Teaching difficult English sounds to secondary school students

MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA

PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA

Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury

Výuka složitých anglických zvuků

pro

středoškolské studenty

Bakalářská práce

Brno 2010

Vedoucí práce: Autor práce:

Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D. Martin Jordák

https://is.muni.cz/auth/osoba/604

TEACHING DIFFICULT ENGLISH SOUNDS TO SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

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MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

Teaching difficult English sounds

to

secondary school students

Bachelor thesis

Brno 2010

Supervisor: Written by:

Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D. Martin Jordák



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Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných

literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty

Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem

č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých

zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

Declaration

I hereby declare that this bachelor thesis is my own work and that the information I used has

been fully acknowledged in the text and included in the reference list. I agree with putting the thesis on

public display at Masaryk University for study purposes.

…………………………………

Martin Jordák


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Poděkování

Chtěl bych poděkovat Mgr. Ireně Headlandové Kalischové, Ph.D. a za její vlídné vedení mé

bakalářské práce, její trpělivost a za jeho podporu a cenné připomínky k textu, stejně tak jako

za doporučení literatury.

Acknowledgements

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the supervision of Mgr. Irena Headlandová

Kalischová, Ph.D. I would like to thank her for her kind supervising of this thesis, her

patience and her helpful advice and insightful comments on the text as well as recommending

literature.






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Bibliografický záznam

JORDÁK, Martin. Teaching difficult English sounds to secondary school students. Brno:

Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2010.

Vedoucí bakalářské práce Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D.

Anotace

Bakalářská práce “Výuka složitých anglických zvuků pro středoškolské studenty” se zabývá

výzkumem problémovosti vybraných anglických fonémů a jejich výukou na středních

školách. Využitím metod dotazníku a analýzy nahrávek studentských slovních projevů bylo

zjištěno, které zvuky jsou pro české žáky nejsložitější a na základě těchto poznatků byly

představeny aktivity, které mají pomoci zlepšit a zintenzivnět výuku výslovnosti. Kapitola

první shrnuje veškeré anglické zvuky a způsob, jakým jsou vytvářeny. Druhá kapitola

představuje metody výzkumu a jejich výsledky. Poslední kapitola navrhuje možnosti jak

vyučovat a vysvětlovat produkci daných anglických fonémů a aktivity, které mají tyto zvuky

procvičovat.

Annotation

Bachelor thesis “Teaching difficult English sounds to Czech students” deals with with

research of problematic of chosen English phonemes and their tuition at secondary schools.

By using methods of a questionnaire and an analysis of recordings of students‟ speeches was

discovered which are the most difficult sounds for Czech students and on the bases of these

findings activities that should help improve and intensify pronunciation teaching were

introduced. First One enlists all English sounds and the process they are produced. Second

chapter introduces the methods of the research and its results. Last chapter proposes

possibilities how to teach and explain the production of chosen English phonemes and

activities which should exercise these sounds.

Klíčová slova

Výslovnost, foném, složité anglické zvuky, aktivity, Mezinárodní fonetická abeceda

Keywords

Pronunciation, phoneme, difficult English sounds, activities, International phonetic alphabet



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Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION………………………………….……………………………………….8

2. CHAPTER 1………………………………………..……………………………………….9

2.1. Phonemes………………………………………………………………………………….9

2.2. Monophtongs…………………………………………………………………………….10

2.3. Diphthongs……………………………………………………………………………….13

2.4. Consonants...……………………………………………………………………………..13

3. CHAPTER 2……………………...………………………………………………………..16

3.1. Research Material and Methods…………………………………………………...…….16

3.2. Most Problematic Sounds………………………………………………………………..18

3.3. Czech vs. English………………………………………………………………………...19

4. CHAPTER 3……………………………………………………………………………….21

4.1. New sound……………………………………………………………………………….21

4.2. Tongue twisters…………………………………………………………………………..22

4.3. IPA Chart………………………………………………………………………………...23

4.4. Minimal pair pratice……………………………………………………………………...25

4.5. Grouping Activity………………………………………………………………………..26

4.6. PHONEMES /θ/ AND /ð/………………………………………………………………..26

4.6.1. Classroom activities……………………………………………………………………26

4.6.2. Minimal pairs…………………………………………………………………………..31

4.6.3. Tongue twisters………………………………………………………………………...31

4.7. PHONEME /æ/…………………………………………………………………………..31


4.7.2. Minimal pairs……………………………………………………………………….….35

4.7.3. Tongue twisters………………………………………………………………………...36

4.7. PHONEME /ŋ/…………………………………………………………………………...36


4.8.2. Minimal pairs…………………………………………………………………………..39

4.8.3. Tongue twisters………………………………………………………………………...39

4.9. PHONEME /p/…………………………………………………………………………...39


4.9.2. Minimal pairs…………………………………………………………………………..42

4.9.3. Tongue twisters………………………………………………………………………...42


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5. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………….43

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………….44


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1. Introduction

I have decided to write this thesis because in my opinion and from my experience from my

grammar school teaching pronunciation is rather neglected. Teachers might be using audio

examples during their lessons but structured teaching of pronunciation is not very common.

Pronunciation is an inseparable aspect of the English language and is one of the most

important in communication. Someone can have a great vocabulary, know all the grammar

but when they do not know what other people say because they do not understand others‟

speech and even less are they able to answer, since they had not been exposed to spoken

English nor taught much of pronunciation, they are lost. Of course they can be skilled in

writing and sometimes it is all people need in their job, but for normal everyday

communication having correct pronunciation is crucial.

Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994) wrote:”First, sound is significant because it is used as part

of a code of a particular language. … In this sense we can talk about pronunciation as the

production and reception of sounds of speech.”(p. 3)

In my opinion pronunciation is not given as much attention as it deserves at secondary

schools. Teachers concentrate mostly on grammar, vocabulary and reading exercises and only

sometimes they include a bit of pronunciation. But mostly they rely on students to catch

sounds by themselves during lessons.

Similarly to Czech language there are many accents in English. They differ according to

geographical place, country, even part of the country, social status and many other aspects and

some of them are very difficult to understand. The accent which this thesis uses is one that is

recommended the most for students of English- Received Pronunciation. But as Roach (2000,

p. 3) claims:”This name is old-fashioned and misleading. Since it is most familiar as the

accent used by most announcers and newsreaders on BBC and British independent television

broadcasting channels, a preferable name is BBC pronunciation.” This accent is recognized


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all around the world and all English-speaking people understand it. And in my opinion it is

easier to understand e.g. American English when knowing British English, than vice versa.

As teachers we have to help students to be able to distinguish the differences between

sounds of English and sounds of their mother tongue. It is very likely that they will mix them

together or even replace the former with the latter ones when trying to speak English. Of

course there will be students who will be excellent and very talented but we have to take into

account that there are also students who will not be that natural and will need a lot of

guidance and practice.

Because English has many phonemes which are not even closely similar to any Czech

sounds the teacher has to be able to explain and demonstrate how they are produced. The

students need to know how they should open their mouths, where to put their tongue and what

is more important how to practice by themselves e.g. at home.

In this thesis I will be dealing only with single sounds of English. I will use information I

had gathered by two methods of research- a questionnaire and recordings of speeches of first

year learners of English at Masaryk University. I am going to analyse this information to

detect sounds which cause problems to students of English language.

First chapter deals with the division of all English phonemes. It defines how they are

produced, how distinct they are and how to explain their production in the means of the place

and manner of articulation. Second chapter states, which methods of research were used,

describes findings that have been discovered and lists the most problematic English sounds

and how the Czech language influences the production them. Chapter three is concerned with

the process of explaining the pronunciation of certain phonemes to secondary school students,

enlists activities to particular sounds and offers a number minimal pairs for teachers to work

with and many tongue twisters as means of self-study. It also describes the use of

International Phonetic chart and the advantages of using it in lessons.


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2. Chapter 1

2.1. Phonemes

This chapter will be dealing with a set of sounds (the technical term for sound is “a

phoneme”) that appear in English. There are many ways and distinctions different people

articulate various sounds but still there is a possibility how to describe the pronunciation. One

of them is an IPA1 chart (fig. 1), where symbols for all English phonemes are presented.

But before choosing those which are the most difficult for Czechs, the division of all

phonemes has to be shown. They are divided into two categories - vowel sounds and

consonant sounds which are subdivided into monophtongs (1.2.), diphtongs (1.3.) and

consonants (1.4.). The distinguishing mark between vowels and consonants is described in

Roach (2000):

Vowels are sounds which when produced there is no constriction or closure in our mouth

and that is what consonants have. But what about /h/? It is a consonant but there is no obstacle

for the airflow. When definition of either of them is needed, it is very difficult to find the

proper one.

It is possible to establish two distinct groups of sounds (vowels and consonants) in

another way. Consider English words beginning with the sound /h/; what sound can come

next after this /h/? We find that most of the sounds we normally think of as vowels can

follow, but practically none of the sounds we class as consonants. Now think of English

words beginning with the two sounds /bɪ/; we find many cases where consonant can follow,

but hardly any cases where a vowel may follow. (p. 11)

Another division of phonemes is based on in which place they are produced and which

articulators are used. There is no distinguishing mark between vowels and consonants - all

sounds are produced by exhaling a stream of air through speech organs. These are the lips, the

1 International Phonetic Alphabet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip


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teeth, the tongue, the alveolar ridge, the hard palate, the velum (the soft palate), the uvula, the

nasal cavity and the glottis.

Figure 1. IPA chart (URL 3.)

2.2. Monophtongs

A description of English vowels can be given in many ways. One of them is drawing a

diagram in which “Cardinal vowels” (Fig. 2) are described. One axis indicates the place

where the tongue should be and the second axis says how open the lips should be. These

vowels are not exclusively English vowels (these are shown in Fig. 3); they are the ones

which are familiar to most European languages and show the extremes of the vowel

pronunciation. Vowels of particular languages can be described (or drawn into the diagram)

using or comparing these eight cardinal vowels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teeth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_ridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_palate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvula

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottis


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i- close-front u- close-back

e- close-mid- front o- close-mid-back

ε- open-mid-front ɔ- open-mid-back

a- open- front ɑ- open- back

Figure 2. Cardinal vowels (URL 8.)

As demonstrated in Fig. 3 English vowels are

not as strictly defined as Cardinal vowels, but the

diagram is quite useful aid to understand how the

vowels are produced.

According to Kelly (2000, pp. 31 - 33) the

vowels are divided to three groups - close (/i:/, /ɪ/,

/ʊ/, /u:/), mid (/e/, /ə/, /З:/, /ɔ:/) and open(/æ/, /Λ/,

/ɑ:/, /ɒ/).

Figure 3. English vowels (URL 10.)

Another important variable to take into account is a lip-rounding. Although the lips

have many shapes when speaking at this point I will talk only about three possibilities.

Rounded: the lips are pushed forward and the corners of the lips are brought close to each

other and shaped like a circle, e.g. /u:/

Spread: the corners of the lips are moved away from each other as if smiling, e.g. /i:/

Neutral: the lips are neither rounded nor spread, typical sound when hesitating /З:/

According to Vaughan - Rees (2002, p. vi) vowels are divided into two groups - short

vowels and long vowels. Both groups are short or long only relatively, because it depends on

the situation, the context in which these vowels are used.


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Short vowels Long vowels

ɪ bit, in ə potato, under 2 i: sea, key З: girl, fur

e best, pen ɒ dog, wash ɑ: car, start u: blue, new

æ bad, cat i happy, lucky ɔ: north, bought

Λ cup, but ʊ book, hook

2.3. Diphthongs

Simply put, a diphthong could be described as a combination of two vowel sounds. But

when trying to examine them closer it is realized that there is a “glide” from one vowel to

another. The most important thing to remember is that the first sound in each diphtong is

longer than the second one. For example the diphthong /ɔɪ/ as in boy consists of the /ɔ/ vowel,

which is much longer and from which we glide to /ɪ/ that is only about one quarter of the

length of the whole diphthong.

It is usually said that English has eight diphthongs, though /ʊə/ is not very frequent. They can

be divided according to Kelly (2000, pp. 35 – 36) into three groups:

Centring diphthongs- these diphthongs end with a glide towards /ə/ - /ɪə/ as in beer, here, /ʊə/

as in sure, manure and /eə/ as in there, stare.

Closing diphthongs ending with /ɪ/- all closing diphthongs end with close vowel - /eɪ/ as

in pain, they, /aɪ/ as in eye, tide and /ɔɪ/ as in enjoy, voice.

Closing diphthongs ending with /ʊ/- /əʊ/ as in snow, home and /aʊ/ as in down, house.

2.4. Consonants

As mentioned above, consonants (Tab. 1) are made by putting a constriction or a closure

in the way of an airstream. Kelly (2000, p. 54) assumes that it is easier to describe the

articulation of consonants than that of vowel sounds, because with vowels we describe the

2 Schwa is the shortest and most common spoken vowel found in English


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movement of the tongue within a space which is very difficult. With consonants, it is possible

to show or present the way how the vocal organs and the parts of the mouth move and how

they restrict, interrupt or divert the airflow.

The following division is described in Kelly (2000, pp. 47 - 53) and Roach (2000, pp. 48

- 69). There are three ways how to describe consonants:

- the manner of articulation

- the place of articulation

- the force of articulation

When talking about the manner of articulation the way how the consonant is produced

has to be considered. Our vocal tract can be completely blocked and the airflow is unable to

go through for a moment; it can run through the nose or the lips, can be only almost closed so

the air can be escaping continuously.

plosives- somewhere in the vocal tract there is made a complete block, the air pressure

increases behind the block and then is suddenly released very quickly, explosively (that is

why plosives) e.g. /k/ and /g/.

affricates- somewhere in the vocal tract there is made a complete block, the air pressure

increases behind the block and then is released, but more slowly than in plosives, e.g. /tʃ/,

/dʒ/.

fricatives- two vocal organs come so close to each other that the airflow between them

can be heard, e.g. /s/, /z/.

nasals- a block made by the tongue raised against the palate or closed lips and the airflow

runs through the nose, e.g. /n/, /m/.

laterals- the tongue blocks partially the airflow and the air escapes around the sides of the

tongue, e.g. /l/.

Approximants- the vocal organs approach (that is why approximant) each other but not


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too much to cause a friction, e.g. /w/, /r/.

Consonants are divided according to the place of articulation. We must take into

account in which part of the vocal tract the sound is produced and which articulators are

involved.

bilabial- the lips are almost closed or completely closed, e.g. /p/, /w/

labiodental- the lower lip and upper teeth are used, e.g. /f/, /v/

dental- the tip of the tongue is placed between upper and lower teeth, e.g. /Ѳ/, /ð/

alveolar- the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge, e.g. /t/, /n/

palate-alveolar- the tongue blade is pressed on the border between the alveolar ridge and

the palate

palatal - the middle part of the tongue is used close to the palate, e.g. /j/

velar- the back of the tongue is pressed against the soft palate (velum)

glottal- the place between the vocal chords is used, e.g. /h/

Consonants can be voiced or unvoiced which also depends on the force of articulation.

The distinction of these depends on how strong the force of the airstream is. When producing

e.g. /f/ we need greater force than when producing /v/. Therefore the terms fortis (strong) for

unvoiced and lenis (weak) for voiced are used.

Table 1.

English consonants

Place of articulation

bilabial labio-

dental dental alveolar

palato-

alveolar palatal velar glottal

Man

ner

of

arti

cula

tion

plosive p b t d k g

affricate tʃ dʒ

fricative f v Ѳ ð s z ʃ ʒ h

nasal m n

lateral l

approxi-

mant w r j

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant

Table 1. English Consonants


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3. Chapter 2

For Czech speakers English has many “strange” sounds that do not appear in their

native language and which are pronounced slightly differently, which causes big problems

when they learn or speak English. It can even cause (although minor) misunderstanding and

conflicts in everyday life when talking to a native speaker. On the other hand English

speakers are usually very helpful and understanding, which often leads to successful transfer

of information.

3.1. Research Material and Methods

In this theses two methods of research were used- a questionnaire and an analyses of

recordings of first year students of the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University. The reason

why I used this questionnaire is that I wanted to explore feelings of learners of English

because I assumed that when the learners are aware of their own mistakes they are more eager

to improve them. The second method used was to have an outlook on a pronunciation of

students who had recently left secondary schools and do not have any experience from a

university lessons of pronunciation yet and it is possible to recognise the problems i

pronouncing different sounds they brought from their previous edication.

The first method was focused on informants‟ own feelings about English

pronunciation, the troubles they think they have with particular phonemes when speaking and

it was also focused on the way their teachers at secondary schools were explaining the subject

matter. When creating the questionnaire I hypothesised five phonemes which could cause

problems the most, included them in the first question and left a possibility for students to fill

in any other sound they thought they had struggled with. Another important piece of

information was needed and that was which pronunciation were the students taught at


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secondary school. I asked that because of the analysis of the recordings, as there are features

in American English which can be believed as mistakes in British English and vice versa.

In the questionnaire I included question “What coursebook did you use at your high

school?” I wanted to explore the possibilities of teaching pronunciation with the use of

coursebooks and the majority of students answered Headway. From my own experience this

book is not concerned with this part of language very much and because of that several

activities that help exercising production of difficult English sounds are introduced in the

thesis.

The informants also stated that audio examples are not used as much as they would

prefer. A big part of them answered that their teachers used them only once a month and most

answers claimed that it was not enough. On the other hand the majority of questioned students

stated that their teacher spoke with a good pronunciation. I do not provide recordings to the

exercises, the activities depend mostly on teachers‟ ability to pronounce the sounds correctly

themselves to be a good model for their students.

Almost all answers on the question whether they learned symbols of phonetic

transcription or not were negative. It seems that teachers on secondary schools do not consider

the ability to transcribe utterances much valuable.

The students‟ recordings are based on a free talking of 20 students about their summer

holidays and reading a text, which all had the same. When analysing the recordings of the

speeches I was concerned only about mispronounced sounds and I did not focus on any other

aspect of pronunciation.

The results of the research are the basis for the selection of sounds and activities which

are designed to practise the pronunciation of the chosen phonemes.


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3.2. Most Problematic Sounds

The first supposition was that the most problematic sounds for students at secondary

schools are /ð/, /θ/, /ɜ:/, /æ/ and /ŋ/. As anticipated the hardest sounds (in order from the most

frequently mentioned one) were /ð/, /æ/, /θ/, /ɜ:/ and /ŋ/. Some of the students added /ə/ and

/e/.

This had shown that the expectation was correct but to affirm this finding an analysis

of recordings was made. The outcome was different than at the former method. The sound the

students had the biggest problems with was still /ð/ but the second most mispronounced sound

was /ŋ/ followed by /θ/, /æ/ and most surprisingly /p/. Long schwa was mispronounced only

several times therefore I did not include it into this thesis for it is more useful to focus on the

other sounds.

The reasons for difficulties with pronouncing some English sounds correctly are that

Czech students had not been taught them from their birth and thus had not practiced them.

Krčmová (1994, p. 18) says: “Non-Czech phonemes are replaced by the most similar Czech

phoneme, sometimes even a grouping of phonemes (instead of /ŋ/ joints /ŋk/, /ŋg/- /rizlink/,

/marketingem/).” (my translation) This is the major problem that needs to be avoided; the

students need to distinguish between the sounds of Czech and English and to be able to realize

the differences in their production.

3.3. Czech vs. English

This section deals with differences and relationships in pronunciation of certain

phonemes in Czech and in English language.

After taking into consideration the results of the two methods of research that was

made for the purposes of this thesis, I have decided to focus on sounds that appeared in both –


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the questionnaire and the recordings of the students (/ð/, /æ/, /θ/, /ŋ/). And because /p/ had

been one of the most mispronounced sounds I will include this phoneme in the thesis as well.

As a next step I will discuss how students pronounce each sound in the context of

findings from the recordings and I will try to explain where might lie the difficulty of the

phoneme. It is true what Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994, p. 72) state, “Pronunciation, more than

any other aspect of a foreign language, will always be influenced by very personal factors

such as the learner‟s attitude to the target language and to the speakers of that language, by

individual differences in ability and motivation to learn, etc.” But there are also influences of

a mother tongue and how experienced in using English the learner is.

Phonemes /ð/ and /θ/ are two of the sounds which, when mispronounced, can change

the whole meaning of the words (they /ðeɪ/ x day /deɪ/, think /θɪŋk/ x sink /sɪŋk/) and

sometimes it can be very embarrassing (turd /tЗ:d/ x third /θЗ:d/) but it happens very often to

speakers who do not have much experience with speaking English. The problem lies in the

production of these sounds; in Czech there are not any sounds with dental place of

articulation. Therefore the students` articulators are not used to this and try to glide to another

fricative with the closest place of articulation which is labiodental /f/, alveolar /s/ or plosive /t/

(when trying to pronounce unvoiced /θ/). There is a difference in the production of /ð/ because

the students do not use a voiced alternative to fricatives /f/ or /s/ but it is much more common

that they pronounce a voiced alternative- plosive /d/ or /dz/.

A sound which appears to be one of the most difficult phonemes for Czechs is /θ/,

especially when it becomes a part of a consonant cluster where /θ/ stands next to other

fricative, e.g. sixths /sɪksθs/- this cluster is almost unpronounceable for inexperienced non-

native speakers.

It may seem peculiar but even though the phoneme /ŋ/ is present in Czech as well as in

English, many students can not pronounce it properly. They do not have difficulties with the


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sound when it is followed by /k/, but when it is followed by letter “g” their mother tongue

influences them immensely. As Krčmová (2004, p. 108) claims, in the Czech language /ŋ/ is

pronounced only when /n/ is connected to letters “k”, “g” or “x” (haŋka, taŋgo, iŋxeba). And

because voiced consonants at the end of words are pronounced as unvoiced, /g/ changes into

/k/ (trénink). It is visible that there is no situation where /ŋ/ would be in the middle or at the

end of the word by itself. And this is the reason why it is so difficult for students to get used

to not to pronounce /k/ after /ŋ/ which can be confusing (sing x sink – /sɪŋ/ x /sɪŋk/).

As its phonetic symbol shows /æ/ can be described as something between /a/ and /e/.

That is one of the easiest ways to describe it to someone who speaks Czech as a mother

tongue, as it does not have this sound. It is the reason why the students instead of /hæv/ say

/hev/ which is not such a problem when speaking, it can not be confused for some other

meaningful word, but when being told to “Bring the /men/” and the speaker is not sure how to

pronounce it, they have to explain it furthermore because the listener cannot know whether

they wanted us to fetch one particular man or a group of men.

The last phoneme to discuss is /p/. The recordings of the students‟ speeches showed

that even though it is very similar to Czech /p/ it is not the same and it causes troubles to

many non–native speakers. In English, this sound is rather softer with great exhalation of air.

However our /p/ does not require so much air and is more plosive and voiced. For many

people this is an insurmountable problem and one of the most audible mistakes which show

on the first hearing that the person‟s native tongue is not English and that they have not

mastered the pronunciation yet and have much to work on ahead.


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4. Chapter 3

This chapter will introduce a number of activities that can be used for teaching

pronunciation of difficult English sounds in lessons but also some activities that can be used

as a self-study material for learners. The activities will attempt to apply the information and

analyses that were made in Chapter 2 and are based on the questionnaire and records of

students. Hopefully it will be a source extra material for me and also other teachers for

teaching certain English phonemes to secondary school students. I do not try to create a finite

list of possibilities how to introduce methods of teaching pronunciation and to confirm

learners‟ abilities to produce particular phonemes, but to present a small aid for everyone who

seeks an additional source for their English lessons.

The activities will be divided into groups based on particular problems they are to

practice. Some of them are focused on teaching a concrete sound but there is a certain number

of exercises which train a learner‟s ear to be able to distinguish different phonemes in English

because MacCarthy (as cited in Dalton and Seidlhofer, 1997, p. 125) points out: “The capacity

of the ordinary person to perceive auditorily the phenomena of the language to be learnt is

widely, but quite wrongly taken for granted.” The activities are dependent on the teachers‟

ability to produce sounds they are to teach, therefore it is very important to be accordingly

confident and trained. This is not a problem because students were asked whether their

teachers spoke with a good pronunciation and a majority of them were satisfied with the

pronunciation their teachers had.

4.1. New Sound

It is very important for learners that teachers explain clearly how the phoneme is

produced. Therefore they should use Doffs scheme (as cited in Dalton and Seidlhofer, 1994,

p. 130), when introducing a new sound:


- 22 -

- Say the sound alone.

- Say the sound in a word.

- Contrast with other sounds.

- Write words on the board.

- Explain how to make the sound.

- Get students to repeat the sound in chorus.

- Get individual students to repeat the sound.

4.2. Tongue Twisters

“In the early stages of learning, learners are dependant on the teacher for information

about the critical sounds of English and for feedback o their performance… But as their

exposure to English increases, and as they acquire the necessary discriminatory skills, learners

begin to develop their own “internal” criteria of what is acceptable and what is not.”

Kenworthy (1987, p. 118)

This is a statement I agree very much with and because this thesis deals with the

teaching of secondary schools learners, it is assumed that they already have the essential

knowledge and skills to be able to fulfil the mentioned requirements.

I think that a very useful way, how to practice many sounds by students at home, are

tongue twisters. If the teacher performs at school how the tongue twister should be

pronounced, the students can easily try practising at home and if having a problem, the

teacher can advise them in the next lesson. For this reason at each phoneme there are several

tongue twisters that teachers can introduce to their classes.

A possibility how to use them also in lessons is to distribute among students printed

texts of particular tongue twister for learners to read them at home and get familiar with. In

the next session the teacher can ask one or two volunteers to try to read it aloud. After hearing


- 23 -

what mistakes they made the tutor who take notes of the mistakes will give feedback to the

whole class.

If there are no volunteers the teacher will read the tongue twister himself and points

out the major problems and offers a tactics for pronouncing it correctly. Thereafter the

students will learn the pronunciation in the lesson. They will be asked to practise it at home

and in the next lesson there will be a competition, consisting of e.g. who says it more times in

a minute correctly.

A “Broken telephone” is another method how to use tongue twisters in classes.

First the class is divided into two groups. The teacher hands one person in the group a

sentence, which they must then memorise and pass on to the next person, by

whispering.

The next person will pass the sentence down the line to the next and so on until it

finally gets to the last person. That person will then have to stand up and say what the

sentence is.

The first group who finishes wins.

4.3. IPA Chart

For success in teaching of pronunciation, it is vital to introduce the International

Phonetic Alphabet chart to students because “Instead of relying on the teacher for the correct

pronunciation, students can look up words and, with an understanding of IPA, decipher the

correct pronunciation.“(URL 1.)

The knowledge of how to record each sound in English will be needed for learners to

be able to work with some of the following activities. The results of the questionnaire showed

that this is not taught much to students at secondary schools. Only 7 informants answered that

they had learned the symbols of IPA at their school but 63 of them replied negatively to the


- 24 -

question whether they had been taught the phonetic transcription or not. I have the same

experience from my studies at my grammar school, I had never learned IPA chart before I

came to the university; although I had always noticed the pronunciation symbols in

dictionaries.

For practicing and strengthening the use of phonetic symbols a “Phonetic hangman” is

a good method how to achieve it. The teacher thinks of a transcription, writes an appropriate

number of lines on board and the students have to guess the sounds the word contains. As it

can be time consuming, the teacher can help pupils by writing the word next to the lines, e.g.

“--- for fish.”

Another way to exercise symbols of IPA is an IPA symbol card game (URL 1.).

The teacher prepares IPA symbol cards (example- Fig. 4), prints, cuts, folds them over

and glues together. Each card should have a symbol on one side and a word on the

other.

Distribute them, giving 1 to each student.

Students walk around the room exchanging cards. Each student shows the symbol side

of the card to his/her fellow student while saying the word out loud.

Students exchange cards and go to meet another student etc.

Figure 4. Example of IPA symbol card

æ apple

ð that


- 25 -

4.4. Minimal Pair Practice

First, the teacher selects the sounds the students need to work on. Many of the pairs of

consonants that cause problems are pairs that differ in only one aspect – that of voicing. There

are many pairs of English consonants that differ only in this feature. Worksheet can be

prepared for the students with the pairs of words beside each other (it is beneficial to write

phonetic transcription next to each word). As the teacher pronounces one of the pair, the

learners circle the word they think they heard. (Kenworthy 1987, p. 46)

A variation on this activity is described in Bowen and Marks (as cited in Dalton and

Seidlhofer, 1994, p. 134). It is called “Test the teacher.”

A teacher writes a list of minimal pairs on the board, than invite learners, one

by one, to say any one of the words on the board.

The teacher will point to the word he or she hears, and they should say “Yes” if

that was the word they said and “No” if it was not.

If the teacher is not sure whether he or she have heard, for example, coat /kəʊt/

or caught /kɔ:t/, he should point between the two. If heard something different,

like curt /kЗ:t/ for instance, point somewhere else on the board.

If one of the learners says “No” to the teacher‟s response, either give them time

to try to refine their intended pronunciation, or let them wait until they are

ready.

Because this thesis is focused only on five phonemes, each subchapter that deals with

one of them provides minimal pairs that can be used for teaching the particular sound. (All of

the minimal pairs are from URL 2.)


- 26 -

4.5. Grouping Activity

Sometimes all teachers need to divide their class into pairs. An activity used to split it

into halves by means of practicing pronunciation follows.

The teacher prepares two sets of papers. One half is spelled words and the other half is

the same words but phonetically transcribed.

The teacher distribute one to each student (if the number of the learners is odd, the

teacher will be involved as well) and the pupils have to find the matching couple. It

depends on which sound is needed to be practiced.

4.6. Phonemes /θ/ and /ð/

As already mentioned above, /θ/ is one of the most difficult sound in English for

Czech learners, therefore it needs to be taught very intensively and one method how to

explain the production of this phoneme suggested by Kelly (2000, p. 55) is: “Put the front of

your tongue against the back of your top teeth. Let the air pass through as you breathe out. Do

not use your voice. Hold the sound and add your voice.”

In my opinion this is very useful but from my experience as a learner it is very helpful

to adjust these instructions: Put the tip of your tongue between your teeth and when

pronouncing this sound place your finger vertically on your lips and when you can feel your

tongue, it is the right technique how to make /θ/ and /ð/.

4.6.1. Classroom activities.

Kenworthy (1987, p.75) offers a “Chewing gum technique” for explaining how to

produce /θ/ and /ð/: “Give each learner a small piece of gum. After a few moments of

communal chewing, tell them to press the gum up against the back of the upper front teeth.


- 27 -

Then tell them to touch the tongue lightly at the bottom edge of the gum, and force the air

through.”

Bilingual chain.

If class have problems with pronouncing /θ/ the teacher can use their previous

knowledge from Czech language lessons. The activity consists in replacing sound /s/ in Czech

chosen words, after which “y” occurs (sytý, syn, sýr, syrový, etc.) by /θ/ sound (θytý, θyn, θýr,

θyrový). Each student tells one word until all of them take turn, but it can be very brief

therefore the activity continues with a second round in which everyone say all of the words at

once.

Jumbled sentences.

Students work in pairs. One has to choose a sentence from A and the other should

reply with sentences from B.

Example: A: Judith is at the theatre.

B: Is she? I thought she was at the Smiths‟.

A: Judith is at the theatre.

Mr. Smith is thirty-three.

It‟s Ed‟s birthday today.

I‟m so thirsty.

The Smith‟s house is north.

Mrs. Smith is thirty.

The Smiths‟ house is worth £ 30,000.

B: Are you? I thought you drank something.

Is she? I thought she was at the Smiths‟.

Is she? I thought he was thirty.


- 28 -

Is she? I thought she was thirty-three.

Is it? I thought it was last month.

Is it? I thought it was worth £ 3,000.

Is it? I thought it was south.

(Baker, 1981, p. 138)

The teacher should monitor the learners by walking among the pairs and eventually

correct mistakes or provide help.

Shopping for sounds.

Although this activity was primarily created for young learners, it can be used also in

secondary school classes as a warm-up or as a relaxing activity after discussing a difficult

topic.

The teacher ensures that the learners are familiar with the pronunciation of the words

given (Fig. 5)

The students are divided into groups of four and each player pick up a shopping basket

card. The rest of the words should be facing down the table and shuffled.

The players take turns to pick up a card and to say the word aloud. If the word matches

their basket they place the word in the basket and turn over another card. If the word

does not match they turn the card face down again, ensuring that the other players

have had a chance to see it.

The next player continues the same way.

The first player to collect all five of their words is the winner.

(Nixon and Tomlinson, 2005, p. 77)


- 29 -

mother birthday bus music

they mouth monster easy

weather nothing mouse jeans

another teeth worse please

there throw famous trousers

Figure 5. Shopping for sounds

Bingo.

This is an activity which concentrates on noticing a distinction between /θ/ and /ð/

sounds and /t/.

The teacher says the following to the students: think, thing, thin. Asks them to repeat

the words after him or her which makes them aware of the sounds that they will

practice.

After the teacher has done this he hands out a blank grid (Fig. 6) and a list of the

words to the students and tells them to fill in the words randomly onto the grid.

Than the tutor explains the rules, that he is going to read out words which contain the

“th” sounds and the “t” sounds and they have to cross off the words that they hear. The


- 30 -

first person to get a line of either horizontally touching boxes or vertically touching

boxes wins.

The teacher reads out some of the words randomly. He or she reads them reasonably

quickly, does not repeat and does not let the students look at each other‟s grids.

Once someone has a line, the tutor goes over the answers and if it is not correct the

play continues until someone has heard all of the words correctly. This person will win

the full square. (URL 4.)

Example words:

Tim /tɪm/, theme /θi:m/, teach /ti:tʃ/, theatre /θɪətə/,

mother /mΛðə/, this /ðɪs/, taught /θɔ:t/, twist /twɪst/,

thigh /θaɪ/, father /fɑ:ðə/, time /taɪm/, tooth /tu:θ/, try

/traɪ/, this /ðɪs/, thin /θɪn/

Figure 6. Blank grid

Silent sound game.

Because /θ/ is easily recognizable sound, teacher can utilize this characteristic of this

sound and also use minimal pairs in this activity.

Teacher gives students lists of words that starts with /θ/, /t/ or /f/ (/s/ is not used

because it is difficult to visualize properly the production of this phoneme) and

without making any sound, he silently say one word at a time and pupils have to

distinguish which word was the teacher demonstrating.

After few words the class can be divided into pairs and students try guessing by

themselves.


- 31 -

4.6.2. Minimal pairs.

/θ/ x /s/

Gross /grəʊs/ growth /grəʊθ/

moss /mɒs/ moth /mɒθ/

mouse /maʊs/ mouth /maʊθ/

sank /sæŋk/ thank /θæŋk/

sigh /saɪ/ thigh /θaɪ/

/θ/ x /t/

tank /tæŋk/ thank /θæŋk/

fort /fɔ:rt/ forth /fɔ:rθ/

heat /hi:t/ heath /hi:θ/

mats /mæts/ maths /mæθs/

taught /tɔ:t/ thought /θɔ:t/

/θ/ x /f/

first /fЗ:st/ thirst /θЗ:st/

Finn /fɪn/ thin /θɪn/

fought /fɔ:t/ thought /θɔ:t/

deaf /def/ death /deθ/

half /hɑ:f/ hearth/hɑ:θ/

/ð/ x /d/

day /deɪ/ they /ðeɪ/

doze /dəʊs/ those /ðəʊs/

teed /ti:d/ teeth /ti:ð/

wordy /wЗ:dɪ/ worthy /wЗ:ðɪ/

breeding /bri:dɪŋ/ breathing /bri:ðɪŋ/

4.6.3. Tongue twisters.

- The thirty-three thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday.

- These thousand tricky tongue twisters trip thrillingly off the tongue.

- Nothing is worth thousands of deaths. (URL 1.)

- There those thousand thinkers were thinking how the other three thieves went

through.

4.7. Phoneme /æ/

For Czech speakers it is easily explainable, though for them it is not easily learnable.

This sound is in the middle on the way from /e/ to /ɑ:/. When demonstrating /æ/ the teacher


- 32 -

say once aloud a glide from /e/ to /ɑ:/, than repeats it, but stops in the middle where /æ/ is.

Firstly the students will try it unison and than one by one, always stopping at the part where

/æ/ appears.

Learners can practise by using /æ/ in Czech words instead of /e/: pes nesl petržel- /pæs

næsl pætržel/, teta jede taxíkem- /tæta jæde tæxíkem/, Petr pase vepře v lese- /Pætr pæse

væpře v læse.


Kelly (2000, p. 45) suggests that students can be asked to monitor each other in the

class for the lesson or a whole week. This works best if learners listen only to their

neighbours, otherwise there is too much for everyone to monitor.

It is very important when producing this sound to exaggerate, because this is very

open sound and needs to be distinguished from other vowels. When trying very hardly when

practicing the brain gets used to open the mouth that much and than it becomes easier.

Pronunciation Dominoes.

This activity practises the difference between phonemes /æ/ as in “cat”, /ɑ:/ as in

“father” and /eɪ/ as in “name”.

The class is divided into groups of three or four and to each group a set of cards with

words is given (Fig.7.).

As in normal dominoes, like pairs must be put together. So, for example, “saw” can be

put next to “law”.

The students before putting the card on the table should say both words that have the

same sound. (URL 2.)

cat father

can't sat


- 33 -

name laugh

hand same

task lamp

table bag

sand happy

barn aim

game tap

aren't abbey

eight carpet

can sergeant

late aptitude

arm wait

Figure 7. Pronunciation dominoes

A bad hijacker.

Teacher reads the text first, so the students can hear the pronunciation. Learners are

divided into pairs. They are to practice dialogue between two hostesses on the plane. After

everyone finish the teacher asks one pair to act it out in front of the classroom. The teacher

makes notes which words caused problems and then exercises them with the class again.

Hostess Bradley: Alice! Perhaps that passenger is a hijacker!

Hostess Allen: Which passenger, Anne? That sad man with the camera? He‟s wearing

black slacks and jacket.

Hostess Bradley: No. That fat lady with the big black handbag in her left hand.

Hostess Allen: Is she standing next to the lavatory?

Hostess Bradley: Yes. She‟s travelling to Amsterdam.

Hostess Allen: You‟re mad, Anne, I don‟t understand.

Hostess Bradley: You see, when she went into the lavatory, she didn‟t have that handbag

in her hand, and now she‟s.


- 34 -

Fat lady: (clapping her hands) EVERYBODY STAND! I‟m a hijacker. And in

this handbag I have a …

Handbag: BANG!

(Baker, 1982, p. 14)

Phone numbers encoding.

Class is divided into pairs and the teacher distributes a code which the students

will use.

The students write down their phone number and encode them with the

following code.

Each person dictates their encrypted message and the listener writes down the

numbers and than the speaker checks whether it is correct.

Then learners switch and try again.

1- pen /pen/ 2- pan/pæn/ 3- fan /fæn/ 4- fen /fen/ 5- jam /dʒæm/

6- gem /dʒem/ 7- head /hed/ 8- had /hæd/ 9- marry /mærɪ/ 0- merry /merɪ/

Phone numbers encoding is aimed not only to practise pronunciation, but also to train

students‟ ears to be able to recognise differences between phonemes.

Consonant cluster towers.

The aim of this activity is for students to keep adding simple consonant sounds at the

beginning or end of a word until they cannot add any more.

The teacher demonstrates the activity. He says /æ/ a few times.

Students make a word by adding a single consonant sounds (not necessarily a single

letter) to either beginning or end of the word, /æ/-> am, /æm/. The teacher writes this

word on the board. Students then try to make a new word by adding another single

consonant sound to this word, either at the beginning or the end. It is written above am

to start building the cluster tower.


- 35 -

This continues until no new words can be made.

There should be no additional vowel sound between the consonant cluster at the start

and end of the words.

Example:

Tramples /træmplz/

Trample /træmpl/

Tramp /træmp/

Tram /træm/

Ram /ræm/

Am /æm/

/æ/

This can be a competitive activity between two halves of the class. One half makes the

first word, the other second and so on.

The half that makes the final top word is the winner.

Or it could be a co-operative activity where the aim is for the class to try to build as

high as possible.

When the tower is finished, the students chorally and individually repeat the words

and correct pronunciation where necessary

(Hewings, 2004, p. 77)


/æ/ x /e/

dad /dæd/ dead /ded/

am /æm/ M /em/

and /ænd/ end /end/

bad /bæd/ bed /bed/

land /lænd/ lend /lend/

mansion /mænʃən/ mention /menʃən/


36

sad /sæd/ said /sed/

man /mæn/ men /men/

add /æd/ Ed /ed/


- How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?

- Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

- Mary Mac's mother's making Mary Mac marry me.

4.8. Phoneme /ŋ/

Kelly (2000, p. 55) offers a learner-friendly explanation of sound /ŋ/: “Put the back of

your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Use your voice, and let the air escape through

your nose.”

This is a fine explanation, but students need to be given some examples, therefore I

will use usual “Manka” and “maminka”. As stated before, Czech speakers have problems

mostly when there is a need to pronounce /ŋ/ at the end or in the middle of a word where no

/k/ or /g/ follows.


Present continuous practising.

When explaining and exercising present continuous tense, the teacher can easily

connect it with practising /ŋ/. A possibility to do this is “Present continuous brainstorming.”

(URL 11.) Students are asked to describe things that are going on in the classroom, out the

window or in a picture which is hanging on the wall.


37

Odd one out.

The teacher prepare sets of words which contains the phoneme /ŋ/ and in each set,

there is a word without /ŋ/ and the students need to find out which one it is.

Learners are divided into groups of three or four.

In each group every person is given one or more lines which they cannot show to

others

Every times one student reads their line aloud to the others whose task is to find out

which word is the one which does not belong there

Example:

sing tongue sinner rang

Phrases reading.

The teacher first reads aloud following phrases (Fig. 8) and the whole class

repeats.

Then the printed phrases are distributed and the students try to pronounce them

in pairs. Each of them says the whole table.

(Oaklandová, 2004 NAJIT CITACI )

long ago among others sing along the thing is bring it

ring a bell sing a song hang a coat wrong again young enough

Figure 8. Phrases reading

Dialogue.

As already mentioned above, the students are to read the dialogue in pairs for

practising pronunciation of /ŋ/.

Mrs. Young: Good morning, Mrs. Long. How are you?

Mrs. Long: I‟m fine, thanks.

Mrs. Young: What are you doing?


38

Mrs. Long: I‟m cooking.

Mrs. Young: What are the children doing?

Mrs. Long: Ben is reading. Anne is washing her hair. Ron and Dan are playing table tennis.

Mrs. Young: And is your husband washing the car this morning?

Mrs. Long: No, he isn‟t! He‟s sleeping!

(Baker, 1993, p. 36)

On the Ning Nang Nong.

This is a poem by Spike Milligan (URL 9.)

The class repeat each line after the teacher chorally.

After the whole poem the students work in pairs and read it aloud together, one line

each of the pair.

On the Ning Nang Nong

On the Ning Nang Nong

Where the Cows go Bong!

And the mokeys all say BOO!

There‟s a Nong Nang Ning

Where the trees go Ping!

And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.

On the Nong Ning Nang

All the mice go Clang!

And you just can‟t catch‟em when they do!

So it‟s Ning Nang Nong

Cows go Bong!

Nong Nang Ning

Trees go ping


39

Nong Ning Nang!

The mice go Clang

What a noisy place to belong

is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!


/n/ x /ŋ/

ban /bæn/ bang /bæŋ/

gone /gɒn/ gong /gɒŋ/

hand /hænd/ hanged /hæŋd /

ran /ræn/ rang /ræŋ/

Ron /rɒn/ wrong /rɒŋ/

run /rΛn/ rung /rΛŋ/

sin /sɪn/ sing /sɪŋ/

thin /θɪn/ thing /θɪŋ/

tons /tΛns/ tongues /tΛŋs/

sinner /sɪnə/ singer /sɪŋə/

Although the following are not minimal pairs as such it is very important for

students student to learn to differentiate between them, because this is the major problem of

Czech learners as mentioned above.

sink /sɪŋk/ sing /sɪŋ/

think /θɪŋk/ thing /θɪŋ/

brink /brɪŋk/ bring /brɪŋ/

tank /tæŋk/ tang /tæŋ/


- Rolling red wagons

- Singing Sammy sung songs on sinking sand.


40

- Don't spring on the inner-spring this spring or there will be an offspring next

spring.

4.9. Phoneme /p/

Kenworthy (1987) states, that when this sound is made there is a slight pause before

following vowel, during which a slight puff of air is released. This puff of air is typical

characteristic for this phoneme in English and is called aspiration. The teacher can

demonstrate the puff by holding a piece of paper or a burning match in front of the mouth and

say words beginning with /p/. 3 (pp. 72 – 73)


One technique how to teach this sound to learners is to tell them to pronounce /h/

immediately after producing /p/. It is helpful to do exercises using words starting with /h/ as

help-words, e.g. for “part”, “heart” can be a help-word. To pronounce “part”, tell the learners

to make /p/ and then say “heart”. (Kenworthy, 1987, p. 73).

Describe a picture.

When the topic of the lesson is cooking or shopping, the students can be asked to look

at the picture (Fig.9) and describe what is in it. (O‟Connor and Fletcher, 1991, p. 48)

Figure 9. Describe a picture

3 This phoneme is not aspirated when it occurs after another consonant, for example „speak‟, „spear‟, etc.


41

I’m going to the party.

The idea of this game is for students to guess which consonant is held in commone

between words brought up within a stylised sentence; the sentence is I’ve got a ______, and

I’m going to the party.

The word which students insert into the gap includes a target phoneme: learners have

to work out what this phoneme is as the game progresses (in this case it is /p/).

The teacher sets up the activity up by eliciting three recently studied items of

vocabulary which happen to share a consonant phoneme, and also elicits that this is

what the words have in common after which he simply introduces the game.

Then starts the game saying, e.g. “I‟ve got a cap /kæp/, and I‟m going to the party.”

The first learner tries to guess what the target phoneme is, saying for example, “I‟ve

got a car /kɑ:/, and I‟m going to the party.” The student here has wrongly assumed that

the target phoneme is /k/ and so the teacher will say “No, you aren‟t.”

The second person might guess correctly that the phoneme is /p/, and say “I‟ve got a

parrot /pærət/, and I‟m going to the party.”

The teacher replies “Yes, you are,” as the target has been correctly guessed.

The game progress until everyone has guessed the target phoneme, and it includes it in

their sentence.

(Kelly, 2000, pp. 59 – 60)

Sound discrimination.

The teacher reads aloud following sentences and the students need to distinguish

which word the teacher said. (O‟Connor & Fletcher, 1991, p. 48)

1. Have you got a pet/bet?

2. There‟s a pin/bin in the corner.

3. They saw some pairs/bears in the garden.


42

4. The peach/beach was dirty.

5. Have you seen the plays/blaze?

6. The rope/robe is too short.

7. What does tripe/tribe mean?

8. The doctor looked at the rip/rib.


/p/ x /b/

cap /kæp/ cab /kæb/

cop /kɒp/ cob /kɒb/

lap /læb/ lab/læb/

maple /meɪplə/ Mabel /meɪblə/

rip /rɪp/ rib /rɪb/

staple /steɪpəl/ stable /steɪbəl/

ape /eɪp/ Abe /eɪb/

crumple /krΛmpəl/ crumble /krΛmbəl/


- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Where‟s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

- Picky people pick Peter Pan Peanut-Butter, 'tis the peanut-butter picky people pick.


43

5. Conclusion

Pronunciation is an aspect of teaching English which is mostly overlooked at

secondary schools. The goal of this thesis was to explore pronunciation teaching at secondary

school through in order to introduce methods of explaining the production of difficult English

sounds which would help teachers to be able to exercise it in lessons.

Because English sounds are very distinct from those of Czech language, the students

have problems with pronouncing them. This thesis was focused on learners who already have

the knowledge of basics of pronunciation, but still do not have enough experience and confuse

many of them. The goal is not to create a person who speaks fluently and like native speaker,

but to give students help, encourage them and make them more interested in the language, so

they will continue and continue to practise the language, which can help them in future life.

Two methods of research were used for purposes of this thesis, a questionnaire and an

analysis of recordings of students‟ speeches. From the results and finding were introduced

methods and activities from literature which are concerned with particular problem the Czech

speakers have.

It was definitely worth exploring, how Czech students see the way they were taught at

secondary schools and how they feel about their abilities to speak correctly English. I can

only hope that this thesis will contribute to developing pronunciation teaching at secondary

schools or at least that it will attract attention to this problem of Czech education system.


44

6. Bibliography

Baker, A. (1981). Ship or sheep. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Baker, A. (1993). Tree of three. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dalton, C., & Seidlhoffer, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University press.

Hewings, M. (2004). Pronunciation practice activities. P. Ur, (Ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Kelly, G. (2000). How to teach pronunciation. J. Harmer, (Ed.) Harlow: Pearson Education

Ltd.

Kenworthy, J. (1987). Teaching english pronunciation. Harlow: Longman group UK Ltd.

Krčmová, M. (1978) Fonetika a fonologie. Zvuková stavba současné češtiny. Brno:

Vydavatelství Masarykovy univerzity.

Nixon, C., Tomlinson, M. (2005). Primary pronunciation box. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Oaklandová, G. (2004). A workbook of English pronunciation for teachers. Brno: Masarykova

Univerzita.

O‟Connor, J. D., & Fletcher, C. (1991). Sounds English. Harlow: Longman group UK, Ltd.

Roach, P.(2000). English phonetics and phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge university press.

Vaughan-Rees, M. (2002). Pronunciation. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

Internet Sources

URL 1. About.com: English as a 2nd

language. (2010). IPA symbol card game. Retrieved from

http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/blipacards.htm.

URL 2. Coghlan, N. (2001 – 2010). Pronunciation. Phonetic Dominoes. Sounds A, Ar and

Aye. Retrieved from http://www.esl-lounge.com/pronunciation/prondominoes_ae_arr_ai.shtml

http://www.esl-lounge.com/pronunciation/prondominoes_ae_arr_ai.shtml


45

URL 3. English pronunciation. (1997) In Language Link Corporate Site. Retrieved from

http://jobs.languagelink.ru/TEFL/pronunciation.php#top

URL 4. ESL resource center. (2000 – 2006). The difference between the 'th' sound and 't'

sound. Retrieved from http://eslsite.com/rd/Pronunciation/th_and_t_sound.html

URL 5. Higgins, J. (2010) Minimal pairs for English RP. Retrieved from

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/wordscape/wordlist/

URL 6. Indian child. (2000 – 2004). Tongue twisters for kids – children’s tongue twisters.

Retrieved from http://www.indianchild.com/tongue_twisters.htm

URL 8. Ladefoged, P. (n.d.) Cardinal vowels. Retrieved from

http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter9/cardinal/cardinal.html

URL 9. Milligan, S. (1998). On the Ning Nang Nong. Retrieved from

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-the-ning-nang-nong/

URL 10. School of Management and Languages. (n.d.) The English vowel system. Retrieved

from http://www.sml.hw.ac.uk/lanje1/Phon1/EnglishVowels1.htm

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http://edition.tefl.net/ideas/grammar/fun-games-for-present-continuous/

http://jobs.languagelink.ru/TEFL/pronunciation.php#top

http://eslsite.com/rd/Pronunciation/th_and_t_sound.html

http://www.indianchild.com/tongue_twisters.htm

http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter9/cardinal/cardinal.html

http://www.tefl.net/

http://edition.tefl.net/ideas/grammar/fun-games-for-present-continuous/

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Teaching difficult English sounds to secondary school students

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