Common pronunciation erors ò first year english máo at hong duc university and using elsa speak app to improve pronunciation

ABSTRACT This study focuses on common errors of first year English majors at Hong Duc university and using ELSA speak app to overcome these mistakes with an aim to help them become more

SPEAK APP TO IMPROVE PRONUNCIATION

Student : Le Thi Diu Linh Class : K20B

Course : 2017-2021

Supervisor : Nguyen Thi Thuy Ngan

THANH HOA, MAY, 2021

I would also like to send my thanks to many lectures of Foreign Language Department, Hong Duc University who have helped me with devoted consultancies for the completion of this thesis

My deep appreciation also goes to the first year English majors at Hong Duc University who have helped me collect the authentic data without which my study could not have been carried out

Finally, I owe friends as well as my family the deepest gratefulness which

I could find it hard to move on and overcome the troubles during the process of doing my study

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on common errors of first year English majors at Hong Duc university and using ELSA speak app to overcome these mistakes with an aim to help them become more confident when pronouncing English words and improve their English pronunciation

The thesis has been carried out in a logical order It includes 3 main parts: Part 1: Introduction of the study

Part 2: Development of the study which is divided into 2 chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background of English phonetics and pronunciation mistakes

Chapter 2: The common errors in pronunciation of first year English majors at Hong Duc University and using ELSA speak app to improve pronunciation

Part 3: Conclusion of study

ABREVIATIONS

E.g example gratia Etc et cetera

N number of test L2 second language

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

1 Charts

Chart 1 The most favorite skill of first year English majors‘ students

Chart 2 The percentages of important factors in speaking

Chart 3 Students‘ opinions about the importance of English pronunciation skill Chart 4 Students‘ interest in pronunciation

Chart 5 Students‘ frequency of making pronunciation mistakes

Chart 6 Students‘ understand of English phonetic transcription system

Chart 7 The frequency of reference phonetic transcription

2 Tables

Table 1.1 Plosives consonants in English language

Table 1.2 Fricatives consonants in English Language

Table 2.1 Non-pass and pass students of test

Table 2.2 Pronunciation errors of producing vowels and consonants in words Table 2.3 The right and erroneous forms of single words

Table 2.4 Ending sound omission

Table 2.5 Students‘ stress errors

Table 2.6 arbitrarily /s/ ending sound

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGE i

ABSTRACT ii

ABREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

Part I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Methods of study 2

4 Research questions 3

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Significant of the study 4

CHAPTER2: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 An overview of English pronunciation 5

1.1.1 Pronunciation 5

1.1.2 The importance of pronunciation 6

1.1.3 Articulators 7

1.1.3.1 The Lungs and the Larynx 8

1.1.3.2 The vocal tract 9

1.1.4 Received Pronunciation (RP) 9

1.1.5 Vowels 10

1.1.5.1 Long and short vowels 11

1.1.5.2 Diphthongs 11

1.1.5.3 Triphthongs 12

1.1.6 Consonants 12

1.1.6.1 Plosives 12

1.1.6.2 Fricatives 14

1.1.6.3 Affricative 15

1.1.6.4 Nasals 16

1.1.6.5 Laterals 17

1.1.6.6 Approximants 18

1.2 Errors 19

1.2.1 Classification of errors 19

1.3 Error analysis 21

1.3.1 Definitions 21

1.3.2 Signification of error analysis 22

1.4 Pronunciation errors in Second Language Learning 24

1.4.1 Articulation errors 25

1.4.2 Stress errors 26

1.4.3 Ending sound errors 26

1.5 Causes of Pronunciation errors in Second Language Learning 27

1.6 Summary 28

CHAPTER 2: COMMON PRONNUCIATIOIN ERRORS OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY AND USING ELSA SPEAK APP TO IMPROVE PRONUCIATION 29

2.1 Research Methodology 29

2.1.1 Participants 29

2.1.2 Instruments of Data Collection 29

2.1.3 Data Collection 30

Part I: INTRODUCTION

This part, which includes rationale for the study, aims, methods, research questions, scope, significances of the study and the design of the study, would hopefully provide readers with an overview of the whole paper

1 Rationale

In the recent year, English has become a very popular language in the world and in Vietnam as well People use English for communication, travel, for cultural and trading exchanges and many other fields in life Vietnam is one of the countries which use English as the second language and as a result, English has adopted as one of the most important subjects in many school in Vietnam Four English skills are essential for every English learners of all ages Nonetheless, learners seem to focus on reading and writing rather than speaking They spend a lot of time learning grammar for tests and examinations In each semester, meanwhile they are quite afraid of speaking English At high school, speaking skill seems to be paid less attention than the others They do not spend much time practicing speaking in class and that is the main reason why they get difficulties with speaking Moreover, many students are weak on grammar; they lack vocabulary and feel so shy when communicating in English

In fact, there are many other factors that affect speaking English such as intonation, grammar, liking, rhythm, context and so on…and pronunciation is considered the most important one During my speaking periods in class and speaking tests, fact shows that there are many students getting trouble with pronunciation, especially English beginners, making pronunciation in English speaking become a popular problem One illustration for this remark is the result

of speaking tests of first year English majors at Hong Duc University

First year English majors at Hong Duc University (K23 Foreign Language Department- course 2020-2024) to evacuate their English pronunciation as well

as to find out their concerns in learning English pronunciation Many students

made mistakes towards articulation, tress, pitch, length, etc Most of these students shared that they only focus on grammar and vocabulary in order to succeed in the university entrance examination That is why they did not pay much attention to English pronunciation

In the era of information technology development, there are many apps to help learners improve their pronunciation For example: FluentU, pronunroid-IPA pronunciation, say it: English Pronunciation, ELSA

speak….Through these apps leaners can study anytime and anywhere

Therefore, in order to study this problem in depth, the author

has conducted the research entitled “the common pronunciation mistakes of first

year English majors at Hong Duc University and using ELSA speak app to improve pronunciation‖ Hopefully, this study will help students understand

deeply about the issues that they have not noticed before and suggest some solutions to solve the problem and help them improve their pronunciation

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is carried out with the following aims and objectives:

- To present theoretical background of English phonetics and phonology

- To identify the student‘s common mistakes in pronouncing English

- To discover the causes of mistakes committed by first year‘s students of Foreign English Department, Hong Duc University when learning and practicing English pronunciation

- To suggest a solution is use ELSA speak app to the problems identified

- To build up pedagogic activities in the process of teaching to enhance learners‘ ability to pronounce English words

3 Methods of study

In order to complete the study, the main research methods are:

- Theoretical methods are used to generalize theoretical background of English phonetics and phonology

- Statistical methods are used to find out and classify the learners‘ mistakes

- Descriptive methods are used to be describe the actual mistakes committed by the learner

- Mathematical methods are used to process the collected data

2 What are the causes of these mistakes?

3 What are the effective solutions to help students pronounce correctly and accurately English words?

5 Scope of the study

There are many mistakes of English pronunciation that the first year students encounter when speaking However, this study will not cover all problems in learner‘s pronunciation Moreover, there are so many different material resources that require a lot of time and effort Therefore, this research will focus on the most common pronunciation mistakes of first year English majors at Hong Duc University (K23 Foreign Language Department- course 2020-2024) The author hopes this study will be a useful material for every student who concern this issue and help to get rid of their pronunciation mistakes

6 Significant of the study

- The study generalizes theoretical background of English phonetics and phonology

- The study also builds up a system of mistakes committed of first year English majors

- The study proposes pedagogical activities to improve English pronunciation for freshman students in particular and students learning English

in general

7 Design of the study

The study has three parts:

Part I: INTRODUCRTION: In this part, rationale, aims, methods, scope and design of the study were provided to introduce and to become basis for next chapters

Part II: DEVELOPMENTS: Include two chapters:

Chapter 1 is the theoretical background of English phonetics and mistakes It gives the concepts relevant to the research topic

Chapter 2 is the study on the first students‘ mistakes in English pronunciation and using ELSA speak app to overcome this issue In the chapter,

we mention the first year English majors‘ mistakes in pronouncing English, the causes of the issue and the solutions to overcome it Also in the chapter, data collection and data analysis and discussion are presented

Part III: CONCLUSION is the summarization of the main issues of the study In the addition, the study also points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER2: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

The aim of the chapter is to review theoretical background which related to the paper’s issue Basic knowledge will be provided in order to help students consolidate their knowledge and understand the issues deeper with definition of the pronunciation mistakes and so on

1.1 An overview of English pronunciation

1.1.1 Pronunciation

To every English speaking learner, the first thing they need to learn is pronunciation They have to know how to pronounce a word exactly before they learn the other things, so what is pronunciation? In the part, definition of pronunciation will presented to provide more information for all students

First of all, as defined by Seidlhofer (1995) pronunciation is: ―The production and perception of the significant sounds of a particular language in order to achieve meaning in contexts of language use This comprises the

production and perception of segmental sounds, of stressed and unstressed syllables, and of the ‗speech melody‘, or intonation

On the website, Englishclub.com, they have research about pronunciation that states ―Pronunciation refers to the way in which we make the sound of words‖ To pronounce words, we push air from our lungs up through our throat and vocal chords, through our mouth, past our tongue and out between our teeth and lips

To change the sound that 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 can control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air correctly, then our pronunciation is clearer and other people understand us more easily

Speakers of different languages tend to develop different muscles in their mouths for pronunciation due to each language having their own common sounds When we speak a foreign language, our muscles may not be as well developed for that language, thus we will find pronunciation difficult By practicing the foreign language‘s pronunciation, our muscles develop and pronunciation improves

Besides, pronunciation was also put as ―the way in which a language is spoken‖ (Oxford Advance Learner‘s Encyclopedic, 1992:718) The Oxford Advance Learner‘s Dictionary, 8th

end (2008) makes clear pronunciation is ―the way in which a language or a particular word or sound pronounced‖

There are many different definitions of pronunciation; this one from

Oxford Dictionary seems to be easier to understand: “pronunciation is the way

in which a word is pronounced”

1.1.2 The importance of pronunciation

Pronunciation is a very important element for every student learning English And the most important purpose of each learner is to be able to pronounce being the same or similar to the native speakers Even if students have a good grammar foundation, a rich vocabulary source, but they cannot

pronounce accurately, they are not highly appreciated or even difficult for foreigners to understand them

According to Fangzhi (1998;39), that it is important to pay attention to pronunciation since it results in whether or not someone‘s massage can be passed or not by other people Additionally, Gilbert (cited in Otlowsky, 2004:3) stated that if someone cannot be understood easily, she or he is cut off from conversation with native speakers

From Higgs Graph of Learner Needs, pronunciation is something that is very important to beginners It allows them to feel more comfortable when speaking Obliviously, no one can deny the importance of pronunciation It considered as one of the most significant factors in English speaking Hence, students should take pronunciation into account in order to have good speaking

1.1.3 Articulators

Larlos Gussenhoven and Haike Jacobs in Understanding Phonology (1998), the speech production process in described in two stages: creation air from the lungs and movement in the organs of speech In the first stage, they consider the role of the lungs and the larynx This part of the speech organs is responsible for the actions of the vocal folds, which are located inside the larynx Second, pronunciation deal with the role of the channel extending from the larynx onwards, called the vocal tract It is formed by the pharynx, the mouth, and for nasal and nasalized sounds, the nasal cavity

According to The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica ―articulation, in phonetics, a configuration of the vocal tract (the larynx and the pharyngeal, oral, and nasal cavities) resulting from the positioning of the mobile organs of the vocal tract (e.g., tongue) relative to other parts of the vocal tract that may be rigid (e.g., hard palate) This configuration modifies an airstream to produce the sounds of speech The main articulators are the tongue, the upper lip, the lower lip, the upper teeth, the upper gum ridge (alveolar ridge), the hard palate, the velum (soft palate), the uvula (free-hanging end of the soft palate), the

pharyngeal wall, and the glottis (space between the vocal cords)‖

1.1.3.1 The Lungs and the Larynx

Peter Roach (1983) believes that the lungs are like sponges that can fill with air When somebody makes a sound, it is made with some movement of air from the lungs The elasticity of the lung is due to the active support of the chest and diaphragm and abdominal muscles When the diaphragm moves down and the chest dilates, the lungs widen creating space for air enters outside

Conversely, when the diaphragm is elevated and the chest relaxed making the lungs shrink and pushing air out Aggressive pulmonic airstream vibrates the vocal folds inside the larynx producing sounds

1.1.3.2 The vocal tract

According to Peter Roach (1983:10), the mouth is the most important part

of the vocal tract Before the soft palate is hard palate It is often called the ―roof

of the mouth‖ The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate Sounds made with the tongue touching here are called alveolar The tongue is the more active speech organ which is are very important articulator and it can be moved into many different palaces and different shapes with the tongue Then there are teeth and lips The lips are the articulator which more important speech They can be passed together (when producing the sound p,d), brought into contact with the teeth (as in f,v), or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowel like / u: /

The nasal cavity is one of the vocal tracts In here, ―the soft palate, or velum, is a valve which closes off the entrance to the nasal cavity when it is passed up, but opens the cavity when it is allowed to hang down‖ (Laslos Gussenhoven and Haike Jacobs, 1998:23) The velum or short palate allows air

to the pass through the nose and through the mouth It is one of the organs which can be touched by the tongue

1.1.4 Received Pronunciation (RP)

Language has different accents They are pronounced differently by people from different social classes, of different ages and different education background In talking about accents of English, the foreigners should be careful about the differences between English accents and British one

At this time, Received Pronunciation (RP) appears RP was originally described as one accent system of English, on a phonological basis

but with considerable realization freedom Soon the phonological definition was rivaled by a sociological one: RP became the ideal of good pronunciation and a quality seal of education RP could be described at the Standard pronunciation

of Standard British English

Peter Roach believes that there are 24 consonants, 12 vowels, 8 diphthongs and 5 triphthongs in the RP

Phonetic transcription system of standard pronunciation

1.1.5 Vowels

It is taken for granted that vowels versus consonants have very clear distinction in articulators, although they are all speech sounds, according to Peter Roach ―vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips‖ ( English Phonetics and Phonology , 1983:10) In other words, in order to distinguish vowels and consonants, the researcher need consider with sounds have degree of obstruction between vowels and consonants is air obstruction Vowels have almost no obstruction, while consonants have a high degree of obstruction

1.1.5.1 Long and short vowels

Based on the length, the researchers divided monophthongs into

two subtypes: short vowels and long vowels Long vowels tend to be longer than short vowels in similar contexts Long vowels may be the last sound of a syllable, whereas short vowels are always followed by at a consonant

According to Peter Roach (1998), there are 6 short vowels in standard (RP) English:

Schwa /ə/ The schwa is special type of short vowel It is a very

―weak‖ sound that is never stressed It is very simple to find the schwa in words with more than one syllable Here are some examples: mother: /ˈmʌð.ɚ/,

America: /əˈmer.ɪ.kə/

In the British English Phonemic chart, long vowels are easy to

recognize, because a colon (―:‖) usually accompany them

Long vowels in English:

According to Peter Roach: ―diphthongs are sounds which consist of

a movement or glide from one vowel to another‖ (1983:20) In terms of length,

the most important thing is that the first part of diphthongs is much longer and stronger than the second part

He is also say that RP has 8 diphthongs in total They can be divided into

3 groups as ending ə (iə, əe, uə ), ending in I (ei, ai, ) and ending in u (əu, au)

E.g:

- /iə/ as in ‗here‘, ‗ear‘

- /əe/ as in ‗hair‘, ‗there‘

-/uə/ as in ‗sure‘, ‗tour‘

-/ ei/ as in ‗play‘, ‗cave‘

-/ ai/ as in ‗eyes‘, ‗sky‘

-/ ɔi/ as in ‗toy‘, soya‘

-/ əu/ as in ‗close‘, ‗so‘

-/ au/ as in ‗about‘, ‗aloud‘

1.1.5.3 Triphthongs

According to Peter Roach: ―a triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption‖

(1983:23) In other words, the triphthongs can be looked on as being composed

of the five closing diphthongd with /ə/ at the end They are the most complex English sounds which are rather difficult to pronounce There are 5 closing

diphthongs with ‗ə‘ added on the end:

– eɪ + ə = /eɪə/ as in ‗layer‘, ‗player‘

– aɪ + ə = /aɪə/ as in ‗lire‘, ‗fire‘

– ɔɪ + ə = /ɔɪə/ as in ‗loyal‘, ‗royal‘

– əʊ + ə = /əuə/ as in ‗lower‘, ‗mower‘

– aʊ + ə = /auə/ as in ‗power‘, ‗hour‘

1.1.6 Consonants

1.1.6.1 Plosives

―A plosive is characterized by a complete obstruction of oral airflow, followed generally by release of that airflow‖ (April McMahon, 2002:29) Plosive are sounds in which there is a complete closure in the mouth, so that the

air is blocked for a fraction of a second and then released with a small burst of sound

In order to produce a fully articulated plosive consonant, we usually go through the following three stages: 1.The closing stage (or approaching stage) During this first stage, an active articulator moves towards a passive articulator,

or two active articulators move toward each other, make a firm contact and close the air passage completely 2 The hold stage (compression or stop stage) During the stage, the air stream is temporarily stopped, so air pressure builds up behind the closure If we are producing voiced plosive, the vocal cords continue vibrating if it is between other voiced sounds If the plosive is in word-final position, the vocal cords start to vibrate only in the last portion of this stage If the plosive in word-initial, the vocal cords start to vibrate only in the last portion

of the stage In the other words, the voiced plosive is partially devoiced 3 The released stage (or explosion stage) During this stage, the speech organs separate abruptly and release the closure, thus allowing the compressed air to escape quickly with the slight plosive If we are producing a voiced sound, the vocal cords continue vibrating if the plosive is between voiced sounds or if it is in word-initial position If the plosive is in word-final position, the vocal cords do not vibrate

Plosive consonants are made by completely blocking the flow of air as it leaves the body, normally followed by releasing the air English pronunciation contains 6 plosive phonemes: /p,b,t,d,k,g/:

Table1.1 Plosive consonants in English Language

The sounds /b,d,g/ are voiced; they are pronounced with vibration

in the vocal cords /p,t,k/ are voiceless; they are produced with air only The

voiceless plosives are often aspirated (produced with a puff of air) in English pronunciation

Common spellings for each plosive are underlined below:

In addition, ―during the production of a fricative, the active and passive articulators are bought close together, but not near enough to totally block the oral cavity This close approximation of the articulators means the air coming from the lungs has to squeeze through a narrow gap at high speed, creating turbulence, or local audible, friction, which is heard as hissing for a voiceless fricative and buzzing for a voiced one‖ (April McMahon, 2002:29)

Fricative consonants are made by squeezing air between a small gap as it leaves the body In English pronunciation, there are 9 fricative phonemes: /f,v,θ,ð,s,z,ʃ,ʒ,h/ made in 5 positions of the mouth:

Table1.2 Fricatives consonants in English Language

-/ʃ/: sharp, chef, pressure, sugar, motion

-/ʒ/: beige, Asia, pleasure

-/h/: ahead

1.1.6.3 Affricative

According to Peter Roach : ―affricatives are complex consonants They begin as plosives and as fricatives‖ (1983:47) In another words, affricatives are combination of plosive and fricative They begin like a plosive, with a complete closure, but instead of a plosive, they have a very slow release, moving backwards to a place where a friction can be heard

Affricate consonant sounds are made by starting with a plosive (full block

of air) and immediately blending into a fricative (partial block) English pronunciation has 2 affricate phonemes:

/tʃ/ is a voiceless affricate consonant sound, it is pronounced only using the release of air /dʒ/ is a voiced affricate consonant sound; the vocal cords vibrate as the sound is produced

Spellings for each affricate sound are underlined below:

For example:

-/tʃ/: cheese, catch, digestion, gesture

-/dʒ/: agenda, jar, hedge

A very common variation (allophone) of /l/ is also found in standard

pronunciation: [ɫ] It is made in the same way at the front of the mouth, though the tongue is also raised at the back of the mouth:

The lateral approximant sound in English is always spelt with ‗l‘:

For example: like, allow, fall

1.1.6.6 Approximants

Approximant are sound where the tongue only approaches the roof of the mouth, so that there is not enough obstruction to create any fiction English has three approximants, which are all voiced: alveolar /r/, palatal /j/ and velar /w/

Spellings for the approximant sounds are underlined below:

It is a common sense that interlingual errors are those caused across two

or more different languages, intralingual errors are those caused within one language system However, they are both considered two main types of students‘ errors

The Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied linguistics (1992) defines that interlingual errors can be seen as the result of language transfer which is caused by the learners‘ mother tongue The first language is the thing that people learned since they are inborn or even when they are in mother‘s body Thus, it has a great affect onto learning process of any later language As a result, interlingual transfer is a significant source for language learners It can be said that interlingual errors are the incorrect elements under the influence of learners‘ native language Therefore, interlingual errors are errors which are caused by interference from native language to the target language they learn

So, before someone really masters the concept of their target language they will

always use the concept of their language When it happens all the time and they

do not realize it, it can be called interlingual errors

Interlingual errors may occur at different levels such as transfer of phonological, morphological, grammatical and lexica-semantic elements of the native language into the target one

At phonological level, the native language system may affect students on some marking the sounds like ―θ‖ and ―ð‖ These sounds do not appear in Vietnamese phonological system then Vietnamese English learners would find it difficult to pronounce them

At morphological level, Vietnamese students may find it hard to remember the rules to form plural nouns since in Vietnamese, the form of the noun keep unchanged for both singular and plural forms

At grammatical level, the order of the words in the sentences of Vietnamese and English are different in some structures This is reason why Vietnamese students may make errors in making sentences In Vietnamese language system, the adjectives usually stand after the nouns like ―một ngôi nhà sang trọng‖ However, this order is converse in English system; it must be ―a luxury house‖ Here it is clear to see that the adjective initiates the noun

At lexica-semantic level, there may be a typical example with the verb

―smoke‖ In Vietnamese language, the accepted word is ― hút thuốc‖; however, people never say ―smoke cigarettes‖ in English for ―smoke‖ can stand for both

―smoke‖ and ―cigarettes‖ The interference of the mother tongue is the reason why many Vietnamese students write ―smoke cigarettes‖ This fact is true for the situation that many Vietnamese students assume that the sentence ―he never smokes, never drinks and never gets up late‖ is not adequate, to be accepted, this sentence should be ―he never smokes cigarettes, never drinks wine and never gets up late‖ instead The interlingual transfer is the obstacle for people to learn

a new language The level of being affected by native language differs from person to person

1.3 Error analysis

1.3.1 Definitions

In linguistics, according to J Richard et al., (2002), an error is the use of a word, speech act or grammatical items in such a way it seems imperfect and significant of an incomplete learning (184) It is considered by Norrish (1983,

p 7) as a systematic deviation that happens when a learner has not learnt something, and consistently gets it wrong However, the attempts made to put the error into context have always gone hand in hand with either language learning and second-language acquisition processes, Hendrickson (1987:357) mentioned that errors are ‗signals‘ that indicate an actual learning process taking place and that the learner has not yet mastered or shown a well-structured competence in the target language

All the definitions seemed to stress either on the systematic deviations triggered in the language learning process, or its indications of the actual situation of the language learner themselves which will later help the monitor be

it an applied linguist or particularly the language teacher to solve the problem respecting one of the approaches argued in the Error Analysis (Anefnaf 2017), the occurrence of errors doesn't only indicate that the learner has not learned something yet, but also it gives the linguist the idea of whether the teaching method applied was effective or it needs to be changed

According to Corder (1976) errors are significant of three things, first to the teacher, in that they tell him, if he or she undertakes a systematic analysis, how far towards that goal the learner has progressed and, consequently, what remains for him to learn Second, they provide the researcher with evidence of how language is learned or acquired, and what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in his discovery of the language Third (and in a sense this

is their most important aspect) they are indispensable to the learner himself, because we can regard the making of errors as a device the learner uses in order

to learn (p 167) The occurrence of errors is merely signs of ‗‘the present inadequacy of our teaching methods‘‘ (Corder 1976, p 163)

There have been two schools of thought when it comes to errors analysis and philosophy, the first one, according to Corder (1967) linked the errors commitment with the teaching method arguing that if the teaching method was adequate, the errors would not be committed, the second school believed that we live in an imperfect world and that errors correction is something real and the applied linguist cannot do without it no matter what teaching approach they may use

Once a corpus of learner language has been collected, the errors have to

be identified Therefore, it is necessary to know how to identify them Indeed, the identification of errors depends on four crucial questions The first question

is to set up what target language should be used as the point of evaluation for the study

The second is related to the differences between "errors" and "mistakes or slips" An error is made when the deviation arises as a result of lack of knowledge while a mistake or slip occurs when learners fail to perform to their competence in the target language Normally, a mistake or slip is immediately corrected by the learner

The third question is about interpretation There are two kinds of interpretation: overt and covert The former is easy to identify because there is a clear deviation in form (She sold her car) and the latter occurs in utterances that are syntactically and semantically well-formed but pragmatically odd (Where do you go?) The fourth question is focused on deviations There are two kinds of deviation: correctness and appropriateness

Their difference is very simple: the first is a deviation of the rules of the language usage (I did eat with her) and the other is a deviation of the language use (she can to do whatever she wants)

1.3.2 Signification of error analysis

Errors are in inevitable feature of learning so that whenever a language is learnt or acquired; people are face with the problem of errors In fact, errors are

part of learning and reveal the strategies that learner use to learner a language since they provide insight into the language learning process

Analyzing errors is very important process of teaching language because

by analyzing the errors, people can build up a picture of language which causes the learning problems When the problems are understood in the right perspective remedial measures, it is easier for the teachers to find out the solutions to help their students overcome obstacles

There are many studies done by Jean D‘Souza, he believes that if the teacher taught well and drilled the patterns of the new language efficiently, there were no reasons for the learners to make any errors However, students still make errors even they are taught in idealistic condition Thus, more and more studies have been undertaken to prove that students‘ errors show evidence of system The learners try to involve a language system of their own on the basic

of exposure they receive

According to Stevens (1969), if a regular pattern of errors could be observed and the learners were seen to get progress through this pattern, it will

be a sign of achievement in learning Hence, errors can be seen as a developmental phenomena supporting evidence to regard the rules and categories used the learners at particular time As Corder (1973) says: ―by describing and classifying his errors in linguistic terms, we build up a picture of the features of language which are causing him learning problems‖, the study of errors is very important to help us infer what the nature of learners‘ knowledge

is at that point of time in their learning and what more has to be learnt to improve their language knowledge

In short, the analysis of the learners‘ errors is really necessary because it can help the teachers know when, what and where their leaners need help and it also warms them not to interfere too much in their learning process

1.4 Pronunciation errors in Second Language Learning

Learning English is very difficult so many learners try to make the sounds being the same and close to these sounds of native speakers However, students who learn English as a second language, still make many mistakes when they pronounce

According to Richmanshare ―pronunciation problems often to lend to 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 a feeling of doubts as to how to teach it Many experienced teachers would admit to lack of theory of pronunciation and they may therefore feel the need to improve their practical skills in pronunciation teaching Secondly, when it‘s not neglected, it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that 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 observed several lessons?‖

Richards (1971) acknowledges two different kinds of errors: performance errors, caused by, such as fatigue and inattention and competence errors resulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of the language In another research, Ellis (1997) sates that errors reflect gaps in a learner‘s knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what the correct one is However, mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance They occur because in particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what she or he knows

In short, every English learner would make pronunciation errors least several times while learning speaking and each one has their own problem However, learners should recognize and solve their pronunciation problem as soon as possible

1.4.1 Articulation errors

Articulation is movement of the articulators inside the oral cavity to produce sounds Different language system has different sound system; this may

be the main cause of articulation errors

According to Mr Nguyen Thanh Tam (teacher in Hanoi University of Culture), when learning English, the following errors are regularly made by Vietnamese learners:

Fricatives /θ/ and /ð/: The inter-dental consonant phonemes like /θ/ and /ð/ have always created pronunciation problems for Vietnamese learners of English

in that these two sounds are non-existent as phonemes or sounds in the sound system of the Vietnamese English While /θ/ and /ð/ are inter-dental fricatives – the first voiceless and the latter voiced, the sound /z/ is a voiced alveolar fricative The alveolar sounds are produced with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge However, two sounds /θ/ and /ð/ are notoriously difficult for foreign second language learners because it does not exist in a lot of indigenous language Vietnamese learners realize /θ/ as /t‘/ and /ð/ as /z/

Affricative /tʃ/: affricative / tʃ/ is referred to as palato-alveolar which is made by rising the blade of the tongue towards the part of palate just behind the alveolar ridge / tʃ/ is voiceless sound However the Vietnamese, this sound is pronounced as voiced sound /ts/

Affricative /dʒ/ fricative /ʒ/ are also referred to as palato-alveolar which are made by raising the blade of the tongue towards the part of the palate just behind the alveolar ridge In Vietnamese, these sounds are pronounced as alveolar /z/ Particularly, /dʒ/ sound is not pronounced when it is at the bottom

Long-short vowels confusion: in English, there are some of monophthongs /i /  /iː/, /ʊ/ /uː/, /ɒ/ /ɔː/, / ə / /ɛː/ which are taken in pair order However, all the vowels are pronounced as short vowel by almost first year students When pronounced, long vowels which are pronounced without being stressed are made as the corresponding short vowel: /iː/ /i/, /uː/ /ʊ/,

/ɔː/ /ɒ/, /ɛː/ / ə / In addition, vowel /æ/ is usually pronounced to /e/, sometimes to /a/

The above errors are the basic articulation errors of pronunciation which Vietnamese learners catch when learning English Pronunciation The causes of these errors are due to the differences between English pronunciation system and Vietnamese pronunciation system

1.4.2 Stress errors

Stress also plays important role in English language system It is unnatural when listen to words which are pronounced in monotone However, majority of Vietnamese students are embarrassed with stress Vietnamese is single syllable, they are accustomed with pronounce without stress Other students use stress, but it is incorrect Their stress is irregular

1.4.3 Ending sound errors

According to Mark (2008), ending sound errors can be defined as ―the inaccurate pronunciation of the final consonant in a word‖ The classifications of ending sounds errors were given out according to Treiman (1989) They are: Cluster reduction, Cluster Simplification, 12 Epenthesis, Coalescence, Omitting nasal and liquid sounds and phonetically possible spelling Hereunder is introduction about 6 types of ending sounds errors according toTreiman (1989): Cluster reduction: This is the ―deletion of one or more consonants from a target cluster so that only a single consonant occurs at syllable margins‖ (Grunwell, 1987: 217, as cited in Treiman (1989) ) Cluster Simplification: The error occurs when one/some elements of a cluster being is/are produced in a different manner from the target phoneme (Grunwell (1987), as cited in Treiman(1989)) Epenthesis: This is the insertion of some vowel (normally a schwa) between cluster elements (Dyson & Paden (1983), as cited in Treiman(1989)) Coalescence: It occurs when the yielded pronunciation contains a new consonant composed of features from the original consonants (Dyson & Paden (1983), as

cited in Treiman(1989)) Omitting nasal and liquid sounds: In consonants cluster consisting of prefinal+ final consonants with nasals (/n/,/m/) or liquids (/r/,/l/) as the first element, (/m, n, l, r/ + final consonant), nasals and liquid sounds are often omitted (Treiman, Zukowski & Richmond, Wetly, (1995 )) Phonetically possible spelling: In representing the first consonant of a cluster, spellers tend to spell words in an inaccurate but phonetically plausible ways (Treiman

&Bourassa (2000)) In her research, ending sound errors were divided into 3 groups: Reduction is omitting the final consonant or one element of a cluster Insertion is inserting a consonant to the ending of word Substitution is replacing

an English consonant by a phonetically similar of Vietnamese sound In current study, the findings of students‘ tapes recorded and observation will be analyzed according to the three types of errors as mentioned above

1.5 Causes of Pronunciation errors in Second Language Learning

Firstly, it is clear that the influence of Vietnamese to English pronunciation is the main reason causing errors of English pronunciation foe students learning English in general and especially freshman of Foreign Language Department, Hong Duc University in particular

In addition, phonetic ability of the learners affect the development of their pronunciation There is a common view that some people who have phonetic abilities with a better ear capacity for foreign language than some others So, they are able to discriminate between the two sounds more accurately than the others and able to imitate sounds better But it does not mean that people who have a better phonetic ability will be successful but the others won‘t be successful So language aptitude ability exists in many people, but its degree is variable, so some people have more ability but some have less

Moreover, almost first year students do not have or have very few opportunities to interact with people from English-speaking countries It is clear that they lack the natural environment to learn English pronunciation Therefore, they can hardly pronounce English words correctly

Besides, at the high school, English teachers have not really focused on pronunciation skills Although this kill is in the study program, the teachers only mainly tested the input without checking ability of the students‘ output For example, tests that teachers give are just checking discrimination on the pronunciation of the various sounds of the students, not directly tested students‘ pronunciation ability

1.6 Summary

In this chapter, the author has just presented an overview of pronunciation

at the beginning as well as vowels and consonants in English language system to help learners deeply understand them

The differences between mistakes and errors have been discussed and errors were then considered the classifications of errors In the next section which deals with findings and analysis of pronouncing English language have pointed out the notions of errors, classification of errors in second language learning, factors affecting English Pronunciation errors in second language learning

CHAPTER 2: COMMON PRONUCIATIOIN ERRORS OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY AND USING ELSA SPEAK APP TO IMPROVE PRONUCIATION

This chapter is the most important chapter in part 2 In this chapter, student‘s pronunciation mistakes will be given out and a survey questionnaire are conducted in order to collect information and data for the research First of all, the author will present participants, purposes and design of the survey questionnaire Then, student‘s pronunciation mistakes in reality also are

analyzed by result from the survey questionnaire

2.1 Research Methodology

2.1.1 Participants

The survey was carried out with participation of 87 English students from class K23 of Foreign Language Department, Hong Duc University The students‘ age ranged from 19 to 21 All of the students have had 7 years of English education through secondary schooling Almost of students live in Thanh Hoa Province and share the same study conditions The questionnaire and pronunciation test were prepared in order to get information to meet the aims of the study

2.1.2 Instruments of Data Collection

In this study, pronunciation test is used as the main tool to collect necessary data Besides, ―Questionnaire‖ is also employed to support collecting data for the study In addition, survey is given to collect consultancies from experts First, a pronunciation test is in the oral form of five different tasks to cause errors in pronouncing English and recorded for later analysis Task one consists of twelve vowel and consonants which are often mispronounce by students such as /θ, s, ∫, ð, ʒ; etc / The task was designed to check if students have the correct pronunciation with these single sounds Task two is written to test students‘ ability in pronouncing these vowel and consonants in different

words Task three includes ten single words with six different ending sounds The data from this part helps the author grasp students‘ errors in pronouncing ending sounds Task four contains ten words belong to different part of speech

In the task, students are checked the rule of stress Task five is used to check students‘ pronunciation towards words in the sentences regarding articulation and stress Second, to collect data about students‘ awareness of pronunciation, questionnaire was created and implemented The questionnaire consists of both multiple-choice and open-ended question In the total, 10 questions are given The survey includes the question to collect consultancies from the teachers who have experience in teaching subjects related to English pronunciation regard of methods in teaching phonetics for students

2.1.3 Data Collection

To collect data for this study, the author used two main kinds of research instruments: exercises for students and questionnaire In addition, Survey consulting with expert advices and class observations were also the assistance for the data collection procedures

Pronunciation test: is in the oral form of five different tasks to provoke errors in pronouncing English There are five tasks belong to this test:

-Task one is designed to check if students have the correct pronunciation

-Task five is used to test students‘ pronunciation of words which consist

of articulators and stress in the sentences

Questionnaire: The participants were asked to choose the answer or answer the open-ended questions based on their own opinions All the information provided is solely for the study purpose, not others

Pronunciation test and questionnaire were carried out in two different days in order to help students to do the test in the best manner and get the best results During the performance time, students were encouraged to do the tasks

on their own and not to use the dictionary or discuss with others, this to ensure the reliability of the data collected

Survey for expects: contains six questions which aims consult with expects about methods in teaching phonetics for students to help them pronounce English correctly and naturally

2.2 Findings, analysis and investigation

Chart 1: The most favorite English skill of first year English

majors’ students at Hong Duc University

The chart 1 illustrates the most favorite English skill of first year English majors‘ students at Hong Duc University As can be seen, the chart above shows that speaking is the most favorite skill of first year English majors with 46,1% Their second favorite skill is reading with 26,5% and listening with 15,0% while writing represents only 12,6% This proves that the number of students who likes speaking is the highest In order to communicate in English well, they should learn well both speaking and listening However, amount of students who like listening is lower 31,1% than speaking

Chart 2: The percentages of important factors in speaking

The next question is fulfilled to understand exactly student‘s attitude toward the importance of pronunciation in English speaking

Question 3: What are students’ opinions about the importance of English pronunciation skill?

to be clearly understood‖ Others believe that in order to avoid misunderstanding and to communicate successfully, they must have good pronunciation All of learners hope that they will be good models for their students as in the role of