational program which can be seen in the project of foreign language during the period 2012 – 2020.
	Facing the new requirements of the nation and date, I should think each of the teachers ought to make more efforts to get practical results in teaching career. Being a teacher of English I always wonder and find out how to teach my students to communicate in English successfully. In English, listening and speaking skills play an important role in creating speech and if learners want to listen and speak English well, the first and foremost thing they need is the right prounciation of English words. Why can I say so? We strongly notice that when one don’t pronounce words well, he or she may make the listeners laugh at him/her, moreover, he/she can not understand what the other is speaking because their sounds are not similar to his/hers. Another reason, it will be very difficult for him/ her to correct the pronunciation later.
	The question which makes me corncern about most is how to teach the students to pronounce English words rightly and help them use English fluently and confidently. Is teaching pronunciation enough only in teaching new words? I think that it is not enough because in conversation we need more the words in textbook, and native speakers often speak more quickly and link the words in some ways which causes us much difficult in understanding and speaking as well as they do. However, it is not necessary for us to speak everything as we hear, we still understand them what they speak if we know how they link and we need to pronounce words exactly. Therefore, the first key of this problem is how to pronounce English words exactly because words are the smallest unit of a sentence. 
During a few years teaching and studying, I have collected, studied and taught students how to pronounce English in a variety of phonetic exercises. In this school year, I take a special duty on teaching the new English textbook for grade 6 in the project of foreign language during the period 2012 – 2020. This new English textbook has created many interesting things. It gives some phonic exercises in each unit. I am always fond of teaching this section and have supplied my students some more ones afterwards. The result is so good that I encourage me to write the creative experience called “Improving the pronunciation of English words for sixth form students learning new English textbook by eliciting students to do phonetic exercises interestingly".
II. CONTENT
 Part 1. Theoretical background
	Speaking English as well as the native speakers is the strong hope of almost people who are learning English. However, it is not easy to do it in a few days. “ How can we use English fluently and confidently? Do we do need a variety of words or Do we need a further understdanding of English structure and grammar ? Many people say that learners need all above: I believe in this idea; however, I think it is not enough because pronuncing the words exactly plays an important role in orders to define a successful conversation .
 	For young learners, the way they pronounce a word may last forever and it is very difficult for them to correct it if they do it wrongly . Moreover, they are not possible to correct their pronunciation by themselves. 
 	In fact, knowing the English phonetics symbols as vowel sounds, dipthongs and consonants is very useful because it helps learners not only specialize the pronunciation of a word easier, but also create a total knowledge of pronouncing a word by looking the letters, Apart from this, many dictionaries use the tanscription (the English phonetics symbols) to show the pronunciation of a word and it’s easier to remember a word if learners know both its meaning and its pronunciation . 
 	Although new English textbook established by Viet Nam’s Ministry of Education and Training is more interested in teaching pronunciation for students, pronunciation is the biggest problem of English learners that’s why I always wonder how to help my students improve their English pronunciation, ease their nervous thing and use English fluently, accuracy and confidently.
 	Therefore, I have collected, chosen and created some more exercises for students in grade 6 ( learning new English text books ) according to the pronunciation section in textbook, I elicit students to do some more exercises introducing the English phonetics symbols; practiceing exericises to specialize a pair of vowels, a vowel and a diphthong, two or three consonants, etc . 
Part 2: Practical background 
 	In order to know how exactly my students pronounce the English word, I gave them the following exercises : class 6 A ( 34 students ) 
Exercise: Choose a word which has the underlined part pronounced different from the others
1. 
a. arrive
b. banana
c. village
d. machine
2. 
a. meet
b. meat
c. believe
d. bread
3. 
a. food
b. foot
c. cook
d. good
4. 
a. that
b. they
c. then
d. throw
5. 
a. likes
b. watches
c. classes
d. offices
6.
a. visit
b. season
c. museum
d. sister
7.
a. sandwich
b. chair
c. school
d. chicken
8.
a. days
b. friends
c. photos
d. weeks
9.
a. study
b. music
c. student
d. museum
10.
a. listen
b. history
c. routine
d. quarter
Steps of checking students’ pronunciation 
Step 1: Get student 5 minutes to choose and circle the answer .
Step 2: Check and correct the student’s work 
Step 3: Let Ss listen and repeat .
Step 4: Call each read aloud a group (4 groups) and 34 students read aloud one by one . 
By checking in this way and directly teaching students, I realized the problem is that . 
N
The feature of students’ pronunciation
Number of the students
Account for
(%)
1
Rrealize how a letter is pronounced differently in the other syllable or word. 
2/ 34
5,9
2
Realize that different letters can be pronounced as the same sound 
3/ 34
8,8
3
Can listen and repeat the pronunciation of a word but can’t remember or immagine it looks like
33/ 34
97
4
Know how to integrate a vowel with consonants to pronounce a syllable . 
2/ 34
5,9
5.
Pronounce a word without the stress and in slow speed of pronouncing 
22/ 34
64,7
 	Part 3: The solutions 
1. Measures of teaching english pronunciation by getting students do phonetic exercises
Diphthong /∂Ʊ/ & vowel /ʌ/
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of dipthong /∂Ʊ/ & vowel /ʌ/
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
 /∂Ʊ /	go	know	boat
 /ʌ/ son sun country
- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook .
- Use the exercises below for further practice 
- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud 
E1: Put a (Ï) the word which is NOT pronounced as /∂Ʊ/in each group below
1.
£ judo
£ going
T brother
2. 
£ month
£ open
£ homework
3.
£ rode
£ some
£ close
4. 
£ hope
£ Monday
£ post
5. 
£ one
£ oh
£ overseas
6. 
£ also
£ mother
£ no
7. 
£ notebook
£ ok
£ love
8. 
£ borrow
£ only
£ wonderful
E2: Put a (Ï) the word which is NOT pronounced as /ʌ/ in each group below
1.
£ club
£ study
£ student
2.
£ sun
£ put
£ lunch
3.
£ usually
£ subject
£ rubber
4.
£ run
£ but
£ ruler
5.
£ uniform
£ much
£ hungry
6.
£ us
£ under	
£ discuss
7.
£ uncle
£ mum
£ music
8.
£ country
£ cousin
£ about
KEY
E1. 	1. brother 	2. month	3. some	4. Monday
5. one	6. mother	7. love	8. wonderful
E2: 	
1. student	2. put	 3. usually	4. ruler	 
5. uniform	6. us	7. music	8. about
Consonants 	 /S /, /Z / or /IZ/ in “s/ es ” ending
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of consonants /s/, /z/ and semi-syllables /iz/
- Explain that they normally come from the “S/ES” ending after plurals, verbs in the third singular person.
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
The ending “s/es ” is pronounced as /s/ when the verbs ends with the soumd as /f/, /k/, /p/, /t/, /q/, /k/
Ex: 	maps	cats	laughs	 books	baths
The ending “s/es ” is pronounced as /iz/ when the verbs ends with the soumd as /s/, /ks/, /ʃ/,/dʒ/, /ʒ/, /z/
Ex: 	misses	mixes	washes	matches	messages	stages bruises
3. The ending “s/es ” is pronounced as /z/ when the verbs ends with the soumd as the odd (except the sounds above)
Ex: 	pens lives
- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook .
- Use the exercises below for further practice 
- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud 
E1. Devide the following things into three groups of plural form which has s/ es pronounced as /S/, /Z/ or /IZ/
/S /
/Z /
/IZ/
E2. Choose a word which has different pronunciation of the underlined part
1. a. opens 	b. gets	c.lives 	d.does
2. a. trips 	b. as 	c. does	d.listens	
3. a. drinks 	b. walks 	c.wants	d.finds 
4. a.watches 	b. pubblishes 	c.helps 	d.passes 
5. a. sings 	b. meets 	 	c.laughs 	d.stops 
6. a. eats 	b. talks 	c.meets 	d.plays 
7. a. watches 	b. arranges 	c.goes 	d.washes 
8. a. books 	b. buses 	c.oranges 	d.washes
9. a. lakes b. flowers c. trees d. stores
10 . a. yards b. fields c. books d. rivers
KEY. E1. 
/S /
/Z /
E2. 	
1.b 2. a 3.d 4.c 5.a
6.d 7.c 8.a 9.a 10. c
/IZ/
bikes grapes cups carrots 
beans peas tomatoes scissors eggs shoes clothes 
matches boxes oranges fishes sandwiches glasses compasses 
CONSONANTS	/b/	/p/
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of consonant /b/ & /p/
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
 /b/ bike book buy
 /p/ pen put pick
- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook .
- Use the exercises below for further practice 
 - After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud 
E. Write words for the things in the pictures . Then read aloud
KEY	bear	buicuits	peach	apple	
stop	crab	pig	lamb
book	paper	cap	cup	
 Vowels	/I/, /I:/, /∂/
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of vowel /I/, /I:/ &/∂/
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat. (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
/I/	sit	hungry	busy	orange	eraser build
/I:/ he	 tea	green	receive	people	key
/∂/ 	sister	family	banaba	autumn	doctor	dangerous 
- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook .
- Use the exercises below for further practice 
- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud 
E1. Write words for the things in the picture in the correct part of the table
/I/
/∂/
KEY
/I/
/∂/
building businessman cabbage
family village fish
picture pig river delicious
doctor delicious
family picture
banana river
E2. Read aloud the following sentences. The sentences contain /I/ and /I:/
Is he coming to the cinema?	
We’ll miss the beginning of the film.	
Is it an interesting film, Jim?	
The beans and the meat were quite cheap.	
He’s going to leave here for the Green Mountains.	
Would you like to have meat, peas and cheese?	
CONSONANTS	/t/	/st/
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of consonant /t/ & /st/
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat.
- Give examples 
 /t/ ten out top
 /st/ street best tallest
- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook .
- Use the exercises below for further practice
- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud
E. Complete each sentence with a superlative adjective. Then read the sentences aloud
Mount Everest is the  mountain in the world.
Nile river is the river in the world.
Ba Be lake is not the ..lake in Viet Nam.
The Amazon is the  river in the world.
The Sahara is the  desert in the world.
Swimming in the sea in Summer is 
KEY
1. highest	2. longest	3. largest	4. widest	5. hottest	6. best
Consonant	/∫/ & /s/
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of consonants /∫/ & /s/
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
/∫/ she 	sugar	brochure	special	ocean	nation
 /s/ sea practice pass city pratise
- Elicits the students do the phonic exercises in the textbook .
- Use the exercises below for further practice
- After finishing an exercise, should let students practice reading the words aloud 
E1: Write /s/ , /∫/ or /k/ for the bold letter in the words below.
1.
can _ /k/__ 
ocean _ /∫/_
city _ /s/__ 
2.
centre ___
special ____
could ____
3.
call __
official __
slice __
4.
socialize ____
ancient ____
coral ____
5.
oceanic _____
cycle _____
cook _____
6.
cricket ____
especially ___ 
centimeter ___
7.
science ___
cartoon ___
facial ___
8.
commercial __
medicine __
complete __
E2. Write the sound /t/ , /∫/ or /t∫/ for the underline lettter in each word below.
Ex: 	tell /t/ 	picture /t∫/	nation	 /∫/ 
tomorrow 	______	6. motion	______	11. essential	______
sentence	______	7. computer	______	12. century	______
suggestion	______	8. yesterday	______	13. future	______
culture	______	9. natural	______	14. today	______
national	______	10. optional	______	15. statue	______
KEY	E1.
1.
can _ /k/__ 
ocean _ /∫/__
city _ /s/__ 
2.
centre /s/
special /∫/
could /k/
3.
call /k/
official /∫/
slice /s/
4.
socialize /∫/
ancient /s/
coral /k/
5.
oceanic /∫/
cycle /s/
cook /k/
6.
cricket /k/
especially /∫/
centimeter /s/
7.
science /s/
cartoon /k/
facial /∫/
8.
commercial /s/
medicine /∫/
complete /k/
E2.
/t/ 	2. /t/ 	3. /t∫/	4, /t∫/	
5. /∫/	 6. /∫/	7. /t/	 	8. /∫/
9. /t∫/	 10. /∫/ 	11. /∫/	12. /t∫/	
13. /t∫/	14. /t/ 	15. /∫/
2. Result
 After the lessons above, I had my students taking the following exercises to check how effectiently the research got.
E1. Read the word in normal spelling that is pronounced as:
1. / fi∫/	2. / haus /	3. /mʌnθ/
4. /di'pend/	5. /taip/	6. / 'pi:pl/
7. /'prɔmis/	8. / lɑ:dʒ/	9. /'edju:keit/
10. /ri'dju:s/	11. /dʒɑ:/	12. /jes/
13. /'ru:lə/	14. /klaim/	15. /θɔ:t/
16. /'bju:tiful/	17. /'kemist/	18. /'si:zn/
19. /si:t/	20. / sit /	21. /'ti:t∫ə/
22. /'ti:pɔt/	23. /'mesidʒ/	24. /'enədʒi/
25. /əd'vaiz/	26. /'krisməs/	27. /'fɑ:đə/
28. /'mʌđə/	29. /'nju:zpeipə/	30. /,mægə'zi:n/
E2. Write the word in normal spelling that is pronounced as:
1. / mi:t /	.......................	11. / bəʊt/ 	......................
2. / hɔ:s/	.......................	12. / faind/	......................
3. / θru:/	.......................	13. / θi ŋk /	......................
4. /aʊ(r) 	.......................	14. / ni:d /	......................
5. /sait/	.......................	15. / pein /	......................
6. / flu:/	.......................	16. / pr æktis/	......................
7. / si:n/	.......................	17. / dʒiɒgrəfi/	......................
8. / reiz/	.......................	18. / saiəns/	......................
9. / seil /	.......................	19. / fju: /	......................
10./ əlaʊd/	.......................	20. / riæləti/	......................
Part 4: The discussion
 Most of the students could read the transcription of the words above well. They can also write the word up using the phonic symbols. Above all, Each student is interested in doing these and feel self – confident in learning English because they believe that there are so many things for them to learn in English class and they may learn English successfully. This helps the students build a main instruction in commucativing in English later. 
 Here are detail results:
N
The feature of students’ pronunciation
Number of the students
Account for 
(%)
1
Realize how a letter is pronounced differently in the other syllable or word . 
30/ 34
88,2
2
Realize that different letters can be pronounced as the same sound 
30/ 34
88,2
3
Can listen and repeat the pronunciation of a word but can’t remember or immagine it looks like
5/ 34
14,7
4
Know how to integrate a vowel with consonants to pronounce a syllable . 
25/ 34
73,5
5.
Pronounce a word without the stress and in slow speed of pronouncing 
6/ 34
17,6
III. 	CONCLUSION
 Part 1. Experiences
 	During the progress of teaching 6 form students how to pronounce English words using exercises in textbook and carrying out the solutions displayed above, I realised that getting students practice these exercises was very helpful and interesting . This help students not only improve a wide range of vocabularies but also build up significant rules and knowledge of the way to pronounce English words . 
 	I’m sure that it is not very difficult to do it . We should use textbook as standard condition, we also choose popular words to cheer the children up. We should use a various kinds of exericises, use picture as cues to attract student’s attention and encourage their curiousness. Teaching a pair or a group of English phonic symbols helps students earsily compare the length of sounds which they easily make mistake in pronouncing them . 
 	Finally, it will be better if the have a variety of words which they believe they pronounce exactly. Besides, students can learn how to pronounce a new word which they come across. This can help student use English fluently and confidently so they prefer learning English. We also help student build a strong instruction to communicate in English 
Part 2 . Personal ideas	
For the teachers: We should study ourselves to improve and widen our knowledge and methodology, try to develop our foreign language ability. Take the advantages of new sub-teaching equipments such as head projector, cassette, internet, etc... in teaching English. Whatever we do should be used for helping students communicate in English successfully.
 	For the schools: Schools should care much more about supplying devices for teaching foreign languages such as casseter, special room, 
 	 Finally, I look forward to reply any ideas from readers which define me what I should do in order to improve my methodology in teaching English pronunciation. 
	Thank you very much!
IV. References 
 1. New English Textbook 6 - Educational Publishers.
2. New English Teacher Book 6 - Educational Publishers.
3. Methodology for teaching English language teacher in upper secondary shools.
4.Pictures
 V.Appendices
 -surveys
	 - pre-tests / post-tests
 - observations
The Head Master of Trung Chinh secondary school
Confirm
Thanh Hoa, April 10th, 2018
 Written by: 
Lê Thị An
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Section page
 I. INTRODUCTION ...	1
 II. CONTENT...	3
 Part 1: Theoretical background...	3.
 Part 2: Practical background ...	3
 Part 3: The solutions  .....	5
 Part 4: The discussion ... 	13 
III. CONCLUSION.....	14
 Part 1. Experiences..	14
 Part 2. Personal ideas	..	14
IV.