Some measures to help grade 7 students at canh nang town secondary school master english word stress

1 Introduction 1.1 Rationale In the context of global integration today, English is an important language It is the key to help us access the quintessence, progress in culture, education, science, technology and many other fields of humanity Therefore, it is a second language, a compulsory subject of many countries around the world According to analysts' forecasts, by the end of this decade, more than one third of the world's population will be engaged in learning English, This global need to learn English has shown that English is extremely important and essential for economic and social development on a national level as well as for each individual in society From that practical requirement, English has been included in the mainstream curriculum of all academic levels in our country The ultimate goal of teaching and learning English is that students can communicate in English The ability to communicate shows on two aspects: receptive language (listening and reading) and producing language (speaking and writing) So, what must teachers and students to achieve this goal? This requires many factors, in which it is quite important to help students master word stress in English The correct pronunciation of English word stress will help communicate in English more smoothly, avoid misunderstandings in communication From the reality of teaching English for many years, I found that knowledge of English word stress is being taught in secondary school programs only in practical level, not explained Students only need to listen and repeat the number of given words correctly The content of English word stress is only introduced in the part “Pronunciation- A closer look 1” of Unit 9, Unit 10 and Unit 12 of grade Students are only allowed to listen to tapes on how to read word stress of some words and then repeat However, in exams, there are often some questions about stress Through studying the results of students' tests, I find that students often not give the correct answers of the questions about word stress In addition, I also find that when the students speak English, most of them only speak evenly and not pay attention to the stress of words, which reduces the effectiveness of using English Some authors also share many good experiences and solutions to help students learn word or sentence stress well, but those experiences are brought from scientific research, mainly applied to excellent students, high school students and serve for graduation exam, college and university Very few documents mention teaching word stress for middle school students, specifically, groups of general students From the results above, I strongly launched an innovative experience "Some measures to help grade students at Canh Nang town secondary school master English word stress” It is hoped that the measures, to some extent, will contribute to improving the teaching and learning of English word stress in grade at Canh Nang town secondary school in particular and English study in general 2 1.2 Aims of the study: For above mentioned reasons, the main aims of the study are as the following: - Firstly, make students aware of the importance of using correct English stress; thereby help them have a sense of stress in training their communication skills - Secondly, help students speak English correctly, ensure subject knowledge standards, thereby help students solve the questions about stress knowledge in exams - Thirdly, this topic can help teachers of foreign languages have a few small suggestions in teaching speaking skills for students 1.3 Scope of the study Stress is one important part of English pronunciation, which consists of sentence stress and word stress However, due to both limited time and experience, this study only focuses on the word stress and some measures to help grade students at Canh Nang town secondary school master English word stress Any attempt to study English word stress on other aspect is beyond the scope of this study 1.4 Methods of the study - Reading reference books - Discussing with other teachers - Analyzing the data - Observing and drawing out experiences - Applying in teaching Content 2.1 Theoretical bacground The aim of this part is to review theoretical background which related to English word stress This basic knowledge will be provided in order to help students consolidate their knowledge and understand the issues deeper 2.1.1 Stress 2.1.1.1 The definition of tress Stress is defined as using more muscular energy while articulating the words.When a word or a syllable in word is produced louder, more lengthy, with higher pitch or with more quality, it will be perceived as stressed The prominence makes some syllables be perceived as stressed E.g: - Important [im’pɔ:tənt] - Decision [di'siʒn] 2.1.1.2 Characteristics of stressed and unstressed words English words can be made up of one, two or many syllables In all words of two or more syllables, one syllable is more prominent, louder, or more noticeable than the other syllables in that word This strong syllable is stressed (accented), and the other weaker syllables are unstressed (unaccented) (Dauer: 1983) Stressed syllables sound louder, are usually longer, and have clearer vowels and stronger consonants In a word said in isolation, stressed syllables are higher pitched; in sentences, a pitch change (a change in melody from high to low or low to high) often occurs on stressed syllables Unstressed syllables sound softer, are usually shorter, and are frequently reduced or centralized This means that the vowels tend to become / ә /, / I /, or / ‫ ﮞ‬/, and the consonants are weaker The pitch does not change direction on unstressed syllables 2.1.1.3 Nature of stress In English Phonetics and Phonology, Roach P (1983:72, 73) held the view that “all stressed syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is called “prominence” The stressed syllable of a word is recognized more prominent than the rest syllables of the word Deciding what makes a syllable become more prominent than others, in his book, Peter Roach looked at four different important factors They are loudness, length, pitch and vowel quality 2.1.1.3.1 Loudness In a word, stressed syllables are louder than the unstressed; in other words, loudness is a component of prominence Gimson A.C (1962) argued that a sound or syllable which is stressed is one upon which there is expended in the articulation relatively great breath effort and muscular energy In voiced sounds, greater amplitude of vibration of the vocal folds, together with the reinforcing resonation of the supra-glottal cavities, results in physical terms in relatively great intensity of the sound or syllable, such intensity being perceived by the listener as greater loudness associated with the sound or syllable Thus, the greater energy which the speaker feels is concentrated on the first syllable or answer may be manifested for the listener as greater loudness In a sequence of identical syllables (e.g ba: ba: ba: ba :), if one syllable is made louder than the others, it will be heard as stressed 2.1.1.3.2 Length (duration or quantity) Roach P in Phonetic and Phonology (1983: 163) defined that: “The length of syllables has an important part to play in prominence If a word is presented to English listeners, with no pitch variations but with vowels of different length, those vowels which have the greatest length will be judged as “stressed” Therefore, vowels and diphthongs will always be associated with prominence, especially by a listener, however weakly stressed they may be and despite the fact that a long vowel or diphthong in a relatively unstressed syllable does not have the same length as it will have in a stressed syllable A vowel in a stressed syllable may in fact be longer than that in an adjacent stressed syllable, without depriving the latter of its prominence, e.g /æ/ and / / in ally, / ʌ / and / iә / in frontier” In other words, among others syllables with the same length, if only one of them is lengthened intensively, there is quite a strong tendency for that syllable to be heard as stressed 2.1.1.3.3 Pitch Roach P (1983:163) also discussed: Every syllable is pronounced on some pitch, it might vary from low pitch to and high pitch Within a word, if one syllable is noticeably said differently from the others, it will be recognized as prominent, and of course a stressed syllable Therefore, to place some movement of pitch (e.g rising or falling pitch) on a syllable is an effective way to produce a syllable with prominence It is closely related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and to the musical notion of low- and high-pitched notes He also emphasized: “If one syllable of a nonsense word (e.g ba: ba: ba: ba) is said with a pitch that is noticeably different from that of the others, this will have a strong tendency to produce the effect of prominence If all syllables are said with low pitch except for one said with high pitch, then the high-pitch syllable will be heard as stressed and the others as unstressed” 2.1.1.3.4 Vowel quality A syllable will be considered as a prominence if it includes a vowel that has different quality from neighboring vowels (Roach P.1983:163) If a nonsense word “ba:ba:ba:ba ” is changed as “ba:bi:ba:ba”, then the “ bi” syllable will usually be heard as stressed In short, a stressed syllable can be recognized thanks to the combination of those above four factors, among which the strongest effect is produced by pitch and length respectively, and then, loudness and vowel quality 2.1.1.4 Placement of word stress According to O‟Connor J.D (1967:91), within a sentence, there are two kinds of words known as content(lexical) words and function(or grammatical) words Content words are those that express independent meaning include: Nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives, question words and demonstratives, which are usually stressed Function words are words that have little or meaning in themselves, but express grammatical relationships They include: Articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns, conjunctions, relative pronouns Function words are more likely to be unstressed, although they may be exceptionally stressed if given special attention In terms of syllables, content words are classified as mono-syllable, bi-syllable and multi-syllable words English is a very inconsistent language when it comes to rules Since it is littered with exceptions, you should always keep in mind that there are no definite rules to English, but general rules and patterns that can be followed First, only one syllable can be stressed in an English word regardless if it has two, three, or even four or more syllables: - Two-Syllable Words In most two-syllable nouns and adjectives, the stress comes in the first syllable of the word Rule: stress on first syllable Example Nouns PRESent, TABle, DOCtor Adjectives GIant, UGly, WASTEful For most two-syllable verbs, the stress is in the second syllable 5 Rule: stress on second syllable Example Verbs exPORT, reGRET, proNOUNCE  Photograph – PHOtograph (3 syllables, first one is stressed)  Photography – phoTOgraphy (4 syllables, third to last one is stressed)  Photographic – photoGRAPHic (4 syllables, second to last one is stressed) 2.1.2 Role of stress in language learning Stress is an important aspect of pronunciation, which decides one’s communication ability The better one is good at stress patterns of English, the more he understands native speakers Why exactly is correct word stress so important when it comes to conversing in the English language? Here are some reasons: • Word stress heavily affects the sounds of the vowels in a word Different word stress can make a word sound completely different • Native speakers rely on word stress to identify words Thus, incorrect word stress patterns can lead to miscommunication between non-native speakers and native speakers • Knowing the stress pattern of words will help students to learn and remember the correct pronunciation of words • Knowing correct word stress will help students to improve their listening comprehension skills • Overall, the skill to stress words correctly will help ESL learners more to converse more confident in English and enjoy it! While some languages have little or limited stress, English is a heavily stress-based language Unfortunately, the majority of ESL teachers and students ignore the necessity to practice word stress Word stress is not something extra that students should study if they have time It is an essential part of learning English because it is a major component of the English language 2.2 The reality of teaching and learning English word stress in grade Located in a mountainous district of Thanh Hoa province; therefore, there are some factors that affect the process of teaching and learning English in the school as follows: About the students: Living in mountainous area makes the students become less concerned and confident in learning than those from crowded and more developed regions because they not have accesses to modern devices such as computers or word processors Besides, their background knowledge of English and their proficiency of English are poor Thus, it is more challenging for teachers to activate and motivate them to take part in the lesson, especially in the oral practice because of their shyness That is why, it can be concluded that their English knowledge especially their phonetic abilities are still limited and their attitude towards learning word stress is also a matter to be considered About the material: The course book used to teach the students are English designed by the Ministry of Education and Training and published by Educational Publishing House It includes 12 units about all the topics relating to daily lives Each unit is divided into five lessons corresponding to four skills: Reading, Speaking, Listening, and Writing The last lesson is called Language Focus, in which pronunciation is mentioned The problem here is that among the 12 units, stress is only taught to the students in units 9, 10 and 12, which is too little time for the students to understand about stress thoroughly Through interviewing many colleagues and students, and through the reality of teaching, I found that the majority of students studying English from elementary to junior high school, except for the excellent student team, did not learn about English stress Only good at "rubbing" and knowing what "stress" is An undeniable fact, most teachers not have the time or attention to guide students on this matter Teachers, when correcting mistakes for students, only pay attention to word usage, grammatical errors or incorrect pronunciation errors, not correct stress errors Most students have no concept of stress in English pronunciation Students can learn about stress by looking at the glossary section at the end of a textbook However, many students not watch this part or watch but only pay attention to the meaning of the word without paying attention to the pronunciation or stress of the word About facilities: There is not any modern equipment such as laboratory or high classed rooms, which makes it difficult for the teachers and students to improve English teaching and learning Before doing the topic, I have done two surveys on students' understanding of stress and the current situation of teaching stress: - The first survey: is a survey on students' ability to use English stress in grades 7A and 7B at Canh Nang town secondary school I have given each student a five-question English stress questionnaire and asked them to it within minutes The words on the questionnaire were selected from unit of the 7th grade English program when students finished this lesson The questionnaire is as follows: Choose the word whose stress pattern is different from that of the rest A arranging B flower C collage D unique A unusual B gardening C skating D eggshell A strange B model C monopoly D surfing A strange B attention C melody D mountain A essential B fragile C pottery D climbing The results of each class are as follows (with percentages attached): Class Excellent good Medium Weak poor Number 3,3 3,3 29 15 48,4 16 34 2,9 5,9 10 29,4 17 50 11,8 65 3,1 4,6 19 29,2 32 49,2 13,9 Total % Number Number 31 % Number Amounts 2019 7A 2020 7B Number The School year % % % From the above results, it can be seen that only about 37% of students achieve the average or above with knowledge of stress and about 15% of students not correct any questions about stress After the students had finished their answers, I continued to ask some students to pronounce words on the ballot at random As a result, most of the children did not pronounce the word stress correctly, even if they answered all questions on the questionnaire correctly Thus, it can be seen that students' knowledge of stress is relatively weak Even those who understand the theory are weak in practice - The second survey: I have done a survey on the teaching situation of English language stress knowledge of English teachers at secondary schools at Canh Nang town After attending some lessons and through interviews, I noticed that teachers have mentioned stressing when teaching new words, but not often In the part “Pronunciation- A closer look 1” of the lessons Unit 9, Unit 10 and Unit 12 of grade 7, teachers only let students repeat words in the textbook, without any additional exercises or explanations about stress From the above situation, I have taken some measures to improve the ability of students to use English stress in grade The measures are divided into two parts: the first part includes measures taken during distributed English lessons and the second part includes measures taken during English extracurricular hours 2.3 Solution made to solve the problem 2.3.1 During English lessons: 2.3.1.1 Measure 1: Integrating word stress into the lessons I not teach separate lessons on word stress Instead, I often integrate it into their normal lessons The ideal time to focus students' attention on it is when introducing vocabulary That is, I quickly and simply elicit the stress pattern of the word from the students and mark it on the board I also guide students to use stress patterns as another way to organize and sort their vocabulary For example, in students’ vocabulary note-books they can have a section for nouns as follows: Word Oo oO Command Princess … Ooo Happiness Saturday … oOo Computer Unhappy … Table Noun Leather … 2.3.1.2 Measure 2: When speaking English in the class, I always pay attention to pronounce accent and intonation of words correctly to guide and create habits for students to listen English words correctly In order to this, I always have to practice my speaking skill properly in many ways such as: listening and practicing according to tape, using dictionary to look up words that I am not sure about, listening to broadcast programs in English on television or radio 2.3.1.3 Measure 3: This is the measure used in the part “Pronunciation- A closer look 1” of the lessons Unit 9, Unit 10 and Unit 12 Because the time for teaching word stress in each pronunciation period is only from 10 to 15 minutes, so there is only enough time for students to listen to tapes and repeat the pronunciation of words Teachers don't have time to explain to students some general rules regarding to word stress Therefore, students can only grasp the stress of words in the textbook Before part “Pronunciation- A closer look 1” of the lessons Unit 9, Unit 10 and Unit 12, I ask students to preview the “Word stress” at home, divide the class into groups of students and ask each group to find more words with similar stress patterns, write in the form of multiple-choice questions about stress in the sub-board first Each group prepares questions In class, I proceed to teach word stress as follows: - Firstly, I let students listen to the tape once time to recognize word stress and then ask students to repeat the tape twice - Secondly, I check the word stress positions to see if the students have mastered them - Thirdly, tell students to listen to the part "Practise reading aloud the sentences" and call some students to read it again - Finally, I organize groups to exchange sub-boards with each other, the exercises on those sub-boards 2.3.1.4 Measure 4: This is the most important measure of this topic based on the idiom "Practice makes perfect" Before each class, I prepare two multiple-choice questions about stress with the requirement “Choose the word whose stress is differently placed from the other words” The words chosen in these two questions are the words that will be used in that class These two questions can be written in advance on the extra board, or written on an electronic lecture to show on the projector At the end of each class, I spend from 30 seconds to minute for students answering the two questions and pronouncing the words in the two questions The student who correctly answers and pronounces the word stress will receive a reward point card 9 This card is used to add points for students to tests of 15 minutes, period or semester tests in proportion: + cards = point for the 15-minute test + cards = point for the 45-minute test + cards = point for the semester test This measure is administered in lessons of 12 units Thus, after each lesson, students will master the stress of words and after 72 lessons of 12 units, students have been practicing stress with 576 words When I take this measure, I find that students who want to answer correctly and read correctly will have to listen more attentively At the same time, the reward point card has the effect of stimulating students to pay attention to study and actively volunteer to answer questions Furthermore, it also helps students improve their scores in a legitimate way and helps teachers evaluate students more accurately In addition to the measures taken during the formal teaching hours, I also conduct a number of activities during the English extracurricular activity 2.3.2 During the English extracurricular activity: To help students easily memorize and deepen their knowledge of English word stress, I organized an extracurricular activity for students in grade with the theme “English word stress" This event will be held at the end of the second term, when the students have finished their semester exams The extracurricular session is organized as follows: 2.3.2.1 Prepare: - I divide the class into groups, assign each group to prepare a part of knowledge related to stress and accompanying exercises The knowledge content that needs to be prepared includes: + Stress in two-syllable words + Stress in three-syllable words + Stress in more than three-syllable words - Students need to prepare content for presentation on Powerpoint for convenience - I prepare some simple, easy-to-remember rules about word stress to give students at the end of the session - In addition, I prepare some small gifts to reward students 2.3.2.2 Perform: The extracurricular session is divided into three parts: theory, exercises and games and done within 90 minutes - The theory: I call the representatives of the groups to present the prepared knowledge, the other groups listen and ask questions for the group that has just presented After each group has finished their session, I correct the errors if any and summarize - Exercise part: Groups take turns to project their homework for other groups to The group with the fastest and most accurate answers will receive a reward 10 - Game part: + I divide the class into teams to play with symbols A, B, C, and D + Prepare chairs with numbers 1, 2, 3, These numbers correspond to the stressed syllable position of the word + Let teams draw the order number to play Four teams stood in line, each team in turn sent a member to participate in the game + Members of the first team play a word with or more syllables and members of the other teams quickly run to the seat with the number corresponding to the word stress position The person who reads the word and reads the word stress correctly and the person sitting in the correct seat will leave the row + The member of the team with the next number read another word and remaining members of the teams continue to find the right seat to sit The game continues until the team with all members removed from the row earliest becomes the winner and receives the prize At the end of the game, I give the students a handout with some simple and easy to remember stress rules The content of the handout is as follows: MỘT SỐ QUY TẮC VỀ TRỌNG ÂM TIẾNG ANH Với từ có âm tiết: - Trước tiên xác định từ loại nhớ hầu hết tính từ danh từ nhấn trọng âm âm thứ động từ nhấn âm thứ hai Ví dụ: MUsic, CENtral, comPOSE, preFER - Tuy nhiên, động từ kết thúc âm /∂ /, / i/ /∂u/ nhấn âm thứ Ví dụ: ENter, FInish, FOllow - Chú ý cặp danh từ động từ như: Verb: preSENT, exPORT Noun: PREsent, EXport Với từ có âm tiết: - Nhấn vào âm thứ âm thứ hai ba chứa nguyên âm ngắn với khơng có phụ âm Ví dụ: Everything, ANcestor, CInema, LIbrary - Nhấn vào âm thứ hai chứa nguyên âm dài nguyên âm đôi âm thứ ba chứa nguyên âm ngắn âm /∂u/ Ví dụ: poTAto, deVElop, surRENder - Nhấn vào âm thứ ba chứa ngun âm dài ngun âm đơi Ví dụ: guaranTEE, enterTAIN Các từ có chứa hậu tố có quy tắc để tìm trọng âm nên cần học thuộc số quy tắc sau: a Nhấn trọng âm trước đuôi hậu tố sau : 11 - ia + phụ âm: meMOrial, influENtial, phySIcian - io+ phụ âm: compeTItion, oPInion - ient, ience: efFIcient, conVEnience - nguyên âm + ous: mysTErious, couRAgeous - ual: indiVIdual - ic, ical: CLASsical, enerGEtic - ity, ify: uniVERsity, BEAUtify - ive, itive, itude: desTRUCtive, inFInitive, ATtitude - logy, graphy: biOlogy, geOgraphy - ant, ent, ance, ence: CONstant, dePENdent, atTENdance, indePENdence - ular, ure: REgular, adVENture b Nhấn trọng âm cách hậu tố đuôi sau âm tiết tính từ cuối lên: - ate: REgulate, conSOlidate - ize: aPOlogize, CRIticize - ary: SEcretary, voCAbulary c Chú ý: tra từ cần tra cách phát âm trọng âm quy tắc có ngoại lệ cần phải học thuộc lòng đồng thời luyện tập thường xuyên Ví dụ: aRITHmetic, NAturalize, eleMENtary, TElevision… Through the extracurricular session, I noticed that the students are very conscious of preparing the assigned content and most of the content is correct, the teacher does not need to fix much In the homework, they solve relatively well, proving that they have grasped the theory In the game, the children participated very enthusiastically and always found the right seat quickly 12 APPLYING THE MEASURES IN TEACHING UNIT 9: FESTIVALS AROUND THE WORLD LESSON 2: A CLOSER LOOK I OBJECTIVE: By the end of the lesson, Ss can use adverbial phrases correctly and appropriately The lexical items related to the topic “Festivals around the world” Pronounce two-syllable words with correct stress in isolation and in context Knowledge: a Vocabulary: The lexical items related to the topic “films” b Grammar: Ed and ing adjectives, connectors Skills: Practicing skills Attitude: - Positive about “Festivals around the world” - Students know how to learn English in right way - Ss are interested in doing exercises Competences: - Co-operation - Self- study - Using language to talk about “Festivals around the world” II PREPARATION: Teacher: book, planning, picture, laptop, projector Students: books, notebooks III TEACHING METHODS: Communicative approach, group Ss and T’s activities, play as a character, teaching methods with game, teaching methods by visual, teaching methods by practising, discussion group, technical present… IV PROCEDURE: Ss’ and T’s activities Warm up - T asks Ss some questions about festivals in their home village Vocabulary - T uses some techniques to present some new words - Checking the understanding by making sentences with the new words Contents - Ss answer I- Vocabulary celebratory (aj) mang tính kỷ niệm parade (n) diễu hành carnival (n) ngày hội joyful (aj) vui mừng adopt (v) kế tục 13 pumpkin (n) bí ngơ II Activities Activity 1 a - Ss work individually to complete the table and compare their answers with a partner - T plays the recording for Ss to check their answers a Can you complete the table below with appropriate verbs, nouns and adjectives? Listen and check your answers Key: celebration festive parade culture performance b Now complete the following b Have them read all the sentences sentences with the words from the and guess the part of speech of the table word to be filled in each blank Key: T comments on and confirms the festival celebrate correct answers celebrations culture parade Performers Activity 2: In groups, choose a festival Ss work in groups, Ss the Take turns to say the festival activity They choose one activity Example: and take turn to lengthen their A; I am going to Rio Carnival to sentences by adding the activities watch performers dance B: I am going to Rio Carnival to watch performers dance, and musicians play samba music … PRONUNCIATION T explains the rules: - T can give some examples to illustrate - Ss listen and repeat the words Look out! In two-syllable words the mark’ represents the stress syllable - Most nouns and adjs have two syllables: Stress falls on the first syllable - Most verbs have two syllables: Stress falls on the second syllable Exceptions: the sound / ə /, / i /,… hardly falling on 14 Key: Stress on st syllable: gather, picture, artist, lovely, famous Stress on nd syllable: relax, enjoy, hotel, describe, rename Have Ss read out the words first Activity Then play the recording a Circle the word with a different stress pattern from the others Then listen and check - Ss this exercise individually Key: first then compare their answers with balloon complete prepare a partner alone Tidy 5b Read the following sentences and mark “’” the stressed syllable in the underlined words ‘project ‘dancers a‘ttend ‘answer ‘music - T organizes groups to exchange Activity 4: In groups, exchange subsub-boards with each other boards with each other, the - Ss the exercises on those sub- exercises on those sub-boards boards 4.Further practice: - Lets sts summarize the content of - Sts summarize the content of the the lesson lesson 5.Production: -Learn new words and phrases - Sts listen and take note Prepare A closer look 15 UNIT 12: AN OVERCROWED WORLD LESSON: A CLOSER LOOK I OBJECTIVE: By the end of the lesson, Ss can: use the lexical items related to the topic of an overcrowded world Pronounce two-syllable words and three-syllable words with correct stress in isolation and in context Knowledge: a Vocabulary: the words to describe overcrowded places, words about the effects of overcrowding b Grammar: Comparisions of quanifiers, tag questions Skills: Practicing skills Attitude: - Attitude about overcrowed world - Students know how to learn English in right way - Ss are interested in the effects of overcrowding Competences: - Co-operation - Self- study - Using language to talk about the effects of overcrowding II PREPARATION: Teacher: book, planning, picture, laptop, projector Students: books, notebooks III TEACHING METHODS: Communicative approach, group Ss and T’s activities, play as a character, teaching methods with game, teaching methods by visual, teaching methods by practising, discussion group, technical present… IV PROCEDURE: Ss and T’s activities Contents Warm up Brainstorming: - Ask Ss if they can remember any new - Ss brainstorm words they learn in Getting Started Categorize them as positive (peaceful, wealthy…) and negative (poor, slums…) Move on to this lesson which focuses on some problem as a result of overpopulation Vocabuary: I New words Elicit the new words Dense (adj): dày đặc, đông đúc 16 shortage (n): thiếu hụt nutrition (n): dinh dưỡng malnutrition (n): suy dinh dưỡng spread (v): lan tràn, phát tán Practice Activity - Ss listen to the recording and number the words - Ss listen again and repeat the words II Activities Activity 1 Crime Poverty Disease - T checks the understanding of the Dense words by asking questions like: ‘Do you think our school has enough space?’; ‘What causes disease?’ Activity - Ss work individually T checks the answer as a class Encourage Ss to explain why they choose that word for the sentence Activity - T can give an example of causes and effects Write the example on the board and ask Ss which one is the effect - Ss work independently or in pairs When they have finished, let them exchange their answers with a partner/another pair T then gives correct answer T may ask Ss to explain why Activity - In groups, Ss discuss to fine out which problems each place may have T collects Ss’ answers and writes them on the board Then the whole class looks at the problems and discuss for agreement/disagreement Activity Healthcare Diseae poverty malnutrition shortage space healthcare crime Malnutrition Activity Eg: He fast drove a He had accident √ He felt hung1 b d c 6.e a f an Activity a Lack of entertainment, few opportunities for employment, not enough services b Poverty, slums, disease, pollution, unempoyment, poor healthcare c Noise/ air pollution, crime, 3.Pronunciation : Word stress shortage of Ss listen and mark the stressed overcrowded, syllables T corrects the answers accommodation Have Ss listen again and repeat the 17 Activity words Look out! Write two pair of the word ’supply’ s’pacious and ‘question’ on the board, denoting ‘stressful one is a verb and one is a noun Ask some Ss to read them Ask other Ss to In’crease listen and see if they can find the (v) difference in pronunciation of the two ‘shortage words Key: su’pply (n), su’pply (v); ‘question (n), ‘question (v) Have Ss listen and repeat the words Po’llution ‘poverty ‘hungry Nu’trition Su’pport ‘violence Di’sease ‘healthcare Activity As a noun As a verb ‘record ‘record ‘picture ‘picture ‘answer - T organizes groups to exchange ‘answer sub-boards with each other pa’rade - Ss the exercises on those sub- pa’rade boards Su’pport Su’pport 4.Further practice: - Lets sts summarize the content of Activity 7: In groups, exchange subthe lesson boards with each other, the 5.Production: exercises on those sub-boards -Learn new words and phrases Prepare for A closer look - Sts summarize the content of the lesson - Sts listen and take note y 18 2.4 The results after application of themmes To evaluate the results of the process of implementing the topic and have a comparison, I have tested the ability to find and correct pronunciation at the end of the second term at review in two classes: grade 7A and class 7B Students work on a 5-question multiple choice questionnaire in minutes Then, I checked the cards and got some students to read out the words on them The students being called could either be students who did all five correctly or students who did not get one correct The questionnaire is as follows: Choose the word whose stress pattern is different from that of the rest A negative B energy C dangerous D transport A electricity B footprint C plentiful D hydro A safety B pleasant C imaginative D Monowheel A metro B pollution C gridlocked D Skytrain A effect B diverse C density D spacious The results are listed in the following table: Weak poor 31 9,7 19,3 15 48, 16,1 6,4 7B 34 8,8 23,5 17 50 14,7 10 15,4 4,7 % 49, The quality of the students changed positively: Total Type Excellent good Medium Weak 65 9,2 14 21,5 32 % Number 7A % Number % Class Number Number Medium Number good Amounts The School year 2019 2020 Excellent Grade Class 7A Increased 6,4% Increased 13,05% Increased 19,4% Reduced 32,3% Class 7B Increased 5,9% Increased 17,6% Increased 20,6% Increased 35,3% % 19 Poor Reduced 9,55% Reduced 8,8% The results showed that the number of students correctly completing all five or four sentences was quite high When called to read, most students read the sentence correctly, which proves that they not only grasp the theory but also have good practice Happily, 10 students that I interviewed at the beginning of the school year have markedly improved speaking skills, especially stress Students speak with intonation quite fluently, confidently Conclusion and recommendation 3.1 Conclusion According to the subjective assessment of the subject, this experienced initiative has achieved the following criteria: - Regarding the content: the topic has focused on research and implementation associated with one of the current innovation requirements, which is renewing the content, subject teaching methods and testing and evaluation methods These innovations are consistent with industry innovation and meet the demands of practical learning and studying to take the exam - In terms of meaning: the successful implementation of the topic has created a new direction in the teaching of foreign languages in general and in teaching stress in particular Those are the principles in teaching and learning foreign languages: learning must be linked to practice, learning must be practiced regularly and learning must be associated with play to be effective - About efficiency: The process of implementing the topic shows that the topic has obtained quite high and sustainable results Teachers can it quite easily, without much effort and time This topic can be applied to perform with many different types of students and at different schools However, this topic may not avoid shortcomings in the implementation process, so I hope to receive valuable comments from colleagues 3.2 Recommendation 3.2.1 To the teachers: In order to attract their students, teachers of English should make their lesson more and more interesting That means the teachers should find out different methods to motivate students to learn and improve their knowledge of word stress If the techniques employed in the lessons are various and suitable, they will make their lessons easier to understand and more interesting for students to get involved then, error occurrence will reduce as much as possible The fact that most classes in Vietnam are large and heterogeneous is a matter for teachers to be concerned with They should choose suitable techniques for the levels of their students and start from building students‟ awareness of the importance of word stress to applying the right processes of teaching pronunciation from accuracy to fluency 3.2.2 To the school’s managers: To help teachers and students with teaching and learning stress better At a very starting point, the school board should equip and modernize their school with better devices helping develop students‟ language environment such as: 20 Computers, TV, videos, cassettes, lab-rooms Besides, sources of information should be more up-dated in order to help students have a basic knowledge of their target language Moreover, many sources on pronunciation should be available in the school library for teachers and students to seek necessary information whenever they want 3.2.3 To the course book designers: The course book designers should pay more attention to the role of pronunciation especially stress aspect provided in the text books for students As far as the researcher is concerned, all graders in Vietnam should have a chance to deal with stress, an important factor of one‟s intelligibility, which results in students‟ lack of concern in this field Therefore, graders even primary and secondary students should be taught the basic knowledge of stress with a view to improving their speaking as well as their language competence In addition, the new course books should be designed with more tape scripts read by native speakers, which brings to learners chances to listen and speak more besides reading and writing By that way, learners can imitate the pronunciations of English words more appropriately and properly As a consequence, learners find English stress more exciting and they will be more motivated in study 3.2.4 To the managers: Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training should hold training courses in teaching methods annually, Office of Education and Training of Ba Thuoc dictrict need to organize training sessions, thematic teachings to help English teachers in our province have an opportunity to learn, exchange experiences with each other Thank you very much for reading! Ba Thuoc, May 20 th, 2021 I assure that this is my innovative experience I not copy other people's content Principal Confirm The writer Nguyen Thi Yen 21 REFERENCES "English Phonetics and Phonology", Peter Roach, Cambrigde University Press “A Course in Language Teaching”, Penny Ur, Cambrigde University Press Grade English textbook - Education Publishing House Grade English Teacher book - Education Publishing House Grade English workbook - Education Publishing House English pronunciation practice and standard English speaking, Nguyen Huu Quyen, Mui Ca Mau Publishing House Pronounce it perfectly in English - Practice English pronunciation skills, Anh Dung- Thu Thao, (Translation and annotations) The Transport Publishing House 22 LIST OF INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE RANKED Writer: Nguyen Thi Yen Working unit: Canh Nang town Secondary school Level rank TT Name of innovative experience Some methods to consolidate vocabulary Province and structure for grade students at Canh Nang town secondary school type The school year B 2016- 2017 ... only focuses on the word stress and some measures to help grade students at Canh Nang town secondary school master English word stress Any attempt to study English word stress on other aspect is... survey on students' ability to use English stress in grades 7A and 7B at Canh Nang town secondary school I have given each student a five-question English stress questionnaire and asked them to it... on word stress to identify words Thus, incorrect word stress patterns can lead to miscommunication between non-native speakers and native speakers • Knowing the stress pattern of words will help