An investigation on common errors in pronouncing english consonants made by 6 to 10 year old students at linkinworld english skills center dong anh hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
********************************

TRẦN THỊ PHƢƠNG THẢO

AN INVESTIGATION ON COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING
ENGLISH CONSONANTS MADE BY 6 TO 10 YEAR OLD TUDENTS
AT LINKINWORLD ENGLISH SKILLS CENTER, DONG ANH, HANOI

Tìm hiểu những lỗi phát âm phụ âm tiếng Anh thƣờng gặp của
học sinh từ 6 đến 10 tuổi tại trung tâm kĩ năng Anh ngữ
Linkinworld, Đông Anh, Hà Nội

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.0111

Ha Noi, 2014


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
********************************

TRẦN THỊ PHƢƠNG THẢO

AN INVESTIGATION ON COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING

ENGLISH CONSONANTS MADE BY 6 TO 10 YEAR OLD TUDENTS
AT LINKINWORLD ENGLISH SKILLS CENTER, DONG ANH, HANOI

Tìm hiểu những lỗi phát âm phụ âm tiếng Anh thƣờng gặp của
học sinh từ 6 đến 10 tuổi tại trung tâm kĩ năng Anh ngữ
Linkinworld, Đông Anh, Hà Nội

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.0111
Supervisor: Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Ph.D

Ha Noi, 2014


CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation on common errors in
pronouncing English consonants made by 6 to 10 year old students at
Linkinworld English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi” is a result of my
research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and
International Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi. This thesis has
not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary
institution.
Signature

Trần Thị Phương Thảo

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support
from a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Do
Tuan Minh, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me
through the stages of the study.
Also, thanks are sent to my colleagues and students at Linkin‟world
English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi, without whose support and
encouragement it would be never have been possible for me to have this
thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the sacrifice
they have devoted to the fulfillment to this academic work.

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ABSTRACT
This minor thesis aims at identifying the most common mistakes of
students aged from 6 to 10 years old at Linkin‟world English skills center,
Dong Anh, Hanoi” when they pronounce English consonants as well as
investigating the main causes of these mistakes and the possible pedagogical
solutions to assist them to correct their mistakes.
In the course of fulfilling this study, the researcher used 2 data collection
instruments: tape recording of the informants‟ pronunciation of selected
words and words within sentences and dialogues to find out the most common
mistakes in pronouncing English consonants and questionnaire for teachers to
investigate the causes of these mistakes and some possible solutions teachers
use to help their students improve these mistakes.
The data analysis reveals the following major findings. The most common
mistakes of students when pronouncing English consonants are sound

omission and sound deviation. The main causes of mispronunciation are as
follow: (1) Students do not know how to use their mouth, tongue, lip to
pronounce. (2) Negative influence of the mother tongue: the students are too
much affected by the way they pronounce Vietnamese. (3) Students are not
confident to pronounce English sounds. These results are taken into account
and lead to some pedagogical suggestions to deal with these found problems.

iii


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Consonants in English
Table 2: Number of students with trouble of English consonants
Table 3: Number of students pronouncing sound omission
Table 4: Number students making mistakes of sound deviation
Figure 1: Teachers‟ perceptions of causes of students‟ mistakes
Figure 2: Teachers‟ methods used to help students correct mistakes

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART A: INTRODUCTION........................................................................... 1
1. Rationale ................................................................................................ 1
2. Aims and objectives .............................................................................. 2
3. Research questions ............................................................................... 2
4. Scope of the study ................................................................................. 3
5. Significance of the study ...................................................................... 3
6. Organization of the study .................................................................... 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT............................................................................ 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................... 5
1.1. Theory background .......................................................................... 5
1.1.1. The role of pronunciation in language teaching .......................... 5
1.1.2. English consonants ........................................................................ 6
1.1.3. Mistakes in language learning ..................................................... 12
1.1.3.1. Types of mistakes........................................................................ 13
1.1.3.2. Possible causes of mistakes in language learning ................... 14
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY................................................................ 17
2.1. The informants of the study ............................................................ 17
2.2. Research method .............................................................................. 17
2.2.1. Data collection instruments .......................................................... 17
2.2.2. Data collection procedures ........................................................... 18
2.3. Data analysis ..................................................................................... 19
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ........................................ 20
3.1. Findings and discussions .................................................................. 20
3.2. Some suggested activities for students to improve their mistakes
in pronouncing English consonants ............................................... 29
PART C: CONCLUSION ............................................................................. 33
1. Summary ............................................................................................. 33
2. Pedagogical Implication ...................................................................... 34
3. Limitation and suggestion for further research ............................... 35
REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 36

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Our world is developing every hour and international cooperation is

one of the important strategies of each country to promote its socio-economic
development. To integrate successfully into the global economy, foreign
language is considered to be indispensable. Understanding the importance of
foreign language in general and of English in particular, the Vietnamese
government has set up a curriculum for English learning for children from 6
years old onwards. The number of English language centers has been
remarkably increasing during the past two decades. Thus, many Vietnamese,
especially the young people can speak English; however, many foreigners
have commented “many Vietnamese speakers can speak English, but only a
few have intelligible English pronunciation so that they can be understood
easily in direct communication with foreigners.” It is true that learners can not
succeed in studying English without mastering English pronunciation because
pronunciation is one of the most important components of a language. It is
really important for learners to have communication of the target language as
correct possible right from start.
While I teach English to students age from 6 to 10 years old at
Linkin’world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi, I find that they make
many mistakes when they pronounce English sounds, especially English
consonants. It is very necessary to find out students‟ mistakes in pronouncing
English consonants and help them correct those mistakes as soon as possible.
With the expectation to help students pronounce English consonants correctly
when they start to learn English, I decided to conduct the study “ An
investigation on common errors in pronouncing English consonants made
by 6 to 10 year old students at Linkin’world English skills center, Dong

1


Anh, Hanoi”. It is hoped that this study will contribute to the goal of
enhancing students‟ performance in teaching and learning foreign language.

2. Aims and objectives
2.1. Aim:
- Improving students‟ pronunciation of English consonants
2.2. Objectives of the study
- Identify what English consonants that are often mispronounced by 6
to 10 year old students at Linkinworld English skills centre, Dong Anh, Hanoi
- Identify what common mistakes students make in pronouncing those
English consonants.
- Find out causes of mistakes made by students in pronouncing those
English consonants.
- Suggest some possible solutions to help students improve their
pronunciation of English consonants.
3. Research questions
- Question 1: What are English consonants that are often mispronounced
by 6 to 10 year old students at Linkin‟world English skill centre, Dong Anh,
Hanoi
- Question 2: What common mistakes do students make in pronouncing
those English consonants?
- Question 3: What are the causes of those mistakes?
- Question 4: What are teachers‟ possible solutions to those mistakes?
4. Scope of the study
There are many problems in Vietnamese students‟ pronunciation.
However, because of limited time and the scale of the minor thesis, I only
focus on common mistakes in pronouncing some English consonants and
causes of those mistakes as well as possible solutions to eliminate them. And I

2


only focus on students aged from 6 to 10 years old at Linkin‟world English

skill center, Dong Anh, Hanoi.
5. Significance of the study
Theoretical significance: The research provides both teachers and
learners with revision of phonological characteristics and articulation of the
sounds. It is a basic foundation in teaching and learning English
pronunciation.
Practical significance: The study identifies young students‟ mistakes in
pronouncing English consonants. Therefore, it supplies teachers with the
understanding and practical view to have pedagogical suitable solutions to
help students improve their pronunciation as soon as possible.
6. Organization of the study
To achieve the aims of the study, this paper is divided into five chapters:
Part A: “Introduction” includes the reasons of choosing the thesis, the
aims, the objectives, the research questions, the scope, the significance and
the organization of the study.
Part B: Development
Chapter 1 “Literature review” is devoted to the presentation of the
theoretical background relevant to the research. Firstly, the review of
pronunciation as well as factors affecting pronunciation learning is
introduced. Then the literature related to mistakes is given.
Chapter 2: “Methodology” describes in detail the research methodology
which comprises the principles based on which the study is carried out.
Chapter 3: “Findings and discussions” presents the findings and
discussions from the data analysis.
Part C: “Conclusion” summarizes the findings and gives limitations and
suggestions for further research.

3

4


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Theory background
1.1.1. The role of pronunciation in language teaching
“A learner who constantly mispronounces a range of phonemes can be
extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to
understand. A consideration of learners‟ pronunciation errors and of how
these can inhibit successful communication is a useful basis on which to
assess why it is important to deal with pronunciation in the class”. Kelly
(2000:11)
While saying why it is important to teach pronunciation, Hewings
(2004:10) “ Difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students fail to
get their message across, even when the correct words are being used, or they
might fail to understand what is said to them.”
Sound is the core of the language so that is the reason why when
teaching a language the first thing the teacher should to is to let the learners
have chances to explore the sounds of that language. Moreover,
communicative approach is considered as the major language teaching in the
twenty first century as what the learners really need after graduating is that
they can communicate successfully in their work and their life. That is the
reason why pronunciation teaching has been paid more and more attention by
all teachers.
Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of language like
syntax and vocabulary. Correct pronunciation is considered to be a
prerequisite to develop the speaking skill. That is why teaching pronunciation
should occupy an important place in the study of any language.

5


1.1.2. English consonants
General description of English consonants
“Consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting the
airflow in a variety of ways” (Kelly.G, 2003:24)
There are three ways of describing the consonant sounds: the manner
of articulation, the place of articulation, the force of the articulation.

Table 1: Consonants in English
 Bilabial Plosives: /p, b/
The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary
obstacle to the air-stream is provided by the closure of the lips. Lung air is
compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are held
wide apart for /p/, but may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for
/b/ according to its situation in the utterance. Then the closure is released
suddenly for the air to escape with a kind of explosion.
 Alveolar Plosives: /t, d/
The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary
obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the tip and
rims of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth. Lung air is
compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart

6


for /t/, but may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for /d/ according to
its situation in the utterance. The air escapes with noise upon the sudden
separation of the alveolar closure.

 Velar Plosives: /k, g/
The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary
obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the back of the
tongue and the soft palate. Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during
which stage the vocal cords are wide apart for /k/, but may vibrate for all or
part of the compression stage for /g/ according to its situation in the utterance.
The air passage escapes with noise upon the sudden separation of the velar
closure.
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).
 Labio-dental Fricatives: /f, v/
The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the inner
surface of the lower lip makes a light contact with the edge of the upper teeth,
so that the escaping air produces friction. For /f/, the friction is voiceless,
whereas there may be some vocal cord vibration accompanying /v/, according
to its situation.
 Dental Fricatives: /ð, θ/
(Examples words: thumb, thus, either, father, breath, breathe)
The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the tip and
rims of the tongue make a light contact with the edge and inner surface of the
upper incisors and a firmer contact with the upper side teeth, so that the air
escaping between the forward surface of the tongue and the incisors causes

7


friction. For / θ / the friction is voiceless, whereas for / ð/ there may be some
vocal cord vibration.
 Alveolar Fricatives: /s, z/

(Examples words: sip, zip, facing, rise, rice)
The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the tip and
blade of the tongue make a light contact with the upper alveolar ridge, and the
side rims of the tongue a close contact with the upper side teeth. The airstream escapes through the narrow groove in the centre of the tongue and
causes friction between the tongue and the alveolar ridge. In other words, in
the articulation of these sounds the air escapes through a narrow passage
along the centre of the tongue, and the sound produces is comparatively
intense.
 Palato-alveolar Fricatives: / ∫ ; ʒ /
(example words: ship, Russia, measure, Irish, garage)
The fricatives are so called palato-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 / ∫ /, 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 / ∫ /
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 / ∫ /, the friction is voiceless, whereas for / ʒ
/ there may be some vocal cord vibration according to its situation.
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.

8


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.
 Glottal Fricative: /h/
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 a / 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 a / æ / quality. The
same is found for all vowels following /h/.
 Affricates: /t∫ ; dʒ /
(Palato-alveolar affricates)
The term “affricates” denotes a concept which is primarily of phonetic
importance. Any plosive, whose release stage is performed in such a way that
considerable friction occurs approximately at the point where the plosive stop
is made, may be called “affricative”. The friction present in an affricate is of
shorter duration than that which characterizes the fricatives proper. In the
articulation of /t∫; dʒ / the soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut
off, the 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

9


and fricative stages, the vocal cords are wide apart for / t∫ /, but may be vibrating
for all or part of / dʒ / according to the situation in the utterance.

 Bilabial Nasal: /m/
The lips form a closure as for /p, b/; the soft palate is lowered, adding the
resonance of the nasal cavity to those of the pharynx and the mouth chamber
closed by the lips; the tongue will generally anticipate or retain the position of
the adjacent vowel.
 Alveolar Nasal: /n/
The tongue forms a closure with the teeth ridge and upper side teeth as for
/t, d/; the soft palate is lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity to
those of the pharynx and of that part of the mouth chamber behind the
alveolar closure; the lip position will depend upon that of adjacent vowels.
 Velar Nasal: /ŋ/
A closure is formed in the mouth between the back of the tongue and the
velum as for /k, g/ (the point of closure will depend on the type of vowel
preceding); the soft palate is lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity
to that of the pharynx and that small part of the mouth chamber behind the
velar closure.
 Alveolar Lateral /l/
Only one alveolar, lateral phoneme occurs in English, there being no
opposition between fortis and lenis, voiced or voiceless, or fricative and nonfricative. 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.

10


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/
The most common allophone of RP /r/ is a voiced post-alveolar frictionless
approximant. The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the
tip of the tongue is held in a position near to, but not touching, the rear part of
the upper teeth ridge; the central part of the tongue is lowered with a general
contraction of the tongue. The air stream is thus allowed to escape freely,
without friction, over the centre part of the tongue.
 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

11


soft palate is raised and the vocal cords vibrate; but when /w/ follows a fortis
consonant, some devoicing takes place

1.1.3. Mistakes in language learning
Mistakes are said to be unsystematic in nature and correctable when
attention is drawn to its producers. Mistakes are caused by temporary lapses
of memory, confusion, and carelessness and so on. According to Adrian
(1994: 131), the term “mistake” is used to refer to something that at that
moment is not acceptable. He suggested that “it could turn out to be either a
slip or an error”. The mistake is a “slip” when the learner already has the
inner criteria for self-correction but isn‟t applying them at the moment,
perhaps because her attention is elsewhere, or perhaps at the moment she is
not recalling the criteria, though she might recognize them. At some level she
already knows what is required for correctness. By “error” he meant that the
learner does not have the criteria for correctness. This is something new that
she cannot work out for herself. Furthermore, many people only pay attention
to “the what”, i.e. what is conveyed, not “the how” .i.e. the way words are
said, nor the stress and intonation of the sentence. Regardless of the
distortion of some fricatives and affricates in pronunciation, in many English
classes in Vietnam, teaching focuses on ideas (what), but very little or almost
no attention is paid to the way (how) the ideas are expressed orally. This
negative attitude towards pronunciation mistakes more or less indulges
people with pronunciation mistakes, thus degrades the standard of English in
Vietnam. Nevertheless, recently, there has been some improvement in
learning English with more focus on pronunciation, stress and intonation in
some English training institutions in Vietnam, ranging from secondary
schools and evening English centers to tertiary educational institutions such

12


as colleges and universities of foreign languages. As a result, more phonetic
drills and practice are included in English teaching programs as well as in

examinations now.
1.1.3.1. Types of mistakes
According to Adrian (1994: 133), mistake is “error” when the learner
does not yet have the criteria for correctness. This is something new that she
cannot work out for herself. There have been different ways to classify errors
because researchers look at errors differently.
Hendrickson (1980: 206) divided errors into 2 types: local errors and
global errors because he focused on the influence of errors on the sense of a
sentence or an utterance. According to him, the global eưors not the local
ones could make the sentence ambiguous or senseless. Duley, Burt and
Krashen (1982: 53) classified errors relating to their observable
characteristics. For them there are 4 types of errors, namely omission,
addition, misformation and misordering.
Abbot (1980:82) divided errors into competence errors and performance
errors. The competence errors consists of transfer, inừalingual and induced.
Performance errors include errors of processing problems and errors of
communication strategies.
Pham Dang Binh (2003), in his PhD thesis dissertation on Vietnamese
students‟ errors, classifies errors into two main types: common errors and
typical errors. Common errors are those which are committed by any second
language learners when learning the same target language even when they
come from different countries. These errors normally appear at the beginning
of the learning process and consist of competence errors with errors in
phonology, vocabulary and grammar and performance errors with

13


intralingua] and interlingual errors. Errors that are typical of certain groups of
learners who speak the same first language or live in the same culture are

called typical errors. Those errors include two main types: interlingual errors
and culture interference errors.
Richards (1984:19-27) distinguishes three main major types of errors:
interlingual errors, intralingual errors and developmental errors. Interlingual
errors result from language transfer, that is, which is caused by the learner‟s
native language.
However, with their classifications, they showed very little concern about
error types and did not reflect the process of making errors and causes of
eưors made by learners as well.
Ha Cam Tam (2005: 9-10) set up a reasearch question involving the most
common pronunciation problems of the students in the English Departement
of the university of Languages and International Studies. According to her,
the most frequent errors of Vietnamese learners in pronunciation are sound
ommision, sound confusion and sound redundancy.
1.1.3.2. Possible causes of mistakes in language learning
A variety of factors have been investigated to account for the problems
related to English pronunciation faced to foreign learners.
Considered the most influential factor, mother tongue inference has been
studied thoroughly. As showed by Kenworthy (1988), Rivers and Temperly
(1978), as well as Chan and Li (2000) learners‟ native language plays an
important role in their acquisition. In terms of English sounds, it was
emphasized by two latter researchers that “English sounds which have no
counterpart in the native language will at first be difficult for students to
distinguish (p.162).

14


Other factors may affect the learning English are learner age, interest and
motivation they raise on the issue, amount of exposure to English language as

perceived by Kenworthy (1988:4 -7). Gardner (1985:10) defined “Motivation
is the present context refers to the combination of effort plus desire to
achieve the goal of learning plus favorable attitudes towards learning the
language”. A key issue in Gardner‟s motivation theory is the relationship
between motivation and orientation (goal). Thus, in his view, “motivation”
refers to a kind of central metal “engine” or “energy-centre” that subsumes
effort, warrt/will and task enjoyment. However, they are„internal factors not
external factors. Motivation is affected by both internal and external factors.
According to Ellis (1997:75), leamers‟attitude and effective states constitue
the learners‟ effort degree when learning an L2 belong to “motivation”.
In an action research on the role of continuous feedback in students‟
pronunciation improvement, Tran Thanh Phuc (2006) reviewed seven factors
that affect the pronunciation of Vietnamese learners. A part from those
causes: native language, learners‟ ages, she emphasizes the influence of the
amount of exposure to English, students‟ own phonetic ability, their attitude
to the learning of the language, motivation and the teacher‟s role.
In attempt to discuss Vietnamese learners‟ pronunciation of English
sounds, Dr. Duong Thi Nu (2009) showed four main reasons that account for
their failure in making the truly English consonants: (1) failure in
distinguishing the difference, (2) influence of mother tongue, (3) perception
of mistakes, (4) inadequate drills and practice.
To sum up, the above studies have revealed the most typical
pronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners of English and some
researchers mentioned factors that influence learners‟ pronunciation of
English. However, many previous studies found in books, linguistic

15


magazines or on the Internet are only about general pronunciation problems

of wide issue. And most studies only concentrate on participants who are
students at high schools or universities. For these reasons, my research is
carried out to find out common mistakes in specific sounds ( consonants) and
my research focus on participants who are young learners ( students aged
from

6

to

10

16

years

old)


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. The informants of the study
There were 35 informants in the study including thirty students aged from
6 to 10 years old of 4 classes Fa1.5, Fa1.6, Fa1.7, and Fa1.8 at Linkin‟world
English skill centre and five English teachers at Linkin‟world English centre.
Most students have learnt English for one year, some have learnt for more
than one year and they have just finished the same course book “Family and
friends 1”, Oxford university press. All of teachers have at least one year
experience in teaching students age from 6 to 10 years old.
2.2. Research method
In order to answer the research questions, the survey method was adopted

in which a survey questionnaire and recording informants‟ pronunciation
were the data collection instruments.
2.2.1. Data collection instruments
Instrument 1: Recording informants’ pronunciation
The use of a recorder is undoubtedly the most common method of
recording interview data because it has the obvious advantage of preserving
the entire verbal part of the interview for later analysis. Moreover, the writer
can stop and play back some of the interview to see and get the data more
clearly and exactly. This is the reason why tape recording is utilized to
recognize the students‟ problems in pronouncing English sounds.
The task was designed to record the students‟ pronunciation including 3
parts: In part 1, students read aloud sounds and words containing consonants
in all positions of a word (initial, middle, final). In part 2, students read aloud

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8 sentences. These sentences have many words with the sounds students
usually mispronounce. In part 3, each pairs of students read 2 dialogues. All
words, sentences, dialogues used in the task in the course book “Family and
friends 1”, Oxford university press.
Instrument 2: Questionnaire
The researcher chooses survey questionnaires because they are useful
ways of gathering information about “affective dimensions of teaching and
learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation and preferences” (Richards and
Lockhart, 1994:10) and enable a researcher to collect a large amount of
information relatively quickly.
In this study, a great number of question types categorized by Youngman
(1986, as cited in Nunan, 1992:144) including frequency, list, category and
ranking questions had been applied.

As the basic for the completion of the study, the questionnaire is carefully
designed with 11 questions to get the most effective investigation.
The questionnaire is designed to clarify:
- Teachers‟ attitude toward pronunciation
- Teachers‟ perception about their student‟s pronunciation mistakes
- Teachers‟ perception about causes of students‟ mistakes in
pronouncing consonants
- Teachers‟ methods to help students eliminate their mistakes in
pronouncing English consonants.
2.2.2. Data collection procedures
In the first phrase, the researcher used the tape recording. Thirty students
were gathered to be informed of the materials the researcher had prepared for

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