Some experiences helping students at Nong Cong 4 know when the letter E pronounced / e /, / i / and when letter O pronounced

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
NONG CONG 4 HIGH SCHOOL
THE STUDY OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
SUBJECT:
“Some experiences helping students at Nong Cong 4
know when the letter E pronounced /e/, /i/ and when letter O pronounced /”/, /˜/”
	By: Nguyễn Văn Luân
	Position: Teacher
	Field: English
THANH HOA, 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS
PAGE
Table of contents
1
PART I. INTRODUCTIONS
3
I. Reasons for choosing the topic
3
II. Aims of the study
3
III. Objectives of the study 
3
IV Scopes of the study
4
IV. Methods of studying
4
PART II. CONTENTS
5
I. The theoretical bases of the topic.
5
 1. Bases.
5
 2. Definition of the vowel.
4
 3. Definition of stress word.
4
 4. Classification of stress.
5
 5. Transcription of the letter E and letter O.
6
 6. Rules of stress
 6.1. Two syllable words.
 6.2. Three syllable words
 6.3. Complex words
6
6
7
7
II. The practical bases of the study.
7
 1 The real states of the problems
7
 2. Solutions.
8
 3 . Some experiences of teaching how to pronounce the sounds /e/, /i/ 
/”/,/˜/.
 3.1. Determine the levels of the stress.
 3.2. Determine the strong or weak form
 3.3. Basing on stress rules
8
8
9
10
 4. Sample pronunciation exercises.
 4.1. The letter E.
 4.2. The letter O.
 4.3. Key to the exercises.
10
10
11
11
 5. Contrasting and evaluating.
 5.1. Contrasting.
 5.2. Evaluating.
11
11
12
PART III. CONCLUSION
13
I. Conclusions.
13
II. Some proposals to the leaders.
13
REFERENCE BOOKS
13
PART I. INTRODUCTIONS
I. Reasons for choosing the topic
	For most Vietnamese people is a foreign language language, nowadays, English is used in many aspects of our life, especially in the integration period, learning and using English in communication is very crucial but how we can learn and use it effectively is a controversial matter, to my knowledge, the last goal of learning English does not mean we understand its nature, but we have to use it in communication, therefore, how the other people can understand what we speak when communicating in English, one of the most factors is correct pronunciation, in fact, a lot of learners are facing up with many problem relating to pronunciation in the process of learning and communicating English. Through teaching English, some exercises of pronunciation in the books and tests. I realize that my students at Nong Cong 4 do not often know when the letter E pronounced with /e/ or/ i /; when the letter o pronounced in /”/,/o/ from the the reason mentioned above. To help my students solve the problem above, I choose the topic “Some experiences helping students at Nong Cong 4 know when the letter E pronounced /e/, /i/ and when letter O pronounced /”/,/˜/”for my study.
II. Aims for study
After this study finishes, my wonder about how my students are able to know when the letter E read in e,i and when the letter O read in /”/,/o/ will be solved. This study helps my students be able to do the exercises relating to pronunciation e,i from letter E, /”/,/o/ from letter O
III. Objective: 
	In This study I have no other expectation than show my students how to read the vowels /e/,/i/, /”/,/o/ and they will know how to pronounce the sounds e,i, from letter E, the sounds /”/,/o/ from letter O, moreover my students are able to do some pronunciation exercises relating to these sounds.
IV. Scope of the study.
Pronunciation is a large and complicated area of knowledge, so in this study I only focus on the following aspects.
Show what vowel is
Definition of stress of the word in English
Give some experiences to identify when the sound i,e from the letter E and when the sounds /”/,/o/ from letter O.
Some pronunciation exercises relating to the sound above.
V. Methods of the study.
To reach the final goal of studying, in this topic, I apply some methods for my study
Observing method.
Investigating and information collecting method
Comparing and contrasting method
Analyzing and evaluating method.
PATR II. CONTENT
I. The theoretical background
1. Bases.
- Basing on the message No: 1753/SGD&ĐT-GDCN, No: 2113/SGD&ĐT-GDCN
 a guide how to do the study of teaching experience and the scientific research.
- Basing on pronunciation theory on the vowels in English.
- Basing on the classification of stress of words in English.
2. Definition of vowel in English.
	Vowel is a speech sound in which the mouth is open and the tongue is not touching the top of the mouth, the teeth (Advanced learners’ dictionary) Ex: a, e, o
3. Definition of word stress.
	Stress is an extra force used when pronouncing a particular word or syllable (Advanced learners’ dictionary) Ex: attraction stress falls on the second syllable.
4. Classification of stress.
In English we worked on pronunciation, stress and intonation.
Stress is divided into three types 
Primary stress is main stress
Secondary stress is second stress
Unstressed word/syllable means no stress on word/syllable 
* The symbol of stress.
- The symbol of the primary stress is (‘) put before the word/syllable
- The symbol of the secondary stress is (,) put before the word/syllable
Ex: Information [,inf”'mei‘n] in this word, the primary stress falls on the second syllable, the secondary stress falls on the first syllable.
5. Transcription of the letter E and letter O
 /e/ carrying the primary stress
* The letter E /i/ carrying the secondary stress
	 /”/ unstressed
Ex: 	empty ['empti] carrying the primary stress
	decide [,di'said] carrying the secondary stress
	element ['elim”nt] unstressed
	/˜/ carrying the primary stress
* The letter O	
 /”/ unstressed 
Ex: 	continent ['k˜ntin”nt] carrying the primary stress
	collection [k”'lek‘n ] unstressed
6. Rules of stress.
To know where stress is in the word, we often base on the following stress forms.
6.1. Two syllable words.
Two syllable word is noun or adjective, its stress form is often 
Ex: pilot, happy
Two syllable word is a verb, its stress form is often 
Weak – Strong 
Ex: decide, attract, produce
However, there are some exception for this.
Ex: open, enter, prefer, borrow
6.2. Three syllable words.
Three syllable word is noun or adjective, its stress form is often 
Strong – Weak – Weak 	Ex: national (two last syllables containing short vowel or /”u/)
Weak – Strong – Weak 	Ex: disaster, potato(the last syllable containing short vowel or /”u/, the middle one with long vowel, dipthong)
Three syllable word is verb, its stress form is often 
Weak – Strong – Weak 	Ex: encounter, determine
Weak– Weak – Strong	Ex: resurrect, entertain
6.3. Complex words.
The word ending in ial, eous, ious, graph, ion, ity, ic, ive, ance, ant, ary 
Ex: adverbial, advantageous, injurious, protection, activity, historic, expensive, importance, servant, military
6.3.1.The word ending in ate, ude, ise, fy, the stress is on the third syllable from the last one.
Ex: candidate, attitude, modernize, classify.
6.3.2. The word ending in ain, ee, eer, ese, ette, oo, ique, the stress is on itself.
Ex: entertain, attitude, interviewee, engineer, cigarette, kangaroo,unique.
II. The practical bases of the study.
1. The real states of the problem.
Before this study is applied, I carry out a survey by giving my students a ten minute test about pronunciation exercises relating to /”/
/˜/, /e/,/ i/ 
at two class 10C2 and 10C5 with 90 student, the result is
 Mark 
Class
1-3
3-5
5-7
7-9
10C2(40)
18
17
2
2
10C5(40)
21
15
3
1
From the table, the result shows that the student getting mark from 1- 5 is high while the mark from 5- 9 is low. This means my student do not know when e pronounced in /e/, /i/ and when o pronounced in /”/,/˜/
Facing with the problem above that my student cannot do the pronunciation exercises relating /e/, /i/ 
/”/,/˜/ from the letter E and letter O 
Ex:1. a. concentrate	 b. commercial 	c. continent 	d. comfortable
Ex: 2. a. reference 	 b. secondary 	c. deforest 	d. deputy
2. Solutions.
	To overcome this difficulty, my solution is Some experiences helping students at Nong Cong 4 know when the letter E pronounced /e/, /i/ and when letter O pronounced /”/,/˜/
3. Some experiences of teaching pronunciation
Helping the students distinguish /e/,/i/ from the letter e, and /”/,/˜/ from the letter o
3.1. Determine the levels of the stress.
In English stress is divided into three levels
Primary stress
Secondary stress
Unstressed
therefore, when we see the letter E we have to know e pronounced in /e/ when it is primary stress, pronounced in /i/ when it is secondary stress and unstress when it is pronounced in /”/
Ex: recognize ['rek”gnaiz]
behave [bi'heiv]
Similar to the letter o.
The letter o pronounced in /˜/ when it is primary stress
Ex: comfortable.
The letter o pronounced in /”/ when it is unstressed.
Ex: correct.
3.2. Basing on weak – strong form.
When we want to read a word we should base on the weak – strong form
The strong syllable often carries stress.
The weak syllable does not often take stress.
therefore, we determine the sound /e/, /˜/ when it is in the strong form and the sound /i/, /”/ in weak form
The syllables in the word is often based on the following forms.
Two syllable words
strong – weak 
weak – strong
Three syllable word
Strong – Weak – Weak 
Weak – Strong – Weak 
Weak– Weak – Strong
Weak – Strong – Weak 
Ex 1: letter
Ex 3: reference
To pronounce the letter E in the examples above we need to determine.
-Ex 1: letter , the letter is a noun with two syllables so it belongs to strong – weak form, the letter E in the first syllable belongs to strong form and letter e carries stress, it pronounced /e/ in this case 
- Ex 2: decide, the letter is a verb with two syllables so it belongs to weak –strong form, the letter E in the first syllable belongs to Weak form and letter e is unstessed, it pronounced /i/ in this case 
Ex 3: reference, the letter is a noun with three syllables so it belongs to strong – weak- weak form, the letter E in the first syllable belongs to strong form and letter e carries stress, it pronounced /e/ in this case 
3.3. Basing on stress rules.
Apart from the rules of two and three syllable word,
There are some suffixes in strong form so they often carry stress such as ain, oo, ee, eer, ese, ette Ex: Vietnamese, engineer, referee .
There are some suffixes in weak form so the stress in on the preceding syllable.
ial, ion, ic, ity, eous, ive 
Ex: commercial, diversity, economic, expensive .
4. Sample pronunciation exercises.
Choose a word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from the rest.
4.1. The letter E
1. a. federation 	b. festival 	c. exclamation 	d. example
2. a. execute 	b. excuse 	c. fellowship 	d. legal
3. a. excrement 	b. extraordinary 	c. expiration 	d. feminist
4. a. geometry 	b. exposure 	c. recognize 	d. hesitate
4. a. engine 	b. heroin 	c. enormous 	d. general
4.2. The letter O
1. a. concentrate 	b. concert c. 	concession 	d. concord
2. a. conciliate 	b. monster 	c. logical 	d. hotline
3. a. hospital 	b. conceive 	c. foxy 	d. following 
4. a. condition 	b. concerned 	c. conclude 	d. dolphin
5. a. confident 	b. dominant 	c. confirmation 	d. continent
4.3. Key to the exercises:
4.1. 
 1.d, 2. c, 3. b. 4. d, 5. c
4.2. 
1. c, 2. a, 3.b, 4. d, 5.c
5. Contrasting and evaluating.
5.1. Contrasting
By this study comes to an end, I choose two classes a contrast class 10C2 and an experiment class 10C5 which have the same competence, for the contrast class 10C2 I do not apply my study for teaching while the experiment class 10C5 is applied with my study, after that I give them a ten minute pronunciation test with the same level of difficulty and I collect the following result.
Class
quantity
Good
Quite
Medium
bad
Very bad
SL
%
SL
%
SL
%
SL
%
SL
%
10C2 Contrast
39
3
7
8
21
20
51
8
21
0
0
10C5 Experiment
40
6
15
10
25
18
45
6
15
0
0
5.2. Evaluating.
From the result collected from the test, this shows that the contrast class 10C2, which my study is not applied for teaching is worse than that of the experiment class 10C5 where I apply my study for teaching. This means my solution is more effective in the process of teaching pronunciation for my student at Nong Cong 4 high school.
PART III. CONCLUSION
I. Conclusion.
After finishing the study, I realize that this study makes a great contribution to the process of teaching and learning pronunciation in general, and the pronunciation of the sounds e, i from the letter E, the sounds /˜/,/”/ from the letter O in particular, the study not only helps my students but also my colleagues solve the wonder when the letter E is pronounced /e/, /i/; when the letter O is pronounced /˜/,/”/. This means that learners will feel more confident and get better result in the tests when doing the pronunciation exercises relating to the letter E, O, however, the rules which I have provided in the study is relative, not absolute so it still needs to be studied more in other research for the completion.
II. Some proposals to the leaders.
	After studying the problem, I see that the successful lessons depend on a lot of reference documents as well as visual aids, so the schools need to buy and add more equipment for teaching such as projectors, videos and reference books. That will make the process of teaching and learning pronunciation better and better.
REFERENCE BOOKS
1. Le van Su(2000). Linguistics- Dong Nai press.
2. Long Man, Exams Dictionary.
3. Raymond Murphy, University grammar 
4. A S Hornby, English advanced learner’s dictionary – Oxford university press (1995)
5. Long Man, Preparation course for the Toefl test – Poly techniques press
8. Peterson’s, Toefl grammar flash – Young press
9. Graham Lock, Functional English grammar.
10.Geofrey Broughton, The penguin English grammar	
XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ
Nong Cong, ngày 10 tháng 5 năm 2016
CAM KẾT KHÔNG SAO CHÉP.
 (Tác giả ký và ghi rõ họ tên)
 NGUYỄN VĂN LUÂN