RESEARCH WORK

(PHONEMES)

• /s/ - / /ʃ• /θ/• / /ə

OBJECTIVES

1. SOUNDS: /s/ - / /ʃ To determine if the students can recognize and produce the

sounds /s/ - / / in initial, medial and final position of different ʃisolated words in 3rd grade high school at “Alfonso Ugarte” school.

2. SOUND: / /ə To notice if the students can recognize and produce the sound

/ / in unstressed syllables of different isolated words in 3ə rd grade high school at “Alfonso Ugarte” school.

3. SOUND: /θ/ To notice if the students can produce the sound /θ/ in initial,

medial and final position of different isolated words in 3rd grade high school at “Alfonso Ugarte” school.

Name of school: “Alfonso Ugarte” (National School)

Location: Av. Paseo la República 3530, San Isidro

Grade and section: 3ro “F”

Level: High School

Number of students: 10 /6 men and 4 women/

INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

1. S o u n d s : “/s/ - / / ʃ ”

Listen to your teacher, and circle the word

you heard. Then, read your answers.

INSTRUMENTS

2. S o u n d : “/ə/ ”

Listen to your teacher, circle the stressed

syllable and underline the sound / / ə of each

word. Then, read the words.

M O T H E R

2. S o u n d : “/θ/ ”

Read the following words, pronouncing

them slowly and then rapidly.

High punctuation: 80% – 100%

Regular punctuation: 50% - 70%

Low punctuation: 0% - 40%

TABLESSounds: /s/ - / ʃ/ <RECOGNITION>

Quantity of students (Total of correct answers)

(%)

SHE – SEA 10 100%SEAT – SHEET 8 80%MESS – MESH 9 90%SUIT – SHOOT 4 40%SHINE – SIGH 10 100%GAS – GASH 8 80%SHIP – SIP 10 100%

SOCK – SHOCK 9 90%SHELL – SELL 9 90%

CLASS - CLASH 10 100%

Sounds: /s/ - / ʃ/ <PRODUCTION>

Quantity of students (Total of correct answers)

(%)

SHE 10 100%SEAT 9 90%MESH 6 60%SUIT 6 60%

SHINE 9 90%GAS 10 100%SHIP 9 90%

SHOCK 9 90%SELL 8 80%

CLASS 10 100%

RECOGNITION: The easiest words were she, shine, ship and class because 100% of students answered correctly.

The most difficult word was suit because just 40% of students answered correctly.

PRODUCTION:The easiest words were she, gas and class because 100% of students answered correctly.

• In RECOGNITION and PRODUCTION, there was a high punctuation because students use the sound /s/ in their language (Spanish), so it was easy; in the case of the sound / /ʃ , students could also recognize easily because they realized the difference between the 2 sounds rapidly (discarding). Students could produce the sound / / ʃ correctly because it’s not difficult to pronounce it. Spanish speakers can recognize and produce easily the sounds of English /s/- / /.ʃ

• There was a great difficult in the word SUIT. In the case of RECOGNITION, I suppose students couldn’t recognize the sound correctly because the words are very similar (suit /su:t/ – shoot / u:t/ʃ ). In the case of PRODUCTION, students could produce the sound correctly although the pronunciation of the completed word was incorrect.

COMMENT

Sound: /ə/ <RECOGNITION>

Quantity of students (Total of correct answers)

(%)

VISOR 9 90%AGAIN 8 80%AGREE 8 80%PIZZA 9 90%

BACON 3 30%SUGAR 8 80%ALARM 3 30%SENSOR 8 80%CARROT 9 90%CHINA 8 80%

Sound: /ə/ <PRODUCTION>

Quantity of students (Total of correct

answers)(%)

VISOR 9 90%AGAIN 8 80%AGREE 8 80%PIZZA 9 90%

BACON 6 60%SUGAR 9 90%ALARM 6 60%SENSOR 10 100%CARROT 9 90%CHINA 9 90%

RECOGNITION: Almost every words were easy because 80 and 90% of students answered correctly, just two words: Bacon and Alarm were difficult because just 30% of students

answer correctly. PRODUCTION: The easiest word was Sensor because 100% of students answered

correctly. The other words like Again, Agree, Carrot, China, etc. were also easy because 80 and 90% of students answered correctly. The punctuation was regular in Alarm and

Bacon because just 60% of students answered correctly.

COMMENT

• In RECOGNITION and PRODUCTION, most of students answered almost every words correctly because the instructions were clearly: They recognize the stressed syllable and then it was easy to recognize the sound / / ə in the words. Next, they can produce the words easily.

• In RECOGNITION and PRODUCTION, there were 2 words (ALARM and BACON) which some students didn’t produce correctly because they didn’t recognize the correct stressed syllable, so they pronounced backwards.

• Also, some students changed the sound /ə/ by a vowel in Spanish according to the word.

Sound: /θ / <PRODUCTION>

Quantity of students (Total of correct

answers)(%)

MOUTH 7 70%THANKS 5 50%FORTH 8 80%

MONTHLY 7 70%THIN 6 60%

HEALTH 5 50%AUTHOR 8 80%

MATH 6 60%THANKFUL 7 70%

BATH 7 70%

PRODUCTION: The words: Forth and Author were easy because 80% of students answered correctly. The other words were a little bit difficult because 60 and 70% of

students answered correctly.The most difficult word was Health and Thanks because just 50% of students answered

correctly.

COMMENT

• The other words had a regular punctuation: THANKS, THIN, THANKFUL, BATH, MOUTH, MATH, HEALTH, MONTHLY because students changed the sound /θ/ by other sounds like /s/ - /t/.

• Many students had difficulty pronouncing this sound because it is not used in Spanish language.

1. The majority of students can recognize and produce easily the sounds /s/ and / /ʃ in initial, medial and final position of isolated words because they had a high punctuation (80 – 100%), both in recognition and production.

2. Most of students can recognize and produce the sound /ə/ easily provided they can recognize first the stressed syllable in isolated words because of they had a regular and high punctuation (60 - 100%), both in recognition and production.

3. Most of students can produce the sound /θ/ in initial, medial and final position of isolated words with a little bit of difficulty because students had just a regular average (50 -70%).

CONCLUSIONS