A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION OF THIRDYEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

Supervisor : Mrs Duong Thi Hong Tham, M.A

Student : Le Thi Huyen

During the period of conducting my graduation paper, I have received a plenty ofenthusiastic help and support which have guided and encouraged me to overcomeall difficulties and finish this hard but meaningful time

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the teachers ofEnglish Faculty at Thuong Mai University, who have imparted golden knowledge to

me From these supports, I can improve my English skills and have goodbackground to achieve my dreams

Secondly, I sincerely thank to Mrs Duong Thi Hong Tham, M.A, my supervisorwho has given me useful guidance and advice that finishing my graduation papersuccessfully Mrs Tham, along with her sharing and feedbacks, has been myinspiration as well as motivation to overcome all the obstacles and difficultiesduring the process

Thirdly, I am grateful to all of the third year English major students of Thuong MaiUniversity who contributed and had a warm co-operation to help me during theperiod I carried out my survey

Last but not least, I am also grateful to my friends from the Thuong Mai University,who helped and encouraged me a lot when I was conducting my research, butwhom I cannot all mention here due to the inconvenience of space Millions ofthanks go to my beloved family whose financial support and spiritualencouragement contribute a significant part to the completion of the research

In short, I really thank to all people helping me to finish this graduation thesis

Hanoi, April, 2021

Huyen

Le Thi Huyen

1

This paper was written for the purpose in studying English Pronunciation As astudent of the English language, the author wishes to learn more about the aspectsthat influence language learners when they learn how to speak English Learners ofEnglish often expect to be able to speak that language like a native speaker

However, they encounter many difficulties to achieve their aims One of thecommon factors that they find difficult is the pronunciation of another soundsystem Therefore, the author would like to explore some common mistakes andproblems that Vietnamese students encounter when they learn to pronounce theEnglish sounds so that students can study communicate more effectively

The paper covers a number of frequent pronunciation difficulties that causeproblems for the third year English major students at Thuong Mai University Thesedifficulties include vowels, consonant, endings, stress and tones and someindividual problems related to English learners The author finds this paper a usefulreference source for students, who want to improve their pronunciation of English

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 2

ABSTRACT 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 7

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES 8

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 9

1.1 Rationale 9

1.2 Previous studies 10

1.3 Aims of the study 11

1.4 Research subjects 12

1.5 Scope of study 12

1.6 Research methodology 12

1.7 Organization of the study 13

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 14

2.1 Definitions of pronunciation 14

2.2 The importance of pronunciation 16

2.3 Factors that affect pronunciation learning 16

2.4 The common errors in English pronunciation 18

2.5 Ending sounds 18

2.5.1 Definition 18

2.5.2 The importance of ending sounds 19

2.5.3 Classification of ending sounds 20

2.6 Consonants 20

2.6.1 Definition 20

2.6.2 The characteristics of consonants: 20

2.7 Problems with ending sounds and consonants 21

2.8 Word stress 23

2.8.1 Definition 23

2.8.2 The importance of word stress 24

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2.8.3 Word stress rules in English 25

2.8.4 Common word stress errors 27

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 29

3.1 Procedure of data collection 29

3.2 Findings and discussions: 29

3.2.1 Profile of the students: 29

3.2.2 The difficult part in speaking English 30

3.2.3 The importance of pronunciation in speaking English 30

3.2.4 The students’ level in speaking English 31

3.2.5 The frequency of mistakes made by the students 32

3.2.6 The pronunciation errors that students tend to meet when studying and speaking English 32

3.2.7 The reality of students’ skill in pronunciation 34

3.2.8 The evaluation on the difficulties in some aspects when speaking English in pronunciation 35

3.2.9 The reason why students make mistakes with ending sounds 36

3.2.10 Some solutions to improve English pronunciation of the students and avoid mistakes 37

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 38

4.1 How to improve your pronunciation? 38

4.1.1 Goals 38

4.1.2 Practice 38

4.1.3 Feedback 39

4.2 Suggested solutions to avoid consonants and ending sounds mistakes 40

4.3 Suggested solution to avoid stress and sentence stress mistakes 43

4.4 Limitations of the study 47

4.5 Suggestions for further studies 47

CONCLUSION 48

REFERENCES 49

APPENDICES 50

4

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

No Word Meaning in English Meaning in Vietnamese

2 TMU Thuong Mai university Đại học Thương Mại

5

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES

Figure 2.1 The organs of speech posted by RasidRitonga 8

Table 2.1 Four consonant sounds in a final cluster 11

Table 2.2 Stress differentiation of different words 16

Table 2.3 Stress makes the correctness for the vocabulary 16

Table 2.4 Rules of Stress on first syllable 17

Table 2.5 Rules of Stress on last syllable 17

Table 2.6 Rules of Stress on second from end syllable 18

Table 2.7 Rules of Stress on third from end syllable 18

Table 2.8 Rules of Stress on compound word 19

Chart 3.1 The years that students have been studying English 21

Table 3.1 The most difficult part in speaking English 22

Chart 3.2 The importance of pronunciation in speaking English 22

Chart 3.3 The students’ level in speaking English 23

Chart 3.4 The frequency of mistakes made by the students 24

Chart 3.5 The pronunciation errors that students tend to meet when they study and speak English 24

Chart 3.6 The results of the recording about students’ reading 25

Table 3.2 The evaluation of students about pronunciation skills 26

Table 3.3 The evaluation on the difficulties in some aspects when speaking English in pronunciation 27

Chart 3.7 The reasons why students make mistakes with ending sounds 28

Chart 3.8 Students’ solutions to improve English pronunciation and avoid mistakes 29

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale

In modern world, being able to speaking a foreign language a lot of benefits such asmaking connection with people and knowing more about beautiful countries, placesand life styles In recent years, Vietnam is constantly developing and integratinginternationally, and English – the language of international communication is usedvery popularly Because of the importance of English, it is approved as one of themain subjects in many schools in Vietnam In order to use English fluently in work

as well as communication, four essential English skills listening, speaking, readingand writing need to be learned, practiced and improved regularly

Nevertheless, most people seem to focus on reading and writing than listening andspeaking Students in secondary and high schools spend a lot of time on learninggrammar and vocabularies for their tests and examinations but they learn by heartand forget quickly Practicing speaking seems not to be interesting because theythink speaking is not useful for their tests therefore they are afraid of speakingEnglish This is one of the reasons why students get difficulties and feel so shywhen communicating in English

In fact, there are several difficulties which people face to when they speak Englishsuch as pronunciation, linking, context of vocabulary, rhythm, and affecting ofmother tongue However, pronunciation is regarded the most difficulty and it iscrucial when people begin learning English

After long time of observing and investigation, third year English major students atThuong Mai University have difficult in pronouncing ending sounds, consonantsand word stress which are the most common pronunciation mistakes

Therefore, in order to study this problem profoundly, I have conducted the research

entitled: “A study on common pronunciation mistakes in communication and presentation of third-year students at Faculty of English – Thuong Mai University and suggested solutions” The researcher hopes that this study will help

students understand more about issues that they have gotten before and recommendsome solutions to solve the problems and help them improve their pronunciation

1.2 Previous studies

There are many popular studies related to this issue in the world and in Vietnam aswell

Jaroslav Ondráček had a study with the title “Problems in communication caused

by mistakes in the pronunciation of English by Czechs” (April 11, 2011) The study

was aimed to find out the mistakes in English pronunciation of first year students inEnglish Department of the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University Theresearch based on an analysis of the recordings made by 88 first year studentsEnglish major in Faculty of Education at Masaryk University The recordings wereanalyzed by three assessors, two educated native speakers – one American, oneEnglish – who are NOT phonetically trained, plus the Czech assessor, who is Twoaims of the research were to discover the students’ awareness of mistakes, attitudes

to pronunciation; and to identify the perceived mistakes in Czech Englishpronunciation from the point of view of the typical native speaker, and to identifythose features which most inhibit “comfortable intelligibility” The main problems

of the study identified by the two native speakers derived from wrong word stress,words pronounced as if they were Czech and a general lack of clarity in diction

In 2009, Fachun Zhang in China had a study on the subject named “A study of

pronunciation problems of English in China” In this study, the author mentioned a

number of factors that affect the pronunciation of the Chinese: interference ofChinese to English, stress factor in the target language, intonation factor in thetarget language, learners’ age, learners’ attitude and psychological factors and priorpronunciation instruction The author has mentioned the factors that affect Englishpronunciation of the Chinese, which are elements of the objective aspect that affectthe pronunciation learning process Mostly in terms of language, grammar, and thedifferences in English and Chinese, these factors make it difficult for the Chinese tolearn English pronunciation The author has expanded his research topic on Englishpronunciation

In 2007, Nguyen Thi Thu Thao had a study with the title: “Difficulties of

Vietnamese when pronouncing English” The study was an attempt to identify

difficulties of Vietnamese in pronouncing English final consonants like native

speakers.The participants consist of five informants of various Vietnamese accentsand proficiency in English were recorded inside and outside Vietnam then sent tothe researcher by e-mail Special thing was five informants coming from fourdifferent cities of Vietnam: Hue, Ho Chi Minh City (two informants), WestHighland and Ha Noi After analyzing, the author delivered an evaluation chartgiven in appendix to six native speakers of English to evaluate the data The results

of the study showed that there have three main problems of the students in Englishpronunciation The first problem is omitting the ending sounds that was too difficultfor Vietnamese people, especially semi-vowels before final consonants The secondproblem is reducing and moving the final consonants and clusters towards their firstlanguage to single unaspirated or nasals or semi-vowels And the last problem isadding schwa in final clusters

“Difficulties in learning pronunciation encountered by the first year students of English major at Hanam Teachers’ Training College” is a research paper of Dao

Thu Phuong in 2011 The participants consist of 80 freshmen of English department

at Hanam Teachers’ Training College The study concentrated on three aims:investigating the first year students’ perception on learning English pronunciation;finding out what difficulties the first year students at Hanam Teachers’ TrainingCollege meet when they study English pronunciation; and offering possiblesolutions to help students overcome their difficulties in learning Englishpronunciation Results of the study revealed that attitude’s students are veryimportant to learn English speaking skills Students should spend their timeimproving their English pronunciation as much as possible to expose to English.All the studies showed the reader a more multidimensional view and to recognizethe mistakes when learning English pronunciation So learners will be able to takecorrective measures and improve their pronunciation skills And this study,researcher hope to contribute to the research treasure, clarify the subject as well asextend the view to the students

1.3 Aims of the study

This study is to help the third year English major students at Thuong Mai Universityfind out problems of the common mistakes in English pronunciation and improvetheir speaking English skills This study has two aims:

 Discovering the students’ awareness of mistakes and their attitudes toEnglish pronunciation.

 Showing the common mistakes in English pronunciation

 Suggesting some solutions for the pronunciation problems

In order to fulfill the above aims, the researcher is designed to seek answer to twofollowing questions:

 What are the most common pronunciation mistakes that third year Englishstudents at Thuong Mai university tend to make when speaking English?

 What are solutions to help students avoid pronunciation mistakes andsolve their problems?

1.4 Research subjects

The research subjects of this study are pronunciation mistakes that the third yearEnglish major students at Thuong Mai University encountered With the hope toenhance the importance of English pronunciation, the writer sought and studieddifficulties that the third year English major students face to when they speakEnglish After finding out the problems, it is necessary to give possible solutions toimprove English pronunciation skills

1.5 Scope of study

The study is to find out some common mistakes in English pronunciation that thethird year English major students at TMU have to solve The author focuses onthree issues, including consonants Ending sounds and word stress Hopefully, thestudy will help students have a general overview of their pronunciation problemsand possible solutions

1.6 Research methodology

In this study, the principal method is used is quantitative study The quantitativestudy utilizes a survey by using questionnaire, to collect essential information aboutstudents’ opinion towards issues related to English pronunciation

First of all, a survey questionnaire is conducted among 110 third year English majorstudents at TMU in order to collect information and data for the research Thereason why these students were chosen is that there are a large number of the thirdyear English major students who still feel unselfconfident and make some

pronunciation mistakes when they give presentations and answer English questions.This causes a great barrier when they communicate with foreigners and work inEnglish communication environments.

Furthermore, 10 students will be recorded when they read a passage in order to helpthem recognize their mistakes to get more evidence

The questionnaire based on three main following contents:

 Attitude of students towards English pronunciation and itsimportance

 Pronunciation problems of students in reality

 Students’ opinions about suggested solutions in order to solve theproblems

Then, the researcher will analyze to find out students’ pronunciation mistakes fromthe survey questionnaire and collect records as well as offered solutions The datafrom the online survey questionnaire and recordings is quantitatively analyzedthrough Google Forms and Microsoft Excel

1.7 Organization of the study

The research paper includes four chapters as many other scientific studies:

Chapter 1: “Overview of the study” This part presents the rationale, previous,

aims, research subjects, scope, methods and organization of the study

Chapter 2: “Literature review” In this chapter, the author presents theories related

to English pronunciation and pronunciation errors

Chapter 3: “Research findings” This part presents an overview results of the

survey questionnaire related to the study

Chapter 4: “Recommendations and suggestions” The last part presents some

suggested solutions for the problems in order to help students improve theirpronunciation skills

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of pronunciation

Before learners can get the core material deeply when they want to studysomething, the first thing they need to do is understand the basic concepts As aresult, it is essential to understand what pronunciation is when people learn Englishpronunciation There are many sources of information related to definitions ofpronunciation that students can use Proving more information about concepts ofpronunciation is the purpose of this part

According to the Oxford Dictionary, pronunciation is “the way in which a word is

pronounced” The Cambridge Dictionary’s definition, pronunciation is “the way in which a word or letter is said, or said correctly, or the way in which a language is spoken” Furthermore, the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus

© Cambridge University Press indicates that “pronunciation means how we say a

word”.

In 2002, Jack C Richard stated a reliable definition that “Pronunciation is the

sound of the language, or phonology; stress and rhythm; and intonation and includes the role of individual sounds and segmental and supra segmental sounds”.

Dialect is seemed to be one of popular characteristics of pronunciation The sources

indicate that pronunciation is also heavily affected by dialect “People tend to speak

the dialect that belongs to the part of the country they come from or live in, which is

a big part of how someone pronounces a word.”, according to research of

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press also state that “Learners

British English commonly hear RP (Received Pronunciation) which is an accent often used on the BBC and other news media and in some course materials for language learners, but it is also common to hear a variety of regional accents of English from across the world”.

Word stress and rhythm are also important parts of pronunciation For example,knowing which syllables in a word are stressed and how different patterns ofstressed and unstressed syllables are pronounced are really important This part can

be difficult and complex to Vietnamese learners because using stress in English andVietnamese is different Most of Vietnamese is mono-syllable whereas English is

multi-syllable Besides, there are common patterns of intonation in English whichenable us to give special emphasis to words, phrases, and sentences The meaning

of a sentence in English can be completely changed by these patterns

- Word stress which emphasizes on certain syllables in a word

- Sentence stress which emphasizes on certain words in a sentence

- Linking which joins certain words together

- Intonation which is the rise and fall of our voice as we speak

On the website Englishclub.com, there is a study about pronunciation that states

“Pronunciation refers to the way in which we make the sounds of words”.

To pronounce words, we push air from our lungs up through our throat and vocalchords, through our mouth, past our tongue and out between our teeth and lips.Sometimes air also travels through our nose

To change the sound we are making, we mainly use the muscles of our mouth,tongue and lips to control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air If we cannotcontrol the shape of our mouth and the flow air correctly, our pronunciation isunclear that causes difficult for people to understand our speech

People who can speak different languages tend to develop different muscles in theirmouths for pronunciation due to each language having their own specific sounds.When we speak a foreign language, our muscles may not be as well developed forthat language, thus we will find pronunciation difficult Therefore, just practicingpronunciation of foreign language, our muscles develop and pronunciation isimproved

Figure 2.1 The organs of speech posted by RasidRitonga

2.2 The importance of pronunciation

Pronunciation is very important for every person learning English When speaking aforeign language, speaker need make listener understand what he/she wants toconvey As a result, the speaker must pronounce clearly and accurately

“Pronunciation is definitely the biggest thing that people notice when you are speaking English You can live without advanced vocabulary; you can use simple word to say what you want to say You can use “simple grammar” But there is no such thing as “simple pronunciation” If the pronunciation is poor, neither grammar nor vocabulary would help you”, according to Mrs Badache Lynda at the

University of Batna

Even if students are good at grammar and have an abundant source of vocabulary,but they cannot pronounce correctly, it is very difficult for foreigners to understandthem Therefore, pronunciation is really important in communicating Whenattending at school, most students do not spend much time in learning speakingEnglish, they even ignore it and just pay attention to learn mean of words Thismakes students difficult to pronounce accurately Pronouncing is an important part

of memorizing vocabularies when people want to learn a foreign language.Therefore, getting strong, basic foundation in exact pronunciation will help learnerslearn more effectively overall

2.3 Factors that affect pronunciation learning

In reality, there are many factors that affect pronunciation learning of the students.According to Joanne Kenworthy, there are six elements relating to pronunciation

including: the native language; the age factor; amount of exposure; phonetic ability;attitude and identity; motivation and concern for good pronunciation.

 The native language: “The native language is an important factor in learning topronounce English; this is clearly demonstrated by the fact that a foreignaccent has some of the sound characteristics of the learners’ native language.These are often obvious enough to make a person’s origins identifiable byuntrained as we as trained people One or two features are enough to suggest aparticular language showing through their spoken English.”

 The age factor: “We commonly assume that if someone pronounces a secondlanguage like a native, they probably started learning it as a child Conversely,

if a person does not begin to learn a second language until adulthood, they willnever have a native – like accent even though other aspects of their languagesuch as syntax or vocabulary may be indistinguishable from those of nativespeakers These beliefs seem to be supported by many cases of adults wholearn to speak a second language fluently, but still maintain a foreign accent,even when they have lived in the host country for many years.”

 Amount of exposure: “Another factor is the amount of exposure to English thelearner receive It is tempting to view this simply as a matter of whether thelearner is living in an English – speaking country or not If this is the case,then the learner is surrounded by English and this constant exposure shouldaffect pronunciation skill If the learner is not living an English – speakingenvironment, then there is no such advantage.”

 Phonetic ability: “It is a common view that sine people have better ear forforeign languages than others This skill has been various termed aptitude fororal mimicry, phonetic coding ability or auditory discrimination ability.”

 Attitude and identity: “It has been claimed that factors such as a person’s sense

of identity and feelings of group affiliation are strong determiners of theacquisition of accurate pronunciation of a foreign language As a means ofexploring the meaning of these terms and the role of such factors, let’s start byconsidering how native speakers of a language react to different accents oftheir own languages.”

 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation: “Some learners seem to bemore concerned about their pronunciation than others This concern is oftenexpressed in statements about how bad their pronunciation is and in requestsfor correction.”

2.4 The common errors in English pronunciation

According to Rickmanshare Blog “pronunciation problems often do lead to

conversation breakdowns” and “There are two key problems in pronunciation teaching”: “Firstly, it tends to be neglected not because of teachers’ lack of interest

in the subject, but rather to feeling of doubts as to how to teach it Manyexperienced teachers would admit to lack of theory of pronunciation and they maytherefore feel the need to improve their practical skills in pronunciation teaching.Secondly, when it is not neglected, it tends to be reactive to a particular problemthat has arisen in the classroom rather than being strategically planned In addition,through my experience as a teacher as well as a teacher trainer who observedseveral lesson.”

In many schools, students are learned English as a second language, however, theystill make many mistakes when pronouncing In fact, there are many mistakes ofpronunciation that students often make when speaking English such as endingsounds, intonation, word stress, or misunderstanding vowels However, the authorwould like to concentrate studying on the three most mistakes of the third yearEnglish major students at TMU as the data collected from the survey questionnaireand recording are ending sounds, consonants and word stress

2.5 Ending sounds

2.5.1 Definition

In English, ending sounds is a very important element in pronunciation There is asimple understanding about ending sounds that ending sounds are the letter sounds

at the end of a word

For example: /k/ in ‘book’, /s/ in ‘six’, /t/ in ‘intent’, /d/ in ‘bed’

The ending sounds refer to one or more consonants at the end of words Endingsounds are codas

Almost every English consonant appears word-finally, except for /h/, /w/ and /j/(Cummins 1998) Besides, English has a lot of complicated consonant clusters, asmentioned previously, combining two, three and even four consonants together in

the onset and coda This is commented as “quiet unusual for languages to have

consonant clusters of this type.” (Yule, 2006: 48)

Syllable

Onset Rhyme

Consonant (s) Vowel Consonant (s)

There are many more combinations of consonants sounds possible at the end ofEnglish sounds There can be up to four consonant sounds in a final consonantcluster:

Table 2.1 Four consonant sounds in a final cluster

2.5.2 The importance of ending sounds

There are a lot of English words which are read almost the same way If we do notpronounce the ending sounds correctly, it is difficult to understand the meaning ofthe words, even people may misunderstand the meaning of the whole sentence.For example: It is very difficult to distinguish between:

“what” /wɒt/ and “watch” /wɒtʃ/

“life” /laɪf/ and “light” /laɪf/ and “like” /laɪk/

“wife” /waɪf/ and “wine” /waɪn/

2.5.3 Classification of ending sounds

There are three types of ending sounds in English:

 The first is ending sounds original words:

For examples: “black” /k/, “nice” /s/, “table” /l/, “six” /ks/, “visit” /t/

 The second is /s – z – iz/ ending sounds: which can apply with nouns

and verbs:

For examples: “likes” /lɑɪks/, “gets” /gets/;

“achieves” /əˈtʃiːvz/, “clears” /klɪərz/;

“washes” /wɒʃiz/, “pages” /peɪdʒiz/

 The last one is -ed ending sounds:

There are three ways to pronounce -ed ending which is added to regular verbs in thesimple past tense: /id/, /t/, /d/

For examples: “collected” /kəˈlektid/, “tended” /tendid/;

“looked” /lʊkt/, “stopped” /stɒpt/;

“played” /pleɪd/, “analyzed” /ˈæn.əl.aɪzd/

2.6 Consonants

2.6.1 Definition

According to Cambridge Dictionary, consonant is “one of the speech sounds or

letters of the alphabet that is not a vowel Consonants are pronounced by stopping the air from flowing easily through the mouth, especially by closing the lips or touching the teeth with the tongue” Consonant is defined in Oxford Dictionary “a basic speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed and which can

be combined with a vowel to form a syllable”.

In “How to teach pronunciation” of Gerald Kelly, consonant is defined that

“consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting the air flow in a variety of ways.”

2.6.2 The characteristics of consonants:

In “How to teach pronunciation” of Gerald Kelly, the author showed that “There

are three ways of describing the consonants sounds: the manner of articulation, the place of articulation and the force of articulation”.

The manner of articulation is interaction between various articulators and the airstream There are six types of consonants according to manner of articulation:

- Plosives occur when a complex closure is made somewhere in the vocal tract Air

pressure increases behind the closure, and is then released “explosively” Plosivesounds are also sometimes referred to as stops English pronunciation contains 6plosive phonemes: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/

- Affricates occur when a complete closure is made somewhere in the mouth, and

the soft palate is raised Air pressure increases behind the closure, and is thenreleased more slowly than in plosives There are only two affricate consonants:/tʃ/, /dʒ/

- Fricatives occur when two vocal organs come close enough together for the

movement of air to be heard between them There are 9 fricative sounds inEnglish: /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/

- Nasal sounds occur when a complete closure is made somewhere in the mouth,

the soft palate is lowered, and air escapes through the nasal cavity There are 3 nasalconsonants: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/

- The lateral is so called because, in this sound, the airflow is around the sides of

tongue /l/ is the only lateral consonant in English

- Approximants occur when one articulator moves close to another, but not close

enough to cause friction or to stop the air flow Note that /w/ and /j/ are sometimesreferred to as ‘semi-vowels’ This is because they are made without a restriction tothe airflow, unlike the other consonants All three approximants are importantlinking sounds in connected speech: /r/, /j/, /w/

2.7 Problems with ending sounds and consonants

Base on Honey’s statement, “the Vietnamese consonant system is very different

from that of the English, and there is considerable variation between dialects Vietnamese learners of English can be expected to come across particular difficulty with some or all of the following sounds: /f/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/”.

Vietnamese students can pronounce words with final voiceless stop consonants/p/, /t/ and /k/, as these voiceless stop consonants occur at the final position of aword in Vietnamese However, Vietnamese students pronounce these consonantswith extremely short duration, and therefore, the sounds are never released at theend position of a word It can be very difficult for English native speakers to hearthese sounds from Vietnamese learners For example, a Vietnamese learner of

English producing the word ‘seat’ may sound like ‘see’ (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992,

page 153)

Vietnamese students learning English pronunciation have a number of problemswith the voiced versus the voiceless stops in word final position, /b/, /p/, /d/, /g/

vs /p/, /t/, /k/ Based on Avery and Ehrlich's statement, “Vietnamese has no voiced

stops at the ends of words” (page 154) Additionally, Vietnamese learners of

English encounter problems with words final fricative consonants /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/,/z/ Vietnamese learners can pronounce fricatives such as /f/, /v/ and /s/ at thebeginning of English words However, fricatives do not occur in word-final position

in their mother tongue Thus, omission of a fricative at the end of words usually

occurs when they speak English The word ‘beef’ may be pronounced like /bi:/,

‘month’ as /mʌn/.

 Consonant /s/ and /z/:

Vietnamese students often get confused between /s/ and /z/ They replace /s/ for /z/,

so that a word such as ‘pea’ is pronounced as ‘peace’ In conversational situations,

the /s/ sound may present two types of problem The first problem is that in the

spelling of some words, the /s/ sound is omitted For example, the word ‘because’ is

often pronounced as /bɪˈkəs/ The second problem that many speakers encounter isthe redundancy of the /s/ sound As mentioned above, the /s/ and /z/ sounds do notoccur at the final position in Vietnamese words, but for English words, they do.Consequently, when speaking, Vietnamese learners of English are over aware ofthese sounds and the over-awareness leads them to make pronunciation mistakes.Vietnamese often add the /s/ sound in both adjectives and non-count nouns For

example, instead of saying ‘very good’, many speakers say ‘very goods’, and ‘a lot

of money’ turns out sounding like ‘a lot of moneys’.

 Consonant /θ/ and /ð/:

Vietnamese students often create a heavily voiceless stop /t/ instead of a voiceless

fricative /θ/ in a word like ‘thank’ Apparently, they vocalize the sound /t/ based on

their language since in Vietnamese the letter “th” is combined by a heavily aspirated

/t/ So, the word ‘three’ can be pronounced exactly like ‘tree’ Vietnamese learners

of English commonly produce /d/ or /z/ for /ð/ sounds, so the word ‘than’ may

sound like /dæn/ or /zæn/ (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992, page 155)

(Avery and Ehrlich, 1992, page 155)

2.8 Word stress

2.8.1 Definition

In English, word stress is one of the most important factors that learners have tospend their time studying and practicing Students can easily understand that it isoften called stress to indicate how strong or weak the sound is

According to Collins English Dictionary, Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

that “the stress accent on the syllables of individual words either I a sentence or in

isolation.”

Additionally, the definition of word stress is shown in “Put English Phonetics into

Practice compiled” by SzilágyiLászló in 2004 that “in English, we do not say each

syllable with the same force or strength In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable.

We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly”.

There are two very important points about word stress:

- One word, one stress

- The stress is always on a word

Word stress is the important key to understanding spoken English Native Englishspeakers use word stress naturally Word stress is so natural for them that they donot even know they use it Non-native speakers, who speak English to nativespeakers without using word stress, encounter two problems:

- They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speakingfast

- The native speakers may find it difficult to understand them

2.8.2 The importance of word stress

Word stress plays an important role while the speakers pronounce English word

Stress differentiation of different words

In English there are many words with the same pronunciation, even thepronunciation We cannot distinguish the words without stress

Table 2.2 Stress differentiation of different words

present

/ˈprez.ənt/ (n) món quà She gave me theatre tickets as a

present

/prɪˈzent/ (v) giới thiệu, trình bày Nam presented the report to his

colleagues at the meeting

 Stress makes the correctness for the vocabulary:

Proper pronunciation is not enough, as we must rely on stress to determine the part

of speech

Table 2.3 Stress makes the correctness for the vocabulary

conflict /ˈkɒn.flɪkt/

(n) sự mâu thuẫn, sự xung đột

There was a lot of conflict between his sons

/kənˈflɪkt/ (v) mâu thuẫn, xung đột Their thoughts conflict with ours

/ˈprəʊ.test/ (n) sự phản kháng One member of the parliament resigned

in protest at the changes

/prəˈtest/ (v) phản kháng, phản

đối

Labour protested about the new working hours

2.8.3 Word stress rules in English

Stress plays an important role with every English learner, the researcher will givemore information about rules to lake stress in English words to help othersunderstand deeply and use these into practice

The rules of word stress are indicated clearly in “Put English Phonetics into Practicecompiled” by SzilágyiLászló in 2004

There are two rules about word stress:

2.8.3.1 One word has only one stress

One word cannot have two stresses If you hear two stresses, you hear two word.Two stresses cannot be one word It is true that there can be a “secondary” stress insome words But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main stress, and isonly used in long words

2.8.3.2 We can only stress vowels, not consonants

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help English learnersunderstand where to put the stress But do not rely on them too much, because thereare many exceptions It is better to try to “feel” the music of the language and to addthe stress naturally

a) Stress on first syllable

Table 2.4 Rules of Stress on first syllable

b) Stress on last syllable

Table 2.5 Rules of Stress on last syllable

Most 2-syllable verbs

More example: the words “export, import, contract and object” can all be nouns orverbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable

c) Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate means second from end)

Table 2.6 Rules of Stress on second from end syllable

d) Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate means third from end)

Table 2.7 Rules of Stress on third from end syllable

Exceptional /ɪkˈsep.ʃən.əl/

Musical /ˈmjuː.zɪ.kəl/

e)