An analysis of common errors in pronouncing english fnal three consonantclusters in connected speech made by general english learners at cleverlern language school m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

AN ANALYSIS OF COMMON ERRORS
IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH FINAL THREE-CONSONANTCLUSTERS
IN CONNECTED SPEECH
MADE BY GENERAL ENGLISH LEARNERS
AT CLEVERLEARN LANGUAGE SCHOOL

Submitted to the
Department of English Linguistics and Literature
in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By
LÊ KIM HỊA

Supervised by
Assoc. Prof. Dr. TƠ MINH THANH

HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2013


i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I confidently assert that this thesis entitled ―An analysis of common errors in
pronouncing English final three-consonant clusters in connected speech made by
general English learners at Cleverlearn Language School‖ is my own work.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any
other institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2013.
Lê Kim Hòa


ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost I would like to express my deep gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Tô Minh Thanh, my inspiring teacher and dedicated supervisor, through whose
lectures I became more and more interested in Phonetics and Phonology, and without
whose dedication, comments, criticism and support this thesis could never have been
accomplished. She counseled me, corrected and accompanied me throughout its
completion.
Thanks to others who have helped me are (and if I have omitted any of the many,
please forgive me): authorities, teachers, and students at Cleverlearn Language School
(Cleverlearn for short) who have been helpful and provided me with data on which
this thesis is based; Mr. Kenneth, the rater, without whom much of what is written in
this thesis would never have taken place and all friends who have been supportive to
this thesis.
Finally, I continue to be indebted to my family members, especially my parents who
have given me whole-hearted encouragement and support.
The responsibility for errors in fact or judgment is, of course, mine alone.


iii

ABSTRACT
Avery and Ehrlich [1995: 59] state that since Vietnamese does not have any
consonant clusters, the Vietnamese have difficulties pronouncing English words with
initial and final consonant clusters: ―they tend to delete one consonant of the cluster

rather than insert a vowel.‖
It goes without saying that most people learn a target language first for
communicative purposes; mispronouncing leads to unintelligible conversations.
Though, teaching pronunciation in general and consonant clusters in connected
speech in particular has not been brought to considerable attention to general English
learners at foreign language centers, particularly at Cleverlearn, the fact is that
pronunciation is merely and implicitly taught and that the classrooms are not
well-equipped enough for pronunciation teaching, as a teacher of English here, I have
witnessed my students‘ problems in dealing with English final consonant clusters in
isolation and connected speech as well. Therefore, the study done for and reported in
this M.A. thesis aims at (i) determining problems of perceiving and pronouncing
English final consonant clusters in connected speech that general English learners at
Cleverlearn may face, (ii) discovering what possible causes of the students‘
pronunciation errors are, (iii) suggesting ways to deal with English final threeconsonant clusters in connected speech; finally (iv) investigating the students‘ attitude
towards the teaching techniques applied during the experimental teaching.
The study first examines literature on English final consonant clusters which is served
as a conceptual framework for the study. Next, it investigates problems and the
current teaching and learning English final consonant clusters including the final
three-consonant ones in connected speech at Cleverlearn through a questionnaire
survey covering 12 teachers and approximately 40 students of two general English
classes at this school and Pre-test, designed by the researcher to be Post-test as well,
consisting of two parts: the listening (Part I) and the reading aloud individual words,
separated sentences and short passages (Part II) which respectively evaluate the


iv

students‘ perception and production of English final three-consonant clusters. Pre-test‘s
results also help to describe the current learning and teaching at Cleverlearn.
After that, the researcher will carry out an experimental teaching of English final

three-consonant clusters on the treatment group only for six weeks, three fifteenminute class meetings per week.
Then the two groups will do Post-test towards the end of the study‘s experimental
teaching to value how well Treatment group‘s students acquire English final
three-consonant clusters especially in connected speech and how different the students
of Treatment group and those of Control group are after the experimental teaching is
over. The students‘ performance is scored by two raters: the foreign teacher-in-charge
of the two selected classes scored the recording (Part II); the researcher did the
listening (Part I). Finally, the treatment students are asked to respond to Students‘
questionnaire after the experimental teaching.
It is found that (i) all of the student subjects failed to deal with English final
three-consonant clusters in both isolation and connected speech, (ii) English final
three-consonant clusters were not explicitly taught at Cleverlearn, and the student
subjects did not have much exposure to English (iii) the students‘ perception and
production were improved after the experimental teaching, and (iv) the techniques
applied to teach and practice English final three-consonant clusters in isolation and
then in connected speech were highly appreciated by the students.
Based on the findings, some conclusions and recommendations were made.


v

CONTENTS
Statement of authorship …………………………………………………….................i
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………..………..……....ii
Abstract …………………………………………………………………………..…..iii
Contents ………………………………………………………………………............v
List of tables …………………………………………………………………………..x
List of charts ………………………………………………………………..............xiv
Abbreviations…………………………..…………………………………………....xiv
CHAPTER 1 — INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study .......................................................................................... 1
1.1.1 Teaching and learning pronunciation and final consonant clusters at Cleverlearn ............... 1
1.1.2 Syllabus of the pre-intermediate General English course at Cleverlearn ............. 3
1. 2 Rationale for teaching English final three-consonant clusters in connected speech................ 5
1.3 Purpose of the study ................................................................................................. 8
1.4 Significance of the study .......................................................................................... 9
1.5 Organization of the thesis ........................................................................................ 9
1.6 Limitation of the study ............................................................................................. 9
CHAPTER 2 — LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Background theory ................................................................................................. 10
2.1.1 Linguistic notions ................................................................................................ 10
2.1.1.1 Syllables ........................................................................................................... 14
2.1.1.2 Careful speech and connected speech .............................................................. 14
2.1.1.3 Assimilation ..................................................................................................... 15
2.1.1.4 Dissimilation .................................................................................................... 17
2.1.1.5 Elision .............................................................................................................. 17
2.1.1.6 Linking ............................................................................................................. 19
2.1.1.7 Epenthesis ........................................................................................................ 20
2.1.1.8 Metathesis ........................................................................................................ 21
2.1.2 Pedagogical notions ............................................................................................ 21


vi

2.1.2.1 Theory of pronunciation teaching and learning ............................................... 21
2.1.2.2 Suggested steps in teaching English final consonant clusters ......................... 23
2.2 Background research .............................................................................................. 23
2.2.1 The Vietnamese syllable ..................................................................................... 24
2.2.2 The English syllable ............................................................................................ 26
2.2.3 A contrastive analysis of the Vietnamese and English syllable structure in the final position . 26

2.2.4 Related research in English final consonant clusters .......................................... 30
2.2.4.1 Influential factors ............................................................................................. 31
2.2.4.2 Common errors in pronouncing English final consonant clusters ................... 35
2.3 Summary…………………………………………………………………………..42
CHAPTER 3 — METHODOLOGY
3.1Research questions.. ................................................................................................ 44
3.2 Research design….................................................................................................. 44
3.3 Participants…………. ............................................................................................ 45
3.3.1 Student subjects................................................................................................... 45
3.3.2 Teacher subjects .................................................................................................. 45
3.3.3 Evaluators............................................................................................................ 45
3.3.4 The researcher ..................................................................................................... 46
3.4 Instruments…………. ............................................................................................ 46
3.4.1 Questionnaires ..................................................................................................... 46
3.4.2 The interview ...................................................................................................... 48
3.4.3 Class observations ............................................................................................... 48
3.4.4 Tests .................................................................................................................... 49
3.5 Experimental teaching............................................................................................ 50
3.6 Research procedure ................................................................................................ 51
3.7 Lesson plans………. .............................................................................................. 52
3.7.1 Background of developing lesson plans ............................................................. 52
3.7.2 Lesson plans for 18 class meetings. .................................................................... 55
3.8 Summary………….. .............................................................................................. 55


vii

CHAPTER 4 — DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
4.1 Results of questionnaires ....................................................................................... 56
4.1.1 Results of students‘ questionnaire before experimental teaching – Set 1 .......... 56

4.1.1.1 Students‘ gender:.............................................................................................. 56
4.1.1.2 Students‘ learning time at Cleverlearn ............................................................. 56
4.1.1.3 Students‘ regular class attendance ................................................................... 57
4.1.1.4 Students‘ participation in extra class ............................................................... 57
4.1.1.5 Students‘ view on the importance of pronouncing English final consonant clusters correctly... 58
4.1.1.6 Students‘ previous experience in learning English final consonant clusters ... 58
4.1.1.7 Students‘ information on how and how often English final consonant clusters
were taught at Cleverlearn ............................................................................... 59
4.1.1.8 Students‘ own evaluation of pronouncing English final three-consonant clusters .......... 59
4.1.1.9 Students‘ current opportunities to use English outside class ........................... 60
4.1.1.10 Summary ........................................................................................................ 61
4.1.2 Results of teachers‘ questionnaires – Set 2 ......................................................... 62
4.1.2.1 Teachers‘ age and gender ................................................................................. 62
4.1.2.2 Teachers‘ teaching time at Cleverlearn............................................................ 62
4.1.2.3 Teachers‘ opinion on teaching pronunciation .................................................. 63
4.1.2.4 Teachers‘ judgment on teaching English final three-consonant clusters ......... 64
4.1.2.5 Teachers‘ opinion on the course book ............................................................. 65
4.1.2.6 Teachers‘ regularity in teaching English final three-consonant clusters ......... 65
4.1.2.7 Teachers‘ opinion on teaching aid ................................................................... 66
4.1.2.8 Teachers‘ previous experience in and suggestions on teaching English final consonant clusters . 67
4.1.3 Results of students‘ questionnaire after experimental teaching – Set 3 ............. 69
4.1.3.1 Students‘ opinion on the exercises ................................................................... 69
4.1.3.2 Students‘ practicing English final consonant clusters outside class ................ 69
4.1.3.3 Students‘ improvement after the experimental teaching ................................. 70
4.1.3.4 Positive effects on students‘ listening comprehension and verbal communication via their
improvement in pronouncing English final three-consonant clusters ......................... 71


viii

4.1.3.5 Students‘ suggestions on how English final three-consonant clusters should be taught ........ 71
4.2 Tests' results……….. ............................................................................................. 72
4.2.1 Results of Part I ................................................................................................... 73
4.2.1.1 Pre-test‘s results ............................................................................................... 73
4.2.1.2 Post-test‘s results.............................................................................................. 79
4.2.1.3 The comparison between the two groups‘ results of Post-test – Part I ............ 83
4.2.2 Results of the recording (Part II) ........................................................................ 84
4.2.2.1 Pre-test's results ................................................................................................ 84
4.2.2.2 Post-test's results .............................................................................................. 96
4.4 Overall summary………… .................................................................................. 100
CHAPTER 5 — CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Answers to the research questions ....................................................................... 101
5.2 Recommendations……………………………………………………………….102
5.2.1 For teachers at Cleverlearn ............................................................................... 103
5.2.1.1 Be investigators .............................................................................................. 103
5.2.1.2 Foster students patiently ................................................................................ 103
5.2.1.4 Guide students to learn out of class ............................................................... 104
5.2.1.5 Build up a good rapport with students ........................................................... 105
5.2.1.6 Pay more attention to training students in English final consonant
clusters……………………………………………………………………....104
5.2.2 For the administrators at Cleverlearn ................................................................ 106
5.2.3 For students at Cleverlearn ............................................................................... 107
5.3 Limitations and contributions .............................................................................. 107
5.4 Summary…………………………………………………………………………108
BIBLIOGRAPHY…….. ............................................................................................ 109
Appendix 1a Set 1 — Students' questionnaire (Vietnamese version) ....................... 120
Appendix 1b Set 1 — Students' questionnaire (English version) .............................. 123
Appendix 2 Set 2 — Teachers' questionnaire ............................................................ 126

ix

Appendix 3a Set 3 — Students' questionnaire after the experimental teaching
(Vietnamese version) ............................................................ 130
Appendix 3b Set 3 — Students' questionnaire after the experimental teaching
(English version) .................................................................... 132
Appendix 4 Pre-test and Post-test .............................................................................. 134
Appendix 5 Answer keys of Pre-test and Post-test .................................................... 138
Appendix 6 Phonemic symbols of British English consonants and vowels .............. 143
Appendix 7 Lesson plans ........................................................................................... 144
Appendix 8 Handouts................................................................................................. 167
Appendix 9 Answer keys for handouts ...................................................................... 190
Appendix 10 Pilot study ............................................................................................. 199


x

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1

Syllabus of pre-intermediate General English course

Table 2

Saigonese consonants

Table 3

Vietnamese syllabic structure by Doan Thien Thuat

Table 4

Vietnamese syllabic structure by Taiwan Buffalo International [2001]

Table 5

Vietnamese syllabic structure by Ngo Nhu Binh [2005]

Table 6

Comparison of Vietnamese and English consonants in syllable-final position

Table 7

Difficult English consonants and clusters for Vietnamese learners of English

Table 8

Deletion of the final /l/ in borrowing words spoken by Vietnamese learners

Table 9

Schedule for the experimental teaching


xi

Table 10
Table 11
Table 12

Table 13
Table 14
Table 15
Table 16
Table 17
Table 18
Table 19
Table 20
Table 21
Table 22
Table 23
Table 24
Table 25
Table 26
Table 27
Table 28
Table 29
Table 30
Table 31
Table 32
Table 33
Table 34
Table 35
Table 36
Table 37
Table 38
Table 39
Table 40
Table 41
Table 42

Table 43
Table 44
Table 45

THE PILOT STUDY’S TABLES
Students‘ gender
Students‘ learning time at Cleverlearn
Students‘ regular class attendance
Students‘ participation in extra class
Students‘ view on the importance of pronouncing English final consonant clusters correctly
Students‘ previous experience in learning English final consonant clusters
Students‘ information on where and how to learn English final consonant clusters
Students‘ ability to pronounce English final three-consonant clusters in individual words
Students‘ ability to pronounce English final three-consonant clusters in separate sentences
Students‘ ability to pronounce English final three-consonant clusters in connected speech
Students‘ opportunities to speak English outside class
Students‘ opportunities to listen to English outside class
Teachers' age
Teachers‘ gender
Teachers‘ teaching time at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ regularity of teaching pronunciation
Teachers‘ opinion on the ways of teaching pronunciation at Cleverlearn
Teachers' opinion on the necessity to introduce English final three-consonant clusters
Teachers' opinion on the necessity of a good command of English three- consonant clusters
Teachers‘ opinion on the course book‘s sufficient information about
English final three-consonant clusters
Teachers‘ regularity of teaching English final three-consonant clusters
Teachers‘ opinion on sufficiency of teaching aids to teach English final
three-consonant clusters at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ using teaching aids at Cleverlearn

Teachers‘ difficulties teaching English final consonant clusters at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ suggestions of how to teach English final consonant clusters
Pre-test mean raw score of Word list reading
Pre-test score distribution of Word list reading
Pre-test mean raw scores of Sentence reading
Pre-test score distribution of Sentence reading
Pre-test mean raw score of Passage reading
Pre-test score distribution of Passage reading
Percentage of students‘ error production
Students‘ common errors in producing consonant clusters in individual words
Students‘ common errors in producing consonant clusters in separate sentences
Students‘ common errors in producing consonant clusters in short passages
Percentage of different types of simplification strategies for producing consonant clusters


xii

Table 46
Table 47
Table 48
Table 49
Table 50
Table 51
Table 52
Table 53
Table 54
Table 55
Table 56
Table 57
Table 58

Table 59
Table 60
Table 61
Table 62
Table 63
Table 64
Table 65
Table 66
Table 67
Table 68
Table 69
Table 70
Table 71
Table 72
Table 73
Table 74
Table 75
Table 76
Table 77
Table 78

THE MAIN STUDY’S TABLES
Students‘ gender in Treatment group and Control group
Students‘ learning time at Cleverlearn
Students‘ regular class attendance
Students‘ participation in extra class
Students‘ view on the importance of pronouncing English final consonant clusters correctly
Students‘ previous experience in learning English final consonant clusters
Students‘ information on where and how to learn English final consonant clusters
Students‘ ability to pronounce English final three-consonant clusters in individual words

Students‘ ability to pronounce English final three-consonant clusters in separate sentences
Students‘ ability to pronounce English final three-consonant clusters in connected speech
Students‘ opportunities to speak English outside class
Students‘ opportunities to listen to English outside class
Teachers‘ age
Teachers‘ gender
Teachers‘ teaching time at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ regularity of teaching pronunciation at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ opinion on the ways of teaching pronunciation at Cleverlearn
Teachers' opinion on the necessity to introduce to their students English final three-consonant clusters
Teachers' opinion on the necessity of a good command of English three-consonant clusters
Teachers‘ opinion on the course book‘s sufficient information about English final
three-consonant clusters
Teachers‘ regularity of teaching English final three-consonant clusters at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ opinion on the ways of teaching English final three-consonant clusters
Teachers‘ opinion on sufficiency of teaching aids to teach English final
three-consonant clusters at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ using teaching aids at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ difficulties teaching English final consonant clusters at Cleverlearn
Teachers‘ suggestions on how to teach English final consonant clusters
Students‘ opinion on the exercises employed during the experimental teaching
Students‘ opinion on the activities employed during the experimental teaching
Students‘ information on whether or not English final consonant clusters were practiced out of class
Students‘ information on how often English final consonant clusters were practiced out of class
Students‘ information on whether or not their pronunciation of English final
three-consonant clusters was improved
Students‘ levels of improvement in pronouncing English final three-consonant clusters
Positive effects of students‘ mastering English final three-consonant
clusters on their listening comprehension and verbal communication

xiii

Table 79
Table 80
Table 81
Table 82
Table 83
Table 84
Table 85
Table 87
Table 88
Table 89
Table 90
Table 91
Table 92
Table 93
Table 94
Table 95
Table 96
Table 97
Table 98
Table 99
Table 100
Table 101
Table 102
Table 103
Table 104
Table 105
Table 106

Table 107
Table 108
Table 109
Table 110
Table 111
Table 112
Table 113
Table 114
Table 115
Table 116

Students‘ suggestions on how English final three-consonant clusters should be taught
Students‘ results – Section 1: Identify the numbers of final consonants in individual words
Pre-test mean raw scores – Section 1: Identify the numbers of final consonants in individual words
Students‘ results – Section 2: Identify whether or not simplifications occur
Pre-test mean raw scores – Section 2: Identify whether or not simplifications occur
Students‘ results – Section 3: Discriminate pairs of given words
Pre-test mean raw scores – Section 3: Discriminate pairs of given words
Students‘ results – Section 4: Listen and correct mispronounced words in the given passages
Pre-test mean raw scores – Section 4: Listen and correct mispronounced
words in the given passages
Students‘ overall score of Pre-test – Part I
Group statistics of Pre-test – Part I
Independent Samples T-Test of Pre-test – Part I
Students‘ result s – Section 1: Identify the number of final consonants in individual words
Students‘ results – Section 2: Listen and identify whether or not simplifications occur
Students‘ results – Section 3: Listen and discriminate pairs of given words
Students‘ results – Section 4: Listen and correct mispronounced words
Students‘ overall score of Post-test – Part I
Group‘s statistics of Post-test – Part I

Independent Samples T-Test of Post-test – Part I
Pre-test mean raw scores of Word list reading
Pre-test score distribution of Word list reading
Pre-test mean raw scores of Sentence reading
Pre-test score distribution of Sentence reading
Pre-test mean raw scores of Passage reading
Pre-test score distribution of Passage reading
Group‘s statistics of Pre-test – Part II
Independent Samples T-Test of Pre-test – Part II
Percentage of errors made by students of the two groups
Students‘ common errors in simplifying English consonant clusters
Students‘ common errors in simplifying English consonant clusters
found in the given word list
Students‘ common errors in simplifying English consonant clusters
found in the given separate sentences
Students‘ common errors in simplifying English consonant clusters
found in the given short passages
Post-test mean raw scores of Word list reading
Post-test mean raw scores of Sentence reading
Post-test score distribution of Passage reading
Group‘s statistics of Post-test − Part II
Independent Samples T-test of Post-test − Part II


xiv

LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1
Chart 2
Chart 3

Chart 4
Chart 5
Chart 6
Chart 7
Chart 8
Chart 9
Chart 10
Chart 11
Chart 12
Chart 13
Chart 14

Post-test scores − Section 1: Listen and identify the numbers of final
consonants in individual words
Post-test scores – Section 2: Listen and identify whether or not simplifications occur
Post-test scores – Section 3: Listen and discriminate pairs of given words
Post-test scores – Section 4: Listen and correct mispronounced words
Percentage of errors made by students in Control group
Percentage of errors made by students in Treatment group
Students‘ common errors in simplifying English consonant clusters
Students‘ errors in omitting English consonant clusters in the given word list
Students‘ errors in omitting English consonant clusters in the given word list
Students‘ errors in omitting English consonant clusters in the given separate sentences
Students‘ errors in omitting English consonant clusters in the given short passages
Post-test score distribution of Word list reading
Post-test score distribution of Sentence reading
Post-test score distribution of Passage reading
ABBREVIATIONS

EFL

English as a foreign language

ESL

English as a second language

NS

Native speakers of English

SC

Student code (T01 means this student is from Treatment group and has
the cardinal code as 01 and likewise C01 is one from Control group and
coded as 01)

Ss

Students

T

The teacher

RP

Received Pronunciation

BBC

British Broadcasting Corporation

IPA

International Phonetic Alphabet

FL

Foreign language

SSP

The Sonority Sequencing Principle

SPSS

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences


1

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides the background to the study done for and reported in this
M.A. thesis, offers the rationale for teaching English final three-consonant clusters in
connected speech, states the purpose of the study, giving its significance as well as
limitation, and finally describes the organization of the thesis.
1.1 Background to the study
1.1.1 Teaching and learning pronunciation and final consonant clusters at Cleverlearn

Since ―intelligible pronunciation is one of the necessary components of oral
communication‖ [Cel-Murcia, et al., 2002: 8] and ―a learner who consistently
mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from
another language community to understand‖ [Kelly, 2000: 11], it goes without saying
that nowadays communication plays an important role in global integration in which
correct

pronunciation

is

considered

crucial.

Regarding

the

significance

of

communication, apparently a considerable amount of time in any ESL/EFL course
should be on English pronunciation. Hinofitis and Baily [1980: 124-125] reported that to
a certain proficiency standard the fault which most severely impairs the communication
process in ESL/EFL learners is pronunciation, rather than vocabulary and grammar.
However important it is, pronunciation training is all too often neglected or omitted from
ESL/EFL courses [Kelly, 2000: 13; Olness, 1991] or as not neglected, it not being
strategically planned [Kelly, 2000: 13]. Kelly figures out ―the fact that teachers tend to

suffer from neglect may not due to teachers lacking interest in the subject but rather to a
feeling of doubt as to how to teach it.‖ As cited in his textbook Kelly [2000: 13] states
that ―many experienced teachers would admit to a lack of knowledge of the theory of
pronunciation and they may therefore feel the need to improve their practical skills in
pronunciation teaching.‖
Lack of opportunity to speak English actually may be another compelling reason why
pronunciation is often forgotten; in the context of Vietnam, the majority of students


2

hardly ever have chances to use English outside class and schools place little, if any,
emphasis on learning how to speak English [El-Halees, 1986]. Another problem with
pronunciation has to do with assessment. If pronunciation is excluded from the
classroom, there is little reason to include it in English language skill assessments.
Needless to say, students still have problems with it and among these problems is the
one of English final consonant clusters.
These pronunciation problems are of no exception at Cleverlearn the motto of which is
to help students speak English naturally and fluently. With an enormous amount of
exposure time to native teachers, it is still quite difficult to reach the set motto for inclass explicit pronunciation instruction is often ignored by native teachers of English
who admit not learning at all pronunciation, including phonemic symbols, when they
were at school. My in-class observations allow me to come up with the fact that the
native teachers have regularly corrected learners‘ errors in class, but just responding
automatically due largely to English as their native language perceived via an
unconscious process. Above all, despite their real care for their Vietnamese students‘
improved pronunciation, the native teachers do not actually know how to help these
students overcome their pronunciation problems some of which are definitely from
negative language interference1.
Last but not least, in-class pronunciation teaching at Cleverlearn is mechanically based
on the course book named ―American Inside Out‖ with segmental and some suprasegmental features (included as Table 1) without any mention of consonant clusters,

including those in the final position. It is likely to explain that the course book is written
for a global market rather than target Vietnamese learners of English, especially those of

1

When the relevant unit or structure of both languages is the same, linguistic interference can
result in correct language production called positive transfer. On the contrary language
interference is most often discussed as a source of errors known as negative transfer. Negative
transfer occurs when speakers and writers transfer items and structures that are not the same in
both languages. Generally speaking, the more similar the two languages are, and the more the
learner is aware of the relation between them, the more positive transfer will occur.
[ />

3

Cleverlearn, who really suffer from mispronouncing, and thus probably misperceiving as
well, final consonant clusters, most commonly at their level being final two-consonant or
three-consonant clusters.
The fact that language teachers have not paid much attention to teaching final consonant
clusters is the conclusion drawn on the survey of approaches to teaching pronunciation
by Ames teachers [Macneiland Rogers, 1986 as quoted in Phan Thi Cam Chi‘s study].
This is reconfirmed from my own personal observations in classes of the preintermediate General English course at Cleverlearn during the three months before the
experimental teaching from November 1st, 2011 to January 31st, 2012. Therefore,
teaching English final consonant clusters is essential at Cleverlearn on pursuit of its set
motto of teaching natural spoken English. Within the time limit spent on this M.A.
thesis, its focus is providing the student subjects with English final three-consonant
clusters.
1.1.2 Syllabus of the pre-intermediate General English course at Cleverlearn
The pre-intermediate General English twenty-six week course at Cleverlearn lasts 120
hours, with three ninety-minute class meetings each week, and covers the 12 following

units:
Unit

Topics

Speaking and
Writing

Reading and Listening
texts

Grammar, Vocabulary and
Pronunciation

1
Names
Memory
Language
learning

Names and family
Memory techniques
Language learning
Anecdote: Somebody
who is important to you
From filling personal
information

Two people talking about names
What’s in a name

Remembering names
How to remember names at parties
Are you a good language learner?
Brad talking about somebody who is
important to him
Useful phrases: Showing interest

Tense review: looks / looks like
Question forms
Family. Description. Names
Focus on: names
Vowel sounds /u:/; /i:/; /3:/; /@:/; /0:/

Home towns
Vacations
Countries

Places in your country
The best things from
different countries
Anecdote: The best
place you have ever
visited
Web posting: Spelling
Linking sentences (1)

Three people talking about their
home towns
Win a dream vacation for two!
Everything’s wrong here!

Emma talking about the best place
she has ever visited
Useful phrases: Saying where you
are from

Countable and uncountable nouns
so / such, very / too. Quantity expressions
Places in a city. Adjectives to describe
places. Countries, nationalities
Location
Focus on: like
Word stress: countries, nationalities

2


4
3
Relationships
Stories

Relationships
First meetings
Telling stories
Telling a story: Linking
sentences (2)

Walt and Betty talking about their
relationship
Get Personal game show

The Hollywood director and the Native
American
Revenge is sweet; Dinner by mail
Useful phrases: Things in common

Simple past and past progressive
Adverbs of manner
Relationship expressions. Narrative linkers. ed /
ing adjectives
Focus on: get
Irregular verbs: sound groups

Gifts
Clothes
Shopping

Buying gifts
Anecdote: The last time
you bought somebody a gift
Attitude to shopping
Shopping trends and habits
Description of a store.
Text organization: Linking
sentences (3)

What people really want for their
birthday
Eddie talking about the last time he
bought somebody a gift
Two men talking about shopping

Men’s or women’s fashion?
The real price of fashion
Useful phrases: In a clothing store

Adverbs of frequency. Verbs with two objects.
Verbs followed by ing- form or to-infinitive.
Simple present and present progressive
Collocations: a bunch of…, a box of…etc.
Clothes and accessories
Focus on: verbs used with clothes
Plural nouns: /s/, /z/, or /1z/

Fitness
Sports
Stress

Health and fitness
Anecdote: Your
experiences of sports at
school
Sports stars
Stress and laughter
Description of a sports
event.
Text organization: Linking
sentences (4)

Are you dangerously out of shape?
Tina talking about her experiences of
sports at school

Advertisers discussing sports stars
16 ways to distress
Laughter clubs
Useful phrases: Giving instructions

Comparative and superlatives
Phrasal verbs
How + adjective / adverb: Sports.
Number
Focus on: verbs used with sports
Schwa /6/ in expressions

Work
Experience
Retirement

Jobs
Best and worst
experiences
Anecdote: A person you
know with a good job
A job application
Letter of inquiry
Opening and closing letters

Four people talking about their careers
Charlotte Dutton: from mountains to
modeling
Nightmare: jobs
Interview with a store owner

Kim talking about her friend’s job
Useful phrases: Presenting yourself

Permission and obligation (can / have to)
Present perfect (time “up to now”) or simple past
(“finished” time)
Jobs: Collocations (work) should Office
equipment
Focus on: work and job
Past participles (irregular verbs) vowel sounds

Protests
Green issues
Volunteering

Climate change
Environmental issues
Writing a report
Volunteer work
Making written
suggestions. Linking
sentences (5)

Climate change march
Four people talking about why they are
protesting
How green are you?
Welcome to Original Volunteers
Two conversations about volunteering
Useful phrases: On the telephone

Subject questions. Dynamic and stative
meanings. Future forms: (be) going to and
present progressive
Climate change. Opinions
Environmental problems and solutions
Focus on: have and have got
Word stress: words ending in tion

Schools
Families
Social
change

School experiences
Anecdote: Your favorite
school subject
Changes in society
What makes a
successful date
Personal letter
Contractions in informal
writing

Training to be a geisha
Andy talking about his favorite
school subject
Three generations
Two generations talking about
changes in society

Meet the parents
A man meets his girlfriend’s parents
The perfect girlfriend / boyfriend
Useful phrases: Giving your opinion

Permission and obligation (could / had to).
should and must for advice
Education and training
Focus on: words used with education
Word stress: school subjects

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5

6

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9
Character
Thailand

Smiling
“Smile and the world smiles with
Describing character

you…”
Vacations
What’s in a smile?
Things and places you knowOptimist or pessimist…?
Travel blog.
Thailand: land of smiles
Listing points.
On vacation in Thailand
Using adverbs of attitude Living in Thailand
Useful phrases: Using body idioms

Verbs followed by ing-form. for and since.
been. Present perfect: simple and
progressive
The face. Character adjectives. Parts of the
body
Focus on: verbs + ing-form or to-infinitive
(with a change in meaning)
Sentence stress

Longevity
Health
Food
Cars

Lifestyles
Food and cooking
Anecdote: The
healthiest person you
know

Cars
Anecdote: Your dream
ca
Narrative.
Linking words while,
during

How not to die before you get old
A telephone inquiry
104 things to do with a banana
Josh talking about the healthiest
person he knows
My first car
Patti’s dream car
Useful phrases: Idioms with food

will. Future time clauses after when, if, as
soon as. used to
Collocations. Food and cooking. Cars
Focus on: words used with driving
Vowel sounds and spelling

Animals
Pets
People

Animals
More dilemmas
Anecdote: A pet you
know

Giving opinions.
Linking: giving examples

Your attitude to animals
Three people talking about animals
they like / dislike
Three stories about animals
People talking about their pets
Many talking about their friend’s pet
Useful phrases: Polite requests

Defining relative clauses.
Unreal conditionals
Animals.
Adjective + preposition
Focus on: that
Homophones (bare/bear)

Coincidence
s
Buildings
The weather
Predictions

Strange coincidences
Anecdote: The most
incredible building
you’ve ever seen
The future
Description of a building.

Text organization.
Prepositional phrases

Two Lauras; Worlds apart
The coolest hotel in the world
Curro talking about the most
incredible building he’s ever seen
North Pole weather forecast
The Oracle
Useful phrases: Exclaiming

Past perfect. Passives will and might for
future possibility
Collocations with do, get, go, have, make,
and take
The weather
Focus on: collocations with do, get, go,
have, make, take

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Table 1: Syllabus of the pre-intermediate General English course
As shown in Table 1, final consonant clusters are not mentioned during the course.
1. 2 Rationale for teaching English final three-consonant clusters in connected speech
Undoubtedly, speaking fluently requires students‘ knowledge of some aspects of
connected speech to make what they say natural. By comparing and contrasting

Vietnamese and English syllable structures, Avery and Ehrlich [1995: 54] predict that
Vietnamese learners may face difficulties pronouncing English final consonant clusters
where the clusters can cover up to four segments, particularly across word boundaries in


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―public‖ style of speech: it is a reality and usual use of language that all learners of
English try to handle. Reflecting upon my teaching experience, I have witnessed that
quite often Vietnamese learners do not pronounce final single consonants let alone final
consonant clusters. Usually, they omit final consonant sounds or wrongly pronounce
grammatical suffixes. Here come to the fact that these non-native learners of English
need to be made aware that mispronouncing consonant clusters almost certainly makes
their speech difficult for native speakers to understand, particularly in cases where the
learners use epenthesis to break up clusters or omit a consonant in a cluster [CelceMurcia et al., 2002]. In addition, consonant clusters can include important grammatical
markers [Briton, 2000]: the three-segment final clusters in question indicate a plural
noun and a plural possessive noun, respectively in pounds and pounds’, or a verb third
person singular as in sulks. Therefore, teachers need to stress to their students the
stigmatizing effect of dropping morphological endings [Celce-Murcia, et al., 2002] to
avoid being considered as not proficient in English.
In response to the growing interest in this field, there has been research in some
countries [Arnold, 2009; Kim and Jung, 1998; Ngan Nguyen, 2008; Osburne, 1996;
Sato, 1984].
In Vietnam, there is quite little research of English final consonant clusters. Surprisingly
a recent research conducted on ―common speaking errors made by high school students‖
reveals that 100% participants commit errors with ending sounds [Nguyen, 2004] 2; in
the same vein, the research by Nguyễn Thị Phúc Hòa [1999] pointed out errors related to
final consonant clusters. But the above-mentioned authors did not invent any specific
solutions to the problem of mispronouncing English final consonant clusters.
The study done for and reported in this M.A. thesis just focuses on one problematic

aspect to Vietnamese learners of English: how to produce English final three-consonant
clusters properly. As far as studying how second language learners acquire the
pronunciation of a feature non-existent in their first language is concerned [Kelly, 2000:
2

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58], consonant clusters are a common feature of English that will come up very often in
class, whether it is within an individual item of vocabulary, as in asks; find; told;
crisps… or in the combination of sounds, as in He’s taller than them /hi:z‘t0:l656n‘56m/;
as quoted from a website [ />good pronunciation materials need to include practice of elision and assimilation to deal
with consonant clusters in connected speech because wrong dropping final consonants
can cause meaning changes of words such as pain and paint; again and against;
loss and lost.
The study does not cover English four-segment final consonant clusters which are not
common and numerous in English; the study‘s focus is on its student subjects‘
proficiency in an area that they are most likely to encounter and have opportunities to
use frequently − English three-segment final consonant clusters. The researcher‘s
skipping English two-segment final consonant clusters is twofold: (i) the three-segment
final consonant clusters are elided to two-segment final consonant clusters in some
contexts, (ii) the three-segment final consonant clusters are more problematic because
the longer the clusters are the more difficult they are likely to English learners.
Since it is highly problematic for any natives to deal with English complex clusters, they
do not always produce as many consonant sounds, tending to apply a number of
strategies to make the consonant clusters easier to pronounce. Similarly, Vietnamese
learners of English tackle its consonant clusters but very often in a wrong way. It is
recommended that these learners should need to know when a native speaker of English
would simplify a consonant cluster in connected speech.

A second area of difficulty is that the spellings of FINAL CONSONANT CLUSTERS are
often FALSE FRIENDS – a very poor guide to how they are pronounced within
connected speech. Generally speaking, English pronunciation is a little more
complicated than simple differences between individual phonemes such as the vowel
sounds in pairs of words such as ship or sheep. The number of tactics a learner has to
perform is far greater in connected speech involving tricky adjustments in place and


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manner of articulation where there are also words containing sequences of at least three
consonant phonemes either inside individual words or across word boundary. Managing
this juggling task can be a little easier if learners are taught to recognize ways in which
speakers simplify strings of three consonants through elision and assimilation. Success at
the above makes connected speech more fluent to listen to and practice at this will make
it less obvious that English is not your native language3. All urge the researcher to
conduct the study in order to help her students considerably familiarize themselves with
the clusters in connected speech to make their speech more smooth and natural.
All the above background information argues forcefully for including the explanation of
and practice with English final three-consonant clusters in the above syllabus of the
pre-intermediate General English course and for teaching non-native speakers how to
employ native speakers‘ consonant simplification strategies. Therefore, there is a need to
include teaching techniques focusing on these strategies in the study‘s experiment
teaching of consonant clusters especially in connected speech.
1.3 Purpose of the study
The study aims at:
1. Finding out pronunciation errors that General English learners at Cleverlearn may
make in producing and perceiving English final three-consonant clusters in
connected speech;
2. Identifying possible causes of the pronunciation errors;

3. Giving some recommendations and suggestions in dealing with English
final three-consonant clusters in connected speech;
4. Investigating the student subjects‘ attitude towards the teaching techniques
applied in the experimental teaching.

3

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1.4 Significance of the study
The study was done and then reported in this M.A. thesis focusing on an analysis of
common errors in producing English final three-consonant clusters in connected speech.
Hopefully, the thesis‘ findings and its teaching suggestions can serve as a reference
document for teaching and learning implications and further research.
1.5 Organization of the thesis
This thesis consists of five following chapters:
Chapter 1, which is the introduction, gives information on the study‘s background,
rationale, purpose, significance and limitation as well as describes the organization of
the thesis.
Chapter 2 provides the review of literature related to relevant research on the instruction
of English final three-consonant clusters in connected speech.
Chapter 3 presents the methodology applied in this study.
Chapter 4 presents the results of data analysis and the study‘s findings.
Chapter 5 states the study‘s conclusions and recommendations.
1.6 Limitation of the study
The study was not a true experimental research, done at Cleverlearn with participation of
12 teachers of English, including 10 natives and 2 non-natives, and approximately 40
General English learners of 2 pre-intermediate classes which are intact. Accordingly, the

generality of the study‘s result is limited to this selected institution only. However,
its findings and recommendations may benefit other learners in similar situations.


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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter consists of two main parts: background theory and relevant research,
both serving as a theoretical framework for conducting the study. The first part consists
of an overview of relevant terms and concepts, teaching and learning pronunciation, and
techniques in teaching English final consonant clusters; the second part contrasts the
structures of the Vietnamese syllable with those of the English syllable, particularly in
the word-final position, stating Vietnamese speakers‘ difficulties studying the target
language by a review of related research.
2.1 Background theory
2.1.1 Linguistic notions
Below are a number of key terms and concepts related to the study done for and reported
in this M.A. thesis:
General English learners
General English learners are those who attend English classes for improving their ability
in daily communication in the target language. Oftentimes, the course syllabus covers all
the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Vietnamese southern learners
Vietnamese southern learners are native speakers of the southern dialect of the
Vietnamese language.
Southern dialect
Southern dialect of the Vietnamese language is rather different in terms of tones as well
as vowel and consonant arrangements from those implied in the speech and official
spelling of the speakers of Hanoi dialect. ―In one important respect, the Saigonese

consonants are closer to those of the writing system than their Hanoi equivalents.‖
[Thompson, 1967: 88]
In the following table, Thompson [1967: 88] presents all the Saigonese consonants: