SKKN Name of theme “phonics and teaching phonics for students in grades 6, 7”

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ 
PHÒNG GD & ĐT ĐÔNG SƠN 
EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE 
NAME OF THEME 
“PHONICS AND TEACHING PHONICS FOR STUDENTS 
 IN GRADES 6,7” 
The implementation: Nguyễn Thị Lan Phƣơng 
Position : Teacher 
School : Dong Van secondary school 
Research area : English 
THANH HOÁ, NĂM 2017 
1
A. INTRODUCTION 
English is getting a lot of attention from people. It is not a hobby for 
some gifted English but also necessities. Foreign Language is a bridge for 
cooperation, development and exchange between countries together. One 
important thing is that everyone wants to use English perfectly and fluently. 
They can use it as their "mother tongue". However, to help students get what 
they want to be effective, English teachers need to use their method appropriate 
to each age level, use their knowledge to teach their students. Beginning 
students of English often say that their top priorities are to know grammar well 
and to learn as many words and everyday phrases as possible. Many students 
think that phonetics is a luxury that they can do without. It's a big mistake to 
underestimate the importance of pronunciation.If you want to communicate in 
English, you need to speak English. Speaking to people is the only way to 
communicate. Well, you can exchange written messages, of course.Or use 
gestures to show what you want to say. But seriously, you need to know how to 
pronounce what you want to say. How you say something is as important as 
what you say. It means that it is necessary for you to acquire standard correct 
English pronunciation if you want to understand English speakers and want 
them to understand you. 
The use of correct English pronunciation can do the opposite understand 
what he said, and also understand the opposite easier and more accurate.The 
language skills are closely related to each other; skills to support other 
skills.Correct pronunciation,therefore, is not only good for oral skills, but also 
to understand better for listening. However, the pronunciation is a difficult 
skill; without the guidance and regular exercise, positive, the progress will be 
virtually impossible. Besides, there are so many different factors related to 
teaching, learning methods, the influence of the mother tongue or conditions 
interact with native English speakers also do not much affect the progress of 
learners. 
From the above reasons, I strongly research and write the experience 
initiative named "Phonics and teaching phonics for students in grade 6,7”. 
I decided to choose this topic with the desire to help students learn English well 
and can communicate in English. Language learners communicate not only 
corectly but also self confidently in lessons. This is more excited than they are 
willing to learn in order to improve their English pronunciation. 
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B. CONTENT 
I. Rationale: 
 Through a lot of research material, as well as a combination of theory 
and practice,we need to rely on the basis of the following reasoning: 
 Faced with a problem of teaching and learning that I think to figure out a 
way to teach phonics, and the work that I have written to teach phonics method 
in a class. Teaching phonics to help students create atmosphere language 
learning correct pronunciation of words in lessons.Much purpose of teaching 
phonics in a language class is not intended to make students capable 
pronounced similar to the native because it is not practical, unless the school 
has a special talent and highly motivated. The goal is to teach phonics to help 
students gain an ability to pronounce correctly at a certain level to be able to 
communicate what they want to talk with other people. Phonics is a teaching 
method used to help children learn to read. Phonics breaks down words into 
individual sounds and syllables and shows children how each sound fits 
together to make up a word. Children taught with phonics must learn the 
different vowel sounds, consonants and regular rules of English grammar. Due 
to the learner's native language affects the pronunciation teaching English to 
people who need to have a certain understanding of the sound system of the 
learner’s mother tongue to first guess the difficulties and advantages of 
learner’s pronunciation. Phonics helps your child learn to read and spell. 
Without this ability, your child cannot be fully literate. Words are like codes 
and phonics teaches children how to crack the reading code. Phonics is 
therefore an important part of any reading development program.That is the 
reason Ministry of Education put on phonics lessons to Secondary English. 
II. Practical basis before applying theme: 
 The organization of teaching English in secondary schools meets the 
needs of students in learning a foreign language elementary and accordants 
with the requirements of educational development. On the other hand, learning 
English in secondary school will help students get a certain knowledge of 
English to be able to learn English better when they are at high school. 
Pronounciation in the general case, particularly in scondary schools has long 
been a problem. Many students encounter new words they do not know how to 
pronounce. Often teachers must International Phonetic form and read to 
students. Some times the students forget how to pronounce it late. In 
practically, teaching at my school, I notice that some of them have the ability 
to read and pronounce very well. Besides, there are some children who have 
difficulty inpronunciation. They are afraid of the wrong director, afraid of 
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friend’s laugh, resultingly they are shy saying, less communicate and read the 
words. As well as students mispronounce, this leads to make a marked accent 
and intonation wrong. So to have methods of teaching reading - speaking - 
pronunciation well, I have conducted a survey earlier this year to classify 
students The following table is the result of students in English in grade 6, 7 at 
Dong Van scondary school at the middle test of the first term for 2015-2016 
term: 
Result before applying the research in teaching 
Class students 
Mark 9-10 Mark 7-8 Mark 5-6 Mark under 5 
SL % SL % SL % SL % 
6A 36 3 11.5 5 19.2 15 38.5 13 30.8 
7B 34 1 4.1 3 12.5 15 41.7 15 41.7 
Through this table shows the number of students pronouce the words 
weakly account for 37 percent. 
III. Solution and implementation: 
 There are 44 sounds in the English language, which we put together to 
form words. Some are represented by one letter, like 't', and some by two or 
more, like 'ck' in duck and 'air' in chair. Children are taught the sounds first, 
then how to match them to letters, and finally how to use the letter sounds for 
reading and spelling. Synthetic phonics refers to 'synthesising', or blending, the 
sounds to read words. It's based on the idea that children should sound out 
unknown words and not rely on their context. Now I specifically refer to each 
sound in English and use them to the lessons which are applied for students in 
grade 6, 7. 
1, Long vowel /i:/ 
Introduction: /i:/ is a long vowel sound. 
Make your mouth wide, like a smile /i:/ 
Your tongue touches the sides of your teeth /i:/. 
It's pronounced /i:/.../i:/ 
Identify the vowels which are pronounce /i:/ 
(1)
Groups : ea(-), ee, e-e, -e, ei(-),(-)ese, ie, i are pronouced /i:/. 
(
1) . In this page: “Identify the vowels which are pronounce /i:/” is referenced from References [7]. 
4
In the unit 4 – Grade 6: group ea(-) is pronouced /i:/ 
Eg : reading 
2, Short vowel /I/ 
Introduction: 
/I/ is a short vowel sound. 
Make your mouth a bit less wide than for /i:/
(2)
. 
Your tongue is a bit further back in your mouth than for /i:/. 
It's pronounced /i/.../i/ Identify the vowels which are pronounced /i/ 
dentify the vowels which are pronounce /i/ 
- Groups: a, (-) ear, (-)eer,(-)ier(-), (-)ere,i(-),e, are pronouced /i/ 
In unit 4 – Grade 6: group i(-) is pronouced /i:/ 
Eg: Ship 
3, Short vowel /e/ 
Introduction: /e/ is a short and relaxed sound. 
Open your mouth wide. 
It's pronounced /e/.../e/. 
Identify : “e(-), (-)ead, (-)eath, (-)air,are” are pronouced /e/(3) 
In unit 7 – Grade 7: group e is pronouced /e/ 
Eg: yes 
4, Short vowel /æ/ 
(
2
). In this page: “The way to pronounce short vowel /i/” is referenced from References [6] 
(
3). “Identify : “e(-), (-)ead, (-)eath, (-)air,are” are pronouced /e/” is referenced from References [4] 
5
Introduction: /æ/ is a short sound. 
Open your mouth wide. 
It's pronounced /æ/....../æ/
(4)
. 
Identify the vowels which are pronounced /æ/ 
“a" is pronounced / æ / in the following cases: In one-syllable words 
that end in one or more consonants 
In unit 11 – Grade 6, “a” is pronouced /æ/ 
Eg: That. 
5, Short vowel /ʌ/ 
Introduction: 
Open your mouth wide by 1/2 compared to the pronounced/æ/ and 
give tongue backIdentify the vowels which are pronounced /ʌ/ : “ o, o- 
e, ou (-), u(-)” (5) 
In unit 1 – Grade 6: “u” is pronouced /ʌ/ 
Eg: Cup 
6, Long vowel / ɑː/ 
Introduction: 
Tongue down and back, mouth open wide nor narrow not too (see 
figure) 
(6)
Identify the vowels which are pronounced / ɑː / : “ ar (-)” 
In unit 11 – Grade 6 : “ar” is pronouced / ɑː / 
Eg: Far 
7, Short vowel /ɒ/ 
(
4
). “The way to pronounce short vowel/æ/ ” is referenced from References [8] 
(
5
) . In this page: “The way to pronounce short vowel/ʌ /” is referenced from References [2] 
(
6
) . “The way to pronounce short vowel/ʌ /” is referenced from References [6] 
6
Introduction: 
Vowel sound in the middle of half-open and open sound to the position 
of the tongue, lips pronounce round 
(7)
. 
Identify the vowels which are pronounced /ɒ/: “ o(-) and ong” 
In unit 5 – Grade 7 : “o” is pronouced / ɒ / 
Eg : dog, orange. 
8, Long vowel /ɔː/ 
Introduction: 
The tongue moves back, the rear blade raises, lip rounds and expand 
Identify the vowels which are pronounced /ɔː/: “ all, au, aw, wa, or, os, oar, 
ore, our” (8) 
In unit 5 – Grade 7: “aw” is pronouced / ɒ / 
Eg: draw 
- “or” is pronouced / ɒ/ 
 Eg: North 
9, Short vowel /ə / 
Introduction: 
This is a very short vowel. When pronouncing tongue forward and 
slightly upward. 
Identify the vowels which are pronounced /ə /: “a, e,o, u," 
The vowels like a, e, i, o, u in part of a word to emphasize that can be 
pronounced as / ə / or /ɪ/ examples from word “ accept”, letter “ a” 
pronounced / ə / as it is not the accented stress). (9) 
(
7
) . “The way to pronounce short vowel/ʌ /” is referenced from References [7] 
(
8
) . In this page: “The way to pronounce short vowel/ʌ /” is referenced from References [5] 
(
9
) . “Identify : “a, e,o, u," are pronouced /ə /” is referenced from References [8] 
7
In unit 1 – Grade 7: “o” is pronouced / ə /. 
Eg: Parrot. 
10, Diphthong /eɪ/ 
Introduction: 
Pronounce slightly extended from /e/ gradual transite to and end in /ɪ/. 
Audio / ɪ / pronounce very short and quick. Identify the vowels which are 
pronounced /eɪ/: “ a-e, ai, ay,ea, ey,eigh, ate,” (10) 
In unit 7 – Grade 7: “a-e and ai ” are pronouced /eɪ/. 
Eg : Raining, Skate. 
11, Diphthong /aɪ/ 
Introduction: 
Sound begins with a vowel in the middle of the tongue /ɑː/ and raises 
on the word /ɪ/, when pronouncing /ɑː/ mouth opens wide, to /ɪ/ mouth 
restrictes. 
 Identify the vowels which are pronounced / aɪ /:“y, ui, I, ie, ye, i-e, y-e, 
igh, ild, ind” (11) 
Unit 9 – Grade 6: “i-e” is pronouced /aɪ/ 
Eg : Kite 
12, Consonant /p/ 
(
10
) . In this page “ Introduction” is referenced from References [7] 
(
11
) . “Identify : / aɪ /:“y, ui, I, ie, ye, i-e, y-e, igh, ild, ind” is referenced from References [8] 
8
Introduction: 
Is voiceless consonant sound which is created by two lips (bilabial), 
power-on (flosive) 
(12)
. 
How to pronounce: the first upper and lower lips close and then opene 
his mouth slightly, turn inside out to create a sound /p/, pronounce fast Identify: 
 Only consonants "p" is pronounced as /p/ When it stands at the top of a 
word, the end of a word or after S 
In unit 3 – Grade 6: “p” is pronouced /p / 
 Eg : Play. 
13, Consonant /s/ 
Introduction: 
Voiceless consonant sound is created between the tongue and teeth 
(blade-aveolar), rubbing sound (fricative).
(13)
 How to pronounce: first on the tongue’s face touches the teeth, s side, 
tongue movement goes forward, teeth closes nearer. When pronouncing /s/ 
sound blast in the mouth rubs over the other rubbing sound. Sound does not 
vibrate. 
Identify the letters which are pronounced /s/ 
1.c" is pronounced /s/ when it stood before e, i, or y 
2. "s" is pronounced /s/ when: 
- "S" head of a word "s" inside a word and not in between two vowels 
- “S” "at the end of a word to go after f, k, p, t and gh. 
In unit 6 – Grade 6: “s ” is pronouced /s/ 
Eg : Six 
14, Consonant /ʃ/ 
(
12
) . “ Introduction” is referenced from References [6] 
(
13
) . In this page “ Introduction” is referenced from References [4] 
9
Introduction : 
Voiceless consonant sound which is created between the front face and 
tongue palate (blade-aveolar), rubbing sound (fricative). 
How to pronounce: this is a strong grinding sound. First raise pleasantly 
soft dome to blast can go through the palate. Present on the tongue and teeth 
forming a narrow slit while passing whiff. 
Identify the letters which are pronounced /ʃ/:(14) 
1. "c" is pronounced /ʃ/ in front ia, ie, io, iu, ea, ious. 
2. "sh" is pronounced /ʃ/ when standing at the beginning or end of one 
words. 
3. "t" is pronounced /ʃ/when it is inside a word and stands before ia, io, ious. 
4. "s" is pronounced /ʃ/ when it stands before ia, io. 
In unit 4 – Grade 7: “sh ” is pronouced /ʃ/ 
Eg: Ship 
In unit 6 – Grade 6: “ch ” is pronouced /ʃ/ 
Eg :Should 
15, Consonant /tʃ/ 
Introduction: 
voiceless consonant sound which is created between the front face and 
tongue palate (blade/front-palato-alveolar), rubbing sound principles 
(africate)
(15)
. 
How to pronounce: this is a monophonic start with / t / and ending with / ʃ /. 
First put on the tongue and jaw leg lift pleasantly soft dome to keep the 
flow of steam in a short time. Lower jaw foot off the tongue gently to blast in 
the mouth to escape, a rubbing sound explosion will be created shortly after. 
Identify the letters which are pronounced /tʃ/ 
(14)
 . In this page: “Identify the letters which are pronounced /ʃ /” is referenced from References [8] 
(15)
.In this page: “ Introduction” is referenced from References [3] 
10
1. "c" is pronounced /tʃ/. 
2. "ch" is pronounced /tʃ/ when it stands at the end of a word. 
3. "t" is pronounced /tʃ/ when it is inside a word and stands before ur + 
vowel sound. 
In unit 6 – Grade 7: “ch” is pronouced /tʃ/ 
Eg : Branch 
16, Consonant /dʒ/ 
Introduction: 
Voiced consonant sound which is created between the front face and 
tongue palate (blade/ front-palato-alveolar), rubbing sound principles (africate). 
How to pronounce: this is the single consonant begins with /d/ and 
ending with /ʒ /. First tip of the tongue touches the front palate to prevent blast 
left a short time. Slowly lower the blade down to fumes from escaping, a 
rubbing sound explosion will be created in a natural way then.
(16)
Identify the letters which are pronounced /dʒ/. 
1. "d" is pronounced /dʒ/. 
2. "g" is pronounced /dʒ/ in front of e, i, y and if a word ends in the form 
of "ge. 
In unit 6 – Grade 7: “g ” is pronouced /dʒ/. 
Eg: Engineer 
17, Consonant /θ/ 
Introduction: 
Consonants do not cry (voiceless consonant), environmental sounds teeth 
(tip - dental), secondary. 
(
16
) . In this page: “The way to pronounce consonant /dʒ /” is referenced from References [3] 
11
How to pronounce: put your tongue between your front teeth. blast 
pushed out through the teeth and tongue.
(17)
Identify the letters which are pronounced /θ/. 
1. "th" is pronounced /θ/ when: 
- When it's head, middle or end of the word 
- When the "th" is added to an adjective to a noun transfer. 
- When the "th" order index. 
Note: in all other cases "th" and is pronounced /ð/ 
In unit 7 – Grade 6: "th" is pronounced /θ/. 
Eg: Both 
18, Consonant /ð/ 
Introduction : 
Sonant (voiced consonant), tip-dental, rubbing consonants (fricative). 
How to pronounce: Similar to pronounce / θ /, using voice sound 
vibrations generated in the palate. 
Identify:"th" is pronounced / θ /(18) 
"th" sound is pronounced /ð/ in some cases following: 
 + At the top of the grammatical structure: - The, this/that, these /those, 
there, then, though/although, they/them, either/Neither, together, whether, than. 
+ In some words: gather, clothes, brother, wheather, bathe  
In unit 7 – Grade 6: “th” is pronounced /ð/ 
Eg: There 
After the implementation of the methods and the solutions mentioned 
above, students find themselves very interested in learning the foreign 
language. Students progress and know how to pronounce, not to be shy and 
prefer to do the exercises as finding the different pronunciations. The students’ 
skills have done well and created conditions for students to practice specific 
skills: speaking - Listening - reading – writing. 
IV. Results: 
 With the methods that I have adopted above, the quality of teaching 
lessons is improved, more students are eager to learn English under the 
guidance ofteachers. Over a semester, academic results ofstudents marked 
progress especially. children are excited and looking forward to more foreign 
language lessons. Here are the leson which I have applied to and the sesult: 
(
17
) . “The way to pronounce consonant /θ/” is referenced from References [4] 
(
18
) In this page: “Identify the letters which are pronounced /θ /” is referenced from References [2] 
12
APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING: 
Unit 7( Grade 6): Television 
Period 58: Lesson 2: A closer look 1 
I. Objectives. 
By the end of the lesson, Ss will be able to pronounce the sound /θ/, /ð/ 
correctly in isolation and in context. Use the lexical items related to television. 
II. Teaching aids: 
- Sub-board, Stereo, CD 
III. Procedure 
Time/Stages Sts’ and T’s activities Contents 
1. Warm up 
 5 m 
2. Presentation 
 10 m 
3. Practice 
 20 m 
4. Production: 
Chatting: Which is your 
favourite TV 
programme? 
Which MC do you like 
best? 
- Teach vocabulary 
Ex1. Ask Ss to work in 
group of three. 
When Ss completed their 
work, T play the 
recording to check their 
answers as well as to 
practise the 
pronunciation of the new 
words. 
Ex2: Revise the 
vocabulary learnt in both 
Getting started and 
Activity 1. Ss learn to 
identify a word from its 
description. 
Ex3: Ss can refer to 2 and 
the suggestd structures in 
3 to see how a word is 
defined. T writes some 
prompts on the board so 
that Ss can imitate. 
Eg: In this programme, 
people 
 A person who. 
4. Further practice. 
1. Vocabulary 
Ex1: Write the words/ phrases 
in the box under the pictures. 
Key: 
1. newsreader 
2. TV schedule 
3. MC 
4. viewer 
5. remote control 
6. weatherman 
Ex2: Choose a word from the 
box for each description below. 
Key: 
1. Weatherman 
2. newreader 
3. remote control 
4. MC 
5. volume button 
6. TV viewer. 
EX3: Game 
1. Newreader: A person 
who reads news. 
2. weatherman: a man who 
gives a weather forecast. 
3. comedian: a person 
whose job is to make 
13
 10 m 
5. Homework. 
Ask Ss to practise the 
sounds /θ/, /ð/ 
Ex4: Ask Ss to listen 
carefully to the words 
T talks about the 
differences between two 
sounds. 
Ex5: Ask Ss to write the 
words in the two 
appropriate boxes. Check 
if they do it correctly. 
Ex6: Tongue Twisters 
Allow Ss to practise 
reading the tongue 
twisters among 
t