The most common errors in english pronunciation made by the 10th grade students at yen dinh 2 secondary school and some strategies to help them pronounce english words correctly

I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Language is a means helping people to communicate with each others to
understand others properly. However, to master a language is not easy at all.
Most of Ss at my school can not communicate or are not confident enough to
talk to a foreigner in Engligh. The reason is that they canot pronounce English
words correctly which discourages them from talking and communicating in
English. This is very challenging for me, and I have tried my best to find out
reasons which make my ss mispronounce or not pronounce a word correctly.
However, I began to find some simple strategies that worked for them, such as
turning activities into a game. We began to make some progress, and I
discovered some new ways to help older ss build a stronger foundation of
pronunciation. That’ why I chose the topic “The most common errors in
English pronunciation made by the 10th grade students at Yen Dinh 2
Secondary School and some strategies to help them pronounce English words
correctly”.
I hope this will help both teachers and Sts to realize the factors obstacling
the ss in learning English pronunciation, then find out solutions to this problem.
1.2. Purpose of the study
The main purpose of the study is to find out errors made by the 10th form ss
at Yen Dinh II secondary school (YD2SS), in Thanh Hoa province in English
vowel and consonant pronunciation. This also offers some appropriate strategies
to better the current context.
Research questions:
a. What are sound errors in English vowel and consonant pronunciation.that
th
10 grade students at YD2SS often make?
b. What are strategies for teachers to use in teaching to address the issue?
1.3. Scope of the study
This study is conducted among the 10th form Sts at YD2SS during the
school year 2015- 2016.

1.4. Methodology of the study
Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used.
First of all, for the theoretical basis, a lot of reference materials on English
vowel and consonant pronunciation have been collected, analyzed and
synthesized carefully with the due consideration for the ss’ learning situations.
Secondly, class observation has been carried out with ss to find out the
most common errors in English vowel and consonant pronunciation and how to
improve this problem.
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II. DEVELOPMENT
2.1. Theoretical background of English vowel and consonant pronunciation
This second chapter provides readers with the relevant literature of the
study by introducing some key concepts necessary for the best understanding of
this research, as well as the review of previous studies related to the topic. There
are some most crucial concepts chosen to be clarified in this part such as
standard pronunciation, pronunciation errors …
2.1.1 English pronunciation
Generally speaking, pronunciation is simply put as “the way in which a
language is spoken” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992: 718).
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 4th ed. (2007)
defines pronunciation as “a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is
accepted or generally understood” (as cited in Nguyen, 2008:06).
2.1.1.1. Standard English Pronunciation
Standard English is the most preferable accent in any social setting and to
teach students. It is considered to be neutral, easier to remember and imitate as
compared to regional accents and it is heard on radio and TV. However,
nowadays English has been spoken all over the world. As a result, English
pronunciation varies from place to place, which makes us find it difficult to get

what a standard pronunciationis. However, it can not be denied that a native-like
English pronunciation is still what non-native learners are looking forward to.
In their research, Streven in Larry Smith’s edition (1983: 88) defines
Standard English as “a particular dialect of English, being the non-localized
dialect, lobal currency withoutany significant variation, universally accepted as
the appropriate educational target in teaching English; which may be spoken
with an unrestricted choice of accent”. So Standard English pronunciation can
be any dialect of English that is widely used and accepted in the world. It is
common knowledge that there are two major varieties (or dialects) of English
that command respect in their countries and elsewhere in the world: RP in the
United Kingdom and General American (GA) English in the United States. They
are the two main dialects for international broadcasts and in social and business
settings. However, Vietnamese people tend to follow non-rhotic accent (like RP
English) in which the /r/ sound is not pronounced at the end of words, so it is
more reasonable to choose RP English as the standard one. In this paper, RP
English will be used as the criteria for students’ pronunciation analyzing. The
International Phonetic Alphabet will also be used to transcribe the speech
sample throughout the research.
2.1.1.2. English sounds
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There are 44 sounds in English. They are divided in to 2 groups: 20 vowel
sounds including 12 voweơls, 8 diphthongs and 24 consonants sounds. This
paper aims to investigate just final sounds, however, sounds system in English
are also presented below to support later analysis.
2.1.1.2.1.Vowel sounds
Vowels are “sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction to the
flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips” (Roach, 2000:10).
Figure 1: Vowel chart (John, 1998:23)

Diphthongs
According to Kelly (2003) diphthong is “a combination of vowel sounds”. Also
Kelly (2003) classifies diphthongs into 2 groups: closing and centering
diphthongs. They are presented as follow:
Closing diphthongs:
1. /ei/

– make, day, mail

2. /ai/

– high, by, might

3. /ɔi/

– toy, boy, boil

4. /əʊ/

– go, show, close

5. /au/

– how, about, out

Centering diphthongs:
6. /eə/

– there, bare, their

7. /iə/

– here, hear, beer

8. /uə/

– sure, moor, tour

2.1.1.2.2.Consonant sounds
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic (1992: 192),
consonants are “speech sounds made by completely or partly stopping the flow
of air breathed out through the mouth”. Consonant sounds differ from consonant
letters. In Wikipedia Dictionary, it is said that “the number of consonants in the
world’s languages is much greater than the number of consonant letters in any
one alphabet”. Those consonant letters like c, q and x are missing as they are
found in other sounds. (The C letter is found in the k sounds and in the s sound
in words like cereal, city and cent. The q letter is found in ‘kw’ words like

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backwards). Kelly (2000) and Roach (2000) categorized the 24 consonants into
6 groups:
•Plosive
•Fricative
•Affricative
•Nasal
•Lateral
•Approximant
Here under is the table of consonant sounds

Plosive
Nasal
fricative
approximant
lateral
approximant
affricate

bilabial labiodental dental alveolar postalveolar retroflex palatal velar glottal
p b
t d
kɡ
m
n
ŋ
f
v
θ Ð s z ʃ
ʒ
h
(w)
ɹ
j
(w)
l
tʃ

dʒ

2.1.2. Pronunciation errors

2.1.2.1. What is pronunciation error?
In language learning, making errors is an inevitable part that can not be
avoided. People can not learn language without first systematically committing
errors (Dulay, Burt and Krashen, 1982). Before embarking on Error Analysis, it
is crucial to discuss the definition of the term “errors.” In linguistic field, errors
are defined by researchers as “flawed side of learner speech or writing” (Burt
and Krashen, 1982:138). In pronunciation, errors are defined as the
incompetence in language and incorrect pronunciation that may affect
intelligibility in communication (Nguyen, 2007). Because in this new era,
English is the common means of communication all over the world, it is not
always defined as an error when people speak dissimilarly from native speakers.
So the definition that seems more precise is according to Jenkins (2006: 36) in
Nguyen (2007) pronunciation errors are “variants of pronunciation which
prevent one communicator from understanding the propositional content of the
other’s utterances”
Until the late 1960s, errors were considered as a sign of learning failure that
could not be tolerated (Little Lewood, 1984). Although nowadays people have a
more tolerant view toward errors in language learning, still they should be paid
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particular attention so that non-native speakers can achieve the best result in
communication. Richards (1971) acknowledges two different kinds of errors:
performance errors, caused by, such as, fatigue and inattention, and competence
errors resulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of the language. Corder
(1967) in his research proposes different terminologies for these two kinds of
errors and stresses that we must make a clear distinction between mistakes and
errors; the former refers to non-systematic performance errors of chance
circumstances, whereas the latter can be defined as “the systematic errors of the
learner from which we are able to reconstruct his knowledge of the language to

date, i.e., his transitional competence”.Harashima (2006: 40)
In another research, Ellis (1997) states that errors reflect gaps in a learner’s
knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what the correct one
is. However, mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur
because in particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what she or he
knows (Ellis, 1997).
All in all, a mistake occurs because of a slip of the tongue, tiredness, anxiety,
etc, it can be self-corrected. However, an error is a performance that a speaker
who has not yet mastered the rules of the target language cannot correct by
himself and this has to do with his acquired linguistic data. So, concerning
errors, one can go on saying the wrong thing without knowing that he is doing it.
Errors usually come up with L1, SL or FL learners; whereas, mistakes and errors
can occur with everyone performing a certain speech.
2.1.2.2. Pronunciation errors are often made by Vietnamese learners
Error Type 1: Omission of final consonants
As in the case of several Asian languages, Vietnamese does not contain words
ending with consonants; so naturally, learners are usually very confused with
final consonants and thus end up deleting most of them. The consonants
commonly omitted are: /z/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /ks/, /ʤ/ . Examples:
/z/: tables; rose; rise; bags
/s/: mice; class; mess; rice
/t/: right; fight; hate; fruit; start
Error Type 2: Omission of Medial sounds
Some sounds occurring in the middle of words are also omitted by Vietnamese
learners as such occurrence is an unfamiliar phonetic phenomenon: These
sounds are: /z/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /ks/, /ʤ/. Examples:
z/: Wednesday; president; rising
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/s/: master; western
/v/: severe; savage; rival; never
Error Type 3: Replacing /t/ /tr/ /dʒ/ with /tʃ/
A significantly common error committed by Vietnamese learners is to replace
/t/ /tr/ & /ʤ/, with /ʧ/. That shows that learners struggle greatly with the concept
of combining purely alveolar sounds with post palatal ones. Examples:
/t/: time; task; talent; cutter
/tr/: trash; transit; hatred; tried
Error Type 4: Confusing /ð/ for /d/ or /z/
Vietnamese learners find it difficult as most English learners to place the tongue
tip between the teeth, so they resort to an easier solution that is to bring the tip
into contact with the back of the teeth or alveolar sometimes in the form of /d/ or
/z/.
Example: ð/: weather; loathe; then; rather
Error Type 5: Confusing/ʃ/ for /s/Or/s/ for /ʃ/
Vietnamese learners use /s/ and /ʃ/ interchangeably, however, based on my
classroom experience, I have found that /ʃ/ is more commonly confused for /s/
especially when it is the initial sound in a word as in [shoe], which becomes
[sue] and sometimes when it’s final as in [cash] which becomes [Cass]. There
are times when the opposite is true but more commonly when /s/ is located in
the middle of the word as in [castle] which sounds as [cashol?]. Due to the lack
of distinction between the two sounds, it’s very difficult to establish a pattern of
error. Examples: /s/: muscle; person; percent; mouse and rats
/ʃ/(initial): shovel; shine; sheep; shape; shallot
/ʃ/(final): reddish; selfish; cash; rush; tarnish
Error Type 6: /dʒ/
Since /dʒ/ is one form of consonants cluster (/d/ + /ʒ/), Vietnamese confuse it
with a number of other consonants most commonly as follows: /j/ /d/ /s/ /t/ /z/
/ʧ/./dʒ/ then, as mentioned in TYPE 1, is normally either omitted when it’s the
final sound in a w ord, or substituted for one of the consonants mentioned in the

beginning of this section.
Examples: dʒ/ (medial): pledger; virgin; midget; bludger
/dʒ/ (final): ridge; surge; wedge; cage; dodge
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Error Type 7: Consonants clusters
As formerly stated, the consonants cluster phenomenon is quite unfamiliar to the
Vietnamese language and hence complex, so teachers should expect to see
plenty of omissions, additions and substitutions occurring in words with [pr] [pl]
[tr] [kr] [kl] [fl] [ks] [sk] [st] [ts] combinations. Teachers need to spend a
considerable amount of time with the students to practice these sounds as they
affect intelligibility dramatically. Examples
pr/: problem; practice; pronunciation; present
/pl/: place; plough; plane; please; plumber.
/tr/: try; train; trophy; trail; tricky; trace; trim.
/kr/: crane; crab; crime; Kristen; cram; cradle.
/kl/: climb; claim; cloud; clear; Clayton; cluster.
Error Type 8: Confusing /r/ for /z/
The Vietnamese language does not have consonant /r/ in its phonetic system at
least not as it is produced by Americans or most native English speakers in the
world. It is, therefore, commonly mistaken for /z/ especially in the North of
Vietnam. Teachers again must elaborately explain to the learners how to
produce that sound to clear up the confusion. Examples:
r/ (initial): rat; reason; right; really; rest
/r/ (medial): parking; caring; bartender; fertile.
/r/ (final): letter; radiator; armor; closer; aware
Error Type 9: Confusing /l/ for /n/
Once again, the Vietnamese language does not have an equivalent to the English
consonant /l/. Consequently, they typically confuse it for /n/. Teachers need to

help the learners drop the nasality when attempting to produce that sound as
well as free the sides of the tongue while keeping contact between the tip and
the alveolar ridge.
/l/ (initial): light; lace; lead; laugh; learn
/l/ (medial): fault; rolling; falling; swollen; really
/l/ (final): recall; fall; roll; available; identical
Error Type 10: Voiced-Voiceless distinction

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In English, frequent shifts between voiced and voiceless consonants are required
to distinguish between certain words. Such mechanism does not exist and is not
required in Vietnamese, thus, constitutes a complex problem
/v/: live; serve; Dave; leave; vile; volt; oven
/f/: life; surf; Tafe; leaf; file; fault; often
/b/: beal; best; ball; bye; ban; rib; robe; burb
Error Type 11: Confusing /θ/ for /t/ or /s/
As voiced /ð/ is confused for /d/ or /z/, voiceless /θ/ is confused for /t/ or /s/.
Teachers must advise the learners to place the tongue tip between the teeth
without biting or moving the lips down. For many learners, it is simply odd or
embarrassing to have the tongue visible to others. Also, most often, the problem
for English learners is to be able to produce either /ð/ or //θ/ smoothly along with
/s/ /z/ /t/ /d/ and mainly other alveolar sounds
Examples : θ/: both; Ruth; math; teeth; thick; thin; bath
/t/: boat; root; mat; teat; tick; tin; bat
/θ/: path; faith; thought; forth; growth; thank.
/s/: pass; face; sought; force; gross; sank.
Error Type 12: Confusing /j/ for /z/
For learners from the south, or central provinces of Vietnamese, /j/ in word

initials is often confused for /z/. Again, plenty of listening drills are required to
help learners to distinguish between these two consonants.
Examples /j/: yes, young, yellow, yeast; yell, yacht
Error Type 13: Confusing /ŋ/ for /ŋk/
That is a common mistake not only made by the Vietnamese learners but also by
most Asian’s and European’s. Learners often rely on spelling to guide their
pronunciation and since /ŋ/ is often spelled as /ng/, they attempt to force out
the /g/ at the end, which sounds like /k/ once it is de-voiced. Examples
ŋ/: king; bring; sing; wing; bang; thing
/ŋk/: kink; brink; sink; wink; bank; think
Error Type 14: Confusing /ɪ/ for /i:/
Another common mistake resulting of the confusion between spelling and
pronunciation. Vowel /ɪ/ is quite frequently spelled as letter [i] in English and
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since Vietnamese rely on spelling to produce the English sounds, they confuse /ɪ/
for /i/.
/i/: Need; read; teat; leave; meat; wheel; seat
/ɪ/: Knit; rid; tit; live; mitt; will; sit
Error Type 15: Confusing /æ/ for /ʌ/
As in TYPE 14, this error is among many generated by the learners’
unawareness of the gap that exists between the English spelling and
pronunciation. Vowel /æ/ is quite often spelled with letter [a] which learners
would then read as /ʌ/ or /a/. Teachers must repeatedly remind the students that
English spelling and pronunciation are two very different things.
/æ/: bad; man day; hat; badge; tramp
/ʌ/: bud; Monday, hut; budge; trump
Error Type 16: Confusing /ʊ/ for /uː/
These two vowels are sometimes spelled the same as in [foot] and [food].

Teachers must explain the difference between lax VS tense as well as short VS
long vowels and conduct some minimal pairs’ exercises to drill these sounds and
assist learners in distinguishing between them. Examples
u:/: Room; tooth; food; mood; rude; wooed
/ʊ/: Book; put; foot; hood; could; would
Error Type 17: Confusing /ɝ/ for /ɔː/
Vowel /ɝ/ is quite difficult for most English learners including Vietnamese and
is usually mispronounced as /ɔː/ which could considerably affect the speech
intelligibility.
ɝ/: First; sir; burn; curl; work; learn; worm
/ɔː/: Forced; soar; born; call; walk; lawn; warm
Error Tyope 18: Confusing/eɪ/ for /e/
Diphthongs are very complex sounds as they require combining one vowel and
one consonant in one sound and these combinations are unfamiliar to the
Vietnamese learners who typically end up dropping consonant /j/ and retaining
vowel /e/.
/eɪ/: fade; date; wait; trained; bake; cane; wage
/e/: fed; debt; wet; trend; beck; Ken; wedge
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Error Type 19: Confusing/oʊ/ for /ɔː/
Vowel /oʊ/ is another diphthong involving vowel /o/ and consonant /w/ and as in
TYPE 18, only the vowel is retained while the consonant is dropped. Teachers
must encourage the learners to round their lips at the end of that sound after
pushing them forward for /ɔː/.
Examples : /oʊ/: Wrote; old; boat; coat; mode; road; showed
Error Type 20: Confusing the schwa sounds/ə/ or /ɚ/
One of the most important English sounds yet most neglected by teachers is the
schwa sound. This smallest sound in the English language is crucial for

reasonably accurate production of stress and rhythm and without it, the
Vietnamese learners, and all English learners, will never be able to fully
understand natural and native-like English speech. The schwa sound can be
spelled as: [a] [e] [o] [u] and [y]. That can cause plenty of confusion for learners
who will again attempt to pronounce the words as written, not as spoken.
Examples: ə/: about; taken; pencil; eloquent; supply; sibyl
2.2. The setting of the study
2.2.1. The setting of the study
The study was conducted at YD2SS established in 1972 in Yen Dinh
district, Thanh Hoa province. Students here are taught all the subjects, one of
which is English. English is taught in classrooms with five parts: Listening,
Speaking, Reading, Writing and Grammar within 40 weeks. Pronunciation is
taught during Grammar lesson. Because time for Grammar lesson is 45 mins or
90 mins so that T doesn’t often spend much time on pronunciation
2.2.2. The students’ background and their English levels
The 10th form students at YD2SS are aged from 15 to 16. They came from
different places of Yen Dinh district. Most of them have learnt English including
the speaking skill since they were at grade 6. However, the students’ level in
English is very low. They don’t take part in any English speaking club. Besides,
most of their families live on agriculture so that they do not have the best
conditions to learn English. Moreover, they don’t have the habit of practicing
speaking skill to improve their pronunciation. It is grammar that is focused so
that Ss can pass the exams
2.3. The most common errors in vowel and consonant English
pronunciation.
2.3.1. Problems with vowels
Problem with long vowels : /i:/ versus /I/, /u:/ versus /u/
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Most of them could not distinguish the differences between these sounds. When
my students have spoken these types of words, they associate these words as
illustrating the same sound.
When teaching, I took some minimal pair words, such as "seat" and "sit",
"sheep" and "ship", “foot” and “food”. I tried to lengthen the longsound for
them to listen, so that they could recognize the differences.
Problem with /e/ versus /æ/
My students cannot identify the vowel /e/ and /æ/, such as in bed and bad (Avery
and Ehrlich, p. 156). The confusion between /e/ and /æ/ may be considered as
the most serious problem that Vietnamese speakers encounter when they learn to
speak English vowels. They cannot identify the differences. Learners usually
make numerous mistakes with these sounds. According to Avery and Ehrlich,
"students often pronounce these two vowels in exactly the same way. Most
commonly, students fail to lower their tongue and jaw far enough in attempting
to produce the /æ/ sound" (p. 99).
Confusion between /ʌ / and /ə /
These two sounds are somewhat easier to recognize than the vowel sounds as
discussed above. However, in some certain instances, they still demonstrate
mispronunciation of them. For instance, the word ‘love,' may be pronounced
as /ləv/
2.3.2. Problems with consonants
Sound ommited: /l,/ /ʤ// r/, /s/, /i/, /ei/,/ k / at medial position or z, s, t, v, ks,
ʤ at final position.
The most common errors were sound omission in which omission of
ending sounds were more frequent than others. It is easy to understand why
ending sounds were omitted so frequently, because in Vietnamese speakers do
not have to pronounce the ending sounds. In addition, some of the sounds, such
as /ʒ, ʤ, ʧ / are really hard for Vietnamese learners to pronounce especially
when these sounds occur at the end of words.
Sound confusion ; /t/=/ ʧ /, tr = ʧ, ð = z/d, ʃ = s, ʤ = /j/d/s/t/z/ʧ/, s = /ʃ/ʒ/, p = b;

ʧ = s, θ= /s/t/ ; r = z,
Regarding the second type of errors, sound confusion, the most frequent
errors are t, tr, ʧ, ʃ, ʤ, s, θ. It is interesting to find that several learners
mispronounced /t/ and produced /ʧ/ instead. The mispronunciation of this sound
may be due to the misperception of the aspiration of this sound.. As /t/ was
pronounced as /ʧ/, this indicates that speakers were confused about the
pronunciation of plosives. Furthermore, many informants made mistakes in
producing /tr/. From my experience, this error is very common among students
11


of YD2SS; The reason might be that this combination is unfamiliar to
Vietnamese speakers, as there is no such combination in their mother tongue.
Next, the mispronunciation of s to /ʃ, ʒ/ or /ʃ, ʒ/ to s seems to be related to the
carelessness ɔand laziness of the students. The students who made this kind of
mistakes usually do not try to find out how the tongue act in each case, instead
they make all these sounds similar.
Sound redundancy: s, z; Several learners tend to over pronounce the ending
sounds, thus adding s or z at the end of any words or sometimes in the middle of
the words as in the case of hobby, many pronounced it as /hɔzbi/.
2.4. Suggestions for teachers and sts to overcome pronunciation errors
First of all, it is essential that learners could be introduced how to
pronounced a word such as the presentation of the man head, seen from the
side, displayed as though it had been cut in half or they may be required
to look at the inside of their mouth in a mirror. Once they can recognize
different places of articulation of sounds, they are taught to make sounds
taking into account voice, manner and place of articulation. Therefore,
Teachers should make use of teaching aids like this in order to show Students
exactly the way they will pronounce a sound. Nowadays, we also have many
video on the Internet which can do this task perfectly.

Secondly: Listening: If you haven’t heard the sounds, you can’t reproduce them.
Therefore, T should play tape as much as possible so that Sts can listen much.
They can know and remember how words are exactly pronounced by a native
speaker. Good foreign ESL teachers do model the target language, before asking
students to produce it. But it’s not enough. When sts learn English, they should
hear phrases hundreds or even thousands of times before they speak them. But in
Vietnam, students are asked to produce after one or two hearings. Once again, if
they don’t listen, they can’t learn the target language and won’t be able to
reproduce it
Thirdly, learners should be given enough practice both inside and outside
classroom. This may help them become more fluent and automatic in
pronouncing the sounds. Practice makes perfect and can be done in the forms
of a variety of exercises and games.Consequencely, in terms of teaching, a
teacher should give students as many speaking practices as possible and help
them correct the prononciation.At the same time, teacher can use these books to
teach pronunciation and teacher can suggest students using these to get more
practices as well: Pronunciation Tasks, English Pronunciation in Use,
Understanding English pronunciation, Three or Tree, Ship or Sheep,
American Training etc. Besides, above is just a very general suggestion, teachers
also should recognize the level of the students so that teacher can have the best

12


teaching method.
pronunciation:

Here are

some

suggestion

activities

for

teaching

1. Repeat fricative and affricates pairs.
2. Say A if you hear the word on the left. Say B if you hear
the word on the right.
3. Listen and repeat.
4. Write these nationality words in the correct column.
5. Complete the conversation using words from the box.
6. Write the correct words.
7. Circle the correct word you hear.
8. Transcribe the underlined part of the word.
9. Match questions on the right with answers on the left.
10. Tick the correct box.
Fourtly, mistakes should be identified, explained and corrected frequently, either
directly or indirectly. This can be done mostly by the teacher and sometimes by
the students. Therefore, teachers play an essential role in helping students to find
out their mistakes and get the right correction.
Fifthly, in order to make the classroom atmosphere more relaxing and
pronunciation learning more interactive and communicative, it is advisable that
students should be given pronunciation games so that they find learning
more enjoyable. The games can be taken from books on pronunciation games or
generated by the teacher or by the students.
Finally, it is essential that students should have an opportunity to

communicate with a native speaker or speakers so that they feel more
confident that they are actually learning from authentic sources.
2.5. Applying suggestions in teaching pronunciation for 10th grade sts
I myself have applied these suggestions in teaching pronunciation. I often
oen tape so that my sts can listen to native speakers ‘pronunciation. In addition, I
download videos teaching how to pronounce sounds. Besides, I ask sts to act out
plays in which sts practice conversations containing target sounds........Below is
one of my lessons in which I have applied some ways to improve the
pronunciation to my Sts

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UNIT 3 : PEOPLE’S BACKGROUND
E. PRONUNCIATION

I/ Aims: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to :
* Distinguish two sounds /e/ and /æ/
* Produce sounds /e/ and /æ/ accurately
* Use words containing these sounds to form sentences and use them in
conversation
II/ Teaching aids: handouts, colorchalk, pictures, radio, cassette tape
III/ Methods: Integrated, giving instruction (30%) and communicative
(70%)
IV/ Anticipated problems: Level of students may be different, maybe time
have to be given more to those slow ones.
V/ PROCEDURE (10 minutes)
Teacher’s activities
Ss’ activities
* T introduce the sound and give

instruction
a. Introduction: Minimal pair /e/ and /æ/
T asks Sts to open the book At the page 39

- Sts open the book
- Sts look at sounds on the board

T writes a set of words on the board:
Men

said

met (group 1)

Man

sad

mat (group 2)

T asks Ss what the common point of
sounds in group 1 and what the common
point of sounds in group 2

- Answer the T’ question

- Listen to the teacher.

=> Raises Ss’ awareness about /e/ and
/æ/which most Ss fail to recognize the

difference between them.
Giving sample and instruction:

- Write down two sounds.

– Write two sounds on the board and
pronounce them clearly twice, then ask sts
to repeat.
– Reviews how to pronounce two sounds.
T sticks the image on the board
- Sts look at the board and listen to
14


T to see the difference between two
sounds

The clearest difference is that /e/ is spoken
with a wider, more stretched mouth. You
can make this clear by seeing how your
mouth gets wider and wider as you go
from /æ/ to /e/ to /i:/.

.

– Calls some Ss to read sounds aloud and
makes correction.
- T writes down more pairs :
Axe- X
Back- bek

- Read sounds aloud

Can- Ken
- T asks to read in chorus. Then T asks sts
to read sentences in the book
- Then ask sts to work in pairs to read the
words again so that they can check for
each other.
- Move around to help .

- Read in chorus

- Ask two sts to read again and give
remarks.

- Read these words in pairs and
b. Ask sts to look at sentences in page 39 check for their partners.
in the book.
- Ask the to work in pairs to read the
sentences and then find out the words
containing sound /e/ and the words
containing sound /æ /.

- Look at the book and work

15


- Ask them to work in 4 minutes.

individually

- Move around to conduct the activity.
- Ask one st to report and other sts to give
remarks.

- Answers:
/e/

/æ /

red

fat

- Ask some sts to read these sentences
aloud.

pen

man

- Listen and give remarks.

sent

handbag

c. T opens the tapes with words

containing sounds / e / and /æ /, then T
asks Sts to write the transcription of the
sounds they hear.

Helen

apples

said

pans

- Check and give the correct answers.

- Do the activity

- T asks Sts to pronounce the sounds at
home, record it and hand it to T, so that T
can correct Sts’ pronunciation carefully.
- Pronounce the sounds at home,
record it and hand it to T

2.6. Results
This year, I taught 10A1- the best and 10A10- the worst class in English in
th
10 grade. Both these classes couldn’t do well in pronunciation.
After I applied some methods to improve their pronunciation. I asked my
sts to do a pronuncation test. The result is satisfactory.
Class Time
Exellent sts Quite good sts Average sts Bad sts

st
10A1 1 term
5%
`17 %
68 %
10 %
nd
10A1 2 term
10 %
33 %
53 %
4%
st
10A10 1 term
0%
5%
14%
81 %
nd
10A10 2 term
3%
8%
19 %
70 %
Excellent : 9-10 points
Quite good: 7-8,9 points
Average: 5-6,9 points
Bad: < 5 points

16

III. CONCLUSION
1. Limitations of the study
Being one of the teachers of English at YD2SS, I can see clearly the current
situation of lerning English pronunciation here. Therefore, I have conducted this
with a view to finding out errors made by the 10 th form students. However,
because of some reasons, I only focus on vowel and consonant pronunciation
without referring to stress and intonation.
Although I have tried best to offer some insightful findings through the
study; however, the limitations are unavoidable. I only have taught for several
year so that I do not have much experience and my suggestions are quite simple.
I would like to receive ideas from my colleges.
2. Suggestions for further research
On the basis of the findings and the limitations of the study, several
suggestions for further research are made.
As indicated in the findings, the students have coped up with a number of
difficulties in learning pronunciation. Therefore, more studies effectiveness of
pronunciation lessons should be carried out. Apparently, an analysis on students’
face-saving when they don’t want to practice Enlish (because of their bad
English pronunciation) should be carried out to get deeper insights into this
issue.
Researches on stress and intonation among students should be conducted
Additionally, it is also needed to study more about teaching strategies
needed to teach English effectively for particular ethnic minority students to
make their English learning successful.

Xác nhận của thủ trưởng đơn vị
P. Hiệu trưởng

Yên Định, ngày 15 tháng 05 năm
2016
Tôi xin cam đoan đây là sáng kiến
kinh nghiệm của mình viết, không sao
chép nội dung của người khác.
Người thực hiện

Lê Thị Sáu

17


REFERENCES
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Pronunciation A
Reference to Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Langugages. Cambridge
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Lê Quang Thiêm ( 2004). Nghiên Cứu Đối Chiếu Các Ngôn Ngữ. Hà Nội : Nhà
xuất bản đại học quốc gia Hà Nội
Avery, & Ehrlich. (1992). Teaching American English pronunciation. Oxford:
University Press.
Celce-Murcia, M., & Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin (1996). Teaching
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languages. Cambridge University Press.
Honey P. J. (1987). Vietnamese speakers. In M. Swan & B. Smith, Learner
English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems. (1st ed., pp. 243248). London: Cambridge University Press.
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Christian, P. (2002) Surname Variation and Surname Matching Algorithms.
Cook, A. (1991) American Accent Training. Matrix Press.

Corder, S.P. (1967). The Significance of Learner’s Errors. International Review
of Applied Linguistics 5:4, 161-170
Tam Ha Cam, English phonetics and phonology, A course book for students of
the English department, Đại học quốc gia Hà Nội, 1999.
Websites
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