Confusion of the words or Homophones in English

Education Department of Zhlobin Region Executive Committee

State Institution of Education “Secondary School No.13 Zhlobin

 named after V.V.Guzov”

Educational research work

 Confusion of the words

or Homophones in English

Performed by

Polina Bannova

Form 9 “B”

The supervisor Tatyana

Vladimirovna Sereda,

a teacher of English

 “Secondary School No.13 Zhlobin

 named after V.V.Guzov”

Contents

Introduction                                                                                                         3-4

1. The origin of homophones                                                                              5-6

2. Research                                                                                                             7

2.1 Homophones in students’ textbooks                                                           7-11

3. Homophones: understanding and using                                                           12

3.1. Gathering data                                                                                               12

3.2. The analysis of the questionnaire                                                                  12

Conclusion                                                                                                            13

References                                                                                                                  14                                     Supplement 1                                                                                                  15 -16                                                                                

Supplement 2                                                                                                        17

Supplement 3                                                                                                   18-28

Introduction

Nowadays all political, economic, scientific, sport and cultural life of the whole world "proceeds" in English. Moreover, it is the language of interethnic communication for all mankind. Therefore, the ability to communicate in English is becoming increasingly popular and important.

The process of studying English is long, but interesting. But it can often mislead people who learn English. Since the English language is a language of polysemantic words, in the process of studying English in school, many students face various language phenomena, like idioms, phraseological units and word combinations, which at first glance do not make any sense or seem confusing. Some of them cause certain difficulties in learning English, as these phenomena are not given enough time to study. How not to confuse your beloved (dear) with a deer (dear and deer), and flour with flower?

The relevance of the study of the topic "Homophones in English" is that in the process of studying English, everyone will once have to face words, which sound the same, but they are written differently and have completely different meanings. Foreigners from time to time fall into silly and funny situations if these concepts are incorrectly used. Cultural awareness on this topic is the key to effective communication in English, which needs people for whom this language is not native, and which helps to get rid of confusion when studying words and expand their vocabulary.

The purpose of the work is to explore the existing and most popular homophones in English and reveal their meaning.

The object of research is lexical meaning of homophones in English.

The subject of the study is the homophones.

To achieve the set aim we determine the following tasks:

1. Analyze the literature on this topic with the involvement of various sources;

2. To reveal the etymology of the words "Homonyms", "Homophones";

3. Examine the history of homonyms and factors affecting their appearance;

4. Study homophones encountered in English course-books;

5. Testing among students of 8-9 grades who study English;

6. Create a mini-dictionary of popular homophones in modern English.

Research methods:

1. Theoretical analysis of literature on the problem of research;

2. Synthesis;

3. Analysis of the results.

Novelty of this work is that, despite the extensive study of the English language, many of us do not pay due attention to lexical similarities and differences in its study. This topic is close to life and reality, so we decided to figure out what kind of homophones are and what kind of types there are.

The hypothesis: knowledge of homophones in English and their proper use will make our speech richer and expressive, which will help to remove difficulties in the imposition of the speech of the English-speaking interlocutor.

The practical significance of the study is determined by the possibility of creating a mini-dictionary "Popular homophones in modern English language” and applying it in foreign language lessons.

The origin of homophones

For Belarusians it is difficult to imagine how the same sounding words in writing differ. And it is not surprising, because the sound of one letter, as a rule, is also one. In the English language, such a phenomenon is the norm. British English is especially rich in homophones, and the main difficulty is to properly determine aurally, which word was used in one or another sentence.