Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS a study on some common mistakes made by vietnamese learners of english when pronouncing english final consonants

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-----    -----

ĐÀO THÚY MAI

A STUDY ON SOME COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY
VIETNAMESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH WHEN
PRONOUNCING ENGLISH FINAL CONSONANTS
(Nghiên cứu một số lỗi thường gặp của học viên Việt Nam khi phát
âm phụ âm cuối trong tiếng Anh)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60.22.15

HANOI, 2012

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-----    -----

ĐÀO THÚY MAI

A STUDY ON SOME COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY
VIETNAMESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH WHEN
PRONOUNCING ENGLISH FINAL CONSONANTS
(Nghiên cứu một số lỗi thường gặp của học viên Việt Nam khi phát
âm phụ âm cuối trong tiếng Anh)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60.22.15
Supervisor: Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, Ph.D

HANOI, 2012

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION...................................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ iv
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... v
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. vi
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION............................................................................................... 1
1. RATIONALE ................................................................................................................ 1
2. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH ........................................................................................ 2
3.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.................................................................................. 2

4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY.............................................................................................. 3
5. DESIGN OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................ 4
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................................. 5
Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW .............. 5
I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .............................................................................. 5
I.1. General descriptions of stop consonants ................................................................ 5
I.2. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds /p/, b/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and
/g/ .................................................................................................................................... 6
I.3. Vietnamese final stop consonants vs. English final stop consonants ................... 10
II. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 11
Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 19
2.1. Research questions................................................................................................ 19
2.2. The informants of the study ................................................................................. 19
2.3. Research method................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................. 23
3.1. The recordings ...................................................................................................... 23
3.2. The survey questionnaire ..................................................................................... 29
PART THREE: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 38
1. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 38
2. Concluding remarks ........................................................................................................ 38
3. Pedagogical Implications ................................................................................................ 41
4. Limitations and Suggestions for further research ......................................................... 42
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 43
APPENDIX 1 ......................................................................................................................... I
iv

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add

APPENDIX 2 ......................................................................................................................... IV

v

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Stop consonants chart
Table 2: Sounds mispronounced by Vietnamese students
Table 3: Occurrence of mispronunciation across the 30 informants
Table 4: Percentages of informants producing sound omission
Table 5: Percentages of informants producing sound deviation
Table 6: Number of informants producing mistakes
Table 7: Causes of the informants‟ mispronunciation
Table 8: Informants‟ frequencies of applying pronunciation improving strategies
Table 9: Teachers of informants‟ frequencies of applying strategies to improve
learners‟ speaking English

vi

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


LIST OF FIRURES
Figure 1: Place and manner articulation of the sound /p/
Figure 2: Place and manner articulation of the sound /b/
Figure 3: Place and manner articulation of the sound /t/
Figure 4: Place and manner articulation of the sound /d/

Figure 5: Place and manner articulation of the sound /k/
Figure 6: Place and manner articulation of the sound /g/
Figure 7: Informants‟ years of learning English
Figure 8: Informants‟ perception of the role of pronunciation
Figure 9: Informants‟ difficulty in speaking English
Figure 10: Informants‟ opinion about the causes of mistakes
Figure 11: Percentage of informants applying pronunciation strategies
Figure 12: Informants‟ ideas about their teachers‟ pronunciation teaching
strategies

vii

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
1. RATIONALE

Our world is developing every hour and international cooperation is one of the important
strategies of each country to promote its socio-economic development. To integrate
successfully into the global economy, foreign language is considered to be indispensable.
Understanding the importance of foreign languages in general and of English in
particular, the Vietnamese government has set up a curriculum for English learning for
children from 6 years old onwards. The number of English language centers has been
remarkably increasing during the past two decades. Whereas English is an urgent
requirement for young graduates to get a good job, many of them find it difficult to speak
English properly to meet this demand.
It is widely recognized that success in language learning is the ability to communicate
with others in a way that makes them fully understand what the speaker says and his
intended meaning. There are many Vietnamese students who have been learning English

for many years but find it rather difficult to sustain a conversation. This is because the
focus is only on grammar and vocabulary when they are in high school. As a result, they
have good knowledge of these two components, but their pronunciation is poor. Thus, it is
easy to understand that pronunciation is one of the most important factors affecting
successful communication. Also, it is one of the reasons for communication breakdown.
If the speaker pronounces the words incorrectly, the listener will get confused and find the
speaking incomprehensible; or he may understand you in another way assuming
something different from what is meant. Therefore, pronunciation has great influence on the
success of oral communication. It is said that the better your pronunciation is, the better you
will be treated and the more comfortable people will feel when dealing with you.
At university level, it is really important to have good pronunciation because it helps
students to be confident in taking oral exams. Certainly, examiners will be impressed with
examinees‟ vocal clarity, and students‟ presentation will sound more professional and
persuasive to listeners.

1

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


These premises have urged me into carrying research into the most common mistakes
made by senior non- English major students at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and
Business Administration (TUEBA) when pronouncing 6 English final consonants. The
research ultimately aims at finding out solutions and to help Vietnamese learners of
English overcome these mistakes.

2.

AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

Making mistakes in pronouncing final consonants is regarded as very common for
students when they learn English. These difficulties are challenges for Vietnamese
learners in general and for senior year non- English major students in particular if they do
not find the most suitable study method for themselves. In this study, the author
investigates the most common mistakes made by those learners to:
 Identify the most common mistakes in pronouncing English final consonants: /p/,
/b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/ by senior non-English major students at Thai Nguyen
University of Economics and Business Administration;
 Find out the causes of these mistakes;
 Provide some strategies to help students avoid mispronunciation.
Hopefully, this research will provide one more reference source for teachers of English as
a second language when they teach pronunciation. At the same time, this will also be
useful to Vietnamese students of English in correcting their mistakes and improving
pronunciation skills.

3.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research questions
The study addresses the following four questions:
1.

Do Vietnamese learners of English make mistakes when pronouncing
English final stop consonants?

2.

What are the most common mistakes students often make?

3.

What are the causes of the mispronunciation?
2

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


4.

What are the possible solutions to help learners correct these mistakes?

Research context
The research was conducted on 150 senior English non- major students of joint training
program between Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration
and Daegu Cyber University. These students had a lot of chances to improve their English
proficiency because most of the courses were taught in English.
Research method
The study was conducted via a survey in which two instruments of data collection were
used: recording the informants‟ pronunciation of selected isolated words and words
within utterances, sentences and texts to find out the common pronunciation mistakes
with stop final consonants and a questionnaire to investigate the causes of the mistakes
and the solutions to the problems. The data analysis is quantitative.
4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The English alphabet is based on Latin and contains twenty six letters. However, the
English sound system consists of forty four phonemes: twenty four consonants, twelve
pure vowels (monothongs), and eight diphthongs. In general, Vietnamese learners have
difficulties in pronouncing some of the English sounds only but not all of them.
It is necessary to make a distinction between errors and mistakes. According to

“Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics” by Richards. J,
Platt. J and Platt. H (1992), errors results from incomplete knowledge but mistakes are
made when writing or speaking and caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness or
some other aspect of performance.
Due to time constraints, the length of thesis (minor thesis) and the researcher‟s
knowledge, it is impossible for the researcher to study all the mistakes made by students
when producing English consonants. Therefore, this study only focuses on finding out the
most typical mistakes made by some senior non-English major students at TUEBA when
pronouncing the six English stop consonants /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/ at final position of
words with the following reasons:
3

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


 There has not yet been any research on all the six stop consonants. Several authors
have studied one or two certain consonants of the six only.
 Six stop consonants are not so difficult to produce, however students seem to omit
these sounds at final position. Basing on my teaching experience, I find that most
students often make mistakes with some plosive consonants like /t/, /d/, /p, /b/ and
the most common mistakes are sound omission and sound deviation. The said
reasons have motivated me to carry out this study to find out the mistakes as well as
to offer strategies to help students to overcome this problem.
5. DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The thesis comprises three parts:
The first part is the introduction which includes the rationale, aims, research
methodology, scope and design of the study.
The second part, development, is divided into three chapters. Chapter one provides the
theoretical background and literature review of the study. The theoretical background

presents the general description of stop consonants, the phonological characteristics and
articulation of the sounds /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/ and a comparison between
Vietnamese final consonants and English final consonants. The literature review discusses
previous works related to consonant pronunciation among second language learners.
Chapter two is devoted to the methodology of the study in which the research questions
are raised, the informants of the study are discussed and the research method is given with
the data collection instruments, the data analysis methods and data collection procedure.
Chapter 3, data analysis: findings and discussion, analyses the data collected from the
recordings and the questionnaire and presents the findings and discussion of the study.
The final part is the conclusion including a summary of the study, concluding remarks,
pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research.

4

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides some key concepts as the theoretical background for the research.
The general description of 6 stop consonants, the phonological characteristics and
articulation of these sounds and a comparison of Vietnamese final stop consonants and
English final stop consonants are included in the theoretical background. The second part
of this chapter is devoted to the review of some works related to this research.
I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

I.1. General descriptions of stop consonants
Roach, P (1990) defined that a plosive consonant is a consonant articulation with the
following characteristics:

1. The closing stage, during which the articulating organs move together in order to form
the obstruction; in this stage there is often an on-glide or transition audible in a
preceding sound segment and visible in an acoustic analysis as characteristic curve of
formants of the preceding sound;
2. The hold or compression stage, during which lung action compresses the air behind the closure;
this stage may or may not be accompanied by voice, i.e. vibration of the vocal cords;
3. The release or explosion stage, during which the organs forming the obstruction part
rapidly, allowing the compressed air to escape abruptly; if stage (2) is voiced, the vocal
cord vibration may continue in stage (3); if stage (2) is voiceless, stage (3) may also be
voiceless (aspiration) before silence or before the onset of voice.
The general descriptions of stop consonants can be illustrated in the following table:
Place

Bilabial

Manner
stops
vcls
vd

Labiodental

Interdental

alveola
r

p

t

b

d

Alveopalatal

velar

k
g

Table 1: Stop consonants chart
(Vcls = voiceless
vd = voiced)
Avery and Ehrlich (2010:26)
5

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


I.2. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds /p/, b/, /t/, /d/,

/k/ and /g/
It is very important to distinguish between a phoneme and an allophone in English. “A
phoneme is a structural element in the sound system of a language. Allophones are
realizations of a single structural element in the sound system of a language”. (Finegan:
2004: 113). The example below identifies the positions in which unaspirated [p] and
aspirated [ph] occur:
 Plate

 Sprint

[phleit]
[sprint]

(aspirated [ph] occurs only at the beginning of the word)
(unaspirated [p] occurs only after [s])

The slanted lines / / is used to enclose phonemes and square brackets [ ] to enclose
allophones.
After reviewing Roach, P (1990) and Tam (2002), the researcher gives the following
phonological characteristics and articulation of 6 stop consonants:
I.2.1. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /p/
/p/ is a voiceless, bilabial, fortis (strong) plosive. Its variants include an aspirated plosive
if the consonant is followed by a stressed vowel and occurs in syllable-initial position.
Being a bilabial stop, /p/ is produced by completely blocking the airstream at the level of
the lips and by suddenly releasing the air with an explosion. The soft palate being raised
and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary obstacle to the airstream is provided by the
closure of the lips. Air from the lungs is compressed behind this closure, during which
stage the vocal cords are held wide apart. /p/ is distributed in initial, medial and final
position. It is spelt „p‟ as in „plane‟ /plein/ or „pp‟ as in „opposite‟ /ˈɒp.ə.zɪt/ and only
exceptionally „gh‟ as in „hiccough‟ /ˈhɪk.ʌp/ . The letter „p‟ is silent when followed by
another obstruent or a nasal in word-initial position such as in „psychology‟ /saɪˈkɒl.ə.dʒi/
or „pneumonia‟ /njuːˈməʊ.ni.ə/.

6

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add

Figure 1: Place and manner articulation of the sound /p/
(As retrieved from />I.2.2. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /b/
/b/ is the voiced, lenis (weak) counterpart of /p/. In both /p/ and /b/, it is the lips which
obstruct the oral cavity. Voicing and force of articulation are the features that contrast the
two phonemes, /b/ being like /p/ a bilabial sound. The sound is distributed in all three basic
positions: initial, medial and final as in „bet‟ /bet/, „obey‟ /ə ʊ  ˈbeɪ/, and „knob‟ /nɒb/. It is spelt
„b‟ as in „boy‟ /bɔɪ/ or „bb‟ as in „abbot‟ /ˈæb.ət/. The letter is silent in final position after „m‟
as in „lamb‟/læm/. The variants of /b/ include partially devoiced allophones in initial position:
as in „bring‟ /brɪŋ/ , and „big‟ /bɪg/ and laterally or nasally released allophones when /b/ is
followed by the lateral /l/ as in „bless‟ /bles/ or by a nasal consonant as in „ribbon‟ /'ribən/. It
is not audibly released in
final position as in „rib‟
/rɪb/.

Figure 2: Place
and manner
articulation of the
sound /b/
(As retrieved from />
I.2.3.Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /t/
7

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


/t/ is a voiceless, apico-alveolar, fortis (strong) plosive. To make this sound, the soft
palate is raised and the nasal resonator shut off so that the primary obstacle to the airstream is formed by a closure made between the tip and the rims of the tongue and the
upper alveolar ridge and side teeth. Both sides and the front of the tongue simultaneously
touch the alveolar ridge laterally and anteriorly. Air from the lungs air is compressed
behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart. The air escapes

with noise upon the sudden separation of the alveolar closure.
Like /p/, /t/ has an aspirated variant that occurs before stressed vowels when the phoneme
is distributed in syllable-initial position as in „tube‟ /tjuːb/. If preceded by „s‟, however, /t/
is unaspirated as in

„stain‟ /steɪn/. Its distribution includes all basic positions. It is

laterally or nasally released if followed by /l/ or by a nasal consonant as in written.

Figure 3: Place and manner articulation of the sound /t/
(As retrieved from />I.2.4. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /d/
/d/ is the voiced, lenis (weak) counterpart of /t/. The voicing and force of articulation
differentiate between the two sounds that share the same place of articulation in the
alveolar region. Air from the lungs is compressed behind the closure between the tip and
the rims of the tongue, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart and may vibrate
for all or part of the compression stage according to its situation in the utterance.
In short, /t/ and /d/ are alveolar; the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge.
Normally the tongue does not touch the front teeth as it does in the dental plosives found
in many languages.

8

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


/d/ is distributed in initial, medial and final position as in „dig‟ /dɪg/, „addiction‟ /ə'dik∫n/,
and „pad‟ /pæd/. It is partially devoiced in initial position and in final position. It is
laterally released if followed by /l/ as in „riddle‟ /ˈrɪd.l ̩/ and nasally released if followed
by /m/ or /n/ as in „admit‟ /ədˈmɪt/ and „sudden‟ /ˈsʌd. ə n/.

Figure 4: Place and manner articulation of the sound /d/
(As retrieved from />I.2.5. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /k/
/k/ is a voiceless, dorso-velar, fortis (strong), plosive sound, articulated with the dorsum
of the tongue elevated as well as retracted in order to form contact against either the hard
palate or the soft palate depending on the context of the phonetic sound. Like other
voiceless plosives described above, it has an aspirated variant if the sound is distributed in
syllable-initial position, in front of a stressed vowel as in „cat‟ /kæt/.
When making this sound, the soft palate is raised and the nasal resonator shut off, so that
the primary obstacle to the air stream is formed by a closure made between the back of
the tongue and the soft palate. Air from the lungs is compressed behind this closure
during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart.
/k/ is distributed in initial, medial and final position and can be followed by a nasal
consonant and be consequently nasally released like thicken or by the lateral liquid and be
laterally released as in „fickle‟ /ˈfɪk.l ̩/. In spelling, the sound can be represented by the
letter „c‟ as in „comb‟ /kəʊm/ or by „cc‟ as in „accuse‟ /əˈkjuːz/, by „k‟ as in „kill‟ /kɪl/, by
„ck‟ as in „pick‟ /pɪk/, by „ch‟ as in „architect‟ /ˈɑː.kɪ.tekt/, or by „qu‟ as in „queen‟ /kwiːn/.

9

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


Figure 5: Place and manner articulation of the sound /k/
(As retrieved from />I.2.6. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /g/
/g/ is the voiced, lenis (weak) partner of /k/ and it has basically the same features as its
counterpart /k/. However when being produced, the vocal cords may vibrate for all or part of the
compression stage according to its situation in the utterance. Like other plosives, it is distributed in
all three positions. Its allophones include partially devoiced variants in initial position as in „gain‟
/geɪn/, devoiced variants in final position as in „dog‟ and laterally released when followed by „l‟ as

in „giggle‟ /ˈgɪg.l ̩/ and nasally released when followed by „m‟ as in „dogmatic‟.
In spelling, the consonant can be rendered by „g‟ as in „get‟ /get/, by „gg‟ as in „beggar‟ /ˈbeg.ə r / or
by „g‟ followed by „h‟, as in „ghastly‟ /ˈgɑːs t  .li/; or by „g‟ followed by „ua‟, „ue‟, or „ui‟ as in
„guarantee‟ /ˌgær. ə nˈtiː/, „guess‟ /ges/ or „linguist‟ /ˈlɪŋ.gwɪst/, respectively.

Figure 6: Place and manner articulation of the sound /g/
(As retrieved from />
I.3. Vietnamese final stop consonants vs. English final stop consonants
10

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


Avery & Ehrlich (2010) presented the following differences between Vietnamese final
stop consonants and English final stop consonants:
I.3.1. Final voiceless stop consonants: /p/, /t/ and /k/
In Vietnamese the voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ may occur at the end of a
word but these consonants are never released in final position and are much shorter than
their English equivalents.
/p/ is generally not aspirated in final position in English and is often not released which
means air is not allowed to escape from the mouth. Learners of English may have
difficulty hearing this sound and may omit the /p/ when speaking, or they may produce
the final /p/ too strongly, sometimes adding an extra vowel after it. For example, the word
„cab‟ is pronounced as /kæ/, „stamp‟ as / stæm/ or „camp‟ as /kæm/.
Similar to /p/, /t/ is also not released in final position in English. The reason for this is that
the mouth forms a /t/ sound but the tongue stays on the roof of the mouth and the air does
not escape. As a result, learners of English may omit the /t/ when pronouncing or may
produce it too strongly. Therefore, the word „wait‟ is pronounced as /wei/, „start‟ as /sta:/
or „laughed‟ as /la:f/.
/k/ is usually not aspirated in final position in English in some words like „book‟ /bʊk/ or

„critic‟ /ˈkrɪt.ɪk/. It is often not released. When it is pronounced, no air is let out. Thus,
learners may have difficulty with this.
I.3.2. Voiced vs. Voiceless stops in word final position: /b/, /d/, /g/ vs. /p/, /t/, /k/
As Vietnamese has no voiced stops at the end of words, Vietnamese speakers find it
difficult to distinguish between voiced and voiceless stops in this position. As a result,
sometimes they substitute voiceless /p/, /t/, and /k/ for voiced /b/, /d/ and /g/.
Here are some words which are often mispronounced by Vietnamese students (source?)
mad  / mæt/

spend /spent/

sad  /sæt/

blend /blent/

II. LITERATURE REVIEW
11

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


There have been many researches dealing with the mistakes, errors and difficulties made
by learners when pronouncing English sounds. Particularly, they mainly focus on
consonant issues as they are one of obstacles learners of English as a foreign language
often cope with.
According to Grunwell (1987), Dyson & Paden (1983), Treiman, Zukowski & RichmondWelty (1995) and Treiman & Bourassa, (2000), errors with consonant sounds can be
classified into 6 types:
1. Cluster reduction: This is the “deletion of one or more consonants from a target cluster
so that only a single consonant occurs at syllable margins” (Grunwell, 1987:217).
Eg: „blue‟ is pronounced as [bu]

2. Cluster simplification. The error occurs when one/some elements of a cluster is/are
pronounced in a different manner from the target phoneme (Grunwell, 1987:217).
Eg: „green‟ is pronounced as /gwin/
3. Epenthesis: This is the insertion of some vowel (normally a schwa) into cluster
elements (Dyson and Parden, 1983).
Eg „drive‟ /draiv/ is pronounced as /dəraiv/
4. Coalescence: It occurs when the yielded pronunciation contains new consonant
composed features instead of the original consonants.
Eg: „swim‟ is pronounced as /fim/
Because the fricative feature of /s/ co-occurs with the bilabial feature of /w/, the result is a
bilabial fricative, /f/ (Dyson & Paden, 1983,)
5. Omitting of nasal and liquid sounds: In consonant clusters consisting of pre-final +
final consonants with nasals (/m/, /n/) or liquids (/l/, /r/) as the first element (m, n, l, r, +
final consonant), nasal and liquid sounds are often omitted. (Treiman, Zukowski &
Richmond- Welty, 1995)
Eg: went  wet
Belt  bet

12

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


6. Phonetically possible spelling: In representing the first consonant of a cluster, spellers

tend to spell words in an inaccurate but phonetically plausible ways (Treiman &
Bourassa, 2000).
E.g.: „trap‟ => „chap‟.
Among the six types above, the first, the second, the third, and sixth are predicted to be
the problems of Vietnamese learners. It is explained that in Vietnamese the number of

consonant clusters are limited. Therefore, they tend to have difficulty in pronouncing
English consonant clusters. However, only the first three types of errors are relevant to the
study.
It can be said that some English sounds are strange to Vietnamese such as /θ /, /ð /, //, /t/,
// and /ʒ/. This causes a lot of difficulties for Vietnamese learners of English when
making sounds. A few Vietnamese researchers conducted their studies on typical
mistakes, errors and problems of pronunciation faced by learners. Simultaneously,
solutions and suggestions for improvement are also given to help them overcome these.
Thao (2007) reported the following major findings of her research into errors and
mistakes made by Vietnamese learners of English when pronouncing final consonants in
English. Five informants were asked to read aloud a word list and a text. The most
common mistakes and errors reported are omitting the ending sounds that are too foreign
or too difficult; reducing and moving the final consonants and clusters towards their first
language and adding the schwa /∂/in final clusters.
Although this research contains some limitations, its findings can be used for further
research on the comprehensibility of Vietnamese-accented English for other English
speakers or the typical influences of the mother tongue on Vietnamese speakers of
English.
Tam (2005) set up a research question involving the most common pronunciation
problems of the students in the English Department of the University of Languages and
International Studies. To answer this question, the data collection was carried out through
an oral final examination. During the exam, students were requested to talk about a
13

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


particular topic in approximately five minutes. While listening to the students talking, the
researcher took notes of the errors involving pronunciation. Tam found that those
Vietnamese speakers often omitted the ending sounds. She concluded that there were

three common errors in the pronunciation of her students: sound omission, sound
redundancy and sound confusion.
The sounds most frequently mispronounced by Vietnamese students in Tam‟s study are
shown in the following table:
Order

Sound

Mispronunciation

1

θ

t

2

s

∫

3

tr

t∫r

4

t

t∫, s

5

∫

z

6

dʒ
t∫

z, t∫, t, j, ʒ, s

t

∫, ch, s

7
8
9
10

∫, ʒ, z

v

f

ʒ

Z, t∫, dʒ

Table 2: Sounds mispronounced by Vietnamese students (Tam, 2007)
Hanh (2007) raised three questions in her study:
1. Do the subjects of the study have problems in producing /θ /, /ð /, //, /t/, //?
2. How do they differ from native speakers in articulating these sounds?
3. What are the causes of the mispronunciation?
From the results analyzed, the researcher affirmed that all the subjects of the study, whose
English competence was at elementary level, did have big problems in producing the six
studied consonants. The informants‟ main problems relating to the studied consonants
were either they mispronounced the sounds or omitted them, especially when the sounds
14

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


are in the final position. The way the subjects of the study produced these sounds was
different from the native speakers by either making the sounds softer or harder. All of the
subjects had difficulties in producing the sound // especially when it is in the final
position; and many of them produced /θ/ the worst in every position, especially in the
initial. Besides, all the subjects failed to work out the sounds when they are in the final
position, including omitting and mispronouncing them.
There were many reasons for the problems, including both subjective and objective ones.
The former is that the students were lazy in not trying harder to pronounce the sounds
correctly, but instead they imposed their Vietnamese pronunciation on English words that
look like Vietnamese spellings, for example, words with “th” spellings.

Hoa (2007) confirmed that the Vietnamese learners in her study did have difficulty when
pronouncing some English sounds such as /æ/, /θ/, /ð/, //, and // as revealed in the data
collected and analyzed especially in the findings of the recorded tapes. Their difficulty
was that they could not produce these sounds correctly. Through the questionnaire and the
interviews, some causes were explored such as pronouncing the sound the way the
students heard them, imitating the teachers‟ and friends‟ pronunciations. To improve the
pronunciation of the learners, Hoa suggested that both teachers and students have to try
harder. Suggested methods were given such as recording, listening and repeating. Also
the learners should be informed about the similarities and differences between the English and
Vietnamese. For students, self practice is some advice they should pay much attention to.
In addition to the studies above, Huong (2010) conducted research into the difficulties
encountered by second year students at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and
Forestry in producing some English consonants with the participation of 100 informants.
Tape recording, a short listening test on pronunciation, and a survey questionnaire were
used to collect the data. According to the survey data, the seven difficulties in producing
the English consonant sounds /θ /, /ð /, //, //, /t/ and // were identified as follows”:
 Low pronunciation ability, passive ways of learning, and low motivation to
English language learning (which were called difficulties due to subjective causes)
15

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


 Mother tongue influence/interference, poor learning background, articulation
features of the consonants under the research, teaching and learning environment
inefficiency, inappropriate techniques used by teachers (which were called
difficulties due to objective causes)
Along with identifying the difficulties, Huong found that it was more important and
indispensable to explore causes leading to difficulties in producing the above-mentioned
consonants. The answers to this were mother tongue‟s influence/interference, poor

learning background, articulatory features of the consonants under research, teaching and
learning environment inefficiency and inappropriate techniques used by teachers. Based
on the findings and conclusions drawn, the researcher recommended the following
possible solutions to the difficulties:
 English language teachers should be well-trained to adapt to the demands of the learners;
 In English classes, relevant communicative activities, which are audio -recorded,
role-play, discussion,

pair work and group work can be applied to develop

students‟ pronunciation;
 It is essential for the teachers to be flexible, innovative and creative in organizing
the class and guiding learners during the lessons by using individual, pair, group
and whole class work;
 Students should be taught from the individual sounds basically to minimal pairs, to
sentences, to a text and/or dialogue;
 Students need to focus attention to all sounds, with particular attention on the
characteristics associated with them;
 Major students should be attended in small or medium size classes in which
teaching and learning a foreign language is appropriate.
In her study, Hang (2010) identified the difficulties in producing the consonants /p/, /t/,
/s/, /t/, and // by all the subjects. The main problems were classified into sound
omission, sound deviation, and schwa addition. Of all, sound omission was the most
16

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add


serious problem. Hang also gave the causes for these problems. Firstly, the way the
subjects pronounced the consonants in the study was interfered with by their L1 which

resulted in the omission or the deviation of the consonant sounds in word-final position.
Secondly, it was their ignorance of phonetic matters that prevented them from producing
these sounds correctly. Finally, the informants had few chances to practice English with
native speakers.
According to Nu (2009), Vietnamese users of English made mistakes when pronouncing
the four English sounds //, //, /t∫/, //. They often confused these sounds with other
sounds. The confusing sounds are classified into 4 pairs: / /- /s/, / /- /z/, //-/z/ or /s/, /t∫/
-/ć/. The confusion of these sounds is due to four main reasons:
 Failure in distinguishing the differences between the sounds
 Influence of the mother tongue
 Inadequate perceptions of mistakes
 Inadequate drills and practice
After identifying the mistakes, Nu suggested effective ways to overcome the difficulty
including: careful instruction in how to pronounce the sounds, comparative and
contrastive analysis of the phonetic features of the sounds in English and those of the
similar sounds in Vietnamese, and more emphasis on drills and practice.
Tuan (2010, 2011) carried out two researches on pronunciation. The first one is
“Teaching English discrete sounds through minimal pairs” (2010). This paper sought to
examine possible problems facing English non-majored students at Hung Vuong
University in recognizing and producing English discrete sounds as well as in what way
and to what extent minimal pairs facilitated the teaching and learning of English discrete
sounds. The findings revealed that virtually all of the subjects faced the six pronunciation
problems: omitting the word-final consonant, adding the word-final /s/ to English words
not ending in /s/, adding the schwa /∂/ in the middle of a consonant cluster,
mispronouncing sounds that are strange to Vietnamese people, eg. /t/ and /d/, failing to
differentiate between long and short vowels, and failing to differentiate between voiced
17

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add

and voiceless consonants. Both the student subjects and the teacher subjects showed their
high appreciation of the pedagogical effectiveness of minimal pairs when employing
either as a teaching or learning tool within the extent to which English discrete sounds
were concerned. The second paper is about “Vietnamese EFL learners‟ difficulties with
English consonants” (2011). It was conducted to examine the most problematic English
consonants facing the students at Hung Vuong University. Data collected from the survey
questionnaire revealed that the students had most difficulty in producing the English
fricatives //, // and the affricatives /t∫/ and /dʒ/ among the English consonants surveyed.
The students tended to substitute Vietnamese sounds for the English sounds.
The importance of pronunciation practice in language learning process and the causes of
mispronouncing certain English sounds as well as the practical needs of teaching and
learning English for Vietnamese learners nowadays in general and for Hue learners in
particular were some major reasons which urged Bao (1999) to take a study on
“Difficulties often met with by Hue learners of English in pronouncing certain English
sounds”. In his dissertation, with a basic description of some sounds in English and
Vietnamese, a careful comparison and contrast of commonly-mispronounced English
sounds, a detailed analysis of data gathered from the learners at various levels and ages, Bao,
analyzed the mechanism of making errors and proposed some methods to surmount these errors.
To sum up, the above studies have revealed the most typical pronunciation mistakes and
errors made Vietnamese learners of English. Normally, they are sound omission, sound
confusion and sound reduction. In addition, these researches also investigated the
problems and difficulties learners often met when they pronounced some certain English
sounds that were unfamiliar or too difficult for Vietnamese users such as /θ /, /ð /, //, /t/,
// and /ʒ/. Besides, solutions and suggestion were given to help learners improve their
pronunciation ability.

18

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add

Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The theoretical background chapter has described the basic theories of phonetic matters
regarding the study. It is the fundamental knowledge to support this part of the research.
This chapter is supposed to present the methodology encompassing the addressing of the
research questions, the informants of the study and the specific method applied to seek
answers to the research questions. Discussions about the research method include the data
collection instruments and procedures. Also mentioned in this section is the data analysis
method which is quantitative. The findings of the analysis are presented in the next
chapter, data analysis: findings and discussions.
2.1. Research questions
This research focuses on finding out the most common mistakes of TUEBA students
when they produce the final consonants /b/, /p/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/. The study was carried
out to answer the following questions:
1.

Do Vietnamese learners of English make mistakes when pronouncing
English final consonants?

2.

What are the common mistakes students often make?

3.

What are the causes of the mispronunciation?

4.

What are the possible solutions to help learners correct their mistakes?

2.2. The informants of the study
There were 150 informants in the study. They took different parts of the survey. 30 of
them were chosen to join the recordings and 150 respondents participated in the
questionnaire. The recordings helped to identify whether or not the informants made
mistakes when pronouncing English stop consonants and the questionnaire aimed at
investigating the causes of their mistakes and giving solutions as well.
19

LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add