Teaching the impact of silent e on the vowel in the cluster vowel + consonant + e to children at the age of seven to ten research work at the university level 2007

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH WORK AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL - 2007 TEACHING THE IMPACT OF SILENT E ON THE VOWEL IN THE CLUSTER 'VOWEL+CONSONANT+E' TO CHILDREN AT THE AGE OF SEVEN TO TEN Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ THU NGÂN, M.A Students: LÂM THANH TRINH TRẦN THỦY TIÊN LÂM NHƯ BẢO TRAÂN Class: 04G Ho Chi Minh City, 2007 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH WORK AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL - 2007 TEACHING THE IMPACT OF SILENT E ON THE VOWEL IN THE CLUSTER 'VOWEL+CONSONANT+E' TO CHILDREN AT THE AGE OF SEVEN TO TEN Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ THU NGÂN, M.A Students: LÂM THANH TRINH - 0471249 TRẦN THỦY TIÊN - 0471226 LÂM NHƯ BẢO TRÂN – 0471245 Class: 04G Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature School year: 2004-2008 Ho Chi Minh City, 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION REASON THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH 3 RESEARCH HISTORY METHODOLOGY THE SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANT OF THE PROJECT LIMITATION OF THE STUDY Chapter : IMPACT OF E IN THE CLUSTER “A+ CONSONANT +E” 10 1.1 The pronunciation of the cluster “A+CONSONANT” 10 1.2 The pronunciation of cluster “A+CONSONANT+E” 11 Chapter : IMPACT OF E IN THE CLUSTER “O +CONSONANT + E” 13 2.1 The pronunciation of the combination of “O + CONSONANT” 13 2.2 The pronunciation of the cluster “O + CONSONANT + E” 14 Chapter : THE IMPACT OF THE SILENT E IN “U +CONSONANT + E” CLUSTER 17 3.1 The pronunciation of the combination “U + CONSONANT” 17 3.2 The pronunciation of the cluster “U + CONSONANT + E” 18 Chapter : TEACHING THE IMPACT OF SILENT “E” IN THE CLUSTER OF “VOWEL+CONSONANT+E” TO VIETNAMESE CHILDREN 20 4.1 Preparation: 20 4.2 Teaching method 20 CONCLUSION 23 REFERENCES 24 ABSTRACT When it comes to learning English, no one can deny the fact that the major weakness of Vietnamese learners lies in their pronunciation One of the reasons is that the training in foreign languages at Vietnamese schools tends to focus more on grammar, reading and writing than pronunciation and conversational fluency Students who acquire this learning habit from a very young age may have a very good command of grammar and a wide range of vocabulary but their pronunciation and communication skills are rather poor From this reality, this study is conducted to put forward a method of teaching young learners to read and pronounce words by learning the phonetic value of letters, letter groups, and especially syllables This approach is called Phonics Our target is Vietnamese beginners from the age of seven to ten because children this age have already had some basic knowledge of English such as the pronunciation of the alphabets and basic words taught in most primary schools in Vietnam Besides, teaching Phonics for children will help them establish a solid groundwork so they can easily move into other areas of pronunciation that have more to with words as they sound in combination to create sentences; for example, rhythm and intonation This will significantly decrease the number of students having to take extra classes to train their English pronunciation and communication skills in future Here due to the limitation of a small research, we only focus on the impact of the final letter ‘e’ on the three vowels ‘a, o, u’ in the cluster ‘vowel + consonant +e’ In reality, beginners of English are rarely taught about the role of the final ‘e’ in a word It usually takes them a long while to perceive its importance by themselves Hence, so as to reduce their pains and time, we try to bring clarity into our method of teaching by including some rules on the impact of the final ‘e’, which are drawn out through a hard process of checking hundreds of words in the Oxford dictionary, calculating the percentage of each case and drawing the final conclusion We have found out some major rules governing the pronunciation of the three vowels a, o, u with or without the influence of the final e, proposing a new method of teaching according to the rules which engages children more into interaction through games and listening activities rather than learning mere theory as usual This is also the significance of this study which is our desire to contribute something new into the usual teaching method and improve the pronunciation of learners of English from a very young age INTRODUCTION REASON Learning to read English is an ongoing and hard process Children, at the age of to 10, lack sufficient vocabulary and have the limitation in listening skills as well as pronunciation They can encounter the idea of the challenge by finding books written in English, and trying to learn reading all the words If the books consist of familiar words, they can recognize them at once And thus they can read the words by themselves without any help However, words are various and the fact that so many English words are not spelled phonetically, this leads the children to spelling errors Therefore, it is necessary to learn to associate the correct sound with the correct symbol so that children can pronounce most English words, even those they have never seen before The effect of the final e on the vowel (a, o, u) in “vowel + consonant + e” forms reliable rules when learning the relationship between letters and their sounds By knowing more about these rules, children will be more confident in their pronunciation THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH The purpose of this research is to provide great help to those who are learning English as a second language, especially children from the age of seven to ten, and provide them vital pieces to read quickly that aid comprehension Students, for this reason, can then read by themselves a variety of texts and hence have access to a variety of opinions, views and perspectives In addition, this research also supplies useful teaching methods for teachers to teach English learners how to pronounce words correctly RESEARCH HISTORY Phonic rules have long been very important due to its application to teach native children to recognize and read English at a very young age According to Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, phonics is a method of reading instruction that breaks language down into its simplest components Children learn the sounds of individual letters first, then the sounds of letters in combination and in simple words Foreign countries, even native English ones have established a strong system of phonics teaching We see how important it is to Vietnamese students who have just started learning English Because they can not absorb English “unconsciously” like those living in English speaking environment, they should grab all the rules in advance to build a sound knowledge background Unfortunately, apart from scattered rules synthesized on the internet, there are very few documents giving detailed research into this aspect One website we can count on to gain some basic understanding of phonics is Wikipedia, according to which, English spelling is based upon the alphabetic principle, the idea that letters represent sounds For example, the word “pat” is composed of three letters, p, a, and t, each representing a phoneme, respectively, /p/, /æ/, and /t/ Some letters in English regularly represent one sound, such as b, m, p, and t However, the alphabetic principle is not sufficient to represent all of the spellings in English Reading in English also requires understanding of additional patterns that not follow the “one letter – one sound” principle For example, the word shirt is composed of five letters which represent only three sounds, / /, / :/, and /t/ The connections between spellings and sounds are called “sound-spelling correspondences” They often follow certain conventions, and these conventions are often called “phonics rules” or “phonics patterns.” English has many phonics patterns These vary considerably in the degree to which they follow the stated patterns For example, the letters ee almost always represent /i:/ On the other hand, the grapheme ough represents / f/ as in enough, /o / as in though, /u:/ as in through, / f/ as in cough, and / / as in bought Therefore, teachers generally teach that ee says /i:/ but rarely teach a pattern for ough Because a large body of patterns that constantly conflict is antithetical to students remembering the patterns they are taught, elementary school children often learn a selection of these patterns known to be most consistent A selection of these is given below, beginning with vowel phonics patterns:  Short vowels are the five single letter vowels a, e, i, o, and u when they produce the sounds /æ/ as in cat, / / as in bet, / / as in sit, / / as in hot, and / / as in cup  Long vowels are the synonymous with the names of the single letter vowels, such as /e / in baby, /i:/ in meter, / / in tiny, /o / in broken, and /ju:/ in humor  Schwa is the third sound that most of the single vowel spellings can produce The schwa is an indistinct sound of a vowel in an unstressed syllable, represented by the linguistic symbol ə Schwa is a vowel pattern that is not always taught to elementary school students because it is difficult to understand However, some educators make the argument that schwa should be included in primary reading programs because of its importance in reading English words  Closed syllables are syllables in which a single vowel letter is followed by a consonant In the word button, both syllables are closed syllables because they contain single vowels followed by consonants Therefore, the letter u represents the short sound / / (The o in the second syllable makes the /ə/ sound because it is an unstressed syllable.)  Open syllables are syllables in which a vowel appears at the end of the syllable The vowel will say its long sound In the word basin, ba is an open syllable and therefore says /be /  Diphthongs are linguistic elements that fuse two adjacent vowel sounds English has four common diphthongs The commonly recognized diphthongs are /a / as in cow and / / as in boil Four of the long vowels are also technically diphthongs, /e /, / /, /o /, and /ju:/, which partly account for the reason they are considered "long."  Vowel digraphs are those spelling patterns wherein two letters are used to represent the vowel sound The in sail is a vowel digraph Because the first letter in a vowel digraph sometimes says its long vowel sound, as in sail, some phonics programs once taught that “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” This convention has been almost universally discarded, owing to the many non-examples The au spelling of the / :/ sound and the oo spelling of the /u:/ and / / sounds not follow this pattern  Vowel-consonant-e spellings are those wherein a single vowel letter, followed by a consonant and the letter e makes the long vowel sound Examples of this include bake, theme, hike, cone, and cute (The ee spelling, as in meet is sometimes considered part of this pattern.) There are also consonant phonics patterns:  Consonant digraphs are those spellings wherein two letters are used to represent a consonant phoneme The most common consonant digraphs are ch for /t /, ng for /ŋ/, ph for /f/, th for /θ/ and / /, and wh for / / (often pronounced /w/ in American English) Letter combinations like wr for /r/ and kn for /n/ are also consonant digraphs, although these are sometimes considered patterns with “silent letters.”  Short vowel + consonant patterns involve the spelling of the sounds /k/ as in peek, /d / as in stage, and /t / as in speech These sounds each have two possible spellings at the end of a word, ck and k for /k/, dge and ge for /d /, and tch and ch for /t / The spelling is determined by the type of vowel that precedes the sound If a short vowel precedes the sound, the former spelling is used, as in pick, judge, and match If a short vowel does not precede the sound, the latter spelling is used, as in took, barge, and launch The final "short vowel + consonant pattern" is just one example of dozens that can be used to help learners unpack the challenging English alphabetic code This illustrates that, while complex, English spelling retains order and reason There is a body of words that not follow these rules; they are called “sight words” Sight words must be memorized since the regular rules not apply, e.g., were, who, you Due to limitation of a small research, this paper has no ambition to bringing to light all the aspects mentioned in the literature review With the hope of contributing something to the development of phonics teaching, this paper will proceed a detailed research on the vowel phonics patterns, specifically the changing in spellings of cluster “(a, o, u) +consonant +e” under the influence of letter “e” METHODOLOGY In this research, we focus on a, o and u We randomly choose only three of them due to time limitation By doing this, our project will be more clearly and deeply studied The a, o and u are studied in the relation with 28 consonant letters (b, c, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z, ch, ck, ff, ll, mb, ng, ss, sh, th) and 24 initial consonant clusters (bl-, br-, cl-, cr-, ch-, dr-, dw, fl-, fr-, gl-, gr-, pl-,ph-, pr-, sc-, sk-, sl-, sm-, sn-, sp-, squ-, st-, str-, sw-, tr-, wh-) The study is conducted by checking the pronunciation of “vowel + consonant” and “vowel + consonant + e”, especially “(a, o, u) + consonant + e”, in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and some e-dictionaries All these words are only monosyllable After finding hundreds of suitable words, we divide them into groups and sub-groups based on their pronunciations, forming detailed and clear tables of those words Then, we can make a comparison between the “(a, o, u) + consonant” table and the “(a, o, u) + consonant + e” one, calculating the percentage and come to the conclusion of the impact of vowel e in the cluster “(a, o, u) + consonant + e” THE SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANT OF THE PROJECT The authors of this research hope that it can contribute something to the improvement of young learners or those who have just started to study English Although the research on these vowels a, o, and u alone is not enough, they are crucial and worth reflecting on in order to have a good command of English spelling and pronunciation on the whole LIMITATION OF THE STUDY This rather new research makes clear the impact of the silent e on vowels a, o, u Then, it provides teachers with helpful teaching methods to Vietnamese children at the age of to 10 However, our research is just a small combination to 10 Chapter : IMPACT OF E IN THE CLUSTER “A+ CONSONANT +E” 1.1 The pronunciation of the cluster “A+CONSONANT” PRONUNCIATION A+ CONSONANT ab ac ad /æ/ ag al am an ap as at av ax ah / / ar aw / :/ EXAMPLE cab, dab, fab, gab, jab, lab, nab, tab lac, mac, sac, vac bad, cad, dag, fad, gad, lad, pad, rad, sad, tad bag, dag, fag, gag, lag, nag, rag, sag, tag, wag cal, gal, pal, sal bam, cam, dam, gam, ham, jam, pam, ram ban, can, dan, fan, gan, pan, ran, tan, van bap, cap, dap, gap, hap, jap, map, nap, pap, rap, sap, tap, zap gas, has, vas bat, cat, fat, gat, hat, kat, mat, pat, rat, sat, tat, vat lav fax, max, pax, sax, tax, wax bah, fah, lah, pah bar, car, dar, far, gar, jar, lar, mar, nar, par, tar, war caw, daw, haw, jaw, law, maw, paw, raw, saw, taw EXCEPTION wad /w d/ wan /w n/ pas /p :/ 11 Conclusion:  When “a” combines with a consonant letter, the majority of them are pronounced as /æ /  A can not combine with the consonants letters f, j, k, q, z 1.2 The pronunciation of cluster “A+CONSONANT+E” Some words with “a + consonant” can be added with “e” at the end to form new words However, we experience a change in the spelling of these words PRONUN- A_E EXAMPLE CIATION abe babe - dace, face, lace, mace, pace, race ace - brace, chace, grace, place, trace - bade, fade, hade, jade, lade, made, wade ade - blade, brake, clade, grade, glade, stade, trade /e / - safe afe - chafe - cage, gage, mage, page, rage, age sage, wage - phage, stage - bake, cake, fake, hake, jake, lake, make, rake, sake, take, ake wake - crake, drake, flake, stake, slake - bale, dale, gale, hale, kale, ale male, pale, sale, tale, vale, wane - dwale, stale, whale - came, dame, fame, game, ame hame, lame, name, same, tame - blame, frame, flame - bane, cane, Dane, fane, jane, lane, mane, pane, sane, vane, ane wane, man - crane, plane ape - cape, gape, jape, nape, rape, EXCEPTION glacé /glæse / café /'kæfe / plage /pl : / CONCLUSION - This is the largest group among the two with the percentage of 87.2% - a and e can combine with all consonants letters except h, j, q, w and z - All the cluster ave here are pronounced as /e / except have /həv/ - All the exceptions here are borrowed words – glacé(French), café(French), plage(French), pase(Spanish) 12 ase ate ave aze /eə/ are tape - chape, crape, drape, grape, scape, scale - base, lase, rase, vase - chase , prase, phase - bate, cate, date, fate, gate, late, hate, mate, pate, rate, sate - blate, crate, grate, prate, plate, state, slate - cave, gave, lave, nave, pave, save, wave - brave, grave, slave - daze, faze, gaze, haze, laze maze, naze, raze - blaze, craze, fraze, graze, glaze, - bare, care, dare, fare, hare, mare, pare, rare, tare, ware - blare, chare, glare, stare, snare, scare pase /'p :se / have /həv/ The combination with the “r” will pronounce as /eə/ Conclusion  Rules in the column conclusion are only right when all the requirements below are met:  Words are monosyllable  Words begin with a consonant letter or consonant clusters  Words are not borrowed  With the impact of silent vowel e on the consonant preceding it, the pronunciation is reduced into two main groups, not three groups  In general, “a+ consonant” will mainly be changed from /æ/ into /e / in “a + consonant + e” due to the impact of the silent e 13 Chapter : IMPACT OF E IN THE CLUSTER “O +CONSONANT + E” 2.1 The pronunciation of the combination of “O + CONSONANT” PRONUNCIATION O+ EXAMPLE EXCEPTION CONSONANT ob oc / / od og ol om on op os ot ox / :/ / / /a / Conclusion: or oh ow ow bob, cob, fob, job, lob, mob, nob, pob, rob, sob, yob doc, roc, soc bod, cod, god, hod, mod, nod, pod, quod, rod, sod, tod bog, cog, dog, fog, hog, jog, log, nog, tog col, sol com, mom, pom, rom, tom bon, con, don, mon, son, ton, won non, ron, yon / / bop, cop, dop, fop, gop, hop, lop, mop, sop, top, wop cos, bos, dos cot, dot, got, hot, jot, lot, mot,not, pot, rot, sot, tot cox, box, fox, lox, pox, sox, vox dor, for, lor, nor, tor doh, soh bow, low, mow, row, sow, tow cow, dow, how, now, vow, wow 14  When o combines with a consonant without having silent vowel e at the end, it will have many different ways to pronounce, the majority of which is / / (78.6%) O can go with almost all consonants, except j, k, q, v, z 2.2 The pronunciation of the cluster “O + CONSONANT + E” We have come to the conclusion that one - syllable words with the cluster of “o+ consonant +e” have three main groups of pronunciation PRONUNCIATION O_E obe ode oke ole / / ome one ope ose ote ove EXAMPLE lobe, robe bode, code, lode, mode, node, ode, rode; strode - coke, joke, moke, poke, roke, soke, toke, woke, yoke - bloke, broke, smoke, spoke, stoke, stroke bole, dole, hole, mole, pole, role, vole, whole; stole dome, home, pome, rome, tome - bone, cone, hone, lone, pone, tone, zone - clone, prone, scone, stone - cope, dope, hope, lope, mope, nope, pope, rope, tope - grope, scope, slope, strope cose, dose, hose, nose, pose, rose, chose; close, prose cote, dose, mote, quote, rote, tote, vote, wrote cove, hove, jove, rove drove, stove, glove, clove, grove owe oze howe coze, doze; froze EXCEPTION whose /hu:z/ gone /g n/ lose /lu:z/ move /mu:v/ prove /pru:v/ CONCLUSION - This is the largest one among the three groups with the percentage of 78.9% - When this cluster is pronounced as / /, o and e can combine with almost all consonants except from q and x - When the initial consonant is the cluster consonant (e.g., cl, pr, sc, st, etc.), we still pronounce the same way (/ /) except for the word “prove” /pru:v/ - “o+ consonant +e” in all the exceptional cases are pronounced as /u:/, except ‘gone’ - The cluster of oke is the most frequently used without any exception - The cluster of owe is the smallest sub-group with just one word In 15 / :(r)/ ore / / core, bore, fore, gore, lore, more, pore, sore, tore, wore, yore; score, swore done, dove, love, none, one, some, come; glove fact, when e is preceded by o and w, it usually has another consonant behind it such as r, d or l to form a word Only when combined with the consonant r does this cluster have the / :(r)/ pronunciation - Almost all of initial consonants have the same place of articulation which is alveolar, with only two exceptions in “come” and “glove” (velar) All medial consonants are devoiced Overall conclusion:  With the impact of silent vowel e on the consonant preceding it, the pronunciation is reduced into three main groups, not four groups  The structure of “o + consonant” cannot form any words with the final consonants of k, v, and z However, when adding e as the last vowel, new words are formed, which enriches the English vocabulary  The e never goes with g, h, and x while it does in the “o + consonant.”  In general the pronunciation of o in “o + consonant” will mainly be changed from / / into / final silent vowel e Example: / in “o + consonant + e” due to the impact of the 16 / // /: lob/lobe, bod/bode, cod/code, col/cole, cos/cose, not/note etc E has no impact on the combination “o + r” as the pronunciation is not changed (o in ‘for’ and ‘fore’ are all pronounced as / :/) 17 Chapter : THE IMPACT OF THE SILENT E IN “U +CONSONANT + E” CLUSTER 3.1 The pronunciation of the combination “U + CONSONANT” PRONUNCIATION U+CONS ONANT ub uch / / uck /k/ ud uff /f/ ug uh / / ull /l/ um umb /m/ un ung /ŋ / up us uss /s/ ush / / ut EXAMPLES EXCEPTION Cub, chub, dub, hub, nub, pub, rub, sub, tub Much, such Buck, chuck, duck, luck, suck, tuck, truck Bud, cud, dud, lud, pud, mud Buff, cuff, duff, guff, huff, muff Bug, dug, fug, gug, hug, jug, lug, mug, pug, rug, tug Uh – huh Cull, dull, gull, hull, lull, mull, null Cum, gum, hum, rum, sum, vum Dumb, numb Bun, dun, fun, gun, run, sun, tun Bung, dung, hung, kung fu, lung, rung, sung Cup, pup, sup, tup Bus Buss, cuss, fuss, muss, Russ Gush, hush, lush, mush, rush But, cut, gut, hut, This group comprises the majority of words pronounced as / / (92 out of 103 words, comprising 89.3%) Still, there are exceptions It can also spelled as / /(7 words or 6.8%), / :/(3 words or 2.9%) and /u:/(1 word or 0.9%) - The letter “u” is never preceded or Bull, full, pull followed by “k”, “v”, “w” in the / / cluster “U” can be preceded by “j” but can not be followed by “j” - Cluster “u+h” can only form exclamation words - / / and / / are short vowels while / :/ and /u:/ are long vowels -“r” and “th” are Puss / / special because they make the letter “u” Bush, push / / long vowels Put / / CONCLUSION 18 / :/ /u:/ ur uth /θ/ jut, nut, rut Bur, cur, fur Ruth 3.2 The pronunciation of the cluster “U + CONSONANT + E” PRONUNCIATION U+CONS ONANT ube uce ude uge uke /ju:/ ule ume une upe use ute /j ə/ EXAMPLE S Cube, tube Puce /ju:/ Dude, nude Huge Duke, jukebox, nuke, puke Mule, pule Fume Dune Dupe Fuse, muse Cute, mute Cure, lure, mure, pure ure EXCEPTION Lube, rube /u:/ Luce, truce/u:/ Rude /u:/ Luge /u:/ nuke (/u:/ in US) Rule /u:/ June, rune /u:/ Ruse /u:/ Jute, lute /u:/ Lure (read as /j ə/ or / ə/ in B.E, and / / in A.E), sure / ə/ CONCLUSION - The majority are pronounced as /ju:/ (19 out of 37, comprising 51.3%) 13 words have middle /u:/(35.1%), with /j ə/ and with / ə/(2.7%) - Apart from “-ure”, other clusters have “u” pronounced as either /ju:/ or /u:/ - Though “ch”, “ck”, “ff”, “h”, “ll”, “mb”, “ng”, “sh”, “ss”, “th” form consonants, they never precede “e” in the cluster Conclusion The 272 above-mentioned examples (including exceptions in tables) are all monosyllables beginning with consonants in English The overwhelming number of one-syllable words with “u + consonant” (103) compared with those with “u + consonant + e” (37) indicate that not every word ended with a consonant can be followed by “e” in the cluster From the comparison of two tables examining the vowel u, one without final “e” and one with “e”, we come to the conclusion about the effect of the final “e” on the cluster “u + consonant + e” as follow:  There is a spelling correspondence in the change from the cluster “u + consonant” to “u + consonant + e” It means when words ended with “u + 19 consonant” are added “e” to form new words, they experience a change in the spelling of middle “u”  The rule of the spelling of “u” are predictable: it can be changed from / / (short vowel) in words ended with consonants into either /ju:/ or /u:/ (long vowels) in words ended with “e” / /  /ju:/ Cub/cube, tub/tube, dud/dude, hug/huge, dun/dune, cut/cute, cur/cure / /  /u:/ Rub/rube, lug/luge, run/rune, jut/jute 20 Chapter : TEACHING THE IMPACT OF SILENT “E” IN THE CLUSTER OF “VOWEL+CONSONANT+E” TO VIETNAMESE CHILDREN 4.1 Preparation: Since there is no available curriculum to teach the impact of e on consonant, we have to ask the foreigners to help us record the tapes related to our lesson plans We should not record by ourselves because our intonation is not as accurate as the natives There are three tapes to be recorded:  Tape 1: recording a monosyllable word with “vowel + consonant” (here we have “(a, o, u) + consonant”), then a word with “vowel + consonant + e”  Tape 2: recording only words with “vowel + consonant” Tape 3: recording only words with “vowel + consonant + e” Notes: _ The words in three tapes must be the same _ Words must be arranged from the most common used to the least common ones _ The consonants of those words must be in the alphabetical order 4.2 Teaching method The following are the suggested stages (each may have more specific steps) to teach the impact of silent e to Vietnamese children 4.2.1 Introducing the impact of silent e in the cluster “vowel + consonant +e”  Step 1: - Let the children listen to words with “vowel + consonant” first (e.g words with “o + consonant”), write those words on the board - Then play the tape containing words with “vowel + consonant + e” (e.g wordsmith “o + consonant + e”), write those words on the board 21 Note: The words with the same consonants must stay in the same column and in two different rows Ex: bod bode cod rob code robe  Step 2: - After speaking again word by word, ask the children to make a general conclusion about the effect of “e.” - Then, we point out the governing rules and the function of the letter “e” Let the children listen again and ask them to repeat Note: We should require the children to learn by heart some special words that break the rules such as ton /t n/, café /'kæfe /, whose/hu:z/, gone/g n/, lose /lu:z/, and so on 4.2.2 Practicing the impact of “e”  Step 1: Repeat after the tape - Play the tape that has both words with and without final e for the children to listen to the words two or three times - Write those words on the board, transcribe where the pronunciation of the words are changed - Ask them to repeat after the tape, and then without the tape  Step 2: Form the habit When the children know about the rules, help them get familiar with rules by games One useful game is “Adding silent E to make new words”:  The objective of this game is to make students understand that adding a silent “e” to the end of a word often changes the vowel sound in that word from a short sound to a long sound  To play this game, we need word cards with the “a/o/u + consonant” words on them (e.g pan, fan, hug, rob, con, tub, cut, man, and tap) and leave a space at the end of each card to add a silent “e” First we have the students 22 read the word cards using short vowel sounds Explain that when you add an “e” to the end of these words, the vowel sound will change to become the long sound Then ask them to add “e” to the end of the word cards and have the students reread the cards with the long vowel sounds Mix the cards, leaving some with the “e” and some without Instruct students to pay close attention to the vowel sound and the presence or absence of the silent e as they reread the cards For extra practice, have students write the words in their notebook Besides, teachers can tell students to fill in the blank Give students some words with blanks at the medial consonants, pronounce the word and ask the students to add the missed vowel For example, the word ‘b_ de’ lack of a vowel When it is pronounced as /b /, the students can recognize it is the impact of e on “o + consonant” and find out the missed vowel o There are still many more interesting and useful games to practice the impact of e Teachers can create games in correspondence with the levels and interests of the classes to help them remember the impact of e easily and hardly forget it 4.2.3 Testing the results Testing in this case means children can pronounce the right words without teacher’s controlling and reminding We can test the children’s pronunciation by giving them the “odd one out” For example, give the children four monosyllable words: bake, crake, sake, bare, ask; ask them to pick the word that has different pronunciation 23 CONCLUSION Monosyllable words ending with e are common in English vocabulary There is a need to find out its impact on words in general and the “o/u/a + consonant” in particular; thus we can pronounce those words correctly Because of the limitation of the research paper, we can only analyze some of the major things governing the cluster of “Vowel + Consonant + e” Through the research concentrating on a, o, u, we find out that final silent e can go with almost all the English consonant letters except q and qu E has the strongest impact when combines with k, d, t, from which many words are formed In the cluster “a + consonant + e”, the pronunciation of a is usually changed from /æ/ to /e /; o in “o + consonant + e” mainly change from / / to / /; u in “u + consonant + e” can change its pronunciation in two ways: / / changes to /ju:/ or /u:/ With these findings, especially the tables and conclusions, it is easier for teachers to prepare lessons on this topic because we have stated nearly almost all situations 24 REFERENCES http://homepage.smc.edu/reading_lab/basic_spelling_rules.htm http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~borgert/OCM/rdsylvce-1.html http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/p/p0344150.html http://www.answer.com http://en.wikipedia.org Oxford advanced learner's dictionary, 7th edition, Oxford University Press, 2005 Peter Roach, English phonetics and Phonology, 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2000 Richard Firsten, Troublesome English-A Teaching Grammar for ESOL Instructors, Prentice Hall Regents, 1994 Peter Avery, Teaching American English Pronunciation, Peter Avery, Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1995 10 Victoria Fromkin, An Introduction to Language, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Group, 1988