A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY VIETNAMESE BEGINNERS OF ENGLISH IN PRONOUNCING AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

VNU UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST-GRADUATE FACULTY

LÊ NGỌC HÂN

A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY
VIETNAMESE BEGINNERS OF ENGLISH IN
PRONOUNCING AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
(Nghiên cứu về những lỗi thường gặp của học viên người Việt khi phát âm
các phụ âm tiếng Anh và cách khắc phục khả hữu)

M.A. Minor Thesis
Major: English Linguistics
Code: 602215

SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Pro.Vo Dai Quang (PhD)

Bacninh, August 2011


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Acknowledgements
On conducting this research, I would like to thank my supervisor Assoc.Pro.Vo Dai
Quang (PhD) for his helpful lectures on Principles of Phonetics and Phonology,
suggestion, crucial advice, constructive and critical comments without which this
research would not have been sucessfully completed.

Also, thanks are sent to my former course mates’research for providing me with such
informative reference for my thesis.

Last but not least, the whole-hearted thanks and debts of gratitude are reserved for
my parents, beloved siblings, friends, students and especially my beloved who has
loved, cared and stood by my side through any joyful as well as depressing moments
in my life.

BacNinh, Octorber ,2011
Le Ngoc Han


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Abstract
It is undeniable that English has become the most popular foreign language in
Vietnam nowadays. Nevertheless, among millions of people speaking English in
Vietnam, there are many people who make mistakes in pronunciation. This paper is
focused on the mistakes made by Vietnamese beginners of English when
pronouncing the six English sounds θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ . Causes for the mistakes and
some tentative suggestions to mitigate the problem are then discussed. The mistakes
are identified in terms of both wrong manner of articulation and wrong place of
articulation of the sounds. It is argued that the mistakes can be explained in terms of
inadequate knowledge of the articulation of the sounds and, more importantly, the
interference of the mother tongue. Suggestions for effective ways to overcome the
difficulty include careful instructions in how to pronounce the sounds, comparative
and contrastive analysis of the phonetic features of the sounds in English and the
equivalents in Vietnamese, and emphasis on drills and practice.


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Table of contents

Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... i
Abstract....................................................................................................................... ii
Table of contents ....................................................................................................... iii
List of figures.............................................................................................................. v
Chapter one: Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
1.1 Rationale ........................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study ................................................................... 1
1.2.1 Aims............................................................................................................ 1
1.2.2 Objectives .................................................................................................. 1
1.2.3. Research questions................................................................................... 2
1.3. Scope of the study ........................................................................................... 2
1.4 Organization of the study ................................................................................ 2
Chapter two : Literature Review ............................................................................. 4
2.1 Theoretical Background .................................................................................. 4
2.1.1 The role of pronounciation in language teaching .................................. 4
2.1.2 Factors affecting pronunciation learning ............................................... 4
2.1.2.1 The native language ............................................................................... 4
2.1.2.2 The age factor ......................................................................................... 5
2.1.2.3 Pronunciation ability ............................................................................. 5
2.1.2.4 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation ................................ 5
2.1.3 Articulatory phonetics .............................................................................. 6
2.1.4. Consonants ............................................................................................. 11
2.1.4.1 General description of English consonants ....................................... 11
2.1.4.2. Articulatory features of θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ ............................................ 12
2.1.4.2.1 Articulatory features of /θ, δ / and /ʃ, ʒ / ....................................... 13
2.1.4.2.2 Articulatory features of /ʤ, ʧ/ ......................................................... 13
2.1.5. Mistakes in language learning .............................................................. 13
2.1.5.1 Mistakes in language learning ............................................................ 13
2.1.5.2 Types of mistakes ............................................................................... 14
2.1.5.3 Possible causes of mistakes in language learning.............................. 16

2.1.5.3.1 The interference of the mother tongue .......................................... 16
2.1.5.3. 2 Causes other than interference by first language ......................... 17
2.2 Previous works ............................................................................................... 18
Chapter three: Methodology................................................................................... 20
3.1 Survey research .............................................................................................. 20
3.1.1 Steps for conducting a survey research ................................................ 21
3.1.1.1 Defining a population .......................................................................... 21
3.1.1.2 Sampling ............................................................................................... 21
3.1.1.3 Methods of collecting survey data ...................................................... 21
3.1.1.4 Data analysis......................................................................................... 22
3.2 Techniques employed in this thesis .............................................................. 22
3.2.1 Data collection instruments.................................................................... 22
3.2.1.1 Tape recording ..................................................................................... 23


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3.2.1.2 Questionnaire ....................................................................................... 23
3.2.1.3 Interview ............................................................................................... 24
3.2.2 Methods of data analysis ........................................................................ 24
3.3 Procedure........................................................................................................ 25
3.4 Summary......................................................................................................... 25
Chapter four: Findings and discussions ................................................................ 26
4. 1 Findings from tape recording ...................................................................... 26
4.2 Findings and discussions from the questionnaire ....................................... 27
4.2.1 Students’ attitude towards pronunciation ............................................ 28
4.2.2 Students’ perceptions of their frequency of pronunciation mistakes 29
4.2.3 Students’ perceptions of the causes of those mistakes ......................... 29
4.2.4 Students’ self-treatment to overcome those mistakes.......................... 31
4.2.5 Reflection on teachers’ methods used to help students to overcome

those mistakes................................................................................................... 33
4.3 Findings from the interviews ........................................................................ 34
4.4 Summary......................................................................................................... 35
Chapter five: Conclusion......................................................................................... 36
5.1 Recapitulation ................................................................................................ 36
5.2 Concluding remarks ...................................................................................... 36
5.3 Pedagogical Implications............................................................................... 38
5.4 Suggestions for further research .................................................................. 39
Appendices……………………………………………………..…………………...vi
Survey questionnaire……………………………………………………………….vi
Exercises for tape recording……………………………………………………....ix
Interview sheet……………………………………………………………………...x
References…………………………………………………………………………...xi


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List of figures

Figure 1: English consonants ..................................................................................... 12
Figure 2: Common mistakes found in data………………………………………….25
Figure 3: Students’ attitude towards pronunciation .................................................. 28
Figure 4: Students’ perception of their frequency of pronunciation mistakes........... 29
Figure 5 : Students’ perceptions of causes of those mistakes .................................... 30
Figure 6: Students’ self-treatment to overcome those mistakes ................................ 31
Figure 7: Reflection on teachers’ methods ............................................................... 33


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Chapter one: Introduction
1.1 Rationale
English, the most popular foreign language in Vietnam, has been taught from the early
age (at the age of 7 or even younger) in most of schools and universities throughout the
country as a compulsory subject. Thus, many Vietnamese, especially the young people,
can speak English; however, not many of them “have intelligible English pronunciation
so that they can be understood easily in direct communication with foreigners”. It is the
exact fact happening in Bac Ninh Specialized High School. Over many years of
teaching English in this school, the writer of the study has observed that there are quite
a number of students who frequently make mistakes with English sounds. Being fully
aware of the necessity of correcting mistakes for students as well as Vietnamese
learners of English, the writer of this paper decided to conduct the study entitled “A
study on common mistakes made by Vietnamese beginners of English in pronouncing
θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ and possible solutions”. It is hoped that this study will contribute to the
goal of enhancing students’ performance in teaching and learning foreign language.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
1.2.1 Aims
The research aims at:
-

improving students’ pronunciation of the six English consonants θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ

-

providing English teachers with a reference for the pronunciation of θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ,
ʤ, ʧ

1.2.2 Objectives
To achieve these aims, the following objectives are set forth as tasks of the study:
-

identify Vietnamese learners’ common mistakes in pronouncing θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ

-

find out causes of mistakes made by Vietnamese learners in pronouncing θ, δ, ʃ,
ʒ, ʤ, ʧ

-

find out solutions to make teaching and learning process better so that mistakes
in pronouncing θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ can be avoided.


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1.2.3. Research questions
The above-mentioned objectives can be elaborated into the following research
questions:
Question 1: What common mistakes do Vietnamese learners have in pronouncing the
English sounds θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ?
Question 2: What are the causes of those mistakes?
Question 3: What are possible solutions to those mistakes?
1.3. Scope of the study
In English there are twenty six consonants which are divided into groups according to
the place, manner of articulation and degree of voicing.Vietnamese learners do have
mistakes in pronouncing the English consonants. However, due to the limited time and
the scale of the minor thesis we only concentrate on common mistakes made by 30
students who are studying English as major field in Bac Ninh Specialized High School
in pronouncing “θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ” and causes of those mistakes as well as possible

solutions to eliminate them. These collected mistakes are considered as the common
ones made by Vietnamese learners.
1.4 Organization of the study
To achieve the aims of the study, this paper is divided into five chapters.
Chapter one “Introduction” includes the reasons of choosing the thesis, the aims, the
objectives, the scope, research questions and the organization of the study.
Chapter two “Literature Review” is devoted to the presentation of the theoretical
background relevant to the research. Firstly, the review of pronunciation as well as
factors affecting pronunciation learning are introduced. Then the literature related to
mistakes is given. It includes the notion of mistakes in language learning, types of
mistakes and the main causes of mistakes. Lastly, articulatory features of the six
consonnants are mentioned.


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Chapter three “Methodology” describes in detail the research methodology which
comprises the principles based on which the study is carried out. It also presents
techniques employed in this thesis, namely questionnaire, tape recording and interview.
Chapter four “Findings and discussions” presents the findings and discussions from the
data analysis.
Chapter five “Conclusion” deals with recapulation, concluding marks, implication with
the recommendations for correcting mistakes in pronouncing the six consonnants,
suggestions for teaching in order to prevent and eliminate these mistakes.


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Chapter two : Literature Review

2.1 Theoretical Background
2.1.1 The role of pronounciation in language teaching
Sound is the core of the language so that is the reason why when teaching a language
the first thing the teachers should do is to let the leaners have chances to explore the
sounds of that language. Moreover, communicative approach is considered as the major
language teaching in the twenty first century as what the leaners really need after
graduating is that they can communicate successfully in their work and their life. That
is the reason why pronunciation teaching has been paid more and more attention by all
the teachers. Some years ago, pronounciation used to be taught along with other skills
but at the present pronounciation courses are provided at any universities where English
is taught as the major subject.
2.1.2 Factors affecting pronunciation learning
There are many major factors affecting the learners’pronunciation such as: the native
language, the age factor, pronunciation ability as well as motivation and concern for
good pronunciation.
2.1.2.1 The native language
The native language plays an important role in learning to pronounce English as it is
clearly seen that a foreign accent is influenced by some of the sound characteristics of
the learner’s native language. These can be used to distinguish between the native
speakers and nonnative speakers (untrained as well as trained speakers). Due to the role
of native language, there has been a great deal of research on the differences between
sound systems of English and other languages in terms of sound systems as well as
problems, difficulties the learners face when studying English.
According to Kenworthy, J(1992:4): “To put it very crudely, the more difficulties there
are, the more difficulties the learners will have in pronouncing English”.


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2.1.2.2 The age factor

It is commonly assumed that people can pronounce a foreign language like a native if
they start learning it as a child and vice versus. This leads to a question that whether
there is an age-related limit on the mastery of pronunciation. There have been many
studies on this quesion and the results are conflicting because these studies have
assessed pronunciation in different ways .Besides, it is extremely difficult to control
other factors which may be involved such as ability, motivation or opportunity to use
and to hear the language.
2.1.2.3 Pronunciation ability
It is common view that some people have a “a better ear” for foreign languages than
others and this has been demonstrated in some research that some people are able to
discriminate between two sounds better than others and or are able to mimic sounds
more accurately. However, every human being has this basic ability ; if they did not
they would not have learned the sounds of native language. More inerestingly, there is a
quesion whether certain types of learners, poor discriminators and good discriminators,
benefit from different types of training.
One study has shown that those with good phonetic abilities benefit from
pronounciation drill, tasks in which particular sounds are heard and the learner has to
imitate again and again. Their innate abilities enable them to exploit all the
opportunities to compare what they are doing with the model presented. “Poor
discriminators” do not seem to benefit from drills very much. In fact, drills seem to
cause their attempts to stabilise before they reach an accurate production of a sound. It
can be assumed that learners have the basic equipment and provide a variety of tasks so
that something will suit the needs and abilities of each learner.
2.1.2.4 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation
It cannot be defined that motivation is an important factor which determines the
people’s participation in every activity especially in language teaching. Motivation
makes people more active in learning. The more motivated the people are, the greater
the cognitive process is. Gardner (1985:10) defined “Motivation is the present context
refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning plus

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favourabe attitudes towards learning the language”. A key issue in Gardner’s
motivation theory is the relationship between motivation and orientation (goal). Thus,
in his view, “motivation” refers to a kind of central metal “engine” or “energy-centre”
that subsumes effort, want/will and task enjoyment. However, they are internal factors
not external factors. Motivation is affected by both internal and external factors.
According to Ellis (1997:75), learners’attitude and effective states constitue the
learners’ effort degree when learning an L2 belong to “motivation”.
The same point of view can be found in the definition given by Little Wood. “In second
language learning as in every other filed of human learning, motivation is crucial force
which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he
devotes to it, and how long he perseveres it. It is a complex phenomenon and includes
many components: the individual’s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity,
desire for stimulation and new experience and so on” (Little Wood, 1998:53).
In fact, motivation is without question, the most complex and challenging issue facing
teachers today (Scheidecker & Freeman).
Some learners seem to be more concerned about their pronunciation than others. This
concern is often expressed in statements about how “bad” the pronunciation is and in
request for correction-both blanket requests and frequent pauses during speech used to
solicit comments on the accuracy of pronunciation. It may even be reflected in a
reluctance to speak. Moreover, the desire to do well is a kind of “achievement
motivation”. Conversely, if you do not care about a particular task or do not see the
value of it, you won’t be motivated to do well. Learners may also be unconcerned
because they simply are not aware that the way they speak is resulting in difficulty,
irritation or misunderstanding for the listeners.
There are several factors which may affect pronunciation accuracy leading to common
mistakes in pronunciation in process of studying English.
2.1.3. Articulatory phonetics

Articulatory phonetics, one of the three main branches of phonetics, is the study of the
organs of speech and their use in producing speech sounds. The term “organs of
speech” refers to those parts of the human body that are concerned in various ways with
the production of speech. A lot of them are only secondarily concerned with the


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productions of speech- their primary functions have to do with eating, chewing, and
swallowing food, and respiration. Those parts of the body below (not the lungs) belong
to the vocal tract. The vocal tract is divided into the supra-glottal and the sub-glottal
tract.


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 Lips

 Larynx

 Teeth

 Vocal folds/ cords

 Nasal cavity

 Trachea

 Tongue

 Lungs

 Hard palate

 Uvula

 Soft palate

 Diaphragm

 Pharynx
Articulatory phonetics deals with the major aspects of speech production. They
are the air stream mechanism, the state of vocal cords, the state of velum, the
place and the manner of articulation (Davenport & Hannahs, 1998: 98). On the
other hand, this study is paid attention to consonants, particularly the six studied
ones, therefore, the manner and the place of articulation and voicing, the three
main features of consonants, are discussed with more interest, as followed.
Clark and Yallop use two features to describe the manner of articulation of
consonants: constriction and articulation. The degree of constriction decreases
from total closure via partial constriction to a fully open vowel like manner.
Articulation divides into dynamic and stable. Altogether, there are seven
recognized manners of articulation : stop, fricative, approximant, nasal, flap, tap
and trill.
The manners of articulation are described as followed:
Manner

Description

Stop

a complete closure at any point in the
vocal tract and sudden release of the
closure.

Fricative

potentially stable articulation produced
by a constriction in the vocal tract that
is narrow enough to create a turbulent


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airflow.
Approximant

potentially stable articulation in which
the constriction is normally greater
than in a vowel but not great enough to
produce turbulence at the point of
constriction.

Nasal

stoppage at some point in the oral
cavity, velum is lowered to allow
airflow through the nasal cavity, stable
articulation.

Tap

a dynamic articulation where there is a
brief occlusion in the vocal tract, a
single deliberate movement to create a
closure, equivalent to a very short stop.

Flap

a dynamic articulation where there is a
brief occlusion in the vocal tract, one
articulator strikes the other in passing
not so much to create a brief closure
but more as the incidental effect of the
articulatory gesture.

Trill

a dynamic articulation produced by the
vibration of any articulator, a series of
vibrations.

The place of articulation defines both the area of the oral-pharyngeal vocal tract
where the constriction is made and the part of the tongue used for the constriction.
This gives us the following places of articulation:
 Bilabial: the two lips.
 Dental: the tongue lip or (usually) the tongue blade with the upper teeth.
 Alveolar: the tongue blade or (usually) the tongue tip with the alveolar ridge


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 Palatal: the tongue body and the hard palate
 Velar: the tongue body and the soft palate
 Uvular: between the back of the tongue and the uvula (which hangs down in
the back of the mouth)
 Pharyngeal: between the root of the tongue and the back of the throat (the
pharynx)
 Glottal: This isn’t strictly a place of articulation. Glottal sounds are made in
the larynx.
(Davenport & Hannahs, 1998: 99)
Voicing is also one of the main categories that consonants have to base on when
being described. The vocal folds may be held against each other at just the right
tension so that the air flowing past them from the lungs will cause them to vibrate
against each other. This process is called voicing. Sounds that are made with vocal
fold vibration are said to be voiced. Sounds made without vocal vibration are said to
be voiceless. There are several pairs of sounds in English which differ only in
voicing- that is, the two sounds have identical places and manners of articulation, but
one has vocal fold vibration and the other doesn’t. The six chosen consonants are
such exact examples in pairs, /θ, δ /; /ʃ, ʒ /; / ʤ, ʧ /.
2.1.4. Consonants
2.1.4.1 General description of English consonants
From a phonetic point of view, consonants are articulated in one of two rays: either
there is a closing movement of one of the vocal organs, forming such a narrow
constriction that it is possible to hear the sound of the air passing through; or the
closing movement is complete, giving a total blockage. The closing movement may
involve lips, tongue, or throat, but in each case the overall effect is very different from
the relatively open and unimpeded articulation found in vowels. (Crystal, 2003:192). In
articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized
by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence.
Consonants, actually, are sounds made with closed or nearly articulations. As a

consequence, they tend to break up the stream up speech, defining a perceptual and


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articulatory edge, or margin, for a unit (word or syllable in a word) that includes one or
more vowels. Consonants can be divided into different kinds in accordance with three
categories, i.e., the degree of vocal cord vibration, the place of articulation and the
manner of articulation.
Most dialects of English have about 24 distinctive (phonemic) consonant sounds
divided according to three different categories: voicing, place and manner of
articulation.
2.1.4.2. Articulatory features of θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ
The sounds θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ can be called in different terms: fricatives/ affricatives if
basing on the manner of articulation ; dental sounds /θ, δ /, post- (palato) alveolar sound
/ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ/ if basing on the place of articulation. /θ, ʃ, ʧ/ are strong and long fiction
sounds; the others are weak and short ones. They are similar at this point but different
at another point due to their own characteristics in the language, thus it is much easier
to take them into consideration in pairs, that is /θ, δ / ; /ʃ, ʒ /; / ʤ, ʧ /.
VOICING

Stop
Fricative

Bilabial Labiodental

Interdental Alveolar Palatal Velar

Voiceless

p

t

k

Voiced

b

d

g

Voiceless

f

s

ʃ

Voiced

v

z

ʒ

Voiceless

ʧ

Affricate

Voiced

ʤ

Nasal

Voiced

LIQUID

SONORANTS

OBSTRUENTS

MANNER

PLACE

Lateral

Voiced

Rhotic

Voiced

Glide

Voiced

m

n

r
w

Figure 1: English consonants

j

ʔ
h

ƞ

l

Glottal


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2.1.4.2.1 Articulatory features of /θ, δ / and /ʃ, ʒ /

According to the manner of articulation, Katamba (1996 : 121) descibes FRICATIVE;
the articulators are brought very close together leaving only a very narrow channel
through which the air squeezes on its ways out, producing turbulence in the process,
such as /f,v, θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ /.
Kelly (2000: 35) provided the detailed descriptions of consonants in his books
including dental sounds /θ, δ / (as in think, the, bath, bathe, mathematics, father). “The
toungue tip makes light contact with the back of the top, front teeth. Or, tongue tip may
protrute between upper and lower teeth. The soft palate is raised. / θ / is unvoiced and
fortis./ δ / is voiced and lenis.”
Also, he wrote “/ʃ, ʒ / (as in she, fish, beige, nation, measure) are post-alveolar
sounds. But when pronouncing them, the tongue blade makes light contact with the
alvealar ridge, and the front of the tongue is raised. / ʃ / is unvoiced and fortis. /ʒ / is
voiced and lenis. It also devoiced at the end of the word. /ʒ / does not occur as an initial
sound in English, and is rare as a final sound.”
2.1.4.2.2 Articulatory features of /ʤ, ʧ/
Cruttenden (2001: 9) gives the description of affricative : a complete closure at some
point in the mouth, behind which the air pressure builds up ; the separation of the
organs is compared with that of a plosive, so that more extended friction is a
characteristic second element of the sound. English has only two affricatives, the
voiceless palato-aveolar /ʧ/ and its counterpart /ʤ/.
/ ʤ, ʧ / (as in church, judge, nature, larger) are also palato-aveolar sounds. The
tongue tip, blade and rims close against the alveolar ridge and side teeth. The front of
the tongue is raised , and when the air is released, there is audible friction. The soft
palate is also raised. /ʧ/ is unvoiced and fortis. /ʤ/ is voiced and lenis. /ʤ/ is voiced at
the end of a word.
2.1.5. Mistakes in language learning
2.1.5.1 Mistakes in language learning
Mistakes are said to be unsystematic in nature and correctable when attention is drawn
to its producers. Mistakes are caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, and

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carelessness and so on. According to Adrian (1994: 131), the term “mistake” is used to
refer to something that at that moment is not acceptable. He suggested that “it could
turn out to be either a slip or an error”. The mistake is a “slip” when the learner already
has the inner criteria for self-correction but isn’t applying them at the moment, perhaps
because her attention is elsewhere, or perhaps at the moment she is not recalling the
criteria, though she might recognize them. At some level she already knows what is
required for correctness. By “error” he meant that the learner does not have the criteria
for correctness. This is something new that she cannot work out for herself.
Furthermore, many people only pay attention to “the what”, i.e. what is conveyed, not
“the how” .i.e. the way words are said, nor the stress and intonation of the sentence.
Regardless of the distortion of some fricatives and affricates in pronunciation, in many
English classes in Vietnam, teaching focuses on ideas (what), but very little or almost
no attention is paid to the way (how) the ideas are expressed orally. This negative
attitude towards pronunciation mistakes more or less indulges people with
pronunciation mistakes, thus degrades the standard of English in Vietnam.
Nevertheless, recently, there has been some improvement in learning English with a
little bit more focus on pronunciation, stress and intonation in some English training
institutions in Vietnam, ranging from secondary schools and evening English centers to
tertiary educational institutions such as colleges and universities of foreign languages.
As a result, a bit more phonetic drills and practice are included in English teaching
programs as well as in examinations now.
2.1.5.2 Types of mistakes
According to Adrian (1994: 133), mistake is “error” when the learner does not yet have
the criteria for correctness. This is something new that she cannot work out for herself.
There have been different ways to classify errors because researchers look at errors
differently.
Hendrickson (1980: 206) divided errors into 2 types: local errors and global errors

because he focused on the influence of errors on the sense of a sentence or an utterance.
According to him, the global errors not the local ones could make the sentence
ambiguous or senseless. Duley, Burt and Krashen (1982: 53) classified errors relating


15

to their observable characteristics. For them there are 4 types of errors, namely
omission, addition, misformation and misordering.
Abbot (1980:82) divided errors into competence errors and performance errors. The
competence errors consists of transfer, intralingual and induced. Performance errors
include errors of processing problems and errors of communication strategies.
Pham Dang Binh (2003), in his PhD thesis dissertation on Vietnamese students’ errors,
classifies errors into two main types: common errors and typical errors. Common errors
are those which are committed by any second language learners when learning the
same target language even when they come from different countries. These errors
normally appear at the beginning of the learning process and consist of competence
errors with errors in phonology, vocabulary and grammar and performance errors with
intralingual and interlingual errors. Errors that are typical of certain groups of learners
who speak the same first language or live in the same culture are called typical errors.
Those errors include two main types: interlingual errors and culture interference errors.
Richards (1984:19-27) distinguishes three main major types of errors: interlingual
errors, intralingual errors and developmental errors. Interlingual errors result from
language transfer, that is, which is caused by the learner’s native language.
However, with their classifications, they showed very little concern about error types
and did not reflect the process of making errors and causes of errors made by learners
as well.
Ha Cam Tam (2005: 9-10) in her science article believes that the main problems in
pronunciation of Vietnamese learners are sound omission, sound confusion and sound
redundancy. According to her, they are the most frequent errors of Vietnamese learners.

The author finds the classifications by Ha Cam Tam (2005) by far the most appropriate
for her research. She believes almost Vietnamese beginners of English tend to produce
pronunciation mistakes of the following types:
-Sound omission
-Sound confusion
-Sound redundancy
Nevertheless, in pronouncing six English consonants: θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ , the most frequent
mistakes of Vietnamese beginners of English are sound omission and sound confusion.
The causes of these mistakes will be mentioned in the following part.


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2.1.5.3 Possible causes of mistakes in language learning
2.1.5.3.1 The interference of the mother tongue
The notion of the first language interference is understood as negative transfer from the
first language to the target language, it is the way of learning new habits in hindered by
the previous learnt ones. Lado (1957: 3) claims that “mistakes are originated in the
learners’ disposition to transfer forms and meanings, and the distribution of forms and
meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture”
(1957: 1). Myles (2002:20) considers transfer an important cognitive factor is related to
writing mistakes. The study of transfer involves the study of errors (negative transfer),
facilitation (positive transfer), avoidance of the target language forms, and their overuse (Ellis, 1994: 12). Corder (1967:8) observed that language learners make hypotheses
about the language they are learning , tried to compare it with their native language,
then came to the conclusion that errors in foreign language reflected the first language’s
features. Later in 1978 he recasted interference as learners’ reliance on the first
language as their strategy of communication, which means learners use literal
translation as a learning strategy to overcome their ignorance.
Why do language learners apply their native language in second language acquisition?
The answer lies in four major factors. Firstly, it is the performance pressure. In class

room settings, the clearners may be forced to perform tasks they do not want or their
linguistic competences fail to meet; therefore, they may fall back on the language most
familiar to them that is their mother tongue. Windowson (1990:13) realized that when
learners write under pressure, they may rely on systematic resources from their native
language for the achievement and synthesis of meaning. Secondly, the limited foreign
language environment also contributes to mistakes in language learning. The lack of
natural linguistic inputs with native speakers results in learners’ resource on their
language. Moreover, language tasks assigned for the learners have a significance affect
on their verbal production. Among these tasks, translation is said to “increase the
foreign language learners’ reliance on first language structures ” (Dulay et al., 1982:
110). Lastly, Dulay et al (1982) considered the monitor as “an important factor
associated with the learners’ use of foreign language acquisition” (1982: 110). Learners
tend to think in the first language and attempt to put the idea in the target language.


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Thus, the first language interference takes place because of four factors : performance
and the monitor use.
Myle (2002:186) defined the above four factors as social factors affecting writing in
foreign language. These factors are closely related to learners’ attitudes, motivation and
goals. “Research based on direct and indirect measures generally shows that learners
with positive attitudes. Motivation, concrete goals will have attitude reinforced if they
experience success. Likewise, learners’ negaive attitudes may be strengthened by lack
of success or by failure” (2002: 2). He concluded that learners’ negative attitudes,
motivations and goals can explain why some foreign language writers perform better
than others.
2.1.5.3. 2 Causes other than interference by first language
Causes independent of the first language include :overgeneralization, false concepts
hypothesized , incomplete application of rules, cross association and fossilization.

Overgeneralization : According to Jakobovist (1969: 152), overgeneralization is the
application of previous available strategies in new situations. Richard (1974: 64) and
Littlewood (1980:23) defined the term “intra-lingual interference”. Littlewood
(1980:25) suggests that overgeneralization and transfer have the same strategy; the
difference is the employment of knowledge of the foreign language in the former and of
the first language in the latter.
False conceptualization: Learners’ faulty understanding of distinctions of target
language items leads to false conceptualization, Richard (1971) blames poor
presentation or presentation based on constrative approach for the confusion.
Incomplete application of rules: Richard (1971) noted down two factors leading to
incomplete application of rules as the rules as the use of question in classroom as
elicitation techniques and learners’ interest in communication which helps them to
achieve efficient communication without a mastery of the target language rules.
Cross association: The notion of cross association is proposed by George (1972:74). It
is different from overgeneralization in the way that interference does not come from the
prior learning items, but from the adverse direction. George (1972:74) wrote “crossassociation is the phenomenon of mutual interference between partially learned items,
neither being inhibited but one or both being affected by the other”.


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Fossilization : “Fossilization is refered to a phenomenon that takes place as a learner
internalizes an incorrect form” (Brown et al., 1987:186) . This is believed to exist in
adolescents and adults’ pronunciation, and also manifests in some syntactic structures
or vocabularies a learner uses.Three factors contribute to this phenomenon: mother
tongue influence, communication needs, and teachers’ feedback.
Sometimes it is difficult to decide exactly which process is applied in a certain error.
Littlewood (1980: 29) concluded that many processes might operate stimultaneously
and reinforce each other in causing the learners to produce errors.

2.2 Previous works
As mentioned above, there have been a great deal of notable works about
pronounciation issues and pronounciation teaching ones but some of them express the
writers’ concern about pronounciation problems especially the learners’ difficulties in
pronouncing English sounds. However, it can be confirmed that Avery & Ehlrich
(1992:67) are the two first people mentioning problems Vietnamese learners may face
with when studying English “As the sound systems of English and Vietnamese differ
greatly, Vietnamese speakers can have quite serve pronounciation problems”
In their works, the most common problem for the Vietnamese learners have is the
problem with the words with final consonants including voiceless stop consonants
/p/,/k/,/t/ , fricative consonants , /f/,/v/, /θ/ as in “truth”. For example, in Vietnamese the
voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/ and /k/ can stand at the final position of the word but
they are not released in the final position and much shorter than their English
equivalents. A word “beat” may sound like “bee”. Moreover, in Vietnamese there are
no fricatives at the word-final position, Vietnamese speakers may not produce fricatives
at the end of the words. The word “pass” can be pronounced as “pa”. They also have
found out the Vietnamese difficulty in pronouncing the sound /θ/ and /δ/, they often
produce a heavily aspirated stop in stead of /θ/ in the word “think”. This probably
based on the orthographic system of Vietnamese, where the letter combination/th/
represents a heavily aspirated /t/. They will usually sustitute a /b/ or an /f/ for /p/. The
word “put” may sound like “foot”.


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Recently, an article named Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of
English

by Ha Cam Tam (2005:7) also pointed out some main problems in

pronunciation of Vietnamese learners, namely sound omission, sound confusion and
sound redundancy. However, many previous studies found in books, linguistic
magazines or on the Internet are only about general pronunciation problems of wide
issues, none of them specifies in certain consonants that most impede Vietnamese
learners from communication and common mistakes in English pronunciation. For this
reason, the research is carried out to find out the common mistakes made by the
students studying in Bac Ninh Specialized High School in pronouncing some English
consonants and improve their pronunciation.


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Chapter three: Methodology
In order to fulfill the study, a combination of survey questionnaire, tape recording and
interview is employed.
3.1 Survey research
Among the research methods, survey research is one of the most important areas of
measurement in applied social research. The broad area of survey research
encompasses any measurement procedures that involve asking questions of
respondents. A “survey” can be anything form a short paper-and- pencil feedback from
to an intensive one-on-one in-depth interview.
According to Kathleen Bennett DeMarrais and Stephen D.Lapan, survey research can
be defined simply as a means of gathering information, usually through self-report
using questionnaires of interviews. However, almost survey researchs fall within the
framework of nonexperimental or correlational research designs in which no
independent variable is typically used either for purely descriptive purposes or for
examining relations between variables. Moreover, surveys can also be used as a method
of data collection in qualitative research which comprises only one of many sources of
data and in qualitative research which is primary methof of data collection. Often
subsumed within the definition of survey research is the requirement of some types of

rigorous sampling procedure (Miller, 1983: 24). Some other authors even make a
distinction between a survey as data collected from a sample and a census as data based
on all unit of a given population (Jolliffe, 1986: Schwars, Groves and Schuman, 1998).
Johnson (1992:35) gave the same idea when confirming “The purpose of a survey is to
learn about characteristic of an entire group of interest (a population) by examining a
subset of that group (a sample)”
Survey research can be also defined in terms of the type of information gathered or the
purposes for which the information is collected. Alreck and Settle (1995:98) contended
that the reasons for conducting survey include influencing a selected audience,
modifying a service or product, and understanding or predicting human behaviour. Rea
and Paker (1997:88) added understanding people’s interests and concerns as