Phonetics project
UNIVERSITY OF QUINTANA ROO
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY CLASS
December 13th, 2012.
Field Investigation of the English VI Class
Nowadays, it is still argued whether or not it is important to teach pronunciation to students of English. Most teachers decide not to correct their students when they make mistakes and they focus on improving other skills like writing or the use of language and grammar. On the other hand, to some teachers it is necessary to be familiar with the correct pronunciation of words for accomplishing an effective communication. That is why in their classes they take the time to correct students when they make mistakes.
This field investigation was carried out with the students of seventh semester of the English major between the ages of 20 to 25, who are currently studying English VI at the Universidad de Quintana Roo. We analyzed four sessions in different days for identifying the most common errors in pronunciation of the students, to know whether they are aware or not of their own mistakes, and whether or not the teacher corrects them and how.
The students of English VI take classes four times a week for two hours. We observed that the teacher always makes them practice their speaking skills by arranging them in a horseshoe. As warm-up, the teacher would always make students to give their opinion about a question or a statement related to the topic they were supposed to see. Therefore, we consider that the teacher used the communicative approach teaching method.
In the first session, students worked on the book. The teacher asked one student to read a small paragraph that was in it. During the reading, the first student who read mispronounced the word ‘gene’. He pronounced it like /ʤen/ instead of /ʤiːn/ but he corrected himself right away. The second student read another paragraph and she mispronounced the word ‘enzyme’. She said /enzɪm/ and after she finished reading, the teacher repeated the word with the correct
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY CLASS
December 13th, 2012.
Field Investigation of the English VI Class
Nowadays, it is still argued whether or not it is important to teach pronunciation to students of English. Most teachers decide not to correct their students when they make mistakes and they focus on improving other skills like writing or the use of language and grammar. On the other hand, to some teachers it is necessary to be familiar with the correct pronunciation of words for accomplishing an effective communication. That is why in their classes they take the time to correct students when they make mistakes.
This field investigation was carried out with the students of seventh semester of the English major between the ages of 20 to 25, who are currently studying English VI at the Universidad de Quintana Roo. We analyzed four sessions in different days for identifying the most common errors in pronunciation of the students, to know whether they are aware or not of their own mistakes, and whether or not the teacher corrects them and how.
The students of English VI take classes four times a week for two hours. We observed that the teacher always makes them practice their speaking skills by arranging them in a horseshoe. As warm-up, the teacher would always make students to give their opinion about a question or a statement related to the topic they were supposed to see. Therefore, we consider that the teacher used the communicative approach teaching method.
In the first session, students worked on the book. The teacher asked one student to read a small paragraph that was in it. During the reading, the first student who read mispronounced the word ‘gene’. He pronounced it like /ʤen/ instead of /ʤiːn/ but he corrected himself right away. The second student read another paragraph and she mispronounced the word ‘enzyme’. She said /enzɪm/ and after she finished reading, the teacher repeated the word with the correct
References: Michael Kellogg, wordreference, retrieved on December the 2nd from http://www.wordreference.com/ (used as reference for the phonetic symbols of the words)