Original
Sistema de ejercicios para desarrollar las habilidades
de pronunciación en alumnos de cuarto grado de la escuela primaria Amado Estevez Pou de Bayamo
A System of Exercises to Develop the Pronunciation and
Vocabulary Skills on Fourth Graders at “Amado Estevez Pou”
Elementary School in Bayamo
Est. Marlen Zamora Benítez, Universidad de Granma, Bayamo, Cuba
(1)
Est. Tatiana Pérez Saname, Universidad de Granma, Bayamo, Cuba (2)
MSc. Rubén
Consuegra Molina, Universidad de Granma, Bayamo, Cuba (3)
(1) Estudiante de Cuarto Año de
Licenciatura en Educación Lenguas Extranjeras, Inglés. Facultad de Educación
Media. Universidad de Granma, Bayamo, Cuba, mzamorab@estudiantes.udg.co.cu
(2) Estudiante de Cuarto Año de
Licenciatura en Educación Lenguas Extranjeras, Inglés. Facultad de Educación
Media. Universidad de Granma, Bayamo, Cuba, tperezs@estudiantes.udg.co.cu
(3) Máster
en Ciencias de la Educación Superior. Profesor Auxiliar. Licenciado en
Educación, en la especialidad de Lenguas Extranjeras Universidad de Granma,
Bayamo, Cuba. rconsuegram@estudiantes.udg.co.cu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-68700-9884
Abstract
This article is aimed at working out the shortcomings
that have been taking place in the teaching learning process of speaking,
especially the development of the pronunciation and vocabulary skills on fourth
graders at “Amado Estevez Pou” Elementary School in bayamo To attain the pursued aim, its authors offer a
system of pronunciation and vocabulary exercises derived from songs to solve
the described problematic situation. The exercises were designed with the main
purpose of developing the former linguistic skills on the graders subject of
study. The authors paid a special attention to the application of theoretical,
empirical, and statistical methods that made possible to collect real and scientific
information from the object and scope of research, including the subjects who
were made up of students from class 1. Among the theoretical methods applied
were: Analysis -synthesis, Induction – deduction, .and the Systemic Approach;
among the empirical methods: Observation, Interview, Survey, and Pedagogical
Test. The Statistical method, especially the Descriptive – statistics was also
used. The authors reach generalized conclusions and offered suggestions to
extend its application if necessary. The system of exercises proved to be
effective as it is evidenced in the outcomes.
Keywords: skill, pronunciation; vocabulary; development; exercises
Resumen
El artículo está
dirigido a resolver una problemática presente en el proceso de enseñanza
aprendizaje de la expresión oral, en particular el desarrollo de la
pronunciación y el vocabulario en el cuarto grado de la escuela Primaria “Amado
Estevez Pou” en Bayamo Sus
autores ofrecen un sistema de ejercicios derivados de canciones para solucionar
la situación problemática. Para el logro de los resultados, los autores
aplicaron métodos teóricos, empíricos y estadísticos que hicieron posible
compilar la información real del comportamiento del objeto y campo de
investigación, incluyendo los sujetos implicados en ella perteneciente al grupo
1. Entre los métodos teóricos se emplearon: Análisis -síntesis, Inducción –
deducción y el Enfoque Sistémico y entre los empíricos: Observación,
Entrevista, Encuesta y Prueba Pedagógica. El método Estadístico utilizado fue
la Estadística – Descriptiva. Los autores arriban a conclusiones generales y
ofrecen sugerencias para su introducción en la práctica pedagógica. El sistema
de ejercicio probó se efectivo evidenciado en los resultados.
Palabras claves: habilidad; pronunciación; vocabulario; desarrollo; ejercicios
Introduction
The
teaching of English in Cuba is an essential part of any curriculum at the
different levels of education, thus contributing to the harmonic formation and
development of the new generations. In the Cuban System of Education, English
as a foreign language is taught from third grade on. In all the levels special
emphasis is laid on the development of speaking skills, although this foreign
language is taught focusing its attention on the development of the four main
language abilities. The main goal to attain in teaching English since the
Elementary Education is the comprehensive formation of the pupils
personality and the development of the communicative competence.
The
teaching of English in Fourth grade helps to acquire knowledge, and develop
habits and skills, which allow pupils to express themselves in English,
especially by asking and answering questions as basic forms of holding
communication. Fourth graders at Amado Estévez Pou
Elementary School in Bayamo show a poor level of development of the speaking
skills, especially pronunciation and vocabulary. Taking into consideration that
speaking is the main objective of the level to develop, the main attention
should be given to help pupils chiefly articulate
vowel and consonant sounds as more accurate as possible, to intone questions
and answers correctly, make blending, contractions, and attain an adequate
rhythm. And they should also command the vocabulary taught in every unit, so
that they set up the proper conditions for achieving an acceptable speaking
enhancement and pave the way for accomplishing communication. Considering the
systematic learning controls held by the teacher involved in the teaching
learning process of the English subject and especially the speaking one, the
methodological assistance held by the municipal supervisor of the level and by
other specialized people, the initial diagnosis held at the beginning of the
course, and the contests developed at
school, the authoress could realized the existence of shortcomings that
actually affected the learning of the English subject, particularly the
development of speaking skills, and still more specific pronunciation, among
which were:
·
Poor
discrimination of vowel and consonant sounds which scarcely exist in Spanish.
·
Inadequate
articulation of vowels and consonants present in the words as part of the
vocabulary.
·
Incorrect
use of intonational patterns for asking and answering
questions.
·
Inadequate
use of stress to produce an acceptable rhythm.
·
Very
limited vocabulary to express simple ideas.
·
Inability
to interact with others using the communicative functions studied in class.
The
researchers observed a contradiction between the real learning state,
concerning the poor development of the pronunciation and vocabulary skills, and
the desired one, so they mainly focused their attention on how to develop
speaking skills on fourth graders at Amado Estevez Pou
Elementary School from Bayamo Such a problem was present mainly in the teaching-learning process of speaking.
In order to
give solution to the problem under research, they decide to elaborate a system
of exercises to develop pronunciation and vocabulary skills through songs on
fourth graders at the Elementary School object of research. Within the teaching
learning process of speaking, the authors aimed their attention particularly at
the most sensitive affected areas of speaking; that is, the development of the
pronunciation and vocabulary skills. The fundamental practical contribution of
this research work consists of putting on the hand of teachers a system of
exercises and elaborated in correspondence to the system of content of the
fourth grade to contribute to the development of the pupils´ pronunciation and
vocabulary skills.
The
research that made possible the present article entails a very high social
significance, since by means of the proposal, pupils are going to develop their
speaking skills, especially their pronunciation and vocabulary, by means of
which they will be able to attain a more accurate oral expression to favor the
development of the communicative competence which, at the same time, it will
favor the comprehensive formation of the pupil´s personality, which is the
major goal to accomplish by the National System of Education..
The elaboration of the research urged the
authors to assume pedagogical, psychological, didactic and linguistic
fundamentals. However, taking into
account that the article is mainly addressed to a linguistic issue and the main
problems lay on linguistic and didactic aspects, the authors are mainly going
to focus their attention on the linguistic and didactic fundamentals, as they
are mainly concerned with the development of the pronunciation and vocabulary
linguistic skills for the elaboration of the proposal, to give solution to the
insufficiencies observed in both language components.
From the
linguistic point of view, the authors highly take into account what stated by
Acosta (1996) concerning the linguistic skills, as he considers that they are
closely related to the language components pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar
and their subskills. So he proposes .within
pronunciation: to articulate sounds accurately, blend sounds and words together
in speech, stress syllables and words properly, make all necessary pauses,
emotions through intonation means, and establish sound-grapheme
correspondences.
Within
vocabulary: to use a general or specific vocabulary; to group words as to their
meaning as; to select the proper word according to the context; Another
linguistic fundamental is that of the Communicative Approach to the teaching of
English in Cuba, which in turn becomes one of the linguo-didactic
ground of the investigation. This approach is supported on the principles and
processes proposed by Wilkins (1983, cited by Acosta 1997). They are: Know what
you are doing; the whole is more than the sum of the parts; the processes are
as important as the forms; to learn
it, do it; mistakes are not always mistakes.
Another
important aspect to be regarded is the Speech-acts
theory. It has to do with the functions and uses of language. For Richards
(1988) speech acts are classified in several ways according to the function
they perform in communication. It guides English teachers to the immediate
objective of language teaching: the communicative function. The theory expresses
what the students should learn to do with the language. In deciding what
functions, topics and situations are most likely to be relevant to the
learners' needs. Speaking is taught, consequently, on the basis of the
functions which become the immediate teaching objectives.
According
to Nunan (2003) teaching speaking is to teach English
learners to: produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns, use word and
sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language,
select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting,
audience, situation and subject matter, organize their thoughts in a meaningful
and logical sequence, use language as a means of expressing values and
judgments. Speaking is a form of conveying meaning; it is a part of the
language person’s ability to express ideas, so that others can understand the
message. It is the most useful way man uses to express his knowledge, ideas and
feelings and it is the main means used to establish relationships among people.
Speaking is dynamic, expressive and innovated and it
is very important the accent, rhythm, intonation, and pronunciation. Pronunciation and vocabulary are significant
constituents of the spoken form of the language to attain a correct and
understandable communication. Finocchiaro (1983) considers that pronunciation is more than a matter of
consonants, vowels and diphthongs. For her pronunciation is considered to be made up of individual
sound, stress, intonation, and rhythm all of which are closely interrelated.
As to Antich (1986) pronunciation can and should
always be integrated into all aspects of language teaching and reinforced in
all classes.
From the didactic viewpoint, it is indispensable to
start by taking sides on the particular didactic principles, which constitute
essential methodological grounds that govern the teaching learning process of
English, and consequently, the speaking skills development, as well as
pronunciation and vocabulary. González (2009) regards those principles
explained as follows: The conception of teaching language as a means of
communication also known as communicability; consideration of the students’
mother tongue; the leading character of practice; and consideration of the
social and cultural aspects of the language.
Recent
pedagogical authors have also aimed their attention at the didactic
developmental conception. The conception of a developmental teaching learning
process assumed by the current Cuban Elementary Education and also shared by
the authors of this article presented by Pilar (2000)
who defends the idea that learning is a complex, multidimensional, social,
individual process that undergoes the individuals’ life. To be lasting,
learning should be meaningful; it should depart from the students’ attitudes,
motivations, interests, and previous experience, so that the content gets a
determined meaning to them. It should also be interactive, participating, and
collaborative, mainly characterized by the communication activity enhancing
reflection, evaluation, and self-evaluation.This idea
had been also supported by Castellanos (1999). Enrique cited by González
(2009), establishes several requirements to make teaching English at the
Elementary school be developmental. Such requirements are also assumed by the
authors of the present article in their research.
Speaking,
as a major language skill is made up of operations or subskills.
Developing speaking requires knowledge of the language system, skills in the
mastery of language skills, and skills in its functioning as speech
(communicative skills). In both of them pronunciation and vocabulary have a
great participation, since in learning a language as a means of communication,
the learner must assimilate its components (pronunciation, vocabulary, and
grammar) and use them in speech. Learning to speak requires much practice in
the functions and forms of the language. The aim of the teacher is to develop
the linguistic and communicative skills integrally and progressively until
free and spontaneous speech is attained.
At present,
English is taught at the Elementary school with the main purpose of
familiarizing and making the students conscious of the characteristics of the
English language as well as eventually developing their communicative habits
and skills with emphasis in the oral ones, so pronunciation and vocabulary play
a paramount role to have pupils express orally about themselves, their family,
and habitual actions they do at home, at school, and in their community.
Language learning only takes place when the
students are actively performing in the language; that is the reason why, the
teacher’s main function is to design the kinds of activities that will
encourage students to learn from each other.. These
activities motivate and stimulate pupils to participate in the lesson. Teachers
should prepare the activities they want to do in order to do it successfully.
Songs can be successful as a learning activity; they should form part of
the course, because they keep the lesson lively and interesting. Songs demand
sharply energy-focused concentration, and learners will stretch their energies
to the full enjoying and learning from them because they are naturally
motivated. They also help to contribute to ease the process of learning and
teaching. The use of songs is very important to develop oral skills, as they
urge pupils to use the foreign language correctly and adequately, since they
offer a very authentic material to reproduce and serve as source of imitation
practice to develop the speaking skills, especially pronunciation and
vocabulary.
In all teaching, the four skills are themselves part of the subject
matter. They emphasize the need to try out the techniques which integrate all
four-language skills and which offer the students some challenging and
enjoyable tasks while learning English as a foreign language, especially for
improving pronunciation and vocabulary by means of songs.
Population and sample
The
research that originates this article was held at the elementary school Amado
Estevez Pou in Bayamo.
Therefore, the Population is made up of 40 pupils taken from fourth grade and
the sample consists of 20 pupils from class 01that represent 50%. There is only
one teacher of English at school who at the same time stands for the population
and sample of the investigation, representing 100% .from the population. The
class was selected intentionally as it was the most problematic class of the
two.
Analysis of the results
The process
of research demanded the use of theoretical, empirical and statiscal
methods. However, in order to know the real situation before and after the
application of the proposal, the authors mainly relied on the empirical methods
such as observation, especially to class; survey, to pupils; interview, to the
teacher of English in fourth grade; and the pedagogical test, in its initial
and final versions, as a way to find out the current pupils´ learning
state concerning the development of
pronunciation and vocabulary skills, as well as the teaching learning process
of speaking in the English lesson. Generally speaking, the analysis of the
results in the first diagnosis permitted to assert that pupils showed
inadequate levels of development of pronunciation and vocabulary skills
affecting the speaking skill.
For assessing the real development of pronunciation and vocabulary skills
before the application of the proposal, the researchers gave pupils a
diagnostic test consisting of questions and answers about personal information,
family, colors and school objects and activities. For such a purpose they made
use of the following indicators and levels.
· Articulation of sounds
(vowel and consonant)
·
Intonation (Questions and answers)
· Rhythm (The recurrence of
stresses within the utterances).
· Vocabulary Range.(The number
of words they mastered to express simple ideas about the topics involved)
The levels
of the development of both linguistic skills on the pupils subjects of research
assumed by the researchers were: High, Mid, and Low.
The
application of the first pedagogical test showed that pupils actually had
serious difficulties at speaking English, since their pronunciation was really
poor and the vocabulary range was very limited to express their ideas about the
requested issues, Other questions asked in the survey also permitted to know
that they were not so much interested in the subject, therefore, there was a
lack of motivation for learning English.
In order to
give solution to the problematic situation found out by the initial diagnosis,
and go ahead with the research process to attain at least a partial fulfillment
of the expected results, considering that the research is not completely ended
yet, it was necessary to elaborate and apply part of the system of exercises
derived from a number of songs selected according to the content of the units
involved.,
Methodology for the application of the proposal
The
proposal made up of songs and their exercises were intended to be given to
pupils from fourth grade at Amado Estevez Elementary school in Bayamo, as a way to develop the pronunciation and
vocabulary skills. The songs proposed were taken from a website in
correspondence to the content of the grade object of study; especially the
skills under investigation, the communicative functions of the grade in general,
and above all the pronunciation aspects to teach, as well as the vocabulary
engaged in the selected unit. . Among
other reasons the authors also took into account pupils´ interests and
motivation, as well as their learning necessities.
The
proposal comprises seven sons; that is the 58.3% of the total number of units
in the grade, taking into consideration that there other songs that are used in
the grade which better match the other units out of the ones worked in the
present paper. The criterion for the choice of these songs and units obeys to
the fact that these units are taught in the first semester of the course,
something that propitiates the application of the proposal, and the gathering
of the results, so that the researcher could analyze, tabulate, compare, and
get to conclusions to finish the work properly.
The system
of exercises and songs are supported by the use of the video, so that pupils
can watch and listen to the song as long as they work with it. The exercises
are mainly intended to develop pronunciation and vocabulary; therefore, the
authors paid more attention to the pronunciation and vocabulary skills
suggested in the syllabus of the grade, mainly focused on the sounds and words
suggested by the syllabus and methodological guidelines.
The
proposal is organized so that every song contains about several exercises that
go from the recognition level to the reproductive one. The exercises pretend to
prepare pupils for facing the new vocabulary of the song; to understand the
text of the song by giving them a comprehension task, to fill in the gaps just
by listening to the song without looking at the lyrics, to look up meaning of
words according to context; to read aloud the lyrics after her so that they
become familiar with the pronunciation of the words under study and other new
ones; to dwell upon the most difficult sounds, especially the vowel and
consonant sounds, as well the prosodic elements of the language, such as
intonation, stress, and rhythm, by having pupils sing along the song after the
video, so that they imitate the correct pronunciation of the singers.
The
exercises are organized taking into account the methodological components such
number and name of the unit, the exercise, its objective, communicative
function, subskill to work , level of assimilation,
teaching aid to use, time for the exercise, heading, procedure and
evaluation. The system of exercises do
not only contribute to give solution to the problematic involved, but also to
strengthen other skills such as listening , reading and writing, as well as
other personality areas; for instance, qualities, values, feelings, knowledge;
but above all pupils´ interest and
motivation for learning English. At the same time, the proposal can also allow
pupils become familiar with the culture of English speaking people, taking into
account that the songs are authentic materials and provide original models to
imitate native pronunciation.
For holding the analysis of the effectiveness of the system of exercises
intended to develop pronunciation and vocabulary skills, a so far final
pedagogical test was given to pupils similar to the initial one, but this time
it was attached to the content taught so far. Pupils had to reproduce certain
sounds present in words and sentences used for asking and answering questions
on the communicative functions studied in the units under teaching. In the same
way they also had to ask and answer questions in order to check not only
intonation and rhythm, but also the mastering of the vocabulary reached so far.
Both skills of the language were assessed by having them speak briefly about a
topic dealing with the communicative functions studied along the first term of
the course.
The indicators and evaluating scale were the same as the ones used for
the analysis of the initial pedagogical test. The outcomes achieved can be
observed in the following chart, whose objective was to illustrate the quantitative results obtained after
the application of the final pedagogical test so far.
|
Indicators |
Students |
High |
% |
Mid |
% |
Low |
% |
|
Articulation |
20 |
12 |
60 |
4 |
20 |
4 |
20 |
|
Intonation |
20 |
10 |
50 |
5 |
25 |
5 |
25 |
|
Rhythm |
20 |
9 |
45 |
6 |
30 |
5 |
25 |
|
Range of vocabulary |
20 |
11 |
55 |
5 |
25 |
4 |
20 |
|
General outcome |
20 |
10,5 |
50 |
5 |
25 |
4,5 |
25 |
As it can be observed in the chart, the quantitative analysis allowed to
assert that the number of pupils tested in each indicator is significant, due
to the changes they made in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary to express
themselves orally in a free way according to the
topic..
However, the application of the proposal allowed the authors of this
research and article to state the following outcomes from the qualitative point
of view.
·
Adequate
articulation of vowel and consonant sounds, bringing forth an approximate
pronunciation of the words involved in the vocabulary of the units under study.
·
Satisfactory
use of intonational patterns for asking and answering
questions, not only of the ones present in the song but also of the ones used
within the communicative functions studied along the course for speaking.
·
Adequate
rhythm use, as they got the skill of stressing the necessary words within an
utterance in or out of a song.
·
Accepted
use of blendings at the time of repeating or
reproducing short utterances, favoring rhythm and fluency in the speech act.
·
Adequate
range of vocabulary as they could use the necessary words to talk about the
topics involved in the selected units.
The
conclusion drew from the instrument applied, particularly the final pedagogical
test so far allowed the authors asserting that the application of the system of
exercises derived from them, as a way to develop the pronunciation and
vocabulary skills actually seemed to be effective, considering that most of the
pupils from the class object of study at the school object of research changed
their learning status, as more than the fifty percent of them got a higher
level as compared to the initial state; therefore, the authors of this
investigation think that they successfully reached the desired goal, for most
of the pupils developed the pronunciation and vocabulary skills.
Conclusions
1.
Pronunciation
and vocabulary were the two linguistic components that actually showed
shortcomings that encouraged its authors to find out a solution to the problem,
and served as the main source for the elaboration of the present article.
2.
The
authors of the article and research fulfilled the objective of the work, as the
pupils involved in this process from the school object of research actually developed
the pronunciation and vocabulary skills and therefore, the speaking skill.
3.
The
article demanded the application of scientific methods that made possible
compile the necessary theoretical information about the teaching learning
process of speaking and especially the development of pronunciation and
vocabulary.
4.
The
present article as a result of the process of research provides a system of
exercises and a set of songs that do not only develop pupils´ pronunciation and
vocabulary, but also their interest and motivation toward the English subject
at the Elementary school.
Bibliographical references
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Facultades Newton Paiva, Belorizonte,
Brasil.
Antich,
R. (1986). Metodología de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. La Habana, Cuba:
Pueblo y Educación.
Castellanos,
D. (1999) Hacia una concepción del aprendizaje desarrollador. Colección
Proyectos Centros de Estudios Educacionales.ISPEJV. La
Habana.
Finochiaro, M. (1983). The Functional Notional Approach.New York,US:
Oxford University Press.
González
Cancio R. (2009). La clase de lengua extranjera:
teoría y práctica. La Habana, Cuba: Pueblo y Educación.
Nunan, D. (2003). Practical
English Language Teaching. Jalapa, Guatemala.
Rico,
P. (200). Aprendizaje desarrollador en la escuela primaria. Cede central.
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Richards,
J. (1988). La enseñanza de la lengua. Academia Edu.