1.

1 Pronunciation Variations
For my first Practicum session, I have been placed at Sekolah Kebangsaan Tok Raja which
situated three kilometers from Jerteh. Even the school is nearby Jerteh Town, but it is
counted as a suburb school. Not far away from the school, there is another school named
Sekolah Kebangsaan Alor Lintang which is nearer to main road of Jerteh pathway.
Therefore, the students of the school merely recognized as the village dwellers. Almost all of
the students originate from that particular village. Literally, their backgrounds are not really
in convenience. Geographically, they are living at Paddy field terrain. Therefore, it can be
said that their parents job or occupations are farmers or doing some village works. For the
higher level status, it seemed like Government Service would be the choice. A few students
are among teachers children. The Sek. Keb Tok Rajas teachers who have children in
primary school would prefer to school them at the same place as they work in. It would be
easy for them to settle their kids transportations problem for school and they can give more
attention to them as well.
By observing their wears, self physical management, language spoken, I could predict their
background or social status. For those students who wear untidy, uncombed hairs and
unwashed shoes probably could be categorized as low social status student. Their parents
work for no target and do not really give an accent to their children learning.
For this task, I have chosen three students from different social status as the requirement
given. The students were from the same class which was 6 Taqwa. They were Nuh Ibrahim,
Mohd Ikram and Mohd Shahiran. For my first activity, I have asked them to introduce
themselves using English. They seemed shy and clueless. They did not really know what
they should say and how the activity would go on. Therefore, I wrote them a few
introduction sentences. There were as below:

My name is..
I live at.
My hobby is .
I want to be.
For Nuh Ibrahim, The parents had not received any post-SPM education. The father is no
longer lives and his mother sells fruits for living. From my observation, reading or chatting
is not really his choice leisure time. He likes to be alone and sometimes e-book would be
accompanying him all day at school.
For the second student, his father works in Government Service. Same goes with his mother.
His father has a diploma certificate. It means this one has a better life then the student
before. The parents involve in giving their children knowledge whether it happens formally
or not..His parents have their own career and targets to be achieved. The child seemed a
little bit lack of attention in class. It seemed like his parents do know about the importance
of studying but they are busy to give full support to the son.
For Shahiran, He has been the first student volunteering to carry out the activity. He looked
confident and had no worries. From his physical appearance, he looked educated, tidy,
clean, and neat and has a high self esteem. His father is a senior assistant Officer in a
Government Service. His mother is a teacher. It seemed like his parents deeply aware of his
sons education and had put a certain targets for his son to achieve. The parents give the full
advocate and really want the son to success. Both of his parents had passed further study
and want their child to develop in study. Even he does not use totally English for daily
language spoken at home, but surely does sometimes for certain words.
To identify their variation of pronunciation more, I gave them short poem to be read aloud.
Here is the poem:

My Heart Leaps Up
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky.
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

There were a lot of mistakes done by the students. But here I would like to discuss just a few
of them.
I prefer to start with Nuh Ibrahim. He has made a lot of mistakes and there were not a
simple one. His pronunciation was really not good and needed a big favour. He pronounced
man as mang which the phonetic symbols is | m | He pronounces began as begang |
bg |. Obviously here he could not pronounce the nasal consonant N. He preferred to
sound ng () as the replacement of silent N. Same went with the word rainbow which
pronounced as rangbow | reb | by adding consonant G in the middle of the word.
For the second student Mohd Ikram, a few words uttered by him were same with Nuh
Ibrahims style. For example man became mang. The second word was it. It went same as
man situation, but in term of t phoneme, he would prefer to sound k because it has
always been used in their Kelantanese accent. Therefore, the sound produced was ik which
the phonetic symbol is | ik |. He pronounced child as cheel | tl | because of the same
factor. He also pronounced Heart as hat | ht |which was a vowel pronouncing problem.
Other than that, he sounded good enough.
For the third student Mohd Shahiran that has a good reputation and good social status, had
volunteered to speak first. From my observation, he used American-English accent and it
sounded very good. Nothing should be corrected. He pronounced heart, when, began,
man with a proper articulation steps. But, there were still variations in pronouncing the
words. For example rainbow | rnba |



Variation in Pronunciation
Proper Pronunciation Nuh Ibrahim Mohd Ikram Mohd Shahiran
Man | m | Mang | m | Mang | m | Man | mn |
Began | bn | Begang | bg | Begun | bn | Began | bn |
Rainbow | renb | Raingbow
| reb | Rainbow | renb | Rainbow | rnba |
It | t | It | t | Ik | ik | It | t |
Child | tald | Child | tald | Chill | tl | Child | tald |
Heart | ht | Heart | ht | Hart | ht | Heart | ht |

For nasal consonant pronunciations, the subject should have not sounded g at the back of
the word man, began or in the middle of the word rainbow. Their tip of tongue should
meet with alveolar ridge to sound a proper n that supposed to be uttered. For the
consonant t which sounded I k I is supposed to be voiceless alveolar stop sounds. The tip of
the tongue should meet alveolar and the vibration stops.
In world child for vowel I the student was not supposed to extent the mouth aside. He
should has open it a little bit wide when pronouncing I ta I and extent aside when
pronouncing I ld |. When pronouncing heart, the subject supposed to rounded his mouth
to utter vowel ae in the middle of the word so it can be sounded as | ht |
After we have done the activity, I have given them a packet of chocolate bar as a reward in
helping me finishing this task. I thanked them and asked them to find me the day after for
the next activity.
1.2 Causes of Variations
From the activity, I have identified that they have different English accent or easier
explained as dialect. Under normal circumstance, they speak Bahasa Melayu as daily
language, and in fact do that in same accent. Yet for English they indeed have different
pronunciations affected by social status. So, what actually have been their distinguishers?
The problem emerges when we discuss about their social status. The three of them have a
totally different social status especially the parents earning also their education level.
These were happening because their English affected by his Kelantanese accent. What have
I known, when a Kelantanese speaks, there will be no N sounded at the back of a word
somehow ng is always used as their choice in speaking. For example, when they speak
Bahasa Melayu, they say make instead of makan where the n sound is not being used. In
pronouncing the Word Kelantan, they would prefer to sound kelate which the N is
silenced and replaced with E. Therefore when they pronounced man, it sounded mang.
Mohd Ikram also pronounced heart as hart. I can say that it was influenced by his prior
knowledge of English style. We pronounce lead (carbon) as | led | where the boy sounded
ea in heart have the same phoneme even though they are totally different.
Based on my research, these variations occurred also can be related to their social status. A
better social status someone has, more awareness they would get, a better learning
condition he would get, better English someone gets. Some of them apparently originated
from this village. Their previous generations had also lived here. Their parent had not been
to any college or institution after Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. Simply saying, the parents had
not studied further and do not pay attention in any studying. For them, what they have is
enough. Getting high marks, top place in examination, or getting complement from school
are not really their aims. They do not really emphasize and care. Bad reputation, low score,
matter in attendance are not really a big deal to them. What is more important is to earn
money and as long as they can stay survive. Not to beat in business, but just to earn a little
expense.
Therefore, the parents ignore their childrens reputation in school. As long as the kid stays
out of problem in the school, it would be good for them. The parents had not received any
post-SPM education, therefore, their English achievement are not really good. Obviously,
they cannot be a teacher for their kids. I can say that these kinds of persons usually depend
totally on school lesson and programs. They relinquish their obligation as a home teacher.
Therefore the students ignored and the English achievements stay down. They have never
tried to speak English. That is why he could not really pronounce properly.
For next factor, I would say the media had influenced their utterance style. It can obviously
be seen by listening to shahirans pronunciation. It was not English. Like I have stated
earlier, he has been using American-English which mostly spoken in Malaysia English
television program such as cartoons, movies, even in an education program. The accent also
is used by most Malaysian because the way it is pronounced near with Malay dialect. It is
easier for Malaysian to pronounce Americans because they have been listening to them
more than actual English that taught in education.
Here once again I would like to thank those three kids who had spent their times to help me.
I really hope they can improve their pronunciation so that it can help them in their future
career.












2.1 Activity
Listening, reading and pronouncing are three different things. Reading means a complex
cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving
meaning.Hearing is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through an organ
such as the ear. Meanwhile, pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken,
or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct
pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect.
Obviously, these three activities need different skills to master. For what have I been
through in Sekolah Kebangsaan Tok raja, I knew that their problems are more into
pronunciation compared to listening and hearing skills. As a kid that lives in this modern
age, they should have heard a lot anything related to English. They should have read a lot of
English stuffs or might be written as well. These days, any kid who does not know how to
access the internet, would be left over.
Therefore, for my activity I would prefer to use these three skills reading, writing and
listening to help their pronunciation skill. The steps are as below:

1) The students are asked to read a word that will be given silently.
2) The word shown will be written down.
3) Students listen the word sounded.
4) The students pronounce the word repeatedly.
5) The steps will be repeated for the next word.
6) The teacher guides them to pronounce word correctly.
This activity is chosen because it is suitable with the subjects cognitive levels. For primary
school student, drilling is the best answer to make them achieve what ever goal aimed. As
they say practice makes perfect, the repetition help them refresh and recall what had been
demonstrated and taught by the teacher. Through this activity, they actually will be asked to
imitate teachers act. The teacher would show the subjects the actually mouth motion and
would be followed by them. If there is mistake, teacher will correct them and teach the right
way including articulation functions. This imitation process usually takes a very short time
to be done. This is because any mistake will be overcome immediately.
The next reason is I suppose this activity might really effective and easy to be carried out.
Students might imagine how the word pronounced after they see the word. That is going to
be the first thing to happen in their mind. The word is recorded so the students will
memorize the word automatically and the sound of word will be continuously pictured.
After they get the word spelling, listening is the next step to be heard properly. It is the best
to say, they learn trough listening. They listen how I will pronounce the word and the next
step will be continued by repeating my word. While they are repeating my word, I would
observe their mouth motions and listen the sound produced. Then, I could detect if they are
pronouncing correctly or not. The teacher then will guide the student how to pronounce the
word by showing the motion of mouth. For now, the students will learn how to pronounce
correctly by using observing skill. Who could pronounce the word given properly will be
rewarded. So, they will be reinforced and will be more exited to do the activity further.
The cost also not really, I would use recycle materials such as box papers. I just need to
bring words card. So the cost involve is not more than one ringgit. I am glad to say, this
activity needs the students themselves to learn the pronunciation. So, they are the one who
supposed to be the aids.
I hope this activity will undergo without any problem. I also really hope it can help student
in order to increase their English level for future usage.











2.1 Reflection of activity
Alhamdulillahtoday, I have done another task of assessment given. I have taken about half
an hour to carry out the activity planned. It seemed like everything has finished according to
the requirement as designed.
The strengths of this activity can be found by looking at the combination of the skills used.
The listening skill, writing skill, reading skill and also observing skill are important to help
them pronounce properly. Without a proper reading or listening, they would not produce or
pronounce the word exactly. This is because the information that received by brain is wrong
and will be sent back to the receptor or body part (mouth) wrongly which as wrong
interpretation. By combining all these three skills, their mental image is going to be strong
enough to help them pronounce the word. It can improve students pronunciation skills.
This word drilling activity is really useful because the demonstration method is used to
make the subjects understand how the word is pronounced. Observing the demonstration
will make the students alert to the activity carried out. Teacher teaches the student the steps
to pronounce in proper way. Teacher use positive reinforcement to encourage the subjects
undergoing the activity planned. The activity is going to be more interesting too. Therefore,
the student will be more cooperative and happy to study in playing.
Event though I am saying that the activity is good, there are certain problems that made my
program went unsmooth. Firstly was their attention. It was easily disturbed when the boys
got bored with the activity after a few repetitions done. The activity looked dull and the
subjects seemed not really happy when they kept repeating the same word for times. It gave
me sign that my activity was not attractive enough.
Another weakness is there was no further action taken to keep improving their
pronunciation. Therefore, I just could correct their pronunciation for few words chosen. By
the time the activity done, the subjects may be would do the mistakes again. There is also no
improvement would happen for the next day and after. Therefore, their English level would
stay as before.
Therefore, the way to improve my activity is of course to make it more attractive and
interesting. I should have designed an interactive aid so that the activity would be more
pupils friendly. It does not mean that I have to spend bigger energy or money amount. I
should be more creative to think about it. Recycle materials could be use to build the aid.
I also should give the teaching aid built to the subjects so that they can still improving their
pronunciation after the activity held. I might encourage them to continue the skill from day
to day as a second language. I should tell them and give an advice about the importance of
English these days. The language is used abroad without border and can be used when we
are at outside of our beloved motherland.
I can conclude that the activity is effective and really help the student improving their
pronunciation. I am glad to convey my satisfaction toward my subjects on their
performance. Thank you.

3.0 REFLECTION
Alhamdulillah.. First and foremost, I would love to Thank Allah for everything. This
semester, I am obligated to take English for Language Teachers coded ELE 3103. In this
subject, we learn deeper about language and the way it is sounded. It explores articulation
parts, phonetic symbols, speech sounds and more. 10 March 2011, my friends and I were
given a task for this subject and we were required to finish it within a few weeks.
The tasks ought us to do a research about pronunciation variations according to their ethnic
groups or geographical background or social status. For the first task, I had chosen social
status as a guide to find the pronunciation variations among my subjects. Through this
activity, I penetrated the student-teacher wall by understanding their life style, family
monthly income, native culture and dialect spoken. The task was tougher than I thought
after I met with difficulties to start my first essay about my research. I was wondering where
I should find materials to analyze the students pronunciations. How do I write their
descriptive labels and how should I begin my words. However, I managed to overcome it
after I had decided to try the writing and I met with Madam Asmad Bt Mohd Salleh for
further explanation about the task. Alhamdulillah I had started my writing calmly.
After I had done the research and activity to overcome their word utterance problems, I
found several strengths in doing this assessment. First of all, the activity carried out not only
corrected the subjects pronunciations, also helped me in improving my utterance skill and
taught me the proper way to pronounce words. I felt grateful for this opportunity given. As a
future teacher, I should be more informed to my students. I better study all kinds of student
knowledge before they get it. I should master content knowledge. The other strength is
could study a little bit about students behaviors. Their language, native dialect and social
status at rural. This was a real lesson before I go out there being in my real job as a teacher.
Next is, by doing this activity, I as a practicum teacher could train my self to communicate
with students whether personally or by groups. I used this chance to get close with my
students and use my empathy to know them. The activity also helped the students
improving their English for the sake of the examination coming.
Where is a strength, there is a weakness. For this assessment, the weaknesses are on me.
The first is time management. Time punctuality is very important if you want to success. It
is under discipline aspect which needs the consumers to obey it in what ever job they do. If
we ignore it, then we will be missing it, and we will be losing. So, I had been a little bit
rushing in finishing this assignment. I had taken a lot of times to start my task. I was too
worried to begin and afraid to be wrong. Other weakness that I found in myself was lack of
discussion with peer. This kind of conference is actually very important because, from it we
may know what is our weaknesses, strength, what we lack of, what should be added and
more advantages will be found when we compare our work with others. Therefore, we could
have done the correction after we done the discussion.
To overcome my weaknesses, I should obey time which is not a second will be counted
backward. I should have appreciated it and used it wisely. Therefore, for the next
assessment, I should start earlier and be more confident to begin it. I also should have done
a lot of discussions to keep my works up. I should be more involved in group discussion to
settle the matters questioned. This method really helps us to identify our weaknesses and
one of the best way to improve our communication skill.
Even I have faced many problems while doing these tasks; I have managed to finish the
assignment as well as I could. The problems faced such as misconception about the task,
mechanical problem and many more. I also have to finish the task with others subject
assignment. Therefore, I really had to manage my time properly and spent a few time for
this assignment. I really felt grateful after my friend and I have finished the task given steps
by step and time by time. Taking this opportunity, here I would like to thank Madam Asmad
Bt Mohd salleh for her favours and guide. Without her, maybe I could not finish the task
and fulfill the task acquirements. So, one again I want to thank to all that involved in
finishing this coursework. All the defects and flaws that I made, I would like to apologize.
Thanks a million.