Improving the way to pronounce english consonants of grade 6 students

THANH HOA TRAINING& EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TRIEU SON TRAINING & EDUCATION DIVISION TEACHING EXPERIMENT IMPROVING THE WAY TO PRONOUNCE ENGLISH CONSONANTS OF GRADE- STUDENTS Writer: Nguyễn Thị Như Quỳnh Position: Teacher School: Thi Tran Trieu Son Secondary School Subject: English THANH HOA - 2019 CONTENTS Number Content INTRODUCTION 1.1 Justification of the research 1.2 Aim and objectives of the research 1.3 Scope of the research 1.4 Method of the research - Subject of the research - Data collection instrument of the research - Data analysis procedure of the research Page 2 3 DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Theoretical background 2.1.1 Definition of consonants in English 2.1.2 The basic consonants in English 2.1.3 Classification of English consonants 2.1.3.1 According to place of articulation 2.1.3.2 According to the manner articulation 2.1.3.3 According to voicing 2.2 Real situation and suggested solution 2.2.1 Possible causes 2.2.1.1 Lack of awareness of the importance 2.2.1.2 Teachers’ neglect of pronunciation 2.2.1.3 Mother tongue interference 2.2.2 Suggested solution Doing pronunciation exercises a Distinguishing sound exercises b Find the odd sounds c Matching exercises 3 CONCLUSION 9 10 10 14 3.1 Conclusion 3.2 Request REFERENCES THE EXPERIMENTS HAVE BEEN REGARDED 16 17 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Justification of the research We all know that during the time of studying English, there are many pronunciation errors that secondary students learning English tend to make such as word and sentence stress, intonation, length of vowel sounds, ending sounds and linking sounds, etc To help better English pronunciation for students who learn English at secondary school, it's is essential to a search on most typical pronunciation problems of Vietnamese students, which is, in this research, errors with consonant sounds For secondary students, who have to learn English as their main subject, and then take exams in which English is one of the compulsory subjects It's extremely significant to realize their pronunciation errors They cannot selfcorrect their English pronunciation so they are not confident enough to communicate in English It’s obvious that there are some students noticing their pronunciation errors when their pronunciation erroneously, others, on the other hand, don't recognize their problem with pronunciation English words Although there are common errors made by learners, not all the teachers pay attention to them The conclusion partly from personal observation supports this research It is possibly because some sounds are not pronounced so clearly as other sounds in an utterance so they are less noticed by both learners and teachers In addition to this, there have not been many studies on these particular pronunciation errors so far at high level Only studies about general speaking and pronunciation errors were carried out, which appears to have failed to emphasize the main pronunciation problem of Vietnamese students of English I believe that a study on English pronunciation errors will help students become well aware of their pronunciation problems to which they might not have paid any attention before It’s also the help for some teachers in teaching pronunciation at schools if the study can recommend some solutions to help students practice pronunciation individually and in group From the reasons mentioned above, I have decided to carry out this study entitled "Improving the way to pronounce English consonant sounds of grade-6 students” 1.2 Aim and objectives of the research English phonetics is important as it lays basis for effective oral communication As far as I know, students of English at primary schools are not taught phonetics(and students at secondary schools who learn new curriculum are taught some sounds) and mostly taught by nonnative- English teachers Classes in Viet Nam are big so it is not suitable for teachers and students to practice pronunciation With the hope of getting more comprehensive and specific understanding of English consonants, finding out common consonants pronunciation mistakes faced by Vietnamese, my study focuses on: Introducing the basic theories of English and their difficulties Particularly, giving the principles of consonants pronunciation and raising the learner awareness of English pronunciation by giving specific evidences, examples, figures, pictures may make learners try to pronounce like native speakers Providing some exercises may be very helpful for learners in English pronunciation as well as in English communication today Scope of the research The study focuses on English errors made by students in grade 6, I not have an ambition to cover all the students' problems with English pronunciation Only the pronunciation errors with some typical consonants made by the students in grade are investigated Method of the research Subjects of the research This school year, I teach two classes in grade with 66 students - 6A, 6B at Thi Tran Trieu Son secondary school but I choose 50 students participating in this study They are about the same age; both genders and they come from many villages in Trieu Son district Data collection instruments of the research Information in the study is collected in a natural way In order to analyze the pronunciation errors that students in grade make in their utterances, I have been observing in their lessons in class for many years and write down students' errors Then I analyze at home with the help of the attached CD and typescripts in the course book " Pronunciation Made Simple" provided by an American teacher Ms Mindy and many video clips about pronunciation on YouTube Data analysis procedure of the research Firstly, I took students' errors, checked whether they knew how to pronounce the words or not, I also counted how many students selected each pronunciation Secondly, I compared students' errors with the guide books, sample videos Thirdly, I asked my colleagues about how to pronounce the words in the survey and the errors that students made DEVELOPMENT 2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This first part will provide readers with the related theoretical background of the study by introducing some key concepts necessary for the best perception of this research as well as the review of previous studies related to the topic Central concepts chosen to be clarified in this part are English pronunciation, Standard pronunciation, English pronunciation Errors Aspects of pronunciation such as the articulator and English sounds Since the research have a strong desire to investigate the pronunciation errors in English, the definition of English pronunciation is especially important Commonly speaking, pronunciation is simply put as "the way in which a language is spoken"[1] THANH HOA TRAINING& EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TRIEU SON TRAINING & EDUCATION DIVISION There are 44 sounds in English They are divided into two groups: 20 vowel sounds including 12 pure vowels, diphthongs and 24 consonants Some years ago, I had a study on vowel sounds so this time I just focus on consonants 2.1.1 Definition of consonants in English In articulator phonetic, a consonant is a speech of sound that is articulated with complete of partial closure of the upper vocal tract; the upper vocal tract is defined as that part of vocal tract lying above the larynx.[2] Consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting the airflow TEACHING EXPERIMENT in a variety of ways.[3] 2.1.2 The basic consonants in English include: /b/, /p/, /k/, /g/, /t/, /d/, /v/ /f/, /s/, /z/, /h/, /0/, /d/, /m/, /n/, /l/, /r/, /w/, /y/, /g/, /Ɵ/, /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʧ/, /ʤʤ̄ / IMPROVING THE WAY TO PRONOUNCE ENGLISH 2.1.3 Classification of English consonants CONSONANT SOUNDS OF GRADE- STUDENTS There are three ways of describing consonant sounds: The place of articulation The manner of articulation The voicing 2.1.3.1 According to place of articulation In English, there are six places in the mouth where the airstream is obstructed in the information of consonants In this study, we will discuss each consonant in terms of the articulators involved and the place in the mouth where the articulators cause an obstruction of the airstream *Sounds made with the lips + Both lips-bilabial: /p/, /b/, /m/ Pronounce the words “pat”, “bat” and “mat”, paying attention to the way Writer: Như the first consonants of eachNguyễn word is Thị made TheQuỳnh first sound in each of these words Position: Teacher is made with the two lips coming together and touching momentarily The Tran Trieu Son Secondary School obstruction of theSchool: airstreamThi thus occurs at the lips Subject: English The sound /p/, /b/, and /m/ are referred to as bilabial sounds because the two(bi-) lips (labial) are involved in their production THANH HOA - 2019 Figure 1: The position of the lips in the production of /p/, /b/, and /m/ Figure 2: The position of the teeth and lips in the production of /f/, /v/ + Lower lip and upper teeth - labiodental: /f/, /v/ Produce the words “fat” and “vat”, again paying attention to the way the first sounds of these words are formed The initial sounds of these words are made with the top teeth touching the bottom lip Therefore, the obstruction of airstream occurs not because the bottom lip and the top lip come together Again, the phonetic symbols for these two sounds are the same as the English letters We use the symbols /f/ and /v/ to represent the initial sounds of ‘fat’ and ‘vat’ The sound /f/, /v/ are referred to as labiodental sounds because the lips (labio) and the teeth (dental) are involved in their production * Sounds made with the tip of the tongue + Tip of the tongue and the teeth - interdental: /θ/ and /ð/ Pronounce the words “think” and “this”, paying attention to the way the first consonant sounds of these words are formed With first consonant sounds of these words the obstruction of the airstream occurs because the tip of the tongue is between the teeth or just behind teeth The phonetic symbols for these sounds are not the same as the English letters The “th” sound in “think” and “this” are represented by symbol /θ/ and /ð/ The sound /θ/ and/ð/ are referred to as interdental sounds because the tongue is placed between (inter) the teeth (dental) The two th sounds are notoriously difficult for second language learners because they are not common sounds in many of the world’s languages While not many words in English contain the /ð/ sound as in ‘this’, the words that contain in this sound are among the most frequently used words in the English language For example, the words these, those, then, than, them and their all begin with the /ð/ sound The /ð/ sound is also found in such common words as without, sunbathing , mother and brother Thus, how important this sound is in English + Tip of the tongue and the tooth ridge - alveolar: /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/, /r/ Other English sounds made with the tip of the tongue include the initial sounds of ‘tip’, ‘dip’, ‘nip’, ‘lip’, ‘sip’, ‘zip’, and ‘rip’ When you pronounce the initial consonant of these words, you should feel the tip of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth just behind upper teeth with /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/ and approaching the tooth ridge with /s/, /z/, /r/ These sounds are referred to as alveolar because the tongue either touches or approaches the alveolar ridge in their production Figure 3: The position of the tongue the production of /θ/ and /ð/ Figure 4: The position of the tongue the production of /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/ *Sound made with the blade of the tongue + Blade o the tongue and the hard palate - alveolar- palate: /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/, /tʃ/ When you pronounce the words wash and pleasure, concentrating on the position of the tongue in the production of the final sounds These sounds are made with the blade of the tongue approaching the hard palate just behind the tooth ridge The phonetic symbols for these sounds are not the same as the English letters We use the symbol /ʃ/, to represent the final sound of wish and the symbol /ʒ/ represent the final sound of pleasure One other important aspect of the pronunciation of /ʒ/, /ʃ/ involves the lips Notice that the lips are rounded when you pronounce these sounds There are two other sounds that are made with the blade of the tongue at the hard palate These are initial consonants in the words church and jug We use the complex symbol /tʃ/ for the initial sound in the word church and /dʒ/ for the initial sound in the word jug The sound /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/, /tʃ/ are referred to as alveolar palatal sounds because the tongue is just behind the alveolar ridge at the hard palate in the production of these sounds Figure 5: The position of the tongue Figure 6: The position of the tongue in the production of /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʤ/, /ʧ/ in the production of /k/, /g/, /ŋ/ * Sound made with the back of the tongue + Back of the tongue and soft palate- velar: /k/, /g/, /ŋ/ When you pronounce initial sounds of cat, goal and monkey, the back part of your tongue touches the back part of your mouth momentarily, causing the obstruction of the airstream The sounds /k/, /g/, /ŋ/ are referred to as velar sounds because they are made with the back of the tongue rising to touch the soft palate or velum Places of articulation Bilabial Labiodentals Interdental Alveolar Alveolarpalatal Velar p, b, m f, v /θ/, /ð/ t, d, l, n, s , /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/, /tʃ/ /v/ z,r The places of articulation for consonants can be summarized as following: 2.1.3.2 According to manner of articulation Manner of articulation refers to the interaction between the various articulators and the airstream There are groups of consonants classified according to manner of articulation: *Complete obstruction of the airstream - stops Are the sounds made by the air that passes from the lung into the mouth can be completely stopped because the lips or tongue actually touch some parts of the upper mouth, and then escaped strongly causing a closure Consonants that involve this complete blockage of the airstream are called stops The initial sounds of pill and bill, tall and dull, kind and ground are all stop consonants Notice that the place in the mouth where the airstream is blocked differs with these three pairs of sounds With /p/ and /b/, the air is blocked because the two lips come together With /t/ and /d/, the air is blocked because the tip of the tongue touches the tooth ridge With /k/ and /g/, the air is blocked because the back of the tongue touches the soft palate The stop consonants of lip (bilabial) /p/ and /b/ Tooth ridge (alveolar) /t/ and /d/ Soft palate (velar) /k/ and /g/ Figure 8: Complete blockage of the Figure 9: Partial blockage of the airstream airstream as in the stops /t/ and /d/ as in the fricative /s/ and /z/ + Partial obstruction of the airstream - fricatives Some consonants in English not involve a complete stoppage of the airstream but rather a partial obstruction This partial obstruction results from the lips or the tongue coming close to some part of the upper mouth These consonants are called fricative because the sounds produced by the forcing the airstream through a narrow opening between the lips and the teeth or the tongue and the teeth The fricative consonants of English Lower lip/ upper teeth (labiodental) /f/ and /v/ Teeth (interdental) /θ/ and /ð/ Tooth ridge (alveolar) /s/ and /z/ Hard palate (alveolar palate) /ʃ/, and /3/ + Sounds made with the air escaping through the nose - nasals All of the consonants sounds that we have discussed up to this point are made with air passing through the mouth Nasal sounds, on the other hand, are made with air passing through the nose Air is blocked in the mouth in the same way as it is for stop consonants However, the soft palate is lowed allowing air to escape through the nose Figure 10: The position of the Figure 11: The position of the velum in the production of /k/ velum in the production of nasal and /g/ consonant /ŋ/ There are three nasal consonants in English: /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ as in ram, noon, rang These three sounds differ in terms of place of articulation The /m/ is produced when the two lips touch, the /n/ is produced when the tip of the tongue touches the tooth ridge and the / q/ is produced when the back of the tongue touches the soft palate In each case, this contact prevents air from escaping out of the mouth *Lateral Lateral sound is made with the tip of the tongue touching the tooth ridge and the air passing through the mouth over the sides of the tongue: /l/ For some speaker of English, the /l/ may be made with air passing out of the mouth over one side of the tongue only Because the air passes out the side of the mouth, the /l/ sound is referred to as a lateral consonant * Retroflex Retroflex sound is made with the tip of the tongue slightly curled back in the mouth Pronounce the word right and prolong the initial consonant You should feel the tip of the tongue in a curled-back position You may also feel some backward movement of the tongue and some rounding of the lips Upon pronunciation of the vowel sound in right, the tongue is uncurls Because the tongue is curled back during the pronunciation of the /r/ sound, it is referred to as retroflex consonant * Semivowel Other consonant sounds of English produced with little turbulence in the airstream are the initial sounds of the words wet and yet These two sounds are often called semi-vowels because they are made with a relatively wide opening in the mouth In the pronunciation of the /w/ the lips are rounded and, at the same time, the back of the tongue approaches the soft palate Pronounce the word wet, prolonging the first sound of this word You should feel the lips coming together and rounding slightly It is difficult to feel the back of the tongue approaching the soft palate but, in fact, this narrowing occurs as well 2.1.3.3 According to voicing Sounds that are made with the vocal cord are voice and sound made with no vibration are voiceless All of stops, fricatives and affricatives we have discussed so far come in voiced/voiceless pairs The nasals, laterals, retroflex, and semi-vowels of English are all voiced Voiceless: p, t, k, f, s, θ, ʃ, tʃ Voiced: b, d, g, v, ð, z, ʒ, ŋ, m, g, l, r, w, y 2.1.3.4 Consonant cluster Consonant cluster is when two or more consonant together It is divided into initial and finial consonant cluster + Initial cluster Initial cluster is the cluster at the initial position of a syllable + Initial two-consonant cluster of English Stop Fricative Nasal H Lips Tooth Velum Lips Between Tooth Hard Lips ridge and Teeth ridge plate teeth pl tr kl fl pr ty kr fr py bl tw dr ky kw fy br dy by dw sl sk sy sm Tooth ridge ir my ny hy hw sw sn gr,gw sp sf st + Initial three-consonant cluster of English These initial three-consonant clusters are usually produced with a pre-initial, an post-initial and a /p/, /t/, k/ at the medium of pre-initial and post-initial cluster spl Spr spy str sty skr sky Skw example splice spring spew string stew screw skew Squirt + Final cluster A final consonant cluster is the cluster at the final position of a syllable The consonants that occur in final cluster are not necessarily the same as which occur in initial clusters 2.2 REAL SITUATION AND SUGGESTED SOLUTION 2.2.1 Possible causes English teaching is to enable learners to communicate in English, we can see that communicative effectiveness depends on not only correct pronunciation of these vowel and consonant sounds but also speakers themselves Being able to use the rhythm and intonation of English will enable speakers to be much more intelligible than being able to pronounce vowel and consonants perfectly It is not unusual for teachers who are not native speakers of English to feel worried about teaching pronunciation 2.2.1.1 Lack of awareness of the importance of pronunciation Being asked, students think that pronunciation does not much decide their learning English; they claim that they can learn other skills well without a good pronunciation The other skills that students said are listening, writing, reading…They not know that pronunciation is closely linked with listening comprehension, spelling, grammar and reading To ignore pronunciation is to ignore an important part that can support the improvement of other skills Pronunciation plays a very important in both learning a language and communicating using that language Although students have good self- comments on pronunciation, many students are still unconfident when speaking in English They need to understand that good pronunciation should be one of the first things that they learn in English They can use simple words and simple grammar structures to say what they want instead of the advanced ones Improper pronunciation has certain negative effects on communication that may result in a failure in making one understood by others 2.2.1.2 Teachers' neglect of pronunciation To give this reason, I not mean that teachers of English have poor pronunciation I myself as well as other teachers of English have to teach many big classes without modern equipment We also ask students to practice in front of the class, after finishing their presentation; the listeners(both teachers and other students) have given comments However, teachers paid attention more to the best content and forgot to show the errors made in our students’ pronouncing English words It would be beneficial to the students if the teachers constantly remind them of the need to practice pronunciation and help them correct errors 2.2.1.3 Mother tongue interference We all know that our students have own dialect so it is very difficult for teachers to correct their errors 2.2.2 Suggested solutions Doing pronunciation exercises Aim: New English curriculum has Pronunciation part It is very convenient for teachers to use exercises in this part to ask their students to practice their pronunciation Students can self- practice by doing the phonetics exercises These exercises will help students to recall and review the sounds they have learnt and know the differences between the pairs of sounds a Distinguishing sound exercises Example 1: UNIT 7- TELEVISION (ENGLISH 6) Exercise 4(P8)(4) Listen and repeat the words there Thanksgiving anything them weatherman both theatre earth feather neither than through Exercise 5(P8)(4) Which words in have /θ/ and which words have /ð/? Listen again and write them in the correct column /θ/ /ð/ In this exercise, I model the sounds /θ/ and /ð/ first Then I ask Ss to practice the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds together Then I play the recording twice, ask my students to listen to the recording, repeat the words and notice the sounds Then I ask some students to practice in front of the class, others listen and correct their classmates’ errors (for more able students) or I have to point their errors (for weaker students) KEY: /θ/ /ð/ theatre, Thanksgiving, earth, There, them, neither, anything, both, through weatherman, than, feather Exercise 6(P8)(4) Tongue twister Take turns reading the sentences quickly and correctly The thirty –three thieves are thinking of how to get through the security Example 2: UNIT 10- OUR HOUSES IN THE FUTURE (ENGLISH 6) Exercise 4(P40)(4)- Listen to the chants Write the words with the sounds /dr/ and /tr/ in the table Drops of the water Little drops of water Drip, drip, drip Dripping from the cottage roof On a rainy day I’d like to live in the countryside I’d like to travel in the train Along the track, I’d like to drive a tractor Through the hay KEY: /dr/ /tr/ drop, drip, dripping, drive countryside, track, train 10 b Find the odd sounds A anything B both C sunbathing D through A weatherman B than C healthy D feather A television B vision C pleasure D island A she B wash C sugar D sound KEY: C 2.C D 4.D c Matching exercises Show words, sounds and ask students to match Sounds Words 1- /ŋ / a- announce, castle, city, last 2- /ʃ/ b- creature, charity, natural, children 3- /ʧ/ c- gym, hedge, journey, energy 4- /s/ d- population, station, wish, sure 5- /ʤ/ e- monkey, thank, morning, interesting KEY: 1-e 2d 3b 4-a 5- c After three times teaching grade 6- the new English curriculum, I have used the tips above and got some big achievement Number Target sounds Mispronounced sounds Number of errors /ʧ/ /ʤ/ /s/ /ʃ/ Silent sound /ð/ /ɵ/ CONCLUSION 3.1 Conclusion Through the process of teaching, I have got some goals on improving the way to pronounce consonant sounds of grade- students Students are aware of consonants, how to pronounce them more correctly and they overcome difficulties in learning English pronunciation However, there are still certain limitations such as: the practice procedure should have been done more seriously and for a longer time I would like to receive more ideas from my colleagues 3.2 Request The process of teaching and learning English needs a lot of materials So I would like to: + For school Facilitate for both of the teachers and students to apply the new technology in teaching and learning English in order to get higher achievement +For teachers Regularly learn, get information from books, Internet and exchange with colleagues, and try to recognize and correct students’ mistakes + For the leaders of the district, division 11 Provide more teaching materials for schools such as projectors, computers, Wi-Fi Organize classes for teachers to learn new methods, technologies and exchange experience Organize more excellent exams for students to evaluate themselves The cooperation of all is the best way to get higher and higher achievements Confirmaton of the head master Trieu Son, April 15th 2019 I hereby commit that this document is my original idea and is not copied from any others’ Nguyen Thi Nhu Quynh 12 REFERENCES N0 Name of the document Oxford Advanced Learner's Encyclopedic dictionary Author Jonathan Crowther Year 1992 Gimson’s pronunciation of English Alan Gruttenden professor 2000 How to teach pronunciation Kelly Grand 2001 Pearson education Internet webs English ( Teacher’s book) Hoàng Văn Vân, Nguyễn Thị Chi, Lê Kim Dung 2013 English (Student’s book) Hoàng Văn Vân, Nguyễn Thị Chi, Lê Kim Dung 2013 Nhà xuất giáo dục Việt Nam Nhà xuất giáo dục Việt Nam Luận văn so sánh phát âm phụ âm Tiếng Anh phụ âm Tiếng Việt -trường ĐH Dân Lập Hải Phòng Lê Hồng Tuấn 2013 2,3 Publisher Oxford university Press Oxford (sixth edition) 13 1- DANH MỤC CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ XẾP LOẠI CẤP PHÒNG GD&ĐT, CẤP SỞ GD&ĐT VÀ CÁC CẤP CAO HƠN XẾP LOẠI TỪ C TRỞ LÊN Họ tên tác giả: Nguyễn Thị Như Quỳnh Chức vụ đơn vị công tác: Trường THCS Thị Trấn Triệu Sơn TT Tên đề tài SKKN Kết Cấp đánh đánh giá Năm học giá xếp loại xếp loại đánh giá xếp (Phòng, Sở, (A, B, loại Tỉnh ) C) Phòng B 2012- 2013 Nâng cao kĩ viết Tiếng Anh cho học sinh cấp Improving listening English Phòng for students at secondary school Improving the way to Phòng GD, pronounce English vowel Huyện sounds of grade-6 students A 2014-2015 A 2016- 2017 14 15 ... because the tongue either touches or approaches the alveolar ridge in their production Figure 3: The position of the tongue the production of /θ/ and /ð/ Figure 4: The position of the tongue the. .. with the tip of the tongue + Tip of the tongue and the teeth - interdental: /θ/ and /ð/ Pronounce the words “think” and “this”, paying attention to the way the first consonant sounds of these... the words “fat” and “vat”, again paying attention to the way the first sounds of these words are formed The initial sounds of these words are made with the top teeth touching the bottom lip Therefore,