SKKN Some techniques to teach pronunciation effectively in high schools

APPENDIX
INTRODUCTION:
Reason for studying:...................................................................................2
Aim of studying..........................................................................................2
Subject of studying.....................................................................................2
Method of studying....................................................................................2
CONTENT:
Theoretical basic:........................................................................................3
Background of teaching and studying pronunciation..............................3
Solutions:.....................................................................................................4
Evaluation .................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION:
Conclusion.................................................................................................14
Recommendation:	....................................................................................14
I. INTRODUCTION
Reason for studying:
	 There have been different views on teaching pronunciation up to now. 
The traditional Grammar Translation Method paid no or little attention to pronunciation, consequently, learners become "deaf and dumb" in the target language. Since the oral approaches to language teaching appeared, there has been a tendency to pay extreme attention to pronunciation teaching to develop oral skills. Teaching pronunciation in a language class plays a very important role. It provides students with the pronunciation of the target language as correct as possible to communicate with others. Beside language skills, teaching pronunciation should be noted as an indispensable basic knowledge. However, many English teachers don't pay enough attention to it or even ignore it. As a result, students have more difficulties in learning English, especially in communicating in English. Therefore, it is really very important for students to have the pronunciation of the target language as correct as possible right from the start.
Those are the reasons why I choose this topic: 
"Some techniques to teach pronunciation effectively in high schools"
2. Aim of studying:
- The correct pronunciation can have a direct influence on his ability and progress in listening, speaking, reading-aloud skills and an indirect one on the further development of other language skills later on.
- The correct pronunciation decides the success or failure of his oral communication in the target language.
3. Subject of studying: English pronunciation teaching and learning deal with the following aspects:
- The sound of the English language, or phonology.
- Stress and rhythm
- Intonation
4. Methods of studying: My topic will be presented as the following steps:
- The theoretical background
- The practical background
- Solutions
II. CONTENT
Theoretical basic:
As said above, pronunciation difficulties, errors, mistakes in language learning are so natural that teachers and students should not worry too much about. They will be done away with the student's effort in listening and speaking during the course. If the student has a serious pronunciation error, he should be corrected at once but in an encouraging way in order not to make him/her lose face. In fact, the problems vary from student to student and from area to area where he was born, picks up and uses his mother tongue.
To teach English pronunciation effectively to Vietnamese students, Vietnamese teachers should be able to predict, pick out, and analyze their students' problems, errors to help them to overcome.
These are my own opinions about how to teach pronunciation effectively in the high schools. Hopefully, this teaching experience could have some certain contribution to the teaching and learning process of teachers and students.
Background of teaching and studying pronunciation 
2.1: The theoretical background
Pronunciation is very important. One of the first things of learning a foreign language is learning how to pronounce correctly. Learners don't need to use difficult words, or complicated structures. They only need simple words and structures to communicate because the simpler words or structures they use, the easier for them to understand each other. However, pronunciation is not easy.
In oral communication, If one mispronounces a sound, a stress, a word or wrongly uses the rhythm, intonation of his utterances he will surely cause misunderstanding, even no understanding for his partner, consequently he will receive unsatisfactory responses, either. Furthermore, if his pronunciation of the same language in communication is different, even slightly different from that of his partner, they will have difficulty in recognizing and understanding each other. Their communication may result in a problem, even failure. In learning and communicating in a foreign language, these pronunciation phenomena become even more serious.
2. 2: The practical background
In the process of teaching, I realize many students are in the habit of using Vietnamese to represent or read English words. For example, with the word "table" they read /thây bờ/ instead of /'teibl/, with the word "teacher" they read /tich cho/ instead of / 'ti:t∫r / or "student" they read /sờ tiu dần/ instead of /'stu:dnt/. Furthermore, many English words have different pronunciation but they represent in Vietnamese so listeners can't distinguish the difference among them. For example, our students pronounce /bớt/ for these words: birth, bird, bus. This is a bad habit in learning a foreign language.
Only students who pronounce correctly feel more self-confident in communicating because they can get successful communication and their listening skill is better as well. So it is very important for teachers to explain the transcription clearly and to teach their students how to pronounce as correctly as possible. But, in reality, many teachers do not introduce the transcription, stress, and intonation. And they don't pay much attention to designing activities to teach pronunciation during listening or speaking lessons.
With the hope of improving students' pronunciation and helping them to speak good English, helping them to be more self-confident, I would like to give some solutions to teach pronunciation more effectively with the motto "frequent practice makes perfect", "little and often".
3. Solutions
3.1 Individual sounds
* Consonants
English consonants can be classified in different ways:
- According to the place of articulation, they may be dental, bilabial, and alveolar, palatal, velar.
- According to the manner of articulation, they may be plosive, affricate, fricative, and nasal, lateral.
- According to the involvement of vocal cords, they may be voiced or voiceless.
Each English consonant has all the features of these classifications, for example:
Consonant
Place
Manner
Voice
/k/ in kick
velar
plosive
voiceless
/l/ in long
alveolar
lateral
voiced
Most of the English consonants sound rather similar to Vietnamese ones except for the English plosives in the initial and final positions of a word. The English /ð/ and / / have no similarities in Vietnamese.(p23)
* Vowels
English Vowels
Short Vowels
Long Vowels
Diphthongs
Transcription
Examples
Transcription
Examples
Transcription
Examples
Pit
See
Hate
Egg
Arm
Bite
Hat
Port
Toy
Good
Cool
goat
English Vowels are always voiced. They are formed in less noticeable way than consonants mainly by the position of the tongue, secondarily by the shape of the lips and the movement of the jaw. Different vowels are determined by how high the tongue is raised in the mouth and by whether the front, middle or back of the tongue is being used. Besides, English has some pair of short and long vowels, for example, /i/, and /i:/, which Vietnamese does not have and Vietnamese learners of English have a lot of trouble to distinguish. Each English vowel therefore bears the above-mentioned features, for example:
Vowel
Tongue level
Part of the tongue
Length
Lip
Æ
Low
Front
short
spread
u:
High
Back
long
rounded
Knowing all the features of English consonants and vowels is very useful for both Vietnamese teachers and students of English, as many pronunciation mistakes made by the students are due to the slight or total differences in sound production between English and Vietnamese in terms of place, manner of articulation, voice and mouth shapes etc.
3.2 Teaching Individual Sounds
It is advisable to consult and apply the principles and techniques to teach individual sounds.
For example, when the English /i/ and /i:/ are taught, the following techniques may be used:
- Presentation:
Teacher says the sound /i/ clearly two or three times so that students listen, observe her mouth shape and perceive the model.
Teacher says again in such words as in, tin, thin, it, ill
Students repeat them in chorus two or three times.
Teacher shows students a picture of the tongue, lips, and mouth shape for /i/ to explain how it is made.
Teacher gets students to repeat the above words again in chorus, in groups, then individually.
In the same ways, teacher introduces /i:/ and gets students to repeat in such words: eat, team, eel, teens.
Teacher contrasts /i/ and /i:/ in minimal pairs.
/i/
/i:/
It
Eat
Ship
Sheep
Chicks
Cheeks
Ill
Eel
Bin
bean
Students are divided into groups, then repeat the minimal pairs after the tape or teacher for several times.
Teacher uses picture to show the different mouth shapes for these two sounds.
- Practice
Students do some recognition exercises by listening carefully to and picking out the /i/ and /i:/ in words said in disorder by the teacher, for example, it, eat, eel, ill
Students repeat the minimal pairs again in pairs, groups then individually.
Students practice the sounds in groups of words: in it, this thin tin, it is thin / eat meat, eat eel meat, steam eel meat. Etc.
Then in sentences: Miss Tin hit it. It is thin./ Dean eats eel meat. Eat steamed eel meat, please.
Then in tongue twisters: 
Eat this thin eel meat in a steamed tin.
This steamed thin meat is heated in a tin.
Little jean is seated in a bit heated tin.
Students listen to, repeat and learn a short recorded dialogue:
A: Is Jean in, Miss Dean?
B: Is she heating up a tin of meat?
C: She's ill. Sorry Tim.
Students act the dialogue in pairs then prolong it by adding some of their own words or sentences containing /i/ and /i:/, provided that they sound meaningful.
- Production
Students play a mini bingo game in groups of three. One student calls out the numbers in the following boxes in any order. The other chooses one of the boxes A, B, C and crosses the called number. The first person to cross out all his numbers wins.
13
3
15
7
50
30
17
80
18
5
90
13
20
30
16
14
80
18
5
16
15
70
90
3
17
7
6
+ Type of exercises:
- Practice of individual sounds in isolated words, short phrases, sentences, dialogue.
- Practice of contrasted sounds in minimal pairs, tongue twisters, test exercise, recognition exercises.
3.3 Some techniques to practice Pronunciation.
a, Word Repetition: Ss listen and repeat
Example: Practice /i/ and /e/
T - reads: till
Ss - repeat: till
T - reads: tell
Ss - repeat: tell
b, Sentence Repetition: Ss listen and repeat the model sentence
Example: Practice /s/ and /z/
T: She sells seashells by the seashore.
Ss: She sells seashells by the seashore.
Example: Practice /i/ and /i:/
T: Don't sit on that seat
Ss: Don't sit on that seat.
T: (correct, once more) Don't (sleep/ slip) on the floor.
T: Don't (sleep/ slip) on the floor.
c, Minimal pairs: 
Teacher explains what minimal pairs are: two words with only one different letter for example "hat - bat", "thin - thing" or two words spelling differently but pronounce the same, for example "feet - fit", "bet - bat", "fool - full"..
We use minimal pairs to contrast the difference between vowels and consonants.
Teacher reads minimal pairs and writes on the board:
	1	2
	will	well
	bill	bell
	bear	pear
	heat	hit
	show	so 
Teacher reads each pair in turn and asks students to listen and find out the difference between them.
After that teacher checks: T reads the words (not in the right order), Ss say the number of the words or raise their fingers (one or two)
T: will
Ss: one
T: tell
Ss: two
.
d, Making sentences
Teacher writes some words that need to practice on the board, Ss make sentences with them.
Example: To practice /e/ and /æ /. Teacher writes two columns: the adjectives are in the first column, the nouns are in the second column.
	1	2
	red	pen
	yellow	cat
	sad	hat
	black	hen
Teacher can make an example: "My cat is sad." 
e, Back word pronunciation
Teacher writes and read "t", students repeat. Then teacher adds "s' and reads "st", teacher adds "a" and reads "ast", teacher adds "l" and reads "last'. This activity is very useful. It helps Ss to pronounce the last consonants correctly.
3.4 Stress and Rhythm
3.4.1 Word Stress
When an English word has more than one syllable, one of these is made to stand out more than the others. This is done by saying that syllable slightly louder, holding the vowel a little longer to give it prominence or stress.
In a long English word, there are some syllables:
a, the syllable with primary stress mentioned above, said with the most breath effort,
b, the unstressed syllable(s) which is/are said very quickly, lightly with very little breath effort,
c, the syllable with a secondary stress said with more breath effort than "b" but less than "a".
Example:	 unim 'portant
	Secondary	primary
3.4.2 Sentence Stress - Rhythm
In a normal English sentence, certain words are stressed and certain others are unstressed. Normally, stressed are content words, essential for conveying a message, often NOUNS, main VERBS, ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS and DEMONSTRATIVES. Normally unstressed are the form words, grammatical or structure words. For example, in this sentence: "John has finished his work".
( John, finished, work are content words and stressed; others are form words and unstressed).
These stressed and unstressed words form tone units which work just like bars of music. English speech resembles music in that it has strong beats (stressed words) and weak beats (unstressed words). This is called rhythm.
3.4.3 Teaching Stress and Rhythm
As with other aspects of pronunciation teaching, the first stage is pure imitation, repetition of the tape or the teacher's model in chorus, in groups or individually. If there is any difficulty with a long phrase, when it is repeated in its entirety, the teacher can isolate the stressed syllable or words, then get that repeated a few times, finally put the phrase together again for further repetition. The process can be summarized as follows: Repeat the whole phrase -> isolate and repeat the stressed syllable or word only.
* Repeat the whole phrase again
The teacher may indicate the position of the stressed by writing the words, sentences and marking the stressed on the board or using gestures, signals or her voice.
a, Gestures
The teacher may indicate the stress pattern by:
- thumping the air when saying the stressed syllables
- making a downward stroke of the hand like a conductor
- punching the palm of her other hand
- clapping her hands
- striking a ruler on the board or table
b, The board
The teacher can use the board as the most valuable aid to make the stress visible to students in the initial non-text stage (when the written form of the language has not yet been introduced) at the next stage.
- Non-Text Stage
Without writing the word or sentence, the teacher can indicate the stress pattern by using symbols.
Example: 	o - o - o	or	 
- Text Stage
The teacher can give an example, exaggerating the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables. He can represent each syllable with a sound.
Example: 	a sack of carrots
	De - da - de - da - de
Students imitate the rhythm then say their own phrases to fit in the pattern.
3.5 Intonation
3.5.1 Forms and Meanings
Speech is also like music in that it changes in pitch, speakers can change the pitch of their voice as they speak, making it higher or lower in pitch at will. Their pitch can even jump up suddenly like the singer's. So speech has a melody called intonation.
There are two basic melodies: rising and falling. These can be very sudden or gradual and can be put together in various combinations.
In English, there are six forms of intonations:
1, High Fall: a fall from a high level - to be used with statements, WH - questions.
2, Low Fall: a fall from a middle or lower level - conveying the same meanings as the High Fall but not so politely.
3, High Rise: a rise from a middle or higher level - to be used with questions, request for repetition.
4, Low Rise: a rise from a low level - to be used with YES/NO questions, listing up, and conversation oilers.
5, Fall Rise: a fall from a higher level and then a rise from a lower level - to be used with corrections, polite contradictions.
6, Rise Fall: a rise from a low level and then a fall from a higher level - expressing certain more exaggerated attitudes: surprise, flattery, admiration.
Example: 
WH-question: How did you spend your vacation? (falling tone)
Statement: I went to Ha Long Bay. (falling tone)
Yes-No question: Was it expensive? (raising tone)
Statement: Yes, I am. (falling tone)
3.5.2 Teaching Intonation
Again the use of the board, teacher's gestures and voice will help the teacher to present an intonation and students to practice it effectively.
a, Gestures
A sweep of the arm from high to low will indicate the fall and vice-versa for the rise. Other intonations such the fall-rise and rise-fall can also be suggested by the movement of the arm.
b, The board
The teacher can write a sentence or a dialogue then mark the stressed syllables with dashes, the unstressed with dots and the intonation with an arrow on the board after her oral presentation of it.
Example: 	He is coming here tonight, isn't he?
	 . .	 . 	 . 
She may draw "mood" pictures on it to show the meaning of the intonation as well.
Example:
Mr Happy: Hello 
Mr Sad: Hello
c, Teacher's voice
The teacher's voice can play a very important role in creating the moods, the models for students to use or practice the right intonations in different contexts.
d, Other Audio-Visual Aids
Pictures, mood cards, tapes, etc, can be used for the effective presentation and practice of intonation in class.
3.5.3 Some techniques to practice Stress and Intonation
The easiest way for students to practice stress and intonation is by repetition. If the focus is on pronunciation, traditional repetition drills, which are often boring for the students to do, can be made interesting and challenging. They are not asked simply to repeat a sentence, but to repeat it using the particularly-intended stress and intonation pattern. For this to be effective, it is important for teachers to:
- Give a good model of the sentence or mini dialogue, saying it at a normal speed, making a clear difference between stressed and unstressed syllables, and using natural intonation.
- Indicate the stress and intonation clearly, using gestures on board or other visual aids.
- Make sure that students pay attention to stress and intonation when they repeat the sentence or dialogue.
One way to help students use natural intonation is to practice saying the sentence in sections, starting with the end of the sentence and gradually working forwards to the beginning. For example, The sentence "How long have they been working here?" can be repeated many times by students like this:
T: living here	Ss: living here
T: been living here	Ss: been living here
T: have they been li