(Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm) difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in language focus periods – english 11 and some solutions

NGUYỄN VĂN THÀNH DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PRONUNCIATION IN LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS – ENGLISH 11 AND SOME SOLUTIONS (KHÓ KHĂN TRONG DẠY VÀ HỌC NGỮ ÂM TRONG CÁC TIẾT DẠY “LANGUAGE FOCUS” SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11 VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP) TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY AIMS OF THE STUDY METHODS OF THE STUDY SCOPE OF THE STUDY PART 2: DEVELOPMENT I Definition of pronunciation II An overview of the situation of teaching and learning English at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School 2.1 Learners 2.2 Teachers 2.3 The textbook III SOME SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING PRONUNCIATION IN “LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS – ENGLISH 11” AT HA HUY TAP UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL 3.1 Amount of exposure 3.2 Attitudes and motivation 3.3 The time for each lesson 3.4 Techniques for practice stage IV.SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES ARE USED IN PRONUNCIATION PERIODS FOR GRADE 11 AT HA HUY TAP UPPER HIGH SCHOOL PART 3: CONCLUSION 27 Conclusions of the study 27 Limitations of the study 27 Suggestions for further study 27 REFERENCES 28 APPENDIX 1: PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA NGHIÊN CỨU CHO HỌC SINH 30 APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE FOR TEACHERS 36 APPENDIX 3: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET 41 PART 1: INTRODUCTION RATIONALE OF THE STUDY The importance of English has been admitted all over the world by the large numbers of people using it as either the official language or the primary language English is considered as the third most common primary language in the world In Vietnam as well, English is becoming one of the vital keys to get success in their life Nowadays, English has become one of the compulsory subjects at school from primary to upper-high school In order to use English effectively, pronuciation should be paid attention more to reduce the limitation of communication among vietnamese students because of their lack of confidence in pronunciation Moreover, as being seen from the fact , pronuciation is paid less attention compared with vocabulary, grammar and language skills in language teaching and learning English at upper- secondary school Therefore, students are often shy and unconfident to speak english They are usually afraid of pronouncing incorrectly So, how difficult are students facing with when they learn pronucition? What activities should be used to teach pronucition effectively? How should teachers make students become interested in learning pronunciation? They are burning questions for many teachers of English The answers to these questions will help teachers improve students’ pronunciation knowledge and help them to make progress in communication For the above reasons, I decide to investigate “Difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation in Language Focus periods – English 11 and some solutions” AIMS OF THE STUDY This study mainly focused on the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in Language Focus periods – English 11 and solutions to help them overcome these difficulties In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are posed for exploration as follows: - To find out the attitudes of teachers and learners towards in teaching and learning pronunciation at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School - To find out the difficulties and the causes of difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation - To find out how pronunciation components are taught at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School METHODS OF THE STUDY In order to fulfill the tasks as mentioned above, a certain data about the attitudes of teachers and students as well as the difficulties and causes of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School were collected and analyzed To collect data for the research, a survey questionnaire were delivered to teachers and 100 grade 11 students at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School Some observation and interviews with some teachers and students were also conducted for supplementary information After that, the results obtained from questionnaires and observation were discussed then some useful pronunciation teaching techniques were recommended SCOPE OF THE STUDY There are a number of difficulties in teaching and learning English at upper – secondary school However, as this study is concerned with teaching and learning pronunciation in Language focus periods – English 11 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT I Definition of pronunciation The notion of "pronunciation" has been defined in different ways by many writers Ur (1996: 47) defines that "The concept of "pronunciation" may be said to include sounds of the language or phonology; stress and rhythm; intonation; combination of sounds; linkage of sounds" Dalton, (1994: 3) describes pronunciation in general term "as the production of significant sound in two senses First, sound is significant because it is used as part of a code of a particular language In this sense we can talk about pronunciation as the production and reception of sounds of speech Second, sound is significant because it is used to achieve meaning in contexts of use Here the code combines with other factors to make communication possible In this sense we can talk about pronunciation with reference to acts of speaking" In this paper, the author has no intention of pointing out which definition of pronunciation is the most precise but she only wishes to find an appropriate definition facilitating the understanding of pronunciation in language study Therefore, the definition of pronunciation proposed by Ur (1996) is adopted II An overview of the situation of teaching and learning English at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School 2.1 Learners There are about 500 students of grade 11 in my school Most of the students have learnt English for at least years, since they were at grade Some of them have learnt English since they were in primary school Two thirds of them learn English as a compulsory subject Some learn English to get scholarship to study abroad The others study English more deeply to take the exam to university In general, the majority of the students like learning English and have a good general knowledge of English Many students are capable of speaking English fluently As a result, 10% gets mark to 10, 30% gets mark to 9, 55% gets mark to 8, and 5% gets mark to 6, 0% gets mark below Some students get high mark in IELTS and TOFEL exam and have scholarship to study abroad However, teaching and learning English at Ha Huy Tap Secondary School have some difficulties Most of the classes are rather big in comparison with an ordinary class for a class of English, about 40 students Furthermore, there is not any lab room for studying a foreign language In addition to that, students hardly have opportunities to communicate with native speakers 2.2 Teachers There are 10 teachers of English in Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School Three of the teachers are from 25 to 43 years old, three have just finished an MA course, one is following MA course, and the other teachers graduated from Hanoi national university and Vinh univesity Among these teachers, five of the teachers are rewarded as the best teachers of Nghe An province They have sucessfully passed the exams for the talented teachers of Nghe An education and training department All the teachers are very enthusiastic with teaching and want to improve the quality of English teaching and learning 2.3 The textbook We have been using the text book - English 11 for two years There are many changes in this new text book in comparison with the old text book This text book has four lessons focus on four skills such as Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing Especially, Pronunciation is also introduced in this text book However, it is only one small part in the Language Focus lessons About 10 to 15 minutes are spent for Pronunciation in each unit There are 16 units in the text book and they focus on the pronuciation of consonants including single consonant and clusters consonants There are two main activities of practicing: Listen and repeat individual words and Practice reading sentences Following is the table of contents of the pronunciation components and activities in each unit: Table 1: Pronunciation components and activities in each unit Pronunciation components Unit The pronunciation consonant of /ʤ/ - /tʃ/ Unit The pronunciation consonant The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences of the - Listen and repeat phrases - Practice reading question and answer /kl/ - /gl/ -/kr/ -/gr/ -/kw/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /tr/ - /dr/ - /tw/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /pl/ - /bl/ - /pr/ - /br/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /w/ - /j/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /l/ - /r/ - /h/ Unit the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /m/ - /n/ - /ɳ/ Unit Techniques and activities of the - Listen and repeat phrases - Practice reading sentences /fl/ -/fr/ -/θr/ Unit The pronunciation consonant of the - Listen and repeat phrases - Practice reading sentences /sp/ -/st/ -/sk/ Unit 10 The pronunciation consonant of the - Practice reading sentences of the - Listen and practice reading sentences /sl/-/sm/-/sn/-/sw/ Unit 11 The pronunciation consonant /ʃr/-/spr/-/spl/ Unit 12 The pronunciation consonant - Mark the primary stress over stress syllables and practice reading sentences of /str/-/skr/-/skw/ Unit 13 The pronunciation consonant - Practice reading sentences of /pt/-/bd/-/ps/-/bz/ Unit 14 The pronunciation consonant The pronunciation consonant of The pronunciation consonant /ft/-/vd/-/fs/-vz/ the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences of /nt/-/nd/-/nθ/-/ns/-/nz/ Unit 16 the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences /ts/-/dz/-/ tʃt/-/ʤd/ Unit 15 the - Listen and repeat individual words the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences of the - Listen and repeat individual words - Practice reading sentences All the pronunciation components in English 11 are very important and necessary for students to produce actual speech However, during the teaching and learning process, both teachers and students face up with many difficulties How can they overcome the difficulties? Some questions have been proposed to solve these problems III SOME SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING PRONUNCIATION IN “LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS – ENGLISH 11” AT HA HUY TAP UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL Based on the findings stated above, some suggestions for improving pronunciation teaching and learning in “Language focus periods – English 11” at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School There are many causes of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation, however, amount of exposure, short time and boring and monotonous practice activities in the textbook has the strongest agreement So some suggestions based on the factors affecting pronunciation teaching and learning process are given as followed: 3.1 Amount of exposure It is difficult to get an accurate picture of how much exposure to English a person should have, then the learner is surrounded by English and this constant exposure should affect pronunciation skills In our teaching and learning environment, students have little chance to communicate to native speakers So that teachers should create a native–like language environment in their own classes Both teachers and students have to communicate to each other in English In addition, teachers had better provide students with more listening exercises especially listen to conversations and practice them 3.2 Attitudes and motivation The learner's attitude and motivation towards the language they are learning or going to learn also affects the process of learning pronunciation Their positive attitudes and motivation will help students a lot in learning this language, including learning its pronunciation So that teachers should help students aware of the importance of learning pronunciation What is more, teachers need to make the pronunciation lessons more comfortable and interesting by using different techniques such as reading, listening, playing games 3.3 The time for each lesson The time for each pronunciation in English 11 is fixed; we can not lengthen it So that teachers should be wise to carefully consider which amount of knowledge should be focused and which techniques should be used to save time Choosing suitable techniques to make the lessons both interesting and effective is not easy It depends on each teacher, his students and the number of students in each class 3.4 Techniques for practice stage There are many techniques for students to practice pronunciation Each technique has its own advantages It depends on which pronunciation component students are practicing However, some following techniques are liked most by the students: 3.4.1 Listen and repeat conversation: This technique is very useful for students That brings English into the real context for the students to practice From that students will find it easier to use the knowledge in communicating However, to find out suitable conversations for each lesson is not easy for the teachers Teachers need to use many sources of reference (See appendix) 3.4.2 Odd one out: This is the only kind of exercise that exists in the written test So it is very useful for students at high school It can help them get accustomed to doing multiple choice exercises to have better result in the exam This technique can be applied to every unit, especially for unit to unit because this kind of exercise exists in the written test to university (See appendix) 3.4.3 Do the listening exercises: Listening comprehension exercises in course Activity 2: Same or Different - Teachers will say a pair of words consisting of the sounds / w/ , /j/ Students will have to say whether these words have the same or different beginning sounds - Students will be divided into groups of students They will have a worksheet to write down S (same) or D (different) After practicing, teachers will collect the worksheets and check the answers Teacher’s worksheet Whale / use Yes / years Wine/ wet Young/west We/york Wheel/use Students’ worksheet Activity 3: Drilling sentences We went for a walk in the woods near the railway We wore warm clothes and walked quickly to keep warm At about twelve, we had veal sandwiches and sweet white wine, and we watched TV Excuse me Did you use to live in York? Did you use to be a tutor at the University? I read about Hugh in the newspaper yesterday Game: Who is better? Ask each pair of students to read aloud the sentences Then, The teacher will decide who is better.The person who reads better will get a sticker Unit 5: The pronunciation of the consonant /pl/ - /bl/ - /pr/ - /br/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting 13 In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 70% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and write the sound in the gap 1. own 2. ue ay actice 5. ide ack ouse enty easure 10. other 11. ead 12. oad Game: Bingo - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to fill in the blank - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds / pl/,/bl/,/pr/,/br/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling Students will practise the dialogue in pairs Then, each pair will read aloud A: Brian, what is Bretty presenting on Sunday? B: She’ll teach us how to play English pronuciation games A: Are you going to prepare for it? B: Yes, my brother is going to play the guitar and I’ll sing the blues A: What clothes are you going to wear,Pretty? B: Black brown blouse and jeans A: How about a small present for Bretty after her presentation? B: Please bring something not very precious Unit 6: The pronunciation of the consonant /tr/-/dr/-/tw/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed 14 activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 80% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and write the sound in the gap 1. affic 2. _in ink ive 5. inkle oops ess elve opical 10. eadful 11. enty 12. ousers Game: Bingo - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to fill in the blank - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds / dr/,/tr/,/tw/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling Game: Line game (Who is more fluent?) - Students will practise reading the sentences individuals - Then teacher will ask students to stand in lines They will read aloud the sentences in turn The person who reads more fluently will come back to his.her seat Others have to back to the end of the line until they read correctly - The group which finishes first wins the game Unit 7: The pronunciation of the consonant /kl/-/gl/-/kr/-/gr/-/kw/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way 15 Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 80% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and write the sound in the gap 1. ean 2. ean eature ueen 5. een uarter ass aim ound 10. ass 11. uality 12. uggle Game: Bingo - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to fill in the blank - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds /kl/,/gl/,/kr/,/gr/,/kw/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling Students will practise the dialogue in pairs Then, each pair will read aloud A: Didn’t you go to the cricket club? B: Yes, I did go to the cricket club A: Was it crowded? B:Quite crowded A: Was Greg there? B: Greg was there, yes And Robert Queen was there, too A: Does Robert Queen like cricket? B: No, he doesn’t He quarrelled with Greg He went to the pub and drank some glasses of beer A: oh dear! B: Mm.Shall I take your clothes to the cleaner’s? 16 Unit 8: The pronunciation of the consonant /fl/ - /fr/ - /θr/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 70% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and write the sound in the gap uit 2. y y ive 5. ough ower ozen ow ow 10. u 11. eaten 12. oat Game: Bingo - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to fill in the blank - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds /fl/ - /fr/ - /θr/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling Students will practise the dialogue in pairs Then, each pair will read aloud A: Don’t throw these little flags onto the floor, Fred B: Oh, I’m sorry, Florrie I’ll pick thm up A: That’s all right, Fred And are you hungry? Dinner’s ready B: Oh,good!What shall we have for dinner today, Florrie? A: We’ll have three dishes: French fries, fried fish and cauliflower B: Good! I like all three of them What about dessert? A: I’ve made a fruit cake But first, have some fruit juice It’s good for your throat 17 and keeps away the flu B: Thanks, Florrie Unit 9: The pronunciation of the consonant /st/-/sp/-/sk/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 80% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and write the sound in the gap eak 2. ill op and 5.be a _ di _ cri eedy 10. _ool 11. _eech 12.du _ Game: Bingo - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to fill in the blank - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds /fl/ - /fr/ - /θr/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling Students will practise the dialogue in pairs Then, each pair will read aloud A: Ladies and gentlement B: Speak up, Stanley! A: I stand before you B: Speak up, Stanley! A: On this School Speech Day 18 A:Do speak up! B: ON THIS SCHOOL SPEECH DAY A: Stop shouting, Stanley! B: And I speak for both my wife and myself, when I say Unit 10: The pronunciation of the consonant /sl/-/sm/-/sn/-/sw/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 80% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and write the sound in the gap 1. ave 2. _art allow ack 5. _ing ell _eep eeze im 10. im 11. ooker 12. oke Game: Bingo - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to fill in the blank - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds /sl/-/sm/-/sn/-sw/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling - Students will practise the dialogue in pairs Then, they will read aloud in turn A: Is Snowy at home? Snowy Smith? B: He is sleeping Go away 19 A: Sleeping? Where? B: In there Why you smile? A: Perhaps Snowy is in there But he is not asleep B: I swear he is sleeping A: When Snowy sleeps, he snores but he looks sweet Unit 11: The pronunciation of the consonant /ʃr/-/spr/-/spl/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 80% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and write the sound in the gap 1. ead 2. _ed een it 5. ay ash ill utter ightly 10. imp 11. ine 12. ay Game: Bingo - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to fill in the blank - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds /ʃr/-/spr/-/spl/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling Game: Line game (Who is more fluent?) - Students will practise reading the sentences individuals - Then teacher will ask students to stand in lines They will read aloud the 20 sentences in turn The person who reads more fluently will come back to his.her seat Others have to back to the end of the line until they read correctly - The group which finishes first wins the game Unit 12: The pronunciation of the consonant /str/-/skr/-/skw/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 70% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and write the sound in the gap 1. are 2. _eam eet ong 5. ew eal _ength eak een 10. atch 11. ange 12. eeze Game: Bingo - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to fill in the blank - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds /str/-/skr/-/skw/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling Game: Line game (Who is more fluent?) - Students will practise reading the sentences individuals - Then teacher will ask students to stand in lines They will read aloud the sentences in turn The person who reads more fluently will come back to his.her seat Others have to back to the end of the line until they read correctly - The group which finishes first wins the game 21 Unit 13: The pronunciation of the consonant /pt/-/bd/-/ps/-/bz/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 80% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Odd one out - Teachers will read aloud words ending by “ed” or “s” - Students have to distinguish which word contain the different ending sound Stopped / trapped / robbed Stops / shops/ robs Stabbed / stepped / grabbed Rubs / clubs / maps Bribed / jumped / stepped Bribes / maps / shops Activity 2: Sentence Drilling Game: Line game (Who is more fluent?) - Students will practise reading the sentences individuals - Then teacher will ask students to stand in lines They will read aloud the sentences in turn The person who reads more fluently will come back to his.her seat Others have to back to the end of the line until they read correctly - The group which finishes first wins the game Unit 14: The pronunciation of the consonant /ts/-/dz/-/ tʃt/-/ʤd/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 80% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially 22 foreigners Activity 1: Odd one out - Teachers will read aloud words ending by “ed” or “s” - Students have to distinguish which word contain the different ending sound Sits /eats /kids Friends / reads / meets Eats / reads / sits Marched / managed / reached Raged / bridged / marched Reached / marched /raged Activity 2: Sentence Drilling Game: Line game (Who is more fluent?) - Students will practise reading the sentences individuals - Then teacher will ask students to stand in lines They will read aloud the sentences in turn The person who reads more fluently will come back to his.her seat Others have to back to the end of the line until they read correctly - The group which finishes first wins the game Unit 15: The pronunciation of the consonant /nt/-/nd/-/nθ/-/ns/-/nz/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 70% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and tick the sound you hear /nt/ /nd/ /nθ/ /ns/ /nz/ 23 10 - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to tick the sound that they hear - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds /nt/-/nd/-/nθ/-/ns/-/nz/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling - Students will practise the diaogue in pairs Then, teacher will call each pair to perform their dialogue A: Florence, Mr Barnes went on the tenth of last month B: Oh I have warned you, haven’t I? Did he pay the rent? A: Only to the seventh B: Only to the seventh? A: Yes, and we may have no chance to see him again Is he your friend? B: No, Mr Barnes is not my friend and if he phones, remind him that he must pay the rent to the end of the month A: Don’t be so tense We’ll have a new tenant on the thirteenth of this month Unit 16: The pronunciation of the consonant /ft/-/vd/-/fs/-/vz/ Objectives:They are consonant clusters which consists of two or more consonants They are pronounced together as a group of sounds Some followed activities will be added to make the lesson more interesting 24 In order to make students easy to understand and remmember them Here are some suggested activites in the class to modify the sound in an interesting way Feedback: Students understand the sounds deeply They can identify and pronounce them correctly After doing the listening exercises, 70% of the students found that they felt more confident when they speak with others,especially foreigners Activity 1: Listen and tick the sound you hear /ft/ /vd/ /fs/ /vz/ 10 - Teacher will read the sounds and students have to recognise to tick the sound that they hear - When the teacher finishes reading the sounds, the student finishes first and says “Bingo” Activity 2:Find words that contain sounds /ft/-/vd/-/fs/-/vz/ Game: Face to face The teacher will divide the class into groups of 4-5 Each group will have time to list the words containing the sounds Then, each presentative of the groups will stand face to face in order to list the words out in turn In the end, the group that lists more words will get the highest mark (20) Other groups will get the mark from 5-10-15, relatively with their order Activity 3: Sentence Drilling Game: Line game (Who is more fluent?) - Students will practise reading the sentences individuals - Then teacher will ask students to stand in lines They will read aloud the 25 sentences in turn The person who reads more fluently will come back to his.her seat Others have to back to the end of the line until they read correctly - The group which finishes first wins the game 26 PART 3: CONCLUSION Conclusions of the study To sum up, pronuciation is usually the most complicated and difficult part of learning a foreign language However, with the application of some interesting activities for teaching pronuciation, students find it easier to understand how pronuciation works as well as more interested in learning it through games, pairs work and dialogue drilling One of the most effective results is that students feel more confident to pronounce the words because they have chance to practise through games Therefore, they are more confident to speak english Pronunciation is not a big problems for learners any more Limitations of the study Although the study has obtained its objectives, like many other studies, there are some limitations From the scope of the study, the results of the study are only applied for grade 11 students at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School The study only focuses on finding the difficulties and the causes in the pronunciation teaching and learning process at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School Only some techniques for practice stage are suggested for teachers and students at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School In addition, ability of the students, the differences between English and Vietnamese are also the causes of difficulties Which sounds are the most difficult to the Vietnamese and how to overcome it have not been mentioned in this thesis What is more, the findings of the thesis and suggested techniques are only based on the opinions of the teachers and students Suggestions for further study On the basis of the findings and limitation of the study, the following recommendations are made for further research: First, the subjects of the study were 100 grade 11 students and 10 teachers at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School so the results cannot apply for all the students at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School It would be interesting to conduct a similar study on the teachers and students from other schools Second, this study focuses on the analysis of the difficulties and the causes in teaching and learning pronunciation in English 11and some techniques in general So more techniques for each pronunciation component should be studied to find out the best way to teach and learn pronunciation in English 11 Third, actual speech of students should be recorded and analyzed to find out which sounds in English that not exist in Vietnamese cause the most difficulties to the students and suggestions should be given Fourth, the suggested techniques are based on questionnaires and interview So experiment research should be carried out to check students’ improvement 27 ... improving pronunciation teaching and learning in ? ?Language focus periods – English 11? ?? at Ha Huy Tap Upper Secondary School There are many causes of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation, ... This study mainly focused on the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation in Language Focus periods – English 11 and solutions to help them overcome these difficulties In order to achieve... make progress in communication For the above reasons, I decide to investigate ? ?Difficulties in teaching and learning Pronunciation in Language Focus periods – English 11 and some solutions? ?? AIMS