Some pronunciation problems and tips to improve them

1.INTRODUCTION
1.1 The reasons for this topic.
Nowadays English has been accepted as the dominant means of
communication, both written and spoken in most of the world. Especially, in the
period of global intergration and development ,the world becomes smaller and
smaller. So English learning is also very important for students as well as for
their future.That’s why the Ministry of Education and Training has decided to
teach english for children at primary school.Although english has being tought
at primary school for several years, the quality of teaching and learning this
subject is not good,especcially a lot of students have met difficulties in
communication.There are many different reasons which effect on it.One of the
reasons is that we did only take care of teaching vocabulary and grammar for
students without paying attention much in developing skills as well as
pronunciation.Even if their vocabulary and grammar are perfect,it can be still
difficult to understand and communicate in english because of pronunciation
.During the daily communications, we often find some misunderstandings being
caused by inappropriate pronunciation. Sometimes such mispronunciations will
offend the international guests. Thus mispronunciation is significant and we
should pay close attention to the problem. I decided I would try to tackle the
teaching of pronunciation in order to help my students with their English
pronunciation .
In my opinion, to be a good English teacher in Primary school, the key
issue is to make the children learn English by listening and speaking in the way
they learn their mother-tongue. This helps them to have more fluent secondlanguage acquisition in oral English. Above all, the most important part of
learning a second language rests on pronunciation . And this has concerned me
most from the very beginning of my teaching-career. These particular learningneeds intrigued me and influenced my point of view about how to guide students
in their English study as a second language .
In order to help the English learners in my school express themselves in as
clear and accurate way as they can, basic knowledge of phonetics and
pronunciation is very important to them from the outset. If they don't know how
to pronounce each word or sentence in the right way, this is sure to lead to the

failure of communication or even develop a vicious circle in which they will
involve their future job-market later. They would still have a long way to go
before they could master English and use it well as a tool to communicate with
native English speakers. Furthermore, in order to do more research work, basic
knowledge became even more important as the world was now changing so
rapidly.
We have changed our minds and are beginning to meet the demands of
society, and for a better situation of our teaching . I am a teacher of language, so
I want to breathe new life into my work to enable it to step onto this new stage. I
have been trying to change, not only myself, but also my students - the coming
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future owners of our country. I enjoy teaching English and thus I care about
what is happening to it. That is the reason I decided to spend much time on
studying “ Some pronunciation problems and tips to improve them”.
1.2 The aim of reseaching.
Pronunciation is the basic skill of mastering a foreign language, language
skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Pronunciation and
intonation practice will help them form the right habit to enable them to acquire
the appropriate information for themselves for their overall learning.
Good knowledge of pronunciation will also make students become
autonomous learners, and this is fundamental for their life-long learning. What
the students got from this learning process rightly meets the standards on
helping students to acquire the necessary critical thinking skills
In order to help the English learners in my school express themselves in as
clear and accurate way as they can, basic knowledge of phonetics and
pronunciation is very important to them from the outset. If they don't know how
to pronounce each word or sentence in the right way, this is sure to lead to the
failure of communication or even develop a vicious circle in which they will

involve their future job-market later. They would still have a long way to go
before they could master English and use it well as a tool to communicate with
native English speakers. Furthermore, in order to do more research work, basic
knowledge became even more important as the world was now changing so
rapidly.
Learning to pronounce English correctly can be one of the hardest parts of
learning English. The English laguage has some sounds that our native language
might not, so we have to know how to make completely new sounds. Plus,
English vowels make really stricky to know how to say a word “way”,“weigh”
and “whey” are all said the same, for example, while “comb”, and “tomb” are all
pronounced differently.So, that’s why we have the tips to help students
pronounce English words better.
1.3 The subject of reseach
To be a primary teacher of english,I realise that pronunciation is the
tissue which I am concerned to research.It is necessary for students to get correct
pronunciation . That is why I choose this subject to reseach.
1.4 The methodology
I conceive that a variety of potential ways to reseach were also listed in
these categories: theory foundation, existing information, tests, statistics and
survey, interviews, questionnaires. All these tools shared three important
characteristics that must be considered in selecting or creation them: reliability,
validity, and usability.

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2.CONTENT
2.1 The theory
My concern reveals itself to be closely associated with the bases of the
four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. I put forward a

case that the effort to master the sound system and to pronounce correctly,are
key aspects of learning a second language. As clarification I give some technical
details on aspects of sounds of speech, including articulation, vowel formation,
accent, inflection, and intonation, with reference to the correctness or
acceptability of the speech sounds. I also provide some descriptions of new
classroom teaching-methods for pronunciation. I include comments from
students, reveal statistics of their scores, quote from expert sources in linguistics,
and show the results of a questionnaire.
Good knowledge in spoken English can help my students speak good
English and can also help them form a good basis for further English study.
Pronunciation plays an important role in its spelling, grammar, and even the
meaning of a sentence. Literature shows us panoramas of ancient masterpieces,
the knowledge of phonetics can help us read them freely. And from the spelling
we also get to know the changes of English Language through history.
Giving a special training in teaching pupils English in the right way
without a Vietmanese accent or Vietnamese way of speaking English, for better
and accurate communication.
Certain skills for language study are very important for my students in
order to help them overcome language problems. Solving the problems can be
attempted under my guidance. Each week I tried to teach them the right
pronunciation of the international alphabets and correct them one by one.
For a beginning student, adequate pronunciation will include control of the
vowel and consonant phonemes, statement and question intonation, and stress
and rhythm, patterns for simple utterances, At intermediate and advanced levels,
pronunciation practice should concentrate on the allophonic variants, intonation
patterns of complex sentences, contrastive stress patterns and the affective
devices by which native speakers indicate anger, amusement, sympathy, etc.
which, of course, will not be dealt with by high school students, but we can help
the students to get the feel of them anyway.
2.2Current status of subject.

Are people having trouble understanding us when we speak, but we’re not
really sure why? The hardest part about improving our English pronunciation is
figuring out what we might be doing wrong. Here are the top 6 reasons why
people might be misunderstanding us
1. Stressing individual words incorrectly and stressing the wrong words in
a sentence.
a.Word stress
If we usually speak with native English speakers, this will be the number
one reason why they misunderstand us. It’s very hard for native English
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speakers to ‘translate’ a word spoken as ‘caLENdar’ to the way they would
pronounce it, ‘CALendar’.
Non-native English speakers don’t have as much of a problem with this,
and will probably still understand what we’re trying to say.
Remember that we can completely change the meaning of a sentence by
stressing different words in that sentence. For example, we could say this
sentence in a number of different ways:
“I didn’t say we should drive this way.”
If we stress “ I”, we emphasize that taking that route wasn’t our idea. On
the other hand, if we stress “ drive”, we emphasize the mode of transport.
If we don’t pay close attention to the words that you stress, we could end up
sending a completely different message than the one you intended.
To communicate clearly when we are speaking in English, it’s important
to stress the correct syllables in each word. This is called word stress, which
means pronouncing one syllable of a multisyllabic word with greater emphasis
(stress) than the other syllables in the word.
b. Sentence Stress
Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress,

sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, even rapid spoken
English.
Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember
that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is
accent on certain words within a sentence.
Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds
"music" to the language. It is the rhythm of the English language. It changes the
speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between each
stressed word is the same
2. Intonation
Intonation and stress are closely linked. In fact it's impossible to
dissociate them. They go hand in hand.
Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the way
the voice rises and falls when speaking, in other words the music of the
language.
Just as words have stressed syllables, sentences have regular patterns of
stressed words. In addition, the voice tends to rise, fall or remain flat depending
on the meaning or feeling we want to convey (surprise, anger, interest, boredom,
gratitude, etc.). Intonation therefore indicates the mood of the speaker.
3. Pronouncing certain consonant sounds incorrectly
If people are misunderstanding you, it could very well be due to you
confusing what we call ‘voiced’ and ‘unvoiced’ sounds. You might substitute ‘p’
for ‘b’ or ‘t’ for ‘d’, for example. These sounds are so easily confused because
their only difference is whether or not you use your voice to produce them. If
you aren’t careful, you could be making mistakes like saying ‘tuck’ for ‘duck’ or
‘pay’ for ‘bay’.
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4. Mixing up short and long vowel sounds

Vowel sounds, like consonant sounds, can also be confused easily. The
main problem with vowels happens when you mix up long and short vowel
sounds. For example, the long ‘ee’ sound in ‘seat’ with the short ‘i’ sound in
‘sit.’ If you confuse these sounds, you end up saying completely different words.
This can get confusing in conversation and forces people to draw much more
from the context of your speech than the speech itself.
5. Connected speech
Pronunciation is crucial, but it’s not everything. You can pronounce every
individual word like a native speaker, but still not talk like one. That’s because
you also need to have the right flow.
So, what exactly makes the flow of English?
One important element is “connected speech.” This refers to the way the
end of one word and the beginning of the next word sometimes interact in
English.If we do not know it we will have difficulty in communicationThese are
popular ways of connecting speech.
- Join two sounds
-Link two sounds.
-Get rid of a sound
-Use contractions
6 . Forgetting to finish your words
Do you have a tendency to let your word endings drop? I often hear
people drop the ‘ed’ ending off of words in the past tense, for example. This is a
dangerous mistake because not only is your pronunciation wrong, but it also
sounds like you’re making a grammatical mistake. People could judge you based
on this type of error
Infactly,The students have poor pronunciation, perhaps very weak in oral
skills.Though the students may have learned a lot about the rules of the
language, they cannot apply them in writing, much less in speaking.The class
tends to be dull, and the students are often overloaded.
From the traditional ways of learning English, we often found that the

students neglected the basic knowledge of speaking. In the years when we had
less communication with foreign countries, this may have been enough to meet
the demands of English. However, the situation changed greatly when we
stepped into the new century, with the internet, and with these extended forms
ofcommunication with Western countries, oral communication began to be more
and more important than at any other time. Understanding by reading or writing
would no longer be sufficient for the development of the economy. We needed to
understand and communicate face to face personally or through the
internet. This initiative stems students who mispronounce and be not selfconfident in communication.Through many years of teaching experience shows
that students often mispronunce, be not self-confident in using English to
communicate.
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This is the result of survey in class 4A and 4B before I apply this
initiative:
Class

Total

4A
4B

24
26

Achieving
SL
%
4

16,5
10
38,5

Fail
SL
20
16

%
83,5
61,5

2.3 The solutions I used for improving pronunciation are the following:
2.3.1 Add stress to sounds and words
English is a stressed language.That means some words and sounds are
more important than others.We can hear this when we say a word out loud.For
example, the word “ introduce” is pronounced with the stress at the end of the
word, so it sounds like this : “ in-tro-DUCE”
Sometimes where we put the stress in a word can change the word’s
meaning. For example: if we said “ PREsent”, you are talking about a noun that
means a gift. If you said “ PreSENT”, you are talking about a verb that means “
to give”.Most two –syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable,and most
two-syllable verbs are stressed on the second syllable.Sentences have stresses
too.Some words are more important and said with more clarity and strength than
the rest of the sentence.Notice our students that we slow down every time we get
to an important word, and quickly pass over the less important ones.
Listen carefully to the way people around you pronounce their words. If
you hear a pronunciation that is different from yours, check the dictionary (even
if it’s a common word) to be sure that you’re stressing it correctly.

Think about placing added emphasis on the word that is most important to
your meaning. You can add emphasis by lengthening the word, saying it slightly
louder and/or changing the pitch of your voice slightly.
a. Word stress
To communicate clearly when we are speaking in English, it’s important to
stress the correct syllables in each word. This is called word stress, which means
pronouncing one syllable of a multisyllabic word with greater emphasis (stress)
than the other syllables in the word. Here are four general rules to keep in mind
about word stress as you practice pronunciation:
-Stress the first syllable of:
+Most two-syllable nouns (examples: CLImate, KNOWledge)
+Most two-syllable adjectives (examples: FLIPpant, SPAcious)
-Stress the last syllable of:
+Most two-syllable verbs (examples: reQUIRE, deCIDE)
-Stress the second-to-last syllable of:
+Words that end in -ic (examples: ecSTATic, geoGRAPHic)
+Words ending in -sion and -tion (examples: exTENsion, retriBUtion)
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-Stress the third-from-last syllable of:
+Words that end in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy (examples: deMOCracy,
unCERtainty, geOGraphy, radiOLogy)
+Words that end in -al (examples: exCEPtional, CRItical)
Keep these simple rules in mind and you will soon find your pronunciation
getting better and better!
b. Sentence Stress
Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence
stress can help you to understand spoken English, even rapid spoken English.
Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember

that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is
accent on certain words within a sentence.
Most sentences have two basic types of word:
-Content words
Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important
words that carry the meaning or sense—the real content.
-Structure words
Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple
words that make the sentence correct grammatically. They give the sentence its
correct form , its structure.
If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still
understand the sentence.
If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will not understand
the sentence. The sentence has no sense or meaning.
Imagine that you receive this telegram message:
This sentence is not complete. It is not a "grammatically correct"
sentence. But you probably understand it. These 4 words communicate very
well. Somebody wants you to sell their car for them because they have gone
to France. We can add a few words:
The new words do not really add any more information. But they make
the message more correct grammatically. We can add even more words to make
one complete, grammatically correct sentence. But the information is basically
the same:

In our sentence, the 4 key words (sell, car, gone, France) are accentuated
or stressed.
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Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds

"music" to the language. It is the rhythm of the English language. It changes the
speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between each
stressed word is the same.
In our sentence, there is 1 syllable between SELL and CAR and 3
syllables between CAR and GONE. But the time (t) between SELL and CAR
and between CAR and GONE is the same. We maintain a constant beat on the
stressed words. To do this, we say "my" more slowly, and "because I've"
more quickly. We change the speed of the small structure words so that the
rhythm of the key content words stays the same.
2.3.2 INTONATION

There are two basic patterns of intonation in English: falling intonation and
rising intonation. We sometimes use a combination of rising and falling
intonation in the same sentence.
The combination is called Rise-Fall or Fall-Rise intonation.
In the following examples a downward arrow (➘) indicates a fall in
intonation and an upward arrow (➚) indicates a rise in intonation.
Again, these are not rules but patterns generally used by native speakers of
English.
Just remember that content words are stressed, and intonation adds attitude
or emotion.
This explanation on intonation is intended to serve as a general guide to
help learners.
It should in no way make them unnecessarily anxious!
It should be remembered that a written explanation can never be a
substitute for a 'live' conversation with a native speaker.
Attitudinal intonation is something that is best acquired through talking and
listening to English speakers.
a .Falling Intonation (➘)
(The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.)

Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern in English.
It is commonly found in statements, commands, wh-questions (information
questions),confirmatory question tags and exclamations.
- Statements
Nice to meet ↘you.
I’ll be back in a ↘minute.
Here is the weather ↘forecast.
I'm going for a walk in the ↘park.
- Commands
Write your name ↘here.
Take that picture ↘ down.
Put your books on the ↘table.
Take your hands out of your ↘pockets.
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- Wh- questions (requesting information.)
(questions beginning with 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and
'how')
Where do you come ↘from?
Where do you ↘work?
How many books do you ↘have?
Whose bag is ↘this?
- Questions Tags
Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than
questions.
Not all tag questions are really questions.
Some of them merely ask for confirmation or invite agreement, in which
case we use a falling tone at the end.
He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘he?

She's such a nuisance, isn't ↘she?
I failed the test because I didn't revise, did ↘ I?
It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ↘ it?
- Exclamations
How nice of ↘ you!
That's just what I ↘need!
What a beautiful ↘ voice!
That's a ↘surprise!
b . Rising Intonation (➚)
(The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.)
Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking.
It is normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags that are real
questions.
- Yes/no Questions
(Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.)
Do you like your new ➚teacher?
Have you finished ➚already?
May I borrow your ➚dictionary?
Do you have any ➚magazines?
- Questions tags
Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real
questions).
We've met already, ➚haven't we?
You like fish, ➚don't you?
You're a new student ➚aren't you?
The view is beautiful, ➚isn't it?
c . Rise-Fall Intonation (➚➘)
(The intonation rises and then falls.)
We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and conditional
sentences.

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- Choices (alternative questions.)
Are you having ➚soup or ➘salad?
Is John leaving on ➚Thursday or ➘Friday?
Does he speak ➚German or ➘French?
Is your name ➚Ava or ➘Eva?
- Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling)
Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is finished.
We've got ➚apples, pears, bananas and ➘oranges
The sweater comes in ➚blue, white pink and ➘black
I like ➚football, tennis, basketball and ➘volleyball.
I bought ➚a tee-shirt, a skirt and a ➘handbag.
-Unfinished thoughts
(partial statements)
In the responses to the following questions, the rise-fall intonation
indicates reservation.
The speaker hesitates to fully express his/her thoughts.
Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚leather is ➘nice... ( but I don't
like it.)
What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚fish was ➘good... (but the rest wasn't
great).
So you both live in Los Angeles? Well ➚Alex ➘does ... (but I don't).
- Conditional sentences
(The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the second clause.)
If he ➚calls, ask him to leave a ➘message.
Unless he ➚insists, I'm not going to ➘go.
If you have any ➚problems, just ➘contact us.
d. Fall-Rise Intonation (➘➚)

(The voice falls and rises usually within one word.)
The main function of fall-rise intonation is to show that the speaker is not
certain of the answer they are giving to a question, or is reluctant to reply (as
opposed to a falling tone used when there is no hesitation). It is also used in
polite requests or suggestions.
- Hesitation/reluctance:
So you'd be willing to confirm that? ...Well ... I ➘sup➚pose so ...
You didn't see him on Monday? I don't quite ➘re➚member ...
- Politeness-Doubt-Uncertainty:
(You are not sure what the answer might be.)
Perhaps we could ➘vis➚it the place?
Should we ➘cop➚y the list?
Do you think it's ➘al➚lowed?
A good exercise to improve pronunciation would be to listen to short
recordings of everyday dialogues and then 'shadow read' the script, or read it
along with the tape using the same stress and intonation as the speaker. Students
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can repeat this exercise until their voice sounds similar to the voice on the
recording.
It is also a good idea to note down or record some examples of everyday
conversations (either from real life or from film or television dialogues) and
repeat them as often as possible, copying the stress and intonation of the
speakers.
Modern English songs are also a useful way of learning English stress,
rhythm and intonation.
To begin with, try singing (or saying loudly) the lyrics of songs that you
find easy to understand.
You will be surprised how quickly your pronunciation will improve with

the help of audio materials.
It will be a reward for all your hard work!
2.3.3 Pronouncing certain consonant sounds correctly
Pay attention to how you use your voice when you speak. You should be
able to feel the vibration of your vocal cords when you make voiced sounds (b,
d, g, v, z, r, l, m, n, ng, dge, zh, and voiced th). You can also try to make lists of
pairs of words that use the sounds you find challenging and practice repeating
those. Record yourself so you can hear whether you’re making any progress.
Phoneticists, who study the sound of the human voice, divide consonants into
two types: voiced and voiceless. Voiced consonants require the use of the vocal
cords to produce their signature sounds; voiceless consonants do not. Both types
use the breath, lips, teeth, and upper palate to further modify speech. This guide
presents the differences between voiced and voiceless consonants and gives you
some tips for using them.

Voiced Consonants

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Your vocal cords, which are actually mucous membranes, stretch across the
larynx at the back of the throat. By tightening and relaxing as you speak, the
vocal cords modulate the flow of breath expelled from the lungs.
An easy way to determine whether a consonant is voiced or not is to place a
finger on your throat. As you pronounce a letter, feel the vibration of your vocal
cords. If you feel a vibration the consonant is a voiced one.
These are the voiced consonants: B, D, G, J, L, M, N, Ng, R, Sz, Th (as in
the word "then"), V, W, Y, and Z. But if consonants are only single letters, what
are Ng, Sz, and Th? They're common sounds that are produced by blending the
two consonants phonetically.

Voiceless Consonants

Voiceless consonants do not use the vocal cords to produce their hard,
percussive sounds.
Instead, they're slack, allowing air to flow freely from the lungs to the
mouth, where the tongue, teeth, and lips engage to modulate the sound.
These are the voiceless consonants: Ch, F, K, P, S, Sh, T, and Th (as in
"thing"). Common words using them include:
washed
coats
watched
books
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seats
dropped
carts
Vowels
Vowel sounds (A, E, I, O, U) and diphthongs (combinations of two vowel
sounds) are all voiced. That also includes the letter Y when pronounced like a
long E. Examples: city, pity, gritty.
Pay attention to how you use your voice when you speak. You should be
able to feel the vibration of your vocal cords when you make voiced sounds (b,
d, g, v, z, r, l, m, n, ng, dge, zh, and voiced th). You can also try to make lists of
pairs of words that use the sounds you find challenging and practice repeating
those. Record yourself so you can hear whether you’re making any progress

Pay attention to how you use your voice when you speak. You should be
able to feel the vibration of your vocal cords when you make voiced sounds (b,

d, g, v, z, r, l, m, n, ng, dge, zh, and voiced th). You can also try to make lists of
pairs of words that use the sounds you find challenging and practice repeating
those. Record yourself so you can hear whether you’re making any progress
2.3.4. short and long vowel sounds
Vowel sounds, like consonant sounds, can also be confused easily. The
main problem with vowels happens when you mix up long and short vowel
sounds. For example, the long ‘ee’ sound in ‘seat’ with the short ‘i’ sound in
‘sit.’ If you confuse these sounds, you end up saying completely different words.
This can get confusing in conversation and forces people to draw much more
from the context of your speech than the speech itself.
Make practice word lists like the ones you made for the consonant sounds
and practice the sounds that are difficult for you.
What is the difference between short and long vowels? Depending on their
position in the word and the pronunciation of that word, the length of the vowel
can change and have a different sound. Not all letters make the same sound in all
words, and that’s what vowel length is about.
If you know American English, you know the American English vowels: A,
E, I, O, and U. The letter Y is sometimes counted as a vowel too. Find out the
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basic sounds and functions of both vowels and consonants in “ this guide to
American English pronunciation”.
The easiest way to remember the difference between short and long vowels
is by remembering the rule about long vowels, specifically. If a word with a
certain vowel in it says the name of the vowel, then that vowel is making a
“long” sound. By “name” we mean, the name of the actual letter. When we look
at “a” we pronounce it /ā/, or “ay.” This is the first letter of the alphabet, and
when looking at the isolated letter, we’ll refer to it by its name: the way we say it
when we begin to recite the alphabet. This is known as a long vowel sound,

because it says the “name” of the letter. The same goes for the other vowels.
A short vowel sound is a vowel sound that does not follow this rule. When
reading a word that uses a short vowel sound, will say the sound that the letter
can make that is not its actual name. So in the case of “A,” the word “main”
might have a long “A” sound because we pronounce the “A” as /ā/, whereas the
word “man” has a short vowel sound.
Short and Long Vowels Examples
Now we’ll go down the list of vowels and show you their pronunciation in
the phonic code, and give examples of how to pronounce both. If the phonic
code is too confusing, just remember:
/a/ is short and /ā/ is long. Same goes for the rest of the vowels:
/a/ and /ā/
/e/ and /ē/
/i/ and /ī/
/o/ and /ō/
/u/ and /ū/
Let’s get started with those examples.
Aa
Short: /æ/ Long: /eɪ/
Short: “fat” Long: “fāte”
Ee
Short: /ɛ/ Long: /iː/
Short: “wet” Long: “whēat”
Ii
Short: /i/ Long: /iː/
Short: “win” Long: “wīne”
Oo
Short: /ɒ/ Long: /oʊ/
Short: “bot” Long: “bōat”
Uu

Short: /ʌ/ Long: /juː/
Short: “cup” Long: “cūbe”
2.3.5 Connected speech
- Join two sounds.
14


When a word ends in a consonant sound, and the following word begins
with the same consonant sound, both sounds are pronounced together as one.
Example: I’d decide it later.
-Link two sounds.
If the first word ends with a consonant and the second word begins with a
vowel, a native speaker would connect the consonant with the vowel as if they
belong to one word.
Example: I’d like a fried egg.
- Get rid of a sound.
When the sounds “t” or “d” occur between two consonant sounds, they’ll
often disappear completely from the pronunciation.
Example: See you nex(t) week!
-Use contractions
Native speakers also almost always use contractions (short words created
by combining two separate words) to speak faster. Some examples of common
ones:
 I + am = I’m
 I + will = I’ll
 do + not = don’t
 I + have = I’ve
 I + would= I’d
You can also listen for stress and rhythm in native English speaking. Native
English speakers typically raise their voices and make a longer sound for the

word that needs the most attention.In other words, they “stress” the most
important words.
English rhythm is the musical feature of English-the up and down of the
pitch each word in a sentence takes.
The best way to learn the flow of English is to mimic native speakers. It’s
really something you need to hear and imitate, over and over. Research indicates
that sometimes we imitate others’ behavior subconsciously (without realizing it).
So this might be a more natural process than you think.
For mirroring material, find a famous speech, a talk or a song. Rap songs
are very good for this purpose. Note down how a speaker stresses different
words in a sentence, which in turn leads to the distinct rhythm.
2.3.6 Ending sounds.
Ending sound is the last sound we hear in a word. Ending sound is very
important in communication.If we forget ending sounds when we speak,it can
lead to misunderstand.For example: “rice”, “write”” are words which contain the
same beginning sounds. In order to identify these two words, we have to notice
the ending sounds.
2.3.7 Notice how their mouth , tongue and lips move
15


When we speak ,we move our mouth,tongue and lips .How we move our
mouth ,tongue and lips affects how we pronounce a word. Therefore, the first
step to correct students’ pronunciation is notice about them.We should guide
them how to move these parts in order to pronounce a words correctly.
For example: “l” sound in “lice” and “r”sound in rice.
- To make the “L” sound, our tongue should touch the back of our fron
teeth and the top of our mouth, just behind our teeth.
- To make the “R” sound, our tongue should not touch the top if the
mouth,Pull our tongue back to the middle of our mouth, near where it naturally

rests if you were not saying anything.As you say the sound,our lips should be a
little rounded.
2.3.8 Break words down into sounds.
Words are made up of syllables or parts.The word “ Syllable” , for example
,has three syllables: syl- la- ble.Turning words into parts can make students
easier to pronounce, especially for long and difficult words.To check how many
syllable a word has,place our hand flat just under our chin, say the word
slowly.Each time our chin touches our hand, that is a syllable.We can write the
word down in parts. Leave a space or draw a line between each syllable.Every
syllable should have a vowel( a , e, i , o , u , y ). Now try saying it.That is easier.
2.3.9 Listening.
It is true that before we learn how to speak, we will need to learn how to
listen.It means that listening plays an important role in improving pronunciation.
The more we listen, the better we will become at pronouncing. Thus, we should
bring our students as many chances as possible to listen .We can find listening
exercises online for them to practise.We can also cencourage our students to
spend much time on listening from movies, songs.
2.4 The effect on educational activities.
* Effect on my students
After using the above ways I formed a more rigorous way of evaluating my
records and gained useful information.
Grading scores of their conversations show me that their pronunciation and
intonation is improving. Some of their scores remained at a high level for the
whole process of my research work on pronunciation . Thus I was developing a
clearer picture of my teaching needs.
My students’ scores of phonetics tell me that my work is in effect. Among
the best top students of phonetics who gained the highest marks, my students
ranked in the first position. I make the final statistics on Students Score Record
on Phonetics by two terms.
After a period of experimental teaching "Some pronuncition problems and

tips to improve them" I see the quality and effectiveness of teaching English
increased markedly. Students were transferred to practice very lively.
Experimental teaching results are assessed through quality tests and
exploratory excitement of student learning.
The results after the application of my ways are:
16


Class
4A
4B

Total
24
26

Achieving
SL
%
13
54
18
69

Fail
SL
11
8

%

46
31

Let’s look at the statistics I can see how my students has gained in
improving pronunciation in the second term. This would suggest that my
teaching methods have had an influence on the students’ learning.
This gives us the evidence that my project on pronunciation helps my
students to become English learners who are good at their pronunciation from
the under developing state towards a developed one. They received good scores
in the final examination of phonetics to a certain level.
Some students were greatly influenced by their dialect; they needed to
work harder on their pronunciation to meet the standard of a good English
speaker. My students was able to change their old habit and learn to speak
clearly.
As my work goes on, I find that my students are eager to gain
knowledge on how to speak English flawlessly. They find faults with each other
in order to better their pronunciation and intonation and they even ask me to
give them lectures on pronunciation. This clearly shows that they begin to focus
on the essential work of a good language learner and in my mind this is a very
good start for their study and work in the near future.
*Effect on my colleagues
I regard the pronunciation and intonation as one of the most important
items during the teaching process of the freshmen at school. At the same time I
help my colleagues improve their attitude of teaching a foreign language. This is
also true when they become English teachers to teach their students. I have
shown them clearly the scientific way of teaching a foreign language. While
teaching the language knowledge to the students, I pay more attention to the
some other parts for improving their learning ability. And my colleagues are
doing in their studying right now.
My concern on pronunciation will provide my colleagues with the ability to

teach pronunciation more clearly and accurately. On the one hand, they have
gained the specific knowledge to speak good English, and thus they will know
how to speak in the right way. On the other hand, what they have been gained on
pronunciation will make them teach their students to pronounce clearly and
accurately. Thus. I believe we have made the first good step for a long journey in
improving the English proficiency of Vietnamese students.

3.CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
17


3.1conclusion.
In the trend of integration of our country and elementary education
programs today, English in primary schools plays an important role in
contributing to the training of human with comprehensive development and
meet the requirements of the country in the new period.As a teacher of English I
want to concern on pronunciation which will provide my students- the coming
future owners of my country - with the ability to use English more clearly and
accurately when they begin to learn in primary schools. Good knowledge of
pronunciation and intonation will also make students become autonomous
learners, and this is fundamental for their life-long learning. What the students
got from this learning process rightly meets the standards on helping students to
acquire the necessary critical thinking skills.My concern on pronunciation has
provided my students with the problems rules and tips to fix them.By these
ways,they have gained the specific knowledge better and become more
confident in communication.In order to contribute the experiences in teaching
pronunciation in specific and teaching English in popular for students, a subject
that is considered new and difficult, I would like to introduce these ways to my
students as well as my colleagues to apply them. I enjoy teaching English and I
love children too.

3.2. Suggestions.
Nowadays,our country has been developing with rapid speed.It is true that
education has been invested considerablely.In recent years,English is considered
as an important subject at school.However,in some areas,especially in the
countryside and remost areas,condition for teaching English is not covenient.
That is why the quality of teaching this subject is low.Therefore,I suggest that
government should take care of and invest more and more in developing
education for these areas.In addition, staff of teachers play an important role in
the effect of education.It is fact that some teachers of English does not have
enough ability and knowledge to do the educational task. So,It is very necessary
to retrain these teachers of English . Furthermore, teachers’ salary is low.That is
the reason why many teachers do not try their best to contribute for education.
So,I expect that the teachers’ income will be increased so that they can improve
their life and devote more for education.
*References:
-Teaching Pronunciation: A Course Book and Reference Guide Second
Edition. By Marianne Celce-Murcia, Donna M. Brinton, Janet M. Goodwin,
with Barry Griner
-Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English Teacher's Book, David
BrazilCambridge University Press, 6 thg 10, 1994 .
-Internet : English club, websites, videos…
Thank you very much!

18


CONFERM OF
THE HEAD MASTER

Le Anh Quy

Yen Dinh, May 15th 2018
I guarantee this is my work.I did
not copy it from others.
Signature

Trinh Thi Tho

19


Index
Part
1

content

Page number

1.1 Reason for the topic

1

1.2 Aim of research

2

1.3 Subject

2

1.4 Methodology

2

2.1 Theory

3

2.2 Current status of subject.

3

2.3 Solutions

6

2.4 Effect

16

3.1 Conclution

18

Conclution& 3.2 Suggestion

18

Suggestions

18

Introduction

2
Content

3

* References

20