Improving the students' English pronunciation through interesting phonic exercise

Contents 
 Page 
Part A : Introduction 	 1 
Part B : Solution 
I. Theoretical basis 2
II. The result of the reality 3
III. Measures of teaching english pronunciation by getting students do phonetic exercises 
Unit 1: My new school 4
Unit 2 My home 5
Unit 3. My friends 6
Unit 4. My neighborhood 7
Unit 5.Natural wonders of the world 8
Unit 6. Our tet holiday 8
Unit 7. television 9
Unit 8. Sports and past time 10
Unit 9. Cities of the world 11
Unit 10. Our homes in the future 12
Unit 11. Our green world 13
Unit 12.Robots 14
IV. Results 16
Part C: conclusion 
1.Experiences 17
2. Personal ideas 17
PART A.	 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 students' English pronunciation through interesting phonic exercises." - (grade 6 -new English textbook)
PART B.	SOLUTION
I. THEORITICAL BASIS
	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 . 
II. THE RESULT OF THE REALITY
 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
realize 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
III. 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. E2. 	
1. b	2. a	3.d 4. c 5.a
6.d	7.c 8.a 9.a 10. c
E1. 
/S /
/Z /
/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 
/I/
/∂/
E1. Write words for the things in the picture in the correct part of the table
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. /∫/
CONSONANT 	/ q / & /ð/ 
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of consonants / q / & /ð/
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
/ q / think thin thank fifth
/ð/ this that there then
- 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 / q / or /ð/ to show “ th”in the following words is pronounced.
1. author 		2. thunder		3. thirteen	
4. fifth	 5. thrilling		6. bathe	
7. thump		8. teeth		9. them	
10. thing		11. another		12. there	
13. nothern		14. father		15. depth
E2. Choose the word th in both pronounced diferently from the others in each group
1. a. theme	b. then	c. three	d. tenth
2. a. death	b. bath	c. thus	d. truth
3. a. month	b. northern	c. south	d. north
4. a. both	b. month	c. cloth	d. weather 
5. a. toothache	b. another	c. feather	d. clothing
6. a. that	b. they	c. then	d. throw
7. a. thrill	b. clothe	c. breath	d. thatch
8. a. smooth	b. think	c. thick	d. Thursday
9. a. theft	b. theory	c. thing	d. themselves
10. a. feather	b. asthma	c. brother	d. mother
11. a. sixth	b. three	c. the	d. wealth
KEY
E1 . 	1. /q/	2. /q/	3. /q/	4. /q/	5. /q/	
6. /ð/	7. /q/	 	8. /q/	9. /ð/	10. /q/
11. /ð/	12. /ð/	13. /ð/	 	14. /ð/	 	15. /q/
E2. 	1. b	2.c	3.b	4.d	5.a	6.d	
7.b	8.a	9.a	10. b	11.c
DIPTHONGS	/i∂/ & /e∂/
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of dipthongs /i∂/ & /e∂/
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat. (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
/I∂/ 	tear	idea	career	here
/e∂/ air	share	bear	where
- 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. Find a word which doesn’t have /Iə/
1. a. tear	b. year	c. idea	d. learn
2. a. near	b. earn	c. clear	d. ear
3. a. real	b. appear	c. earth	d. disappear
4. a. dearth	b. career	c. engineer	d. volunteer
5. a. hear	b. here	c. heard	d. dear
6. a. fear	b. search	c. experience	d. beer
7. a. atmosphere	b. cheerful	c. blear	d. pearl
KEY	1.d	2.b	3. c	4.a	5.c	6.b	7.d
E2. How many /e∂ / are there in each sentence? Underline it.
_____ Where there is a will, where there is a way.
_____ Her parents often eat pears after dinner.
_____ Where did you get your hair cut?
_____ There is a magazine under the chair.
_____ The man repairing the chair is Lan’s father.
_____ We don’t care if she dares to say the truth.
_____ She like wearing her long hair.
_____ I haven’t seen my pair of shoes.
_____ Have you looked upstairs?
_____ It’s over there.
KEY
E2. How many /e∂ / are there in each sentence? Underline it.
__(4)__ Where there is a will, where there is a way.
__(2)__ Her parents often eat pears after dinner.
__(2)__ Where did you get your hair cut?
__(2)__ There is a magazine under the chair.
__(2)__ The man repairing the chair is Lan’s father.
__(2)__ We don’t care if she dares to say the truth.
__(2)__ She like wearing her long hair.
__(1)__ I haven’t seen my pair of shoes.
__(1)__ Have you looked upstairs?
__(1)__ It’s over there
DipthongS	/ai/ & /∂u/ 
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcription of dipthongs /ai/ (/∂u/ was presented in Unit 1)
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat. (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
/ai/ 	bike	sky	quiet
- 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 the folowing words into the correct categories /ai/ & / I: /
niece	pie	believe	die	society	studies	
field	movie	scientist	science	hieght	series	
E2.Put the folowing words into the correct categories /ai/ & / I /
ability	find	illness	increase	right	 kite	 skin
might	midnight	child	 children	library	distance	him
mine	shire	ride	 similar	sick	little	 combine
KEY
E1. 
niece /I:/	pie/ai/	believe/I:/	die/ai/	society/ai/	studies/I:/	
field/I:/	movie	/I:/	scientist/ai/	science/ai/	hieght	/ai/	series/I:/
E2. 
ability	find/ai/	illness	/I/	increase/I/	right/ai/	kite/ai/	skin/I/
might/ai/	midnight/I/	child/ai/	children/I/	library/ai/	distance/I/	him/I/
mine/ai/	shire/ai/	ride/ai/	similar/I/	sick/I/	little/I/ combine/ai/
MULTI-SOUNDS /dr/ & /tr/
Watch out!
- Introduce the transcption of multi-sounds /dr/ & /tr/
- Pronounce and ask students to listen and repeat (twice or three times)
- Give examples 
/dr/ drink draw drip
/tr/ train tractor tree
- 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 the words begin as /dr/ or /tr/ for the pictures below
KEY	
drink	drop	drip	drive	
train	tract