Teach English in Pingtou Zhen - Baoji Shi

When learning a foreign language the pronunciation is one of the most important aspects; as well as one of the most complicated ones. Learning pronunciation takes a lot of effort from both; the teacher and the students. In the case of the teacher, when finding the best methods, techniques, and procedures to make the teaching-learning process as smooth and easy as possible. In the case of the students, they might be facing for the first time the phonetics and phonology of a language that could either have some similarities with their mother tongue, or none. The students will be exposed to new sounds, new intonation patterns, new stresses and new rhythms, reasons for the teacher to pay close attention to this part of the language. Mispronouncing a word or pattern can carry out several serious consequences, for example, miscommunication. If a word is not well pronounced it can cause for the receptor not to understand what the student is saying or get a wrong idea. When learning the language this might cause the students to lose their confidence, thus stopping them from practicing, wanting, or feeling the need to use the language. In the case of Vietnamese students, pronunciation becomes a serious problem and a difficult task for them. If we take into account the differences between the two languages it is understandable why it becomes an obstacle for them. First of all English is spoken in many countries of the world, therefore there are different variants of English. It creates in some occasions different ways of pronouncing a same word. If this is not clarified it could create confusion among the students; for example, the word water, in the American variant of English is pronounced [ˈwɔːtər], whereas in the British variant is pronounced [ˈwɔːtə(r)]. Even though the Vietnamese language is divided into three regions, North, Center and South; it is still one same country, so there is not an abyss regarding pronunciation among them. Being an English teacher here in Vietnam for over a year now, has allowed me to take a closer look to the main difficulties of these students at the time of pronouncing English, either isolated words or full sentences. It does not matter the level of the student, whether they are beginners, upper intermediate, advance, etc..., nor their age; usually the pronunciation problems are the same for most of them, even when they might have been studying the language for a while. We could mention the omission of the final sounds. In Vietnamese the final consonants are limited to either a voiceless stop or a nasal, which makes it difficult for them to pronounce final sounds. It could be mentioned as examples the final consonants, the Past Tense marker –ed, -s plural, -s possessive and –s third person singular. Some of the ways it could be adressed is by using diagrams or the teacher’s mouth to explain the students the correct pronunciation and where the sounds are articulated, as well as drilling. Regarding full sentences there are no consonant clusters or blends. Also, the fact that Vietnamese is a monosyllabic, tonal language; causes the students to speak in English without the correct intonation, rhythm, or stress, since they imitate the patterns of their mother tongue. They tend to make unnecessary pauses between words and also tend to partition the sentences when talking or reading. To give a solution to the above mentioned problems, it would be convenient to encourage and practice reading, and to make the students spend the majority of the time speaking in English. Another recurrent problem is mistaking the phonemes /θ/ and /t/, instead of saying thin /θɪn/, they usually say / tɪn/; the phonemes /s/ and / ʃ/ are also mistaken, instead of saying sushi / ˈsuʃi/, they often say / ˈʃuʃi/ or / ˈʃusi/. Keep drilling and explaining the place of articulation of the sounds could help with the problem. One more difficulty that could be mentioned is the syllable stress. Vietnamese language uses markings on the syllables to determine the tones, and mispronouncing a tone can lead to a change of meaning; as in English changing the stress of the vowel can change the category of the word, therefore affecting the meaning and sense of the idea the student is trying to convey. Furthermore most of the Vietnamese syllables are pronounced with medium stress. The problem arises when the students face the English words, which have more syllables, and there are no markings or predetermined, unchangeable rules to stress it, so, knowing where the stress goes can be troublesome. Working with the International Phonetic Alphabet, as well as drilling and analyzing the stress patterns could be of paramount help. Summing up, and taking into account the previous problems; that are just some of the problems most of the Vietnamese students may encounter when learning English; it can be stated that paying attention to the teaching-learning process of pronunciation becomes a crucial need, not only to avoid all of the problems that mispronouncing carries; but also to allow our students to reach their full potential and master the English language to its fullest. Teaching pronunciation requires time, hard work and engaging lessons, but it is a matter of the language that cannot be left aside due to the difficulties it might pose for both, teachers and students. “Command of English, spoken or written, ranks at the top in business. Our main product is words, so a knowledge of their meaning and spelling and pronunciation is imperative. If a man knows the language well, he can find out about all else.” William Feather