A study on mistakes commonly commited by the 10th grade students at kim thanh high school, hai duong in the pronunciation of english fricative and affricative consonants and some possible pedagogical solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG

A STUDY ON MISTAKES COMMONLY COMMITED BY THE 10th
GRADE STUDENTS AT KIM THANH HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG IN
THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH FRICATIVE AND
AFFRICATIVE CONSONANTS AND SOME POSSIBLE
PEDAGOGICAL SOLUTIONS.
NGHIÊN CỨU LỖI PHÁT ÂM THƯỜNG GẶP LIÊN QUAN TỚI ÂM
SÁT VÀ TẮC SÁT TRONG TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10
TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG KIM THÀNH, HẢI DƯƠNG, VÀ
MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP TRONG THỰC TẾ GIẢNG DẠY.
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2017


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG

A STUDY ON MISTAKES COMMONLY COMMITED BY THE 10th
GRADE STUDENTS AT KIM THANH HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG IN
THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH FRICATIVE AND
AFFRIVATIVE CONSONANTS AND SOME POSSIBLE

PEDAGOGICAL SOLUTIONS.
NGHIÊN CỨU LỖI PHÁT ÂM THƯỜNG GẶP LIÊN QUAN TỚI ÂM
SÁT VÀ TẮC SÁT TRONG TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10
TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG KIM THÀNH, HẢI DƯƠNG, VÀ
MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP TRONG THỰC TẾ GIẢNG DẠY.
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisior: Dr. Đỗ Tuấn Minh

HANOI - 2017


DECLARATION
I, Nguyen Thi Phuong, hereby certify that my thesis submitted for the
Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International
Studies, Vietnam National University, apart from the help recognized, is my
own work. The substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been
summited for a degree to any other formal course of study.
Hanoi, 2017
Signature

Nguyen Thi Phuong

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my special and sincere

thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Do Tuan Minh, who gave me enthusiastic
instructions, precious support and critical feedback on the construction of the
study. This has always been one of decisive factors in the completion of this
thesis.
Second, I also express my profound gratitude to all doctors, lectures
and staff members of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of
Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,
Hanoi for their valuable lectures and useful advice that are a great help to
fulfill the study.
Next, I would like to send my deep sense of thanks to the teachers and
the 10th grade students at Kim Thanh High School, Hai Duong for their
cooperation and the valuable information they provided in my research field.
Furthermore, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude to my family
and all of my friends who have great source of endless care and support.
Last but not least, I am also thankful to many writers whose important
ideas and notions are exploited and developed in the study.

ii


ABSTRACT
In

the

light

of

communication

oriented

language

teaching,

pronunciation is affirmed to be as vital as other fields of language such as
grammar and vocabulary. However, the teaching and learning pronunciation
situation at Kim Thanh High School, Hai Duong is somehow troublesome.
This minor thesis aims at identifying the most common mistakes when
producing English affricative and fricative sounds by the 10 th grade students
at Kim Thanh High School, as well as investigating the main causes of these
mistakes and the possible pedagogical solutions to assist them correct their
mistakes.
This study is to investigate practices and challenges of teaching
pronunciation by two survey questionnaires, one for 200 eleventh- form
students and the other for 6 teachers teaching English for grades 10. Class
observation and informal interview are also carried out to elicit hidden
reasons behind participants‟ answers in the questionnaires and to help the
researcher draw a vivid picture of a pronunciation lesson as well. From the
results inferred in the analysis, the study suggests some feasible techniques
and activities to make pronunciation teaching and learning English fricative
and affricative sounds more effective.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION................................................................................................i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................ii
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................iv
LISTS OF TABLES.........................................................................................vi
LISTS OF FIGURES......................................................................................vii
PART A: INTRODUCTION.............................................................................1
1. Rationale of the study................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of study and research questions...........................................................2
3. Significance of the study...............................................................................2
4. Scope of the study.........................................................................................3
5. Method of the study...................................................................................... 3
6. Design of the study....................................................................................... 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT..............................................................................5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................5
1.1. Theoretical background..............................................................................5
1.1.1. The description of English fricatives...................................................... 6
12
1.1.2. The description of English affricates / tʃ/& /dʒ/............................................................................................................................................................................................................

1.3. Some similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese
consonants in terms of affricatives and fricatives...........................................14
1.4. Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis......15
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY.................................................................. 24
CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.............................................. 28
3.1.Data analysis............................................................................................. 28
3.1.1 The result collected by means of recordings..........................................28
3.2 The result collected by means of questionnaire........................................ 33
iv

3.2.1. Students‟ opinion on the importance of pronunciation........................ 33
3.2.2. Students‟ purposes of learning English................................................34
3.2.3. Student‟s frequency in practicing English pronunciation.....................35
3.2.4. Students‟ knowledge of reading phonetic transcription....................... 35
3.2.5. Causes of the students‟ mispronunciation............................................ 36
CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMENDATION.........................41
4.1 Using IPA Chart........................................................................................ 41
4.2. Making the lessons more interesting........................................................42
4.2.1. Phonetic hangman.................................................................................43
4.2.2. IPA symbol card game.......................................................................... 43
4.2.3. Bingo.....................................................................................................44
4.3. Equipping facilities.................................................................................. 44
4.4. Motivating the students............................................................................45
PART C: CONCLUSION................................................................................46
1. Concluding remarks....................................................................................46
2. Significance of the study.............................................................................47
3. Limitations of the study.............................................................................. 47
4. Suggestions for further studies....................................................................48
References.......................................................................................................49
Appendix 1.........................................................................................................I
Appendix 2......................................................................................................III

v


LISTS OF TABLES
Table 1: Vietnamese initial and final consonants............................................15
Table 2: Sounds mispronounced by Vietnamese students (Tam,2007)...........16
Table 3: Mistakes in producing the sounds /f/ and /v/.................................... 17
Table 4.1: Mistakes in producing the sounds/θ/ -/ð /...................................... 17

Table 4.2: Mistakes in producing the sounds/θ/ -/ð / (2).................................18
19
21
Table 5: Mistakes in producing the sounds /ʃ/ -/ ʒ/................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Table 6: Mistakes in producing the sounds /tʃ/ - /dʒ/..............................................................................................................................................................................................................

Table 7: Common pronunciation mistakes committed by the students...........30
Table 8: Number of students producing sound omission................................31
Table 9: Number of students producing sound deviation............................... 32
Table 10: Students‟ purposes of learning English grammar...........................34
Table 11: Causes of the students‟ mispronunciation...................................... 38

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LISTS OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Consonant chart according to Place and Manner of articulation of
the sound...........................................................................................................5
Figure 2: Place and manner articulation of the sound /f/..................................6
Figure 3: Place and manner articulation of the sound /v/................................. 7
Figure 4: Place and manner articulation of the sound / θ /................................7
Figure 5: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ð /............................... 8
Figure 6: Place and manner articulation of the sound / s /................................9
Figure 7: Place and manner articulation of the sound / z /................................9
Figure 8: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ∫ /.............................. 10
11
Figure 9: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ʒ /......................................................................................................................................................................................................

Figure 10: Place and manner articulation of the sound / h /........................... 11

Figure 12. Students‟ opinion on the importance of pronunciation.................34
Figure 13: Students‟ frequency in practicing English pronunciation.............35
Figure 14: Students‟ response to the pronunciation course attendance..........36
Figure 15: Students‟ knowledge of reading phonetic transcription................36
Figure 16: Causes of the students‟ mispronunciation.....................................39
Figure 17: The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)................................... 42

vii


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
When discussing the role of English language in current society, it is
believed that a guy can get promotion in the management ladder only if he
can speak English fluently. If your English is poor, even though you may have
well- qualified qualifications, and brilliant brain and can come up with
brilliant business ideas, you may still find yourself languishing at the bottom
of the management ladder since you will find difficulty in expressing your
brilliant ideas. That is an important and needless- to- question matter in our
society. However, when observing and basing on the real teaching, the
researcher has found out that many students, otherwise most of them, feel
discouraged towards English just because they can not, or in another word, do
not know how to pronounce English words appropriately. The reason is
explained by Gerald Kelly (2000) that a learner who consistently
mispronounces words can be extremely difficult for the listener to understand.
In the way round, the situation will also become very frustrating for himself/
herself even though he/ she has very good knowledge of grammar and
vocabulary.
Therefore, in the English book for students in high school,
pronunciation lessons are designed with the hope of giving both teachers and

learners some basic cues of English pronunciation matters. The reality of
teaching pronunciation in general, and teaching pronunciation for students of
grade 10 at Kim Thanh high school in particular, however, seems not to be as
ideal as hoped. From the real experience in teaching, the researcher attempts
to carry out a research to make the problem clear.
In this study, the researcher has presented a brief description of some
features of English affricate and fricative consonants as well as the mistakes
1


made by Vietnamese stdents when producing them. On the foundation of
these mistakes, some solutions are suggested to mitigate the problems.
Briefly, all of the problems mentioned above have studied further on “A
study on mistakes commonly commited by the 10th Grade students at Kim
Thanh High School, Hai Duong in the pronunciation of English Fricative and
Affricative consonants and some possible pedagogical solutions”
2. Aims of study and research questions
This study was conducted with an aim of investigating the most
common mistakes when producing English affricative and fricative sounds by
the 10th grade students at Kim Thanh high school and providing some
strategies to help students avoid mispronunciation.
In order to fulfil these aims, the study focuses on answering the
research questions:
1.

What are the most common mistakes related to English affricative

and fricative sounds the 10th grade students at Kim Thanh high school often
make?
2.

3.

What are the causes of the mispronunciation?

What are the possible pedagogical solutions to help students correct

these mistakes?
3. Significance of the study
Theoretical significance: The research assists both teachers and learners
to review phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds. It is a
solid foundation in teaching and learning English pronunciation.
Practical significance: The study identifies students‟ mistakes in
producing affricative and fricative sounds in English and supplies English
teachers with the understanding and practical view to have pedagogical
suitable solutions to these kinds of established mistakes.
2


4. Scope of the study
As can be seen, the English sound system consists of forty-four
phonemes; twenty-four consonants, twelve pure vowels and eight diphthongs.
Generally, Vietnamese often have difficulties in producing some of these
sounds in a proper way due to some reasons.
It is necessary to make a distinction between errors and mistakes.
Mistakes are what the researchers referred to as performance errors (the
learners know the system but fail to use it) while the errors are a result of one
systematic competence (the learners‟ system is incorrect).( Richards, Platt and
Platt.H,1992). According to Jame (1998), an error cannot be self-corrected
while mistakes can be self- corrected if the deviation is pointed out to the
speaker.

Due to time constraints, the length of thesis and the researcher‟s
knowledge, it is impossible for the researcher to study all the pronunciation
mistakes made by students. Therefore, this study only focuses on finding out
the most typical mistakes made by the 10 th Grade students at Kim Thanh High
School, Hai Duong in the pronunciation of English Fricative and Affricative
consonants sounds.
5. Method of the study
The study is designed to use both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Besides, many resources such as books, magazines, articles, newspapers and
some sources on the internet have been read by the researcher.
In order to gain the most reliable results, the quantitative data will be
collected through two survey questionnaires. One survey questionnaire is for
200 students from classes of two different groups: English- gifted and
English- non- gifted in grade 10 at Kim Thanh high school and the other
survey is for 6 teachers teaching English for grades 10 during the time they
3


took part in the survey. The data, then, will be processed and analyzed to yield
conclusions for the study.
6. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts as follows:
PART A is the introduction, which provides an overview of the study
with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, the scope and the structural
organization of the thesis.
PART B development, consists of 3 chapters:
Chapter 1 presents review of previous studies related to the research of
the thesis and theoretical backgrounds about general descriptions of English
affricative and fricative sounds.
Chapter 2, the methodology underlying the research is presented. It

presents the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect the data and
the procedure of the data collection.
Chapter 3 is devoted to a detailed description of data analysis and a
thorough discussion of the findings of the study.
PART C is conclusion including the summary of the main points
presented in the thesis and concluding remarks. The limitations of the study
and some recommendations for further research are also discussed in this
chapter.

4


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Theoretical background
English has 24 consonant phonemes classified according to their
respective point of articulation, manner of articulation, voiced or voiceless.
They are distinguished from each other by the distinctive features
characterized by the three-way distinction listed above. The consonants in
English are patterned amazingly in pairs (except for the nasals) voiced/
voiceless.

Figure 1: Consonant chart according to Place and Manner of articulation
of the sound
(as achieved from
/>
5


From the table above, according to Manner of Articulation, it‟s clearly

that English fricatives consist of 4 minimal pairs: /f/ &/v/;/s/&/z/;/θ/&/ ð/;
/∫/&/ʒ/ and /h/ sound while English affricate include one pair : / tʃ/& /dʒ/.
1.1.1. The description of English fricatives
Fricative is defined, according to Tam Ha Cam (2005), as consonants
with the characteristic that when they are produced, air escapes through a
small passage and makes a hissing sound. They are continuant consonants, as
you can continue making them without interruption as long as you have
enough air in your lungs.
1.1.1.1. Labio- dental Fricatives :/f,v/
/f/ is a labio-dental, voiceless, fortis consonant. It is produced by
pressing the lower lip against the upper teeth and forcing the air out between
them. The sound can be spelt f - as in fine, flare, fringe, feud, loaf, stifle, ff as in effort, snuff, ph - as in physics, graph, or even gh - as in enough, tough.

Figure 2: Place and manner articulation of the sound /f/
(as achieved from />/frameset.html )

6


/v/ is the voiced, lenis pair of [f] with which it shares the place (labiodental) and manner (fricative) of articulation. E.g. leaf / leaves, wife/wives,
of. Derivational affixes can also voice the final consonant: life/liven.

Figure 3: Place and manner articulation of the sound /v/
(as achieved from />/frameset.html
1.1.1.2. Dental Fricatives: / θ, ð/
θ/ is an interdental, voiceless, fortis fricative. It occurs in word-initial,
medial and final position. It is produced with the tip of the tongue between the
teeth, the air escaping through the passage in between. The sound is rendered
graphically by h- thin, method, path. The sound often occurs in clusters
difficult to pronounce: eighths [eıtθs], depths [depθs], lengths [leŋθs].

Figure 4: Place and manner articulation of the sound / θ /
(as achieved from />/frameset.html
7


/ð/ is the voiced pair of [θ] being an interdental, voiced, lenis fricative.
In initial position it is only distributed in grammatical words such as
demonstratives: this, that, these, those, there; articles: the; adverbs: thus. It
occurs freely in medial position: brother, bother, rather, heathen. In final
position it often represents the voicing of [θ] in plurals like mouths [mauðz],
wreaths [ri:ðz] which may prove difficult to pronounce, or in derived words
like bath [ba: θ] (noun)/bathe [beıð] (verb) or breath [breθ] (n.)/ breathe
[bri:ð] (v.).

Figure 5: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ð /
(as achieved from />/frameset.html
1.1.1.3. Alveolar Fricatives: /s,z/
/s/ is an alveolar, voiceless, fortis fricative, produced with the tip and
the blade of the tongue making a light contact with the alveolar ridge, and the
side rims of the tongue a lose contact with the upper side teeth. The air-stream
escapes through the narrow groove in the center of the tongue and causes
fraction between the tongue and the alveolar ridge. It is a hissing sound
distributed in all major positions: at the beginning, within and at the end of a
word. It is spelt s, ss or c in front of e, i or y: e.g. sour, say, hiss, assign,
ceiling, cellar, cigarette, precise, cypress, bicycle. Sometimes the spelling can
8


be sce, sci or scy (e.g. science, scent, scene, scythe). s is silent in words like

corps, island, viscount.

Figure 6: Place and manner articulation of the sound / s /
(as achieved from />/frameset.html /z/ is the voiced, lenis, alveolar fricative that corresponds to the
voiceless /s/.It plays a important role in English as it is one of the main
allomorphs of the plural morpheme (distributed after a voiced consonant or a
vowel). Like its voiceless counterpart, /z/ is a hissing sound, produced with a
high-pitched friction.

Figure 7: Place and manner articulation of the sound / z /
(as achieved from />/frameset.html
9


1.1.1.4. Palato-alveolar Fricatives: /∫, ʒ/
/∫/ is an alveopalatal, voiceless, fortis fricative consonant. The blade of
the tongue is raised against the region behind the alveolar ridge and the air is
forced out through a groove a little wider than in the case of /s/, its more
fronted counterpart. /∫/ is distributed in all three main positions in the word. It
is often spelt sh in words like shoe, cushion or push. It can also be spelt s (e.g.
sure, sugar) or ss (e.g. pressure, mission) or ci (ancient, delicious), sci
(conscious) ce (ocean), si (pension, mansion), ti (tuition, retribution). It is a
variant of /∫/ in words like issue, tissue; ch: champagne, charade, moustache.

Figure 8: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ∫ /
(as achieved from />/frameset.html
ʒ/ is the voiced counterpart of /∫/. It is an alveopalatal, voiced, lenis
fricative. It is never distributed in initial position, but it can occur in medial
(pleasure, treasure, measure) or final position (garage, prestige). It can be spelt
either when followed by u (visual) or i (decision), or z if followed by u (seizure) or

ge (massage, espionage).
10


Figure 9: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ʒ /
(as achieved from />/frameset.html
1.1.1.5. Glottal Fricative : /h/
/h/ is a glottal fricative in English, a voiceless, fortis sound produced by
letting the air pass freely through the mouth during expiration. /h/ freely
occurs in initial position in English: home, hiss, hut. However, in a small
number of words the sound /h/ is dropped in both in initial and medial
position: hour, heir, honor, honest, vehicle, annihilate. The verb having /h/ is
also silent in final position in the interjection ah or in words like shah.

Figure 10: Place and manner articulation of the sound / h /
(as achieved from />/frameset.html)
11


1.1.2. The description of English affricates / tʃ/& /dʒ/.
These are two alveo-palatal affricate phonemes in English. In the
articulation of / tʃ/& /dʒ/, the soft palate is raised, the nasal resonator is shut off,
obstacle to the air stream 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 mouth. During both stop and fricative stages, the
vocal cords are wide apart for /ʃ/, but may be vibrating for all or part of

according to the situation of utterance. / tʃ/ is voiceless but /dʒ/ is voiced with
voice from the throat. (D.T. Nu / VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 25
(2009)).

Figure 11: Place and manner articulation of the sound / tʃ/& /dʒ/
(as achieved from />/frameset.html
1.2.

Pronunciation errors
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1.2.1. Errors
Errors making proves to be an unavoidable part in the process of learning a
language (Bui Thi Binh, 2011). The following discussion of the term “error”
sheds light on further analyses of the pronunciation problems facing
Vietnamese learners of English and conclusion of this paper. Linguists around
the world have put forwards various definitions of errors in language
acquisition. Among them, Ellis (1997 cited in Bhela, 1999) stood out as to
assert that “errors reflect gaps in the learners‟ knowledge; they occur because
the learners does not know what is correct” (p. 2). In congruent with this
definition, Dulay et al. (1982) considered errors “the systematic deviations
due to the learner‟s still developing knowledge of the second language rule
system”. Eckman (1981) went further to emphasize that error, though
inevitable and necessary in the course of language acquisition, exert both
positive and negative impacts on language learners‟ progress in mastering the
language. It is therefore necessary that errors should be carefully examined
and brought into perspective with a view to facilitating the process of
language learning. Corder (1981), however, classified errors into two types,
“errors of performance” which happen to native speakers due to tiredness and

carelessness and “errors of competence”, ones that reflect vividly the
learner‟s incompetent knowledge of the language that they are learning. This
necessitates further clarification of the concept and its impact in language
acquisition.
1.2.2. Errors and mistakes
In everyday speech, little distinction is drawn between the two term “error”
and “mistake”. However, from the linguistic perspectives, errors and mistakes
stand at the two ends of language acquisition. Errors, as described by
13


Dulay et al, (1982) and other linguists are “parts of conversation or
composition that deviate from some selected norm of mature language
performance” (p. 138), which are indispensably occurring due to inadequate
language competence at the initial stage of language learning, (Coder, 1981).
Mistakes, on the other hand, are defined by Richard (1974) as of little
importance to language learning and of non-systematic occurrence. Torrijos
(2009) had his own way of distinguishing errors and mistakes: “errors should
be classified into two types, one that do not reflect a defect in the knowledge
of language –errors of performance or mistakes– and those who reveal the
underlying knowledge of the language to date –errors of competence” (p.
150). Or as Corder (1967 cited in Ngo Phuong Anh, 2009 p.2) makes it,
“mistakes are akin to slips of the tongue” while “an error is systematic and
often not recognized by learners as an error”. Thus, it can be concluded that
errors in language learning are often associated with failures due to
incompetence and should be minimized. On thoroughly understanding the
nature of errors, their distinction from mistakes, and the generally insufficient
awareness of English learners regarding errors in the learning process, their
causes, as well as their negative effects on language acquisition, it is
important that research be conducted in this area so that preventable errors can

be avoided, teaching methods could be better tailored (Torrijos, 2009),
thereby, facilitating the process of language learning and avoid the carrying of
persistent errors to the advanced stage of language acquisition.
1.3. Some similarities and differences between English and
Vietnamese consonants in terms of affricatives and fricatives.
In Vietnamese, consonants are classified into 22 initial consonants and
6 final consonants according to the positions of the consonants in a word.
14


Table 1: Vietnamese initial and final consonants
From the English consonants chart & Vietnamese consonants, in the
initial consonant system, most Vietnamese sounds are not much different from
English sounds in term of pronunciation. Both consonant systems have
fricatives /f/,/v/,/s/,/ʃ/, /ʒ/.However, there is no affricative sound system in
Vietnamese. In addition, Vietnamese fricative sounds are found in the initial
position of a word, but the final consonants are never mentioned. While
English consonants are often heard and pronounced in three positions: initial,
middle and final position (except /ʒ/, which is rarely found in the initial
position).
1.4. Review of previous studies related to the research area of the
thesis.
There have been many researches dealing with the mistakes and
difficulties made by learners when pronouncing English sounds.

15


Tam( 2005) set up a research question involving the most common
pronunciation problems of the students in the English Department of the

University of Languages and International Studies. To answer this question,
the data collection was carried out through an oral final examination, during
the exam, students were requested to talk about a approximately five – minute
particular topic. While listening to the students talking, the researcher took
notes of the errors involving pronunciation. The sounds most frequently
mispronounced by Vietnamese students in Tam‟s study are shown in the
following table:

Table 2: Sounds mispronounced by Vietnamese students (Tam,2007)
It can be said that some English sounds such as affricative and fricative
ones are not common to Vietnamese . This causes a lot of difficulties for
Vietnamese learners when making English sounds. A few Vietnamese
researchers conducted their studies on typical mistakes and some problems
faced by learners. Below are the mistakes which the writer has synthesized
from the previous studies.

16