I. PREFACE AND AIMS AND REQUIREMENTS:
As we know, English is a very important language nowadays. What do
we learn English for? The answer is - for communication. What do students
learn English for? They learn English for the same reasons as we do. Our job
is to provide them with the basic skills they will need to practise the language
and to make sure that they have the basic knowledge and skills that they need
for future study. So, as teachers, we all want to make it easy for them to learn
the skills of pronouncing commonly-used English words.
It is not easy for most learners to master the pronunciation skills in a
short term. Both teachers and students, of course, encounter many problems
with the subject, including correct pronunciation, and we always face the
difficulty of teaching to students at differing levels of ability and skill.
After a long time teaching English at all levels at secondary school and
adult learners as well as teaching Vietnamese to English speaking people and
working as an interpreter in my part-time job, I can offer some lessons from
my experience. Some of these things you may already know. It is easy to get
caught up in ideas like, ''We do not give oral tests to students at all levels'';
''We have tried to make them fluent in using as many grammatical points and
structures as possible so that they can get good marks in their tests''.
In reality, in the reformed syllabus promulgated by Ministry of
Education students have been learning listening and speaking skills together
with reading and writing skills, but for the final examination to finish high
school to get GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education), students
only receive written tests. And that is why we do not pay much attention to
teaching them perfect pronunciation? My advice to you is that helping them
pronounce words correctly will help them spell correctly too. In doing this, we
will imperceptibly help them improve their listening skills that are very
important not only in everyday conversation but also in getting good marks in
the listening sections whenever they do normal tests given during the
academic terms, especially for examinations for gifted students in the English
language contests held annually. Besides our students feel confident to speak

the 6 tones in the Vietnamese language cung, cùng, củng, cụng, cúng, cũng.
These tones change the meanings of the words, and English sounds change the
meanings in the very same way. And there are many more differences in
pronunciation between the two languages.
In this document I have tried to use common words and easy-to-read
English so that everyone can understand it. Hopefully, this topic will help you,
to some extent, to solve the issues that you are dealing with. Finally, all the
constructive criticisms from my colleagues of this piece of writing will be
highly appreciated because it is not only for my sake, but also for our beloved
students, I think.
II. SOME COMMON MISTAKES IN PRONUNCIATION:
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Written by Pham Phu Dung – Tran Quy Cap Senior High School
– Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province –
22
Most of our students have bad habits in pronouncing English words.
Especially, such sounds as: / ei ; t∫; ʤ; ʧ; ʒ; θ; UE; æ; ŋ; b; p; f; å:/ as in the
words: stay; away; may; play; day; cheap; bridge; decision; thread; go; bad;
sing; boy; point, fan; park, etc. They often pronounce /sịt stây/; /ờ wây/;
/mây/; /pờ-lây/; /đây/ and it must be pronounced like /ê -i/ in our language.
They confuse between the sounds /dʒ/ and /t∫/ or even never pronounce the
sound /dʒ/ at the end of the word, let us say, in the words
'college, village, large '. Students are used to omitting the sound /s/ in such
words as 'yesterday, domestic, thirsty, sister '. It makes the hearers
misunderstand what they say. Many a student cannot distinguish the sounds
between /b/; /p/ and /f/ in the words: put, book, point, ball, pause, pupil, fear,
physics and many others else. This happens even though pronunciation and
signs of pronunciation are taught in an ordered and systematic way in each
unit in the syllabus of the English language in senior high school level.

rờ/ in the words decision, vision, pleasure, occasion; /t∫/ = /chờ-rờ/ in the
words such as chair, cheap, catch, chew; /θ/ = /thờ/ in such words as thin,
thick, bath, strength; /EU/ = /ơu/ as in the words no, slow, hold, both; /æ/ = /a
- e/ as in the words hat, map, lamp, bad; /ŋ / = /ngờ/ in such words as sing,
singer, thing, nothing
Students are provided with the handouts, and with the assistance of
teachers, they can be coached in pronouncing a number of words that they are
not sure of and confused about how to pronounce correctly. And it is
encouraging for students to learn at least five words by heart with signs of the
equivalent pronunciation for each English sound. During the teaching activity,
teachers should correct whenever students make mistakes in pronunciation,
particularly, the words that frequently appear in everyday life and in colloquial
conversation as well as in the textbooks.
We can teach students accurate pronunciation by giving them
information on the pronunciation of difficult words. We can possibly give
Vietnamese transcription equivalents of the words provided. If, for example,
we want to teach them the word synchronized swimming we can ask them to
transcribe by annotating the way to pronounce the words under or above the
words in their textbooks like / sín krơ nai zờ đờ -sit wim ming/ in Vietnamese
sound = / ‘siŋkrənaizd/; the word international /in-tơ-ná-sơn-nôl / =
/intə'næ∫∂nl/. Students can learn, step by step, each of the international
phonetic symbols and this will help them practise pronouncing at home by
themselves without any problems.
Besides Reading Comprehension, in the period of Language Focus
section, for instance, we can bring teaching pronunciation in and we can, from
time to time, tell students some short funny stories about mispronouncing
English words to make the lesson more vivid like ‘desert’ and ‘dessert’, ‘cow’
and ‘cough’. We can apply this method in any lesson to help students improve
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intonation. As teachers of English, we need to speak clearly, loudly and
slowly before students. We also need to demonstrate how words which have
the same roots can be pronounced differently from the others to students so
that whenever they meet the words they can remember the way to pronounce
them. It is not feasible for all students to grasp the way to pronounce all words
contained in the syllabus, but to help them with basic skills for future study is
both possible and feasible.
IV MY ACHIEVEMENTS IN APPLYING THE METHOD:
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Written by Pham Phu Dung – Tran Quy Cap Senior High School
– Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province –
55
I can say, with confidence, from my experience - teaching students
English at high school, that one third of my students can now pronounce
words with not more than four syllables quite well. They used to have a
difficulty in the first few months after moving from junior to senior high
school. I think that if all of my students concentrated on practising
pronunciation, their pronunciation skills would be much better, and they
would be able to speak out short sentences that are regularly used in everyday
conversation and presented in textbooks.
For my students, in the beginning they often pronounce words
containing sound /ei/ = /ê-i/ into /ây/ instead of saying / pờ lê / they often
say/ pờ lây / in play; and / mê / into / mây/ in may. It sounds very much like
the Australian dialect - good day mate - / gớd-đây-mây-t / and now my
students do not say so any more. Some can pronounce the words with ending
sounds /dʒ/ ; /t∫/ and /∫/ as in the words bridge; language; watch; which;
English; publish and so on.
Normally, from the beginning of the second term on, students can
pronounce common words accurately. In their preparation for lessons, some

Sephonic for learning and practicing.
3. When students are unsure of pronunciation, ask them to mark the
signs of pronunciation above or under the words in their textbooks and then
learn them by heart. Study the signs of pronunciation given thoroughly.
4. Practise pronunciation frequently to get it fluent. Students should
listen to the cassette tapes; radio or English TV programmes regularly to
verify the way to pronounce the words they have already learnt.
6. Whenever meeting a strange word, ask students to learn the sign(s) of
its pronunciation by heart as well as its meanings.
7. Give compliments to students by rewarding them with extra
encouraging marks. Ask them to write down the phonetic symbols on a large
sheet of paper and put it in a special place so that they can see it every day.
8. Encourage students to mark directly the signs of pronunciation of the
words beside the words as many times as they can in order that when they see
them, the way to pronounce comes to them spontaneously.
9. Give students short paragraphs or beautiful sentences to learn by
heart in each unit. Make sure they are not given the paragraphs that are too
long or too difficult.
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Written by Pham Phu Dung – Tran Quy Cap Senior High School
– Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province –
77
SIGNS OF TRANSCRIPTION USED IN SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS
A. Vowels and diphthongs
SOUNDS IN WORDS SIGNS VIETNAMESE
SOUND
EQUIVALENT
EXAMPLES FOR
ILLUSTRATION

today, ago, nature, colour
/eI/ say / seI / ê -i
away, stay, may, play
/EU/ go / gEU / ơu
show, hold, phone, coat
/aI/ my / maI / ai
kind, like, while, shy, nice
/ØI/ boy / bØI / oi
coin, toy, noisy, spoil
/aU/ now / naU / au
cow, how, cloud, trousers
/IE/ hear / hIE / i-ơ
near, tear, fear, steering
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Written by Pham Phu Dung – Tran Quy Cap Senior High School
– Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province –
88
/eE/ hair / heE / e-ơ
share, where, care, fair, stair
/UE/ pure / pjUE(r) / u-ơ
sure, tour, pure, cure
B. Consonants
SOUNDS IN WORDS SIGNS VIETNAMESE
SOUND
EQUIVALENT
EXAMPLES FOR
ILLUSTRATION
/p/
pen / pen / pờ

thus, there, those, bathe
/s/ see / si: / xờ
sorry, sound, six, sea, nice
/z/ zoo / zu: / zờ
zip code, zero, zebra, zipper
/S/
shoe / Su: / sờ
show, sheep, wash, sheet
/Z/
vision
/ ‘viZn /
rờ-rờ
measure, decision, usually
/h/ hat / hæt / hờ
hat, hit, hero, hospital, hi
/m/ man / mæn/ mờ
must, merry, man, team
/n/ now / naU/ nờ
need, nine, chin, fine, name
/N/
sing /sIN/ ngờ
song, singer, nothing, strong
/l/ leg / leg/ lờ
lie, long, tall, lip, leave, stall
/r/ red / red / rờ
roof, right, rough, road
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Written by Pham Phu Dung – Tran Quy Cap Senior High School
– Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province –

boxes, services,
loses, pleases,
washes, watches,
charges, bridges
b, g, v, T, z, Z, dZ,
m, n, N, l
- and vowels
/ d / đờ
shared, kneed,
bobbed, hugged,
moved, breathed,
teased, judged,
formed, turned,
pooled
p, k, f, , s, S, tS / t / tờ
hoped, looked,
coughed, bathed,
increased, washed,
watched
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Written by Pham Phu Dung – Tran Quy Cap Senior High School
– Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province –
1010
t, d / id / ịđ
painted, wanted,
needed, nodded
EXERCISES FOR CHECKING BASIC PRONUNCIATION SKILL OF S/ES & ED
1. A. roses B. villages C. colleagues D. matches
2. A. worked B. stopped C. forced D. wanted

33. A. chased B. wished C. pursued D. thanked
34. A. shoots B. grounds C. concentrates D. forests
35. A. practised B. raised C. rained D. followed
36. A. concealed B. fined C. resembled D. resisted
37. A. tells B. talks C. stays D. steals
38. A. hours B. fathers C. dreams D. thinks
39. A. filled B. landed C. suited D. crooked
40. A. imagined B. punished C. diseased D. determined
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Written by Pham Phu Dung – Tran Quy Cap Senior High School
– Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province –
1111
41. A. examined B. released C. serviced D. ceased
42. A. diseases B. pleases C. loses D. releases
43. A. bushes B. buses C. lorries D. charges
44. A. expelled B. dismissed C. encountered D. returned
45. A. fixed B. founded C. needed D. intended
46. A. forgive B. home C. comfortable D. impolite
47. A. meat B. season C. reach D. great
48. A. call B. last C. talk D. ball
49. A. come B. love C. woman D. some
50. A. stay B. pay C. bag D. lay
51. A. home B. stone C. show D. hot
52. A. stay B. pay C. bag D. lay
53. A. phone B. alone C. among D. bone
54. A. sunrise B. shut C. business D. summer
55. A. cheap B. child C. chemist D. chair
56. A.
circle B. center C. cement D. cancel

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CONFIRMATION FROM SCHOOL MANAGEMENT BOARD
OF TRAN QUY CAP SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
(Xác nhận của BGH trường THPT Trần Quý Cáp)
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