A The interference of the mother tongue in the first year students’ English pronunciation at Thai Nguyen University of Technology.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

HOÀNG THỊ THÊM

THE INTERFERENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE IN THE FIRST YEAR
STUDENTS’ ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AT THAI NGUYEN
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Ảnh hưởng của tiếng mẹ đẻ đến phát âm Tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ
nhấ t Trường Đa ̣i ho ̣c Ky ̃ thuâ ̣t Công nghiêp̣ Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

HOÀNG THỊ THÊM

THE INTERFERENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE IN THE FIRST YEAR

STUDENTS’ ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AT THAI NGUYEN
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Ảnh hưởng của tiếng mẹ đẻ đến phát âm Tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ
nhấ t Trường Đa ̣i ho ̣c Ky ̃ thuâ ̣t Công nghiêp̣ Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
SUPERVISOR: HÀ CẨM TÂM, PhD.

Hanoi, 2014


i

DECLARATION
-----------------***-------------------I, Hoàng Thị Thêm, hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled
THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE ON THE FIRST YEAR
STUDENTS’ ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AT THAI NGUYEN
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
is completely the result of my own word for the Degree of Master at University of
Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that
this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or
institution.
Signature
Hoàng Thị Thêm


ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been accomplished without the help,
encouragement and support of many people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude
and appreciation.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm, for her priceless support, wholehearted guidance, and
timely encouragement during the time I conducted this research.
I am also grateful to all the lecturers at the Department of Post-graduate
Studies, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi whose
support and considerations have enabled me to pursue the course.
I would also like to send my thanks to all my colleagues who have helped me
a lot in creating good conditions in teaching and helping me with their experiences
during my thesis.
My special thanks also go to the students from two classes 49J1 and 49H for
their whole-heated participation in the study.
Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family – my parents,
my husband, my children, whose support and encouragement has always been a
great deal of strength that has helped me a lot to overcome all problems to complete
this thesis.


iii

ABSTRACT
The research in this minor thesis was carried out to investigate whether the
mother tongue influences students‟ English pronunciation at Thai Nguyen
University of Technology. It sought the answers to the following questions:
1. What are pronunciation mistakes made by students at Thai Nguyen
University of Technology?

2. Are they caused by mother tongue influences?
The study was conducted with two classes (49J1, 49H) consisting of 100
students in their second term. The data of the study were obtained using 2 research
instruments: class observation and recording. After that the data was analyzed and
the findings of the research revealed that Vietnamese has influences on the first year
students‟ English pronunciation at Thai Nguyen University of Technology. At the
end of the research, the researcher proposed some suggestions to improve students‟
pronunciation.


iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
TABLES

Page

Table 1: Mistakes observed in the class and recorded in the oral test ...................... 17
Table 2: Mistakes by participants ............................................................................. 18


v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Declaration ................................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................ii
Abstract ..................................................................................................................... iii
List of tables and figures ............................................................................................ iv
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ v

Part A: Introduction..................................................................................................... 1
1. Rationale of the study.............................................................................................. 2
2. Objectives of the study ........................................................................................... 2
3. Research questions of the study ............................................................................. 2
4. Scope of the study ................................................................................................... 2
5. Methods of the study ............................................................................................... 2
6. Organization of the study ........................................................................................ 2
Part B: Development ................................................................................................... 4
Chapter 1: Literature review ....................................................................................... 4
1.1. The interference of the mother tongue in foreign languages ............................... 4
1.1.1. Definition of the mother tongue and foreign languages. .................................. 4
1.1.2. The interference of the mother tongue in foreign languages ............................ 4
1.2. English pronunciation .......................................................................................... 5
1.2.1 English consonants ............................................................................................. 5
1.2.2 English vowels ................................................................................................. 10
1.2.3 Consonants clusters .......................................................................................... 12
1.3 Vietnamese pronunciation ................................................................................... 12
1.3.1. Vietnamese consonants ................................................................................... 12
1.3.2 Vietnamese vowels........................................................................................... 13
1.4. Review of Previous studies ............................................................................... 13
Chapter 2: The study ................................................................................................. 15
2.1 Methodology .................................................................................................... 15


vi

2.1.1 Setting of the study........................................................................................... 15
2.1.2 Participants ....................................................................................................... 15
2.1.3 Data collection instruments .............................................................................. 15
2.1.3.1 Class Observation.......................................................................................... 15

2.1.3.2 Recording ...................................................................................................... 16
2.1.4 Data collection procedures .............................................................................. 16
2.2. Findings and discussion ..................................................................................... 17
2.2.1. Description on the three most frequent types of mistakes .............................. 17
2.2.2. Data analysis and discussion ........................................................................... 19
2.2.2.1. Mistakes in omission of sounds ................................................................... 19
2.2.2.2. Mistakes in sound replacement .................................................................... 20
2.2.2.3. Mistakes in consonant clusters ..................................................................... 24
Part C: Conclusion .................................................................................................... 26
1.Major findings of the study .................................................................................... 26
2.Implications ............................................................................................................ 26
3. Limitations of the study ........................................................................................ 28
4. Suggestions for further study ................................................................................ 28
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 29
APPENDICES............................................................................................................. I


1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Language plays a very important role in communication. People all over the world
can communicate with each other by speech or writing that are the two primary modes of
linguistic communication.
In a speech communication situation, a speaker always tries to make him/ her
understood and interested. What makes people understood and interested in one‟s English
is firstly his/ her pronunciation. Pronunciation is definitely the biggest thing that people
notice when you are speaking English. A person can express his idea with simple words
and simple grammar, but there is no such thing as simple pronunciation.
Learning a language consists of learning its vocabulary, grammar and

pronunciation. Learners with good pronunciation are likely to be understood even if they
make mistakes in other area, whereas learners with bad pronunciation will not be
understood, even if their grammar is perfect.
In fact, pronunciation is becoming increasingly recognized as a crucial area for
language learners (Celce-Murcia et al, 1996).
All learners know the importance of pronunciation. However, they find it difficult
to acquire an accent which is intelligible. One of those difficulties is caused by the
interference of their mother tongue in their language learning because each language has
its own rules and phonetic system which may cause a lot of obstacles to learners in
practising and performing them correctly.
In their book, Avery and Ehrlich (1992) show the reason why speakers of English
are able to recognize Spanish accents, Russian accents, Chinese accents … That is because
the nature of a foreign accent is determined to a large extent by a learner‟s native language.
Like any learners of English, Vietnamese learners are coping with so many
difficulties in pronouncing English because of the mother tongue interference. Vietnamese
and English differ a great deal, but Vietnamese students often transfer sound patterns of
Vietnamese into English, that makes their pronunciation imperfect and unintelligible.
As a teacher of English, I can see mistakes that students at TNUT have made in
producing sounds. Therefore, I would like to conduct this research to point out how
Vietnamese affects students‟ English pronunciation and make some corresponding
improvements. Those are the reasons why I decide to do a research entitled: “The


2

interference of the mother tongue in the first year students‟ English pronunciation at Thai
Nguyen University of Technology.”
2. Objectives of the study
The objectives of this study are stated as follows:
-

To discover pronunciation mistakes made by students at Thai Nguyen University of
Technology.

-

To investigate whether the causes of the mistakes come from students‟ mother
tongue.

3. Research questions of the study:
To achieve the aims mentioned above, this study tries to answer the following
questions:
1. What are pronunciation mistakes made by students at Thai Nguyen University of
Technology?
2. Are they caused by mother tongue influences?
4. Scope of the study
The study was carried out with two classes (49J1, 49H) comprising 100 students in
their second term, the academic year 2013-2014.
In this thesis, the interference of the mother tongue in pronunciation is dealt with,
but the study cannot cover all the problems related to pronunciation, this study only
focuses on the mother tongue interference in producing English sounds.
5. Methods of the study
A combination of different data collection

methods

were

used

including

recording students‟ pronunciation in an oral test, observing their performance in class
and note-taking.
6. Organization of the study
The thesis consists of three parts: introduction, development with three chapters
and conclusion.
Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, aims, research questions, and
organization of the study.
Part B: Development includes three main chapters.
Chapter 1 Literature review provides a brief literature review relevant to the study.
In this chapter, section 1 discusses the interference of the mother tongue in foreign


3

languages, section 2 presents some aspects of English pronunciation , section 3 discusses
Vietnamese pronunciation and section 4 reviews previous studies
Chapter 2 The study consists of two sections: section 1 presents methodology,
section 2 displays findings and discussion.
Part C: Conclusion summarizes the major findings with reference to the research
questions mentioned in Part A. This part also includes implications to improve students‟
pronunciation, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.


4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter, literature review, presents a review of related literature that provides

the theoretical background of the study. It includes three main sections. The first section
mentions the interference of the mother tongue in foreign languages, and then an overview
on English pronunciation and Vietnamese pronunciation are presented respectively in
section 2 and section 3.
1.1. The interference of the mother tongue in foreign languages
1.1.1. Definition of the mother tongue and foreign languages.
A first language (also native language, mother tongue, arterial language, or L1) is
the language(s) a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a
person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity.
Richards and Platt (1992) define the mother tongue as follows: “a first language
which is acquired at home.” They also indicate that the first language is a person‟s mother
tongue or the language acquired first. Often this term is used synonymously with the native
language.
The first language is the language through which the child makes acquaintance with
everything about it to communicate. Mostly it may be their mother tongue.
A foreign language is a language which is not a native language in a country. A
foreign language is usually studied either for communication with foreigners who speak
the language, or for reading printed materials in the language (Richards and Platt, 1992).
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a
language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e., an English speaker
living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her. These two
characterisations do not exhaust the possible definitions, however, and the label is
occasionally applied in ways that are variously misleading or factually inaccurate.
1.1.2. The interference of the mother tongue in foreign languages
Mother tongue interference is defined as the use of elements from one‟s native
language while learning the second language. Mother tongue interference is one of the
causes of mistakes.
When we learn a foreign language, we often make mistakes in grammar,
pronunciation, and vocabulary caused by our first language. “The sound system

5

(phonology) and the grammar of the first language impose themselves on the new language
and this leads to a „foreign‟ pronunciation, faulty grammatical patterns and, occasionally,
to the wrong choice of vocabulary.” (Hubbard et al, 1983, p140).
Most linguists would probably agree that the mother tongue can affect learners‟
English in several ways. Pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, discourse structure,
handwriting and all other aspects of language use are likely to some extent to carry a
mother-tongue accent. But the most striking is in the case of pronunciation where the
phonological structure of a speaker‟s first language and the associated articulatory setting
of the lips, tongue, jaw, etc. usually his or her English speech quite strongly (Swan and
Smith, 1987).
In fact, the mother tongue plays an important factor in learning to pronounce
English. In his book, KenWorthy (1987) emphasizes the role of the mother tongue by
indicating the fact that a foreign accent has some of the sound characteristics of the
learner‟s native language.
Avery and Ehrlich (1992) point out that the sound system of the native language
can be seen to influence our students‟ pronunciation of English. According to them,
students‟ pronunciation of English is influenced in at least three ways. First, difficulties
may arise when a learner encounters sounds in English that are not part of the sound
inventory of the learner‟s native language. Secondly, difficulties may arise because the
rules for combining sounds into words are different in the learner‟s native language.
Thirdly, the patterns of stress and intonation, which determine the overall rhythm and
melody of a language, can be transferred from the native language into the second
language.
They also state that the native language not only affects the ability to produce
English sounds but also the ability to hear English sounds.
1.2. English pronunciation
This section does not focus on all aspects of English pronunciation. It only deals

with English consonants, vowels, consonant clusters and sound linking.

1.2.1. English consonants
In English there are twenty-four consonants illustrated in the following chart.


6

Fricative

t, d
f, v

θ, ð

s, z

m

ʃ, ʒ

h

ŋ

n

Lateral
Approximant

k, g

tʃ, dʒ

Affricative
Nasal

alveolar

Glottal

p, b

Palato-

Velar

Plosive

dental

Palatal

Manner of
articulation

Labio-

Alveolar

articulation

Dental

Bilabial

Place of

l
w

r

j

Chart of English consonant phonemes
English consonants are sounds produced by partially or completely blocking air in
its passage from the lungs through the vocal tract (Finegan, 1994).
English consonants have three basic characteristics making the main differences
between them: place of articulation, manner of articulation and voicing.
Depending on how the organs of speech combine together to form the barriers,
Roach (1998) shows eight types of consonants: bilabial /p/, /b/, /m/, /w/, labio-dental /f/,
/v/, dental /I/, /J/, alveolar /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /l/, /n/, palato-alveolar (post- alveolar) /M/, /N/,
/CM/, /DN/, /r/, palatal /j/, velar /k/, /g/, /R/, glottal /h/.
There are six types of consonants classified according to manner of articulation:
fricatives /f/, /v/, /I/, /J/, /s/, /z/, /M/, /N/, /h/ , affricates /CM/, /DN/, nasals /m/, /n/, /R/,
approximants /w/, /r/, /j/, lateral /l/, and plosives /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/ (O‟Corner, Avery
and Ehrlich call plosives stops).
The third way to classify consonants is in terms of voicing which divides
consonants into two types: voiced and voiceless. English consonants consist of fifteen

voiced consonants and nine voiceless consonants.
In learning a language, it is very important to know how to produce a sound.
Linguists describe English consonants as follows:


7

• Stop consonants (plosives)
According to Roach (1998), a plosive is a consonant articulation with the following
phase:
- The first phase is when the articulator or articulators move to form the stricture for
the plosive. We call this the closure phase.
- The second phase is when the compressed air is stopped from escaping. We call
this the hold phase.
- The third phase when the articulators used to form the stricture are moved so as to
follow air to escape. This is the release phase.
- The fourth phase is what happens immediately after the third phase, so we call it
the post-release phase.
English has six plosive consonants /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/. These plosives have
different places of articulation.
/p, b/ are bilabial, the lips are pressed together. /t, d/ are alveolar, the tongue blade is
pressed against the alveolar ridge. Normally the tongue does not touch the front teeth as it
does in the dental plosives found in many languages. /k, g/ are velar, the back of the tongue
is pressed against the area where the hard palate ends and the soft palate begins. All six
plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (initial position), between other sounds
(medial position) and at the end of a word (final position).
• Fricatives
Fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced, air
escapes through a small and makes a hissing sound. Fricatives are continuant consonants,
as you can continue making them without interruption as long as you have enough air in

your lungs.
/f, v/ are labiodentals that is the lower lip is contact with the upper teeth. The
fricative noise is never very strong and is scarcely audible in the case of /v/.
/I/, /J/ are dental fricatives. The tongue is normally placed inside the teeth, with the
tip touching the inside of the lower front teeth and the blade touching the inside of the
upper teeth. The air escapes through the gaps between the tongue and the teeth.
/s, z/ are alveolar fricatives with the same place of articulation as /t/ and /d/. The air
escapes through the gaps between the tongue and the teeth.


8

/M/, /N/: The fricatives are so called palate-alveolar, which can be taken to mean
that their place of articulation is partly palatal, partly alveolar. The tongue is in contact
with an area slightly further back than that for /s/, /z/. If you make /s/ then / ʃ/, you should
be able to feel your tongue move backwards. The air escapes through a passage along the
centre of the tongue, as in /s/ and /z/, but the passage is a little wider. Most speakers of RP
have rounded lips for / ʃ/ and / ʒ/, and this is an important difference between these
consonants and /s/ and /z/. In addition, the escape of air is diffuse (compared with that of
/s, z/), the friction occurring between a more extensive area of the tongue and the roof of
the mouth. In the case of / ʃ/, the friction is voiceless, whereas for / ʒ/ there may be some
vocal cord vibration.
All the fricatives described so far can be found in initial, medial and final positions.
In the case of / ʒ/, however, the distribution is much more limited. Very few English words
begin with / ʒ/ (most of them have come into the language comparatively recently from
French) and not many end with this consonant. Only medially, in words such as
“measure”, „usually‟ is it found at all commonly.
/h/ is glottal fricative. The place of articulation of this consonant is glottal. This
means that the narrowing that produces the friction noise is between the vocal folds. When
we produce /h/ in speaking English, many different things happen in different contexts. In

the word „hat‟, the /h/ must be followed by an / æ / vowel. The tongue, jaw and lip
positions for the vowel are all produced simultaneously with the /h/ consonant, so that the
glottal fricative has an / æ/ quality. The same is found for all vowels following /h/.

• Affricates
/ ʧ; ʤ/ are affricates. In the articulation of / ʧ; ʤ/ the soft palate being raised and
the nasal resonator shut off, the obstacle to the airstream is formed by a closure made
between the tip, blade, and rims of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth.
At the same time, the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate in readiness for
the fricative release. The closure is released slowly, the air escaping in a diffuse manner
over the whole of the central surface of the tongue with friction occurring between the
blade/front region of the tongue and the alveolar/front palatal section of the roof of the


9

mouth. During both stop and fricative stages, the vocal cords are wide apart for / ʧ/, but
may be vibrating for all or part of / ʤ/ according to the situation in the utterance.
• Nasals
/m, n/ are nasals. The soft palate is lowered for both /m/ and /n/. For /m/ the mouth
is blocked by closing the two lips, for /n/ by pressing the tip of the tongue against the sides
of the palate. Both sounds are voiced in English, as they are in other languages, and the
voiced air passes out through the nose (O‟Corner, 1980).
/R/ is velar nasal. In the articulation of /R/, the soft palate is lowered and all the air
passes out through the nose. The mouth is blocked by the back of the tongue pressed
against the soft palate. The sound is voiced (O‟Corner, 1980).
• Lateral /l/
/l/ is lateral. Only one alveolar, lateral phoneme occurs in English, there being no
opposition between fortis and lenis, voiced or voiceless, or fricative and non-fricative.
Within the /l/ phoneme three main allophones occur:

- Clear [l], with a relatively front vowel resonance, before vowels and /j/.
- Voiceless [l0], following aspirated /p, k/.
- Dark [ł], with a relatively back vowel resonance, finally after a vowel, before a
consonant, and as syllabic sound following a consonant. For clear [l], the front of the
tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate at the same time as the tip contact is
made. For dark [ł], the tip contact is again made on the teeth ridge, the front of the tongue
being somewhat depressed and the back raised in the direction of the soft palate, giving a
back vowel resonance. Both [l] and [ł] are voiced, though partial devoicing may take place
when a preceding consonant is fortis. The actual point of contact of the tongue for [ł] is
conditioned by the place of articulation of the following consonant; thus, in health, will
they, the [ł] has a dental contact, but in already, ultra, all dry, the contact for [ł] is likely to
be post-alveolar.
•Alveolar Approximant: /r/
/r/ is post-alveolar approximant. When producing it, the tongue has a curves shape
with the tip pointing towards the hard palate at the back of the alveolar ridge, the front low
and the back rather high. The tongue-tip is not close enough to the palate to cause friction.
The lips are rather-rounded, especially when /r/ is at the beginning of words. The soft


10

palate is raises, and voiced air flows quietly between the tongue-tip and palate with no
friction.
• Palatal Approximant: /j/
The vocalic allophones of RP /j/ are articulated by the tongue assuming the position
for a front half-close to close vowel and moving away immediately to the position of the
following sound; the lips are generally neutral or spread. When /j/ follows a fortis
consonant such as /p/, /k/, devoicing takes place.
• Labio-velar Approximant: /w/ The vocalic allophones of RP /w/ are articulated
by the tongue assuming the position for a back half-close to close vowel and moving away

immediately to the position of the following sound; the lips are rounded. The soft palate is
raised and the vocal cords vibrate; but when /w/ follows a consonant, some devoicing takes
place.
1.2.2. English vowels
“Vowel sounds are produced by passing air through different shapes of the mouth,
with different positions of the tongue and of the lips, and with the air stream relatively
unobstructed by narrow passages except at the glottis” (Finegan, 1994, p89).
According to Roach (1998), English vowels consist of short vowels, long vowels,
diphthongs and triphthongs.
Short vowels are only relatively short. There are seven short vowels in English: /"/,
/-/, /$/, /)/, /'/, /&/, /+/.
Long vowels are the vowels which tend to be longer than the short vowels in
similar contexts. There are five long vowels: /i:/, /*:/, /%:/, /&:/, /(:/.
Finegan (1994) describes English vowels in the diagram below:


11

In these pairs of vowels, O‟Cornor (1980) indicates that /i:/ is longer than /I/, /u:/ is
longer than /ʊ/ and /&:/ is longer than /ɒ/.
English vowels can be summarized as follows:
/i:/ long high/ close front spread vowel
/"/ short high/ close front spread vowel
/e/ short mid front spread vowel
/æ/ short low/ open front spread vowel
/u:/ long high/ close back rounded vowel
/'/ short high/close back rounded vowel
/&:/ long mid back rounded vowel
/ɒ/ short low/open back rounded vowel
/%:/ long low/open back rounded vowel

/*:/ long mid central neutral vowel
/+/ short mid central neutral vowel
/)/ short low/open central neutral vowel
Diphthongs are sounds which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to
another. The first part of diphthongs is much longer and stronger than the second part.
Diphthongs are divided into three groups as in this diagram:
Diphthong
Centring

ending in /+/
"+ -

ʊ

+

+

Closing

ending in /I/
-"

a"

&"

ending in /ʊ/
+'

a'


12

A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced
rapidly and without interruption. There are five triphthongs in English: /-"+/, /a"+/, /&"+/,
/+'+/, /a'+/.
1.2.3. Consonant clusters
Roach (1998) defines English consonant clusters as follows: “When we have two or
more consonants together we call them a consonant cluster.”
Avery and Ehrlich (1992) determine that English consonant clusters can be found
in the initial and final positions of words. They classify initial clusters into five types. The
first type is initial two-consonant clusters beginning with a stop consonant such as „pl, pr,
bl, br, tr, tw,dr, kl,kr,.etc.‟. The second type is initial two-consonant clusters beginning
with a fricative such as „fl, fr, sl, sw, sp, st, sk, sm, sn, sf, et.‟ The next one is clusters
beginning with a nasal such as „mj‟ in „music‟. The fourth type is clusters beginning with
/h/ such as „hj‟ in „huge‟; the last type is initial clusters of three consonants such as „spl,
spr,str, skr,skw,.. et.‟.
They also divide final clusters into four types: Final clusters of two consonants
beginning with a nasal such as „mp, nt, nd, ns, nố, ndʒ, ŋk‟; final clusters of two
consonants beginning with „l‟ or „r‟ such as „lp, lt, ld, lk, lf, lv, lố, ls, rp, rb, rt, rd, rk, rv,
rm, rn, rl.‟; final clusters of two consonants beginning with a fricative or stop such as „sp,
st, sk, ft, fố, pt, pố, ps, tố, kt, ks, dz‟ and final clusters of three consonants such as „kst,
mpt, nts, nst, rts, rld‟.
Furthermore, Avery and Ehrlich (1992) state that the addition of grammatical
endings creates many more final consonant clusters. For example, the plural ending /s/
when added to „text‟ creates the four-consonant cluster /ksts/.
1. 3. Vietnamese pronunciation
In this section, Vietnamese consonants and vowels are dealt with.

1.3.1. Vietnamese consonants
Nguyen Huu Quynh (1994) points out that there are twenty-two consonants in
Vietnamese. These consonants can occur in the initial position or in the final position of a
syllable. Twenty-one consonants appearing in the initial position are /m/, /n/, /Л/, /η/, /b/,
/t/, /d/, /ť/, /t/, /c/, /k/, /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /Ş/, /ʐ/, //, /γ/, /h/, /l/. In the final position,
Vietnamese has six consonants which are /p/, /t/, /m/, /n/, /k/, and /η/.


13

Vietnamese consonants can be classified according to manner of articulation, place
of articulation, and voicing. They are shown in the following table:

Place of articulation

Apical
Bilabial

Manner of articulation

dental

noise

stop

Dorsal

Radical

C

k

ɲ

η

palatal

t‟

Aspirated

ʈ

p

t

Voiced

b

d

m

n

Voiceless

f

s

Ş

x

Voiced

v

z

ʐ

ɣ

Un-aspirated

Voiceless

Nasal sonant

Glottal

noise

Fricative

Lateral Sonant

h

l

1.3.2. Vietnamese vowels
According to Đoàn Thiện Thuật (1999), Vietnamese has 13 single vowels,
including nine long vowels and 4 short vowels. Long vowels are /i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /a/, , /ɔ/, /o/,
/ɤ/, /u/, /ɯ/; short vowels are /ὲ/ (anh ách), /ɔ/(ong óc), /ɤ/(tân, thân), /ă/. In addition to
single vowels, Vietnamese has three diphthongs . They are /ie/, /ɯə/ and /uo/.
About diphthong distribution, diphthongs in Vietnamese are mostly centering, e.g:
/ie/ -iê, yê, ia, ya (hiền, miền, tiên), /ɯɤ/ -ươ, ưa (hươu, thưa, thương), /uo/ -uô, ua
(uống thuốc, lúa úa ).
1.4. Review of previous studies
The interference of the mother tongue in English pronunciation has appeared in
many studies, which means that it receives much attention for its importance. Some of
recent studies are summarized as follows:
The study entitled Mother tongue interference in the pronunciation of English
sounds by Yoruba language speakers by Samson, Abdullahi and Olagunju was conducted


14

with participants at Ahmadu Bello University. It revealed that the postgraduate students
have minimal interference compared to the undergraduate students and the non students
interviewed.
Leah Tweedy conducted a study in 2012 entitled Discovering factors that influence

English pronunciation of native Vietnamese speakers. This study revealed that Vietnamese
is one of factors affecting English pronunciation of native Vietnamese speakers.
In Vietnam, there is a minor thesis entitled The Interference of Mother Tongue as
Vietnamese in Learning English Sounds and Stress at High School of Mai Thi Thuy. The
study aimed at indicating the differences between English pronunciation and Vietnamese
pronunciation and finding out the influence of the mother tongue on learning English
sounds and stress at high school.


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CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
This chapter is covered with methodology, data analysis and discussion.
2.1. Methodology
2.1.1. Setting of the study
The study was conducted at Thai Nguyen University of Technology (TNUT). Most
students at the university come from mountainous areas where many ethnic minorities live
so students‟ English studying is very difficult. Their language background varies a lot. Some
students did not study English at school while others studied English from the sixth grade.
This causes a lot of difficulties for both teachers and students in teaching and learning English,
especially in teaching and learning pronunciation.
At TNUT, students are taught general English in 90 periods in the first year and New
Cutting Edge textbooks, workbooks and CDs (Elementay) are chosen. In this book, four basic
language skills and grammatical items are equally developed. At the end of each term, students
have to take an exam in two forms: oral test and written test. Students, therefore, focus mainly
on speaking, reading and grammar. However students have a lot of difficulties in pronouncing
English and teachers cannot concentrate more on teaching pronunciation. To improve students‟
pronunciation, teachers should be flexible and find out some ways to help students.
2.1.2. Participants
Due to time limitation, it is impossible to conduct the study with all of the first year

students. Therefore, the study was carried out with two classes (49J1, 49H) consisting of
100 students at Thai Nguyen University of Technology in their second term, the academic
year 2013-2014 and each class had 50 students.
2.1.3. Data collection instruments
The data of the study were obtained using 2 research instruments: class observation
and recording.
2.1.3.1 Class observation.
The class observation was administered to find out students‟ pronunciation
mistakes. The observation was conducted in 20 periods in the two classes (49J1 and 49H)
with twenty speaking lessons. The researcher attended the classes observing all the
activities and taking note students‟ speaking and students‟ speech to find out and classify
students‟ pronunciation mistakes, then decided whether these mistakes are influenced by
the mother tongue or not.


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2.1.3.2. Recording
Students‟ pronunciation was collected through students‟ recorded speeches. The
speeches are the subject speaking freely on students‟ choice of a topic in an oral
examination. The goal of recording speech was to get as accurate of a depiction as possible
of students‟ true pronunciation abilities.
The free speech offers the participants a range of subjects on which to speak,
allowing for a conscious choice of a topic in an oral examination. The oral examination
chosen in this study was the final examination of the academic year 2013-2014. The test
was administered at the end of the second term after the students had finished “English 1”.
The students were asked to pick out one of the following topics to talk about:
- Your family
- Your weekday
- Your last holiday

- Your past life
- One of your hobbies
- A famous person
- Yourself
- Your father or your mother
- Your brother or your sister
- Your best friend
While students talk about these topics, the researcher recorded all their talk and
then transcribed their pronunciation to discover mistakes.
The recording was administered with 30 students in the two classes in the oral test
because there were three supervisors in each class, the researcher could only work with 30
students.
2.1.4. Data collection procedures
From April to May, the researcher observed two classes 49J1 and 49H with 100
students in 20 periods in speaking lessons. When students spoke English, the researcher
listened and took note all of their pronunciation mistakes.
In the oral test in June, each of the students were asked to talk freely about a topic
they picked out from the list after having 10 minutes to prepare and wrote notes that was


17

necessary for their talk. While listening to and asking students, the researcher recorded 30
speeches of 30 students in the two classes 49J1 and 49H. The recordings would make it
possible for the students‟ performance to be transcribed so that the researcher could
identify and classify pronunciation mistakes and analyze possible causes.
2.2. Findings and discussion
This section presents the results from the class observation and the recording. The
results are analyzed on the basis of English pronunciation and Vietnamese pronunciations
after the study were carried out with the two classes consisting of 100 students. Because of

the limited time in the oral test, the recording was administered to a population of 30
students.
2.2.1. Description on the three most frequent types of mistakes
After doing research, the researcher found that most of the students made mistakes
repeatedly. The found mistakes were classified into three main types: sound omitted, sound
replacement and consonant clusters. The tables below shows the results of the mistake
classification obtained from the class observation and recording, which illustrate the
number of mistakes and the kinds of mistakes the students committed and the number of
students make mistakes.
Mistake frequency
Mistake types

Sound omission

Observation

Final position: tM, z, s, 376

Recording
257

M, I, J t, v, d, p, k, f,
DN.

Sound replacement

J = z (d)

121

50

p = f/b

42

43

I = t‟

73

10

DN = z

44

17

r=z

26

16