This document analyzes students' ability to recognize and produce certain sounds in English at the "Alfonso Ugarte" school in Peru. It administered tests on the sounds /s/-/ʃ/, /ə/, and /θ/ and found that students performed best with /s/-/ʃ/, well on /ə/ when stressed syllables were identified, and had more difficulty with /θ/. Most students correctly recognized and produced /s/-/ʃ/ sounds. For /ə/, recognition and production was good when stressed syllables were clear. Students achieved only average results producing /θ/, as it does not exist in Spanish.

1. CH W ORK
RES EAR ES)
(PHO N EM
• /s/ - / ʃ /
• /θ/
• /ə /

2. OBJECTIVES
1. SOUNDS: /s/ - / ʃ /
To determine if the students can recognize and produce the
sounds /s/ - / ʃ/ in initial, medial and final position of different
isolated words in 3rd grade high school at “Alfonso Ugarte” school.
2. SOUND: /ə /
To notice if the students can recognize and produce the sound
/ə/ in unstressed syllables of different isolated words in 3rd
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 3 rd grade
high school at “Alfonso Ugarte” school.

3. INFORMATION ABOUT THE 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 /

4. INSTRUMENTS
1. S o u n d s : “/s/ - / ʃ / ”
 Listen to your teacher, and circle the word
you heard. Then, read your answers.

6. 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

8. 2. S o u n d : “/θ/ ”
 Read the following words, pronouncing
them slowly and then rapidly.

10. High punctuation: 80% – 100%
Regular punctuation: 50% - 70%
Low punctuation: 0% - 40%

11. TABLES
Sounds: /s/ - / ʃ/ <RECOGNITION> Sounds: /s/ - / ʃ/ <PRODUCTION>
Quantity of Quantity of
students (Total of (%) students (Total of (%)
correct answers) correct answers)
SHE – SEA 10 100% SHE 10 100%
SEAT – SHEET 8 80% SEAT 9 90%
MESS – MESH 9 90% MESH 6 60%
SUIT – SHOOT 4 40% SUIT 6 60%
SHINE – SIGH 10 100% SHINE 9 90%
GAS – GASH 8 80% GAS 10 100%
SHIP – SIP 10 100% SHIP 9 90%
SOCK – SHOCK 9 90% SHOCK 9 90%
SHELL – SELL 9 90% SELL 8 80%
CLASS - CLASH 10 100% 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.

12. COMMENT
• 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 /ʃ u:t/).
In the case of PRODUCTION, students could produce the sound
correctly although the pronunciation of the completed word was
incorrect.

13. Sound: /ə/ <RECOGNITION> Sound: /ə/ <PRODUCTION>
Quantity of Quantity of students
students (Total of (%) (Total of correct (%)
correct answers) answers)
VISOR 9 90% VISOR 9 90%
AGAIN 8 80% AGAIN 8 80%
AGREE 8 80% AGREE 8 80%
PIZZA 9 90% PIZZA 9 90%
BACON 3 30% BACON 6 60%
SUGAR 8 80% SUGAR 9 90%
ALARM 3 30% ALARM 6 60%
SENSOR 8 80% SENSOR 10 100%
CARROT 9 90% CARROT 9 90%
CHINA 8 80% 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. CONCLUSIONS
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%).