Some techniques to teach pronunciation effectively in high schools

APPENDIX
I.

INTRODUCTION:

1. Reason for studying:...................................................................................2
2. Aim of studying..........................................................................................2
3. Subject of studying.....................................................................................2
4. Method of studying....................................................................................2
II.

CONTENT:

1. Theoretical basic:........................................................................................3
2. Background of teaching and studying pronunciation..............................3
3. Solutions:.....................................................................................................
4
4. Evaluation ............................................................................
.....................13
III.

CONCLUSION:

1. Conclusion.................................................................................................1
4
2. Recommendation: ....................................................................................14

1


I. INTRODUCTION

1. Reason for studying:
There have been different views on teaching pronunciation up to now.
The traditional Grammar Translation Method paid no or little attention to
pronunciation, consequently, learners become "deaf and dumb" in the target
language. Since the oral approaches to language teaching appeared, there has
been a tendency to pay extreme attention to pronunciation teaching to develop
oral skills. Teaching pronunciation in a language class plays a very important
role. It provides students with the pronunciation of the target language as correct
as possible to communicate with others. Beside language skills, teaching
pronunciation should be noted as an indispensable basic knowledge. However,
many English teachers don't pay enough attention to it or even ignore it. As a
result, students have more difficulties in learning English, especially in
communicating in English. Therefore, it is really very important for students to
have the pronunciation of the target language as correct as possible right from
the start.
Those are the reasons why I choose this topic:
"Some techniques to teach pronunciation effectively in high schools"
2. Aim of studying:
- The correct pronunciation can have a direct influence on his ability and
progress in listening, speaking, reading-aloud skills and an indirect one on
the further development of other language skills later on.
- The correct pronunciation decides the success or failure of his oral
communication in the target language.
3. Subject of studying: English pronunciation teaching and learning deal with
the following aspects:
- The sound of the English language, or phonology.
- Stress and rhythm
- Intonation
4. Methods of studying: My topic will be presented as the following steps:
- The theoretical background

- The practical background
- Solutions
2


II. CONTENT
1. Theoretical basic:
- As said above, pronunciation difficulties, errors, mistakes in language
learning are so natural that teachers and students should not worry too
much about. They will be done away with the student's effort in listening
and speaking during the course. If the student has a serious pronunciation
error, he should be corrected at once but in an encouraging way in order
not to make him/her lose face. In fact, the problems vary from student to
student and from area to area where he was born, picks up and uses his
mother tongue.
- To teach English pronunciation effectively to Vietnamese students,
Vietnamese teachers should be able to predict, pick out, and analyze their
students' problems, errors to help them to overcome.
- These are my own opinions about how to teach pronunciation effectively
in the high schools. Hopefully, this teaching experience could have some
certain contribution to the teaching and learning process of teachers and
students.
2. Background of teaching and studying pronunciation
2.1: The theoretical background
Pronunciation is very important. One of the first things of learning a foreign
language is learning how to pronounce correctly. Learners don't need to use
difficult words, or complicated structures. They only need simple words and
structures to communicate because the simpler words or structures they use,
the easier for them to understand each other. However, pronunciation is not
easy.

In oral communication, If one mispronounces a sound, a stress, a word or
wrongly uses the rhythm, intonation of his utterances he will surely cause
misunderstanding, even no understanding for his partner, consequently he
will receive unsatisfactory responses, either. Furthermore, if his
pronunciation of the same language in communication is different, even
slightly different from that of his partner, they will have difficulty in
recognizing and understanding each other. Their communication may result
in a problem, even failure. In learning and communicating in a foreign
language, these pronunciation phenomena become even more serious.
2. 2: The practical background
In the process of teaching, I realize many students are in the habit of using
Vietnamese to represent or read English words. For example, with the word
3


"table" they read /thây bờ/ instead of /'teibl/, with the word "teacher" they
read /tich cho/ instead of / 'ti:t∫r / or "student" they read /sờ tiu dần/ instead
of /'stu:dnt/. Furthermore, many English words have different pronunciation
but they represent in Vietnamese so listeners can't distinguish the difference
among them. For example, our students pronounce /bớt/ for these words:
birth, bird, bus. This is a bad habit in learning a foreign language.
Only students who pronounce correctly feel more self-confident in
communicating because they can get successful communication and their
listening skill is better as well. So it is very important for teachers to explain
the transcription clearly and to teach their students how to pronounce as
correctly as possible. But, in reality, many teachers do not introduce the
transcription, stress, and intonation. And they don't pay much attention to
designing activities to teach pronunciation during listening or speaking
lessons.
With the hope of improving students' pronunciation and helping them to

speak good English, helping them to be more self-confident, I would like to
give some solutions to teach pronunciation more effectively with the motto
"frequent practice makes perfect", "little and often".
3. Solutions
3.1 Individual sounds
* Consonants
English consonants can be classified in different ways:
- According to the place of articulation, they may be dental, bilabial, and
alveolar, palatal, velar.
- According to the manner of articulation, they may be plosive, affricate,
fricative, and nasal, lateral.
- According to the involvement of vocal cords, they may be voiced or voiceless.
Each English consonant has all the features of these classifications, for example:
Consonant

Place

Manner

Voice

/k/ in kick

velar

plosive

voiceless

/l/ in long

alveolar

lateral

voiced

Most of the English consonants sound rather similar to Vietnamese ones except
for the English plosives in the initial and final positions of a word. The
English /ð/ and / / have no similarities in Vietnamese.(p23)
* Vowels
English Vowels
4


Short Vowels

Long Vowels

Diphthongs

Transcription Examples Transcriptio Examples
n

Transcription Examples

Pit

See

Hate

Egg

Arm

Bite

Hat

Port

Toy

Good

Cool

goat

English Vowels are always voiced. They are formed in less noticeable way than
consonants mainly by the position of the tongue, secondarily by the shape of the
lips and the movement of the jaw. Different vowels are determined by how high
the tongue is raised in the mouth and by whether the front, middle or back of the
tongue is being used. Besides, English has some pair of short and long vowels,
for example, /i/, and /i:/, which Vietnamese does not have and Vietnamese
learners of English have a lot of trouble to distinguish. Each English vowel
therefore bears the above-mentioned features, for example:
Vowel

Tongue level

Part of the tongue

Length

Lip

Æ

Low

Front

short

spread

u:

High

Back

long

rounded

Knowing all the features of English consonants and vowels is very useful for
both Vietnamese teachers and students of English, as many pronunciation

mistakes made by the students are due to the slight or total differences in sound
production between English and Vietnamese in terms of place, manner of
articulation, voice and mouth shapes etc.
3.2 Teaching Individual Sounds
It is advisable to consult and apply the principles and techniques to teach
individual sounds.
For example, when the English /i/ and /i:/ are taught, the following techniques
may be used:
- Presentation:
Teacher says the sound /i/ clearly two or three times so that students listen,
observe her mouth shape and perceive the model.
Teacher says again in such words as in, tin, thin, it, ill
Students repeat them in chorus two or three times.
5


Teacher shows students a picture of the tongue, lips, and mouth shape for /i/ to
explain how it is made.
Teacher gets students to repeat the above words again in chorus, in groups, then
individually.
In the same ways, teacher introduces /i:/ and gets students to repeat in such
words: eat, team, eel, teens.
Teacher contrasts /i/ and /i:/ in minimal pairs.
/i/

/i:/

It

Eat

Ship

Sheep

Chicks

Cheeks

Ill

Eel

Bin

bean

Students are divided into groups, then repeat the minimal pairs after the tape or
teacher for several times.
Teacher uses picture to show the different mouth shapes for these two sounds.
- Practice
Students do some recognition exercises by listening carefully to and picking out
the /i/ and /i:/ in words said in disorder by the teacher, for example, it, eat, eel,
ill
Students repeat the minimal pairs again in pairs, groups then individually.
Students practice the sounds in groups of words: in it, this thin tin, it is thin / eat
meat, eat eel meat, steam eel meat. Etc.
Then in sentences: Miss Tin hit it. It is thin./ Dean eats eel meat. Eat steamed
eel meat, please.
Then in tongue twisters:

Eat this thin eel meat in a steamed tin.
This steamed thin meat is heated in a tin.
Little jean is seated in a bit heated tin.
Students listen to, repeat and learn a short recorded dialogue:
A: Is Jean in, Miss Dean?
B: Is she heating up a tin of meat?
6


C: She's ill. Sorry Tim.
Students act the dialogue in pairs then prolong it by adding some of their own
words or sentences containing /i/ and /i:/, provided that they sound meaningful.
- Production
Students play a mini bingo game in groups of three. One student calls out the
numbers in the following boxes in any order. The other chooses one of the boxes
A, B, C and crosses the called number. The first person to cross out all his
numbers wins.
13

3

15

7

50

30

17

80

18

5

90

13

20

30

16

14

80

18

5

16

15

70

90

3

17

7

6

+ Type of exercises:
- Practice of individual sounds in isolated words, short phrases, sentences,
dialogue.
- Practice of contrasted sounds in minimal pairs, tongue twisters, test exercise,
recognition exercises.
3.3 Some techniques to practice Pronunciation.
a, Word Repetition: Ss listen and repeat
Example: Practice /i/ and /e/
T - reads: till
Ss - repeat: till
T - reads: tell
Ss - repeat: tell
7


b, Sentence Repetition: Ss listen and repeat the model sentence
Example: Practice /s/ and /z/
T: She sells seashells by the seashore.
Ss: She sells seashells by the seashore.

Example: Practice /i/ and /i:/
T: Don't sit on that seat
Ss: Don't sit on that seat.
T: (correct, once more) Don't (sleep/ slip) on the floor.
T: Don't (sleep/ slip) on the floor.
c, Minimal pairs:
Teacher explains what minimal pairs are: two words with only one different
letter for example "hat - bat", "thin - thing" or two words spelling differently but
pronounce the same, for example "feet - fit", "bet - bat", "fool - full"…..
We use minimal pairs to contrast the difference between vowels and consonants.
Teacher reads minimal pairs and writes on the board:
1

2

will

well

bill

bell

bear

pear

heat

hit

show

so

Teacher reads each pair in turn and asks students to listen and find out the
difference between them.
After that teacher checks: T reads the words (not in the right order), Ss say the
number of the words or raise their fingers (one or two)
T: will
Ss: one
T: tell
Ss: two
…….
d, Making sentences
Teacher writes some words that need to practice on the board, Ss make
sentences with them.
8


Example: To practice /e/ and /æ /. Teacher writes two columns: the adjectives
are in the first column, the nouns are in the second column.
1

2

red

pen

yellow

cat

sad

hat

black

hen

Teacher can make an example: "My cat is sad."
e, Back word pronunciation
Teacher writes and read "t", students repeat. Then teacher adds "s' and reads "st",
teacher adds "a" and reads "ast", teacher adds "l" and reads "last'. This activity is
very useful. It helps Ss to pronounce the last consonants correctly.
3.4 Stress and Rhythm
3.4.1 Word Stress
When an English word has more than one syllable, one of these is made to stand
out more than the others. This is done by saying that syllable slightly louder,
holding the vowel a little longer to give it prominence or stress.
In a long English word, there are some syllables:
a, the syllable with primary stress mentioned above, said with the most breath
effort,
b, the unstressed syllable(s) which is/are said very quickly, lightly with very
little breath effort,
c, the syllable with a secondary stress said with more breath effort than "b" but
less than "a".
Example:

unim 'portant
Secondary

primary

3.4.2 Sentence Stress - Rhythm
In a normal English sentence, certain words are stressed and certain others are
unstressed. Normally, stressed are content words, essential for conveying a
message, often NOUNS, main VERBS, ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS and
DEMONSTRATIVES. Normally unstressed are the form words, grammatical or
structure words. For example, in this sentence: "John has finished his work".
( John, finished, work are content words and stressed; others are form words and
unstressed).
9


These stressed and unstressed words form tone units which work just like bars
of music. English speech resembles music in that it has strong beats (stressed
words) and weak beats (unstressed words). This is called rhythm.
3.4.3 Teaching Stress and Rhythm
As with other aspects of pronunciation teaching, the first stage is pure imitation,
repetition of the tape or the teacher's model in chorus, in groups or individually.
If there is any difficulty with a long phrase, when it is repeated in its entirety, the
teacher can isolate the stressed syllable or words, then get that repeated a few
times, finally put the phrase together again for further repetition. The process
can be summarized as follows: Repeat the whole phrase -> isolate and repeat
the stressed syllable or word only.
* Repeat the whole phrase again
The teacher may indicate the position of the stressed by writing the words,

sentences and marking the stressed on the board or using gestures, signals or her
voice.
a, Gestures
The teacher may indicate the stress pattern by:
- thumping the air when saying the stressed syllables
- making a downward stroke of the hand like a conductor
- punching the palm of her other hand
- clapping her hands
- striking a ruler on the board or table
b, The board
The teacher can use the board as the most valuable aid to make the stress visible
to students in the initial non-text stage (when the written form of the language
has not yet been introduced) at the next stage.
- Non-Text Stage
Without writing the word or sentence, the teacher can indicate the stress pattern
by using symbols.
Example:

o-

o-o

or

- Text Stage
The teacher can give an example, exaggerating the difference between stressed
and unstressed syllables. He can represent each syllable with a sound.
Example:

a

sack of carrots

De - da - de - da - de
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Students imitate the rhythm then say their own phrases to fit in the pattern.
3.5 Intonation
3.5.1 Forms and Meanings
Speech is also like music in that it changes in pitch, speakers can change the
pitch of their voice as they speak, making it higher or lower in pitch at will.
Their pitch can even jump up suddenly like the singer's. So speech has a melody
called intonation.
There are two basic melodies: rising and falling. These can be very sudden or
gradual and can be put together in various combinations.
In English, there are six forms of intonations:
1, High Fall: a fall from a high level - to be used with statements, WH questions.
2, Low Fall: a fall from a middle or lower level - conveying the same meanings
as the High Fall but not so politely.
3, High Rise: a rise from a middle or higher level - to be used with questions,
request for repetition.
4, Low Rise: a rise from a low level - to be used with YES/NO questions, listing
up, and conversation oilers.
5, Fall Rise: a fall from a higher level and then a rise from a lower level - to be
used with corrections, polite contradictions.
6, Rise Fall: a rise from a low level and then a fall from a higher level expressing certain more exaggerated attitudes: surprise, flattery, admiration.
Example:
WH-question: How did you spend your vacation? (falling tone)
Statement: I went to Ha Long Bay. (falling tone)

Yes-No question: Was it expensive? (raising tone)
Statement: Yes, I am. (falling tone)
3.5.2 Teaching Intonation
Again the use of the board, teacher's gestures and voice will help the teacher to
present an intonation and students to practice it effectively.
a, Gestures
A sweep of the arm from high to low will indicate the fall and vice-versa for the
rise. Other intonations such the fall-rise and rise-fall can also be suggested by
the movement of the arm.
b, The board
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The teacher can write a sentence or a dialogue then mark the stressed syllables
with dashes, the unstressed with dots and the intonation with an arrow on the
board after her oral presentation of it.
Example:

He is coming here tonight, isn't he?
.

.

.

.

She may draw "mood" pictures on it to show the meaning of the intonation as
well.
Example:

Mr Happy: Hello
Mr Sad: Hello
c, Teacher's voice
The teacher's voice can play a very important role in creating the moods, the
models for students to use or practice the right intonations in different contexts.
d, Other Audio-Visual Aids
Pictures, mood cards, tapes, etc, can be used for the effective presentation and
practice of intonation in class.
3.5.3 Some techniques to practice Stress and Intonation
The easiest way for students to practice stress and intonation is by repetition. If
the focus is on pronunciation, traditional repetition drills, which are often boring
for the students to do, can be made interesting and challenging. They are not
asked simply to repeat a sentence, but to repeat it using the particularly-intended
stress and intonation pattern. For this to be effective, it is important for teachers
to:
- Give a good model of the sentence or mini dialogue, saying it at a normal
speed, making a clear difference between stressed and unstressed syllables, and
using natural intonation.
- Indicate the stress and intonation clearly, using gestures on board or other
visual aids.
- Make sure that students pay attention to stress and intonation when they repeat
the sentence or dialogue.
One way to help students use natural intonation is to practice saying the
sentence in sections, starting with the end of the sentence and gradually working
forwards to the beginning. For example, The sentence "How long have they
been working here?" can be repeated many times by students like this:
T: living here

Ss: living here

T: been living here

Ss: been living here
12


T: have they been living here

Ss: have they been living here

T: How long have they been

Ss: How long have they been

living here?

living here?

This then can be done in pairs or groups as well.
Some Vietnamese learners' common mistakes in English pronunciation.
- Mispronunciation of /l/ in "lot" and /n/ in "not", / ʃ / in "show" and /s/ in "so"
/t / in "chain" and /tr/ in "train".
- Replacing the English /ɵ / in "thank" and / ð/ in "this" with the Vietnamese "th"
and "d".
- Silencing or swallowing the final consonant of a word.
- Confusion between long and short vowels, for example, /i/ and /i:/, / ʊ/ and /u:/,
…
- No or wrong stress on English word or sentence.
- Broken rhythm or wrong pause in a sense group.
- Failure to use correct intonations in clauses or in a sentence.

- Pronouncing English word from its spelling like a Vietnamese word.
3.5.4. English pronunciation and spelling
In many languages such as Vietnamese, the spelling reflects the
pronunciation of a word. In this case, the student or reader can look at the word
and pronounce it immediately and correctly without understanding its true
meaning. But this is not the case in English. English spelling is only a poor
reflection of English pronunciation with many irregularities. Each sound of
English is represented by more than one written letter or sequences of letters; on
the other hand, any letter of English represents more than one sound or no sound
at all. This causes a lot of trouble for students. Therefore, it is advisable for
teachers not to present both the spelling and phonetic transcription of a word at
the same time when teaching pronunciation and vocabulary as student will mix
them up. Only a small phonetic transcription on top of the letter representing a
vowel of a syllable is enough.
4. Evaluation

This is the practical result:
Grade 12B1

Good

Fairly good Average

Weak

At the beginning of the school 15,5%
year

20%

57,4%

7,1%

At the end of the school year

39%

30,7%

2,3%

28%

13


In general, when I and my colleagues use these above methods of
teaching pronunciation, most students understand and improve their
pronunciation skill. They are no longer shy or timid, but more motivated and
self-confident when speak English as well as when study English.
III. CONCLUSION:
1. Conclusion:
- Students in Thanh Hoa province in general and students in Vinh Loc
district in particular have a strong accent. This causes a lot of trouble during
learning and practicing process. Therefore, being a teacher of English we must
try our best to improve our knowledge, and find out the best ways to teach our
students, and more important, we must guide them how to teach themselves at
home because pronunciation exercises in class is never enough.
- Moreover, there are a lot of materials which can be used for teaching and

practicing pronunciation. They may be words, phrases, sentences, dialogues,
interviews, songs etc. The most common may be the sentence and dialogue. The
teacher should make a careful choice of them to fit in her teaching context.
With the enthusiasm of an English language teacher and eager learners easily
master the correct pronunciation of English so that I have spent a lot of time
completing this book. I believe it will help a lot for you. This book will
inevitably make mistakes. I do hope all readers have good ideas for next edition
will be an enjoyable and useful book.
By the way, I would like to sincerely thank my colleagues and my students
who encouraged and supported me a lot in the process of completing this book.
2. Recommendations: Here are some suggestions to create a generation
of students can communicate effectively in English:
- Support enough visual aids for teaching and speaking skills.
- There are extracurricular activities for students to communicate and speak
or contest to give students a platform to express themselves, through which
teachers can reflect his work and changes in time.
- Knowledge of phonetics should be strengthened further in the exam
XÁC NHẬN
CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ

Thanh Hoa, ngày 26 tháng 4 năm
2017
Tôi xin cam đoan đây là sáng kiến kinh
nghiệm của mình viết, không sao chép
nội dung của người khác
Người viết

Nguyễn Thị Hương
14

Nguyễn Thị Chuyên
REFERENCE
1. Nguyễn Hạnh Dung (2003), Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh trong trường phổ
thông. NXB Giáo duc.
2. Xuan Dao (2013), Language Teaching Techniques I. Department of foreign
language, Nghe An Junior Teacher Training College
3. Ha Van Buu (1994), Common mistakes in English made by Vietnamese
People. NXB thành phố Hồ Chí Minh
4. Sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10, 11, 12

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