TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION AND SPEAKING SKILLS

Аннотация

This article discusses the difficulties of developing students' phonetic competence in English, a number of mistakes made by students in the formation of phonetic skills, namely phonological errors and pronunciation of along and short vowels, as well as teaching methods. This is specific and most difficult for students, since little attention is paid to phonetic skills at school, and applicants enter higher education institutions with developed pronunciation errors, and there is also no mechanism for correct pronunciation of English in higher education institutions. Phonological errors occur when pronouncing an allophone of another phoneme instead ofan allophoneofa phoneme, which leads to achange in themeaning of theword Keywords:develop,pronunciation,improve,competence,skills,phonetic,students,speaking,meani ng,communication Language is the means of communication. Language has an important role in human life because without language there is no communication and it will be difficult for people to understand what otherpeople mean. Language is an instrument to share information and discuss something people need. Communication in foreign language is a bridge to get information, knowledge, and culture. Thus, when the teacher asked them to practise speaking, they were not brave enough to speak up, especially in front of the class. Sometimes, they also felt anxious and less confident about their speaking, pronunciation, or grammar. The problems above should be immediately solved. Teachers have to consider a technique that can help their students solve their problem in order to have good speaking skill. There are many techniques that can be applied to improve students’ speaking skill. They are oral prasentation, role play, debate, story telling etc. The writer chose story telling technique to solve the students’ problems in speaking English. Speaking skill is the productive skill in the oral mode. Like other skills, speaking is more complicated and involves more than just pronouncing words. According to researches there are five components of speaking skill that can be defined as follows: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. To be a good speaker the English learners have to master all of the components. However, besides those linguistic components above thereare many factors that influence speaking ability. For many students, pronunciation is not a significant barrier to attaining fluency. However, it should not be neglected as incorrect pronunciation can lead to misunderstandings or breakdowns in communication. Some students may struggle with pronunciation in English, mainly because there is no one-to-one correspondence between spelling and sound. It is also important for learners to be familiar with stress and intonation in English words and within sentences. For example, certain words can change from nouns to verbs and vice versa just by changing the stress from the first to the second syllable. In natural speech, English words are often connected or chunked together. Native speakers also tend to stress certain words in a sentence for emphasis to convey a particular meaning. A learner, therefore, needs guidance on page1763 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ISSN:2692-5206,ImpactFactor:12,23 AmericanAcademicpublishers,volume05,issue06,2025 Journal: https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai these particular pronunciation features because they may not be present in their first language. Some activities that can help with pronunciation are, of course, the traditional repetition drills, or ones that ask students to listen and shadow the pronunciation of speakers in English songs or English videos. It is also helpful to practice reading aloud with narrative texts, or even by creatingdialogues andhaving students present them. Working on your listening skills is the first step in improving your speaking abilities. There are several advantages to listening to English, including thechance tolearn new words, expressions, and conversational strategies. Second, listening offers chances to comprehend pronunciation, theomissionorjoining ofsomewords when speaking, rhythm, intonation,and linguisticsounds. A great technique to develop your speaking abilities is through mimicking or imitating others. Imitation can also improve your English accuracy without requiring you to master any new grammar rules. You will eventually be able to recall phrases and words in chunks with a lot of practice. This makes it easier to recall word patterns in sentences and the relationships between various words. Another crucial ability to have when learning a language is the ability to read. Reading for a littlewhileeach day, whether itbe abookoran article, will help you expand your vocabulary. The most frequent excuse given for why people put off reading is the length of time required to complete a book. But even a brief period of reading can be quite helpful while learning English. English-l