Common english pronunciation mistakes among lower secondary school students and solutions

A PROPOSITION I Reasons for choosing the topic English has been taught in secondary school in our country for more than twenty years with the considerable investment of the government, the direction of the ministry of Education and Training and in recent years with the development, coverage of the Internet, students can get access to the Internet to study online courses, online lessons It can not be denied that nowadays students have aquired a great deal of knowledge of English, they can reading, writing quite well However, their pronunciation is not good enough Many students are still affected by their mother tongue when speaking English As a consequence, they have much difficulties in communicate with foreigners and in exams their speaking skills and listening skills are not satisfactory Being a teacher of English at a secondary school in the countryside, I have been obsessed with this problem and spent much time reading reference books on teaching methodology as well as observed, sythesized the pronunciation mistakes that my students often makes during classroom activities I have found out solutions which in my opinion are really efficient in helping students improve their pronunciation I am happy to introduce my experience initiative to my dear colleagues with the title “Common English Pronunciation Mistakes among Secondary School Students and the Solutions” I hope this study will be helpful to my colleagues in dealing with their students’ difficulty in their study I would also like to receive positive reponses from all colleagues Sincerely thank you II Aim of the study My study is aimed at identifying common pronunciation mistakes among secondary school students and find solutions to improve the students’s pronunciation at Le Huu Lap Lower Secondary School III Scope of the study Given the aim set in above, the study can not cover all aspects of English pronunciation teaching and learning It only focuses on identifying common pronunciation mistakes and suggesting solutions to them IV Object of the study In doing this research, the writer would select students from class 9A, 9B and 9C at Le Huu Lap secondary school school year 2020-2021 V Researching methods On doing this research, I carried out the following methods and activities: - observatory method - analysis and synthesis method - identifying the problems - doing research with technical documents - working out the solutions - applying the solutions to solve the prolems - collecting data - analyzing the data - drawing conclusions - proposing suggestions - writing the report as a subject B Solutions I THEORITICAL BASES When I teach pronunciation to my students, find, correct their mistakes to improve their pronunciation, I have to base on the knowledge of English phonetics English phonetics is a wide theme but I prefer to summarize it as follow: 1- The international Phonetic Alphabet Vowels / i:/ eat, sea / ɪ / it, sit / e / head, ten / ӕ/ cat, bad / ɜ:/ prefer, nurse / ǝ / teacher, along / ʌ / bus, sun / ɑ: / car, park / ɒ, ɔ / dog, lock / ɔ: / door, four / ʊ / book, put / u: / two, spoon / ei / day, table / əʊ / hello, go / / fine, nice / aʊ / now, brown / ɔi / boy, noisy / iə / hear, dear / eə / chair, where / ʊə/ poor, sure Consonants / p / pen, help / b / bye, knob / t / take, visit / d / dog, good / k / can, cook / ɡ / good, smog / tʃ / chair, watch / dʒ/ village, job / m / man, alarm / n / name, nine / ŋ / sing, long / l / learn, wall / f / food, beef / v / very, five / Ɵ/ thin, both / ð / this, with / s / sock, nice / z / zoo, rise / r / right, wrong / ʃ / she, sure / ʒ / measure, pleasure / h / house, high / j / yes, yellow / w / wait, will Some phonological concepts 2.1 Vowel Vowel is a sound that ,when pronounced, the air stream coming out from the lung is not obstructed, and the sound is emitted evenly namely i:, e , ǝ , ɔ:, u: , English has three types of vowels: front vowels, central vowels, and back vowels A vowel in English can be a long one such as / ɑ: / , / i: / or can be a short one such as / ʌ /, / ʊ / 2.2 Dipthong Dipthong is a sound which starts with a vowel and then moves to another vowel For instance, / ɔi / starts from / ɔ/ and moves to / i / It means that a dipthong is not the addition of two vowels 2.3 Consonant Consonant is a sound which, when pronounce, the air stream coming out from the lung is obstructed such as / d / , / ɡ / , / s / , / f / In English there are sounds that make explosion are called explosive sounds such as / p / , / t / , / k / , / ɡ / , / d / or make fricative sounds such as / f / , / ʒ / , / ð / or make nasal sounds such as / m / , / n / , / ŋ / 2.4 Consonant cluster Consonant cluster is two consonants that stand closely and are pronounced as a sound For instance, / pl / in “please” , / kl / in “cloud” , / br / in “bring” , / sp / in “speak” These are two-consonant clusters English also has three-consonant clusters such as / spr / in “spring”, / str / in “street” , / spl / in “splash” 2.5 Voiced sound & voiceless sound Voiced sound is a sound which, when pronounced, the vocal cords vibrate On the contrary, the sounds which, when pronounced, the vocal cords not vibrate are voiceless sounds such as / ʃ / , / s / , / k /, / p /, / t /, / f /… The four pronunciation criteria of English - Good pronunciation : this is the demand to pronounce correctly single sounds (vowels & consonants) and word stress - Natural speech: speaking English with natural accent which includes speaking speed, and intonation - Natural rhythm: the characteristic of English is sentence rhythm, which is the regular pause between stressed syllables in a sentence - Natural intonation: intonation expresses feelings in communication It can alter the meaning of a sentence II- PRACTICAL BASES Hau Loc is a poor coastal district where the inhabitants mainly earn their livings by fishing and farming There are few factories and no industrial zones, so the economic condition is not good I have been teaching English for over twenty years in Le Huu Lap lower secondary school, which is a high quality one of the district, but I have found that most of my students not have computers at home and can not get access to the Internet to learn English until recent years Therefore, they often make a lot of pronunciation mistakes when speaking English Their common pronunciation mistakes can be listed as follow: - speaking English without ending sounds - mistaking English sounds for Vietnamese sounds - speaking with no word stress or incorrect stress - speaking without linking sounds - speaking with no intonation and natural rhythm III- IMPLEMENTATION SOLUTIONS 1- The steps to teach pronunciation to students In order to get the best result, it is advisable for the teacher to follow four steps when teaching pronunciation to students as follow: Step 1: Knowledge Building (KB) The teacher provides knowledge of pronunciation for students such as the English IPA, word stress, sentence stress, sound linking and intonation This step helps students understand the way to make a sound and thanks to this, students can be aware of it when they start their drills However, they should be provided with simple knowledge of making sounds, for example, the sound / ɑ: / is a round-lipped, long sound which is pronounced deep in the throat The sound / p / is a double-lip-clenched sound and suddenly bursts out sharply The / Ɵ/ sound is the sound pronounced by putting the tip of the tounge between the teeth and then pushing the air slightly out evenly and quickly indents the tongue Step 2: Mechanical Drill (MD) Practice pronouncing in the way of immitation, mainly by listening and repeating the sounds Step 3: Identification (ID) The teacher helps students to identify sounds in a chain of speech by listening to a record, it can be a phrase or a sentence For instance, ask students to identify the number of sound / ɑ: / in this sentence: He bought his car in Car Garden Step 4: Production (PR) This step helps students pronounce the sounds correctly It is requested in the drill for each couple of students to make a mini dialogue of two or four sentences which contains the sound they are drilling For example, if we are helping them to drill the sound / ɑ: /, the drill exercise can be: A: Is your dog barking in the garden? (there two sound / ɑ: /) B: No It’s Carthy’s dog (there is one sound / ɑ: /) Identification of the English sounds often mistaken for Vietnamese sounds If the teacher can identify the sounds that students often mistake and pronounce like Vietnamese sounds, he/ she can help their students pronounce more correctly I have identified the following sounds which are often pronounced like Vietnamese sounds: - sound / ɑ: / : students often pronounce like a in Vietnamese, but in English the sound / ɑ: / is a round-lipped, long sound and often pronouced deep in the throat - the two sounds / e / and / ӕ/ are often mistaken for sound e in Vietnamese + The sound / e / as in the words set, bed is pronounced with the lips closed more + the sound / ӕ/ is not available in Vietnamese - the sounds / ɔ: / and / ɒ, ɔ / are often pronounced like o in Vietnamese - the two sounds / ɜ:/ and / ǝ / are often pronounced like in Vietnamese - the two sounds / i:/ and / ɪ / are pronounced like i in Vietnamese - the two sounds / ʊ / and / u: / are pronounced like u in Vietnamese - the sound / ei / is pronounced like ây in Vietnamese - the sound / əʊ / is often pronounced âu, ô in Vietnamese - the sound / eə / is pronounced like e in Vietnamese - the consonant / Ɵ/ is pronounced like th in Vietnamese - the sound / ð / is pronounced like d in Vietnamese - the sounds / d / , / ɡ / , / k /, / p /, / tʃ / , / dʒ/, / ʒ / are often pronounced like đ, g, c , ch, d in Vietnamese - the consonant clusters : / pl / , / kl /, / br / , / sp / , / spr /, / str / , / spl / are often added / ǝ / and pronounced as / pǝl / , / kǝl /, / bǝr / , / sǝp / , /sǝpǝr /, / sǝtr / , / spǝl / 3- Teaching English vowels 3.1- Single vowels: Teacher should look up information in this table before carrying on the first step KB • The table of description of vowels: No Sound / i:/ /ɪ/ /e/ / ӕ/ / ɜ:/ /ǝ/ /ʌ/ / ɑ: / / ɒ, ɔ / Description front, close, unrounded, long front, close, unrounded, short front, half-open, unrounded front, open, unrounded front (central), half-open, unrounded, long front (central), half-open, unrounded, short front (central), open, unrounded, short back, open, rounded, long back, half-open, rounded, short Comment In English there is a differentiation between short and long vowels / ɔ: / /ʊ/ / u: 10 11 12 back, open, rounded, long back, half-open, rounded, short back, close, rounded, long Notes: Remind students to differentiate between letters and sounds, for example, letter a is pronounced / ɑ: / in the word “bark” , / ei / in the word “day” , /ɔ:/ in the word “wall” , / ӕ/ in the word “man”, / ǝ / in the word “attend” * Drill : The following drill is a model of vowel drilling exercise It is recommended that in the second step (MD), the tip lengthen the sound is used in three steps: lengthen for seconds (counting 1-2-3) , and then shorten to seconds (counting 1-2) and finally, read with natural speed Teaching the sound / ɑ: / KB : Teacher: the sound / ɑ: / is pronounced with open, rounded lips and deep in the throat MD : Students: - Listen and repeat their teacher or CD - lengthen the sound / ɑ: / in the word for three seconds: Father / f ɑ: ɑ: ɑ: ð ǝ/ Market / m ɑ: ɑ: ɑ: r k ɪ t / Hard / h ɑ: ɑ: ɑ: r d / - shorten the sound / ɑ: / in the word in two seconds: Father / f ɑ: ɑ: ð ǝ/ Market / m ɑ: ɑ: r k ɪ t / Hard / h ɑ: ɑ: r d / - pronounce naturally: Father / fɑ:ðǝ/ Market / mɑ:rkɪt / Hard / hɑ:rd / ID : Ask students to listen English sentences and identify the / ɑ:/ sound in each sentence 1- My father is a car washer 2- He draws a shark 3- After class, she rushed to the market 4- The dog barks and the giraffe “Grr” 5- He works hard at exam Key: 1- father, car shark Class, market Barks, giraffe hard PR : ask students to work in pairs, making a question and an asnwer, each sentence contains at least one sound /ɑ:/ Example: John: Barking dog doesn’t bite Jane: But that dog barks and bites 3.2 – Dipthongs: Dipthongs are not the addition of two vowels, but they are made up of two unequal vowels The first vowel is the main sound which is pronounced fully The second vowel is the direction of the first one For example, / ɑɪ/ start pronouncing /ɑ:/ , and then close gradually and move to /ɪ/ /ɑɑɑɑɪ/ Drill: The following drill is a model of dipthongs drilling exercise Remember that in the second step ,MD, the tip lengthening the sound in three steps is applied However, it is important that we should lengthen the first vowel, not the second one Teaching the dipthong / ei / - KB: the sound / ei / starts with the main full sound /e / , and then close gradually and move to /ɪ/ The words which express this sound is usually a, ei - MD: + pronounce and lengthen the sound / e / in three seconds may / meee…ɪ/ fail / feee…ɪl/ place /pleee…ɪs/ + pronounce and lengthen the sound / e / in two seconds may / mee…ɪ/ fail / fee…ɪl/ place / plee…ɪs/ + pronounce naturally: may / meɪ/ fail / feɪl/ place /pleɪs/ - ID: ask students to listen to sentences and identify the sound / eɪ/ in each sentence 1- It takes me forty-eight minutes to get ready 2- He’s made a good cake 3- Why did you wake me up? 4- They’ve changed the timetable 5- There are eighty-eight cakes on the same plate Key: 1- take, eight 2- made, cake 3- wake 4- changed, timetable 5- eighty, eight, cake, same, place - PR: Ask students to make a question and an answer which contains at least one sound / eɪ/ in each sentence For example: Mary: What is its make? What make is it? Kate : Spain 4- Teaching consonants: 4.1 Consonants: An important point in English is that consonants can stand at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a word and they are all pronounced For example, the word “book” contains two consonants: /b/ at the beginning and /k/ at the end, both of the consonants must be pronounced clearly, or the word “help” contains three consonants : /h/ at the beginning, /l/ in the middle and /p/ at the end, these three consonants must be pronounced clearly 10 Among English consonants, some of them can be long, such as / f, v, s, ʃ, Ɵ/ , but some can not be lengthened namely /b, d, g, k, l , t / Therefore we can not use the tip lengthening as with vowels However, we still use the four- step method Drill 1: This is a model drill to help students practise consonants: The consonant /g/ : - KB : pronounce in the throat, but burst into an explosion, the throat vibrates, so it is a voiced sound - MD: ask students to listen and repeat: go / gəʊ/ ; together / tə’geðǝ/ ; bag / bӕg / - ID: ask students to listen to five sentences and identify the sound /g/ in each sentence 1- I got to work at nine today 2- Let’s play a game 3- Go and get the toy-guard 4- Jingle bell 5- Guess where he is going Key: 1- got 2- game 3- go, get, guard 4- jingle 5- Guess, going - PR: Ask students to make a question and an answer, there must be at least one sound /g/ in each sentence For example: Mary: Let’s play a guessing game! Kate: I’m sorry, I haven’t got time for that Drill 2: For the two consonants / Ɵ/ , / ð / we can use the special drill as follow: - Step 1: Swallow saliva - Step 2: swallow saliva and immediately push the tip of the tongue between the teeth Note that the lower lip must not touch the tongue - Step 3: push the air out evenly to make the sound / Ɵ Ɵ Ɵ/ or / ð ð ð/ 11 - Step : Still push the air out, suddenly pull back the tongue quickly This action will produce the sound / Ɵ/ or / ð / Drill 3: /ʃ/, /ʒ/ Tip : curl your tongue, round your lips, and push air out This action will produce these two sounds This tip can be applied to teach two sounds /tʃ / and /dʒ / 4.2- Consonant clusters: In English, some consonants go together and read as a sound For example: /kl / in cloud, claim or /fl / in fly, fleet The sounds like these are called consonant cluster English has two kinds of consonant clusters: two-consonant clusters ( which include the sounds with two components such as /st/ in stop, / Ɵr / in throw) and three-consonant clusters include the sounds with three components such as /spr/ in spring and /skr/ in scream Vietnamese learners often make mistake by insert the schwa / ə/ or / ɪ / in the middle of a consonant cluster Common consonant clusters: / sp/ / st / / sk/ / sl / / sm/ / sn/ / sf / /sq/ / ʃr / / pl / / pr / / fr/ / Ɵr / / kr / /gr / Two-consonant clusters Three-consonant clusters spat, spoon / spr / spring, sprat stop, steam / spl / splash, splendid scot, skip / skr / script, scrash slim, slang smart, small snow, snail sphere square, squid shrink, shrug please, plunge prime, practice frame, fruit throw, thrift cream, crash growth, green Tips: the main tip to teach these clusters is to start with the first consonant, move to the second sound as quickly as possible Drill 1: teach the cluster / Ɵr / 12 - Step 1: read two sounds / Ɵ… … r / separately at an interval of two seconds - Step 2: read two sounds / Ɵ…r / separately at an interval of one second - Step 3: read two sounds together continually : / ƟrƟrƟrƟrƟr / - Step 4: read in the word throw as follow: / ƟrƟr…/ ƟrƟrəʊ/ …/ ƟrƟr…/ ƟrƟrəʊ/ - Step 5: read naturally : / Ɵrəʊ/ … / Ɵrəʊ/ Beside the above drill, we can use the minimal pair drill, for example : pin – bin, zeal – seal This is the model to make minimal pair drills: p – b : pea – bee; pin-bin ; peg-beg; t - dʒ : jape- tape; tin- gin ; tail- jail ʃ - s : show-sew ; sheet – seat ʃ - ʒ : ruche - rouge tʃ - dʒ : chain-Jane; cheap- jeep t - tʃ: top-chop; tin – chin; two -chew g – ŋ: wig- wing; tug – tongue ʃ - z : shoe -zoo; shed - zed ʃ - Ɵ: shore – thaw; sheaf - thief dʒ- g: jig – gig ; jot - got 5- Word stress Word stress is the typical characteristic of English because English is a stresstimed language Therefore it is important to teach students how to pronounce word stress correctly by teaching them the common word stress rules * 11 common word stress rules: - Two-syllable verbs : the second syllable is often stressed Ex: begin /bɪ’gɪn/ ; agree / ə’gri: / ; invite / ɪn’vait/ - Two – syllable nouns and adjectives: the first syllable is often stressed Ex: father /’fɑ:ðǝ/ ; happy / ‘hӕpɪ/ - Compound nouns: the first syllable is often stressed Ex: typewriter /’tɑɪprɑɪtǝ/ ; greenhouse / ‘gri:nhɑʊs/ - Compound verbs: the second syllable is often stressed Ex: become /bɪ’kʌm / ; - Two-syllable words starting with a, stress often falls on the second syllable 13 Ex: about / ǝ’bɑʊt/ ; above / ǝ’bʌv / - The words ending with – ety, -ity, -ion , -sion, - cial , - ical, – ious , -eous, -ian , - ior , -iar, -ience, - iency, -ient, - ic, - ible , uous, - graphy, -ular , - logy stress falls on the syllable right before these tails Ex: decision /dɪ’sɪʒǝn/ ; librarian / lɑɪ’brӕrɪǝn / - The words ending with -ate, - cy , -ty, - phy , - gy has two syllable, stress falls on the first syllable and if they have three syllables or more, stress falls on the third syllable backwards from the end Ex: technology /tek’nɒlǝdʒɪ/ ; classmate / ‘klɑ:smeɪt/ - Words end with – ade, - ee, - ese, - ir, -eer, - oo, - oon, - ain, -esque, isque, -aire, -mental, - ever, -self, stress falls on these tails Ex: lemonade /lemǝ’neɪd /; Chinese / tʃɑɪ’ni:z/ - Stress falls on these sounds : sist, cur , vert, test, tain, tract, vent, self Ex: assist / ǝ’sɪst/ ; occur / ǝ’kɜ: r/ - Stress does not fall on weak sound / ǝ / or / ɪ / - Stress does not fall on prefixes or suffixes Drill 1: Listen and repeat (Mechanical drill) It’s a company/ that develops/ cultural and educational activities// They have been successful/ in organizing / many important events// Drill 2: Odd one out Circle the word which has a different stress pattern from the others’ A- theatre B- amazing C- national D- rapidly A- reception B- directive C- conduction D- changeable C- education D- disappointed Drill 3: Listen and mark the stress A- academic B- complusory A- dictionary B- commercially C- electronic D- institution Drill 4: Mark the stress of these words, using common word stress rules and then look up in the dictionary to check A- modernization B- communicative C- technologically D- engineer 6- Ending sounds 14 In English, when we pronounce a word, we pronounce every sound separately and therefore ending consonants must be pronounced In Vietnamese, however, we combine all the letter in that word to make a sound, so we not pronounce the ending consonants This is why students often omit the ending consonants when speaking English They are affected by their mother tongue To help students overcome this mistake, the teacher can help them some drills For example: Drill 1: - ask students to pronounce these words: five - fine - fight - file - Explain to them that the difference of these words is in their ending sound: five /fɑɪv/ - fine / fɑɪn / - fight /fɑɪt / - file / fɑɪl / 7- Sound linking In English when people speak at natural speed, sound linking phenomenon occurs There are three kinds of sound linking in English - Vowel – vowel : this happens when the vowel at the end of the preceeding word glides the vowel at the beginning of the following word It is called sound gliding For example: Do I ; who are ; how often ; the end - Consonant -Vowel : This happens when a consonant at the end of the preceeding word links to the vowel at the beginning of the word coming after It is called sound linking For example: Come on ; turn off ; once a week - Consonant – consonant: This happens when a consonant at the end of the preceeding word and a consonant beginning of the word coming after This is called sound assimilation For example: About town ; let them ; get together ; should Drill 1: Listen and repeat - An office can be an - My sister works as interesting place to work a secretary 15 - She has a lot of time off Drill 2: Back chaining : Ex: It’s eleven o’clock O’clock eleven o’clock It’s eleven It’s eleven o’clock 8- Intonation English intonation is a complicated system People can use intonation to change the meaning of a sentence For example: - He’s out Falling intonation means affirmation - Ông ta vắng - He’s out Low rising intonation means as a question-Ông ta vắng à? - He’s out High rising intonation means a surprise, a doubt- ông ta vắng á? Sao ông ta lại vắng vào nhỉ? There are five basic intonation in English: a) falling used in statements b) low rising used in Yes-No questions c) high rising use to express surprise d) rising falling use to confirm an information e) falling rising use to express surprise Since the complication of the English intonation, I only taught three basic intonations to my students: - Falling intonation for statements and Wh-questions - Low rising intonation for Yes/No questions - High rising intonation for expressing doubt or surprise Drill: KB: Explain the situation of the conversation, analize the characters’ emotion Ex: Mary: Were you out of town yesterday? (yes/no question – low rising) John: No, I was at home ( statement – falling) Mary: But I couldn’t catch you by the phone (express suspicion – high rising ) 16 John : Really? ( surprise – high rising) MD: ask students to listen and repeat the conversation ID: ask students to listen to the following conversation and mark the intonation: A: Do you want to play? B: Yes What I have to ? A: You have to ride a horse to climb a rockface B: Ride a horse? Climb a rockface? Oh! PR: ask students to work in pairs to make a conversation and practise it IV TESTING After applying the above initiatives in teaching the students of class 9A, 9B, 9C during the first semester of school year 2020-2021, I have achieved very positive results as follow: - Students’ pronunciation has been improved a lot They can overcome most of the common mistakes and speak English with correct word stress, sentence stress, sound linking and natural intonation - They have been more confident to use English in classroom activities and communicating with their classmates and the teacher - They can pronunciation exercises in their tests very well - They have become more interested in learning English, so their first term results have been much better than those of last school year These are the specific results: * The results of the second term of 2019-2020 school year: Class 9A 9B 9C Total Total number of students 37 38 37 112 Good Fair No % No 15 29 16,2 39,4 21,6 25,9 20 20 19 59 % Average No 54 11 52,6 51,3 10 52,6 26 weak % No 29,8 8,0 27,0 21,5 0 0 % Poor N o % 0 0 17 * The results of the first term of 2020-2021 school year: Class 9A 9B 9C Total Total number of students 37 38 37 112 Good Fair Average weak No % No % No % No 12 25 13 50 32,4 65,7 35,1 44,6 20 13 21 54 54,0 34,3 56,7 48,2 13,6 8,2 7,2 0 0 % Poor N o % 0 0 C CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1- Conclusion When we learn a foreign language, how to pronounce correctly and nearer to native speakers is very difficult The effect of our mother tongue on our pronunciation and speaking skill is unavoidable When the teacher is aware of this problem, he / she will be able to put himself/herself in his/her students’ position Therefore, he/ she can identify their students’ difficulty and problems in learning English and find out solutions to help their students overcome difficulty Moreover, the teacher shouldn’t be too strict about his/her students’s mistakes The teacher should pay compliments and encourage his/her students, so they can be more confident and overcome the fear of making mistakes Therefore students will be more interested in learning English As a result, their study will be more effective My experience initiative is not really a scientific research, but it comes from the real situations from which I can draw experience after many years of teaching English This is both my experience as a teacher of English and as an English learner as well, but I think that it still has limitations that need removing Therefore, I am very happy to receive postive responses and 18 comments from my colleagues to make my experience initiative more perfect Sincerely thank you! 2- Recommendations * Recommendations to the School Managing Board: - invest more money to buy reference books for teachers and students to teach and study and buy more teaching aids such as CD players, - organize English speaking club for students to join to improve their English - organize field trips to landmarks, tourist attractions for students, so that they have more chances to practise speaking English with foreigners * Recommendations to the teachers of English: - teachers should spend more time studying teaching methodology as well as applying teaching methods in classes - teachers should encourage students to speak English more in classes and be ready to accept students’ pronunciation mistakes Moreover teahers should not be too strict about students’t mistakes Let them correct their mistakes over time * I hereby declare that this research is my own experience initiative not to copy others’content Hau Loc , March 15th 2021 Written by: Nguyen Van Khoa 19 REFERENCES Practical handbook of language teaching - David Cross A course in language teaching - Practical and Theory - Penny Ur Cambrige university press Kĩ thuật dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh trung học – Nguyễn Quốc Hùng – NXB Giáo Dục Việt Nam Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh Trung học sở - Nguyễn Hạnh Dung English language teaching Methodology of The Ministry of Education and Training Ngữ âm học – Âm vị học tiếng Anh – Peter Roach – NXB Trẻ 20 TABLE OF CONTENTS page A PROPOSITION I Reasons for choosing the topic …………………………………… II Aim ………………………………………………………………… III Scope of the study ………………………………………………… IV Object of the study ……………………………………………… V Researching methods ……………………………………………… B SOLUTIONS I THEORITICAL BASES ………………………………………… 1- The international Phonetic Alphabet ……………………………… 2 Some phonological concepts ……………………………………… 2.1 Vowel ……………………………………………………………… 2.2 Dipthong …………………………………………………………… 2.3 Consonant ……………………………………………………………3 2.4 Consonant cluster ………………………………………………… 2.5 Voiced sound & voiceless sound …………………………………… 21 The four pronunciation criteria of English ………………………… II- PRACTICAL BASES ……………………………………………… III- IMPLEMENTATION SOLUTIONS …………………………… 1- The steps to teach pronunciation to students ……………………… Identification of the English sounds often mistaken for Vietnamese sounds …………………………………………………………………… 3- Teaching English vowels ……………………………………………….7 3.1- Single vowels ………………………………………………………… 3.2 – Dipthongs …………………………………………………………… 4- Teaching consonants ………………………………………………… 4.1 Consonants …………………………………………………………… 4.2- Consonant clusters …………………………………………………… 11 5- Word stress ……………………………………………………………… 13 6- Ending sounds …………………………………………………………… 14 7- Sound linking …………………………………………………………… 15 8- Intonation ………………………………………………………………… 16 IV- TESTING …………………………………………………………………17 C CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1- Conclusion ………………………………………………………………… 18 2- Recommendations ……………………………………………………… 18 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………….……20 22 Ý KIẾN NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ VÀ XẾP LOẠI CỦA HỘI ĐỒNG KHOA HỌC CƠ SƠ …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Ngày ……tháng ……năm 2021 Chủ tịch hội đồng 23 ... encourage students to speak English more in classes and be ready to accept students? ?? pronunciation mistakes Moreover teahers should not be too strict about students? ??t mistakes Let them correct their mistakes. .. teachers and students to teach and study and buy more teaching aids such as CD players, - organize English speaking club for students to join to improve their English - organize field trips to landmarks,... difficulty and problems in learning English and find out solutions to help their students overcome difficulty Moreover, the teacher shouldn’t be too strict about his/her students? ??s mistakes The