Common errors in English pronunciation of firstyear English –majored students at Thuong Mai university

ABSTRACT
Today, English plays an important role in all areas of life, especially in
international integration. All skills in English are very important. But one of the
most important skills is pronunciation. In fact, there are still a lot of English
learners' pronunciation mistakes, creating language barriers that prevent them from
integrating into the outside world. A large number of students majoring in English at
the Thuong Mai University are also facing these problems. This greatly affects the
students' learning of other subjects such as listening, speaking, reading, translating,
etc, as well as creating many limitations in speaking with native speakers. Because
pronunciation is a very important factor in listening and speaking English. In this
study, the author studied the typical pronunciation errors of first-year Englishmajored students at TMU, then suggested English department students in general
and first-year English students in particular number of ways to improve their
pronunciation as much as possible. Questionnaire data were collected from 50
students of K56N. Findings indicate that first - year English majored students are
more likely to make pronunciation mistakes with vowels and consonants, endinh
sound and stress. However, they still do not have a really effective method to
improve their pronunciation errors. So, as a 4th year student, the author hopes that
this research will partly help students learn better.

1

1
1


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This Graduation Paper would not have been accomplished without the
guidance and help of some people, who in one way or another, contributed and
extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study. In
the process of completing this graduation paper, I have faced up with many

problems. However, with the great help, assistance and encouragement from this
people who are teachers, family and friends; I have overcome these difficulties and
completed this graduation paper successfully.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Ms.Ha Thi Vu Ha, one of the lecturers at the Faculty of Business
English in Thuong Mai university, whose supervision and encouragement help me a
lot with managing this Graduation Paper. She has not only given me many
invaluable suggestions and comments but also provided me with valuable materials.
Through Ms.Ha sharing and feedbacks, I was inspired and motivated to overcome
all the difficulties during the process.
Secondly, I would like to thank all teachers of English Faculty at Thuong Mai
University for their precious and useful lessons during my four-year study which
have been then the foundation of this study. In addition, my sincere thanks are
delivered to my parents and friends for their encouragement and assistance in this
time, without whose help I could not to have finished this Graduation Paper.And
The last thank I would like to spend for all of you who are interested in this topic. I
hope that it will bring some of usefulness to you.
Because of limited time, knowledge and practical experience, this Graduation
Paper certainly contains numerous mistakes.Therefore, I honestly look forward to
receiving comments and suggestions. All of the feedbacks and recommendations
from readers are warmly welcome and this will make the Graduation Paper be more
perfect.
Ha Noi, April 16 th, 2021
Hoàng Thị Tâm

2

2
2

TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
TMU
Q&A

3

Thương Mai University
Question and Answer

3
3


LIST OF TABLE AND CHART

4

4
4


LIST OF FIGURE

5

5
5

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1 Rational
We all know that English is not only a language but also an important weapon
in today's daily life. The English language is growing strongly all over the world.
Everyone is rushing to learn English, English centers are mushrooming, the number
of students choosing English as their major is also increasing. Therefore, we can say
that the importance of this language has never declined but only increased. English
has become a means of communication in everyday life. As we all know, if you
want to develop the English language, the development of English pronunciation is
indispensable, it is also a very important factor to create a good and solid
foundation of English for all learners. It directly affects learning basic English to
grasp a foreign language, especially listening and speaking. Thus, it can be said that
improving pronunciation is an extremely practical, necessary, and meaningful thing
for all English learners, helping English learners progress every day. However, the
current status of teaching and learning this skill has been ignored and received little
attention for a long time. Besides, the majority of learners do not really pay
attention to correct pronunciation and improve their pronunciation. Some students
do not even realize their problem with pronunciation of English words. In fact,
Vietnamese students in general, and first-year students majoring in English from
Vietnam University of Commerce in particular still have many difficulties in
English pronunciation, there are many pronunciation errors that freshman students.
Department of Business English, like word and sentence stress intonation, length of
vowel sounds, ending sounds, etc. To help students pronounce better each day, this
study will identify the mistakes, the causes of them, as well as the barriers and
difficulties in English pronunciation of freshmen , who are directly learning and
using English in the practical working environment later. Also, studying these
English pronunciation errors will help students become well aware of their
pronunciation problems to which they might not have paid any attention before. On

that basis, the study will propose a number of solutions to improve the
pronunciation ability of this student object. From the reasons mentioned above, to
6

6
6


improve student pronunciation, the researcher has decided to carry out the study
entitled “Common errors in English pronunciation of first-year English –majored
students at Thuong Mai university”.
1.2 . Previous study
1.2.1. Studies abroad
Study

“Pronunciation

Errors

of

Turkish

Learners

of

English:

Conceptualization Theory as a Teaching Method” of Savaş Geylanioğlu, Kenan

Dikilitaş. Research data was collected with the participation of 30 students, the
study highlighted the role of cognitive aspects and emphasized that most difficult
pronunciation is related to cognitive causes rather than physical causes or joint.
More specifically, the cause of pronunciation problems is that teachers do not
encourage conceptualization of pronunciation. Formulating these concepts requires
being able to know how to distinguish, organize a person, and manipulate English
sounds clearly. During concept formation, learners are taught a combination of
theoretical and practical sound knowledge. This is supposed to improve learners'
ability to manipulate them more easily. The study also found that pronunciation
teaching is ignored in learning English. Research suggests that teachers must
consider the conceptual properties of sounds in order for learners to learn
conceptual models of the target's language sound. In addition, the learner needs to
understand detailed knowledge of how these sounds can be pronounced. Besides,
the study has considered the factors affecting pronunciation learning and identified
the needs of learners and proposed solutions. The author concludes that teachers
should highlight and teach sound elements such as syllables, stress and intonation to
help learners understand important and essential features of the sound system in the
target language. Research also shows that learners do not consider English
pronunciation an important factor, they neglect and do not practice good
pronunciation. At the same time, the teacher did not pay much attention to
pronunciation practice. (In order for learners to gain a good level of pronunciation
andunderstand speech, therefore, we should teach sounds within sentential level
using larger chunks ofcontextualized texts. By only repeating the words, as in
“AAM method” the learners may require a longer period to gain the true
7

7
7

pronunciation of that word, however once the conceptualizationphenomenon comes
in the way, we may find that it might be easier to pronounce it correctly in ashorter
period of time. Studies show that there are fossilized habits of pronunciation of
English sounds due to factors ranging from poor awareness of the importance of
pronunciation in learning English. Make the rules of the stress patterns if the learner
doesn't really understand what stress is and what intonation is. Make sure they
distinguish between consonants and vowels of the language. Learners will only
understand the truth about pronunciation when they are fully able to separate the
forms of sound systems precisely giving them the amount of time and good
practice.
The second study abroad related to pronunciation which i refer is that
"Teaching English intonation to ESL / EFL students", Mehmet Celik (2001) gave an
English intonation framework as a second language for speakers English is not a
native speaker. The English intonation framework should include the four main
intonation features such as intonation unit, stress, tone and pitch range. Therefore,
intonation phenomena in English need a part of pronunciation, intonation unit, as a
basis for studying types of transitions and characteristics of voice. Furthermore,
intonation units often have one of the tones such as low-rise, high-rise, fall and fallrise. Tones assigned to intonation units must be spoken at one of the three levels,
high, mid, and low. While this framework may be approved to be useful and
understandable to those practicing pronunciation, it seems quite general and
theoretical. For perfect pronunciation, English learners need to focus on many
different aspects such as intonation, stress, vowels, consonants, ending sounds.
Besides, it is also very important that the pronunciation of the vowels and
consonants are presented because they seem to be the basics in the pronunciation
learning process.
1.2.2. . Studies in Vietnam
The study “pronunciation errors made by four year students of English at Vinh
university and suggest solutions” of Nguyen Thi Hong Anh. Research to find the
pronunciation errors of 4th year students of Vinh University. The results of the
pronunciation mistakes students often make are the errors related to vowels and

8

8
8


errors related to consonants. The research writer described these sounds and
analyzed them clearly. The study also cited the reasons for this mispronouncement
that is making myths about who can teach students, students are not aware of the
importance of English pronunciation, in addition to students' pronunciation.
Negative pronunciation is also partly due to the lack of attention from teachers and
it is also important that students' mispronouncements are influenced by their native
language. The study also recommends a number of solutions for individuals and
groups that help them improve their pronunciation better.
The second study is the topic "Survey of English pronunciation errors of first
year students of the Thuong Mai University " by Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen,
Research to find out the pronunciation errors of first year students of the University,
the cause of these errors and propose some solutions to improve the pronunciation
accuracy of this student, while contributing to improve the quality of teaching
English modules in school. Through learning the basic concepts related to
pronunciation such as: pronunciation concept, syllable, stress, magic language,
magic, characteristics of the English sound system, the author has conducted
integrating the two sound systems of English and Vietnamese as a scientific basis to
identify students' pronunciation errors more accurately. Research is conducted with
first-year students K52 and first-year students of International Education, and a
number of teachers in the Faculty. The survey results show that English Faculty
students often make the following pronunciation mistakes: unable to distinguish
short vowels, long vowels and difficult vowels that are not in Vietnamese, errors of
mispronouncing the sub the sound is not in Vietnamese, and the final consonant is
not read, incorrect way to read the final consonant of the post-ancestral form -s, -ed,

error stress (word and sentence), intonation error The cause of these errors is that
students lack pronunciation practice, lack of equipment and facilities when learning
phonetics in particular and English subjects in general, old pronunciation habits,
affecting of the dialect and so on. The study also proposes a number of solutions to
help students pronounce better

9

9
9


1.3 . Aim of the study
The research is carried out for the following purposes:
First of all, Research shows the importance of English pronunciation in
learning and communicating in English so that learners can pay more attention to
pronunciation. Second, the study finds the factors that affect pronunciation learning,
as well as find out the causes affecting the pronunciation of first-year business
English faculty. On that basis, research proposes and gives reasonable solutions to
help students' pronunciation better, improve more clearly, more effectively and help
freshmen confidently communicate in english.
Finally, this study can be very valuable for the first year English majored
students of the of Thuong Mai University in perfecting English communication
skills for a strong foundation that complements the next semester .
1.4 Research subjects
In my research, the subject of study is the common pronunciation mistakes
that commercial freshman college students make. Obviously , good English
pronunciation will help us have good English communication and helps learners to
speak English like a native. It is essential in English as well as in all other
languages. Common English pronunciation errors are not only present in students of

other faculties, but also in students of English Major . They also often make very
basic English pronunciation mistakes. Therefore, with the research subjects, I will
focus on researching and finding out the mistakes that the first year students of the
Business English Department often make when they pronounce and communicate in
English. From there, proposing appropriate solutions to learn to improve their
pronunciation, helping to study and work after graduation.
1.5. Scope of the study
There are many different resources, which require a lot of time and effort
while limited personal experience. Therefore, this study cannot go into all aspects of
English pronunciation, it can only focus on studying some common pronunciation
mistakes freshman English -majored students of Thuong mai University , then
identifying The reasons to propose solutions to improve English pronunciation. This
study conducted an internet questionnaire survey with the participation of freshmen
10

10
10


from the English - Majored students , TMU. I hope that this study is a valuable
reference for TMU students in particular and all Vietnamese students in general to
have better pronunciation ability to be confident in English communication.
1.6. Research methodology
In this graduate paper, the research method I want to use is the quantitative
approach.
Establishment of a quantitative data collection process was conducted through
a survey questionnaire with the participation of 50 randomly selected freshman
students from the English Major at TMU. Most of them are female, which actually
reflects the ratio of male-female in TMU since 80% of English Department students
are female. All participants have the same background in English education at their

previous school.
After collecting survey results from freshman students and checked students'
differing opinions on the information contained in the survey, and then conclude
them in the statistics.
1.7. Organization of the study
Chapter 1: Overview of the Study. This chapter provides a general overview of
the study and is divided into 7 sections, namely the rationale, the previous studies,
the aims of the study, the research subjects, the scope of the study, the research
methodology, and the organization of the study . Chapter 2: Literature review. In the
second chapter, all the relevant theoretical background of the research is presented.
The chapter provides the most base knowledge related to English pronunciation and
common pronunciation errors. Chapter 3: Research findings. This chapter focuses
on analyzing, causes - results and it is also the major part of the study. Discuss the
possible causes of the pronunciation error .. The figures which were collected from
the study would be shown and analyzed in this chapter. This is an important part of
all the studies. Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions. There are several
recommendations and some suggestions for improving students' pronunciation

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW
11

11
11


2.1. Definition of error, pronunciation and pronunciation error
2.1.1. Definition of error
The concept of error became an intriguing topic for researchers in the
language learning process, and many authors around the world came up with
different versions of the definition of the error. James M. H (1987) defines error as

pronounced error, the form and structure that a particular language teacher seems
unacceptable to because the usage is inappropriately or absent in real-world
discourse. Coder (1967) introduces the idea that errors are a necessary part of
language development, and that errors are significant because they can represent the
difference between learner grammar and transitional competencies target language.
Carl James (1980) defines the error as an example of an unintentionally misleading
language that cannot be corrected by its author. According to Richards (1992), an
error “in a second language learner's written speech, is the use of the language
component (a word, a grammatical element, an act of speaking) in the way a person
fluent or native speaker of language is considered to be faulty when learning
inadequate ”. According to Ellis (1997), errors reflect gaps in learners' knowledge.
They happen because the learner doesn't know what is right. Errors are caused by
inadequate understanding of language proficiency.
According to Norrish (1983), the learner's error is systematic. The term system
implies that the errors are random or unintentional. The contrast between system
and non-system is very important in distinguishing error and error. Coder (1967)
also points out that these are insignificant errors in language learning because they
do not reflect deficiencies in our knowledge and are often immediately perceived
and corrected by learners with more or less guarantee. Errors, on the other hand, are
of great significance to the language learning process (Richards, 1992).An
individual language user's deviations from standard language norms in grammar,
pronunciation and orthography are sometimes referred to as errors.
Errors cannot be corrected on their own until the learner provides and converts
the relevant input (with the error) (implicitly or explicitly) into intake. In other
words, errors require deeper learning before they can be corrected on their own.
12

12
12

2.1.2. Definition of pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way to read a word or a language. Pronunciation refers to
how we make the sound of words. To pronounce words, we push air from the lungs
up through the throat and the sounds, through the mouth, through the tongue, and
out between the teeth and the lips. More generally, pronounced a word can be read
in different ways depending on itself or the group of words containing it, depending
on the human factor. Pronunciation is the act or result of producing the sounds of
speech, including articulation, stress, and intonation, often with reference to some
standard of correctness or acceptability. Pronunciation is an accepted standard of the
sound and stress patterns of a syllable, word, phrase, etc. Pronunciation involves the
production and perception of segmental (sounds), both alone and in the stream of
speech, where they undergo number of modifications and interact with
suprasegmental (prosodic) features, particularly stress and intonation. ”
2.1.3. Definition of pronunciation error
English pronunciation error is the wrong pronunciation of a word or sentence.
In addition, pronunciation errors can also appear in the wrong pronunciation of
stress, ending sound, consonant sounds, vowels, word stress, sentence stress,
intonation, so on.
2.2. Theoretic background:
2.2.1. The working of vocal cords
In Kelly( 2000) mentioned in How to teach pronunciation , there are two cases
of how the vocal cord works:
• First case: The vocal cords are exposed; it means that the two parts of the
vocal cord are far apart. So the gaps are large, that's why a lot of air passes through
the vocal cords and the vocal cords don't vibrate, then the sounds we make are
voiceless. In this case, we have strong joint force and it's called Fortis.
• The second case: The vocal cords are closed. The distance between them
increasingly narrowed. So the airflow causes the vocal cords to vibrate, and then
the sounds we make are voiced. In this case, we have weak pronunciation because

there isn't a lot of air going through the vocal cords and it's called Lenis.
2.2.2. Common errors – English sounds and others
13

13
13


There are many aspects in English that learners can make mistakes. In this
study researcher would like to analyze some of the most common errors that
Vietnamese learners as well as students of TMU often make, they will be reflected
and clarify in chapter 3.
a. Pure vowel sounds
Monothongs are pure vowel sounds and when we pronounce them, the organs
off speech remain during the process off pronunciation. (Textbook "phonetics and
JHphonology")
We can classify vowels according to the tongue height and their frontness or
backness. There is another important variable of vowel quality and that is lip –
rounding . Athough the lips can have many different shapes and positions, we will
at this stage consider only three possibilities. There are:
- Rounded: where the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and
the lips pushed forwards . This is most clearly seen in vowel
- Spread, with the comers of the lips moved away from each other as for smile.
- Neutral, where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most
English people make when they are hesitating (written "er") has neutral lip position.
From the above discussion, we can conclude that vowels can be classified according
to three variables:

Figure 1. Primary cardinal vowels
1. Tongue height.

According to tongue height to which the tongue is raised we have:
+ High vowels: those in the production of which the tongue is high in the
mouth. It is raised above its rest position. For example.: /i:/ , /i/, /u:/, / ʊ/
14

14
14


+ Low vowels: are those made with the tongue below its rest position.
For example: /a:/, /ʌ/, / æ/ , / ɒ/.
+ Mid vowels: are those made with the tongue neither high nor low in the
mouth.
For example: /e/ , /ɜː/,/ə/ , /ɔː/ .
2. Part of the tongue which is raised According to the part of the tongue
which is raised we have:
+ Front vowels: are those in the production of which the front of the tongue is
the highest point. For example.: / i: / , / i /,/ e /, / æ/,
+ Back vowels: are those in the production of which the back of the tongue is
the highest point. For example.: / / u: /, / ʊ/, /ɔː/,/ ɒ/, / a: /.
+ Central vowels: are those made with neither the front nor the back of the
tongue. The tongue is neither high nor low in the mouth. For example.: /ɜː/,/ə/,/ʌ/.
3. Degree of lip rounding
+ Rounded vowels: are those made with rounded lips. The corners of the lips
are brought towards each other and the lips are pushed forwards.
For example: / u: / , / ʊ/, /ɔː/,/ ɒ/, / a :/.
+ Unrounded vowels: are those made with the lips spread. The corners of the
lips are moved away from each other as for a smile.
For example: /ɜː/,/ə/,/ʌ/.
+ Neutral vowels: are those made with the lips neither rounded nor spread.

For example: / i: /, /i /,/e/, / æ/.
Vietnamese people in general and TMU students in particular often make
following mistakes:
- They often pronounce long vowels into short vowels.
For example, with the word "beach", instead of "i:", many people pronounce
"i" and hear the word "beach" like "bitch";
or "sheet" /ʃi:t/ is pronounced "shit"/ʃit/.
- They often mistake the pronunciation of the vowel / e / and / æ /
For example: bend / bend / and band / bænd /

15

15
15


And as everyone knows, this mistake has made the meaning of this English
word into meaning of other English word. This causes the listener to misinterpret
what we say, sometimes leading to communication disasters.
b. Consonant sounds
Consonants are the sounds in the production of which one articulator moves
towards another or two articulators come together, obstructing the air – stream and
the air – stream can not get out freely .

Figure 2. Chart of English Consonant Phonemes
There are 24 consonants:
/b/, /d/, /f/, /g/,/ h/, /j/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /r/, /s/,/ t/, /w/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /θ/,
/dʒ/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /v/,/ ŋ/
- The place of articulation : (textbook "phonetics and phonology")
1. Bilabials: are sounds made with the two lips pressed together or coming

together , including : /p/,/b/,/m/,/w/.
2. Labio - dentals: are sounds which are produced with the lower lip touching
the upper front teeth, including: /f/,/v/.
3. Dentals: are the sounds which are produced with the tip or blade of the
tongue touching or approaching the alveolar ridge , including: /t/,/d/,/s/,/z/,/n/,/l/.
16

16
16


4. Alveolars: are the sounds which are produced with the tip or blade of the
tongue touching or approaching the alveolar ridge, including / t/, /d/,/s/,/z/,/n/,/l/.
5. Retroflex: is the sound which is produced with the tip of the tongue curling
back towards the back of the alveolar ridge , including :/r/
6. Palato-alveolars : are the sounds which are produced with the tongue tip or
blade coming close to the are between the back of the alveolar ridge and front of the
hard palatate , including : /dʒ/,/ʃ/, /tʃ/,/ʒ/.
7. palatal : is the sound which is produced with the front of the tongue coming
close to the hard palate , including /j/
8. Velars : are sounds which are produced with the back of the tongue touching
the soft palate , including /k/,/g/,/ ŋ/
9. Glottals: are the sounds which are produced without the active use of the
tongue and other parts of the mouth, including /h/.
The students also often make mistakes in consonants such as swapping the
wrong consonants.
For example:
"b", Students usually pronounce "p" and vice versa (as "boy" is pronounced
"poy").
"d", Students often pronounce as "j / y / z" (like "dog " is pronounced "jog" or

"zog")
"ʃ", Students often pronounce "s" (as "she"/ʃi/ is pronounced as "see"/si:/)
c. Word stress
“ In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In
one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big,
strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly.”
(according to />Let's take three words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they
sound the same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in
each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the "shape" of each word is
different.
PHOtograph /’fəʊtəgra:f/
17

17
17


PhoTOgraph/fə’tɒgrəfər/
photoGRAPHic /fəʊtə’græfik/
The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or quiet. Fluent speakers
of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use
word stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your
pronunciation and your comprehension.
There are two very important rules about word stress:
1.One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear
two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word.)
2.The stress is always on a vowel.
English belongs to the group of multi-syllable languages. When we read the
same English word with different stresses, we create a whole new word. Failure to
stress is one of the most serious mistakes in Vietnamese pronunciation. Vietnamese

people in general and TMU students in particular have a huge weakness that when
speaking English, they cannot distinguish English stress. They who learn English
usually do not care emphasis on stress and they hardly emphasize the correct stress.
When pronouncing English, most of them often ignore the stress part - the part that
is considered the soul of that word. As such, indigenous people will certainly not
understand what they mean.
For example, when reading “present” with the stress falls on “pre” we will have a
word that means “something that you are given, without asking for it, on a special
occasion, especially to show friendship”; If you read the stress on the second sound
"sent", you will get a word that means "give, provide, or make something known”.
d. Sentence stress
“Sentence stress is what gives English ít rhythm or “ beat” . You remember
that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word . Sentence stress is accent
on certain words within sentence .”
( />Most sentences have two basic types of word:
1. Content words

18

18
18


Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words
that carry the meaning or sense—the real content.
structure words
2. Structure words
Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words
that make the sentence correct grammatically. They give the sentence its correct
form—its structure. If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will

probably still understand the sentence. If you remove the content words from a
sentence, you will not understand the sentence. The sentence has no sense or
meaning.
Why is sentence word important for pronunciation? It is important because it
adds "music" to the language. It is the rhythm of the English language. It changes
the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between each
stressed word is the same.
We often make the mistake of not stressing the sentence because of not
stressing the content words. If in a sentence, the words that belong to the structure
are removed, only the words that belong to the content, the listener still understands
the meaning of the sentence. But if we omit content words, the listener cannot
understand the meaning of the sentence. We often stress the words that belong to the
content, because these are important words and meaning of the sentence.
For example:
- "I am talking to my friends". => we have to stress the word "talking" because
it is the content word. But the Vietnamese people in general and TMU students in
particular often ignore this.
- "You’re sitting on the desk, but you aren listening to me". => We have to
stress the word "listening" because it is the content word. But learners mostly ignore
it. Thus, when we say this English sentence, it will not be good and it can distract
the listener and make it difficult to understand what we say.

19

19
19


e. Ending sound
When it comes to the ending sound, everyone understands the ending sound as

consonant, including the voiceless consonant (/ p /, / t /, / k /, / f / ...) and voiced
consonant (/ b /, / d /, / g /, / v /…).
For example:
Like /laik/ : in this case , “k” is ending sound
Enough / i’nʌf/ : in this case , “f” is ending sound.
Equivalent / i’kwivələnt/: in this case , “t” is ending sound.
The error of not pronouncing ending sound is an error that have 80 to 90
people in 100 learners make , due to the habit of speaking Vietnamese without the
ending sound, so when we pronounce in English, we also often ignore the
pronunciation of the word's ending sound . The ending sound pronunciation plays
an important role in determining whether the listener can understand what we say or
not. The last sound in English is the part that expresses the meaning of words and
distinguishes words from each other.
At the end of some words, the ending sounds can be eliminated by students
as ending sound / k / in "like" or "think" are often not pronounced.
Or the ending sound "f" is not pronounced in "laugh" or "enough".
Or the ending sound "v" is not pronounced in the words "live", "love", ..
Or student often read "two boy" instead of" two boys", "three box" instead of
"three boxes" . This is the most common error.
2.3. The important roles of correct English pronunciation
Pronunciation is the most crucial oral communication skill (Fraser, 2000). At
the same lines, Miller(2004) believes that pronunciation needs to be balanced with
all other communication skills. They have pointed that pronunciation is also an
important oral skill sameas other languages skills. Fraser (2000, p7) argues that
“being able to speak English of course includes a number ofsub-skills, involving
vocabulary, grammar, pragmatics, etc. However by far the most important ofthese
skills is pronunciation - with good pronunciation, a speaker is intelligible despite
other errors;with poor pronunciation, a speaker can be very difficult to understand,

20

20
20


despite accuracy in otherareas. Pronunciation is the aspect that most affects how the
speaker is judged by others, and how theyare formally assessed in other skills
A common mistake made by many students studying English as a second
language is not paying adequate attention to the pronunciation of English. This
underestimation is mainly because students tend to mistakenly think that
pronunciation is less important than other aspects of the English language such as
grammar,

lexicology,

and

vocabulary.

Pronunciation

is

important

for

communicating properly as using incorrect pronunciation inevitably leads to the
receiver misinterpreting the message. The pronunciation of letter sounds in a word
as well as the emphasis on syllable parts of words will often change the meaning of

words and context significantly, thereby making irreversible changes in meaning. of
the sentence is conveyed. A good example of this is the word "present". If people
say "I am present" with emphasis on the first syllable of the word, one is referring to
a person's presence at a particular place or time. On the other hand, if one says "I
want to present…." Then, people mention a statement or article they want to
announce. Another important aspect is, the correct use of English pronunciation will
highlight and add value to an individual English speaking. For example, in a
situation where the student's grammar and vocabulary are particularly good, then
that student can write English well. But, if that same student lacks a background in
pronunciation despite having an excellent knowledge of grammar, etc. Then their
communication in English will be seriously hampered. The person will be able to
write in English, but will not be able to construct a meaningful sentence when
speaking and therefore cannot convey the message. At the very least, students
learning English as a second language should consider all aspects of English equally
important. However, at best, those who want to excel in the English language will
always have to prioritize knowledge of pronunciation. They should also strive to
further study this aspect of the English language if they want to be recognized as
effective communicators. English pronunciation is one of the most important things
that students must master. This is because English pronunciation is the key to
understanding the meaning of a single English word. At the same time, it helps
students learn English faster, communicate appropriately and fluently.
21

21
21


2.4. The factors affect the learning of English pronunciation of first-year
English- majored students at Thuong Mai university .
2.4.1. Environment

No one can deny the important of the communication environment in the
practice of pronunciation which contributes to the success in improving the quality
of training of English major universities. Perfecting English skills in which the
ultimate goal is to build and develop a favorable, healthy communication
environment, and create best factors for students to learn English.
Howard Gardner, Ph.D. has considered in the theory of intelligence: The ideal
learning environment is the place where students communicate, interact with
friends, teachers, play, exercise, sing, dance, tell stories, or do it manually. Learning
in such environments helps learners remember more than 80% of what they learned
in a year later. Because of in an English environment, we don't learn passively but
actively. The pressure in the English listening and speaking environment forces us
to focus on listening comprehension and converting from the source language
(Vietnamese) into the target language (English). Developing the English learning
environment is to increase the favorable factors to help the communication process,
as well as pronunciation achieve higher quality and efficiency.
2.4.2. Attitude
It seems as though some learners are more adept at acquiring good
pronunciation. Even within one homogenous classroom, there is often a large
discrepancy among the pronunciation ability of the students.
Elliot (1995) found that subjects’ attitude toward acquiring native or near
-native pronunciation as measured by the Pronunciation Attitude Inventory (PAI),
was the principal variable in relation to target language pronunciation. In other
words, if the students were more concerned about their pronunciation of the target
language, they tended to have better pronunciation of the target allophones.
Students with motivation to learn with positive attitudes towards the target language
and its speakers were more successful than were students with less positive
attitudes.

22

22
22


2.4.3.

Motivation

Along with age at the acquisition of a language, the learner’s motivation for
learning the language and the cultural group that the learner identifies and spends
time determine whether the learner will develop native-like pronunciation. Research
has found that having a personal or professional goal for learning English can
influence the need and desire for native-like pronunciation (Marinova-Todd et al.,
2000; Masgoret & Gardner, 2003;Bernaus, Masgoret, Gardner, & Reyes, 2004;
Gatbonton et al., 2005) . Moyer (2007) also found that experience with and positive
orientation to the language appears to be important factors in developing native-like
pronunciation.
Motivation is a very important factor in boosting students' pronunciation
learning. Without motivation, they will only be interested in other skills, not
focusing on the background or development of their pronunciation. If motivated,
students can become highly proficient, even native-like speakers of second
languages
2.4.4. Time of practice
"Commit time every week – ideally every day – for practice. Block time on
the calendar. Minimize distractions, and work on skill development as seriously as
you would on any other project. You might even create a project plan with deadlines
and deliverables" ( Jenny Long 2016). Time to practice English pronunciation also
plays a very important part in motivating students to practice their pronunciation.
Time is long enough, durable enough to pronounce well, it takes about a long time.
If students do not take the time to practice and practice pronunciation, it is also

difficult to develop their pronunciation skills, as well as their pronunciation will
become weaker and weaker. Students should spend about 30 minutes per day to
practice their pronunciation, practice time will make us develop better in
pronunciation as well as any other English skills.
2.4.5. Instruction
Foreign language instruction usually focuses on four major developmental
areas: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The foreign language curriculum
emphasizes pronunciation during the first year of study as it introduces the target
23

23
23


language's alphabet and sound systems, but rarely continues this focus past the
introductory level. Lack of the emphasis on pronunciation development can be
attributed to the general lack of enthusiasm of second language teachers and
students, that pronunciation of a second language is not so important (Elliot, 1995).
Pennington (1994) argues that pronunciation is often considered as a component of
language rather than conversational fluency, which is often considered less
important in application-oriented classroom (Elliot, 1995). According to Elliot
(1995), teachers tend to view pronunciation as being the least useful in basic
language skills and, as a result, they often sacrifice their pronunciation in order to
spend valuable classroom time in other language fields. Or perhaps, the teacher
feels there is good reason to ignore pronunciation because he believes that for adults
learning a foreign language, it is more difficult to acquire target language
pronunciation skills than other aspects of proficiency. Teachers taught what they
thought was pronunciation through repetitive exercises on both a discrete word or
intonation level, or provided students with pronunciation rules like vowels in a
CVC pattern. Good instruction is also one of the important factors that help students

improve their pronunciation better.
2.4.6. Exposure to Target Language
When we speak of the exposure that student has to the target language, it may
come in the form of their current day-to-day life as well as the amount of prior
instruction a learner received in the target language. According to the language
learning theories, learners acquire language primarily from the input they receive
and they must receive large amounts of comprehensible input before they are
required to speak. Learning a new language and speaking it is especially difficult
for foreign language learners because effective oral communication requires the
ability to use the language appropriately in a variety of interactions ( Shumin,
1997).Verbal communication also affects the supra-segmental features of speech
such as pitch, stress and intonation. Such features are often not learned from reading
a textbook or dictionary. Beyond the supra-segmental features, are the nonlinguistic elements involved in language such as gestures, body language, and facial
expressions that carry so much meaning yet are not learned through explicit
24

24
24


instruction, but rather through sheer experience in a language and culture. Due to
minimal exposure to the target language and contact with native speakers, students
often do not acquire a native-like level of pronunciation, regarding fluency, control
of idiomatic expressions and cultural pragmatics (gestures, body language, and
facial expressions).

25

25
25