MỤC LỤC 

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1. Reasons for choosing the study 1
2. Objectives of the study 1
3. Significance of the study 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Methods of the study 2
6. New features in the study’s result 2

PART B: CONTENT 3

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

1. Syllables 3
2. Word stress 3

2.1. The definition of word stress 3

2.2. Characteristics of stressed and unstressed syllables 4

2.3.  The  impotance  of  word  stress 5

2.4.  Comparison between English and Vietnamese rhythmic patterns 6

2.5. Reason for word stress problems 6

2.6. General word stress rules 8

2.7.  Marking of  stress 12

CHAPTER 2. PRACTICAL REVIEW 14

1. An overview of Nghi Loc 5 High School 14
2. Current situation of teaching and learning word stress at school 14
3. Research context 14

3.1. Setting and Participants 14

3.1.1. Students 14

3.1.2. Teachers 14

CHAPTER 3. SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES TO HELP STUDENTS IMPROVE THEIR WORD STRESS 16

1. Some activities teachers guide students to practice in class 16

1.1. Games 16

1.2. Using worksheets 24

1.3. Watching videos and practising out loud 26

1.4. Listening to English songs 28

2. Some activities teachers guide students to practice at home 30

2.1. Listening to podcasts 30

2.2. Recording your voice and listening to yourself 31

2.3.  Practicing in front of the mirror 33

2.4. Using an app like “Say It: English Pronunciation” 33

2.5. Making a duet on Tiktok (for gifted student) 35

CHAPTER 4. METHODOLOGY 37

1. Research methodolgy 37
2. Participants 37
3. Data collecting procedures 37

3.1. Questionnaire 37

3.2. Data analysis 37

CHAPTER 5. FINDING ANS AND DISCUSSION 38

1. The analysis of  questionnaires 38

1.1. Students’ attitude towards learning wordstress 38

1.2.  Students’ awareness of the difficulty in stress lessons 38

1.3. Degree of  students’ certainty in marking the stress  pattern for a word 39

1.4. Frequency of students’ errors  in word stress 39

1.5. Students’ most common errors in word stress 40

1.6.  Students’ expectation towards the teaching of word stress 41

2. Discussion 41

CHAPTER  6.  RESULTS  GAINED  AFTER  APPLYING  THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING WORD STRESS 42

PART C: CONCLUSION 43

1. Recapitulation of the study 43
2. Implications 44
3. Limitation of the study 45

REFERENCES 47

APPENDIX 48

PART A: INTRODUCTION 

1. Reasons for choosing the study 

In today’s global world, the importance of English can’t be denied. English is the greatest common language spoken universally. English is used for socialising, entertainment as well as work. In learning English, we should master both language skills and language components. Language skill consists of two divisions that are receptive skill and productive skill. Receptive skill consists of listening and reading skill while productive skill consists of speaking and writing skill. Three language components which support the language skill are pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. 

Pronunciation consists of segmental and suprasegmental features. Segmental feature refers to consonant and vowel sounds and suprasegmental feature refers to stress and intonation. Stress plays an important role in the production of spoken language, especially in English. Incorrect stress placement is a major cause of intelligibility problems for foreign learners. Stress is one of the main tools used in English to convey word and sentence meaning. If the English speakers put the stress in thewrong syllable, the word will not be understood by the listener. However, in the reality there are many learners who have studied English do not know about stress and the function of it in giving intelligibility. They only focus on how to pronounce the word correctly without using a correct stress placement. 

Many teachers often ignore word stress and pay much more attention to the grammar because they think that grammar takes a more part in a test than pronunciation. In fact, students learn English not only to pass the exams but to communicate with the others as well. Some teachers often get bored when teaching this part so they do not show much interest in finding the suitable ways to teach it effectively. We think that tests or examinations are the ways to test students’ knowledge inreading, speaking, listening and writing skill. To help students gain fluency in communication, word stress is an integral part in teaching process. 

At our school, Nghi Loc 5 High School, word stress is a big problem in pronouncing English words because most of students do not have adequate theoretical knowledge about how to place stress on right syllable. As a language teacher, we have put much thought on this problem and have tried some different ways to teach word stress. That is why we choose the topic: “Some effective techniques to help the 10th form students improve their word stress” to make word stress become an easy and interesting part not only to students but also to language teachers as well. 

2. Objectives of the study 

With the above reasons, we have decided to carry out the thesis with the purpose of: 

• Helping students realize the importance of using correct word stress.  
• Helping students speak English correctly and solve the questions about stress knowledge in tests, exams for good students or other assignments. 
• Helping foreign language teachers have more suggestions in teaching word stress. 

3. Significance of the study 

This experience idea helps students promote clear communication by using good word stress in English.Word stress is not something extra that students should study if they have time. It is an essential part of learning English because it is a major component of the English language. Stressing the wrong syllable can cause misunderstandings. It might be difficult to understand the word, or a wrongly stressed syllable can cause confusion or even annoyance for the listener. In some cases, stressing the wrong syllable may change the meaning or type of word. 

4. Scope of the study 

The study mainly deals with surveying 84  EFL 10  graders at Nghi Loc 5 High school. In order to conduct the thesis, we pay attention to using word stress  of the students at the classroom and collect data related to word stress.  Most of the students are at the age of 15 and 16. Almost students in this experiment group have been studying English since grade 6 with the help of devices as computers or smartphones. 

5. Methods of the study 

• Study of theories 
• Observation of real situation 
• Analysis and evaluation 

6. New features in the study’s result 

In our innovation, these effective activities are suitable for all levels of students, influence the class environment and help students enjoy studying word stress. Moreover, the teachers can use and adapt the techniques flexibly in their teaching process. 

PART B: CONTENT 

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 

1. Syllables 

A syllable is a single, unbroken sound of a spoken (or written) word. Syllables usually contain a vowel and accompanying consonants. Sometimes syllables are referred to as the ‘beats’ of spoken language. English words can be made up of one, two or many syllables. 

For example: 

2. Word stress 

2.1. The definition of word stress 

Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996) noted that “stressed syllables are most often defined as those syllables within an utterance that are longer, louder, and higher in pitch”.  

According to Baptista (1981), the quality of stress can be described from three different points of view: the physiological, the physical, and the psychological perspective. From the physiological point of view, stress means the degree of force with which a sound or syllable is pronounced. Also, the energy that comes from the lungs will strengthen a certain syllable of the word. This definition gives the light impression that a stressed syllable requiresmore effort of some sort than other syllables. Thus the stressed syllables are in some way pronounced strongly than the other syllables. However, according to the physical point of view, frequency is seen as the most relevant factor for recognition of word stress, followed by duration and intensity; while from the psychological point of view, the