Experiences in teaching prononunciation for primary students

INDEX
Contents
1 - INTRODUCTION
1.1. REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC
1.2. THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH
1.3. RESEARCH TASKS
1.4. RESEARCH TIME AND LOCATION
2 - CONTENTS
2.1 . RATIONALE
2.2. THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE PROBLEM
2.2.1. About students
2.2.2 . About the teacher
2.2.3. About the teaching facilities
2.2.4. The quality survey and students’ classification
2.3. THE SOLUSION
2.3.1. Sounds
2.3.2. Stress and Rhythm
2.3.3. Intonation
2.3.4. Five basic steps to teach pronunciation
2.4. THE EFFICIENCY OF THE RESEARCH
3 - THE CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1. CONCLUSION
3.2. RECOMMENDATIONS
REFERENCES

Page
1
1
2
2
2

2
2
4
4
4
5
5
5
6
9
13
16
17
17
17
18
19

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC

English plays an important role in our lives. It is not only the language in
the field of international communication but also the language of the science,
information technology, socio-cultural, tourism and commercial, etc.


In Vietnam, English is considered as a compulsory subject at school, especially
Primary School. With the trend of international integration, Vietnam is
increasingly able to be fully available in all areas. To meet the growing demand
as well as communication needs of society, the Ministry of Education and

Training has put English into the programme at Primary School.
Learning English is to form and develop students' knowledge and basic skills
in English, through English, students gain knowledge and their love for the
Vietnamese. Learning English not only contributes for the development of
personality and learning style but also provides students with basic knowledge
and helps students understand initially the knowledge about the people and
culture of English speaking countries .
At Primary School, English is a subject which has its own
characteristics. Therefore teachers are as an artist , he or she needs be creative
and cheerful in order to involve students in learning English excitingly. As a
teacher of English at Primary School, I am always awarded of researching the
specific methods in teaching English, especially in teaching pronunciation in
order to make the students believe that they can speak English fluently and
naturally. Students will not be motivated to speak in English unless they are
presented with words in context. Creating a positive classroom ethos where
students feel empowered to work in a collaborative way is an important role of
the teacher. We must understand the inter-relationship between speaking,
listening, reading and writing and plan for speaking opportunities in the
classroom in the same way that we plan for teaching pronunciation.
Pronunciation is the basic foundation when learning English, it is very
important with beginner learners as it allows them to feel more comfortable
when speaking; teachers must be aware, however, that the more sounds differ
between the mother tongue and the second language, the higher the affective
filter. A student feeling too self-conscious will not be as willing to take the
risks that are necessary when learning a new language.
Some teachers might argue that pronunciation is not important at all for
very few of the tests require students to show their speaking ability. Others,
however, find that they do not know how to teach pronunciation, even if they
want to teach it. That is because of these conventional notions about
pronunciation that the teaching of it has, for too long, been neglected in many

ESL/EFL curriculums all over the world.
According to our teaching experience, a great number of our students
have many difficulties in pronunciation. When speaking English, with very
little or poorly trained pronunciation skill, they have problems either making
themselves understand or understanding others.
After exploring and accumulating the experiences from colleagues, I
have some experiences in teaching pronunciation and achieved quite effective
results. The students are more interested in learning English and more
confident in speaking in front of the class. This improves that my methods are
right. With the passion and the love for teaching English, I have studied and
2
2


developed the research: "Experiences in teaching pronunciation for primary
students "
1.2. THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH.

- The research applies the methods of teaching pronunciation to involve
students in learning pronunciation well.
- Creating the language circumstance to communicate in English and
promote students to actively participate in communicative activities; offering
some solutions and methods for teaching pronunciation.
- Exchanging and sharing some experiences in teaching pronunciation
for primary student.
1.3. RESEARCH TASKS

- Systematizing some theoretical issues about the procedures and
activities in teaching pronunciation in English Primary program according to
the communicative approach.

- Exploring the present situation of teaching pronunciation at Primary
School and suggesting some techniques in teaching pronunciation to develop
speaking skill for elementary students, helping them be more confident to
communicate in English.
1.4. RESEARCH TIME AND LOCATION

Research Time : School Year 2017-2018.
Research Location: Hoang Trinh Primary School
Research Object: " Applying the methods of teaching pronunciation for
primary students "
The respondents of the research: With this research I focused on the
primary student, especially the students of class 3.
2. CONTENT
2.1 . RATIONALE
A significance of research, developed over many years, is available to
inform educators about effective approaches to teaching children how to read.
However, research on applying the methods of teaching pronunciation for
primary students is in its infancy. This reflects the fact that many teachers in
the Vietnam are faced with the challenge of teaching children to listen and
speak in English while the students have a heritage language that is not English
and they are not proficient in English yet. Making this a more critical issue,
several researches suggest that teachers are not receiving adequate professional
development in effective strategies to teach pronunciation for students. As part
of the effort to learn more about teaching pronunciation for primary students,
educational researchers and teachers in Vietnam have looked at instructional
practices in Primary School. In order to be successful in using of the
information presented in this research, many teachers might want to consider
the following set of questions together in preparation for making decisions
about teaching pronunciation for primary students.
Pronunciation is an umbrella term that encompasses the interrelated

areas of sounds, phonetic symbols, stress, intonation and rhythm. Good
3
3


pronunciation comes from a lot of technical knowledge on the part of the
teacher about placement of the mouth, etc. Most teachers in Vietnam
unfortunately, do not have this knowledge and therefore tend to pass it off as
being unimportant but in fact, as you progress in your fluency, pronunciation
becomes more and more important. Language learning needs a lot of practice
and both mechanical and meaningful practice lead to improved pronunciation.
Only practising that pronunciation will become automatic and drill-like
activities are not always considered interesting. Nevertheless perception
practice is a good way to help learners distinguish certainly sounds.
Pronunciation involves far more than individual sounds. Word stress,
sentence stress, intonation, and word linking all influence the sound of spoken
English, not to mention the way we often slur words and phrases together in
casual speech. 'What are you going to do?' becomes 'Whaddaya gonna do?'
English pronunciation involves to many complexities for learners to strive for a
complete elimination of accent, but improving pronunciation will boost self
esteem, facilitate communication, and possibly lead to a better job or a least
more respect in the workplace. Effective communication is of greatest
importance, so choosing first to work on problems that significantly hinder
communication and let the rest go. Remember that your students also need tobe
learnt strategies for dealing with misunderstanding, since native pronunciation
is for most an unrealistic goal.
Pronunciation is an interesting area because when learning in a
classroom context, pronunciation isn’t usually a major factor that influences
comprehension. The value of teaching pronunciation cannot be underestimated.
Besides the difficulty of changing a `bad habit´, early pronunciation instruction

helps students understand how to form sounds that are not found in their
mother tongue, contributes to decoding ability and lowers the affective filter.
Some researchers suggest that pronunciation does not need to be taught and
will `take care of itself´ over time. Others suggest that teaching pronunciation
is necessary.
In order to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with poor pronunciation
it is important to hear as much of the target language (TL) as possible. This
exposure to the TL can be from the teacher, from films or media clips, songs or
audio clips, guest speakers ...
This research will present specific tools and techniques to help students
overcome problems with English pronunciation. The selection of problems is
based on both the frequency and seriousness of errors which many Vietnamese
students may produce. Methods are resolved or resolving the various problems,
such as missing final consonants, misplaced stress in sentences, and misused
intonation patterns, will be discussed in the three areas of pronunciation:
sounds, stress & rhythm, and intonation. Activities related to the correction of
these errors are designed to meet students' different learning styles, namely
auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic learning. In this way, the goal of
the “learner-centered” classroom is hoped to be pragmatically achieved.
4
4


2.2. THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE PROBLEM
Analysis of my school’s performance in teaching and learning
pronunciation in recent years showed that our average score in pronunciation
had been consistently below that of like other schools in urban areas. It was a
situation that was of concern and motivated a thorough examination of the
school’s approach to the teaching of pronunciation.
Our school is a public primary school in a rural area in Thanh Hoa

province. It is a small school with about 415 students, ranging from 6 to 10
years old. There are three or four classes in each grade, meaning that
collaboration among teachers is extremely important to ensure consistency in
learning programs. In the school year 2009 - 2010, Ministry of Education and
Training applied pronunciation as the framework in the program of teaching
English for primary students . After teaching English book from grade 3 to
grade 5, I found that most of the students can not pronounce the new words
correctly. They only focused on grammar and vocabulary and did not like to
learn pronunciation during the lesson.
2.2.1. About students
In fact, in the process of learning a foreign language, students often
focus on learning grammar mainly because the test requires the application of
grammar, the tests often have a few exercises with pronunciation. In English
class they have little chance to practice pronouncing. Over time they lose their
ability to communicate in English. In addition, the limitation of students’
speaking skill that has some reasons:
+ The old habit of learning English does not motivate students to
communicate in English.
+ Being lack of knowledge of English to communicate everyday .
+ Having a few opportunities to speak and practise English in the
classroom with their teacher and classmates.
2.2.2 . About the teacher
Many teachers in the Vietnam are faced with the challenge of teaching
students to pronounce correctly, when the students have a heritage language
that is not English and they are not yet proficient in English
Normally when teaching a foreign language, teachers often focus on
teaching vocabulary, grammar or structure. However, grammar is not the final
result of the teaching and learning process. It is only a tool to help learner to
communicate more effectively. But in fact, there are some differences between
spoken English and written English. Written English requires the accuracy

statement of the structure, whereas spoken English needs the flexibility and the
intimacy in communication .
From those factors, there are some problems in teaching pronunciation
for primary student at school. However, in a number of causes, teachers and
students can progressively overcome the difficulties. Therefore, in the teaching
process teachers must use some suitable techniques to teach students how to
5
5


lean pronunciation effectively. He or she should have creative and flexible
approaches in using the methods of teaching pronunciation.
2.2.3. About the teaching facilities
My school has facilities of teaching and learning to meet the needs of
specific subjects such as: projectors, the modern teaching equipment such as
Television, CD player, etc. So the application of teaching pronunciation is quite
effectively.
2.2.4. The quality survey and students’ classification
Based on the present situation of students in class 3 the level of all
students is acquired after a few weeks of the new school year with the methods
of teaching pronunciation. I had a test on students in class 3A, 3B, 3C to survey
and classify the students. The following servey showed the result:
Class

3A
3B
3C
Total

The

numbers
of
students
31
30
28
89

Excellen
t
(A)

Good
(B)

0
0
0
0

7=22,6%
5=16,7%
4=14,3%
16=18%

Fair
(C)
9=29%
8=26,6%
9=32,1%

26=29,2

Poor
(D)

Fail
(F)

11=35,5%
12=40%
11=39,3%
34=38,2%

4=12,9%
5=16,7%
4=14,3%
13=14,6%

%
According to the survey result, I have classified the students and
immediately applied the methods and experiences which I accumulated over
the years to improve the teaching and learning quality.
2.3. THE SOLUSION
At the present situation in English classes at my school, pronouncing
wrong still exists in all grades from 3 to 5, especially in grade 3. To improve
this situation, I would like to present some techniques for teaching
pronunciation and elicit the stages of teaching pronunciation for primary
student which I have researched and applied quite successfully at my school.
This research will attempt to address the common and serious
pronunciation errors that Vietnamese students produce. Activities related to the

correction of these errors are designed to meet students' different learning
styles, namely auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic learning. As for the
research's title, the "learner-centered" classroom, we take the term from a
broader perspective, meaning that it is a class where students can feel,
experience, and monitor their own learning of pronunciation. The research will
cover the three areas of pronunciation: sounds, stress & rhythm, and
intonation with the expectation that it will provide the audience with
comprehensive insight into ways of teaching pronunciation. The presentation is
by no means comprehensive; rather it is an opportunity for sharing what we
know about new perspectives in pronunciation instruction.
6
6


2.3.1. Sounds
Teaching sounds involves several steps: first, identify your students'
problem areas; second, find a meaningful context for the problem sounds, and
then develop communicative or relevant tasks that incorporate the sound; third,
develop at least three or four exercises so that students can keep practicing
target sounds in new contexts. ( Celce-Murcia, 1987 ). For the sounds part, we
intend to offer teachers some remedial teaching techniques for sounds which
they can apply in regular English classes to help students overcome
problematic sounds.
Vowel length and final consonants are commonly found difficult for most
Vietnamese students to master in English classes. What teachers confront is
that no effective technique has been found to help students to pronounce some
problematic vowel contrast such as / i / and / I / correctly in sentences, in
dialogues or even in reading passages. Traditionally, teachers will model the
sounds and then students repeat them or teachers show a facial diagram which
allocates various sounds positions in the mouth to enhance correct

pronunciation. In order to provide teachers with more effective and interesting
teaching techniques, the first part of this paper will present some new teaching
tools and activities to solve the problems mentioned above.
In the second part of sounds, we will address the problem of dropping
final consonants while students are speaking. In Vietnamese, there is no CVC
structure ( consonant + vowel + consonant); consonants would never appear at
the end of the word. This is quite different from English. Influenced by
Vietnamese, students omit final consonants while speaking and this result leads
misunderstanding with each other in meaning. For example: They pronounce
these words in the same way: white, wine, wife, why, etc. The activities adopted
tend to alert students to final consonants and regulate their English language
habits in putting final consonants on in speech.
* Vowel Length
- Rubber bands. Students like to have the chance to experience how
sounds can be produced through operating a rubber band. For example, using a
rubber band in / i / sound, students have to pull both sides of the rubber band to
the end to feel the strength and tense of / i /. On the other hand, while
practicing / I /, students just have to pull both sides of rubber bands slightly
apart, as shown below.
/i/
/I/

(Adopted from Gilbert, 1993, Clear Speech, 2nd. ed., p. 54)
By doing this, students can clearly distinguish the length of the two
vowels and experience the real difference between both sounds. Other vowel
sounds can also be demonstrated by rubber bands in the same way.
7
7

For example:
My brother is thirteen.
My mother is thirty – three yearsold.
(Tieng Anh 3 - Unit 11: This is my family – Lesson 3 - Page 10)
Students may hear two different vowel lengths of “thirteen” and “thirty”.
The "ee" vowel sound of “thirteen” is pronounced a little bit longer than the
''y'' of “thirty.” . Using rubber bands can help students to build up their listening
comprehension ability and clarify the slightly different vowel length.
One important aspect that teachers have to inform students about vowels
is that if the vowel sound follows a voiced consonant then the vowel sound will
be pronounced a little bit longer than when followed by a voiceless consonant
If the final sound is voiced, the vowel before it is long. Pull the rubber
band at both sides to the end. If the final sound is unvoiced, then the vowel
before it is short. Pull the rubber band slightly toward both sides.
For example:
rise
rice

(Gilbert, 1993, p.45)
Practice the rubber band with different words within the same vowel but
followed by voice and voiceless consonants, such as:
back bet cap plants cart sink ice bucks
bag bed cab plans card sing eyes bugs
(Dauer, 1993)
Then, do some minimal pairs to practice these similar word sounds in
sentences to reinforce the pronunciation. One student is speaking the sentence
and the other is operating the rubber band according to what he/she heard from
the partner.
For example:
a. Please take this back. Please take this bag.

b. Has he used this bet? Has he used this bed?
c. I need a cap. I need a cab.
d. Where are your plants? Where are your plans?
e. Give him a cart. Give him a card.
f. She is going to sink. She is going to sing.
g. I wish I had blue ice. I wish I had blue eyes.
h. I found ten bucks. I found ten bugs.
(Dauer, 1993)
- Mirrors. In addition to rubber bands, mirrors are a strong selfcorrection tool for students to modify or imitate sounds. Teachers can ask
students to take out mirrors to do peer-correction or self-correction while
approaching some problematic sounds.
- Rhymes. To avoid boring students with continuous practicing and drills,
use rhymes with a regular beat and the same vowel sound. This will lead
8
8


students to master the target sound unconsciously. For example, we take /e /
sound into rhymes. Ask students to snap their fingers, clap, or tap on the desks
to keep the beat and read aloud the rhyme:
For example:
Look! Look! Look!
Look! Look! Look!
These are books.
Those are robots.
They're my books
They're my robots.
Look! Look! Look!
Look! Look! Look!
These are pens.

Those are robots.
They're my pens
They're my robots.
.
(Tieng Anh 3- Unit 8: This is my family - Lesson 3 - Page 56)
- Mother tongue. This is an added bonus if students find some way to
apply their mother tongue to some English sounds. For example: / e / sound
can be applied to Vietnamese as " ten " in an expressive situation. Examples
can be found successfully in class or in students' books.
For example:
How old is he?
How old is he?
He's eight.
He's eight yearsold.
How old is she?
She's nine.
She's nine yearsold.
How old are you?
I'm ten.
I'm ten yearsold.
(Tieng Anh 3 - Unit 11: This is my family – Lesson 3 - Page 10)
- Role play. A brief role play puts students into a realistic and
communicative situation and will allow the sounds to be spoken more naturally
and necessarily. We have used a short dialogue which happened in a railroad
station between Mr. Gray and the conductor adopted from Pronunciation
Pairs (Baker & Goldstein, 1990). One student acts as the first person who is
asking about the things in the room, and the other student is the conductor who
is answering the questions:
For example: Where's the pencil?
S1: Where is the pencil?

S2: Here! Here!
It's here
S1: Where is the doll?
S2: There! There!
It's under the chair.
S1: Where are the photos?
S2: In the album. In the album.
They're In the album.
S1: Where are the pictures?
S2: On the wall. On the wall.
They're on the wall.
(Tieng Anh 3- Unit 13: Where's my book? – Lesson 3 – Page 23)
- Tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are also an interesting way to
practice and contrast similar sounds and have fun at the same time. But there is
a huge challenge for the teacher and students to do it well. Teachers should tell
9
9


students at first not to feel upset at making mistakes because even for native
speakers, it is difficult. Examples for practicing / e / , and /æ / are below:
Henry, age eight, etched the letter h on the edge of the desk.
* Final Consonants
- Song lyrics. Teachers can ask students to read some popular song
lyrics aloud to practice final consonants. In our classes, students omit final
consonants often or pronounce them too lightly to be heard. For example, they
pronounce student as "studen". Therefore, we ask them to read the marked
song lyrics of "Silent Night" in which the final consonants in each sentence
have been underlined, and then to listen to the song to notice how the singer
produced final consonants.

Silent night, holy night. All is calm. All is bright.
Round young virgin, mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.......
- Numbers. Besides song lyrics, numbers can be a good aid in helping
students put final consonants on. For example, teachers can set up some
particular numbers to have students practice final consonants.
A: What is your telephone number?
B: 01274560036.
2.3.2. Stress and Rhythm
Why is it necessary to teach stress and rhythm? Every language in the
world has a characteristic speech rhythm. English tends to be a stress-timed
language with rhythmic patterns based on a fairly regular recurrence of stressed
syllables (Browne & Huckin, 1987). However, Vietnamese tends to give equal
weight to each syllable, making the rhythmic patterns appear to be more
syllable-timed. In Vietnam, many students often use the Vietnamese rhythmic
pattern when speaking English; as a result, even though they can pronounce
each English sound correctly, their speech does not sound like English.
Their problems with the word rhythm of English are that they often
misplace the stress and give each syllable, whether it is stressed or unstressed,
the same length; thus, the vowels in the unstressed syllables are not reduced.
As for their problems with the sentence rhythm of English, one is that they put
stress on too many words, for they do not know what kinds of words need to be
emphasized; the other is that they tend to separate words during speech without
linking them together. In order to help Vietnamese students speak English
naturally, we are English teachers who should pay more attention to teaching
the rhythm of English. Two aspects of English rhythm, stress and linking, and
some teaching tools and techniques related to these two are now discussed.
* Stress
It is important for our students to know the different rhythmic patterns of

Vietnamese and English. The teacher can show them a visual contrast between
10
10


the two languages to indicate that Vietnamese is syllable-timed while English is
stress-timed.
A. Stress-Timed Rhythm
B. Syllable-Timed Rhythm
Pro

nunciation is important.
(Adapted from the illustrations from Prator & Robinett, 1985, Manual of
American English Pronunciation. 4th ed.)
In the above illustrations, the Vietnamese rhythm is composed of
soldiers (each soldier represents a syllable), which implies that Vietnamese has
the same length and strength in all syllables; however, the English rhythm is
composed of adults (stressed syllables) and children (unstressed syllables),
which implies that English has different syllable length and strength.
After having built the concept of the different rhythmic patterns of
Vietnamese and English, students need to practice both word stress and
sentence stress in English. Following are some teaching techniques and
activities.
* Word Stress
- Visual effects. Emphasize the stressed syllable by using visual effects:
thicken, capitalize, underline, circle, or color the stressed syllable. In addition,
the teacher can put a dot for unstressed syllables and a line for the stressed one
under the word to indicate that the stressed one needs to be lengthened; or he
can put a small dot for unstressed syllables and a big dot for the stressed one
under the word to indicate that the stressed one has a stronger beat. Using

visual effects can help students notice the place of stress in each word and
avoid misusing word stress.
For example: today toDAY today today today today
- Rubber bands. Pull a wide rubber band between the two thumbs while
saying a word. Stretch it out during the stressed syllable but leave it short
during other syllables. It provides a visual image of the variable length of the
syllables as well as a kinesthetic tool that mimics the actual effort involved in
lengthening a stressed syllable (Gilbert, 1994). The teaching point is to help
students avoid pronouncing each syllable at the same length.
- Tapping, clapping, or playing simple rhythm instruments.
Give a strong beat to the stressed syllable and weak beats to the others
by clapping, tapping on the desk, or playing simple rhythm instruments like
tambourines or toy hammers. It helps students to be aware that unstressed
syllables have weak beats and so their vowels need to be reduced.
- Stress matching game. Have students work in groups. One member in
the group taps or claps the rhythm of a word from the vocabulary list, and the
others have to find out which word has the same rhythm as they hear.
11
11


For example:

artist

manager

secretary musician
politician cashier photographer
You hear : So you choose manager.

- Stress and Meaning. Have students work in pairs. Student 1 says
sentence (a) or (b). Notice that the stress in (a) and (b) is put in different places.
Student 2 has to identify a stressed syllable and make an intelligent guess and
then choose an appropriate answer. This activity helps students to understand
the relationship between stress and meaning.
For example:
1. (a) Is It an elephant? No, it’s a bear.
(b) Is it an apple? No, an orange.
2. (a) What’s for lunch? Rice and chicken.
(b) What’s a dinner? Bread and sausages
3. (a) Is that a ruler? No, it’s a pen
(b) Is that your book? No, it’s hers.
(Vietnamese Educational Publisher - Tieng Anh 3 - 2014)
* Sentence Stress
- Finding content words. First, introduce the basic emphasis pattern of
English to students to let them know that content words are usually
emphasized. The basic emphasis pattern of English :
Content Words nouns
main verbs
adverbs
adjectives
(emphasized)
(cat)
(runs)
(quickly)
(happy)
question words
(who, what, where, when, why, how)
Structure
pronouns

prepositions articles
“to be” verbs
Words
(he, she)
(of, to, at)
(a, an, the)
(is, was)
(de-emphasized)
conjunctions auxiliary verbs
(and, but) (can, have, do, will)
(Gilbert, 1993, p.72)
Then, have students circle or underline content words in a sentence and
give these words extra emphasis when speaking the sentence. At the same time,
students can tap, clap, or play simple rhythm instruments to produce strong and
weak beats in the sentence.
For
example:
He wants to
be
an actor,
and
he wants to live in Hollywood.
- Rhymes. Apply the rhythm of nursery rhymes to the rhythm of
ordinary sentences. The reason for this is that students can easily learn nursery
rhymes and catch their rhythm without too much effort. Practicing this way
helps them to maintain the rhythm patterns in sentences unconsciously and
naturally.
- Jazz chants. A Jazz chant is a fragment of authentic language
presented with special attention to its inherent natural rhythm (Graham, 1992).
12

12


It has a very clear and strong one-two-three-four beat, so it is easy for students
to practice the sentence rhythm through Jazz chants. To establish the tempo,
students can count out the rhythm by clapping, finger snapping, or tapping on
the desk.
For example:
12341234
Chicken, chicken soup. Rice and beans, rice and beans.
1234
I’d like a bowl of soup. Chicken soup.
1234
I’d like a large bowl of chicken soup.
(Graham, 1986, p.45)
* Linking
One of the essential characteristics of spoken English is that the words in
a thought group are linked together (Gilbert, 1993). Mortimer (1977) also
talked about the importance of linking: to pronounce English fluently, it is
necessary to link words together as a native speaker of English normally does.
Vietnamese students often fail to do this because they pronounce one word at a
time in English just as they do when speaking Vietnamese. Therefore, linking
needs to be taught in order to help students to speak English more fluently as
well as to improve their comprehension of English native speakers’ normal
speech. Following are some teaching techniques.
- Chain pictures. Use chains to give a visual image of spoken English,
but use separate circles to represent spoken Vietnamese. It helps students to
identify the different speech pattern between spoken English and spoken
Vietnamese.
- Magnets. Gilbert (1994) mentioned that the pull of magnets can be a

physical metaphor to emphasize the attraction between succeeding words,
especially if the following word begins with a vowel. She suggested the use of
magnets, pieces of iron, and blocks of wood to make teaching aids. However,
we modified this; we used some empty audio-tape cases and magnets to
produce this effect. Flash cards (e.g., pick, it, me) were put in different tape
cases and the magnets were glued onto the two ends of each tape case. Make
sure that the two words can be attracted only when the first word’s final letter
is a consonant and the second word’s first letter is a vowel (e.g., pick it );
otherwise, the two words are repulsed (e.g., pick me). It helps students
remember to link words through this physical image.
For example:
pick it
pick me up
Look at
Stand up
- Curved lines. Use the curved line “ ” between the last and first letters
to indicate they need to be linked together. It provides a visual image to remind
students of linking words.
For example:
Hold∪ on. Pick ∪ it up.
I need∪ a cup of tea.
Look∪ at
13
13


- Chants, poems, or song lyrics. Practice linking through reading
chants, poems, or song lyrics. Students need to know that English words are
linked together during speech.
For example:

I love my parents.
I love you, Mummy. I love you, Mummy.
I love you so much. Do you know that?
You never know how much I love you.
Oh, Mummy! I love you so much.
I love you, Daddy. I love you, Daddy.
I love you so much. Do you know that?
You never know how much I love you.
Oh, Daddy! I love you so much.
(Tieng Anh 3- Unit 18 : What are you doing? - Lesson 2 - Page 55)
2.3.3. Intonation
In addition to Stress & Rhythm, Intonation, or Melody, or change in
pitch, is another significant feature in English. The purpose of intonation,
according to Gilbert (1994), is “helping the listener to follow.” It is a
navigation guide for the listener. She goes on to note that “L2 learners have
difficulty hearing intonation”(p.43). Indeed, most of our students, when
listening to English, pay more attention to sounds, vocabulary, and grammar.
Seldom do they attend to pitch changes. Therefore, when it comes to speaking,
they tend to pronounce each word as clearly as possible. It is no surprise to find
that many students speak English simply by applying the rhythmic structure of
Chinese. The result is that they sound monotonous. That is, their voice is rather
flat with little or no change in pitch. The two major problems: (1) misused
intonation patterns; and (2) lack of sentence focus, and emotions appropriate to
the situation, along with some teaching activities are now discussed.
* Intonation Patterns
One way to make students become aware of their problems in Intonation
Patterns is to have them listen to contrasting recordings. The tape can be
designed in such a way that students have a chance to hear their own voices
and the native speakers’. The conversation should be deliberately chosen with
various intonation patterns so that it is easy and obvious for them to find their

problems. In the following example, two basic intonation patterns,
Rising/Falling Intonation and Rising Intonation, are presented. The topic is
identifying house.
For example:
Is there a garden?
Is there a garden behind the house? – Yes, there is. Yes, there is..
Is there a yard behind the house? – Yes, there is. Yes, there is.
Is there a gate behind the house? – No, there isn't. No, there isn't.
Is there a pond behind the house? – No, there isn't. No, there isn't
(Tieng Anh 3- Unit 12: This is my house – Lesson 3 – Page 16)
14
14


Once students hear the two versions of the dialogue, they will
immediately recognize the striking difference in intonation between their
version and the native speakers’. Then the teacher should seek possible ways to
solve their problems, such as misused intonation patterns. We suggest that the
three intonation patterns be presented through various visual or aural effects.
Some techniques include drawing pitch lines/curves or arrows, using musical
scores, and using kazoos. Let's take a closer look at each of these techniques.
- Pitch lines/curves. One of the most commonly used ways to teach
various intonation patterns is to draw pitch lines/curves. Besides drawing the
pitch lines/curves, we suggest that the teacher blacken the last stressed syllable
and put a dot over it. In doing so, students can be expected to produce the
appropriate intonation with the correct word stress.
Linda: How was your trip? (Rising/Falling Intonation)
- Arrows. Another simple way to teach intonation is to draw arrows over
the place where pitch changes. It is a variation, in particular, for showing how
pitch rises and falls within a sentence. The two examples are presented: a

choice question as shown in A and a statement showing a series of items as in
B.
A: Can we rent it or buy it? (Combination Intonation)
B: I have classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
- Musical scores. The other effective visual effect is musical scores. In the
following example, the pitch rises on “telle,” which is the last stressed syllable.
In order to be able to do that, students need to apply their knowledge of basic
emphasis patterns as has been shown earlier in the part Sentence Stress. That is,
stress content words and not structure words.
Linda: May I go out?(Rising Intonation)
- Follow-ups. Often times when teaching Intonation Patterns, we found
that many students seem to have more problems with Rising Intonation than
with any other patterns. we have noticed that many of our students tend to ask
Yes/No questions with Rising/Falling Pattern instead of Rising Intonation.
Some may use Rising Pattern but tend to rise at the end of the sentence. We
suspect it may have some relation with their mother tongue. Compare the
following Yes/No questions:
For example:
English: Can you speak English?
Vietnamese: Bạn có biết nói Tiếng Anh không?
The difference between English and Vietnamese is obvious when asking
Yes/No questions. Whereas English use Rising Intonation, Vietnamese use
Falling intonation or slightly rise at the question word “ ?”, which is added at
the end of the sentence. Apparently, for Vietnamese students, the Rising Pattern
is a new habit that they need to learn how to perform. Whenever students have
problems with Rising Intonation, practicing putting sentences on musical
scores can be a useful way to help them out. Kazoos can be another option.
15
15

Musical scores and kazoos. Draw musical scores for the following
sentences, and then practice saying or kazoing the sentences.
For example:
(a) Could you make a sandwich for me?
(b) Will you be interested in it?
(c) Would you like some Ice cream?
* Sentence Focus & Emotions
Though our students have learned the basic emphasis patterns mentioned
in part Stress and Rhythm, they should know that these rules are not fixed. In
fact, English speakers use emphasis on any word in a sentence to achieve
various results, such as introducing new information, showing contrasts,
correcting the previous information, or creating special attention or emphases,
and so on. This special emphasis is called the sentence focus.
- Visual effects. One simple way to help students understand the
importance of sentence focus is through visual effects. We can show students
two different pictures. For example: in the following pictures, what do you see?

A big book and a small book. That's an easy way to make students
become aware of the importance of focus. To help students overcome the
problem with sentence focus, the teacher can easily draw from the textbook
suitable situations in which two speakers exchange information by showing
contrasts.
For example:
A: This is your book.
B: No. That's her book. or No. That's hers.
Notice that for speaker B, the stress shifts from “book” to “her,” which
indicates the emphasis of the response. If it is the general sentence, it should be
: That's her book. The stress falls on "book" rather than "her."
- Mini dialogues.

Another perfect topic to help students practice these characteristics is
good news or bad news. In the following two situations, students can take turns
16
16


practicing with a partner, playing with focus
words “wonderful”, “wow”,and “Oh,” by dramatizing, lengthening and
speaking louder. Encourage students to add personal emotions with given
situations. Rubber bands can also be used here to get visual effects on vowel
lengthening.
For example:
Tony: This is the living room.
Nam: Wow! It’s nice. Is there a garden?
Tony: Yes, There is. . Come and see it.
(Tieng Anh 3- Unit 12: This is my house – Lesson 2 – Page 14)
- Follow-ups. Sometimes we may want to challenge our students with
tasks where they learn to become intelligent in using focus. For the following
activity, student A asks : “Where's Sapa?.” Student B has to, first, look at the
responding sentence, then figure out the focus should be on word “Sapa,” and
respond to student A appropriately.
For example:
A: Where's Sapa?.
B: It's in the north of Viet Nam
Giving the name of some cities and have students work in pairs or
groups, and take turns practicing the conversation.
( Tieng Anh 3- Unit 20: Where's Sapa?- Lesson 1- Page 64)
2.3.4. Five basic steps to teach pronunciation.
Pronunciation is presented in part 1 of lesson 3 in all Units of the book “
Tieng Anh 3” which is published by Vietnamese Educational Publishers.

Teaching pronunciation in Tieng Anh 3 consists of teaching Phonics and
Songs/ Rhymes/Chants. Pronunciation enables pupils to recognize the
relationship between letters or letter combinations and the sounds they make.
With the knowledge of phonics, pupils are able to improve their speaking and
reading skills because they can identify the spelling and the pronunciation
patterns of listening new words and decode them quickly. Focus the pupils’
attentions on the letter and its sounds in words, and model the new sounds a
few times for pupils to repeat. It is advisable that the teacher should introduce
the Songs/ Rhymes/ Chants in which the new sounds are embedded; teach new
vocabulary, using flashcards, realia, pictures, etc; and mime the lines if it is
possible. These are five steps that I usually use to teach phonics in Lesson 3:
Listen and repeat. It need to be noted that in the classroom, the correct
pronunciation of the teachers is not enough, it also needs the modern
equipments such as speakers, CD player, Robot teacher, etc.
Step 1 : Introducing the sounds in the songs, rhymes or chants; teaching
new words using word cards, real objects, pictures, etc. Focusing on the sounds
of letters and words.
Step 2 : Playing the recording a few time or let pupils listen to the Robot
Teacher; having them repeat each line of the Songs/ Rhymes/ Chants and clap
the words containing the focused sounds.
17
17


Step 3 : Clap your hands to the beat while listening to the words that
contain the sound that need to be trained.
Step 4 : Organizing students to practice in pairs or groups to practice the
songs, rhymes or chants.
Step 5 : Calling on some volunteers to perform the Songs/ Rhymes/
Chants at the front of the class and have the rest of the class clap the rhythm of

the chant.
2.4. The efficiency of the research
After applying successfully the methods and procedures to teach
pronunciation, the students’ improvement in pronunciation can be seen clearly.
The result in the first semester of the school year 2015-2016 shows the increase
in the percentage of students who can pronounce correctly. What is especially
pleasing is the impact of pronunciation in class 3 as there are fewer students
who can not pronounce correctly than the beginning of the first semester. The
significance of the methods of teaching pronunciation can be seen when
examining the percentage of students with a reading age above their
chronological age since the program’s implementation. The number of students
assigned to be improve their pronunciation, especially bad students who now
can pronounce more correctly. Comparing with the result survey at the
beginning of new school year, I find that the recent result is better than the old
one. The following chart will show the result:
Class The numbers Excellen
Good
Fair
Poor
Fail
of students
t
(B)
(C)
(D)
(F)
(A)
3A
31
6=19,4% 11=35,5% 13=41,9% 1= 3,2%

0
3B
30
5=16,7% 10=33,3% 14=46,7% 1= 3,3%
0
3C
28
5=17,9% 13=46,4% 10=35,7%
0
0
Total
89
16=18% 34=38,2
37=41,6
2= 2,2%
0
%
%
To sum up, the changing of the students’ pronunciation has been a
resounding success. The consistency and clarity it has afforded in teaching
pronunciation for primary student has been worth the time and effort. My
students are capable and ready for explicit teaching of pronunciation and are
highly motivated by their success in speaking English.
3. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
3.1. CONCLUSION
Pronunciation certainly deserves strong attention in the English class,
especially in classes with a communicative approach. Poor pronunciation will
cause problems in oral communication no matter how good a speaker’s control
of English grammar and vocabulary might be. Many of the problems, in fact,
are caused by the influence of the speaker’s mother tongue; Vietnamese

students tend to use Vietnamese speech patterns or styles when speaking
English. Therefore, English teachers must to help students be aware of this
tendency in order to be able to speak English clearly and intelligently.
18
18


In order to overcome students’ pronunciation problems, we offer a
variety of kinesthetic, visual, and aural devices and activities for teaching
English pronunciation. Although we do not have pronunciation class in our
current English curriculum, it is hoped that these tools and techniques we have
referred to will be a great help to English teachers as well as students.
This research investigated the methods of teaching pronunciation for
primary student, lesson delivery and sequence of content and learning
expectations used by teachers of English at Hoang Trinh Primary School.
This research brings broader understanding of strategies for teaching
pronunciation to students whose first language is not English. The rationale for
the study stems from the need to gain greater international perspective of the
teaching of English learners. Results reflect analysis of classroom observation
field notes of students in grade 3.
To sum up, The research provides some methods to improve teaching
pronunciation for primary student in order to form the habit of using English
words that contributes to improve the quality of students' listening skill and
speaking skill in particular and English for academic subjects in general. This
research does reveal some promising practices but more research is needed.
3.2. RECOMMENDATIONS.
3.2.1. To the leaders
To enhance the capacity of teachers in teaching English, the leaders
should organize the training courses for the English teachers regularly. Through
the training courses, teachers have the opportunity to exchange and learn their

experience.
3.2.2. Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the Ministry of Education and Training for publishing
the book Tieng Anh 3, 4, 5; for valuable discussions and innovative ideas and
techniques of teaching pronunciation during the program. I would also like to
thank the experts of Hoang Hoa District Office of Education and Training,
my colleague at Hoang Trinh Primary School, for providing helpful comments
for the research.
Finally, I would like to encourage Vietnamese teachers to have more
confidence in teaching English pronunciation even though we are not native
speakers of English. With full advanced preparation, including practicing our
own pronunciation and designing effective teaching activities, we can all be
experts in teaching English pronunciation.
Hoang Hoa district, may 5th 2019
Headmaster’s signature
I swear this thesis is written by me without
copy content from others.
Written by

19
19


Le Hong Quynh
REFERENCES
1. Vietnamese Educational Publisher - Tieng Anh 3 (2014). Ministry of
Education and Training
2. Celce-Murcia, M. (1987). Teaching pronunciation as communication.
In J. Morley (Ed.), Current perspectives on pronunciation. Washington, D.C.:
TESOL.

3. Gilbert, J. B. (1994). Intonation: A navigation guide for the listener
(and gadgets to help teach it). In J. Morley (Ed.), Pronunciation pedagogy and
theory. Bloomington: TESOL, Inc.
4. Dauer, R. M. (1993). Accurate English: A complete course in
pronunciation. New Jersy: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
5. Baker, A., & Goldstein, S. (1990). Pronunciation pairs: An
introductory course for students of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
6. Browne, S. C., & Huckin, T. N. (1987). Pronunciation tutorials for
nonnative technical professionals: A program description. In J. Morley
(Ed.), Current perspectives on pronunciation. Washington, D.C.: TESOL 3.
Beisbier, B. (1995). Sounds great: Intermediate pronunciation and speaking
for learners of English. MA: Heinle & Heinle.
7. Graham, C. (1992). Singing, chanting, telling tales. New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
8. Mortimer, C. (1977). Link-up: A pronunciation practice
book. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
9. Prator & Robinett, 1985, Manual of American English
Pronunciation. 4th ed.)

20
20


DANH MỤC
CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG
KHOA HỌC CÁC CẤP ĐÁNH GIÁ XẾP LOẠI, TỪ LOẠI “C” TRỞ
LÊN

Họ và tên tác giả : Lê Hồng Quỳnh

Chức vụ và đơn vị công tác: Giáo viên Trường Tiểu học Hoằng Trinh

STT

Tên đề tài

Cấp đánh giá Kết quả
xếp loại
đánh giá
xếp loại

Năm học
đánh giá
xếp loại

01

Tổ chức trò chơi và giới Phòng GD&ĐT
thiệu một số trò chơi
huyện Thường
mới trong việc dạy học Xuân
Tiếng Anh bậc THCS

C

2008 - 2009

02

Một số lỗi thường gặp

Phòng GD&ĐT
và kỹ năng sửa lỗi trong huyện Thường
Tiếng Anh cho học sinh Xuân
trường PTDTBT THCS
Xuân Chinh.

C

2012 - 2013

03

Một số trò chơi giúp ôn Phòng GD&ĐT
tập từ vựng, kiểm tra
huyện Thường
miệng gây hứng thú cho Xuân
học sinh trong giờ Tiếng
Anh tại trường
PTDTBT THCS Xuân
Chinh

B

2014 - 2015

21
21