(SKKN HAY NHẤT) some measures to help grade 7 students at canh nang town secondary school master

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1. Introduction

1. 1. Rationale

In the context of global integration today, English is an important

language. It is the key to help us access the quintessence, progress in culture,

education, science, technology and many other fields of humanity. Therefore, it

is a second language, a compulsory subject of many countries around the world.

According to analysts' forecasts, by the end of this decade, more than one third

of the world's population will be engaged in learning English, This global need

to learn English has shown that English is extremely important and essential for

economic and social development on a national level as well as for each

individual in society.

From that practical requirement, English has been included in the

mainstream curriculum of all academic levels in our country. The ultimate goal

of teaching and learning English is that students can communicate in English.

The ability to communicate shows on two aspects: receptive language (listening

and reading) and producing language (speaking and writing). So, what must

teachers and students do to achieve this goal? This requires many factors, in

which it is quite important to help students master word stress in English. The

correct pronunciation of English word stress will help communicate in English

more smoothly, avoid misunderstandings in communication.

From the reality of teaching English for many years, I found that

knowledge of English word stress is being taught in secondary school programs

only in practical level, not explained. Students only need to listen and repeat the

number of given words correctly. The content of English word stress is only

introduced in the part “Pronunciation- A closer look 1” of Unit 9, Unit 10 and

Unit 12 of grade 7. Students are only allowed to listen to tapes on how to read

word stress of some words and then repeat. However, in exams, there are often

some questions about stress. Through studying the results of students' tests, I

find that students often do not give the correct answers of the questions about

word stress. In addition, I also find that when the students speak English, most

of them only speak evenly and do not pay attention to the stress of words, which

reduces the effectiveness of using English.

Some authors also share many good experiences and solutions to help

students learn word or sentence stress well, but those experiences are brought

from scientific research, mainly applied to excellent students, high school

students and serve for graduation exam, college and university. Very few

documents mention teaching word stress for middle school students,

specifically, groups of general students.

From the results above, I strongly launched an innovative experience

"Some measures to help grade 7 students at Canh Nang town secondary

school master English word stress”. It is hoped that the measures, to some

extent, will contribute to improving the teaching and learning of English word

stress in grade 7 at Canh Nang town secondary school in particular and English

study in general.

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1.2. Aims of the study:

For above mentioned reasons, the main aims of the study are as the

following:

- Firstly, make students aware of the importance of using correct English stress;

thereby help them have a sense of stress in training their communication skills.

- Secondly, help students speak English correctly, ensure subject knowledge

standards, thereby help students solve the questions about stress knowledge in

exams.

- Thirdly, this topic can help teachers of foreign languages have a few small

suggestions in teaching speaking skills for students.

1.3. Scope of the study

Stress is one important part of English pronunciation, which consists of

sentence stress and word stress. However, due to both limited time and

experience, this study only focuses on the word stress and some measures to

help grade 7 students at Canh Nang town secondary school master English word

stress. Any attempt to study English word stress on other aspect is beyond the

scope of this study.

1.4. Methods of the study

- Reading reference books

- Discussing with other teachers

- Analyzing the data

- Observing and drawing out experiences

- Applying in teaching

2. Content

2.1. Theoretical bacground

The aim of this part is to review theoretical background which related to

English word stress. This basic knowledge will be provided in order to help

students consolidate their knowledge and understand the issues deeper.

2.1.1. Stress

2.1.1.1. The definition of tress

Stress is defined as using more muscular energy while articulating the

words.When a word or a syllable in word is produced louder, more lengthy, with

higher pitch or with more quality, it will be perceived as stressed. The

prominence makes some syllables be perceived as stressed.

E.g: - Important [im’pɔ:tənt] - Decision [di'siʒn]

2.1.1.2. Characteristics of stressed and unstressed words

English words can be made up of one, two or many syllables. In all words

of two or more syllables, one syllable is more prominent, louder, or more

noticeable than the other syllables in that word. This strong syllable is stressed

(accented), and the other weaker syllables are unstressed (unaccented) (Dauer:

1983).

Stressed syllables sound louder, are usually longer, and have clearer vowels

and stronger consonants. In a word said in isolation, stressed syllables are higher

pitched; in sentences, a pitch change (a change in melody from high to

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