Some pronunciation problems and tips to improve them

1.INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reasons for this topic Nowadays English has been accepted as the dominant means of communication, both written and spoken in most of the world Especially, in the period of global intergration and development ,the world becomes smaller and smaller So English learning is also very important for students as well as for their future.That’s why the Ministry of Education and Training has decided to teach english for children at primary school.Although english has being tought at primary school for several years, the quality of teaching and learning this subject is not good,especcially a lot of students have met difficulties in communication.There are many different reasons which effect on it.One of the reasons is that we did only take care of teaching vocabulary and grammar for students without paying attention much in developing skills as well as pronunciation.Even if their vocabulary and grammar are perfect,it can be still difficult to understand and communicate in english because of pronunciation During the daily communications, we often find some misunderstandings being caused by inappropriate pronunciation Sometimes such mispronunciations will offend the international guests Thus mispronunciation is significant and we should pay close attention to the problem I decided I would try to tackle the teaching of pronunciation in order to help my students with their English pronunciation In my opinion, to be a good English teacher in Primary school, the key issue is to make the children learn English by listening and speaking in the way they learn their mother-tongue This helps them to have more fluent secondlanguage acquisition in oral English Above all, the most important part of learning a second language rests on pronunciation And this has concerned me most from the very beginning of my teaching-career These particular learningneeds intrigued me and influenced my point of view about how to guide students in their English study as a second language In order to help the English learners in my school express themselves in as clear and accurate way as they can, basic knowledge of phonetics and pronunciation is very important to them from the outset If they don't know how to pronounce each word or sentence in the right way, this is sure to lead to the failure of communication or even develop a vicious circle in which they will involve their future job-market later They would still have a long way to go before they could master English and use it well as a tool to communicate with native English speakers Furthermore, in order to more research work, basic knowledge became even more important as the world was now changing so rapidly We have changed our minds and are beginning to meet the demands of society, and for a better situation of our teaching I am a teacher of language, so I want to breathe new life into my work to enable it to step onto this new stage I have been trying to change, not only myself, but also my students - the coming future owners of our country I enjoy teaching English and thus I care about what is happening to it That is the reason I decided to spend much time on studying “ Some pronunciation problems and tips to improve them” 1.2 The aim of reseaching Pronunciation is the basic skill of mastering a foreign language, language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Pronunciation and intonation practice will help them form the right habit to enable them to acquire the appropriate information for themselves for their overall learning Good knowledge of pronunciation will also make students become autonomous learners, and this is fundamental for their life-long learning What the students got from this learning process rightly meets the standards on helping students to acquire the necessary critical thinking skills In order to help the English learners in my school express themselves in as clear and accurate way as they can, basic knowledge of phonetics and pronunciation is very important to them from the outset If they don't know how to pronounce each word or sentence in the right way, this is sure to lead to the failure of communication or even develop a vicious circle in which they will involve their future job-market later They would still have a long way to go before they could master English and use it well as a tool to communicate with native English speakers Furthermore, in order to more research work, basic knowledge became even more important as the world was now changing so rapidly Learning to pronounce English correctly can be one of the hardest parts of learning English The English laguage has some sounds that our native language might not, so we have to know how to make completely new sounds Plus, English vowels make really stricky to know how to say a word “way”,“weigh” and “whey” are all said the same, for example, while “comb”, and “tomb” are all pronounced differently.So, that’s why we have the tips to help students pronounce English words better 1.3 The subject of reseach To be a primary teacher of english,I realise that pronunciation is the tissue which I am concerned to research.It is necessary for students to get correct pronunciation That is why I choose this subject to reseach 1.4 The methodology I conceive that a variety of potential ways to reseach were also listed in these categories: theory foundation, existing information, tests, statistics and survey, interviews, questionnaires All these tools shared three important characteristics that must be considered in selecting or creation them: reliability, validity, and usability 2.CONTENT 2.1 The theory My concern reveals itself to be closely associated with the bases of the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing I put forward a case that the effort to master the sound system and to pronounce correctly,are key aspects of learning a second language As clarification I give some technical details on aspects of sounds of speech, including articulation, vowel formation, accent, inflection, and intonation, with reference to the correctness or acceptability of the speech sounds I also provide some descriptions of new classroom teaching-methods for pronunciation I include comments from students, reveal statistics of their scores, quote from expert sources in linguistics, and show the results of a questionnaire Good knowledge in spoken English can help my students speak good English and can also help them form a good basis for further English study Pronunciation plays an important role in its spelling, grammar, and even the meaning of a sentence Literature shows us panoramas of ancient masterpieces, the knowledge of phonetics can help us read them freely And from the spelling we also get to know the changes of English Language through history Giving a special training in teaching pupils English in the right way without a Vietmanese accent or Vietnamese way of speaking English, for better and accurate communication Certain skills for language study are very important for my students in order to help them overcome language problems Solving the problems can be attempted under my guidance Each week I tried to teach them the right pronunciation of the international alphabets and correct them one by one For a beginning student, adequate pronunciation will include control of the vowel and consonant phonemes, statement and question intonation, and stress and rhythm, patterns for simple utterances, At intermediate and advanced levels, pronunciation practice should concentrate on the allophonic variants, intonation patterns of complex sentences, contrastive stress patterns and the affective devices by which native speakers indicate anger, amusement, sympathy, etc which, of course, will not be dealt with by high school students, but we can help the students to get the feel of them anyway 2.2Current status of subject Are people having trouble understanding us when we speak, but we’re not really sure why? The hardest part about improving our English pronunciation is figuring out what we might be doing wrong Here are the top reasons why people might be misunderstanding us Stressing individual words incorrectly and stressing the wrong words in a sentence a.Word stress If we usually speak with native English speakers, this will be the number one reason why they misunderstand us It’s very hard for native English speakers to ‘translate’ a word spoken as ‘caLENdar’ to the way they would pronounce it, ‘CALendar’ Non-native English speakers don’t have as much of a problem with this, and will probably still understand what we’re trying to say Remember that we can completely change the meaning of a sentence by stressing different words in that sentence For example, we could say this sentence in a number of different ways: “I didn’t say we should drive this way.” If we stress “ I”, we emphasize that taking that route wasn’t our idea On the other hand, if we stress “ drive”, we emphasize the mode of transport If we don’t pay close attention to the words that you stress, we could end up sending a completely different message than the one you intended To communicate clearly when we are speaking in English, it’s important to stress the correct syllables in each word This is called word stress, which means pronouncing one syllable of a multisyllabic word with greater emphasis (stress) than the other syllables in the word b Sentence Stress Sentence stress is the music of spoken English Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, even rapid spoken English Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat" You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds "music" to the language It is the rhythm of the English language It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language The time between each stressed word is the same Intonation Intonation and stress are closely linked In fact it's impossible to dissociate them They go hand in hand Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the way the voice rises and falls when speaking, in other words the music of the language Just as words have stressed syllables, sentences have regular patterns of stressed words In addition, the voice tends to rise, fall or remain flat depending on the meaning or feeling we want to convey (surprise, anger, interest, boredom, gratitude, etc.) Intonation therefore indicates the mood of the speaker Pronouncing certain consonant sounds incorrectly If people are misunderstanding you, it could very well be due to you confusing what we call ‘voiced’ and ‘unvoiced’ sounds You might substitute ‘p’ for ‘b’ or ‘t’ for ‘d’, for example These sounds are so easily confused because their only difference is whether or not you use your voice to produce them If you aren’t careful, you could be making mistakes like saying ‘tuck’ for ‘duck’ or ‘pay’ for ‘bay’ 4 Mixing up short and long vowel sounds Vowel sounds, like consonant sounds, can also be confused easily The main problem with vowels happens when you mix up long and short vowel sounds For example, the long ‘ee’ sound in ‘seat’ with the short ‘i’ sound in ‘sit.’ If you confuse these sounds, you end up saying completely different words This can get confusing in conversation and forces people to draw much more from the context of your speech than the speech itself Connected speech Pronunciation is crucial, but it’s not everything You can pronounce every individual word like a native speaker, but still not talk like one That’s because you also need to have the right flow So, what exactly makes the flow of English? One important element is “connected speech.” This refers to the way the end of one word and the beginning of the next word sometimes interact in English.If we not know it we will have difficulty in communicationThese are popular ways of connecting speech - Join two sounds -Link two sounds -Get rid of a sound -Use contractions Forgetting to finish your words Do you have a tendency to let your word endings drop? I often hear people drop the ‘ed’ ending off of words in the past tense, for example This is a dangerous mistake because not only is your pronunciation wrong, but it also sounds like you’re making a grammatical mistake People could judge you based on this type of error Infactly,The students have poor pronunciation, perhaps very weak in oral skills.Though the students may have learned a lot about the rules of the language, they cannot apply them in writing, much less in speaking.The class tends to be dull, and the students are often overloaded From the traditional ways of learning English, we often found that the students neglected the basic knowledge of speaking In the years when we had less communication with foreign countries, this may have been enough to meet the demands of English However, the situation changed greatly when we stepped into the new century, with the internet, and with these extended forms ofcommunication with Western countries, oral communication began to be more and more important than at any other time Understanding by reading or writing would no longer be sufficient for the development of the economy We needed to understand and communicate face to face personally or through the internet This initiative stems students who mispronounce and be not selfconfident in communication.Through many years of teaching experience shows that students often mispronunce, be not self-confident in using English to communicate This is the result of survey in class 4A and 4B before I apply this initiative: Class Total 4A 4B 24 26 Achieving SL % 16,5 10 38,5 Fail SL 20 16 % 83,5 61,5 2.3 The solutions I used for improving pronunciation are the following: 2.3.1 Add stress to sounds and words English is a stressed language.That means some words and sounds are more important than others.We can hear this when we say a word out loud.For example, the word “ introduce” is pronounced with the stress at the end of the word, so it sounds like this : “ in-tro-DUCE” Sometimes where we put the stress in a word can change the word’s meaning For example: if we said “ PREsent”, you are talking about a noun that means a gift If you said “ PreSENT”, you are talking about a verb that means “ to give”.Most two –syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable,and most two-syllable verbs are stressed on the second syllable.Sentences have stresses too.Some words are more important and said with more clarity and strength than the rest of the sentence.Notice our students that we slow down every time we get to an important word, and quickly pass over the less important ones Listen carefully to the way people around you pronounce their words If you hear a pronunciation that is different from yours, check the dictionary (even if it’s a common word) to be sure that you’re stressing it correctly Think about placing added emphasis on the word that is most important to your meaning You can add emphasis by lengthening the word, saying it slightly louder and/or changing the pitch of your voice slightly a Word stress To communicate clearly when we are speaking in English, it’s important to stress the correct syllables in each word This is called word stress, which means pronouncing one syllable of a multisyllabic word with greater emphasis (stress) than the other syllables in the word Here are four general rules to keep in mind about word stress as you practice pronunciation: -Stress the first syllable of: +Most two-syllable nouns (examples: CLImate, KNOWledge) +Most two-syllable adjectives (examples: FLIPpant, SPAcious) -Stress the last syllable of: +Most two-syllable verbs (examples: reQUIRE, deCIDE) -Stress the second-to-last syllable of: +Words that end in -ic (examples: ecSTATic, geoGRAPHic) +Words ending in -sion and -tion (examples: exTENsion, retriBUtion) -Stress the third-from-last syllable of: +Words that end in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy (examples: deMOCracy, unCERtainty, geOGraphy, radiOLogy) +Words that end in -al (examples: exCEPtional, CRItical) Keep these simple rules in mind and you will soon find your pronunciation getting better and better! b Sentence Stress Sentence stress is the music of spoken English Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, even rapid spoken English Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat" You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence Most sentences have two basic types of word: -Content words Content words are the key words of a sentence They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense—the real content -Structure words Structure words are not very important words They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically They give the sentence its correct form , its structure If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will not understand the sentence The sentence has no sense or meaning Imagine that you receive this telegram message: This sentence is not complete It is not a "grammatically correct" sentence But you probably understand it These words communicate very well Somebody wants you to sell their car for them because they have gone to France We can add a few words: The new words not really add any more information But they make the message more correct grammatically We can add even more words to make one complete, grammatically correct sentence But the information is basically the same: In our sentence, the key words (sell, car, gone, France) are accentuated or stressed Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds "music" to the language It is the rhythm of the English language It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language The time between each stressed word is the same In our sentence, there is syllable between SELL and CAR and syllables between CAR and GONE But the time (t) between SELL and CAR and between CAR and GONE is the same We maintain a constant beat on the stressed words To this, we say "my" more slowly, and "because I've" more quickly We change the speed of the small structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same 2.3.2 INTONATION There are two basic patterns of intonation in English: falling intonation and rising intonation We sometimes use a combination of rising and falling intonation in the same sentence The combination is called Rise-Fall or Fall-Rise intonation In the following examples a downward arrow (➘) indicates a fall in intonation and an upward arrow (➚) indicates a rise in intonation Again, these are not rules but patterns generally used by native speakers of English Just remember that content words are stressed, and intonation adds attitude or emotion This explanation on intonation is intended to serve as a general guide to help learners It should in no way make them unnecessarily anxious! It should be remembered that a written explanation can never be a substitute for a 'live' conversation with a native speaker Attitudinal intonation is something that is best acquired through talking and listening to English speakers a Falling Intonation (➘) (The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.) Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern in English It is commonly found in statements, commands, wh-questions (information questions),confirmatory question tags and exclamations - Statements Nice to meet ↘you I’ll be back in a ↘minute Here is the weather ↘forecast I'm going for a walk in the ↘park - Commands Write your name ↘here Take that picture ↘ down Put your books on the ↘table Take your hands out of your ↘pockets - Wh- questions (requesting information.) (questions beginning with 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and 'how') Where you come ↘from? Where you ↘work? How many books you ↘have? Whose bag is ↘this? - Questions Tags Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than questions Not all tag questions are really questions Some of them merely ask for confirmation or invite agreement, in which case we use a falling tone at the end He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘he? She's such a nuisance, isn't ↘she? I failed the test because I didn't revise, did ↘ I? It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ↘ it? - Exclamations How nice of ↘ you! That's just what I ↘need! What a beautiful ↘ voice! That's a ↘surprise! b Rising Intonation (➚) (The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.) Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking It is normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags that are real questions - Yes/no Questions (Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.) Do you like your new ➚teacher? Have you finished ➚already? May I borrow your ➚dictionary? Do you have any ➚magazines? - Questions tags Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real questions) We've met already, ➚haven't we? You like fish, ➚don't you? You're a new student ➚aren't you? The view is beautiful, ➚isn't it? c Rise-Fall Intonation (➚➘) (The intonation rises and then falls.) We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and conditional sentences - Choices (alternative questions.) Are you having ➚soup or ➘salad? Is John leaving on ➚Thursday or ➘Friday? Does he speak ➚German or ➘French? Is your name ➚Ava or ➘Eva? - Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling) Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is finished We've got ➚apples, pears, bananas and ➘oranges The sweater comes in ➚blue, white pink and ➘black I like ➚football, tennis, basketball and ➘volleyball I bought ➚a tee-shirt, a skirt and a ➘handbag -Unfinished thoughts (partial statements) In the responses to the following questions, the rise-fall intonation indicates reservation The speaker hesitates to fully express his/her thoughts Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚leather is ➘nice ( but I don't like it.) What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚fish was ➘good (but the rest wasn't great) So you both live in Los Angeles? Well ➚Alex ➘does (but I don't) - Conditional sentences (The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the second clause.) If he ➚calls, ask him to leave a ➘message Unless he ➚insists, I'm not going to ➘go If you have any ➚problems, just ➘contact us d Fall-Rise Intonation (➘➚) (The voice falls and rises usually within one word.) The main function of fall-rise intonation is to show that the speaker is not certain of the answer they are giving to a question, or is reluctant to reply (as opposed to a falling tone used when there is no hesitation) It is also used in polite requests or suggestions - Hesitation/reluctance: So you'd be willing to confirm that? Well I ➘sup➚pose so You didn't see him on Monday? I don't quite ➘re➚member - Politeness-Doubt-Uncertainty: (You are not sure what the answer might be.) Perhaps we could ➘vis➚it the place? Should we ➘cop➚y the list? Do you think it's ➘al➚lowed? A good exercise to improve pronunciation would be to listen to short recordings of everyday dialogues and then 'shadow read' the script, or read it along with the tape using the same stress and intonation as the speaker Students 10 can repeat this exercise until their voice sounds similar to the voice on the recording It is also a good idea to note down or record some examples of everyday conversations (either from real life or from film or television dialogues) and repeat them as often as possible, copying the stress and intonation of the speakers Modern English songs are also a useful way of learning English stress, rhythm and intonation To begin with, try singing (or saying loudly) the lyrics of songs that you find easy to understand You will be surprised how quickly your pronunciation will improve with the help of audio materials It will be a reward for all your hard work! 2.3.3 Pronouncing certain consonant sounds correctly Pay attention to how you use your voice when you speak You should be able to feel the vibration of your vocal cords when you make voiced sounds (b, d, g, v, z, r, l, m, n, ng, dge, zh, and voiced th) You can also try to make lists of pairs of words that use the sounds you find challenging and practice repeating those Record yourself so you can hear whether you’re making any progress Phoneticists, who study the sound of the human voice, divide consonants into two types: voiced and voiceless Voiced consonants require the use of the vocal cords to produce their signature sounds; voiceless consonants not Both types use the breath, lips, teeth, and upper palate to further modify speech This guide presents the differences between voiced and voiceless consonants and gives you some tips for using them Voiced Consonants 11 Your vocal cords, which are actually mucous membranes, stretch across the larynx at the back of the throat By tightening and relaxing as you speak, the vocal cords modulate the flow of breath expelled from the lungs An easy way to determine whether a consonant is voiced or not is to place a finger on your throat As you pronounce a letter, feel the vibration of your vocal cords If you feel a vibration the consonant is a voiced one These are the voiced consonants: B, D, G, J, L, M, N, Ng, R, Sz, Th (as in the word "then"), V, W, Y, and Z But if consonants are only single letters, what are Ng, Sz, and Th? They're common sounds that are produced by blending the two consonants phonetically Voiceless Consonants Voiceless consonants not use the vocal cords to produce their hard, percussive sounds Instead, they're slack, allowing air to flow freely from the lungs to the mouth, where the tongue, teeth, and lips engage to modulate the sound These are the voiceless consonants: Ch, F, K, P, S, Sh, T, and Th (as in "thing") Common words using them include: washed coats watched books 12 seats dropped carts Vowels Vowel sounds (A, E, I, O, U) and diphthongs (combinations of two vowel sounds) are all voiced That also includes the letter Y when pronounced like a long E Examples: city, pity, gritty Pay attention to how you use your voice when you speak You should be able to feel the vibration of your vocal cords when you make voiced sounds (b, d, g, v, z, r, l, m, n, ng, dge, zh, and voiced th) You can also try to make lists of pairs of words that use the sounds you find challenging and practice repeating those Record yourself so you can hear whether you’re making any progress Pay attention to how you use your voice when you speak You should be able to feel the vibration of your vocal cords when you make voiced sounds (b, d, g, v, z, r, l, m, n, ng, dge, zh, and voiced th) You can also try to make lists of pairs of words that use the sounds you find challenging and practice repeating those Record yourself so you can hear whether you’re making any progress 2.3.4 short and long vowel sounds Vowel sounds, like consonant sounds, can also be confused easily The main problem with vowels happens when you mix up long and short vowel sounds For example, the long ‘ee’ sound in ‘seat’ with the short ‘i’ sound in ‘sit.’ If you confuse these sounds, you end up saying completely different words This can get confusing in conversation and forces people to draw much more from the context of your speech than the speech itself Make practice word lists like the ones you made for the consonant sounds and practice the sounds that are difficult for you What is the difference between short and long vowels? Depending on their position in the word and the pronunciation of that word, the length of the vowel can change and have a different sound Not all letters make the same sound in all words, and that’s what vowel length is about If you know American English, you know the American English vowels: A, E, I, O, and U The letter Y is sometimes counted as a vowel too Find out the 13 basic sounds and functions of both vowels and consonants in “ this guide to American English pronunciation” The easiest way to remember the difference between short and long vowels is by remembering the rule about long vowels, specifically If a word with a certain vowel in it says the name of the vowel, then that vowel is making a “long” sound By “name” we mean, the name of the actual letter When we look at “a” we pronounce it /ā/, or “ay.” This is the first letter of the alphabet, and when looking at the isolated letter, we’ll refer to it by its name: the way we say it when we begin to recite the alphabet This is known as a long vowel sound, because it says the “name” of the letter The same goes for the other vowels A short vowel sound is a vowel sound that does not follow this rule When reading a word that uses a short vowel sound, will say the sound that the letter can make that is not its actual name So in the case of “A,” the word “main” might have a long “A” sound because we pronounce the “A” as /ā/, whereas the word “man” has a short vowel sound Short and Long Vowels Examples Now we’ll go down the list of vowels and show you their pronunciation in the phonic code, and give examples of how to pronounce both If the phonic code is too confusing, just remember: /a/ is short and /ā/ is long Same goes for the rest of the vowels: /a/ and /ā/ /e/ and /ē/ /i/ and /ī/ /o/ and /ō/ /u/ and /ū/ Let’s get started with those examples Aa Short: /æ/ Long: /eɪ/ Short: “fat” Long: “fāte” Ee Short: /ɛ/ Long: /iː/ Short: “wet” Long: “whēat” Ii Short: /i/ Long: /iː/ Short: “win” Long: “wīne” Oo Short: /ɒ/ Long: /oʊ/ Short: “bot” Long: “bōat” Uu Short: /ʌ/ Long: /juː/ Short: “cup” Long: “cūbe” 2.3.5 Connected speech - Join two sounds 14 When a word ends in a consonant sound, and the following word begins with the same consonant sound, both sounds are pronounced together as one Example: I’d decide it later -Link two sounds If the first word ends with a consonant and the second word begins with a vowel, a native speaker would connect the consonant with the vowel as if they belong to one word Example: I’d like a fried egg - Get rid of a sound When the sounds “t” or “d” occur between two consonant sounds, they’ll often disappear completely from the pronunciation Example: See you nex(t) week! -Use contractions Native speakers also almost always use contractions (short words created by combining two separate words) to speak faster Some examples of common ones: • I + am = I’m • I + will = I’ll • + not = don’t • I + have = I’ve • I + would= I’d You can also listen for stress and rhythm in native English speaking Native English speakers typically raise their voices and make a longer sound for the word that needs the most attention.In other words, they “stress” the most important words English rhythm is the musical feature of English-the up and down of the pitch each word in a sentence takes The best way to learn the flow of English is to mimic native speakers It’s really something you need to hear and imitate, over and over Research indicates that sometimes we imitate others’ behavior subconsciously (without realizing it) So this might be a more natural process than you think For mirroring material, find a famous speech, a talk or a song Rap songs are very good for this purpose Note down how a speaker stresses different words in a sentence, which in turn leads to the distinct rhythm 2.3.6 Ending sounds Ending sound is the last sound we hear in a word Ending sound is very important in communication.If we forget ending sounds when we speak,it can lead to misunderstand.For example: “rice”, “write”” are words which contain the same beginning sounds In order to identify these two words, we have to notice the ending sounds 2.3.7 Notice how their mouth , tongue and lips move 15 When we speak ,we move our mouth,tongue and lips How we move our mouth ,tongue and lips affects how we pronounce a word Therefore, the first step to correct students’ pronunciation is notice about them.We should guide them how to move these parts in order to pronounce a words correctly For example: “l” sound in “lice” and “r”sound in rice - To make the “L” sound, our tongue should touch the back of our fron teeth and the top of our mouth, just behind our teeth - To make the “R” sound, our tongue should not touch the top if the mouth,Pull our tongue back to the middle of our mouth, near where it naturally rests if you were not saying anything.As you say the sound,our lips should be a little rounded 2.3.8 Break words down into sounds Words are made up of syllables or parts.The word “ Syllable” , for example ,has three syllables: syl- la- ble.Turning words into parts can make students easier to pronounce, especially for long and difficult words.To check how many syllable a word has,place our hand flat just under our chin, say the word slowly.Each time our chin touches our hand, that is a syllable.We can write the word down in parts Leave a space or draw a line between each syllable.Every syllable should have a vowel( a , e, i , o , u , y ) Now try saying it.That is easier 2.3.9 Listening It is true that before we learn how to speak, we will need to learn how to listen.It means that listening plays an important role in improving pronunciation The more we listen, the better we will become at pronouncing Thus, we should bring our students as many chances as possible to listen We can find listening exercises online for them to practise.We can also cencourage our students to spend much time on listening from movies, songs 2.4 The effect on educational activities * Effect on my students After using the above ways I formed a more rigorous way of evaluating my records and gained useful information Grading scores of their conversations show me that their pronunciation and intonation is improving Some of their scores remained at a high level for the whole process of my research work on pronunciation Thus I was developing a clearer picture of my teaching needs My students’ scores of phonetics tell me that my work is in effect Among the best top students of phonetics who gained the highest marks, my students ranked in the first position I make the final statistics on Students Score Record on Phonetics by two terms After a period of experimental teaching "Some pronuncition problems and tips to improve them" I see the quality and effectiveness of teaching English increased markedly Students were transferred to practice very lively Experimental teaching results are assessed through quality tests and exploratory excitement of student learning The results after the application of my ways are: 16 Class 4A 4B Total 24 26 Achieving SL % 13 54 18 69 Fail SL 11 % 46 31 Let’s look at the statistics I can see how my students has gained in improving pronunciation in the second term This would suggest that my teaching methods have had an influence on the students’ learning This gives us the evidence that my project on pronunciation helps my students to become English learners who are good at their pronunciation from the under developing state towards a developed one They received good scores in the final examination of phonetics to a certain level Some students were greatly influenced by their dialect; they needed to work harder on their pronunciation to meet the standard of a good English speaker My students was able to change their old habit and learn to speak clearly As my work goes on, I find that my students are eager to gain knowledge on how to speak English flawlessly They find faults with each other in order to better their pronunciation and intonation and they even ask me to give them lectures on pronunciation This clearly shows that they begin to focus on the essential work of a good language learner and in my mind this is a very good start for their study and work in the near future *Effect on my colleagues I regard the pronunciation and intonation as one of the most important items during the teaching process of the freshmen at school At the same time I help my colleagues improve their attitude of teaching a foreign language This is also true when they become English teachers to teach their students I have shown them clearly the scientific way of teaching a foreign language While teaching the language knowledge to the students, I pay more attention to the some other parts for improving their learning ability And my colleagues are doing in their studying right now My concern on pronunciation will provide my colleagues with the ability to teach pronunciation more clearly and accurately On the one hand, they have gained the specific knowledge to speak good English, and thus they will know how to speak in the right way On the other hand, what they have been gained on pronunciation will make them teach their students to pronounce clearly and accurately Thus I believe we have made the first good step for a long journey in improving the English proficiency of Vietnamese students 3.CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 17 3.1conclusion In the trend of integration of our country and elementary education programs today, English in primary schools plays an important role in contributing to the training of human with comprehensive development and meet the requirements of the country in the new period.As a teacher of English I want to concern on pronunciation which will provide my students- the coming future owners of my country - with the ability to use English more clearly and accurately when they begin to learn in primary schools Good knowledge of pronunciation and intonation will also make students become autonomous learners, and this is fundamental for their life-long learning What the students got from this learning process rightly meets the standards on helping students to acquire the necessary critical thinking skills.My concern on pronunciation has provided my students with the problems rules and tips to fix them.By these ways,they have gained the specific knowledge better and become more confident in communication.In order to contribute the experiences in teaching pronunciation in specific and teaching English in popular for students, a subject that is considered new and difficult, I would like to introduce these ways to my students as well as my colleagues to apply them I enjoy teaching English and I love children too 3.2 Suggestions Nowadays,our country has been developing with rapid speed.It is true that education has been invested considerablely.In recent years,English is considered as an important subject at school.However,in some areas,especially in the countryside and remost areas,condition for teaching English is not covenient That is why the quality of teaching this subject is low.Therefore,I suggest that government should take care of and invest more and more in developing education for these areas.In addition, staff of teachers play an important role in the effect of education.It is fact that some teachers of English does not have enough ability and knowledge to the educational task So,It is very necessary to retrain these teachers of English Furthermore, teachers’ salary is low.That is the reason why many teachers not try their best to contribute for education So,I expect that the teachers’ income will be increased so that they can improve their life and devote more for education *References: -Teaching Pronunciation: A Course Book and Reference Guide Second Edition By Marianne Celce-Murcia, Donna M Brinton, Janet M Goodwin, with Barry Griner -Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English Teacher's Book, David BrazilCambridge University Press, thg 10, 1994 -Internet : English club, websites, videos… Thank you very much! 18 CONFERM OF THE HEAD MASTER Le Anh Quy Yen Dinh, May 15th 2018 I guarantee this is my work.I did not copy it from others Signature Trinh Thi Tho 19 Index Part content Page number 1.1 Reason for the topic 1.2 Aim of research 1.3 Subject 1.4 Methodology 2.1 Theory 2.2 Current status of subject 2.3 Solutions 2.4 Effect 16 3.1 Conclution 18 Conclution& 3.2 Suggestion 18 Suggestions 18 Introduction Content * References 20 ... English and thus I care about what is happening to it That is the reason I decided to spend much time on studying “ Some pronunciation problems and tips to improve them 1.2 The aim of reseaching Pronunciation. .. tongue should touch the back of our fron teeth and the top of our mouth, just behind our teeth - To make the “R” sound, our tongue should not touch the top if the mouth,Pull our tongue back to. .. listening, speaking, reading and writing Pronunciation and intonation practice will help them form the right habit to enable them to acquire the appropriate information for themselves for their overall