LV ENGLISH FINAL CONSONANT SOUNDS EXPERIENCED BY THE TENTH FORM STUDENTS IN QUANG NAM PROVINCE

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE
One of the most important objectives of learners of English is to speak
English accurately and fluently. Most English learners try to speak as much like
native speakers as possible so that they can not only easily understand what the
native are saying but also be easily understood. In fact, it is very difficult for them
to know how to produce the language in a perfect way. Practising English
pronunciation can help improve our listening and speaking skills.
Learners of English in general and students at high school in Quang Nam
province in particular must try their best to develop good English pronunciation. It
may be theorized that not many teachers at high school have paid due attention to
teaching pronunciation yet. Another factor may be that the students in Quang Nam
speak English with the local accent. In her research “The Coronal – Velar
relationship in Vietnamese Dialects”, Pham Thi Hoa (1997) pointed out:
Quang Nam speakers often try to standardize their dialects when they have to
communicate with people from the other dialects. Children usually “read” in
the standardize dialect, which they are taught in school as an educational
policy (Cu et al: 1977), but “speak” in their dialects at home. [33, p.69]

That makes them difficult to produce sounds in English, simply in this
example: cab – cap. They are incapable of distinguishing between voiced and
voiceless sounds of stops, fricatives, affricates, in particular, as well as the
consonant sounds at the final position in general. As a result, students at high
schools in Quang Nam experience big problems in their pronunciation in terms of
stress, intonation, rhythm, sound linking, vowels, diphthongs, and consonants as
well.

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Moreover, the tenth-form students have learned the new Tieng Anh 10
textbook in this school year. Four language skills, namely, listening, speaking,
reading, and writing should be integratedly developed and a pronunciation part
mentioned goes through in each unit of the textbook. In other words, students
should be helped to develop both receptive and productive skills. My proposed
research project is intended to identify effective ways to help students, particularly,
high school students in Quang Nam province to develop their ability in pronouncing
English sounds more accurately. With my knowledge from the M.A course and
teaching experience in many years, I attempt to make an investigation into the
problems or difficulties that the tenth-form students in Quang Nam may experience
in pronouncing English final consonant sounds.
1.1.1. Theoretical background
Although final sounds play a crucial role in the English language, not many
Vietnamese learners of English are aware of this. Therefore most students fail to
perceive English final sounds and to pronounce them accurately in their speech.
When the words in phrases and sentences are said separately, students can
recognize the sounds quite easily. However, when they are said in a rapid connected
speech in which sounds are linked together, it is not easy for students to perceive.
Therefore, students are likely to encounter a great number of difficulties in
connected speech. The difficulties in English pronunciation for Vietnamese
speakers are probably caused by the differences in the pronunciation of the two
languages. In English, final consonant sounds are pronounced clearly to distinguish
meanings of words. On the contrary, in Vietnamese, final consonant sounds do not
function in the same way.
1.1.2 Practical background
Performing the English final consonant sounds is not easy for Vietnamese

students of English in general and students at high schools in Quang Nam in
particular. From my teaching experience in many years, I have noticed that most of


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the students do not pay attention to the released final sounds. In English, final
consonants, however, are the codas of the syllable that help learners recognize and
understand the meaning even in their connected speech. Correct pronunciation of
the English final consonants and sound linking is a requirement for the learners if
they are to understand other people and to be understood in English communication.
The proposed study is aimed to investigate how school students perceive and
produce English final consonant sounds in words, phrases, sentences and extended
discourses. Based on the findings, possible solutions will be suggested to help
students overcome their limitations.
1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
• To confirm the findings of previous studies done by other researchers
• To identify the likely problems experienced by the tenth-form students at
high schools in Quang Nam.
• To help the students develop their ability to perceive and to perform
English final sounds and linking sounds accurately. To offer some suggestions to
make students be aware of how to pronounce the final sounds accurately and to link
the final sounds in connected speech in an appropriate way as well.
1.3 AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.3.1 Aims
This study aims to investigate how English final sounds are perceived and
performed by the tenth-form students at high schools in Quang Nam province and
to offer suggestions of solution to obstacles in pronunciation.
1.3.2 Objectives
The objectives of the study are:

● to identify how students perceive and produce English final consonant sounds.
● to suggest some implications for teaching the problematic final consonant
sounds.


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1.3.3 Research questions
With the objectives mentioned above, the answers to the following questions
are sought:
1. Which English final consonants are likely to cause troubles to Vietnamese
tenth-form students in Quang Nam in terms of perception and production?
2. What are the causes of students’ mistakes in perceiving and pronouncing
English final consonants?
3. How can the teachers help students to overcome these difficulties?
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study will examine the English final consonant sounds experienced in
listening and speaking. However, due to the limited time and resources, the
investigation will be restricted to the tenth-form students studying at some high
schools in Quang Nam, and to the final consonant sounds in three concrete ways:
● The final consonant sounds at the end of the utterance or sentence;
● The final consonant sounds preceding the word beginning with a vowel;
● The final consonant sounds preceding the word beginning with a
consonant.
1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The study is presented in five chapters as follow:
Chapter one, “Introduction”, includes the rationale, significance of the study,
aim, objectives, and research questions, the scope of the study, and organization of
the study.
Chapter Two, “Literature Review”, is an overview of previous studies on

vowels, diphthongs, English stops and linking sounds. The theoretical knowledge
consists of the final consonant characteristics in articulatory and acoustic approach
mentioned and a contrastive analysis in English and Vietnamese final consonants.
The aspects of connected speech are also presented.


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Chapter Three, “Method and Procedure”, presents the hypotheses, research
method and procedure of data collection and analysis.
Chapter Four, “Results and Discussions”, describes the results of actual
performing pronunciation drawn from the data collected to define what the common
errors and the problems in pronunciation that tenth-form students at high schools in
Quang Nam may experience are.
Chapter Five, “Conclusion and Recommendations”, the conclusion is drawn
from the study and some implications for practical solutions is given out. There
have also been some limitations and unsolved problems.
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
1.6.1 Definitions of consonant sounds
There are many definitions of consonants:
- A consonant is a speech sound made by completely or partly stopping the
flow of air being breathed out through the mouth. [21, p.263]
- A speech sound that is not a vowel, involved or characterized by harmony,
a letter of the alphabet standing for a spoken consonant. [49]
- A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a
closure or stricture sufficient to cause audible turbulence, at once or more points
along the vocal tract. [50]
- A consonant is a sound formed by the occlusion or near occlusion of the
breath stream. Consonants differ from the vowels by the audible friction with which
by they are produced. [9, p.17]

- A consonant is a speech sound where the airstream from the lung is
completely blocked (STOP), partially blocked (LATERAL) or where the opening is
so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction (FRICATIVE). With some
consonants (NASALS) the airstream is blocked in the mouth but allowed to escape
through the nose.


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With the other group of speech sounds, the VOWELS, the air from the lung is not
blocked.
There are a number of cases where the distinction is not clear-cut, such as /j/ at the
beginning of the English word yes where there is only very slight friction, and
linguists have sometimes called these semi-vowels or semi-consonants. [35, p.78]
Among these definitions I like the definition in the Longman dictionary by
Richards et. al, (1993) best because of its clearness. This definition helps the
learners know and distinguish kinds of consonants in English. There are twenty-four
consonantal phonemes which are classified according to their places of articulation
and manners of articulation.
1.6.2 Errors and mistakes
1.6.2.1. What is an error?
- An error is the use of a linguistic item in a way which a fluent or native
speaker of the language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning. [35,
p.127]
Productive errors are those which occur in the language learner's utterances;
and receptive or interpretive errors are those which result in the listener's
misunderstanding of the speaker's intentions. Competence in a language can be
regarded as composed of productive competence and receptive competence. These
two competencies do not develop at the same rate. It is not uncommon to hear
people say that they understand a language better than they can speak it, or vice

versa.
1.6.2.2 What is a mistake?
- A mistake made by a learner when writing or speaking and which is caused
by

lack

of

attention,

fatigue,

carelessness

or

some

other

aspect

of

PERFORMAMCE. [35, P.127]
1.6.2.3 The difference between an error and a mistake
According to Richards et. al, (1993) there is a distinction between an error
and a mistake. An error is made by a learner who has incomplete knowledge. A

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mistake is made by a learner when writing or speaking and which is caused by lack
of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspect of performance.
“In the study of second and foreign language learning, errors have been
studied to discover the processes learners make use of in learning and using a
language.” [35, p.127]
1.6.3 Error analysis
According to Richards et. al, (1993) error analysis is the study and analysis
of the errors made by second language learners.
Error analysis may be carried out in order to:
a. identify strategies which learners use in language learning
b. try to identify the causes of learner errors
c. obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an
aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials. [35,p. 127]

1.6.4 Contrastive analysis
Contrastive analysis is an inductive investigative approach based on the
distinctive elements in a language.
Contrastive analysis is the systematic study of a pair of languages with a
view to identifying their structural differences and similarities. [51]
1.6.5 Sound perception
Sound perception is the process of perceiving sounds - the perception of
sound as a meaningful phenomenon. It deals with experimental and theoretical work
about how complex sounds are processed by the human hearing system. [52]
1.6.6 Sound production
Sound production is the process of producing sounds - the production of
sound as a meaningful phenomenon. It deals with experimental and theoretical work
about how complex sounds are processed by the human speaking system. [53]

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Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVEW

This chapter reviews the literature related to my study. The first part is a
description of the prior research. The second part is the description of the English
and Vietnamese sound systems to help the students understand more clearly about
the final sounds. The last one reviews the background of pronunciation teaching.

2.1 PRIOR RESEARCH ON THE TOPIC
Books on phonetics and phonology have been written by many famous
linguistists in English as well as in Vietnamese. “Pronunciation Contrasts in
English” was written by Nelsens (1973). Minimal pairs of consonants or vowels are
clearly discussed. This book helps teachers of English teach pronunciation in
distinguishing the words that confuse the students when they listen to or say
something. “An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English” by Gimson, A.C
(1975) clearly describes English consonants and deals with phonetic developments
and variants in terms of transcription of vowels as well as consonants, especially the
descriptive consonants of acoustic features. “Ngữ Âm Tiếng Việt” by Đoàn Thiện
Thuật (1980) describes the sound system of Vietnamese consisting of vowels and
consonants and some rules of final sound distribution.
There has been a great deal of research on the interference between the first
language and the second language in many languages. Lado (1957) presented the
contrastive analysis approach, especially the second chapter in his book “Linguistic
Across Cultures”, how to compare two-sound systems which provide useful
information on many aspects to consider when comparing the sound systems of two

languages.
In recent years, a great deal of research on English pronunciation has been
carried out by students and post-students of English. Contrastive analysis of


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different aspects of pronunciation between English and Vietnamese has been shown
such as Vietnamese learners of English with assimilation, elision and linkage
problems by Huỳnh, A.T. (1992) and Nguyễn, H.H (1992). They found the
students’ mistakes and difficulties and gave the solution to help them overcome
these obstacles. Common pronunciation mistakes in stress, strong and weak forms
and linking sounds by Huỳnh, N.H. and Lê, M.P (1999) concluded that Vietnamese
students had great difficulties in recognizing native sounds and even
misunderstanding the meaning of utterances. For example: “It’s an aim” might be
heard as “It’s a name.” [22, p. 45]
Other studies are about the English vowel sounds experienced by the first
year students of English at Danang University, Master thesis by Nguyễn, K.D.H.
(2001), English diphthongs in Quang Ngai learners’ discourse, Master thesis by
Bùi, T.T. (2004). They investigated the phenomena that the learners encounter and
gave the suggestions to help them in learning English.
“English stops in Vietnamese students’ discourse of English in Danang
University”, Graduation paper by Tạ, T.G. (2002) was carried out based on the
contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese stops, identified the problems
students encounter when performing the English stops and some suggestions for the
effective pronunciation teaching were also mentioned to help students go over the
problems. “A research on the pronunciation of inflectional endings in English by
the eleventh-form students in Danang city”, Graduation paper by Nguyễn, T.T.
(2006) was about to identify the problems encountered by students when they
perform English inflectional endings especially in connected speech and to suggest

some teaching activities to help them improve their pronunciation in particular and
their performance of inflectional endings in spoken discourse.
However, these studies did not tackle the problems of pronunciation of the
final consonant sounds by Vietnamese students and did not offer solutions for
problems related to connected speech in listening and speaking skills either. In an
attempt to fill this gap, this study is designed to explore this problem. In this study,


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Vietnamese is chosen as language 1 (L1) and English chosen is language 2 (L2) to
make it easy to do the research.

2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.2.1. Background to English final consonant sounds
- A consonant is a speech sound made by completely or partly stopping the
flow of air being breathed out through the mouth. [21, p. 263]
- What is a final consonant?
A final consonant is a speech sound that occurs at the end of a linguistic unit,
and the airstream from the lung is completely blocked (STOPS) e.g [p, t, k, b, d, ] ,
partially blocked (LATERAL) e.g [l] or where the opening is so narrow that the air
escapes with audible friction (FRICATIVES) e.g [f, , s, , v, , z, ]. With some
consonants (NASALS) e.g [m, n,

] the airstream is blocked in the mouth but

allowed to escape through the nose.
In English, consonant sounds are usually distributed in three positions:
initial, medial and final. These are about twenty-one consonant sounds distributed at
final position. They are [p, b, t, d, k, , f, v, , , s, z, , , t , d , m, n, , l, r].

Peter Roach (1999) pointed out that the plosives in final position, [b, d, ] normally
have little voicing and [p, t, k] are, of course, voiceless. The plosion following the
release of [p, t, k] and [b, d, ] is very weak and often not audible. According to
O’connor (1980), [ ] is one of the final sounds that seldom appears in the final
position of the word. There are only a few words ending with [ ] such as rouge
[ru

], beige [bei ], garage [

r

], barrage [b r

].

a. English stops/ plosives
According to Roach, P., (1999), in English there are six stop consonants: [p,
t, k, b, d, ] occurring at the end of the word. The glottal stop [ ] occurs frequently
but it is less importance because it is an alternative pronunciation of [p, t, or k] in a
certain contexts. The stops have different places of articulation:
-[p] and [b] are bilabial, the lips are pressed together.


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-[t] and [d] are alveolar; the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar
ridge.
-[k] and [ ] are velar; the back of the tongue is pressed against the area
where the hard palate ends and the soft palate begins.
All six stops occur at the beginning of a word, between other sounds and at

the end of a word. The difference between [p, t, k] and [b, d, ] at final position is
primarily the fact that vowels preceding [p, t, k] are much shorter. The shortening
effect of [p, t, k] is most noticeable when the vowel is one of the long vowels or
diphthongs, Roach, P. (1999).
b. English fricatives
There are eight English fricative consonants [f, v, , , s, z, , ] appearing
at the final of the word. The fricative sounds are produced by narrowing the speech
tract and letting the air out. The air escapes through a small passage and makes a
hissing sound. With the exception of glottal [h], each place of articulation has a pair
of phonemes, one fortis and one lenis. They have different places of articulation:
- [f] and [v] are labial, lower lip is contact with the upper teeth.
- [ ] and [ ] are interdental fricatives. They are described as if the tongue
was actually placed between the teeth. In fact, the tongue is normally placed inside
the teeth, with the tip touching the inside of the lower front teeth and the blade
touching the inside of the upper teeth. The air escapes through the gaps between the
tongue and the teeth.
- [s] and [z] are alveolar fricatives. They are at the same place of articulation
as [t] and [d]. The air escapes through a narrow passage along the centre of the
tongue, and the sound produced is comparatively intense.
- [ ] and [ ] are alveopalatal fricatives, which can be taken to mean that their
place of articulation is partly palatal, partly alveolar. The tongue is in contact with an
area slightly further back than that for [s] and [z]. If you make [s], then [ ], you
should be able to feel your tongue move backwards. The air escapes through a


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passage along the centre of the tongue, as in [s] and [z], but the passage is a little
wider.
c. English affricates

English has two affricate alveopalatal: [t ] and [d ] ending of the word. They
begin as plosives and end as fricatives. It is usually said that the plosive and the
following fricative must be made with the same articulators, the plosive and fricative
must be homorganic. As with the plosives and most of the fricatives, we have a fortis/
lenis pair, the voicing characteristics are the same as for these other consonants.
[t ] is slightly aspirated in the positions where [p, t, k] are aspirated, but not strongly
enough for it to be necessary for foreign learners to give much attention to it.
[t ] and [d ] often have rounded lips.
d. English nasals
English nasal consonants are [m, n,

]. The basic characteristic of a nasal

consonant is that the air escapes through the nose. In nasal consonants, the air does
not pass through the mouth; it is prevented by a complete closure in the mouth at
some point. Place of articulation of [m] and [n] are simple, straightforward
consonants with distributions like the plosives [p, b] and [t, d]. But [ ] is a different
matter, it is the same as that of [k, ]. [m] is labial nasal, [n] is alveolar nasal, and [ ]
is velar nasal. All of them are in the final words
e. English lateral
There is only a lateral sound in English [l] in which the passage of air through
the mouth does not go in the usual way along the centre of the tongue; instead, there
is complete closure between the centre of the tongue and a part of the roof of the
mouth where contact is to be made. It occurs in three positions, initial, medial and
final.
f. English retroflex
The alveolar retroflex [r] in English is produced by the curved shape tongue
with the tip pointing towards the hard palate at the back of the alveolar ridge, the
front low and the back rather high. The tongue-tip is not close enough to the palate

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to cause friction. The lips are rather rounded, especially when [r] is at the beginning
of words. It is also in the middle and at the final of the word.
Table 2.1 Articulatory Representation of English consonant.
Place of articulation
Manner of
Glottal
articulation
state

STOP

-voice
+voice
FRICATIVE -voice
+voice
AFFRICATE -voice
+voice
NASAL
+voice
LIQUID
Lateral
+voice
Retroflex
+voice
GLIDE
+voice
-voice

Labial

Interdental

p
b
f
v

Alveolar

Alveopalatal

t
d
s
z

Velar

Glottal

k
h
t
d

m

n
l
r

w

j

(w)
( )

2.2.2. Background to Vietnamese final consonant sounds
According to Lanh, D.T, Toan, B.M, and Tinh, L.H (2001), there are nine
final consonant sounds in Vietnamese. They are three voiceless stop sounds [p, t, k]
and three voiced nasal sounds [m, n,

], two semi-vowels and zero sound.

Depending on the place of articulation, there are three pairs with contrast feature
sounds (voiceless - voiced) such as a pair of labial [p - m]; a pair of alveolar [t - n];
a pair of velar [k - ]. Depending on the manner of articulation, there are two
contrast groups of consonants basing on the criteria: voiceless stops [p, t, k]; and
voiced nasals [m, n, ].
Like English, the Vietnamese final sounds are also consonants and semivowels. To the open syllables, without final sounds, it is said that these syllables
have zero final sounds. These final consonant sounds consist of [p, m, t, n, k,
]. Among minimal coda pairs, the pair [ ] and [c] are variants of [ ] and [k].
[p]: labial stop, voiceless, only at final position, unreleased, the letter “p”, for
examples: tấp nập, mập mạp…

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[t]: alveolar stop, voiceless, unreleased, at the final position, the letter “t”, for
examples: tất bật, lất phất…
[k]: velar stop, voiceless, unreleased, the letter “c, ch”, for example: nước,
mực, thích, sạch…
[m]: labial nasal, voiced, unreleased at the final position, the letter “m”, for
examples: mắm, nấm…
[n]: nasal, alveolar, voiced, unreleased at the final position, the letter “n”, for
examples: ăn năn, ân cần…
[ ]: nasal, velar, voiced, unreleased at the final position, the letter “ng, nh”,
for examples: trang trọng, rạng sáng, mình, bánh…
Table 2.2 [3, p.129] shows the distribution of Vietnamese final consonant
sounds below:
Table2.2 Vietnamese final consonant sounds distribution
Manner of articulation

Place of articulation
Labial

Alveolar

Velar

Voiceless stops

p

t

k

Voiced nasals

m

n

These phonemes are stated by Vietnamese letters in Table 2.3 [3, p.131]
Table 2.3 Phonemes stated by Vietnamese letters
No
1
2
3
4
5
6

phoneme
[p]
[t]
[k]
[m]
[n]
[ ]

letter
p
t
c, ch

m
n
ng, nh

2.2.3. A contrastive analysis in English and Vietnamese final consonant sounds
2.2.3.1. Syllable structures in English and Vietnamese


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a. Syllable structure in English
According to Richards, et. al (1993), syllable is a unit in speech which is
often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word. Most syllables contain
a vowel, some words like trouble [tr̚bl] and listen [lisn] are considered having two
syllables, with the final syllable consisting only of the last consonant. These
consonants that sound like syllables are often referred to as “syllabic consonants”.
[l] and [n] are by far the most syllabic consonants, especially in southern British
English. A syllable can be divided into three parts: the beginning, called the onset,
the central part, called the nucleus or peak, the end, called the coda.
According to Wikipedia, a syllable (σ) is a unit of organization for a
sequence of speech sounds. It is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often
a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically consonants). Syllables are
often considered the phonological “building blocks” of words. They can influence
the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic meter, its stress patterns, etc.
A word that consists of a single syllable is called a monosyllable like “car”
(such a word is monosyllabic), while a word consisting of two syllables like
“monkey” is called a disyllable (such a word is disyllabic). A word consisting of
three syllables like “indigent” is called a trisyllable (the adjective form is
trisyllabic). A word consisting of more than three syllables like “intelligence” is
called a polysyllable (and could be described as polysyllabic), although this term is

often used to describe words of two syllables or more. The general structure of a
syllable consists of the following segments: onset (O) and rhyme (R). Rhyme
consists of nucleus (N) and coda (C). Figure 2.1 shows the structure of the
monosyllabic English word “cat”.

σ (Syllable)
O (Onset)
C

R(Rhyme)
N(Nucleus)

C (Coda)

V

C


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k

t

Figure 2.1 Internal structure of a syllable “cat”
Generally, every syllable requires a nucleus. Onsets are extremely common,
and some languages require all syllables to have an onset. (That is, a CVC syllable
like cat is possible, but a VC syllable such as at is not.) A coda-less syllable of the
form V, CV, CCV, etc. is called an open syllable, while a syllable that has a coda

(VC, CVC, CVCC, etc.) is called a closed syllable. On the other hand, the Onset,
Peak and Coda may each further branch into two C- or V-constituents respectively.
Then we speak about branching or complex Onsets etc. Figure 2.2 of English
syllable “drowned” [dra nd] is an example in which all three elements branch:

σ
(O) Onset

(R)Ryhme
Nucleus

C

C

V

d

r

a

V

Coda
C

C

n

d

Figure 2.2: Internal structure of the word “drowned”
b. Syllable structure in Vietnamese
Đoàn Thiện Thuật (1980) points out that in Vietnamese a syllable has a
structure of two levels: level 1 consists of a tone, an onset and a rhyme, level 2 is
the rhyme that comprises a glide, a vowel, and a coda as figure 2.3 below:

σ (Syllable)
Level 1:
Level 2:

Tone

Onset
Glide

Rhyme
Vowel

Coda


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Figure 2.3 Vietnamese syllable
The final consonant sounds are the distinctive features listed below by Đoàn Thiện
Thuật (1980):

1. The plosive and sonorant criteria distinguished by the coda: “sắp” with
“sắm” and “sáu”; “cắt” with “cắn” and “cây”. This criterion is a
distinction of the coda. The stops: [p, t, k] and sonorant [m, n, , u, i].
2. The nasal and non-nasal criteria distinguished by the coda: “sắm” with
“sáu”, “cắn” with “cây”. Among the sonorant codas divided are nasal
sounds [m, n, ] and non-nasal sound [u, i]
3. The labial and tongue criteria distinguished by the coda such as labial
sounds [p, m, u ] and the tongue sounds [t, k, n, ,i].
4. Among these tongue sounds, there is a contrast between the tip tongue
and the upper tongue. The tip tongue sounds are [t, n] and the upper
tongue sounds are [k, ]. [4, p.244]

Clearly speaking, the four distinctive criteria Thuat (1980) mentioned mean
that Vietnamese language has nine final consonant sounds including one zero
phoneme, two semi-vowels and six consonants. So, the sound [ ] is a variant of [ ]
and [c] is a variant of [k]. They are presented in the following Table 2.4 [4, p.126]

Table 2.4 Vietnamese final consonant sounds
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation

Bilabial

Tip

Upper

p

t

k

Nasal

m

n

Non-nasal

u

Plosives
Sonorant

Alveolar

i

In English as well as Vietnamese, the codas play a crucial role in writing
because they distinguish the meaning of the word. For examples, in English the


18

word “rib” is different from “rip”, in Vietnamese, the word “càn” is different from
“cành”. The codas in English are pronounced clearly when spoken to the listeners
to avoid misunderstanding, but in Vietnamese, the codas are not pronounced as
clearly as English. All of the Vietnamese codas are unreleased/ closed consonants.

Cao Xuân Hạo (1998) studied that in a syllable structure, the final consonant sound
plays an important role, therefore, it is different from the initial consonant sound
and it is also a direct element of the syllable.
2.2.3.2 Linking sounds in English and Vietnamese
a. Linking sounds in English
Sound linking is one of the four aspects of connected speech. It is often
difficult to understand English speakers when they link sounds together, that is to
say, they are talking at normal speed.
When we say a sentence in English, we join or link words together. Because
of this linking, the words in a sentence do not always sound the same as when we
say them individually. Linking sound is very important for listening or speaking in
English. If we are able to recognize and use linking sounds, we will understand
other people more easily and vice verse. It is sometimes very difficult to know
where words finish and the next word begins. For example, “pets enter” sounds the
same as “pet center” because the consonant [s] could be at the end of the first word
or at the start of the second word. Some phrases on the left column and the phrases
on the right column have the same sound.
pets enter

pet center

stopped aching

stop taking

ice-cream

I scream

known aim

no name

called Annie

call Danny

clocks tops

clock stops

missed a night

Mr. Knight
[18, p.84]


19

One reason for this is that the pronunciation of some words is different when
they are said on their own, English speakers always link sounds together as the
following ways:
(1). consonant > vowel
When a word ending with a consonant sound, we often move the consonant sound
to the next word beginning with a vowel sound. For example in the sentence: “Can I
have a bit of egg?”
We write it like this: “Can I have a bit of egg?”
We say it like this: [kə na h və b tə ve ] ?
R-linking is the phenomenon based on the fact, by default, in the Standard British
English, [r] in syllable final position is not pronounced, e.g. car [k

]. R-linking

takes place when a syllable ends with one of the following vowel sounds [
,

,

, ə] or any of the diphthongs that finish with a schwa, e.g. [eə, ə, ə], and

the next syllable starts with any vowel sound. For example, “Here are all the
books.”
We write it like this: “Here are all the books.”
We say it like this: [heə r

r

l

ə b kz]

(2). consonant > consonant
When one word ends with a consonant sound and the next word begins with a
consonant sound, the first consonant sound is often changed. There are some
common changes that take place in the pronunciation of certain word-final
consonants in connected speech. This relates to assimilation, a coarticulatory
process by which a sound segment is influenced and changes to become more like
its neighboring sound. There are three types of assimilation.
(a) Progressive assimilation

20

Progressive assimilation is a coarticulation process by which the change the sound
segment is brought about by the preceding sound.
(A

B)

A’
e.g. books [b k

z]

[b k

s]

The sound sequence [b k z] the voiced alveolar [z] is devoiced by the preceding
voiceless [k] and becomes voiceless [s].
(b) Regressive assimilation
Regressive assimilation is coarticulation process by which the change of a segment
is brought about by the following sound.
(A

B)

B’
- Labialization:
● [t]

[p] before [p, b, m] e.g. [ æt pen] (careful/ slow speech)
[ æp pen] (casual/ rapid speech)

In the sound sequence [ æt pen], the alveolar [t] is labialized by the following
bilabial [p] and becomes bilabial [p].
● [d]

[b] before [p, b, m] e.g. [
[

● [n]

d bai] (careful/ slow speech)
b bai] (casual/ rapid speech)

[m] before [p, b, m] e.g. [ ̚n men] (careful/ slow speech)
[ ̚m men] (casual/ rapid speech)
- Velarization

● [t]

[k] before [k, ], e.g. [ æt
[ æk

In the sound sequence [ æt
velar [ ] and becomes velar [k].

l] (careful/ slow speech)
l] (casual/ rapid speech)

l], the alveolar [t] is veolarized by the following


21

● [d]

[ ] before [k, ], e.g. [

d

l] (careful/ slow speech)

[
● [n]

[ ] before [k,

l] (casual/ rapid speech)

], [ ri n k
[ ri

] (careful/ slow speech)

k

] (casual/ rapid speech)

- Nasalisation
● [d]

[n/m] before [n/m], e.g. [

dn

t] (careful/ slow speech)

[

nn

t] (casual/ rapid speech)

In the sound sequence [

dn

t] the stop [d] is nasalized by the following nasal

[n].
● [v]

[m] before [m], e.g. [
[

v mi ] (careful/ slow speech)
m mi ] (casual/ rapid speech)

(c) Mutual assimilation/ Coalescence
Mutual assimilation (Coalescence) is a coarticulation process by which a
new segment will be made.

(A

B)

C
● [t] + [j] makes [t ] e.g. I want you [

w nt + ju ]

[

w nt u ]

● [d] + [j] makes [d ] e.g. I need you [
[
● [s] + [j] makes [ ], e.g. I miss you [

ni d + ju ]
ni d u ]
mi s + ju ]

[
● [z] + [j] makes [ ], e.g. I lose you [

mi

u ]

lu z + ju ]
[

lu

u ]

(3). vowel > vowel
When one word ends with a vowel sound and the next word begins with a vowel
sound, a transition sound which resembles either a [w] as “win” or [j] as in “yes” is
inserted between two vowel sounds according to the rules:


22

+ [w] is added if the vowel at the end of the first word has a rounded lip
position such as [u , ə , a ]. E.g. Let’s go into the next room./ How old is she?
+ [j] is added if the vowel at the end of the first word has a lip spreading such
as [i , , a , e ,

]. E.g. I

always enjoy

a lovely

ice cream.

b. Linking sounds in Vietnamese
The Vietnamese language is a kind of monosyllabic language. The boundary
between the syllables is very clearly separated. As the result of this, there is no
sound linking in Vietnamese. However, there is assimilation in Vietnamese.
According to Cao Xuân Hạo (1998), in Vietnamese a syllable is also a morpheme or
a word that has a fixed structure and each element has its own function to form a
syllable. The final consonant sounds are never apart from themselves to link to the
initial of the following word. If we use the linking sound between two words, we
shall have a new word having different meaning. For example:
ôm ai

≠

ô mai

một ổ

≠

mộ tổ

các anh ≠

cá canh

xem ô tô ≠ xe mô tô
bón em

≠ bó nem

đang ôn ≠ đa ngôn
quát ầm ≠ quá tầm
phát hành ≠ phá thành
[Adapted from Cao Xuân Hạo, (1998) pp.26-27]
Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu, Hoàng Trọng Phiến (1991) claim that there
are some phenomena of changing sounds in Vietnamese such as accommodation,
assimilation, and dissimilation.
- Accommodation is a phenomenon of one in two sounds changing
suitably with the next sound. For example, [t] is an unrounded consonant.
When it goes with rounded vowels [u], [o], it is affected by the rounded
vowels, e.g. “tu”, “tô”. [k] is a velar stop consonant. When it goes with


23

the front vowels [i], [e], it is also pulled toward the front, e.g. [kỳ], [kể].
When the consonants [ ], [k] go with the front vowels, they are pulled up
the front and become [ ], [c], e.g. “chinh chích”, bềnh bệch”, “sành
sạch”
- Assimilation in Vietnamese usually falls into the tone. For examples,
“năm mười”

“năm mươi” or “muôn vạn”

“muôn vàn”

- Dissimilation in Vietnamese occurs in the reduplicative and follows
some tight rules: (1) [p]
Rules

[m]; (2) [t]

[n]; (3) [k]

[ ]

Examples

[p]

đẹp đẹp, chiếp chiếp, xốp xốp, sụp sụp

[m]

đèm đẹp, chiêm chiếp, xôm xốp, sùm sụp

[t]

một một, rét rét, nhạt nhạt,bợt bợt

[n]

mồn một, ren rét, nhàn nhạt, bờn bợt

[k]

khác khác, tức tức, xịch xịch, cạch cạch

[ ]

khang khác, tưng tức, xình xịch, cành cạch

It also occurs in the tone, some examples: chậm chậm
đậm đậm

đầm đậm; túng túng

tung túng; đỏ đỏ

chầm chậm;
đo đỏ

[7, p.p135,137]

2.3 BACKGROUND TO THE PRONUNCIATION TEACHING
To be able to speak and listen in a second language, language learners need
to have both linguistic and sociolinguistic competence, Celce-Murcia, Brinton &
Goodwin (1996). People from many different language backgrounds can acquire a
near-native pronunciation in English.
One of the most important purposes of pronunciation teaching is to eradicate
the traces of foreign accent (L2) through pronunciation drills. In other words,
teaching of pronunciation is to help learners to develop their abilities in the
pronunciation similar to native speakers in the second language. In the past, the
grammar-translation method was used to teach foreign languages, therefore,
pronunciation was almost neglected and rarely taught. Nowadays, the methods of
teaching and learning foreign language in communicative approach enable learners


24

to communicate more fluently than accurately and master the necessary
information. Therefore, pronunciation is an inevitable component in developing
listening and speaking skills. There is no doubt that all learners, teachers or even
methodologists recognize the importance of pronunciation and how to teach and
what to teach in an effective way like other aspects of language teaching. According
to Dr Helen Fraser (2001), the communicative approach of teaching pronunciation
follows in four ways:
1. teaches material which is useful for real communication outside
classroom.
2. order of teaching is based on what is most important to listeners in
communication.
3. learners are taught to think of speech as communication and pay
attention to needs of listener.
4. focus on good communication between teachers and learners about
pronunciation itself. [15, p. 11]

Since the communicative approach was used in teaching language, the
teaching of pronunciation has been an integral part of leaning and teaching
language. Peter Avery and Susan Erhlich (1995) showed that the sound system of
native language can be influenced to learners’ pronunciation of English:
We will point out that neither of the views is completely accurate by
considering biological, social cultural, personality, and linguistic factors
which are known to affect the acquisition of the sound system of a
second language. This will lead to the understanding that while practice
in pronunciation may not make perfect, ignoring pronunciation can
totally be a great disservice to the ESL students. [10, p.1]

In addition to this, teacher’s role is very important for learners. The teachers
help them to perceive the sounds in terms of their native language and guide them
to imitate the new sounds. The teachers must have been aware of the students’

pronunciation difficulties to help them to improve speaking or listening skills. The
important aspects of the teacher’s role in pronunciation teaching are mentioned by
Kenworthy, J. (1992) in three ways for good pronunciation:


25

(a) We can persuade learners of the importance of good pronunciation
for ease of communication.
(b) We can continually emphasize that a “native-like” accent will not be
imposed as a goal. (Intelligibility and communicative efficiency are
the only realistic goals. They can be achieved as much, if not more,
by the way the teacher reacts and the stance he or she adopts as by
merely making statements.)
(c) We can demonstrate concern for learners’ pronunciation and their
progress in it. [23, p. 9]

To have a good pronunciation skill is very important in communicative
approach to teaching English as a foreign language because pronunciation belongs
at the very core of a communicative approach to language teaching. If the learners
need to have the standard of spoken English language, they will acquire the
standard English sound system. Besides, the teachers of English should equip
themselves sufficient knowledge of pronunciation. It is clear that the teachers of
pronunciation address students how to produce meaningfully the authentic sounding
intonation, stress, pitch, phonetic and phonological terms. From my experience in
learning and teaching English, speaking like native-speakers or near-nativespeakers is very difficult and what accent to teach to learners is even more difficult.
Should the goals always be native-like pronunciation in teaching pronunciation?
Kenworthy (1992) insisted:
The great majority of learners will have a very practical purpose for
learning English and will derive no particular benefit from acquiring a

native-like pronunciation. [23, p. 3]

For nonnative speakers of English, teaching pronunciation should be taught.
Much of the concern about teaching pronunciation has centered on the exact
pronunciation of vowel and consonant sounds. However, if the goal of teaching
learners is to enable them to communicate in English, we can see that
communicative effectiveness depends not only on the pronunciation of these vowel
and consonant sounds but on being intelligible speakers. Being able to use the