PROMOTING PRONUNCIATION STRATEGIES FOR REGULAR VERBS IN PAST TENSE.

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.4372522107

• Palavras-chave: producción oral, pronunciación, verbos regulares, estrategias, comunicación

• Keywords: Oral production, pronunciation, regular verbs, strategies, communication

• Abstract: Learning a second language has been an easy task for some people and difficult for others. Speaking specifically about English, we can say that it is a language that differs greatly from Spanish. Spanish has more variety in its conjugations, while English does not. In terms of vocabulary, there are few similarities since they share Latin roots, but most are different. In terms of pronunciation, we can say that both languages ​​have their peculiarities that make them different. As an English teacher, I have had the opportunity to analyze the way my students face problems when they are learning English. One common problem has been the oral production of regular verbs when they are in situations to use the simple past tense; they show difficulties to produce the suffix -ed. I worked with a small group of fourteen students in all whose age went from 18 to 50 years old, men and women. This study was carried out at the Center of Languages at Universidad Veracruzana for people who studied the Basic English second level. I planned several activities which were worked during five weeks. Each activity seemed to have been very useful as it allowed me to see the students’ progress in each one. At the beginning of the research, students tended to omit the suffix -ed in various activities we carried out; after applying different strategies, I was able to observe the students' progress. By the end of the research, most students recognized the suffix's function and tried to produce each verb correctly, although they occasionally produced more /Id/ for all three types of endings. This change was evident throughout the activities.