KHOA LUAN TOT NGHIEP a study on problems in pronouncing english consonants of first year majored students

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In order to fulfill this graduation thesis, I have received a lot of help, advice,
encouragement and supports from my teachers, my relatives and my friends.
First of all, I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mrs. Nguyen Thi
Tuong Nhu for her valuable advice, comments, encouragement and wholehearted direction from the beginning days until the finished research thesis.
Her supports have helped me a lot during the time of my writing.
Secondly, I am also grateful to the Teachers of Faculty of Foreign Languages
Studies at Tay Nguyen University for giving me valuable lessons and
experiences for four years I have been at Tay Nguyen University.
Besides, I like to thank the English majored students course 2019 who
willingly supplied me with the necessary data so that I could conduct the study
successfully.
Finally, I would like to thank my lovely family and friends who have given me
encouragement during the process of researching and writing this graduation
thesis.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EFL: English Foreign Language

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LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS

Figure 1: Monophthongs (pure vowels)...............................................................................4
Figure 2: Diphthongs................................................................................................................... 4
Figure 3: Consonant sounds......................................................................................................5
Figure 4: The positions of the lips in the production of bilabials..............................7
Figure 5: The positions of the teeth and lips in the production of labiodentals..7
Figure 6: The positions of the tongue the production of dentals...............................7
Figure 7: The positions of the tongue in the production of alveolars......................7
Figure 8: The positions of the tongue in the production of postalveolar...............8
Figure 9: The positions of the tongue in the production of palatal alveolars.......8
Figure 10: The positions of the tongue in the production of velars.........................8
Table 1: Classification of the English consonants..........................................................10
Table 2: The analysis of English consonant sounds in different positions of
word................................................................................................................................................. 19
Table 3: The analysis of the students’ most problem in pronouncing English
consonants.................................................................................................................................... 24
Table 4: Most common types of problems of the students........................................27
Table 5: The percentage of the students’ opinion on causes of their problems in
pronouncing English consonants.........................................................................................28

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CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of four sections. In the beginning, the statement of the
problem is mentioned. Then, the objectives and significance of the study are
displayed one after another. Finally, the outline of the study is shown to give an
overlook of the whole thesis.
1.1. Statement of the problem
In recent years, Foreign Language becomes a subject of interest in Viet Nam,
especially English. For instance, Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam

decides to make the getting started English program for students from grade 1 and 2
and English is one of three compulsory subjects for primary students from grade 3
instead two like before, in 2018. Moreover, nowadays, English is not only attached
special caring in big cities, but also in rural provinces in order that every student can
speak English. However, though many students can speak English, there is a fact
that many foreigners can not understand what Vietnamese students say in English.
The reason causes that problem is that Vietnamese students have some problems in
pronouncing English sounds. According to Hinofitis and Baily (1980), the fault
which most severely impairs the communication process in EFL learners, is
pronunciation, rather than vocabulary or grammar.
Pronunciation is an integral part of learning English, because it directly affects
students’ speaking tests and communicative competence as well as performance.
Limited pronunciation skills can decrease students’ self confidence and restrict
speaker’s credibility and abilities. According to Ha Cam Tam (2005), learning a new
language means learning a new way of using the speech organ, a new way of
controlling the speech organ in order to produce sound peculiar to the language, and
produce an intelligible speech. Honestly, speaking English like native speakers is
the dream of the English learners. Therefore, a study on “problems in pronouncing
English consonants of first year majored students at Tay Nguyen University” was
carried out to help the students improve their pronunciation by identifying their
mistakes in pronouncing consonants, the causes of those mistakes and finding some
effective ways to improve pronunciation.

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1.2. Objectives of the study
With the hope of getting more comprehensive and specific understanding of
English consonants, finding out common consonants pronunciation problems faced
by EFL learners and giving some solutions for those problems, the aims of this

research are:
- To find out problems that first year majored students have when they pronounce
English consonants.
- To suggest some effective ways improving pronunciation of first year majored
students.
1.3. Significance of the study
As said before, pronunciation is the essential part of learning English, because it
directly affects students’ speaking tests and communicative competence as well as
performance. Be successfully good at English is not only having a large amount of
vocabulary or a steady grammar knowledge, but also accurately pronunciation.
This study focuses on pronouncing English consonants that account for 80
percent in the English alphabet, which means that there are more consonants
pronounced than vowels. Moreover, this study will point out some common
problems in pronouncing English consonants faced by first year majored students in
order that students can improve their pronunciation. With good pronunciation skills,
they can also get high marks in Speaking and Pronunciation in use subjects. In
addition, this thesis also studies on articulation above the larynx, which makes first
year majored students be similar to Phonetic and Phonology subjects, a difficult
subject for every English majored students. Last but not least, this study is easy to
be followed that can help students, who are majored or not majored in English, be
aware of pronouncing English consonants correctly.
1.4. The outline of the study
This graduated thesis consists of five main chapters:

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Chapter I - Introduction: introduces reasons for choosing the topic, objectives,
significance and the outline of the study.
Chapter II - Literature review: lays out the theoretical background for the study.

The first section gives an overview of English sounds. The second section
concentrates on English consonant sounds and the last one shows some common
problems in pronouncing English consonants of learners.
Chapter III - Methodology: describes the subjects, scope, research questions and
the research methods of the study.
Chapter IV - Findings and discussion: presents, analyzes, synthesizes and
discusses the findings revealed from the collected data according to the two
research questions.
Chapter V - Conclusions and recommendations: gives some suggestions based
on the findings of the study and summarizes the important points of the whole
thesis. This chapter is followed by the References and Appendices.

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CHAPTER II – LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents some theoretical backgrounds that are related to the study.
It contains three sections to answer these following relevant questions:
a. How many sounds are there in English?
b. What are English consonants?
c. What are some common problems in pronouncing of EFL learners with
consonants?
2.1. The English sounds
How many sounds are there in English?
Many English learners feel difficult to learn English not only because the English
alphabet system is different from the native learner’s system, but also because the
English sounds can not be represented adequately by the letters of the alphabet.
According to Jespersen(1905), “If we know the sounds of a word (in English) we
can't know how to spell it; if we know the spelling, we can't know how to
pronounce it”. In short, there is no one-to-one relationship between the sounds that

we hear and the spelling of those words. For instance, the word “thank” has 5 letters
but 4 sounds, or the word “six” has 3 letters and 4 sounds. In another example, the
letter “o” has many different sounds in different words like “hot”, “cow”,
“Monday”, “computer”. Therefore, it is essential to distinguish the English alphabet
to the English sound. The English alphabet contains only 26 letters, but the sounds
have 44 sounds. These 44 sounds are divided into 20 vowel sounds and 24
consonant sounds.
2.1.1. Vowel sounds

Figure 2: Diphthongs
Figure 1: Monophthongs (pure vowels)
There are 20 vowel sounds that are consisted of 12 monophthongs and 8
diphthongs. The symbols of vowel sounds are presented in Figure 1 and 2.

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2.1.2. Consonant sounds

Figure 3: Consonant sounds
As showing in Figure 3, there are 24 consonant sounds in English although there
are only 21 consonant letters in the English alphabet, some of their phonetic
symbols are identified as letters.
2.2. The English consonants
What are English consonants?
2.2.1. Definition of English consonants
Many pieces of researches about pronunciation and consonants have been done.
“In articulatory phonetic, a consonant is a speech of sound that is articulated with
complete of partial closure of the upper vocal tract.” (Harmer, 2001, p.23).
Comparing to vowel, Rogers (2014, p.32) has the same idea, “Consonants are

sounds that involve a major obstruction or constriction of the vocal tract; vowels are
made with a very open vocal tract.”
To help students get more understanding, Mr. Y’trou gave an obvious detail of
consonant definition, “Consonants are speech sound. When we pronounce them, the
organs of speech form the barriers; the air stream is completely or partially stopped
before getting out of the mouth; and the pronunciation is with or without vibration
of the vocal cords.”
In other words, “a consonant is the sound in the production of which one
articulator moves toward another or two articulators come together obstructing the
air stream so the air stream can not get out freely”. (Wikipedia). In brief, a
consonant that is a sound of spoken language is produced by closure or stricture of
the vocal tract to make the vocal vibrate or not.

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2.2.2. Significance of English consonants in pronunciation
Learning to speak a foreign language, like English, is the first skills learners
often look up to be able to be part of normal communication. However, they have to
deal with a new way of producing a new sound system. Both native and nonnative
learners are required to spend time practicing and producing comprehensibly that
system (phonemes), which consist of vowels and consonants. Besides, the act of
producing sounds of speech refers to pronunciation. Nobody can deny the
importance of pronunciation in both communication and language skill
improvement. The good pronunciation helps learners have an effective
communication, and their listening skills and speaking are booted well. In addition,
sound is a significant aspect because these two benefits of sound, according to Ha
Cam Tam (2005), it is used as part of a code of a particular language, and it is used
to achieve meaning in context of use. By equivalently comparing set of pieces in
chess game to phonemes, Roach (1983) point out, “the most important thing for

communication is that we should be able to make use of the full set of phonemes”.
If someone changes the rule of any pieces’ move, no one accepts that the game is
chess. In a similar way, if speaker changes a phoneme when pronounce a word, no
hearer can understand that word; or the hearer even thinks of another different
word. Therefore, pronunciation, a clearly sounds produce, attends an essential role
in speaking to communicate effectively. Moreover, consonants have an influential
impact on pronunciation because they account for 80% letters in the English
alphabet. There are more consonant sounds than vowels, it does not mean that
consonants are more important than vowels, but there would be so many consonants
that should be pronounced carefully.
2.2.3. Classification of English consonants
According to Rogers (2014), consonants are usually classified by three ways:
places of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing. Base on the places of
articulation we can know where the obstruction of the consonants occurs, the
manners of articulation helps us know how the interaction between the articulation

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and the airstream, and state of the vocal cord describes the vocal cords is vibrated or
not. Those classifications describe how consonants are pronounced.
2.2.3.1. According to places of articulation
There are 9 groups of consonants base on places of articulation:
a. Bilabials
Bilabials are sounds made with the lips, two (bi-) lips (labial) involve in the
production of sounds, include /p b m w/. The obstruction of the airstream thus
occurs at the lips.

Figure 4: The positions of the lips in the
production of bilabials

b. Labiodentals

Figure 5: The positions of the teeth and
lips in the production of labiodentals

Labiodentals are sounds made with the lower lip (labial) and the upper teeth
(dental), include /f v/. There is not the obstruction of airstream occurring.
c. Dentals
Dentals are sounds made by upper teeth and lower teeth, include /θ ð/. In the
production of these sounds, the obstruction of the airstream occurs because the tip
of the tongue is between the teeth or just behind teeth.

Figure 6: The positions of the tongue the
production of dentals
d. Alveolars

Figure 7: The positions of the tongue in
the production of alveolars

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Alveolars are sounds made by alveolar, include /t d s n l/. These sounds are
referred to as alveolar because the tongue either touches or approaches the alveolar
ridge in their production.
e. Postalveolar
There are only one post-alveolar sound: /r/. This is one of the gliding consonants.
To produce /r/, the tongue raises up, reaches up the alveolar.

Figure 8: The positions of the tongue in the production of postalveolar

f. Palatal
We have one palatal sound /j/. It is made when the body of the tongue approaches
the hard palate, closely enough to create turbulence in the airstream.
g. Palatal alveolars
Palatal alveolars are sounds made with the tongue raises up to the place between
alveolar and palate. They are / tʃ dʒ ʃ ʒ/

Figure 9: The positions of the tongue in Figure 10: The positions of the tongue in
the production of palatal alveolars
the production of velars
h. Velars are sounds made by the tongue raise up articulating against the velum. In
English the velars are /k g ŋ/.
i. Glottal

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Consonant sound belongs to glottal is /h/. Producing the consonant /h/ does not
make very much noise. It is made by pushing the air from the lung out of the mouth
without any obstruction.
2.2.2.2. According to manners of articulation
There are 6 groups of consonants classified according to manners of articulation:
a. Plosives
There are 6 plosive sounds: /p b t d k g/. They are made by the air passes from
the lung into the mouth then completely stops because of the lips or tip of the
tongue or back of the tongue, and then escapes with a slight explosion.
b. Fricatives
Fricatives consist of 9 consonant: /f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ/. To produce these sounds, the
air stream is partially stopped and gradually releasing. This partial obstruction
results from the teeth or the tongue coming close to some part of the upper mouth.

c. Affricates
They are /tʃ dʒ/. They begin as plosive consonants and release as fricatives.
d. Nasals
There are three nasal consonants: /m n ŋ/. They are made by lowering the soft
palate to push the air out of the nose. If the nose is closed, nasals can be produced.
e. Lateral
/l/ is made with the tip-tongue touching the tooth ridge and the air passing
through the mouth over the sides of the tongue and the palate.
f. Glides
Glides consist of /r j w/. They are made with relatively wide opening in the
mouth, quick and non-friction glide towards a following vowel sound.
2.2.2.3. According to states of the vocal cords
Sounds that are made with the vibration in the vocal cord are voice and without
vibration are voiceless.

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a. Voiceless: /p t k f s θ ʃ tʃ h/
b. Voiced: /b d g v z ð ʒ dʒ m n ŋ l r w j/
Overall, English consonant sounds in different groups are summarized in table 1
below:

Place
Bilabial
Labiodental
Dental
Alveolar
Post-alveolar
Palatal

Palatal alveolar
Velar
Glottal
Table 1: Classification of the English consonants

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2.2.4. How to pronounce English consonants correctly
In the last part, consonants are classified to be easily described, thanks to table 1,
it is much easier. This part will introduce how to produce each consonant base on its
describing.
/p/: Bilabial, Plosive, Voiceless
As in the last part, we know that bilabials are sounds made with the two lips, and
plosives are made by the air escapes the mouth with a slight explosion. Therefore,
to pronounce /p/, the lips are close firmly and the soft palate is raised so that the
breath cannot get out, then the lips open suddenly, the breath get out with a strong
popping noise.
/b/: Bilabial, Plosive, Voiced
The way pronouncing /b/ is similar to /p/, but there are quite difference as when
the lips open, the breath get out with a weak popping noise, and the vocal cord is
vibrated.
/t/: Alveolar, Plosive, Voiceless
When pronounce /t/, the tongue-tip is firmly against the middle of the alveolar
ridge and the soft palate raise so that the breath cannot escape, then the tongue-tip is
lowered suddenly the breath rushes out with a popping noise.
/d/: Alveolar, Plosive, Voiced
The way pronouncing /d/ is similar to /t/, but it makes the vocal cord vibrate.
/k/: Velar, Plosive, Voiceless
To pronounce /k/, the back of the tongue is firmly contact with the soft palate, the

soft palate raise, then the tongue is lowered suddenly, the breath rushes out of the
mouth with a strong popping noise.
/g/: Velar, Plosive, Voice
The way pronouncing /g/ is similar to /k/, but when the tongue lower, the breath
get out with a weak popping noise, and the vocal cord is vibrated.

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/f/: Labiodental, Fricative, Voiceless
To pronounce /f/, the upper teeth and the lower lip form barriers and the air is
pushed through that barriers causes slight friction, the vocal cord is not vibrated.
/v/: Labiodental, Fricative, Voiced.
The way pronouncing /v/ is similar to /f/, but the vocal cord vibrates when
pronounce /v/.
/θ/: Dental, Fricative, Voiceless
When pronounce /θ/, the upper teeth and lower teeth combine together, the
tongue-tip is against the upper teeth, where the breath goes out causes a very slight
friction.
/ð/: Dental, Fricative, Voiced.
The way pronouncing /ð/ is similar to /θ/, but the noise make by /ð/ is weaker and
shorter than /θ/, and the vocal cord is vibrated.
/s/: Alveolar, Fricative, Voiceless
To pronounce /s/, the tip and the blade of the tongue are very close to the alveolar
ridge. The teeth are close together. The soft palate is raised so that the breath goes
out and causes a friction. The friction sound is much greater than /f/ and /v/.
/z/: Alveolar, Fricative, Voiced
The way pronouncing /z/ is similar to /s/, but when pronounce /z/, the vocal cord
vibrates.
/ʃ/: Palatal alveolar, Fricative, Voiceless

In order to pronounce /ʃ/, the soft palate raises so that the breath must go through
the mouth, the tongue-tip is against the back of the alveolar ridge. The lips are
slightly rounded.
/ʒ/: Palatal alveolar, Fricative, Voiced
The way pronouncing /ʒ/ is similar to /ʃ/, but there is vibration in the vocal cord
when pronounce /ʒ/.

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/h/: Glottal, Fricative, Voiceless
In order to make /h/, the mouth is held ready for the vowel and a short gasp of
breath is pushed up by the lungs.
/tʃ/: Palatal alveolar, Affricative, Voiceless
The way make /tʃ/ is the combination of /t/ and /ʃ/. To make sound /tʃ/, the
tongue-tip touches the back part of the alveolar ridge, and the soft palate is raised so
that the breath is trapped for a short time. Then, the breath released as friction. The
air stream is completely stopped then gradually releasing.
/dʒ/: Palatal alveolar, Affricative, Voiced
The way pronouncing /dʒ/ is similar to /tʃ/, but voiced.
/m/: Bilabial, Nasal, Voiced
To pronounce /m/, two lips combine together to close firmly, the soft palate is
lowered so that all the air is pushed out of the noise.
/n/: Alveolar, Nasal, Voiced
To pronounce /n/, the soft palate is also lowered so that the air is forced to go out
of the noise, but the tongue-tip is against the alveolar ridge, and the sides of the
tongue is against the sides of the palate.
/ŋ/: Velar, Nasal, Voiced
In order pronounce /ŋ/, the soft palate is lowered and all the air passes out
through the noise. The back of the tongue against the soft palate blocks the mouth.

/l/: Alveolar, Lateral, Voiced
When we make the sound /l/, the soft palate is raised, the tongue-tip is in firm
contact with the alveolar ridge, obstructing the center of the mouth, the air passes
between the sides of the tongue and the palate.
/w/: Bilabial, Glide, Voiced
To make /w/, the two lips are rounded quite firmly, the vocal cord is open. It
consists of a quick glide from the vowel /u/ or /ʊ/.

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/r/: Post-alveolar, Glide, Voiced
To pronounced /r/, the tongue-tip raises up and touches the alveolar. The tongue
has a curved shape with the tip pointing towards the hard palate at the back of the
alveolar ridge.
/j/: Palatal, Glide, Voiced
When we pronounce /j/, the body of the tongue reaches to the palate. It consists
of a quick glide of vowel /i/ or /ɪ/.
2.3. Common pronunciation problems of EFL learners with consonants
2.2.1. Some common problems
Speaking English like native speakers is dream of every English learner. They are
required to pronounce English accurately; however, they encounter many factors to
gain their desire. One of those factors is that they have some common problem
when they pronounce a different sound system from their first language. According
to Avery and Ehrlich (1992), there are some common problems of English learners
with consonants following:
a. Aspiration of Plosives
Learners often have a number problems with the voiceless plosives /p t k/. They
failure to aspirate /p t k/ in initial positions, makes it sound like /b d g/. For
example, pen, time, Kate may sound like ben, dime, gate.

b. Voicing of Fricatives
Learners are unable to make out the difference between voiced and voiceless
fricatives. They can easily make voiceless fricative /f s ʃ/, but difficulty with /v z ʒ/.
There for, they pronounce rise and leave may sound like rice and leaf.
c. Voicing of Plosives in final distribution
Learners often pronounce voiceless final plosive instead of voiced. For example,
they will pronounce “cab” sound like “cap”. Avery and Ehrlich (1992) state that
demonstrating the distinction of voiced and voiceless of plosives is more difficult

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than of fricatives. Moreover, learners can also have problem with final voiced
fricative, if they have problem in voicing final plosives.
d. Dentals
Every learner, at first, always has difficulty with dentals, and then they will
substitute voiceless consonants like /t s f/ for /θ/ and voiced consonants like /d z v/
for /ð/. There for, mouth and lather may be pronounced as mouse and ladder.
e. Post-alveolar /r/
Many learners pronounce /r/ as in their native language, not like English /r/. They
pronounce /r/ with the tip of the tongue touches the tooth ridge repeatedly, while the
English /r/ with the tip of the tongue curled back and the lips rounded.
In short, EFL learners often have problems in aspiration, distinction of voiced
and voiceless consonants, mispronouncing dentals and the English /r/.
2.3.2. Causes of problems in pronouncing English consonants of EFL learners
First, the influence of learner’s mother tongue affects to their pronunciation of
English. There are variety language systems that differ from the English system.
Therefore, it makes the way of controlling speech organ of native EFL learners be
unfamiliar to English. Haries (2011) pointed out that since EFL learners often use
their mother tongue as a starting point to learn English, they have problems in

producing English sounds. Secondly, he also stated educational background might
cause problems in pronouncing. The amount of time and the way practice
pronunciation in English lesson can affect pronunciation ability of learners. It can
leads to leaners’ phonetic ability. They may not know how to produce English
sounds accurately. To sum up, there are many factors that might effect learner’s
pronunciation of English consonants, yet mother tongue is the most influence.

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CHAPTER III- METHODOLOGY
In the previous chapter, a brief overview of the literature on the research topic
was given, which laid the theoretical basis for the whole study. This chapter
presents the research methods that are used to carry out the study. It also includes
the subject and the scope of the study. Moreover, the research questions are clearly
stated to act the parameter for the entire thesis.
3.1. Subject of the study
This thesis focuses on problems in pronouncing English consonants faced by first
year majored students in Tay Nguyen University who have not yet studied
Pronunciation in Use subject in University, are students course 2019 of Faculty of
Foreign Languages Studies at Tay Nguyen University. Besides, the study aims to
develop solution to improve pronunciation by making the use of my experience
from Pronunciation in Use subject in second year and in Phonetic and Phonology
subject in third year, and from the use of previous studies from other Universities.
Therefore, students from course 2019 classes of Faculty of Foreign Languages
Studies at Tay Nguyen University are the most suitable subjects for this study.
There are three English majored course 2019 classes. The English Pedagogy
class course 2019 contains 54 first year students, while there are 71 first year
students in the English language A class and 56 first year students in class B course
2019. However, this thesis does not concentrate on any specific pronunciation errors

or mistakes of every the students, and it just focus on the common problems that
they have. Therefore, there are only 60 first year students from course 2019 classes
targeted as subject of the study. Finally, 20 first year students of each class were
invited randomly to do the recording and questionnaire survey.
3.2. Scope of the study
To be good at pronunciation, there are numerous aspects students have to
concentrate on, including principle of vowels and consonants pronunciation,
principle of the word stress or intonation of a sentence, etc…However, as said in
2.2.2, there would be so many consonants that should be pronounced carefully, and

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consonants should be first aspect to be concentrate on. Thus, this thesis studies on
the problems in pronouncing English consonants of first year majored students.
3.3. Research question
In order to facilitate the study, the following research questions are conducted:
- Question 1: What are problems made by first year majored students when they
pronounce English consonants?
- Question 2: What are causes of those problems?
3.4. Research method
To achieve the aims of the study successfully and effectively, the method of this
study is mix method of quantitative method and qualitative method. The data are
collected by recording and survey questionnaire. The reason of applying recording
method is that recording method can give voice and perception of the subjects for
the study. It is a very useful tool to evaluate subjects’ pronunciation. According to
Burns (1999), the quantitative approach is employed when the research aims at
achieving objectivity and control. Therefore, to gain an overview of the causes of
problems in pronouncing English consonants of first year majored students at Tay
Nguyen University, a survey questionnaire was conducted.

3.5. Description of data collect instrument
To answer the research questions, two methods are used: recording and
questionnaire. First, recording are carried out to check what problems in
pronouncing English consonants first year majored students have. Therefore, 24
single English consonant sounds are put in table. There are 67 common words that
contain English consonant sounds in initial, middle, and final distribution, are also
put in the table following the consonant sounds. The letters contains the consonants
were bolded in order to focus the students’ attentions on the consonants. The
recording information also includes 11 sentences that contain many English
consonants, especially consonants in phonological oppositionss, are used to check
how well the students can distinguish each consonant.

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After that, a questionnaire survey is delivered to obtain the students’ opinion on
the causes of their problems in pronouncing English consonants. It consists of 6
main causes that students may deal with and a blank for students to write more.
3.6. Data collection and analysis procedures
The data collection procedure was carried out when the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
spread, so the data was collected through e-mail and social media. Though the data
collection procedure was executed online, there were some benefits. First,
participants can be more confidents and individual to do the survey. Secondly, the
students’ record reading can be clearer than those recorded in classes. Before
recording, students of majored course 2019 were sent information about English
consonant sounds, words, and sentences containing consonant sounds. They were
all in a Microsoft word form. The students had time to look for phonetic
transcription of words they did not sure. Afterwards, students were asked to read
aloud the sounds, the words, and the sentences. Their pronunciation were recorded
by their mobile phone and converted into MP3 format. Finally, students did the

questionnaire survey and sent back to the researcher a recorded in mp3 file and a
questionnaire’s respond in Microsoft word file. After all, 60 mp3 files and Microsoft
word files were collected to be analyzed.
In the analysis procedures, the recorded readings were analyzed and compared to
available recording, made by native-English speakers. Then, students’ recorded
reading were labelled inaccurate pronouncing English consonants in different
positions of word, in order to check which consonants students have problems with.
Besides, the responses of questionnaires were calculated in percentage. After that,
the results obtained from questionnaire and recording were analyzed and discussed
in the chapter IV. Based on the results, some recommendations for improving
pronunciation in general and the English consonants in particular would be offered
to enhance the students’ English pronunciation and communication.
3.7. Summary
This chapter has presented details about the subjects of the survey, which
included 60 students from English majored Course 2019 classes of Tay Nguyen

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University. The instruments applied in data collection were recording and
questionnaire. Data were then divided into two categories to answer the research
questions: students’ problems in pronouncing English consonants and students’
opinion on causes of their problems. Overall, the methodology applied in the study
was appropriate and effective for the investigation on the subject matters.

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CHAPTER IV – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter describes the results of the study, their analysis and the discussions,

which are relevant to each aspect of the study. The chapter consists of 3 aspects: the
students’ common problems in pronouncing English consonant sounds, the students’
opinion on causes of the problems in pronouncing English consonants sounds, and
the summary with major findings from the results.
4.1. Students’ common problems in pronouncing English consonant sounds
There are 24 consonant sounds and 67 common words that contain English
consonant sounds in initial, middle, and final distribution and 11 sentences that
contain English consonants of phonological oppositionss which the students were
asked to read aloud. The students’ recorded pronunciation were synthesized to find
out which English consonant sounds the students pronounce inaccurately most and
what the students’ problems face with those sounds. The percentage of the students’
inaccurately pronouncing English consonant sounds in different positions of word is
shown in table 2.
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Consonants

Initial

Medial

Final

/p/

47%

47%

60%

/b/

0%

0%

86%

/t/

10%

10%

0%

/d/

0%

0%

79%

/k/

12%

11%

0%

/g/

36%

36%

85%

/f/

0%

0%

0%

/v/

0%

0%

50%

/θ/

90%

92%

96%

/ð/

93%

93%

97%

/s/

65%

63%

80%

24


12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

/z/

0%

0%

87%

/ʃ/

65%

65%

78%

/ʒ/

71%

71%

84%

/tʃ/

52%

52%

52%

/dʒ/

85%

87%

91%

/m/

0%

0%

0%

/n/

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%
0%

/ŋ/
/l/

0%

0%

/j/

2%

2%

/w/

0%

0%

/r/

0%

0%

/h/

0%

0%

Average

26,2%

26,2%

42,7%

Table 2: The analysis of English consonant sounds in different positions of word
In general, from the table 2, the average percentage of final positions column is
the highest percentage. This implies that the students had problems mostly with
final consonants. Besides, the average percentage of initial and middle positions
column are equal. This suggests that if the students had had problems in
pronouncing initial consonants, they would have had problems in middle
consonants as well.
In particularly, the first consonant sound the students had to read aloud in survey
sheets was /p/. From the table 2, there were 28 in 60 students pronouncing /p/ which
occurred in initial and middle positions incorrectly. All of them pronounced /p/
without aspiration, so they pronounced /p/ might sound like /b/ in initial and middle

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