SKKN- PRONOUNCING ENGLISH VOWELS


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Number
Content
Page






1
INTRODUCTION
1- Justification of the research
2


2- Aim and objectives of the research
2


3- Scope of the research
3


4- Method of the research
4.1. Subject of the research
4.2. Data collection instrument of the research
4.3. Data analysis procedure of the research
3














2

DEVELOPMENT

4


Part 1: Theoretical background
English pronunciation
1- Standard English pronunciation
4


2- English sounds
4


Part 2: Practical background
Errors concerned with vowel sounds
1. Description of vowel sounds errors
7


2. Error analysis
7


3.Typical vowel sounds error collected from the survey
8


Part 3: Possible causes and suggested solutions
9


1. Possible causes
1.1. Lack of awareness of the importance of pronunciation
1.2. Teachers’ neglect of pronunciation.
1.3. Mother tongue interference.
9


2. Suggested solutions
Doing pronunciation exercises
a. Distinguishing sound exercises
b. Find the odd sounds
c. Matching exercises
10

3
CONCLUSION
13

4
REFERENCES
14

5
THE EXPERIMENTS HAVE BEEN REGARDED
15


INTRODUCTION
1-Justification of the research
We all know that during the time of studyingEnglish, there are many pronunciation errors that secondary students of English tend to make such as word and sentence stress, intonation, length of vowel sounds, ending sounds and linking sounds, etc. To help better English pronunciation for students of English at secondary school, it`s is essential to do a search on most typical pronunciation problems of Vietnamese students, which is, in this research, errors with vowel sounds.
Secondly, for secondary students, who have to learn English as their main subject, and then take exams in which English is one of the compulsory subjects. It`s extremely significant to realize their pronunciation errors. They cannot self-correct their English pronunciation so they are not confident enough to communicate in English. It’s obvious that there are some students noticing their pronunciation errors when their pronunciation erroneously, others, on the other hand, don`t recognize their problem with pronunciation English words.
Last but not least, although there are common errors made by learners, not at all teachers pay attention to them. The above conclusion partly from personal observation supports this research. It is possibly becausesome sounds are not pronounced so clearly as other sounds in an utterance so they are less noticed by both learners and teachers. Added to this, there have not been many studies on these particular pronunciation errors so far at high level. Only studies about general speaking and pronunciation errors were carried out, which appears to have failed to emphasize the main pronunciation problem of Vietnamese students of English.
I believe that a study on English pronunciation errors will help students become well aware of their pronunciation problems to which they might not have paid any attention before. It’s also the help for some teachers in teaching pronunciation at schools if the study can suggest some solutions to help students practice pronunciation individually and in group. From the reasons mentioned above, I have decided to carry out this study entitled "Improving the way to pronounce English vowel sounds of grade-6 students”.
2. Aim and objectives of the research
English phonetics is important as it lays basis for effective oral communication. As far as I know, students of English at primary schools are not taught phonetics(and students at secondary schools who learn new curriculum are taught some sounds) and mostly taught by nonnative- English teachers.
Classes in Viet Nam are big so it is not suitable for teachers and students to practice pronunciation.
For those reasons, I decided to do a study on pronunciation errors made by students in grade 6 at secondary schools to analyze the errors, their causes and the suggest some solutions based on my own experiences in teaching English to help students improve their pronunciation as well as to present to teachers of English a realistic picture of pronunciation errors made by their students so that they can find the suitable and effective methods to teach this subject with their students.
3. Scope of the research
The study focuses on English errors made by students in grade 6, I do not have an ambition to cover all the students` problems with English pronunciation. Only the pronunciation errors with some typical vowels made by the students in grade 6 are investigated.
4. Method of the research
4.1 Subjects of the research
This school year, there are 110 students from three classes- 6A, 6B and 6C at Thi Tran Trieu Son secondary school but I choose 50 students participating in this study. They are about the same age; both genders and they come from many villages in Trieu