Skkn difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in language focus periods – english 11 and some solutions

NGUYỄN VĂN THÀNH DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PRONUNCIATION IN LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS – ENGLISH 11 AND SOME SOLUTIONS (KHÓ KHĂN TRONG DẠY VÀ HỌC NGỮ ÂM TRONG CÁC TIẾT DẠY “LANGUAGE FOCUS” SÁC[.]

NGUYỄN VĂN THÀNH DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PRONUNCIATION IN LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS – ENGLISH 11 AND SOME SOLUTIONS (KHÓ KHĂN TRONG DẠY VÀ HỌC NGỮ ÂM TRONG CÁC TIẾT DẠY “LANGUAGE FOCUS” SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11 VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP) skkn TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY AIMS OF THE STUDY METHODS OF THE STUDY SCOPE OF THE STUDY PART 2: DEVELOPMENT I Definition of pronunciation II An overview of the situation of teaching and learning English at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School 2.1 Learners 2.2 Teachers 2.3 The textbook III SOME SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING PRONUNCIATION IN “LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS – ENGLISH 11” AT HA HUY TAP UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL 3.1 Amount of exposure 3.2 Attitudes and motivation 3.3 The time for each lesson 3.4 Techniques for practice stage IV.SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES ARE USED IN PRONUNCIATION PERIODS FOR GRADE 11 AT HA HUY TAP UPPER HIGH SCHOOL PART 3: CONCLUSION 27 Conclusions of the study 27 Limitations of the study 27 Suggestions for further study 27 REFERENCES 28 APPENDIX 1: PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA NGHIÊN CỨU CHO HỌC SINH 30 APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE FOR TEACHERS 36 APPENDIX 3: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET 41 skkn skkn PART 1: INTRODUCTION RATIONALE OF THE STUDY The importance of English has been admitted all over the world by the large numbers of people using it as either the official language or the primary language English is considered as the third most common primary language in the world In Vietnam as well, English is becoming one of the vital keys to get success in their life Nowadays, English has become one of the compulsory subjects at school from primary to upper-high school In order to use English effectively, pronuciation should be paid attention more to reduce the limitation of communication among vietnamese students because of their lack of confidence in pronunciation Moreover, as being seen from the fact , pronuciation is paid less attention compared with vocabulary, grammar and language skills in language teaching and learning English at upper- secondary school Therefore, students are often shy and unconfident to speak english They are usually afraid of pronouncing incorrectly So, how difficult are students facing with when they learn pronucition? What activities should be used to teach pronucition effectively? How should teachers make students become interested in learning pronunciation? They are burning questions for many teachers of English The answers to these questions will help teachers improve students’ pronunciation knowledge and help them to make progress in communication For the above reasons, I decide to investigate “Difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation in Language Focus periods – English 11 and some solutions” AIMS OF THE STUDY This study mainly focused on the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in Language Focus periods – English 11 and solutions to help them overcome these difficulties In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are posed for exploration as follows: - To find out the attitudes of teachers and learners towards in teaching and learning pronunciation at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School - To find out the difficulties and the causes of difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation - To find out how pronunciation components are taught at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School skkn METHODS OF THE STUDY In order to fulfill the tasks as mentioned above, a certain data about the attitudes of teachers and students as well as the difficulties and causes of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School were collected and analyzed To collect data for the research, a survey questionnaire were delivered to teachers and 100 grade 11 students at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School Some observation and interviews with some teachers and students were also conducted for supplementary information After that, the results obtained from questionnaires and observation were discussed then some useful pronunciation teaching techniques were recommended SCOPE OF THE STUDY There are a number of difficulties in teaching and learning English at upper – secondary school However, as this study is concerned with teaching and learning pronunciation in Language focus periods – English 11 skkn PART 2: DEVELOPMENT I Definition of pronunciation The notion of "pronunciation" has been defined in different ways by many writers Ur (1996: 47) defines that "The concept of "pronunciation" may be said to include sounds of the language or phonology; stress and rhythm; intonation; combination of sounds; linkage of sounds" Dalton, (1994: 3) describes pronunciation in general term "as the production of significant sound in two senses First, sound is significant because it is used as part of a code of a particular language In this sense we can talk about pronunciation as the production and reception of sounds of speech Second, sound is significant because it is used to achieve meaning in contexts of use Here the code combines with other factors to make communication possible In this sense we can talk about pronunciation with reference to acts of speaking" In this paper, the author has no intention of pointing out which definition of pronunciation is the most precise but she only wishes to find an appropriate definition facilitating the understanding of pronunciation in language study Therefore, the definition of pronunciation proposed by Ur (1996) is adopted II An overview of the situation of teaching and learning English at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School 2.1 Learners There are about 500 students of grade 11 in my school Most of the students have learnt English for at least years, since they were at grade Some of them have learnt English since they were in primary school Two thirds of them learn English as a compulsory subject Some learn English to get scholarship to study abroad The others study English more deeply to take the exam to university In general, the majority of the students like learning English and have a good general knowledge of English Many students are capable of speaking English fluently As a result, 10% gets mark to 10, 30% gets mark to 9, 55% gets mark to 8, and 5% gets mark to 6, 0% gets mark below Some students get high mark in IELTS and TOFEL exam and have scholarship to study abroad However, teaching and learning English at Ha Huy Tap Secondary School have some difficulties Most of the classes are rather big in comparison with an ordinary class for a class of English, about 40 students Furthermore, there is not any lab room for studying a foreign language In addition to that, students hardly have opportunities to communicate with native speakers 2.2 Teachers There are 10 teachers of English in Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School Three of the teachers are from 25 to 43 years old, three have just finished an MA skkn course, one is following MA course, and the other teachers graduated from Hanoi national university and Vinh univesity Among these teachers, five of the teachers are rewarded as the best teachers of Nghe An province They have sucessfully passed the exams for the talented teachers of Nghe An education and training department All the teachers are very enthusiastic with teaching and want to improve the quality of English teaching and learning 2.3 The textbook We have been using the text book - English 11 for two years There are many changes in this new text book in comparison with the old text book This text book has four lessons focus on four skills such as Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing Especially, Pronunciation is also introduced in this text book However, it is only one small part in the Language Focus lessons About 10 to 15 minutes are spent for Pronunciation in each unit There are 16 units in the text book and they focus on the pronuciation of consonants including single consonant and clusters consonants There are two main activities of practicing: Listen and repeat individual words and Practice reading sentences Following is the table of contents of the pronunciation components and activities in each unit: skkn Table 1: Pronunciation components and activities in each unit Pronunciation components Unit The pronunciation consonant of /ʤ/ - /tʃ/ Unit The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant The pronunciation consonant the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences of the - Listen and repeat phrases - Practice reading question and answer /kl/ - /gl/ -/kr/ -/gr/ -/kw/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /tr/ - /dr/ - /tw/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /pl/ - /bl/ - /pr/ - /br/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /w/ - /j/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /l/ - /r/ - /h/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /m/ - /n/ - /ɳ/ Unit Techniques and activities of the - Listen and repeat phrases - Practice reading sentences /fl/ -/fr/ -/θr/ Unit The pronunciation consonant of the - Listen and repeat phrases - Practice reading sentences /sp/ -/st/ -/sk/ Unit 10 The pronunciation consonant of the - Practice reading sentences of the - Listen and practice reading sentences /sl/-/sm/-/sn/-/sw/ Unit 11 The pronunciation consonant skkn /ʃr/-/spr/-/spl/ Unit 12 The pronunciation consonant - Mark the primary stress over stress syllables and practice reading sentences of /str/-/skr/-/skw/ Unit 13 The pronunciation consonant - Practice reading sentences of /pt/-/bd/-/ps/-/bz/ Unit 14 The pronunciation consonant The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences of /nt/-/nd/-/nθ/-/ns/-/nz/ Unit 16 the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /ts/-/dz/-/ tʃt/-/ʤd/ Unit 15 the - Listen and repeat individual words the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences of /ft/-/vd/-/fs/-vz/ the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences All the pronunciation components in English 11 are very important and necessary for students to produce actual speech However, during the teaching and learning process, both teachers and students face up with many difficulties How can they overcome the difficulties? Some questions have been proposed to solve these problems III SOME SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING PRONUNCIATION IN “LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS – ENGLISH 11” AT HA HUY TAP UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL Based on the findings stated above, some suggestions for improving pronunciation teaching and learning in “Language focus periods – English 11” at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School There are many causes of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation, however, amount of exposure, short time and boring and monotonous practice activities in the textbook has the strongest agreement So some suggestions based on the factors affecting pronunciation teaching and learning process are given as followed: 3.1 Amount of exposure It is difficult to get an accurate picture of how much exposure to English a skkn person should have, then the learner is surrounded by English and this constant exposure should affect pronunciation skills In our teaching and learning environment, students have little chance to communicate to native speakers So that teachers should create a native–like language environment in their own classes Both teachers and students have to communicate to each other in English In addition, teachers had better provide students with more listening exercises especially listen to conversations and practice them 3.2 Attitudes and motivation The learner's attitude and motivation towards the language they are learning or going to learn also affects the process of learning pronunciation Their positive attitudes and motivation will help students a lot in learning this language, including learning its pronunciation So that teachers should help students aware of the importance of learning pronunciation What is more, teachers need to make the pronunciation lessons more comfortable and interesting by using different techniques such as reading, listening, playing games 3.3 The time for each lesson The time for each pronunciation in English 11 is fixed; we can not lengthen it So that teachers should be wise to carefully consider which amount of knowledge should be focused and which techniques should be used to save time Choosing suitable techniques to make the lessons both interesting and effective is not easy It depends on each teacher, his students and the number of students in each class 3.4 Techniques for practice stage There are many techniques for students to practice pronunciation Each technique has its own advantages It depends on which pronunciation component students are practicing However, some following techniques are liked most by the students: 3.4.1 Listen and repeat conversation: This technique is very useful for students That brings English into the real context for the students to practice From that students will find it easier to use the knowledge in communicating However, to find out suitable conversations for each lesson is not easy for the teachers Teachers need to use many sources of reference (See appendix) 3.4.2 Odd one out: This is the only kind of exercise that exists in the written test So it is very useful for students at high school It can help them get accustomed to doing multiple choice exercises to have better result in the exam This technique can be applied to every unit, especially for unit to unit because this kind of exercise exists in the written test to university (See appendix) 3.4.3 Do the listening exercises: Listening comprehension exercises in course skkn ... improving pronunciation teaching and learning in ? ?Language focus periods – English 11? ?? at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School There are many causes of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation, ... This study mainly focused on the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in Language Focus periods – English 11 and solutions to help them overcome these difficulties In order to achieve... make progress in communication For the above reasons, I decide to investigate ? ?Difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation in Language Focus periods – English 11 and some solutions? ?? AIMS