The most common errors in english pronunciation made by the 10th grade students at yen dinh 2 secondary school and some strategies to help them pronounce english words correctly

I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Language is a means helping people to communicate with each others to understand others properly However, to master a language is not easy at all Most of Ss at my school can not communicate or are not confident enough to talk to a foreigner in Engligh The reason is that they canot pronounce English words correctly which discourages them from talking and communicating in English This is very challenging for me, and I have tried my best to find out reasons which make my ss mispronounce or not pronounce a word correctly However, I began to find some simple strategies that worked for them, such as turning activities into a game We began to make some progress, and I discovered some new ways to help older ss build a stronger foundation of pronunciation That’ why I chose the topic “The most common errors in English pronunciation made by the 10th grade students at Yen Dinh Secondary School and some strategies to help them pronounce English words correctly” I hope this will help both teachers and Sts to realize the factors obstacling the ss in learning English pronunciation, then find out solutions to this problem 1.2 Purpose of the study The main purpose of the study is to find out errors made by the 10th form ss at Yen Dinh II secondary school (YD2SS), in Thanh Hoa province in English vowel and consonant pronunciation This also offers some appropriate strategies to better the current context Research questions: a What are sound errors in English vowel and consonant pronunciation.that th 10 grade students at YD2SS often make? b What are strategies for teachers to use in teaching to address the issue? 1.3 Scope of the study This study is conducted among the 10th form Sts at YD2SS during the school year 2015- 2016 1.4 Methodology of the study Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used First of all, for the theoretical basis, a lot of reference materials on English vowel and consonant pronunciation have been collected, analyzed and synthesized carefully with the due consideration for the ss’ learning situations Secondly, class observation has been carried out with ss to find out the most common errors in English vowel and consonant pronunciation and how to improve this problem II DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Theoretical background of English vowel and consonant pronunciation This second chapter provides readers with the relevant literature of the study by introducing some key concepts necessary for the best understanding of this research, as well as the review of previous studies related to the topic There are some most crucial concepts chosen to be clarified in this part such as standard pronunciation, pronunciation errors … 2.1.1 English pronunciation Generally speaking, pronunciation is simply put as “the way in which a language is spoken” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992: 718) The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 4th ed (2007) defines pronunciation as “a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood” (as cited in Nguyen, 2008:06) 2.1.1.1 Standard English Pronunciation Standard English is the most preferable accent in any social setting and to teach students It is considered to be neutral, easier to remember and imitate as compared to regional accents and it is heard on radio and TV However, nowadays English has been spoken all over the world As a result, English pronunciation varies from place to place, which makes us find it difficult to get what a standard pronunciationis However, it can not be denied that a native-like English pronunciation is still what non-native learners are looking forward to In their research, Streven in Larry Smith’s edition (1983: 88) defines Standard English as “a particular dialect of English, being the non-localized dialect, lobal currency withoutany significant variation, universally accepted as the appropriate educational target in teaching English; which may be spoken with an unrestricted choice of accent” So Standard English pronunciation can be any dialect of English that is widely used and accepted in the world It is common knowledge that there are two major varieties (or dialects) of English that command respect in their countries and elsewhere in the world: RP in the United Kingdom and General American (GA) English in the United States They are the two main dialects for international broadcasts and in social and business settings However, Vietnamese people tend to follow non-rhotic accent (like RP English) in which the /r/ sound is not pronounced at the end of words, so it is more reasonable to choose RP English as the standard one In this paper, RP English will be used as the criteria for students’ pronunciation analyzing The International Phonetic Alphabet will also be used to transcribe the speech sample throughout the research 2.1.1.2 English sounds There are 44 sounds in English They are divided in to groups: 20 vowel sounds including 12 voweơls, diphthongs and 24 consonants sounds This paper aims to investigate just final sounds, however, sounds system in English are also presented below to support later analysis 2.1.1.2.1.Vowel sounds Vowels are “sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips” (Roach, 2000:10) Figure 1: Vowel chart (John, 1998:23) Diphthongs According to Kelly (2003) diphthong is “a combination of vowel sounds” Also Kelly (2003) classifies diphthongs into groups: closing and centering diphthongs They are presented as follow: Closing diphthongs: /ei/ – make, day, mail /ai/ – high, by, might /ɔi/ – toy, boy, boil /əʊ/ – go, show, close /au/ – how, about, out Centering diphthongs: /eə/ – there, bare, their /iə/ – here, hear, beer /uə/ – sure, moor, tour 2.1.1.2.2.Consonant sounds According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic (1992: 192), consonants are “speech sounds made by completely or partly stopping the flow of air breathed out through the mouth” Consonant sounds differ from consonant letters In Wikipedia Dictionary, it is said that “the number of consonants in the world’s languages is much greater than the number of consonant letters in any one alphabet” Those consonant letters like c, q and x are missing as they are found in other sounds (The C letter is found in the k sounds and in the s sound in words like cereal, city and cent The q letter is found in ‘kw’ words like backwards) Kelly (2000) and Roach (2000) categorized the 24 consonants into groups: •Plosive •Fricative •Affricative •Nasal •Lateral •Approximant Here under is the table of consonant sounds Plosive Nasal fricative approximant lateral approximant affricate bilabial labiodental dental alveolar postalveolar retroflex palatal velar glottal p b t d kɡ m n ŋ f v θ Ð s z ʃ ʒ h (w) ɹ j (w) l tʃ dʒ 2.1.2 Pronunciation errors 2.1.2.1 What is pronunciation error? In language learning, making errors is an inevitable part that can not be avoided People can not learn language without first systematically committing errors (Dulay, Burt and Krashen, 1982) Before embarking on Error Analysis, it is crucial to discuss the definition of the term “errors.” In linguistic field, errors are defined by researchers as “flawed side of learner speech or writing” (Burt and Krashen, 1982:138) In pronunciation, errors are defined as the incompetence in language and incorrect pronunciation that may affect intelligibility in communication (Nguyen, 2007) Because in this new era, English is the common means of communication all over the world, it is not always defined as an error when people speak dissimilarly from native speakers So the definition that seems more precise is according to Jenkins (2006: 36) in Nguyen (2007) pronunciation errors are “variants of pronunciation which prevent one communicator from understanding the propositional content of the other’s utterances” Until the late 1960s, errors were considered as a sign of learning failure that could not be tolerated (Little Lewood, 1984) Although nowadays people have a more tolerant view toward errors in language learning, still they should be paid particular attention so that non-native speakers can achieve the best result in communication Richards (1971) acknowledges two different kinds of errors: performance errors, caused by, such as, fatigue and inattention, and competence errors resulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of the language Corder (1967) in his research proposes different terminologies for these two kinds of errors and stresses that we must make a clear distinction between mistakes and errors; the former refers to non-systematic performance errors of chance circumstances, whereas the latter can be defined as “the systematic errors of the learner from which we are able to reconstruct his knowledge of the language to date, i.e., his transitional competence”.Harashima (2006: 40) In another research, Ellis (1997) states that errors reflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what the correct one is However, mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur because in particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what she or he knows (Ellis, 1997) All in all, a mistake occurs because of a slip of the tongue, tiredness, anxiety, etc, it can be self-corrected However, an error is a performance that a speaker who has not yet mastered the rules of the target language cannot correct by himself and this has to with his acquired linguistic data So, concerning errors, one can go on saying the wrong thing without knowing that he is doing it Errors usually come up with L1, SL or FL learners; whereas, mistakes and errors can occur with everyone performing a certain speech 2.1.2.2 Pronunciation errors are often made by Vietnamese learners Error Type 1: Omission of final consonants As in the case of several Asian languages, Vietnamese does not contain words ending with consonants; so naturally, learners are usually very confused with final consonants and thus end up deleting most of them The consonants commonly omitted are: /z/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /ks/, /ʤ/ Examples: /z/: tables; rose; rise; bags /s/: mice; class; mess; rice /t/: right; fight; hate; fruit; start Error Type 2: Omission of Medial sounds Some sounds occurring in the middle of words are also omitted by Vietnamese learners as such occurrence is an unfamiliar phonetic phenomenon: These sounds are: /z/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /ks/, /ʤ/ Examples: z/: Wednesday; president; rising /s/: master; western /v/: severe; savage; rival; never Error Type 3: Replacing /t/ /tr/ /dʒ/ with /tʃ/ A significantly common error committed by Vietnamese learners is to replace /t/ /tr/ & /ʤ/, with /ʧ/ That shows that learners struggle greatly with the concept of combining purely alveolar sounds with post palatal ones Examples: /t/: time; task; talent; cutter /tr/: trash; transit; hatred; tried Error Type 4: Confusing /ð/ for /d/ or /z/ Vietnamese learners find it difficult as most English learners to place the tongue tip between the teeth, so they resort to an easier solution that is to bring the tip into contact with the back of the teeth or alveolar sometimes in the form of /d/ or /z/ Example: ð/: weather; loathe; then; rather Error Type 5: Confusing/ʃ/ for /s/Or/s/ for /ʃ/ Vietnamese learners use /s/ and /ʃ/ interchangeably, however, based on my classroom experience, I have found that /ʃ/ is more commonly confused for /s/ especially when it is the initial sound in a word as in [shoe], which becomes [sue] and sometimes when it’s final as in [cash] which becomes [Cass] There are times when the opposite is true but more commonly when /s/ is located in the middle of the word as in [castle] which sounds as [cashol?] Due to the lack of distinction between the two sounds, it’s very difficult to establish a pattern of error Examples: /s/: muscle; person; percent; mouse and rats /ʃ/(initial): shovel; shine; sheep; shape; shallot /ʃ/(final): reddish; selfish; cash; rush; tarnish Error Type 6: /dʒ/ Since /dʒ/ is one form of consonants cluster (/d/ + /ʒ/), Vietnamese confuse it with a number of other consonants most commonly as follows: /j/ /d/ /s/ /t/ /z/ /ʧ/./dʒ/ then, as mentioned in TYPE 1, is normally either omitted when it’s the final sound in a w ord, or substituted for one of the consonants mentioned in the beginning of this section Examples: dʒ/ (medial): pledger; virgin; midget; bludger /dʒ/ (final): ridge; surge; wedge; cage; dodge Error Type 7: Consonants clusters As formerly stated, the consonants cluster phenomenon is quite unfamiliar to the Vietnamese language and hence complex, so teachers should expect to see plenty of omissions, additions and substitutions occurring in words with [pr] [pl] [tr] [kr] [kl] [fl] [ks] [sk] [st] [ts] combinations Teachers need to spend a considerable amount of time with the students to practice these sounds as they affect intelligibility dramatically Examples pr/: problem; practice; pronunciation; present /pl/: place; plough; plane; please; plumber /tr/: try; train; trophy; trail; tricky; trace; trim /kr/: crane; crab; crime; Kristen; cram; cradle /kl/: climb; claim; cloud; clear; Clayton; cluster Error Type 8: Confusing /r/ for /z/ The Vietnamese language does not have consonant /r/ in its phonetic system at least not as it is produced by Americans or most native English speakers in the world It is, therefore, commonly mistaken for /z/ especially in the North of Vietnam Teachers again must elaborately explain to the learners how to produce that sound to clear up the confusion Examples: r/ (initial): rat; reason; right; really; rest /r/ (medial): parking; caring; bartender; fertile /r/ (final): letter; radiator; armor; closer; aware Error Type 9: Confusing /l/ for /n/ Once again, the Vietnamese language does not have an equivalent to the English consonant /l/ Consequently, they typically confuse it for /n/ Teachers need to help the learners drop the nasality when attempting to produce that sound as well as free the sides of the tongue while keeping contact between the tip and the alveolar ridge /l/ (initial): light; lace; lead; laugh; learn /l/ (medial): fault; rolling; falling; swollen; really /l/ (final): recall; fall; roll; available; identical Error Type 10: Voiced-Voiceless distinction In English, frequent shifts between voiced and voiceless consonants are required to distinguish between certain words Such mechanism does not exist and is not required in Vietnamese, thus, constitutes a complex problem /v/: live; serve; Dave; leave; vile; volt; oven /f/: life; surf; Tafe; leaf; file; fault; often /b/: beal; best; ball; bye; ban; rib; robe; burb Error Type 11: Confusing /θ/ for /t/ or /s/ As voiced /ð/ is confused for /d/ or /z/, voiceless /θ/ is confused for /t/ or /s/ Teachers must advise the learners to place the tongue tip between the teeth without biting or moving the lips down For many learners, it is simply odd or embarrassing to have the tongue visible to others Also, most often, the problem for English learners is to be able to produce either /ð/ or //θ/ smoothly along with /s/ /z/ /t/ /d/ and mainly other alveolar sounds Examples : θ/: both; Ruth; math; teeth; thick; thin; bath /t/: boat; root; mat; teat; tick; tin; bat /θ/: path; faith; thought; forth; growth; thank /s/: pass; face; sought; force; gross; sank Error Type 12: Confusing /j/ for /z/ For learners from the south, or central provinces of Vietnamese, /j/ in word initials is often confused for /z/ Again, plenty of listening drills are required to help learners to distinguish between these two consonants Examples /j/: yes, young, yellow, yeast; yell, yacht Error Type 13: Confusing /ŋ/ for /ŋk/ That is a common mistake not only made by the Vietnamese learners but also by most Asian’s and European’s Learners often rely on spelling to guide their pronunciation and since /ŋ/ is often spelled as /ng/, they attempt to force out the /g/ at the end, which sounds like /k/ once it is de-voiced Examples ŋ/: king; bring; sing; wing; bang; thing /ŋk/: kink; brink; sink; wink; bank; think Error Type 14: Confusing /ɪ/ for /i:/ Another common mistake resulting of the confusion between spelling and pronunciation Vowel /ɪ/ is quite frequently spelled as letter [i] in English and since Vietnamese rely on spelling to produce the English sounds, they confuse /ɪ/ for /i/ /i/: Need; read; teat; leave; meat; wheel; seat /ɪ/: Knit; rid; tit; live; mitt; will; sit Error Type 15: Confusing /æ/ for /ʌ/ As in TYPE 14, this error is among many generated by the learners’ unawareness of the gap that exists between the English spelling and pronunciation Vowel /æ/ is quite often spelled with letter [a] which learners would then read as /ʌ/ or /a/ Teachers must repeatedly remind the students that English spelling and pronunciation are two very different things /æ/: bad; man day; hat; badge; tramp /ʌ/: bud; Monday, hut; budge; trump Error Type 16: Confusing /ʊ/ for /uː/ These two vowels are sometimes spelled the same as in [foot] and [food] Teachers must explain the difference between lax VS tense as well as short VS long vowels and conduct some minimal pairs’ exercises to drill these sounds and assist learners in distinguishing between them Examples u:/: Room; tooth; food; mood; rude; wooed /ʊ/: Book; put; foot; hood; could; would Error Type 17: Confusing /ɝ/ for /ɔː/ Vowel /ɝ/ is quite difficult for most English learners including Vietnamese and is usually mispronounced as /ɔː/ which could considerably affect the speech intelligibility ɝ/: First; sir; burn; curl; work; learn; worm /ɔː/: Forced; soar; born; call; walk; lawn; warm Error Tyope 18: Confusing/eɪ/ for /e/ Diphthongs are very complex sounds as they require combining one vowel and one consonant in one sound and these combinations are unfamiliar to the Vietnamese learners who typically end up dropping consonant /j/ and retaining vowel /e/ /eɪ/: fade; date; wait; trained; bake; cane; wage /e/: fed; debt; wet; trend; beck; Ken; wedge Error Type 19: Confusing/oʊ/ for /ɔː/ Vowel /oʊ/ is another diphthong involving vowel /o/ and consonant /w/ and as in TYPE 18, only the vowel is retained while the consonant is dropped Teachers must encourage the learners to round their lips at the end of that sound after pushing them forward for /ɔː/ Examples : /oʊ/: Wrote; old; boat; coat; mode; road; showed Error Type 20: Confusing the schwa sounds/ə/ or /ɚ/ One of the most important English sounds yet most neglected by teachers is the schwa sound This smallest sound in the English language is crucial for reasonably accurate production of stress and rhythm and without it, the Vietnamese learners, and all English learners, will never be able to fully understand natural and native-like English speech The schwa sound can be spelled as: [a] [e] [o] [u] and [y] That can cause plenty of confusion for learners who will again attempt to pronounce the words as written, not as spoken Examples: ə/: about; taken; pencil; eloquent; supply; sibyl 2.2 The setting of the study 2.2.1 The setting of the study The study was conducted at YD2SS established in 1972 in Yen Dinh district, Thanh Hoa province Students here are taught all the subjects, one of which is English English is taught in classrooms with five parts: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Grammar within 40 weeks Pronunciation is taught during Grammar lesson Because time for Grammar lesson is 45 mins or 90 mins so that T doesn’t often spend much time on pronunciation 2.2.2 The students’ background and their English levels The 10th form students at YD2SS are aged from 15 to 16 They came from different places of Yen Dinh district Most of them have learnt English including the speaking skill since they were at grade However, the students’ level in English is very low They don’t take part in any English speaking club Besides, most of their families live on agriculture so that they not have the best conditions to learn English Moreover, they don’t have the habit of practicing speaking skill to improve their pronunciation It is grammar that is focused so that Ss can pass the exams 2.3 The most common errors in vowel and consonant English pronunciation 2.3.1 Problems with vowels Problem with long vowels : /i:/ versus /I/, /u:/ versus /u/ 10 Most of them could not distinguish the differences between these sounds When my students have spoken these types of words, they associate these words as illustrating the same sound When teaching, I took some minimal pair words, such as "seat" and "sit", "sheep" and "ship", “foot” and “food” I tried to lengthen the longsound for them to listen, so that they could recognize the differences Problem with /e/ versus /æ/ My students cannot identify the vowel /e/ and /æ/, such as in bed and bad (Avery and Ehrlich, p 156) The confusion between /e/ and /æ/ may be considered as the most serious problem that Vietnamese speakers encounter when they learn to speak English vowels They cannot identify the differences Learners usually make numerous mistakes with these sounds According to Avery and Ehrlich, "students often pronounce these two vowels in exactly the same way Most commonly, students fail to lower their tongue and jaw far enough in attempting to produce the /æ/ sound" (p 99) Confusion between /ʌ / and /ə / These two sounds are somewhat easier to recognize than the vowel sounds as discussed above However, in some certain instances, they still demonstrate mispronunciation of them For instance, the word ‘love,' may be pronounced as /ləv/ 2.3.2 Problems with consonants Sound ommited: /l,/ /ʤ// r/, /s/, /i/, /ei/,/ k / at medial position or z, s, t, v, ks, ʤ at final position The most common errors were sound omission in which omission of ending sounds were more frequent than others It is easy to understand why ending sounds were omitted so frequently, because in Vietnamese speakers not have to pronounce the ending sounds In addition, some of the sounds, such as /ʒ, ʤ, ʧ / are really hard for Vietnamese learners to pronounce especially when these sounds occur at the end of words Sound confusion ; /t/=/ ʧ /, tr = ʧ, ð = z/d, ʃ = s, ʤ = /j/d/s/t/z/ʧ/, s = /ʃ/ʒ/, p = b; ʧ = s, θ= /s/t/ ; r = z, Regarding the second type of errors, sound confusion, the most frequent errors are t, tr, ʧ, ʃ, ʤ, s, θ It is interesting to find that several learners mispronounced /t/ and produced /ʧ/ instead The mispronunciation of this sound may be due to the misperception of the aspiration of this sound As /t/ was pronounced as /ʧ/, this indicates that speakers were confused about the pronunciation of plosives Furthermore, many informants made mistakes in producing /tr/ From my experience, this error is very common among students 11 of YD2SS; The reason might be that this combination is unfamiliar to Vietnamese speakers, as there is no such combination in their mother tongue Next, the mispronunciation of s to /ʃ, ʒ/ or /ʃ, ʒ/ to s seems to be related to the carelessness ɔand laziness of the students The students who made this kind of mistakes usually not try to find out how the tongue act in each case, instead they make all these sounds similar Sound redundancy: s, z; Several learners tend to over pronounce the ending sounds, thus adding s or z at the end of any words or sometimes in the middle of the words as in the case of hobby, many pronounced it as /hɔzbi/ 2.4 Suggestions for teachers and sts to overcome pronunciation errors First of all, it is essential that learners could be introduced how to pronounced a word such as the presentation of the man head, seen from the side, displayed as though it had been cut in half or they may be required to look at the inside of their mouth in a mirror Once they can recognize different places of articulation of sounds, they are taught to make sounds taking into account voice, manner and place of articulation Therefore, Teachers should make use of teaching aids like this in order to show Students exactly the way they will pronounce a sound Nowadays, we also have many video on the Internet which can this task perfectly Secondly: Listening: If you haven’t heard the sounds, you can’t reproduce them Therefore, T should play tape as much as possible so that Sts can listen much They can know and remember how words are exactly pronounced by a native speaker Good foreign ESL teachers model the target language, before asking students to produce it But it’s not enough When sts learn English, they should hear phrases hundreds or even thousands of times before they speak them But in Vietnam, students are asked to produce after one or two hearings Once again, if they don’t listen, they can’t learn the target language and won’t be able to reproduce it Thirdly, learners should be given enough practice both inside and outside classroom This may help them become more fluent and automatic in pronouncing the sounds Practice makes perfect and can be done in the forms of a variety of exercises and games.Consequencely, in terms of teaching, a teacher should give students as many speaking practices as possible and help them correct the prononciation.At the same time, teacher can use these books to teach pronunciation and teacher can suggest students using these to get more practices as well: Pronunciation Tasks, English Pronunciation in Use, Understanding English pronunciation, Three or Tree, Ship or Sheep, American Training etc Besides, above is just a very general suggestion, teachers also should recognize the level of the students so that teacher can have the best 12 teaching method pronunciation: Here are some suggestion activities for teaching Repeat fricative and affricates pairs Say A if you hear the word on the left Say B if you hear the word on the right Listen and repeat Write these nationality words in the correct column Complete the conversation using words from the box Write the correct words Circle the correct word you hear Transcribe the underlined part of the word Match questions on the right with answers on the left 10 Tick the correct box Fourtly, mistakes should be identified, explained and corrected frequently, either directly or indirectly This can be done mostly by the teacher and sometimes by the students Therefore, teachers play an essential role in helping students to find out their mistakes and get the right correction Fifthly, in order to make the classroom atmosphere more relaxing and pronunciation learning more interactive and communicative, it is advisable that students should be given pronunciation games so that they find learning more enjoyable The games can be taken from books on pronunciation games or generated by the teacher or by the students Finally, it is essential that students should have an opportunity to communicate with a native speaker or speakers so that they feel more confident that they are actually learning from authentic sources 2.5 Applying suggestions in teaching pronunciation for 10th grade sts I myself have applied these suggestions in teaching pronunciation I often oen tape so that my sts can listen to native speakers ‘pronunciation In addition, I download videos teaching how to pronounce sounds Besides, I ask sts to act out plays in which sts practice conversations containing target sounds Below is one of my lessons in which I have applied some ways to improve the pronunciation to my Sts 13 UNIT : PEOPLE’S BACKGROUND E PRONUNCIATION I/ Aims: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to : * Distinguish two sounds /e/ and /æ/ * Produce sounds /e/ and /æ/ accurately * Use words containing these sounds to form sentences and use them in conversation II/ Teaching aids: handouts, colorchalk, pictures, radio, cassette tape III/ Methods: Integrated, giving instruction (30%) and communicative (70%) IV/ Anticipated problems: Level of students may be different, maybe time have to be given more to those slow ones V/ PROCEDURE (10 minutes) Teacher’s activities Ss’ activities * T introduce the sound and give instruction a Introduction: Minimal pair /e/ and /æ/ T asks Sts to open the book At the page 39 - Sts open the book - Sts look at sounds on the board T writes a set of words on the board: Men said met (group 1) Man sad mat (group 2) T asks Ss what the common point of sounds in group and what the common point of sounds in group - Answer the T’ question - Listen to the teacher => Raises Ss’ awareness about /e/ and /æ/which most Ss fail to recognize the difference between them Giving sample and instruction: - Write down two sounds – Write two sounds on the board and pronounce them clearly twice, then ask sts to repeat – Reviews how to pronounce two sounds T sticks the image on the board - Sts look at the board and listen to 14 T to see the difference between two sounds The clearest difference is that /e/ is spoken with a wider, more stretched mouth You can make this clear by seeing how your mouth gets wider and wider as you go from /æ/ to /e/ to /i:/ – Calls some Ss to read sounds aloud and makes correction - T writes down more pairs : Axe- X Back- bek - Read sounds aloud Can- Ken - T asks to read in chorus Then T asks sts to read sentences in the book - Then ask sts to work in pairs to read the words again so that they can check for each other - Move around to help - Read in chorus - Ask two sts to read again and give remarks - Read these words in pairs and b Ask sts to look at sentences in page 39 check for their partners in the book - Ask the to work in pairs to read the sentences and then find out the words containing sound /e/ and the words containing sound /æ / - Look at the book and work 15 - Ask them to work in minutes individually - Move around to conduct the activity - Ask one st to report and other sts to give remarks - Answers: /e/ /æ / red fat - Ask some sts to read these sentences aloud pen man - Listen and give remarks sent handbag c T opens the tapes with words containing sounds / e / and /æ /, then T asks Sts to write the transcription of the sounds they hear Helen apples said pans - Check and give the correct answers - Do the activity - T asks Sts to pronounce the sounds at home, record it and hand it to T, so that T can correct Sts’ pronunciation carefully - Pronounce the sounds at home, record it and hand it to T 2.6 Results This year, I taught 10A1- the best and 10A10- the worst class in English in th 10 grade Both these classes couldn’t well in pronunciation After I applied some methods to improve their pronunciation I asked my sts to a pronuncation test The result is satisfactory Class Time Exellent sts Quite good sts Average sts Bad sts st 10A1 term 5% `17 % 68 % 10 % nd 10A1 term 10 % 33 % 53 % 4% st 10A10 term 0% 5% 14% 81 % nd 10A10 term 3% 8% 19 % 70 % Excellent : 9-10 points Quite good: 7-8,9 points Average: 5-6,9 points Bad: < points 16 III CONCLUSION Limitations of the study Being one of the teachers of English at YD2SS, I can see clearly the current situation of lerning English pronunciation here Therefore, I have conducted this with a view to finding out errors made by the 10 th form students However, because of some reasons, I only focus on vowel and consonant pronunciation without referring to stress and intonation Although I have tried best to offer some insightful findings through the study; however, the limitations are unavoidable I only have taught for several year so that I not have much experience and my suggestions are quite simple I would like to receive ideas from my colleges Suggestions for further research On the basis of the findings and the limitations of the study, several suggestions for further research are made As indicated in the findings, the students have coped up with a number of difficulties in learning pronunciation Therefore, more studies effectiveness of pronunciation lessons should be carried out Apparently, an analysis on students’ face-saving when they don’t want to practice Enlish (because of their bad English pronunciation) should be carried out to get deeper insights into this issue Researches on stress and intonation among students should be conducted Additionally, it is also needed to study more about teaching strategies needed to teach English effectively for particular ethnic minority students to make their English learning successful Xác nhận thủ trưởng đơn vị P Hiệu trưởng Yên Định, ngày 15 tháng 05 năm 2016 Tôi xin cam đoan sáng kiến kinh nghiệm viết, không chép nội dung người khác Người thực Lê Thị Sáu 17 REFERENCES Celce – Murcia, M & Brinton, D.M & Goodwin, J.M 1996 Teaching Pronunciation A Reference to Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Langugages Cambridge University Press Lê Quang Thiêm ( 2004) Nghiên Cứu Đối Chiếu Các Ngôn Ngữ Hà Nội : Nhà xuất đại học quốc gia Hà Nội Avery, & Ehrlich (1992) Teaching American English pronunciation Oxford: University Press Celce-Murcia, M., & Brinton, D M., & Goodwin (1996) Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages Cambridge University Press Honey P J (1987) Vietnamese speakers In M Swan & B Smith, Learner English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems (1st ed., pp 243248) London: Cambridge University Press Nation, I S P., & Newton, J (2009) Teaching ESL/EFL listening and speaking New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Christian, P (2002) Surname Variation and Surname Matching Algorithms Cook, A (1991) American Accent Training Matrix Press Corder, S.P (1967) The Significance of Learner’s Errors International Review of Applied Linguistics 5:4, 161-170 Tam Ha Cam, English phonetics and phonology, A course book for students of the English department, Đại học quốc gia Hà Nội, 1999 Websites http://www.seasite.niu.edu/jsealt/past%20issues/volume%2010/VN%20Part %20%20I.pdf https://jakubmarian.com/common-pronunciation-errors-in-english/ http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/phonics-instruction-middle-and-highschool-ells 18 19 ... on pronunciation 2. 2 .2 The students background and their English levels The 10th form students at YD2SS are aged from 15 to 16 They came from different places of Yen Dinh district Most of them. .. speakers, as there is no such combination in their mother tongue Next, the mispronunciation of s to /ʃ, ʒ/ or /ʃ, ʒ/ to s seems to be related to the carelessness and laziness of the students The students. .. in pairs and b Ask sts to look at sentences in page 39 check for their partners in the book - Ask the to work in pairs to read the sentences and then find out the words containing sound /e/ and