Improving the way to pronounce english consonants of grade - 6 students

THANH HOA TRAINING& EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 
TRIEU SON TRAINING & EDUCATION DIVISION
TEACHING EXPERIMENT
IMPROVING THE WAY TO PRONOUNCE ENGLISH CONSONANTS OF GRADE- 6 STUDENTS 
Writer: Nguyễn Thị Như Quỳnh
Position: Teacher
School: Thi Tran Trieu Son Secondary School
Subject: English
THANH HOA - 2019
CONTENTS
Number
Content
Page
1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Justification of the research 	
2
1.2. Aim and objectives of the research
2
1.3. Scope of the research
3
1.4. Method of the research
- Subject of the research
- Data collection instrument of the research
- Data analysis procedure of the research
3
2
DEVELOPMENT
3
Theoretical background
Definition of consonants in English 
The basic consonants in English 
Classification of English consonants
According to place of articulation
According to the manner articulation
According to voicing
Real situation and suggested solution
Possible causes
2.2.1.1. Lack of awareness of the importance
2.2.1.2. Teachers’ neglect of pronunciation
2.2.1.3. Mother tongue interference
2.2.2. Suggested solution
Doing pronunciation exercises
a. Distinguishing sound exercises
b. Find the odd sounds
c. Matching exercises
4
7
9
9
9
10
10
3
CONCLUSION
3.1. Conclusion
3.2. Request
14
4
REFERENCES
16
5
THE EXPERIMENTS HAVE BEEN REGARDED
17
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Justification of the research 
	We all know that during the time of studying English, there are many pronunciation errors that secondary students learning English tend to make such as word and sentence stress, intonation, length of vowel sounds, ending sounds and linking sounds, etc. To help better English pronunciation for students who learn English at secondary school, it's is essential to do a search on most typical pronunciation problems of Vietnamese students, which is, in this research, errors with consonant sounds.
	For secondary students, who have to learn English as their main subject, and then take exams in which English is one of the compulsory subjects. It's extremely significant to realize their pronunciation errors. They cannot self-correct their English pronunciation so they are not confident enough to communicate in English. It’s obvious that there are some students noticing their pronunciation errors when their pronunciation erroneously, others, on the other hand, don't recognize their problem with pronunciation English words.
	Although there are common errors made by learners, not all the teachers pay attention to them. The conclusion partly from personal observation supports this research. It is possibly because some sounds are not pronounced so clearly as other sounds in an utterance so they are less noticed by both learners and teachers. In addition to this, there have not been many studies on these particular pronunciation errors so far at high level. Only studies about general speaking and pronunciation errors were carried out, which appears to have failed to emphasize the main pronunciation problem of Vietnamese students of English.
	I believe that a study on English pronunciation errors will help students become well aware of their pronunciation problems to which they might not have paid any attention before. It’s also the help for some teachers in teaching pronunciation at schools if the study can recommend some solutions to help students practice pronunciation individually and in group. From the reasons mentioned above, I have decided to carry out this study entitled "Improving the way to pronounce English consonant sounds of grade-6 students”. 
1.2. Aim and objectives of the research 
	English phonetics is important as it lays basis for effective oral communication. As far as I know, students of English at primary schools are not taught phonetics(and students at secondary schools who learn new curriculum are taught some sounds) and mostly taught by nonnative- English teachers.
	Classes in Viet Nam are big so it is not suitable for teachers and students to practice pronunciation.
	With the hope of getting more comprehensive and specific understanding of English consonants, finding out common consonants pronunciation mistakes faced by Vietnamese, my study focuses on:
Introducing the basic theories of English and their difficulties.
Particularly, giving the principles of consonants pronunciation and raising the learner awareness of English pronunciation by giving specific evidences, examples, figures, pictures may make learners try to pronounce like native speakers.
Providing some exercises may be very helpful for learners in English pronunciation as well as in English communication today.
1. 3. Scope of the research 
	The study focuses on English errors made by students in grade 6, I do not have an ambition to cover all the students' problems with English pronunciation. Only the pronunciation errors with some typical consonants made by the students in grade 6 are investigated.
1. 4. Method of the research 
Subjects of the research
This school year, I teach two classes in grade 6 with 66 students - 6A, 6B at Thi Tran Trieu Son secondary school but I choose 50 students participating in this study. They are about the same age; both genders and they come from many villages in Trieu Son district.
Data collection instruments of the research 
	Information in the study is collected in a natural way. In order to analyze the pronunciation errors that students in grade 6 make in their utterances, I have been observing in their lessons in class for many years and write down students' errors. Then I analyze at home with the help of the attached CD and typescripts in the course book " Pronunciation Made Simple" provided by an American teacher Ms. Mindy and many video clips about pronunciation on YouTube.
Data analysis procedure of the research 
 	Firstly, I took students' errors, checked whether they knew how to pronounce the words or not, I also counted how many students selected each pronunciation.
Secondly, I compared students' errors with the guide books, sample videos.
Thirdly, I asked my colleagues about how to pronounce the words in the survey and the errors that students made.
2. DEVELOPMENT
2.1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This first part will provide readers with the related theoretical background of the study by introducing some key concepts necessary for the best perception of this research as well as the review of previous studies related to the topic. Central concepts chosen to be clarified in this part are English pronunciation, Standard pronunciation, English pronunciation Errors Aspects of pronunciation such as the articulator and English sounds.
	Since the research have a strong desire to investigate the pronunciation errors in English, the definition of English pronunciation is especially important. Commonly speaking, pronunciation is simply put as "the way in which a language is spoken"[1]
THANH HOA TRAINING& EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 
TRIEU SON TRAINING & EDUCATION DIVISION
TEACHING EXPERIMENT
IMPROVING THE WAY TO PRONOUNCE ENGLISH CONSONANT SOUNDS OF GRADE- 6 STUDENTS 
Writer: Nguyễn Thị Như Quỳnh
Position: Teacher
School: Thi Tran Trieu Son Secondary School
Subject: English
THANH HOA - 2019
	There are 44 sounds in English. They are divided into two groups: 20 vowel sounds including 12 pure vowels, 8 diphthongs and 24 consonants. Some years ago, I had a study on vowel sounds so this time I just focus on consonants.
2.1.1. Definition of consonants in English
In articulator phonetic, a consonant is a speech of sound that is articulated with complete of partial closure of the upper vocal tract; the upper vocal tract is defined as that part of vocal tract lying above the larynx.[2]
Consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting the airflow in a variety of ways.[3]
2.1.2. The basic consonants in English include:
/b/, /p/, /k/, /g/, /t/, /d/, /v/ /f/, /s/, /z/, /h/, /0/, /d/, /m/, /n/, /l/, /r/, /w/, /y/, /g/, /Ɵ/, /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʧ/, /ʤ̄/
Classification of English consonants
There are three ways of describing consonant sounds:
The place of articulation
The manner of articulation
The voicing
According to place of articulation
In English, there are six places in the mouth where the airstream is obstructed in the information of consonants.
In this study, we will discuss each consonant in terms of the articulators involved and the place in the mouth where the articulators cause an obstruction of the airstream.
	*Sounds made with the lips
+ Both lips-bilabial: /p/, /b/, /m/
Pronounce the words “pat”, “bat” and “mat”, paying attention to the way the first consonants of each word is made. The first sound in each of these words is made with the two lips coming together and touching momentarily. The obstruction of the airstream thus occurs at the lips.
The sound /p/, /b/, and /m/ are referred to as bilabial sounds because the two(bi-) lips (labial) are involved in their production
Figure 1: The position of the lips in the production of /p/, /b/, and /m/
Figure 2: The position of the teeth and lips in the production of /f/, /v/
+ Lower lip and upper teeth - labiodental: /f/, /v/
Produce the words “fat” and “vat”, again paying attention to the way the first sounds of these words are formed. The initial sounds of these words are made with the top teeth touching the bottom lip. Therefore, the obstruction of airstream occurs not because the bottom lip and the top lip come together. Again, the phonetic symbols for these two sounds are the same as the English letters. We use the symbols /f/ and /v/ to represent the initial sounds of ‘fat’ and ‘vat’. The sound /f/, /v/ are referred to as labiodental sounds because the lips (labio) and the teeth (dental) are involved in their production.
	* Sounds made with the tip of the tongue
+ Tip of the tongue and the teeth - interdental: /θ/ and /ð/
Pronounce the words “think” and “this”, paying attention to the way the first consonant sounds of these words are formed. With first consonant sounds of these words the obstruction of the airstream occurs because the tip of the tongue is between the teeth or just behind teeth. The phonetic symbols for
these sounds are not the same as the English letters. The “th” sound in “think” and “this” are represented by symbol /θ/ and /ð/. The sound /θ/ and/ð/ are referred to as interdental sounds because the tongue is placed between (inter) the teeth (dental).
The two th sounds are notoriously difficult for second language learners because they are not common sounds in many of the world’s languages. While not many words in English contain the /ð/ sound as in ‘this’, the words that do contain in this sound are among the most frequently used words in the English language. For example, the words these, those, then, than, them and their all begin with the /ð/ sound. The /ð/ sound is also found in such common words as without, sunbathing , mother and brother. Thus, how important this sound is in English.
+ Tip of the tongue and the tooth ridge - alveolar: /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/, /r/
Other English sounds made with the tip of the tongue include the initial sounds of ‘tip’, ‘dip’, ‘nip’, ‘lip’, ‘sip’, ‘zip’, and ‘rip’. When you pronounce the initial consonant of these words, you should feel the tip of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth just behind upper teeth with /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/ and approaching the tooth ridge with /s/, /z/, /r/. These sounds are referred to as alveolar because the tongue either touches or approaches the alveolar ridge in their production.
Figure 4: The position of the tongue the production of /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/
Figure 3: The position of the tongue the production of /θ/ and /ð/
	*Sound made with the blade of the tongue
+ Blade o the tongue and the hard palate - alveolar- palate: /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/, /tʃ/
When you pronounce the words wash and pleasure, concentrating on the position of the tongue in the production of the final sounds. These sounds are made with the blade of the tongue approaching the hard palate just behind the tooth ridge. The phonetic symbols for these sounds are not the same as the
English letters. We use the symbol /ʃ/, to represent the final sound of wish and the symbol /ʒ/ represent the final sound of pleasure. One other important aspect of the pronunciation of /ʒ/, /ʃ/ involves the lips. Notice that the lips are rounded when you pronounce these sounds.
There are two other sounds that are made with the blade of the tongue at the hard palate. These are initial consonants in the words church and jug. We
use the complex symbol /tʃ/ for the initial sound in the word church and /dʒ/ for the initial sound in the word jug.
The sound /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/, /tʃ/ are referred to as alveolar palatal sounds because the
tongue is just behind the alveolar ridge at the hard palate in the production of these sounds.
Figure 5: The position of the tongue Figure 6: The position of the tongue
in the production of /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʤ/, /ʧ/	in the production of /k/, /g/, /ŋ/
	* Sound made with the back of the tongue
+ Back of the tongue and soft palate- velar: /k/, /g/, /ŋ/
	When you pronounce initial sounds of cat, goal and monkey, the back part of your tongue touches the back part of your mouth momentarily, causing the obstruction of the airstream.
The sounds /k/, /g/, /ŋ/ are referred to as velar sounds because they are made with the back of the tongue rising to touch the soft palate or velum.
Places of articulation
Bilabial
Labiodentals
Interdental
Alveolar
Alveolarpalatal
Velar
p, b, m
f, v
/θ/, /ð/
t, d, l, n, s , z , r
/ʒ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/, /tʃ/
/v/
The places of articulation for consonants can be summarized as following:
According to manner of articulation
Manner of articulation refers to the interaction between the various articulators and the airstream. There are 7 groups of consonants classified according to manner of articulation:
	*Complete obstruction of the airstream - stops
Are the sounds made by the air that passes from the lung into the mouth can be completely stopped because the lips or tongue actually touch some parts of the upper mouth, and then escaped strongly causing a closure. Consonants that involve this complete blockage of the airstream are called stops. The initial sounds of pill and bill, tall and dull, kind and ground are all stop consonants. Notice that the place in the mouth where the airstream is blocked differs with these three pairs of sounds. With /p/ and /b/, the air is blocked because the two lips come together. With /t/ and /d/, the air is blocked because the tip of the tongue touches the tooth ridge. With /k/ and /g/, the air is blocked because the back of the tongue touches the soft palate.
The stop consonants of lip (bilabial) /p/ and /b/
Tooth ridge (alveolar) /t/ and /d/
Soft palate (velar) /k/ and /g/
Figure 8: Complete blockage of the Figure 9: Partial blockage of the airstream airstream as in the stops /t/ and /d/ as in the fricative /s/ and /z/.
+ Partial obstruction of the airstream - fricatives
Some consonants in English do not involve a complete stoppage of the airstream but rather a partial obstruction. This partial obstruction results from the lips or the tongue coming close to some part of the upper mouth. These consonants are called fricative because the sounds produced by the forcing the airstream through a narrow opening between the lips and the teeth or the tongue and the teeth.
The fricative consonants of English
Lower lip/ upper teeth (labiodental) /f/ and /v/
Teeth (interdental) /θ/ and /ð/
Tooth ridge (alveolar) /s/ and /z/
Hard palate (alveolar palate)	 /ʃ/, and /3/
+ Sounds made with the air escaping through the nose - nasals
All of the consonants sounds that we have discussed up to this point are made with air passing through the mouth. Nasal sounds, on the other hand, are made with air passing through the nose. Air is blocked in the mouth in the same way as it is for stop consonants. However, the soft palate is lowed allowing air to escape through the nose.
Figure 11: The position of the velum in the production of nasal consonant /ŋ/
Figure 10: The position of the velum in the production of /k/ and /g/
There are three nasal consonants in English: /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ as in ram, noon, rang. These three sounds differ in terms of place of articulation. The /m/ is produced when the two lips touch, the /n/ is produced when the tip of the tongue touches the tooth ridge and the / q/ is produced when the back of the tongue touches the soft palate. In each case, this contact prevents air from escaping out of the mouth.
*Lateral
Lateral sound is made with the tip of the tongue touching the tooth ridge and the air passing through the mouth over the sides of the tongue: /l/
For some speaker of English, the /l/ may be made with air passing out of the mouth over one side of the tongue only. Because the air passes out the side of the mouth, the /l/ sound is referred to as a lateral consonant.
* Retroflex
Retroflex sound is made with the tip of the tongue slightly curled back in the mouth. Pronounce the word right and prolong the initial consonant. You should feel the tip of the tongue in a curled-back position. You may also feel some backward movement of the tongue and some rounding of the lips. Upon pronunciation of the vowel sound in right, the tongue is uncurls. Because the tongue is curled back during the pronunciation of the /r/ sound, it is referred to as retroflex consonant.
* Semivowel
Other consonant sounds of English produced with little turbulence in the airstream are the initial sounds of the words wet and yet. These two sounds are often called semi-vowels because they are made with a relatively wide opening in the mouth. In the pronunciation of the /w/ the lips are rounded and, at the same time, the back of the tongue approaches the soft palate. Pronounce the word wet, prolonging the first sound of this word. You should feel the lips coming together and rounding slightly. It is difficult to feel the back of the tongue approaching the soft palate but, in fact, this narrowing occurs as well.
According to voicing
Sounds that are made with the vocal cord are voice and sound made with no vibration are voiceless. All of stops, fricatives and affricatives we have discussed so far come in voiced/voiceless pairs. The nasals, laterals, retroflex, and semi-vowels of English are all voiced.
Voiceless: p, t, k, f, s, θ, ʃ, tʃ
Voiced: b, d, g, v, ð, z, ʒ, ŋ, m, g, l, r, w, y
Consonant cluster
Consonant cluster is when two or more consonant together. It is divided into initial and finial consonant cluster.
+ Initial cluster
 Initial cluster is the cluster at the initial position of a syllable.
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
H
Lips
Tooth
ridge
Velum
Lips
and
teeth
Between
Teeth
Tooth
ridge
Hard
plate
Lips
Tooth
ridge
pl
tr
kl
fl
sl
pr
ty
kr
fr
sk
ir
py
tw
ky
fy
sy
my
ny
hy
bl
dr
kw
sm
hw
br
dy
sw sn
by
dw
gr,gw
sp sf
st
 + Initial two-consonant cluster of English
+ Initial three-consonant cluster of English
These initial three-consonant clusters are usually produced with a pre-initial, an post-initial and a /p/, /t/, k/ at the medium of pre-initial and post-initial cluster	spl	Spr	spy	str	sty	skr	sky	Skw
example	splice	spring	spew	string	stew	screw	skew	Squirt
+ Final cluster
A final consonant cluster is the cluster at the final position of a syllable. The consonants that occur in final cluster are not necessarily the same as which occur in initial clusters.
2.2. REAL SITUATION AND SUGGESTED SOLUTION
2.2.1. Possible causes
English teaching is to enable learners to communicate in English, we can see
that communicative effectiveness depends on not only correct pronunciation of these vowel and consonant sounds but also speakers themselves. Being able to use the rhythm and intonation of English will enable speakers to be much more intelligible than being able to pronounce vowel and