THE LEVEL OFFIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS’AWARENESS OF USING DICTIONARY IN PRACTICING PRONUNCIATIONAT CAN THO UNIVERSITY

CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

THE LEVEL OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH
MAJORS’ AWARENESS OF USING
DICTIONARY IN PRACTICING
PRONUNCIATION AT CAN
THO UNIVERSITY
B.A. Thesis

Supervisor
Lê Thị Huyền, M.A

Researcher
Nguyễn Thị Nhuyễn
Student ID: 7062914
Class: NN0652A1
Course: 32

Cần Thơ, March 2010


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to send my sincere gratitude to my supervisor - Mrs
Lê Thị Huyền who has given me much valuable suggestions, advice,
encouragement, and support to complete the writing of my thesis. I will never
forget the period of time working with you. In fact, I have learnt a lot from you.
Hopefully, one day we can continue our collaboration in any ways. I want to say
that I love you and I am really glad and proud that I have become your “đệ tử” in
my life.

Second of all, I want to give my special appreciation and thanks to 53
students of English Education course 35 for their enthusiasm and support in
providing the data for this study, without whose valuable assistance, this work
would not have been possible.
I also received much help and encouragement from my classmates during I
did the thesis. Hence, I would like to send my great thanks to them who supplied
me helpful comments and suggestions.
Last but not least, I thank my family: my parents and my siblings, who
understand me, love me, care for me, and give me unconditional support. I thank
you for always being there for me, enabling me to be who I am and where I am
today.
Thanks again to all who helped me!

Nguyen Thi Nhuyen – 2010

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Table of contents............................................................................................... 3
List of tables ..................................................................................................... 4
Abstracts ......................................................................................................... 5
1.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................ 6

2.

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................... 10

2.1.

The definition of pronunciation ...................................................................... 10

2.2.

Teaching and learning pronunciation ............................................................ 10

2.2.1. Trends in pronunciation teaching ................................................................... 10
2.2.2. Pronunciation goals ........................................................................................ 11
2.2.3. The important role of pronunciation ............................................................... 11
2.2.4. Teaching pronunciation explicitly need to be focused ................................... 13
2.2.5. Factors affecting pronunciation learning ........................................................ 14
2.2.6. Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English ........ ….18
2.3.

Background of my study……………………………………………………….19

3.

CHAPTER 3: METHOD.............................................................................. 21

3.1.

Research design ............................................................................................. 21

3.2.

Description of participants and instruments .................................................... 21

3.3.

Research procedures ...................................................................................... 23

4.

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS ........................................................................... 25

4.1. Some typical sounds that students mispronounce when reading
phonetic transcription in dictionary .......................................................................... 25
4.2. The level of students’ awareness of using dictionary to practice pronunciation.27
4.3. The frequency level of students’ using dictionary to practice pronunciation .... 28
4.4. Possible reasons why students have problems in their pronunciation learning.. 30
5.

CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ........................................ 35
REFERENCES .......................................................................................... 38
APPENDICES ............................................................................................ 44

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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 3.2.2.
Clusters of the questionnaire .................................................................................... 23
Table 4.2.

The overall mean score of students’ awareness of using dictionary
to practice pronunciation ......................................................................................... 27
Table 4.2.a.
The mean score of specific levels of students’ awareness of using dictionary
to practice pronunciation ......................................................................................... 28
Table 4.3.
The frequency levels of students’ using dictionary to practice pronunciation ........... 29
Table 4.3.a.
The frequency levels of specific levels of students’ using dictionary to
practice pronunciation ............................................................................................. 29
Table 4.4.
The overall mean score of possible reasons why students mispronounce some
typical sounds when reading phonetic transcription in dictionary ............................. 31
Table 4.4.1.
The mean score of three groups in possible reasons why students mispronounce
some typical sounds when reading phonetic transcription in dictionary ................... 31
Table 4.4.1.a.
Descriptive Statistics of teachers’ role ..................................................................... 33
Table 4.4.1.b.
Descriptive Statistics of instructions ........................................................................ 33

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ABSTRACT
This study was conducted from January to the beginning of March, 2010 in Can
Tho University. The participants were 53 first year English major students in Can Tho
University. In this paper, we examine the level of first year students’ awareness of using

dictionary in practicing pronunciation. This is a descriptive research, in which the data
from 53 questionnaires were treated by SPSS 11.5 (Norusis, 2000). It was found that
students are often aware of the important role of using dictionary (M= 5.05, SD= .72)
with 1 - Never (0%), 2 - Rarely (1%-10%), 3 - Seldom (10%-25%), 4 - Sometimes (25%75%), 5 - Often (75%-90%), and 6 - Usually (90%-99%). Nevertheless, it was also found
that students sometimes use dictionary to practice pronunciation (M= 4.42, SD= .98).
However, students have faced many difficulties in pronouncing English sounds. The first
reasons may be students’ understanding of phonetic transcriptions (M= 3.74, SD=.95).
Especially, students rarely received instructions or trainings on how to read phonetic
transcriptions from their teachers (M= 2.97, SD= 1.30). From the results, the researcher
proposes that teachers not only ask students to use dictionary in practicing pronunciation
inside as well as outside classrooms but also train them the techniques of reading
phonetic transcriptions carefully.

TÓM LƯỢC
Nghiên cứu này thực hiện từ 11/01/2010 đến 11/03/2010 tại Trường Đại học Cần
Thơ với đối tượng nghiên cứu là 53 em sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành Sư phạm
Anh văn, thuộc Khoa Sư phạm, Trường Đại học Cần Thơ. Theo đó, mức độ nhận thức
của sinh viên về việc sử dụng từ điển như nguồn tác động trong việc học ngữ âm của họ
được điều tra và số liệu nghiên cứu từ 53 phiếu điều tra được xử lý bằng phần mềm SPSS
11,5 (Norusis, 2000). Kết quả cho thấy sinh viên thường nhận thức được vai trò quan
trọng của việc sử dụng từ điển để học ngữ âm (M= 5.05, SD= .72 với 1 - Không Bao Giờ
(0%), 2 - Hiếm Khi (1%-10%), 3 - Ít Khi (10%-25%), 4 - Thỉnh Thoảng (25%-75%), 5 Thường (75%-90%), and 6 – Rất Thường (90%-99%). Tuy nhiên, sinh viên chỉ thỉnh
thoảng sử dụng từ điển để học ngữ âm (M= 4.42, SD= .98). Mặc dù vậy, thực tế thì những
sinh viên này lại gặp nhiều khó khăn trong việc phát ra những âm tiếng Anh. Lý do có thể
là khả năng về ngữ âm của sinh viên (M= 3.74, SD= .95). Đặc biệt, sinh viên hiếm khi
nhận được sự chỉ dẫn từ giáo viên (M= 2.97, SD= 1.30). Từ kết quả nghiên cứu, tác giả
kiến nghị giáo viên không những thường xuyên yêu cầu sinh viên sử dụng từ điển để thực
hành ngữ âm trong cũng như ngoài lớp học mà còn dạy cho họ những cách đọc các ký
hiệu ngữ âm thật cẩn thận.

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, I would like to state general statement of the problem; statement of the
hypotheses, objectives, or questions. Besides, general organization and coverage of the study are
also included afterwards.

1.1 . General statement of the problem
There is no doubt that dictionaries are very useful. Knowing how to use
dictionaries is important for students, especially English Education students who will
teach many students in high school. However, in Viet Nam, students do not have
environment to practice English pronunciation. High school teachers formerly focus on
teaching grammar and vocabulary. Listening, speaking, and writing are also trained
recently. Thus, I believe that dictionary is one of the best friends to help students produce
English sounds accurately because students can find out how to produce a word by
checking a good dictionary to see what the correct pronunciation is supposed to be. In
fact, dictionaries give single word phonetic transcriptions which can greatly improve
students’ pronunciation skills. Wells (2001) defined phonetic transcription as “the use of
phonetic symbols to represent speech sounds”. Wells (2001) also suggested that ideally,
each sound in a spoken utterance is represented by a written phonetic symbol, so as to
furnish a record sufficient to render possible the accurate reconstruction of the utterance.
In 1992, Avery and Ehrlich strongly suggest that learners may improve their
performance and feel confident with regular practice. Nevertheless, no one encourages
and instructs students how to read phonetic transcription accurately and effectively or
how to use dictionary when pronouncing English sounds. Specifically, teachers just show

them how a word is spelt, what it means, and what part of speech it can be from
dictionaries. As McKeown (1993) said "dictionary consultation assumes a lexical,
linguistic sophistication on the part of the user. It demands the user possess broad
semantic categories to relate the unfamiliar word". On the same philosophy, Taylor
(2003) confirms an English - English dictionary as an essential and invaluable resource
for English second language students at various levels, yet many of the dictionaries
recommended to students are too sophisticated for students’ lexical abilities.
Furthermore, not only can dictionary consultation assist students, it is considered the
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initial step in learning a new word (Gonzalez, 1999). As a result, when speaking to native
speakers, students are often surprised at how the phonetic transcriptions seem to not
always match pronunciation used in connected speech. In other words, they often have
lots of difficulties in pronouncing English sounds, especially in reading phonetic
transcription from dictionaries.
Actually, there are many researchers such as Rants (1991), Holstein (1993),
Uppercut and Day (1993), Laufer and Melamed (1994), Knight (1994), Nits and Oceanic
(1995), Laufer and Kimmel (1997), Laufer (1998), Summers (1998), Fraser (1999),
Laufer and Hill (2000), Rhoder & Huerster (2002), Thirumalai (2007), who have
conducted research to study the role of dictionary in vocabulary learning. I realized that
there was no body who studied the role of dictionary in learning pronunciation, especially
reading phonetic transcription in dictionary to practice pronunciation. Now, I am teaching
at Phan Ngoc Hien high school (in the Teaching Practicum Course), after that I will
become a teacher. In my mind, I really want to help my students study well, especially in
pronunciation because pronunciation is a key element of the learning of oral skills in a
second language. The students need to understand how sounds are produced to deliver
communication efficiency in interaction. Moreover, knowing the phonetic transcription

of the English words is a vital importance for students in the university in order to
understand what lecturers are speaking or even to engage in day to day conversations.
Because of these reasons, I wanted to do a research related to using dictionary in
practicing pronunciation of students. I named my thesis as “The level of first year English
majors’ awareness of using dictionary in practicing pronunciation at Can Tho
University”. In the following part, I would like to state statement of the hypotheses,
objectives, or questions.
1.2. Statement of the hypotheses, objectives, or questions
1.2.1. Statement of the hypotheses
I hypothesize that
1. Students often mispronounced some typical sounds when reading phonetic
transcription in dictionary.
2. Students’ awareness of using dictionary to practice pronunciation was low.
3. Students did not use dictionary to practice pronunciation.
1.2.2. Statement of the objectives
In this research, I want to:
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1. find out some typical sounds that students often mispronounce when reading
phonetic transcription in dictionary.
2. measure the extent of the first year English major students’ awareness of using
dictionary to practice pronunciation.
3. find out the frequency level of students’ using dictionary to practice
pronunciation.
1.2.3. Research questions
The study is about the level of the first year English major students’ awareness of
using dictionary to practice pronunciation. Hence, I want to find out the answers for the

following questions:
1. What are some typical sounds that students often mispronounce when reading
phonetic transcription in dictionary?
2. To which extent are first year English major students aware of using dictionary
to practice pronunciation?
3. How often do students use dictionary to practice pronunciation?
In the last part of this chapter, I will mention general organization and coverage of
the study.
1.3. General organization and coverage of the study
My thesis consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1 is the introduction. It consists of general statement of the problem;
statement of the hypotheses, objectives, or questions; as well as general organization and
coverage of the study.
Chapter 2 is the review of the literature. It relates to the definition of pronunciation
and teaching and learning pronunciation (trends, goals, the important role of
pronunciation, teaching pronunciation explicitly need to be focused, factors affecting
pronunciation learning, common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of
English).
Chapter 3 is about research method. It deals to research design; description of
participants and instruments; and research procedures.
Chapter 4 is about research findings, including some typical sounds that students
often mispronounce when reading phonetic transcription in dictionary, the result of the
level of students’ awareness of using dictionary and the frequency level of students’
using dictionary to practice pronunciation. Possible reasons why students mispronounce
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some typical sounds when reading phonetic transcription in dictionary are also mentioned

in this section.
Chapter 5 is the summary and discussion. It will summarize of research problems,
research methods, and findings as well as present the discussion about the result of the
research in terms of the original hypothesis, pedagogical implications, limitations and
recommendations for future research.

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CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
In this chapter, I will review the definition of pronunciation. In addition, my other major
concerns will be some information related to teaching and learning pronunciation including
trends, goals, and the important role of pronunciation. The factors which affect pronunciation
learning are also supplied in this chapter. Besides, a large part of this chapter will be concerned
with common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English.

2.1. The definition of pronunciation
According to Murphy (1991), most people think of pronunciation as the sounds we
make while speaking. Those most of us think in terms of speech production, the
Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistic emphasizes “the way sounds are perceive by
the hearer” to define pronunciation (Richards, Platt, and Weber, 1992, p. 296). On the
other hand, pronunciation is the way in which a word is pronounced or the way a person
speaks the words of a language (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary). However,
pronunciation is considered as the act of articulating syllables, words, and phrases with
regard to the production of sounds and the placing of stress, intonation, etc. (Webster’s
Dictionary). In my opinion, pronunciation is the mode of uttering words or sentences. In

other words, it refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning. In the
next part, I will review theories on teaching and learning pronunciation.
2.2. Teaching and learning pronunciation
2.2.1. Trends in pronunciation teaching
Current trends in pronunciation pedagogy have been affected by disciplines like
psychology, linguistics, sociology, semiotics, and computer technology to a great extent.
Celce-Murcia (1987) and Anderson-Hsieh (1989) pointed out “since the advent of the
communicative approach, pronunciation has been recognized a key role in improving the
learner’s oral skills and contributing to the success of oral communication”. Indeed, by
improving the learner’s oral skills, an accurate pronunciation is believed to help the
learner increase self-confidence, promote social interactions outside the classroom
(Florez, 1998; Morley, 1994), and contribute to clarity and efficiency in professional
exchanges (Neri, Cucchiarini, and Boves, 2002). More recent trends in pronunciation
teaching and learning have abandoned assumptions, current in the audio-lingual era, that
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native-like accuracy was the goal, and intelligible communication is seen as an
achievable aim for most learners (Scarcella and Oxford, 1994; Celce-Murcia, et al. 1996).
Welcome now to the question of what goals should be set for learners?
2.2.2. Pronunciation goals
Bowen (1972) proposes three realistic goals for the teaching of pronunciation: (a)
ability to communicate orally with ease and efficiency; (b) ability to produce the basic
contrasts of the target language sound system; and (c) ability to understand fluent speech
as produced by native speakers. The accomplishment of such goals might benefit from
the use of an eclectic approach to the teaching of pronunciation, especially for postpuberty language learners. For Bowen, the success of pronunciation instruction depends
essentially on motivating the learner by integrating pronunciation with the other elements
of instruction, which might be accomplished by contextualizing the pronunciation lesson.

However, Morley (1991) identified the four basic pronunciation goals of functional
intelligibility, functional communicability, increased self-confidence, speech monitoring
ability and speech modification strategies.
We can claim that pronunciation is the first and essential step to one’s second
language acquisition because if it is not well-acquired especially at the early learning
stage, other aspects of English learning will be negatively affected. Due to the numerous
English varieties as well as the changing definition of Standard English, we should not
simply set up a goal of teaching any of the varieties, but rather, provide a variety of
opportunities for our students to learn, practice and realize the important role of this
language.
2.2.3. The important role of pronunciation
As we know, pronunciation is an integrated and integral part of language learning.
It consists of elements much wider than sounds of consonants and vowels. It includes the
elements of rhythm and intonation, which support the communicative process. That is to
say, anyone who wants to gain communicative competence has to study pronunciation. In
fact, in Morley’ opinion, pronunciation plays an important role in helping the learner
become an intelligible speaker (1998). Richards and Renandya (2002) believe that
teaching can play an important role in helping learners develop ways of improving their
pronunciation and shaping their attitude toward the importance of pronunciation while
Chen (2007) indicates the role of pronunciation in second language acquisition

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pronunciation was a key ingredient of communicative competence and a more balanced
approach that valued both accuracy and fluency.
In contrast, there are some researchers (Suter, 1976, Purcell & Suter, 1980) who
have cast doubt on the importance of pronunciation in English foreign language teaching.

According to them, pronunciation practice in class has little, if any, effect on learners'
pronunciation skills – “the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is a
matter substantially beyond the control of educators” (Suter, 1976; Purcell & Suter,
1980). Central to Pennington’s point of view is that the most important part of learning a
second language rests on pronunciation (1994). Interestingly, Wong (1993) adds that
even when the non-native speakers’ vocabulary and grammar are excellent, if their
pronunciation falls below a certain threshold level; they are unable to communicate
effectively. Wong also demonstrates that “a lack of knowledge of pronunciation could
even affect learners' reading and spelling and the importance of pronunciation is even
more distinct when the connection between pronunciation and listening comprehension is
taken into account” (1993, pp. 45-46). Accordingly, Siska (2009), pronunciation is one of
the three aspects of language, together with grammar and vocabulary. It plays an
important part in listening, and speaking skills, so developing student’s pronunciation is
one of the most significant jobs for English teachers.
Almost all learners rate pronunciation as a priority and an area in which they need
more guidance (Willing, 1993) because English, both written and spoken, has been
accepted as the dominant means of communication for most of the world but some
misunderstandings have been caused by inappropriate pronunciation (Yong, 1993). Poor
pronunciation can condemn learners to less social, academic and work advancement than
they deserved (Fraser, 1999, 2000) while good pronunciation may make the
communication easier and more relaxed and thus more successful (Dan, 2006).
Furthermore, pronunciation is important not only to communicate ideas easily but also to
understand other speakers well. It is particularly important to integrate pronunciation into
beginner classes as it will, from the very beginning, help avoid the risks of fossilization
and stabilization of pronunciation habits (Ritchie & Bhatia, 2008).
Baker (1992) concluded: “Pronunciation is very important and learners should pay
close attention to pronunciation as early as possible”. Therefore, pronunciation should be
taught in all second language classes through a variety of activities (Scarcella & Oxford,
1994).
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2.2.4. Teaching pronunciation explicitly need to be focused
The way we speak immediately conveys something about ourselves to the people
around us. Therefore, learners with good pronunciation in English are more likely to be
understood even if they make errors in other areas, whereas learners whose pronunciation
is difficult to understand will not be understood, even if their grammar is perfect.
Actually, we also often judge people by the way they speak, and so learners with poor
pronunciation may be judged as incompetent, untrained or lacking in knowledge, even
though listeners are only reacting to their pronunciation. Morley (1991) and Pennington
(1996) confirm that pronunciation training is essential for successful communication
since it strongly contributes to ‘speaker intelligibility’ (Jenkins, 2000), i.e. the ability of
the speaker to produce speech that can be easily processed by the listener at the
phonological and prosodic level. However, many adult learners find pronunciation one of
the most difficult aspects of English to acquire, and need explicit help from the teacher
(Morley, 1994 and Fraser, 2000).
Sharing the same viewpoints, teachers now agree that explicit pronunciation
teaching is an essential part of language courses (Fraser, 1999). Firstly, confidence with
pronunciation allows learners the interaction with native speakers that is so essential for
all aspects of their linguistic development. Secondly, poor pronunciation degrades good
language skills and condemns learners to less than their deserved social, academic and
work advancement. Nonetheless, the learners’ ability to communicate is severely limited
without adequate pronunciation skills because limited pronunciation skills can undermine
learners’ self confidence, restrict social interactions and negatively influence estimations
of a speaker’s credibility and abilities (Morley, 1998). With the emphasis on meaningful
communication and Morley's (1991) premise, that “intelligible pronunciation is an
essential component of communication competence”, teachers should include
pronunciation in their courses and expect their learners to do well in them.

Although Morley (1991) states that it is necessary to teach English pronunciation
in the English foreign language or English foreign language classroom, this important
area is still neglected or ignored at many universities and colleges around the world.
Indeed, teaching English pronunciation is still surprisingly and shockingly neglected in
many English foreign language settings. For example, in China, an English phonetics
course is simply left to chance or given no place at all in English teaching and learning
(Cheng, 1998). In addition, a pronunciation course is still only an elective in the
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universities or colleges. According to Lin, Fan and Chen (1995), some teachers in Taiwan
might argue that English pronunciation is not important at all, for very few tests would
require students to show abilities related to pronunciation or speaking. In the U.S.A,
many students and teachers believe that spending time on pronunciation is useless
because it would be difficult, if not impossible for students to hear differences, for
instance, between ship and sheep (Wong, 1993). Similarly, English pronunciation is
simply ignored in the curriculum of some universities in Thailand (Wei and Zhou, 2002;
Syananondh, 1983). In Mexico, pronunciation was described as “the Cinderella of
language teaching”; which means an often low level of emphasis was placed on this very
important language skill (Dalton, 2002).
In short, English pronunciation is great important as the other aspects and skills of
the English language, such as vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, and so on.
Pronunciation is a crucial part of communication, especially through listening and
speaking. Consequently, pronunciation components have to be incorporated in the
materials, classroom activities and testing tools; and the teachers have to be focused on
teaching English pronunciation on balance with other language skills. In the following
part, I am going to review some factors affecting pronunciation learning.
2.2.5. Factors affecting pronunciation learning

According to Riyadh (2005), the pronunciation of any learner might be affected by
a combination of factors which some researchers, and Gillette (1994), and Pennington
(1994) believe to promote or impede pronunciation mastery. These factors include age,
personality, mother tongue influence, gender and learning context. It is well
acknowledged that age, personality and the first language background are the most
important factors that affect learners’ mastery of the second language pronunciation.
These factors are briefly summarized below.
2.2.5.1. Age
Is there an age related limit on the mastery of pronunciation in a second language?
We will briefly summarize the findings of a few of the studies that have been carried out
and look at some of the recent research on this topic.
It is generally believed that younger learners have certain advantages over older
learners in language learning. The common notion is that younger children learn the
second language easily and quickly in comparison to older children (Mayberry & Lock,
2003; Ellis, 2008; Larsen-Freeman, 2008). As reported by Lightbown and Spada (2008),
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learning depends on learners’ characteristics and the environment. Their findings
suggested that older learners have a higher level of problem solving and metalinguistics
abilities than younger learners. On the other hand, Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle (1978),
from their research carried in Holland, concluded that adults learned faster than children
and the rate of second language learning was higher. In 1998, Singleton also declared that
the tendency for “younger learners to do better in the long run in the matter of second
language lexical acquisition is no more than a tendency” (p. 22). Furthermore, Patkowski
(1982) carried out a research on 67 highly educated immigrants to the United States from
various backgrounds. In his control subjects, 33 subjects were those who had come to the
United States before the age of 15 (pre-puberty group) and 34 subjects who were postpuberty group with similar backgrounds. He examined the spoken English of the subjects,

and analyzed “a difference between learners who began to learn English before puberty
and those who began learning English later after puberty” (Patkowski, 1982, p. 58). His
results showed a strong negative relationship between age of arrival and syntactic rating.
He concluded that the pre-puberty group was better in language learning than the postpuberty group. He further addressed:
“…the only factor which was highly associated with the level of syntactic
proficiency attained by learners was the age at which acquisition of English
began. Practice and instructional variables showed little or no association with the
dependent variables. The result, then, appeared to strongly support the hypothesis
of an age-related limitation on the ability to acquire full command of a second
language.” (Patkowski, 1982, p. 59)

One of the supporting evidences in the field of second language acquisition comes
from the experience of immigrants. A group of researchers have shown a relationship
between age of entry, length of residence and level of language acquisition (Ekstrand,
1982; Singleton, 1998; Bista, 2008; Lightbown & Spada, 2008). Asher and Gracia (1989)
as cited in Bista, 2008, examined acquisition of pronunciation of 71 Cuban immigrants to
California. The subjects were of aged groups from 7 to 19 years. The majority of them
had been in the United States for about five years. They concluded that “not one of the 71
Cuban subjects was judged to have American native pronunciation” (Singleton, 1998, p.
83). They also figured out a fact that the younger a child had been when entering the
United States, the higher the probability of a native like accent. Carroll (1971) also
suggested that the ability to acquire a native like accent declines toward puberty. In 1976,
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Oyama studied 60 male Italian immigrants who entered to the United States at ages
ranging from 6 to 20. She examined the degree of American accent and proficiency in
English listening and she concluded that age is as an important factor to achieve native

like accent. The youngest arrivals performed a better accent. She has shown the relation
of age and listening comprehension as follows:
“…those subjects who began learning English before age 11 showed
comprehension score similar to those of native speakers, whereas later arrivals did
less well; those who arrived after the age of 16 showed markedly lower
comprehension scores than the native.” (Oyama, 1982, p. 23)

In 1967, Ashor and Price (as cited in Singleton, 1998) have carried out an
experiment with 96 students from the second, fourth and eighth grades of a school and 37
undergraduate students from a college. The subjects did not have any previous
knowledge of Russian, the targeted language. After three short trainings conducted in
Russian language, the results showed that the eight graders performed significantly better
than the second graders and the fourth graders. They also noticed a consistently positive
relationship with advancing age because of above average mental ability of the adults. In
other studies on age and Second Language Acquisition, many researchers have
mentioned a similar finding that adult subjects performed better than the children
(Singleton, 1998; Bista, 2008). In other words, the younger learners took more than twice
as long as the older learners. A large scale experiment was conducted by Burstall and her
colleagues (Singleton, 1989) in the 1970s. The study included three age groups of pupils
from selected primary schools in England and Wales. Among the 11 year old, 13 year old
and 16 year old students, the results indicated that older students dramatically achieved
higher score in listening and speaking tests than the younger ones.
Age is not everything in second language learning. However, factors related to the
age, for example the learning opportunities, the motivation to learn, individual
differences, and learning styles, are also important determining variables that affect the
rate of second language learning in various developmental stages of the learners.
2.2.5.2. Personality
Other factor affecting the acquisition of the sound system of a second language is
related to the personality of the learner. Learners who are confident and willing to take
risks probably have more opportunities to practice their pronunciation of the second

language simply because they are more often involved in interactions with native
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speakers. Conversely, learners who are introverted, inhibited, and unwilling to take risks
lack opportunities for practice (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992).
Non-linguistic factors related to an individual’s personality and learning goals,
attitude towards the target language, culture, native speakers, and type of motivation,
which are beyond the teacher’s control, all have their share in the development of
pronunciation skills. In addition, the degree of exposure to and use of the target language
can support or impede pronunciation skills development. For instance, learners who are
confident and get involved in interactions with native speakers are liable to practice their
foreign language pronunciation (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992). In this respect, Miller (2000)
believes that changing – and not changing – speech patterns is affected by how much
responsibility the student takes, how much the student practices outside of class, and how
ready the student is.
2.2.5.3. Mother tongue influence
Kenworthy (1987) claims that native language plays an important role in learning
English pronunciation. Many researches have tried to predict the troubles the learners
could face in learning English pronunciation by comparing the sound systems of English
and the learner's native language. The results showed that the more differences the sound
systems are, the more difficulties the learner will face. In this respect, Avery and Ehrlich
(1992) state that the sound system of the native language can influence the learners’
pronunciation of a target language in at least three ways. Firstly, when there is a sound in
the target language, which is absent from the learners’ native sound inventory, or vice
versa, learners may not be able to produce or even perceive the sound(s). Secondly, when
the rules of combining sounds into words are different in the learners’ mother tongue
from those of the target language, they cause problems for learners because these rules

are language specific as they vary from one language to another. Thirdly, since the
rhythm and melody of a language determine its patterns of stress and intonation, learners
may transfer these patterns into the target language.
Teaching pronunciation is a paramount importance in foreign language learning.
To ensure effective pronunciation teaching, there are certain factors that should be
considered: biological, personal, sociocultural, pedagogic, mother tongue influence, and
setting realistic goals. Nevertheless, pronunciation teaching should not only focus on
segmental features, i.e., teaching specific sounds or nuances of sounds, but also on
suprasegmental or prosodic features, i.e., stress, rhythm, pitch, and intonation, which
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greatly contribute to communication. Of course, all these cannot be achieved unless
teachers follow certain principles of effective pronunciation teaching: learning to describe
pronunciation, creating a non-threatening atmosphere, and teaching pronunciation step by
step. In the section that follows, we present a description of common pronunciation
problems of Vietnamese learners of English.
2.2.6. Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English (as
cited in Avery & Ehrlich, 1992)
As the sound systems of English and Vietnamese differ greatly, Vietnamese
speakers can have quite severe pronunciation problems. Vietnamese is a tone language;
that is, pitch changes distinguish word meaning. Most words in Vietnamese consist of
only one syllable; there are fewer consonants than in English and there are no consonant
clusters. On the other hand, the Vietnamese vowel system makes a large number of
distinctions and, therefore, speakers of Vietnamese do not experience too much difficulty
with the English vowels. Vietnamese uses a modified Roman alphabet but many of the
letters have quite different sound values from those of English. Common pronunciation
problems of Vietnamese learners of English include consonant problems and vowel

problems. First of all, I will mention about consonant problems.
2.2.6.1. Consonants
a. Word-final voiceless stop consonants: /p/, /t/, and /k/
In Vietnamese, the voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ occur at the end of a
word, but these consonants are never released in final position and are much shorter than
their English equivalents. This means that even when Vietnamese speakers pronounce
these consonants in final position, English speakers may have difficulty hearing them.
Thus, two words such as “beat” may sound like “bee” and “cake” may sound like “k”.
b. Voice 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 need
practice in distinguishing between voiced and voiceless stops in this position. For
example, words such as “cap” and “cab” may sound identical, with a short unreleased /p/
at the end of both words.
c. Word-final fricative consonants: /f/, /v/, /θ/ as in “truth”, /ð/ as in “bathe”,
/s/, /z/, /∫/ as in “wash”, and /ʒ/ as in “beige”
As fricatives do not occur in word-final position in Vietnamese, Vietnamese
speakers may omit fricatives at the ends of words. A sentence such as:
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The boys always pass the garage on their way home.
may sound like:
The boys alway pa the gara on their way home.
d. Consonant clusters
As Vietnamese has no consonant clusters in initial or final position, Vietnamese
speakers must learn to produce a large variety of new syllable types that contain
consonant clusters. Generally, Vietnamese speakers tend to delete one or more
consonants from a difficult cluster.

e. /θ/ and /ð/ as in “think” and “this”
Vietnamese speakers will often produce a heavily aspirated stop /t/ instead of /θ/ in
words like “think”. This is probably on the orthographic system of Vietnamese, where the
letter combination th represents a heavily aspirated /t/. They will usually substitute a /d/
for /ð/ in words like “this”.
f. Word-final / t∫/ as in “march”
Once Vietnamese speakers have learned to produce the fricative /∫/ in word-final
position, they may substitute /∫/ for /t∫/, saying “marsh” instead of “march”.
g. Problem /p/ vs. /f/ and /b/
As /p/ does not occur in initial position in Vietnamese, Vietnamese speakers may
substitute a /b/ or a /f/ for /p/. Thus, “put” may sound like “foot”, and “Peter” may sound
like “beater”.
2.2.6.2. Vowels
a. Tense vs. lax vowels: /i: / vs. /I/, /e: / vs. /e/, /u: / vs. /u/
While Vietnamese makes many vowel distinctions, the English tense/lax vowel
pairs can still pose difficulties for Vietnamese learners. For instance, Vietnamese students
cannot usually distinguish between “fool” and “full” or “seat” and “sit”.
b. Problem /e/ vs. /æ/
Vietnamese speakers may have difficulty distinguishing between /e/ and /æ/ as in
“bed” and “bad” or “men” and “man”.
2.3. Background of my study
Thrush, Baldwin, and Blass (2007) in Interactions Access Listening and Speaking,
advice English learners:

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“You can use the Internet to find out how to pronounce words. Try using the

keywords pronouncing dictionary. Combine these with the keyword English to
limit your results”. (Thrush, Baldwin, and Blass, 2007, p. 77)

These authors raise big awareness of using pronouncing dictionary. It means that
using dictionary is very helpful and practical. Actually, it is extremely important in
pronouncing words, practicing pronunciation or learning English for communicating and
conversational English.
Practically, it is difficult for me to find out related studies. I did not find out any
materials related to the important role of using dictionary in practicing pronunciation,
especially reading phonetic transcription in dictionary to practice pronunciation. I just
found out the important role of using dictionary in reading skill. This is the reason why I
could not review theories as well as give the evidence of related studies about using
dictionary in practicing pronunciation in my literature review.
Personally, in my learning experiences, using dictionary to practice pronunciation
is very important. If I use dictionary in practicing pronunciation, I believe that my
pronunciation will be improve greatly. However, no one encourages me to use dictionary
to practice pronunciation or trains me how to read phonetic transcriptions from dictionary
from high school to university. Furthermore, no body raises my awareness of using
dictionary to practice pronunciation in all of my pronunciation courses. Therefore, my
awareness of using dictionary to practice pronunciation is low. In fact, I still
mispronounce many English sounds and do not sound close to native speakers although I
study with native teachers. Indeed, native teachers do not train me how to use dictionary
to practice pronunciation. Because of these reasons, I conducted the research.
In chapter two, I have focused on reviewing the definition of pronunciation. In
addition, I have also reviewed related literature on teaching and learning pronunciation
including trends, goals, the important role of pronunciation and teaching pronunciation
explicitly need to be focused. Besides, the factors which affect pronunciation learning
and common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English are also
mentioned in this chapter. In the next chapter, chapter three, I will present the method I
chose to conduct my study.

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CHAPTER 3

METHOD
The previous chapter, chapter two, has presented my literature review concerning
teaching and learning pronunciation. In this chapter, I will present the research design;
description of participants and instruments; and research procedures.

3.1. Research design
This research follows a descriptive approach to find out some typical sounds that
students usually mispronounce when reading phonetic transcription in dictionary.
Especially, I want to survey the extent of the awareness and the level of frequency of
using dictionary to practice pronunciation of first year English major students.
3.2. Description of participants, instruments
3.2.1. Participants
53 English major students (Course 35) at Can Tho University were invited to
participate in my study. They were asked to fill out the questionnaire consisting of 19
items.
3.2.2. Research instruments
a. Questionnaire on students’ awareness of using dictionary to practice
pronunciation
To measure the level of students’ awareness of using dictionary in practicing
pronunciation, one questionnaire was prepared. The students’ awareness of using
dictionary to practice pronunciation was measured by a nineteen-item-questionnaire on
awareness in learning pronunciation. The questionnaire was partly adapted from Burridge

(1981), Byggate (2005), Avery and Ehrlich (1992), Brown (1994), Claire (1994), Hoang
(1993), Gillette (1994), Graham (1994) and Pennington (1996), Celce-Murcia, Brinton
and Goodwin (1996), Spada (1993), Morley (1998), Fraser (2000), Yates (2001), Ur
(1996), Luu (2006), and The Swedish Self-Assessment Materials (1998). The
questionnaire was also partly designed basing on what I read from books in Learning
Resource Center and library of School of Education, especially some dictionaries such as
Oxford University English dictionary, English - Vietnamese dictionary, and Webster’s

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new dictionary. (See Appendix 3 for detailed description of the adaptation and design of
the questionnaire).
In my thesis, I wanted to measure the level of “how often” the students have
awareness of using dictionary in practicing pronunciation. Thus, I employed the sevenpoint scale of frequency adverbs for my pilot questionnaire from Basic English Grammar,
(2nd ed.) (Adapted from Azar, 1999). However, in my questionnaire, I changed a little bit
from the original scale that goes from Never (0%), Rarely (1%-10%), Seldom (10%25%), Sometimes (25%-75%), Often (75%-90%), to Usually (90%-99%). I chose sixpoint scale of frequency adverbs because of several reasons. First of all, in fact, I had
chosen seven-point scale of frequency adverbs from Never (0%), Rarely (1%-10%),
Seldom (10%-25%), Sometimes (25%-75%), Often (75%-90%), Usually (90%-99%) to
Always (100%) for my pilot questionnaire. Nevertheless, after I checked the pilot
questionnaire’s internal consistency, I realized that the participants (61 students) checked
“Never”, “Rarely”, “Seldom”, “Sometimes”, “Often” or “Usually”, no one chose
“Always” in their answers. In addition, they evaluated their level of pronunciation by
themselves – it is “poor” or “so-so”; and “quite good” is a low rate. Therefore, in this
case, I think that the scale of “Always” is not necessary for my study. On the other hand,
the scale of “Always” (100%) is very absolute and general. I believe that it is difficult for
me to find out someone reading phonetic transcription in dictionary to practice
pronunciation whenever and wherever. The evidence is that most of participants are not

confident to chose “Always” for their practicing pronunciation wherever they can and
whenever they can. In my mind, the scale of “Usually” (90%-99%) is enough and
suitable for my measure the level of “how often” the students have awareness of using
dictionary in practicing pronunciation. Because of these reasons, I took out “Always” and
decided to measure the level of “how often” the students have awareness of using
dictionary in practicing pronunciation with the six-point scale of frequency adverbs as
Never - Không Bao Giờ (0%), Rarely - Hiếm Khi (1%-10%), Seldom - Ít Khi (10%25%), Sometimes - Thỉnh Thoảng (25%-75%), Often - Thường (75%-90%), and Usually
- Rất Thường (90%-99%).
The questionnaire also asked about personal details and experience and language
learning attitudes and perspectives. In addition, basic information about students and their
English language educational background is presented, e.g. major, high school attended,
English learning experiences are also mentioned. There is one other important detail
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about themselves, which I used as hints for me to collect representative samples. They are
the answers of the question: “What do you think your English level is?” It was adapted
from The Swedish Self-Assessment Materials for Learners of English (1998) that reads “I
think my English level of pronunciation is: poor, fair, good, very good, and excellent”. I
changed the options given into “poor, so-so, quite good, good, very good, excellent”,
which reads “kém, tạm được, khá, tốt, rất tốt, and giỏi” in Vietnamese. The questionnaire
has 19 items categorized into three clusters: awareness, practice and possible reasons why
students have problems in their pronunciation learning. (See table 3.2.2.)
Table 3.2.2. Clusters of the questionnaire

Cluster

Aims

Items

1

Awareness

3, 13, 15, 17

2

Practice

1, 4, 10, 11, 16, 19

Possible reasons:

2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 18

3

3.1. Students’ ability

2, 12

3.2. Teachers’ role
3.3. Instruction

5, 8, 14, 18
6, 7, 9

 Piloting the questionnaire
20 items in the pilot questionnaire were printed. The pilot questionnaire was
handed to 61 non-major English students. The pilot questionnaire’s internal consistency
was = .82.
b. Classroom Observations
Three classroom observations were made to see and record 30 English major
students’ reading phonetic transcription of some English words from dictionary, without
any formal pronunciation instruction.
3.3. Research procedures
Firstly, I observed one class of Pronunciation in Practice 2 (Thursday morning,
period 1 and 2, room 109 - C2 building) to record students’ pronunciation of English
words from dictionary. The questionnaire was administered in this class one week later.
Before the participants filled in the questionnaire, I gave them clear and careful
instruction to make sure they understood what they will do. The participants had 10
minutes to fill out the questionnaire. Finally, 53 questionnaires were fully collected.
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This chapter has presented the research method that I used for my study. The next
chapter will be the findings of the study.

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CHAPTER 4

FINDINGS
Chapter three has presented the research method that I used for my study. There are five
sections which were presented: research questions, designs, participants, instruments and
procedures. In this chapter, I will report about the data collected and the statistic analysis.
As I mentioned above, we observed 30 students trying to read phonetic transcription of
more than 60 English words from dictionary without any pronunciation instruction and we
realized that something was wrong. But exactly what was wrong? Therefore, the first small part
in chapter four, I will examine some typical sounds that students often mispronounce when
reading phonetic transcription in dictionary.

4.1. Some typical sounds that students often mispronounce when reading phonetic
transcription in dictionary
4.1.1. Consonants pronunciation problems
Consonants pronunciation problems include pronunciation problems of the
explosive consonants sounds, fricative consonants sounds, affricate consonant sounds,
nasal consonants sounds, glide consonants sounds, and consonant clusters. They will be
presented afterwards.
a. The explosive consonants sounds such as /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/ present to
be the students’ problems in every position. For instance, the explosive consonant sound
/g/, in English, was a voiced sound as it was pronounced. The problem is that students
often do not pronounce /g/ but they pronounce /d ʒ/ instead in “ironmonger, vinegar, etc”.
Besides, many students cannot distinguish the sound between /b/ or /p/ in the word
“insubordinate”. In addition, the final sounds in English are very important to tell what
the word means. Nevertheless, students do not pronounce the ending unvoiced stops /p/,
/t/, /k/. If yes, they do not aspirate these word-final voiceless stop consonants: /p/, /t/, and
/k/ without aspiration (e.g. /p/ “provisory” is pronounced more like a /b/ than a /p/).
b. The fricative consonants sounds like /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /∫/, and /ʒ/ had problems
at highest level in every position. Students had problems with consonants sounds /v/, /θ/,
/ð/, /z/, /∫/, and /ʒ/. The students often omitted fricatives at the ends of words. For
instance, they are used to omitting the sound /s/ in such words as “tenterhooks,

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