INTRODUCTION
Rationale of the study
In the process of integration and globalization, English is rapidly becoming an indispensable instrument in community communication It is being used world-wide as the main language in business, trading, communication, etc Therefore, more and more people learn English as foreign language and wish to be able to master it as native speakers However, learners cannot success in studying English without mastering English pronunciation because pronunciation is one of the most important components of a language It is really very important for learners to have communication of the target language as correct possible right from the start
There have been a great deal of notable works about pronunciation and pronunciation teaching since the dawn of language teaching such as ones written by, Gimson (1962), Kenworthy (1987), Avery &Ehrlich (1992), Jerkins (2000) However, few studies have been done on common mistakes in pronouncing English sounds alone The most popular one is the study by Avery
&Ahrlich (1992) in which the problems of selected language group are discussed In their work they have confirmed that ―Vietnamese speakers do not experience too much difficulty with the English vowels‖ In reality, Vietnamese learners often mispronounce the sound / ổ / and /e/
Moreover, their explanations about the problems which Vietnamese learners have with English consonants are not really appropriate
It is said that Vietnamese learners have not so many difficulties when producing English sounds because English and Vietnamese have the same Latin alphabets However, there is a big difference in the phonetics alphabets between the two languages and the ways to pronounce them Thus, the most common cause is the default misunderstanding of the way these sounds are produced and the effect of some sounds of the mother tongue
In Vietnam, English is the core foreign language that is taught as a compulsory subject at all school levels The need to acquire this so popular language proves to be constant with socioeconomic changes in Vietnam in recent years However, it is undeniable that many Vietnamese students receiving the English teaching from their teachers at schools can’t pronounce English words correctly This is one of the first language influences on the second language acquisition in the way that some features of pronouncing words in English do not exist in Vietnamese
In fact, Vietnamese learners of English have many difficulties in pronouncing English For high school students, especially students at Me Linh high school are not the exception even though they have learnt English since the early age Another reason is that no research has been carried on this field at Me Linh high school in Hanoi This leads the researcher to the thought of making a research on ―Common mistakes made by tenth grade students at Me Linh high school in producing English vowel and consonant sounds‖ with the purpose of finding out the causes of mispronunciations It is hoped that this study will contribute to the goal of enhancing students’ performances in the teaching and learning foreign language
2 Aims of the study The study aims at finding out common mistakes made by tenth grade students at Me Linh high school in pronouncing English words and the causes of these problems The results will provide an overview of learners’ pronunciation at Me Linh high school and give suggestions for teachers to improve the situation The findings of this research will hopefully help Me Linh high school students to raise their awareness of learning correct pronunciation so as to produce English vowel and consonant sound properly
1 What are the common mistakes in pronouncing English vowels and consonants made by 10 th grade students at Me Linh high school?
2 What are the causes of those mistakes?
3 What are solutions to the problem?
The study limited itself to the investigation of common mistakes in English pronunciation of the 10 th grade students at Me Linh high school in Hanoi The researcher of the thesis pays attention to find out students’ common mistakes in the lessons Language focus with the sub- section Pronunciation of Tieng Anh 10- textbook Solutions are also provided to help improve teaching and learning English pronunciation in general, teaching and learning English pronunciation for the 10 th grade students at Me Linh high school in particular
Research questions
1 What are the common mistakes in pronouncing English vowels and consonants made by 10 th grade students at Me Linh high school?
2 What are the causes of those mistakes?
3 What are solutions to the problem?
The study limited itself to the investigation of common mistakes in English pronunciation of the 10 th grade students at Me Linh high school in Hanoi The researcher of the thesis pays attention to find out students’ common mistakes in the lessons Language focus with the sub- section Pronunciation of Tieng Anh 10- textbook Solutions are also provided to help improve teaching and learning English pronunciation in general, teaching and learning English pronunciation for the 10 th grade students at Me Linh high school in particular
Research method
A combination of different data collection methods was used including class observations and questionnaires for students Details of the methodology applied in the study are discussed in Chapter 2 of Part two.
DEVELOPMENT
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is devoted to the presentation of the theoretical issues related to the study The first section provides some basic linguistic and phonetic concepts to bring a common view of the matter studied including phonetics, phonology, English consonants and vowels The second section describes the differences between English and Vietnamese The next section presents the importance of pronunciation teaching and learning The final section discusses the review of some previous research related to English consonant and vowel sounds
This section starts with a distinction between two related terms (often loosely) used to refer to linguistic disciplines studying the linguistic sign which Ferdinand de Saussure in Course of General Linguistics called the acoustic image: phonetics and phonology
Phonetics deals with how speech sounds are actually produced, transmitted and received in actual spoken language, while phonology deals with especially with the ways those sounds are organized into the individual languages, hence dealing with abstractions on a virtual basis
―Phonetics first of all divides, or segments, concrete utterances into individual speech sounds It is therefore exclusively concerned with parole or performance Phonetics can be divided into three distinct phases: (1) articualtory phonetics, (2) acoustic phonetics and (3) auditory phonetics‖ (Skandera& Burleigh, 2005:3)
Articulatory phonetics deals with the way in which speech sounds are produced Sound are usually classified according to the position of lips and the tongue, how far open the mouth is, whether or not the vocal cords are vibrating and so on
Acoustic phonetics deals with the transmission of speech sounds through the air When a speech sound is produced it causes minor air disturbances (sound waves) Various instruments are used to measure the characteristics of these sound waves
Auditory phonetics deals with how speech sounds are perceived by the listener,
From the practical phonetic standpoint, it is convenient to distinguish two types of speech sound, simply because the majority of sounds may be described and classified most appropriately according to one of the two techniques
1 The types of sounds which is most easily described in terms of articulation, since we can generally feel the contacts and movements involved Such sounds may be produced with or without vocal cords vibration (voice) and very often have a noise component in the acoustic sense; these sounds fall generally into the traditional category of consonants
2 The type of sound, depending largely on very light variations of tongue position, which is most easily described in terms of auditory relationships, since there not contacts or strictures which we can feel with any precision Such sounds are generally voiced, having no noise component; these sounds fall generally into the traditional category of vowels and will be known as vowels
"Phonology deals with the speakers’ knowledge of the sound system of a language It is therefore exclusively concerned with langue or competence [ ] Phonology can be divided into two branches: (1) segmental phonology and (2) suprasegmental phonology" (Skandera &
Phonology is primarily concerned with how we interpret and systematize sounds It deals with the system and pattern of the sounds which exists within particular languages The study of phonology of English looks at the vowels, consonants and superasemental features of the language Within the disciplines of phonology, when we talk about vowels and consonants we are referring to the different sounds we make when speaking, and not the vowel and consonants letters we refer to when talking about spelling
Vowels are defined as ―sounds in which there is continual vibration of the vocal cords and the air stream is allowed to escape from the mouth in an obstructed manner, without any interruption‖
Vowel sounds can be described in the following details according to the RP vowel phonemes
/i:/: the front of the tongue is raised to a height slightly below and behind the close front position; the lips are spread; the tongue is tense, with the side rims making a firm contact with the upper molars This is a long vowel
/I/ - The short RP /I/ is pronounced with a part of the tongue nearer to centre than to front raised just above the half close position; the lips are loosely spread; the tongue is lax, with the side rims making a light contact with the upper molars
/e/ - For the short RP /e/, the front of the tongue is raised between the half-open and half-close position; the lips are loosely spread and are slightly wider apart than for /I/; the tongue may have more tension than the case for /I/, the side rims making a light contact with the upper molars
THE STUDY
The literature review has described the basic theory of phonetic matters regarding the study
They are the background supporting this part of the research This chapter presents the methodology, context of the study, data collection procedures and the subjects of the study The results getting from the data analyses and the discussion of those results are provided
2.1 Context of the study 2.1.1 Teaching staff and teaching methods
The teaching staff at Me Linh high school consists of 10 teachers of English at the age from
26 to 33 They graduated from College of Foreign Languages- Vietnam National University, Hanoi; Thai Nguyen University; Vinh Phuc Teachers Training College and have been teaching English for at least 5 years Most of them have to teach in large classes with about 45 students each Each teacher has to teach more than 3 classes of this kind It means that they must be responsible for the learning results of more than 120 students In addition, teaching materials are not always available; so many teachers have to buy textbooks and use them as their main material Although the teachers are always aware of the new trend in teaching methods and aware of the importance of the communicative approach when teaching English to their students in general and pronunciation in particular, classes are usually conducted in the form of lectures:
Most of the time the teachers are the main speakers working through the text
Me Linh high school is located in Me Linh, a rural district of Hanoi It is one of the six schools in Me Linh and the second oldest one in this district At tenth grade, there are 455 students They have been learning English for at least four or five years at secondary schools
Most of the students come from poor families but they are very hardworking and have an acceptable level of English knowledge However, they cannot communicate with each other effectively and cannot pronounce some sounds correctly In order to communicate well in a foreign language, they know that the first thing they should do is to pronounce correctly the words and know how to use them accurately However, some students said that they couldn’t read the transcription in dictionary, and only know the words which teachers had taught them how to pronounce, others said that they imitated the sounds in the cassette tapes but it was very difficult for them to pronounce the words they heard, others said that they often found it hard to communicate with native speakers, etc Some students know that their speaking is not accurate, but they do not know what errors they have made or how to correct them Generally the target students’ English fluency is still at a low level because the purpose of students learning is to pass the general education examination
2.1.3 The teaching materials and facilities
The teaching material for this study is the textbook Tieng Anh 10 It is the basic curriculum for general students with 16 units of different themes which cover two semesters Each unit consists of 5 sections: reading, speaking, listening and language focus and each section is supposed to be taught in 45 minutes The classes have 3 periods a week There is a test after every 3 units and two final tests at the end of each semester Teaching pronunciation is the first part of the
Language focus, the second one is Grammar Because the time is limited for this section (only 45 minutes for 2 parts: pronunciation and Grammar), so the pronunciation is often practiced in 7 or
10 minutes that is not enough The details of Pronunciation sub-section in Tieng Anh 10 are shown in the table below
Unit 1 / I / - / i: / Unit 2 / ʌ / - / a: / Unit 3 / e / - / ổ / Unit 4 / ɒ / - / ɔ: / Unit 5 / ʊ / - / u: / Unit 6 /ə/ - / ɜ: / Unit 7 / eI / - / ai / - / ɔI / Unit 8 / aʊ / - / əʊ / Unit 9 / iə / - / e ə / - / ʊə / Unit 10 / b / - / p /
Unit 11 / d / - / t / Unit 12 / s / - / z / Unit 13 / f / - / v / Unit 14 / g/ - / k / Unit 15 / θ / - / ð / Unit 16 / ʒ / - / ʃ /
Table 1: Pronunciation matters mentioned in Tieng Anh 10
From the table, we can come to a conclusion that in Tieng Anh 10, pronunciation matters are complicated, including diphthongs, minimal pairs of both vowels and consonants
Teaching facilities also play an important part in teaching English and may affect the teaching positively or negatively All teachers can use cassette recorders in their class when necessary but the recorders are too old and often out of order There are some modern devices such as overhead projector and projector, but seldom can teachers and students use them because it is inconvenient for them to fetch it to the classroom It is obvious that teaching facilities at Me Linh High School are poorly supplied This certainly has negative effects on English teaching and learning
The research focuses on analyzing the pronunciation problems of tenth grade students at
Me Linh high school to find out their common mistakes in producing English sounds The study raised the following questions
1 What are common mistakes in pronouncing English vowels and consonants made by 10 th grade students at Me Linh high school?
2 What are the causes of those mistakes?
3 What are solutions to the problem?
The subjects of the study consist of 100 ten grade students from ten classes at Me Linh high school They are chosen at random basing on their ordinal number in the attendance register
They are from 15 to 16 years old All of them have learned English since 6 th grade (about 12 years old) The learning aid is only a cassette player Most of them can do written English tasks quite well, but they speak English with a lot of mispronounced words
To get the findings for research questions, these means of data collection were administered:
Classroom observations are applied in order to find out common mistakes in producing English consonant and vowel sounds among students at grade ten The observations were carried out before the time the questionnaires were conducted in three Language Focus periods of three different classes taught by three different teachers at grade 10 Hopefully, the results from the classroom observations will contribute much to finding out the solutions to the problems
The questionnaire was designed with 11questions to get information about the students’ attitude, their difficulties in producing English sounds and the causes of those difficulties as well as the teachers’ methods to help students to produce English correctly
As mentioned in the above section, to collect information and data, two instruments: the observation and questionnaire were used All the participants were informed of the purpose of the study and willing to help the researcher to fulfill the task
The study was conducted in two steps as follows:
Firstly, the class observation was done when the subjects learning English pronunciation lessons naturally without awareness of being observed in the classroom The researcher attended teaching periods of other colleagues and observed the students of her own class During the observation, the researcher took notes immediately in her notebook These notes were then transcribed and analyzed to evaluate pronunciation teaching and learning in the classroom
Then, the result of the observation would be compared with the result of the questionnaire
Secondly, the questionnaires were administered to 100 students of grade 10 at the end of the second- semester of the school year The questionnaire consists of 11questions Five first questions are aimed at finding out the attitudes of students towards the pronunciation lessons
The next three questions are aimed at finding out the levels of difficulties in producing vowels and consonants and the causes of difficulties The three last questions are aimed at finding out the solutions to produce English sounds correctly in teaching and learning pronunciation The researcher clearly explained the purpose of doing research before the participants answered the questions They were also encouraged to raise questions if there was something in the questionnaire they did not understand They were instructed to take as much time as they needed to complete it
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the results are in turn elaborated and discussed in two sections The first part is the findings from classroom observations The second part presents the data from the questionnaires by means of tables
During the academic year 2010- 2011, the researcher observed 3 grade 10 teachers in class 10A1, 10A4, 10A8, at Me Linh high school when they taught Language focus which has the sub- section: Pronunciation During the process of observations, the researcher focused on some aspects such as: teaching and learning materials used in class, students’ activities and their mistakes in producing sounds, and teachers’ approaches and techniques used in teaching pronunciation
The lesson that the researcher was allowed to observe was Language Focus period of unit
3 in Tieng Anh 10 which focuses on minimal pair / e / - / ổ / After settling down the students (there were 40 students in this class), the teacher asked them to look at the two columns of words / e / - / ổ /, then listened to the cassette player Students had a chance to get all the sounds from the cassette twice, and then they had to repeat after the teacher Then problems appeared that students sitting at the back of the room could not hear the cassette clearly, as a consequence, some read words in the way they thought right, some tried to imitate the sounds the teacher had just pronounced The most significant mistakes were that students could not produce the sounds / ổ /in words man, sad, bad, sand, some pronounced / ổ / like /e/ and some pronounced it like /a/
After one minute practicing reading the words, the teacher asked four students to read aloud individually and checked immediately The teacher found that all four students make mistakes with the sound / ổ/, so she let the whole class listen again that sound and then required the whole class to repeat after the cassette twice It took 7 minutes for those activities The next 3 minutes were spent on practicing sentences The teacher read all 6 sentences and students listened After that, she called 6 students in turn read aloud 6 sentences in the textbook and checked All six students made mistakes in producing the sound / ổ/ in the words: fat (sentence
1), handbag (sentence 2), apples (sentence 3), pans (sentence 4), cat (sentence 5), bad (sentence
6) There appeared other problems like some students just sat and listened to his/ her partner; some just read sentences as required only when the teacher came near him or her Then the teacher asked students to practice more at home and said that she would check it in the next lesson
From the observation, we can see that pronunciation teaching and learning in class 10A1 still followed the traditional path of imitating and drilling which causes boredom for students
Even though there was listening activity at the beginning, it did not help much because the room was too large for the students sitting at the back All of the students make mistakes in producing the sound / ổ/ in words and sentences The lesson was far from satisfaction for both teacher and students
The teacher taught this section as warm up activities that makes students learn both vocabulary and pronunciation of unit 12 with two sounds: /s/ - /z/ Students were eager to learn because she gave them some picture and asked them to find the words for those pictures and pronounce those words She checked immediately Then, the teacher introduced these two sounds /s/ - /z/ It seemed that they are easy sounds that students can pronounce them correctly after listening to the teacher’s instruction and imitating her pronunciation When asked, students were able to read the isolated words and sentences correctly After 7 minutes students could distinguish these sounds without any difficulty They seemed to be very happy When checked, 5 out of 6 students read sentences correctly The researcher saw that this minimal pair was not difficult for students to pronounce
The researcher had a chance to observe a Language Focus period in class 10A8 (A remarkable characteristic in this class is that there were 47 students) when they had been taught unit 15 which deals with /θ/ - /ð/ The steps carried out by the teacher were not very different from which the teacher teaching class 10A1 chose to introduce the sounds and then give time for students to practice The different points were the challenges that the teacher had to deal with during the lesson The emerging problem was that most students had difficulty in producing these sounds because they were not in Vietnamese sound system and they often confused with the sound /th/ in Vietnamese The teacher let students listen to her introduction of the two sounds twice, and then the teacher read aloud and asked students to repeat However, when students read aloud, most of them could not produce these sounds correctly The teacher had to read aloud the words which have the sounds/θ/ - /ð/ again slowly and clearly and asked students to read in chorus twice She let students 1 minute practice individually However, students’ practicing was still unsatisfactory When three students were asked to read aloud this minimal pair, they pronounce two sounds similarly; therefore, all three students made mistakes in producing this minimal pair The teacher checked immediately for only these students Then she moved to the part practice the sentences First the teacher read all the five sentences, then she had 2 minutes for students to practice reading them individually, next she called in turn 5 students to read aloud the five sentences However, all five students make mistakes in these sounds Each of five students was checked and made correction Those activities took nearly 30 minutes that is why the teacher asked students to practice more at home, and moved to Grammar section After the lesson, the researcher had informal talk with the teacher She said that she herself was not satisfied with the result of her students’ practice; however, if she had continued checking and correcting students’ mistakes, there would have been no time for grammatical points which were supposed to be taught in the same lesson
From the situation of class 10A8, the researcher is more aware of class size, time spent on pronunciation lessons, and the confusing sounds between Vietnamese and English All these factors hinder students’ learning
In conclusion, the present situation of teaching and learning pronunciation at Me Linh high school is not positive as expected The researcher found that teaching and learning materials and equipment, limited teaching and learning time, unvaried teaching techniques and few chances for students to practice in class bring about trouble in teaching and learning pronunciation
3.2 Findings and discussion from the questionnaire
According to the structure of the questionnaires, the findings and discussion in this part is divided into three main parts The first part is students’ attitude towards pronunciation in Tieng Anh 10 The second part presents the common problems with pronunciation that students usually face The last part give more details about the correction made by their teachers and students- themselves in producing English sounds
3.2.1 Findings about the students’ attitudes towards pronunciation
Table 2: students’ attitude toward pronunciation
The data reveals that most of the students are highly aware of the vital role of proper pronunciation of English All of the students started to learn English atgrade 6 at their secondary schools as English is a compulsory subject from this grade to higher ones 73 participated students have a modest aim to attain intelligible pronunciation of English (a reasonable and understandable pronunciation) and the rest was the number of students desired to have near native like and near- native like pronunciation When students were asked about the importance of pronunciation, most of them (85 students) agreed that it was very important to learn English
This proves that only by mastering a good pronunciation can the students speak English accurately and fluently and make others understand Similarly, 83 students thought that English pronunciation was difficult or even very difficult, while only 2 students thought that it was not difficult at all Those numbers reveal the fact that producing English pronunciation correctly is necessary in communicating It is needed for the students to achieve the goal of intelligible pronunciation
3.2.2 Findings about the common problems with English sounds and the main causes 3.2.2.1 Findings about the common problems with English sounds
As the answer for the question 4, 83 out of 100 students at the grade 10 thought that English pronunciation was difficult and even very difficult The textbook was designed with 12 units involving the minimal vowel and consonant pairs To find out the common mistakes in producing English sounds of 10 grade students, the researcher raised questions 6 and 7 which asked students to rank the pairs according to their levels of difficulty
Table3: students’ opinion on the level of difficulties of English vowels
With the minimal vowel pairs in question 6, the pair /e/ - //ổ/ was chosen for the most difficult pair by 68 students, while only 5, 3 or 2 students chose for the pair/I/ -/i:/, / ʊ/ / - /u: / and / ə / - / ɜ:/ for the most difficult one respectively 12 students put number one for the pair /ʌ/ / - /a:/ Therefore, it is clear that most of the students considered the pair /e/ - //ổ/ is difficult for them to distinguish and to practice
Consonant pairs Number of students chose the most difficult consonant pair
Vowel sounds Number of students chose most difficult vowel pair
Table4: students’ opinion on the level of difficulties of English consonants
Similarly, with the minimal pairs on Tieng Anh 10 , the pair / θ/ -/ ð/ ranked the first place as it was the most difficult chosen by 42 students 38 students chose the pair / ʒ / - / ʃ / The rest
5 minimal consonant pairs were chosen by l 20 students To conclude, the pairs / θ/ -/ ð/ and / ʒ /
- / ʃ/ were the most difficult pairs for Me Linh tenth grade students
3.2.2.2 The causes of consonant and vowel mistakes
It is important to find out the causes of consonant and vowel mistakes Therefore, question
8 was designed to mention all aspects of the problem, for example: the sound system, students’ practice or the feedback
Causes of mistakes Number of students agree
1 there are some sounds that do not exist in Vietnamese 86 14
2 I haven’t been familiarized with the sounds in English 7 93
3 I think that English sounds and Vietnamese are the same 3 97
4 I do not practice the sounds taught outside class 95 5
6 I do not dare to ask my teachers or friends for help 8 92 Table5: Causes of students’ mistakes in producing English sounds
SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS FOR 10 TH GRADE STUDENTS AT
There are two main causes of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation: students’ lack of practice and lack of visual aids So some suggestions are given as follows in order to overcome the mentioned difficulties:
Visual aids have good effect on learning English pronunciation Picture of organ speech help teacher to introduce how the sounds are produced The pronunciation video clips can download from the website www.bbc.co.uk or the VCD: master spoken English also help learners see the front and the sided mouth shape of the native speaker producing accurately the sounds In addition, the speaker always compares some similar sounds that are easily confused with each other, making the lessons extremely beneficial to students It is easy to understand why students showed their interest in learning with visual aids (see in Appendix 5,6,7,13,18)
For example, in unit 3, teacher can use the picture of the organ speech to introduce students how the sound /ổ/ is pronounced with the shape of the mouth
To make /ổ/, put your tongue low and pushed forward a little Spread your lips slightly, and keep your jaw open For /e/, close your jaw while saying /ổ/, and you will hear the change to /e/
(http://lopngoaingu.com/english-GT/phatam/index.php?view#-951-955) (http://lopngoaingu.com/english-GT/phatam/index.php?view#-951-954
4.2 Solutions to English sounds practice
There are many techniques applied in practicing English pronunciation Each technique has its own advantages It depends on which sounds students are practicing However, some following techniques are most liked by the students:
Drilling is one of the common techniques in which pronunciation is practiced in the classroom The teacher’s main role in drilling is providing a model of the words, phrases or sentences for students to imitate Choral drilling can help to build students’ confidence, and give a chance to practice pronouncing the drilled item (see in Appendix 8,14,19 )
Look at the following example: practice the sound / θ/- and - / ð/ in Unit 15
listen to the following words and repeat (Students worksheet) / θ/ Initial / θ/middle / θ/-final
Thursday without teeth think bathroom path third nothing method throw breathless booth
(http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/pron025Unit02.pdf)
listen to the following words and repeat (Students worksheet) / ð/ Initial / ð/ middle / ð/ final than although sheathe those mother loathe there although teethe them father soothe thy northern seethe
(http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/pron025Unit01.pdf)
Another exciting way of practicing the pronunciation of difficult and confusing pair of sounds is through the use of tongue twister It is often used as home work
Let’s look at examples- Tongue twisters used in Unit 16
Say these tongue twisters out loud to practice the sounds
1 John saw an unusual collision while indulging in a rigid regime
2 George and Zsa Zsa urged on the Egyptian pigeons with derision
3 Casual clothes are provisional for leisurely trips across Asia
4 Pleasure is measured under Marjorie's rigid supervision
5 Angela's original diversion was encouraged by Jane and Jean
6 Frazier envisioned a provision for his Parisian subdivisions
7 Her version of the procedure verges on injury to the individual
8 Purging the Persian legions in the Eurasian regions was a diversion
9 Jack is cagey on occasion, but is also an original visionary
10 Imogene, George, and Roger are diverging fugitives
(http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/eslp025unit07.pdf)
Tongue twisters used for unit 3, 15 see Appendix 9,15
This activity can be used in pair works, or individually
Exercise 1: Minimal Pair Distinction - Unit 3
You will hear the sentences below, but only one of the italicized words will be spoken Circle the word which you hear
1 The boys set/sat their bottoms down on the curb
2 They bought a lot of gems/jams from the specialty shop
3 All my friends saw me and left/laughed
4 He was sending/sanding some furniture when I called.
(http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/eslp025unit08.pdf)
Minimal pair distinction used for Unit 15- see Appendix14
Exercise 2: Information Gap exercise is used for Unit 3, 15- see Appendix:11,16
Exercise 3: Pair distinction is used for Unit 3 – see Appendix 10
This is the most liked activity by students Games provide a relaxing environment for students to practice pronunciation effectively Playing games not only helps students to practice the knowledge but also makes the lessons more interesting Students will no longer find bored whenever they learn pronunciation
Two kinds of game in pronunciation lessons are often used: Pronunciation maze, and bingo
1 Teacher divides the class into different groups
2 Teacher sets the rule: pronunciation is a game to find a way from the start to Finish
Which group find out the way first is the winner For example: Unit 15 – pronunciation /θ/- and - / ð/
3 Teacher tells students to find a way from Start to finish by going through the boxes containing the sound / θ/ You are only allowed to move horizontally or vertically
Thursday clothes those weather thousand thick wrath smoother they Ruth lethal thirsty thrilled although bother healthy writhe nothing thin than three theme their thank moth path thought mother then teeth seethe either rather that them birthday
↓ clothes those weather thousand Thick
Path → thought mother then Teeth
↓ seethe either rather that them birthday
(Adapted from http://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/a/ttwister_master.htm)
4.2.4.2 Bingo : Unit 3- Pronunciation //ổ/ and /e/.- Vowel Bingo
1 Teacher divide the class into different groups (Each group have 6,7, or 8 students)
2 Teacher sets the rule: each group has 25 work cards, each card contains the word having the sounds//ổ/ and /e/ (See 25 cards below)
3 Teacher reads aloud 5 words which have the sounds //ổ/ and /e/ Students must find out those words Group who finish this task first will say bingo, and they get one mark The winner is the group who have the highest mark
(Adapted from http://www.soundsofenglish.org/activities/printable/FinalConsonantBingo.pdf)
Key : Teacher: Card 1,2,3,4,5 Teacher: Card 6,7,8,9,10 Students: Card: 18, 2,3,4,20 Students: Card:14,7, 12,9,22
Teacher: Card: 11,12,13,14,15 Teacher: Card: 16,17,18,19,20 Students: Card: 11, 24,6,13,20 Students: Card: 16,17,18,15,1 Teacher: Card: 21,22,23,24,25
These are some solutions that the researcher would like to introduce with the hope that they will make the pronunciation lessons more interesting and effective How to use these techniques effectively depends so much on the teachers Each teacher should decide which technique, how, when and where to use to get their purposes Teachers should use them flexibly to check students’ practice or design the pronunciation tests.
CONCLUSION
Conclusions
Pronunciation plays a very important part in language teaching and learning, especially in communication in the era of international cooperation Speakers of English around the globe develop their own accents when they speak English However, to speak intelligible English, people are required to pronounce the English words correctly That is the reason for the researcher to choose the thesis: ―Common mistakes made by 10 grade students in producing English vowel and consonant sounds‖
All the research questions in the study were answered For the first question, common mistakes in producing English sounds by 10 grade students at Me Linh high school are / ổ/ , / θ /, /ð / , /ʒ/ , / ʃ / The vowel / ổ / which cannot be found in Vietnamese is really a big trouble for the Vietnamese learners and it is often pronounced as /e/ With the consonants/ θ / and /ð/, students often pronounce them as /t/ and /d/ in Vietnamese Similarly, the sounds /ʒ/ and / ʃ / are pronounced as /z/ and /s/
For the second question about the causes of those mistakes, there appear some problems about the differences between two language systems and the students’ lack of practice
For the last question, the study provides the solutions to those problems to help grade 10 students and teachers at Me Linh high school have better learning and teaching pronunciation
The most important thing is to get students involved in practicing pronunciation constantly inside and outside the class.
Limitations and suggestions for further study
Although this study has found out the answers to the questions relating to common mistakes in pronunciation of grade 10 Me Linh high school students, it still has some limitations
First, the study only focuses on common mistakes made by grade ten students at Me Linh high school in producing English vowel and consonant sounds There are still some problems relating to pronunciation such as stress, pitch, intonation, etc Second, the findings of the research and suggested solutions are based only on the opinions of the teachers and students at
For further study, a thorough experimental study should be done to confirm the findings
It is a good idea to do research on how Me Linh students use intonation or other aspects of connected speech when speaking English
Due to the limited time and knowledge, mistakes are inevitable so all the comments and suggestions are highly appreciated so that the quality of the study can be improved
1 Avery, P & Susan, E Teaching American English Pronunciation OPU-1992
2 Celce-Murcia, M, Brinton, D and Goodwin,J.(1996).Teaching pronunciation Cambridge, Cambridge University Press ( p.p 7-10, 20-22, 37-50)
3 Gimson, A.C An introduction to the pronunciation of English Edward Arnold London.1962 (p.p 32-56)
4 Hewings, M,(2004) Pronunciation Practice Activities A resource book for teaching English pronunciation Cambridge University Press.( p.p10-23, 73-77)
5 Jenkins, J The phonology of English as an International Language OPU-2000 (p.p 156-235)
6 Kelly G ( 2000) How to Teach Pronunciation, Longman, Malaysia (p.p 11-29, 47-66, 73-
7 Kenworthy, J (1987) Teaching English pronuciation Longman London and New York (p.p 4-11)
8 Nunan D.,(1992) Research Methods in Language Learning Cambridge U.P
9 Skandera, P.& Burleigh, P.(2005) A Mannual of English Phonetics and Phonology
1.Đoàn, Thiện Thuật(1999) Ngữ âm tiếng Việt Hà Nội: NXB Đại học Quốc gia, Hà Nội
2 Hà, Cẩm Tâm(2005) Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of
English -Journal of Science - Foreign Languages
Retrieved from: http://news.vnu.edu.vn/Bai2.pdf 3.―Teaching English to speakers of Vietnamese Refugee Education Guide: General Information‖
Retrieved from: www.Eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Search/detailmini.jsp_nfpb=true&-
&ERICEExtSearch_SearchValue_O008681&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_O=no&accnoED208681 4.Trần, Thị Lan,―9 Essential English Pronunciation in the Vietnamese Context”
Retrieved from: www.britishcouncil.org/9_essential_english_pronunciation_in_the_vietnamese_context
5.Võ, Đại Quang & Hà, Cẩm Tâm Lectures on English Phonetics and Phonology- 2004 CFL- VNUH (For internal distribution)
Class observation 1 Unit 3: People’s Background (20/9/2010 (10A1) From 7.00 to 7.45 a.m)
I Pronunciation: /e/ - / ổ / 7.00 T: Good morning Ss: Good morning, teacher
T: Now open your book to see what we are going to learn today Today we learn how to pronounce two sounds /e/ and / ổ / and how to use Wh- questions and gerunds and to infinitive.Ok, now keep silent and look at the two columns in the textbook and listen to the tape twice
Ss: Listen 7.02’ T: The sound /e/ , listen to me please (T pronounced /e/ twice)
- For example: (T pronounced: men, said, met, bed, pen, send)
- Để phỏt õm õm / ổ /, cỏc em đặt lưỡi ở vị trớ hàm dưới thấp, phỏt õm với độ miệng mở hẹp và núi / ổ/ (T pronounced / ổ /)Chỳng ta cựng nghe cỏc từ cú õm/ ổ/ này nhộ: man, sad, mat, bad, pan, and sand
- Nào, cả lớp hãy đọc theo tôi:
Ss: (Ss read in chorus twice /e/ and / ổ/) T: Now, practice reading aloud individually?
Ss: (Ss practiced reading aloud the words) T:.(called on three students to pronounce two sounds in turn) T: - listen and have to check all the three students with the sound/ / ổ/
T: Được rồi, hầu hết cỏc em đều phỏt õm chưa chớnh xỏc õm // ổ/ Nào cả lớp, giờ cỏc em hóy nghe lai đài và đọc lại theo đĩa nhé:
7.7’ Ss: listen again to the tape and read in chorus T: Về nhà cỏc em nhớ thực hành lại 2 õm này và đọc cỏc cõu trong SGK nhộ Nhất là õm / ổ/ trong các từ man, sad, mat, bad, pan, and sand Giờ sau tôi sẽ kiểm tra bằng cách đọc lại các âm và các từ có chứa âm này
7 10’ T: Giờ chúng ta chuyển sang phần 2 nào: Phần Grammar Appendix 2: Class Observation 2
T: (T showed a picture of a girl named Sue and asked students) Ok, the whole class, look at this picture and answer my question: What is her name?
T: (T wrote the word on the board and showed another picture of a zoo and asked Ss) very good
What about this? What is this?
Ss: It’s a zoo T: (T wrote the word on the board and continued with the third picture showing the price) Now, come on What do we call this?
S: (only one voice) Price T: I heard one of you said price Yes, we call this price (T wrote on the board) What next?
(T showed a picture of a girl holding her prize and pointed at the object in her hand)
S: Gift T: No, this is the thing we get when we win in a competition (no answer) … đây là thứ mà chúng ta nhận được khi trung ta thắng trong một cuộc thi what’s this?
S: Prize T: That’s it Very good (T wrote the word on the board and underlined the letter s, z in the word on the board) Today we learn how to pronounce two sounds /s/ and /z/ (T wrote on the board)
Now open your book and listen to me
Ss: (Ss opened their books) T: Để phát âm âm /s/ các em nâng lưỡi hơi chạm nhẹ vào vòm miệng và đẩy hơi ra Khi phát âm
/s/ âm thanh phát ra giống như tiếng gió rít Âm /s/ là âm vô thanh, thanh quản không rung Hãy nhìn xem cô phát âm nhé
Ss: (Ss tried pronouncing the sound /s/) T: Để phát âm âm /z/ các em phát âm âm /s/ sau đó giữ nguyên vị trí của lưỡi và lấy hơi từ trong thanh quản đẩy ra từ từ âm thanh phát ra giống như tiếng ong vò vẽ …zzzzzzzz
Ss: (Ss tried pronouncing the sound /z/) T: Ok, now look at the word in your book and read after me (T read aloud the words and Ss repeated in chorus.)
(T called on two students to read aloud the sentences and corrected any mistakes)
Appendix 3: Class Observation 3 Unit 15: Cities (23/04/2011 – 10A8 – From 9.5 to 9.50 a.m)- numbers of students: 47
I Pronunciation: / θ /, /ð / (T wrote on the board) T: (open your books at page 164 Today, we are going to pronounce two sounds/ θ /, /ð / ) 9.05’
T : Để phát âm âm / θ / chúng ta đặt lữơi giữa 2 hàm răng Đây là âm vô thanh, tức là khi ta phát âm ta để tay vào cổ cảm nhận thấy dây thanh quản không rung Hãy nhin theo tôi và làm theo nhé (T pronounced the sound / θ / )
T: Âm / θ / trong các từ sau: Lísten ( T pronounced: think, thought, mouth, thin, something, birthday.- T pronounced these words twice)
T: - Để phát âm âm /ð / chúng ta dặt lưỡi chạm 2 hàm răng và phát âm /ð / có âm thanh ( tức là chúng ta cảm nhận được dây thanh rung lên)
T: Listen to me,( T pronounced the sound: /ð / twice Then T pronounced thse words: they, those, clothes, then, another, brother)
T: - the whole class,look at the textbook and read after me!
Ss: Listen and repeat in chorus three times with words which have two sounds in the textbook
T: Now you have 1 minute to practice by reading aloud individually Ss: practice
T: Hoa, read aloud Hoa: read aloud the words T: thanks, Hoa phát âm vẫn chưa chính xác âm/ θ / trong các từ Thank, mouth, birthday và âm/ð / trong từ they, clothes Nào, em hãy phát âm lại các từ này theo cô
Hoa: (Pronounced the words) T: Huyen, read aloud the words
T: Ok, Huyen, you should pronounce the sound / θ / again: for example, listen to me and repeat: think, something, thin
Huyen: (Pronounced the words think, something, thin ) T: Hoang, can you read again
T: thank you Em nên phát âm lai âm , /ð / trong từ another, brother Nhớ không phải là âm /z/ đâu nhé
T: Nhìn chung chúng ta vẫn chưa phát âm tôt được 2 âm này Chúng ta nhìn lại cô phát âm lại 1 lân nữa, cô sẽ đọc thật châm để các em theo dõi nhé (T pronounced the sound/ θ /, /ð / again )
T: Bây giờ chúng ta chuyển sang phần Practice the sentences T: (Read aloud 5 sentences in the textbook Ss listened) T: - you have 2 minutes to practice with these sentences Ss: (practiced individually)
T: Cuong, Read aloud sentence 1 Cuong: Read aloud: ―I thought Mr Smith was thirty- three”
T: Cuong, you make mistakes with the sounds / θ / in the words: thought, three, Smith So,
Listen to me and repeat: thought, three, Smith
T: (Called 4 students to read sentences 2,3,4,5 and had to correct their pronunciation with 2 sounds/ θ /, /ð / )
T: Chúng ta đã rõ cách phát âm của 2 âm này chưa nhỉ? Chúng ta phải về nhà luyện tập thêm nhé Giờ chúng ta chuyển sang phần 2 ngữ pháp
This questionnaire is designed for tenth grade students at Me Linh high school in Hanoi to investigate their common mistakes in producing English sounds and the causes of these mistakes Decide your answers by choosing one of the options or fill in your own opinion name……… class:………
1 When did you start learning English?
2 Did you study in an English specialized secondary school?
3 What kind of pronunciation would you like to have when you speak English?
4 How important is English pronunciation?
A very important b important C not important at all
5 How difficult do you think of English pronunciation?
C not very difficult D not difficult at all
6 Which minimal vowel pair is the most difficult for you?( put number 1 for the most difficult, number 2 for difficult, number 3 for least difficult, number 4 for not difficult at all)
7 Which minimal consonant pair is the most difficult for you?( put number 1 for the most difficult, number 2 for difficult, number 3 for least difficult, number 4 for not difficult at all)
8 Which of the following is the cause of your mistakes in pronunciation (put a tick in the right column?)
Causes of mistakes agree disagree
1 there are sounds that do not exist in Vietnamese
2 I haven’t been familiarized with the sounds in English
3 I think that English sounds and Vietnamese are the same
4 I do not practice the sounds taught
6 I do not dare to ask my teachers or friends for help
9 What should you do to produce English sounds correctly? methods agree disagree
2 practice as much as possible
3 ask teachers and friends for help
4 attend English extra pronunciation courses
10 What has your teachers done in teaching pronunciation? methods yes no
11 What are your expectations from your teachers in teaching pronunciation? methods agree disagree
Appendix 5: VCD: MASTER SPOKEN ENGLISH
Appendix 6: Picture “The organs of speech”
(http://www.google.com.vn/imgres?q=Picture+%E2%80%9CThe+organs+of+speech%E2%80%9D&um=1&hl=vi
&sa=N&biw40&biht4&tbm=isch&tbnid=WjkjhVD5J_8PuM:&imgrefurl=http://sp.englishbaby.com/lesson s/3201/member_submitted/vocal_organ)s_of_speech&docid=nTU1JxrbbVjekM&w09&h23&ei=NHCDTpKP
NYjprQfckc2YDg&zoom=1&iact=rc&durI3&page=1&tbnh3&tbnw7&start=0&ndsp@&ved=1t:429,r:
(http://lopngoaingu.com/english-GT/phatam/index.php?view#-951-955)
To make /ổ/, put your tongue low and pushed forward a little Spread your lips slightly, and keep your jaw open For /e/, close your jaw while saying /ổ/, and you will hear the change to /e/
(http://lopngoaingu.com/english-GT/phatam/index.php?view#-951-954)
Listen to the following words and repeat ad bet ham ten mass meddle ladder step Sally Dennis than blend man led clam net sandwich dress
Andy Fred Than then bat bet mat met bland blend and end
2 Exercise Two: Minimal Pair Distinction You will hear the sentences below, but only one of the italicized words will be spoken Circle the word which you hear
2 The boys set/sat their bottoms down on the curb
2 They bought a lot of gems/jams from the specialty shop
3 All my friends saw me and left/laughed
4 He was sending/sanding some furniture when I called.
(http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/eslp025unit08.pdf)
Read each of the following sentences aloud, paying attention to the sounds from this lesson
1 Lassie headed back to Peg and Allen for ten apples
2 Hedley sadly said sending Sally a man was extra bad
3 Matt never had less capital than several checks ago
4 Rather than settling Al and Ellie's debts, Fran just laughed and left
5 Dennis and Kent can't dance because they're dense dancers
6 Dan's den is a sad shed back of Beck's badly built bed and breakfast
7 Clem's clams went up Betty's back and tampered with her temper
8 Ed's ad said track treks led lads into mass messes
9 Ted tampered a tad in Brad's bread and jam
10 Stan stemmed his temper tantrum and lent Landry a bank check
You and your partner have different sheets, either A or B Read your words from the list below to your partner, and he or she will mark down which word was different (either the first, second, or third) Then, your partner will read, and you will mark down on your worksheet either the first, second, or third (whichever is different)
Example: You hear "then—than—then"; you write 2 in the space provided, as the second (than) was different from the first and third (then)
You and your partner have different sheets, either A or B Read your words from the list below to your partner, and he or she will mark down which word was different (either the first, second, or third) Then, your partner will read, and you will mark down on your worksheet either the first, second, or third (whichever is different)
Example: You hear "met—mat—mat"; you write 1 in the space provided, as the first
(me) was different from the second and third (mat)
1 met mat mat ……… 2 led led lad ………
3 sat set set ……… 4 brad bread brad ………
5 rap rep rep ……… 6 then than then ………
7 end end and ……… 8 guessed gassed gassed……
(http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/eslp025unit08.pdf)
In this exercise, sit opposite your partner Your partner will ask you which word goes into the empty boxes You will pronounce the word in your box, and your partner will write down what you said Then you ask your partner to pronounce the words in your missing boxes
― Can you tell me the word which is in D-2?
― Could you repeat that, please?‖