An investigation into final ending sounds consonants pronouced by the 9th grade students at nguyen huu da junior secondary school in hue city

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- HO THI CAM ANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO FINAL ENDING SOUNDS CONSONANTS PRONOUNCED BY AT NGUYEN HUU DA JUNIOR SE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-

HO THI CAM ANH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO FINAL ENDING SOUNDS (CONSONANTS) PRONOUNCED BY

AT NGUYEN HUU DA JUNIOR SECONDARY

SCHOOL IN HUE CITY

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts,

Hue University of Foreign Languages

HUE, 2015

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-

HO THI CAM ANH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO FINAL ENDING SOUNDS (CONSONANTS) PRONOUNCED BY

AT NGUYEN HUU DA JUNIOR SECONDARY

SCHOOL IN HUE CITY

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

CODE: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR: TRAN QUANG HAI, D Ed

HUE, 2015

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

-

HỒ THỊ CẨM ANH

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH PHÁT ÂM PHỤ ÂM CUỐI

CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 9 TẠI TRƯỜNG THCS NGUYỄN HỮU ĐÀ HUẾ

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ

MÔN TIẾNG ANH

MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS TRẦN QUANG HẢI

HUẾ, 2015

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself

Date: 20/06/2015 Signature

Full name

HO THI CAM ANH

ABSTRACT

Vietnamese students have many difficulties when pronouncing English Among difficulties, this paper will firstly deal with “an investigation into final consonants sounds pronounced by the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School in Hue city” The influence of Vietnamese as their mother tongue is thought

to affect the production of English final consonant sounds among Vietnamese speakers in English words, who have a much smaller range of final consonants This research examines the production of final consonant sounds of Vietnamese learners

of English Theoretical phonological research on final consonant sounds in the English language has been carried out to find the difficulties Data from Vietnamese informants were collected and analyzed, then synthesized to the most significant problems Vietnamese students face some difficulties with a few common final consonant sounds such as /ð/, /θ/, /dʒ /, /ŋ/, /tʃ/, /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ They effort to pronounce English final consonant sounds were studied towards sound omitted sound redundant, or sound confused These findings will hopefully be useful for those who are interested in the topic and for further research

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility, support and helpful advice to complete this research paper

First of all, I want to thank my supervisor Tran Quang Hai, D Ed for guiding

me on how to do the research in the effective way, for his advice, encouragement and constant support in my work His understanding, patience and readiness to help during the period of the research are highly appreciated It would be impossible to complete this research without his assistance and cooperation

Besides my supervisor, I want to thank Ms Nguyen Hai Yen who gave me a lot

of useful information, helpful advice during the time of researching

My sincere thank also goes to Ms Nguyen Thi Mai, English teacher of Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue for her permission to take part in her classes to give survey questionnaires to students Besides, I must thank the 120 students who participated in this research for their time and efforts to perform the tasks Without their support this research could not have been carried out

I also want to thank all the members of my master class They always stood by

me when I felt down and helped me feel better, gave me motivation to complete this graduation paper

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, my mother for their warm encouraging and supporting me spiritually throughout my life

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUB COVER PAGE

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY i

ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF CHARTS ix

CONTENTS OF THESIS 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 10

1.1 Rationale 10

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Research methods 3

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

2 CHAPTER 2 6

2.2 Consonants in English 8

2.3 Final consonant sounds in English 10

2.4 Consonants in Vietnamese 12

2.5 Pronunciation errors 15

2.5.1 Definition of pronunciation errors 15

2.5.2 Final consonant sound pronunciation errors 16

2.5.3 Common mistakes of final consonant sound pronunciation that English learners in Vietnam tend to make 17

3 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 Participants 18

3.2 Instruments 18

3.3 Survey Questionnaires 18

3.4 Purposes of the survey questionnaires 19

3.5 Design of the survey questionnaires 19

3.6 Interview 20

3.7 Classroom Observation 20

3.8 Data collection instrument 20

4 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 22

4.1 Students’ attitudes toward their English final consonant sound pronunciation 22

4.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward the pronunciation final consonant sounds

in English 22

4.1.2 Students’ frequency of pronouncing ending sounds 23

4.1.3 Difficulties in pronouncing final consonant sounds 24

4.1.4 Reasons for students’ difficulties in learning final consonant sounds… 28

4.2 Students’ expectations toward teachers in pronunciation class 30

4.3.1 Students’ excitement on teachers’ techniques in the pronunciation of final consonant sounds class 30

4.3.2 Students’ expectations toward teachers in class 31

4.3 Teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation in class 32

4.4 Discussion 35

4.5 Suggestions for students to correct ending sounds error 36

4.5.1 Games 36

4.5.2 Listening to music 40

4.5.3 Reading pronunciation books 40

4.5.4 Watching pronunciation videos on YouTube 42

4.5.5 Practicing in front of the mirror 44

4.5.6 Recording yourself 46

4.5.7 Exercises for practicing final consonant sounds 46

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Survey Questionnaire

Appendix B: Interview Questions for Teachers

Appendix C: Teacher/Researcher Observation Sheet

LIST OF TABLES

2.1 Consonant sounds 10

2.2 Vietnamese consonants 13

2.3 Final consonants in Vietnamese 14

4.1 Final consonant sounds that students have difficulties with 25

4.2 Sounds confused by students 27

4.3 The effectiveness of teachers’ techniques in teaching the pronunciation of final sounds in class 34

LIST OF CHARTS

4.1 Students’ attitudes toward pronouncing final consonant sounds 22 4.2 Students’ frequency of pronouncing final consonant sounds 23 4.3 Reasons of students’ difficulties in learning final consonant sounds 29 4.4 Students’ opinions on teachers’ techniques in the pronunciation of

final consonant sounds in class 30 4.5 Students’ expectations toward teachers in class 31 4.6 The frequency of teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation

final sounds in class 32

pronounced by the 9th grade at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue

As can be seen, if ESL learners want to speak English correctly and fluently, it is necessary to pay attention to final sounds, especially consonants for several reasons Firstly, the English sound system has several sounds foreign to Vietnamese speakers Secondly, the way English speakers pronounce the ending sounds is completely different from the one deeply rooted in Vietnamese speakers, making it more difficult for them to achieve appropriate English pronunciation Thirdly, Vietnamese has phonotactic features that keep native learners from pronouncing English like native speakers Finally, Vietnamese is a kind of language which has single words with no final ending sounds while these sounds play a very important role in English It is particularly difficult for native English to identify the words being spoken without pronouncing final consonant sounds As a matter of fact, errors in pronouncing final consonant sounds are very typical and popular to Vietnamese students, especially to 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School Initially, this paper will investigate the difficulties of Vietnamese learners of English especially the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School when dealing with English word-final consonants The findings of this research will hopefully help students grow awareness of the problems that they might have not noticed before, carefully try to produce native-like English word-final sounds and raise some suggestions to correct their errors Further research by the same researcher will be carried out to give broader and more sufficient consideration about the whole topic

2.2 Aims of the study

The purpose of this study is to analyze final consonant sounds in pronunciation and to help 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located

in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue realize the mistakes when pronouncing the final consonant sounds Besides, it is hoped that the findings of the present study will

help English Language teachers/ trainers/ instructors to understand the problems in pronouncing word-final consonants of ESL students and help to improve their students’ awareness and understanding of the interference of different word-final consonant sounds in English pronunciation Finally, this research also aims to help these students improve their speaking skill

This study will focus on two issues The first one is to find out the errors in the pronunciation final consonant sounds by the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue The second one is to give out the suggestions for students to correct these errors

2.3 Research questions

Based on the problems and purposes stated in the previous sections, here are research questions that are attempted to address in the study:

1) What are the pronunciation errors of final consonant sounds In English the

9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Thua Thien Hue are likely to make?

2) What can the students do to improve their English pronunciation, especially

in the pronunciation final consonant sounds?

3) What can teachers do to address this issue?

The research questions aim to investigate the common characteristics of the pronunciation of word-final consonants made by the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School and to examine the influence of the Vietnamese

on English pronunciation

2.4 Research methods

To achieve the above mentioned aims, the study employs the following methods study:

Firstly, reference books and previous researches related to the pronunciation of final consonant sounds are reviewed to get the background knowledge of the pronunciation in English, word-final consonants

Secondly, in my research I used both qualitative and quantitative methods Specifically, a survey, by meaning of questionnaires was conducted for 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue with a view to finding out their problems, evaluations of the matter and the difficulties that they have as well as the expectations towards pronunciation All the necessary information needed for the findings of the survey was collected through the observation and interview with English teachers at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School

Last but not least, I analyzed, synthesized the data and finally presented the findings of the study

2.5 Scope of the study

In English, there are many problems related to pronunciation errors However, the project within the scope of this thesis is carried out with no ambition to cover all problems with pronunciation and/or over all Vietnamese learners of English Scope

of the research is limited as it is only conducted on some common errors of the final consonant sounds the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue are likely to make

2.6 Significance of the study

It is undeniable that English is one of the most important subjects in all schools At Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School, all students from different grades have to learn English It can be clearly seen that, four skills in learning English are also important but the most important one must be the speaking skill However, this is the skill that students are often afraid of To 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien,

Hue, their speaking skill seem to be not quite good, especially in pronouncing final consonant sounds

It is hoped that the findings of the thesis would offer English Language teachers better insights into effective teaching strategies in helping their students to master English pronunciation On the other hand, this can provide a significant understanding into how a language is actually learned by the students Teachers should be well aware of the fact that the majority of their students have difficulties

in producing certain English final consonants sounds The possible solutions in preventing students from making errors repeatedly should be considered

Furthermore, I hope that my research will help the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue in their pronunciation of the final sounds, specially consonant sounds It is also hoped that the findings of the study will help the students to understand the phonological differences between their native language and target languages Students should not completely rely on their teachers to recognize the errors for them It is essential to make the students consciously compare the two languages by themselves (Zhang & Yin, 2009) and understand the rules of the new language during the learning process

3

4

5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

The study related to an investigation into final ending sounds (consonants) pronounced by the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary school in Hue city

Learners of English often expect to be able to speak that language like native speakers However, they encounter many factors to achieve their desire One of the common factors that they find difficult is the pronunciation of another sound system Learners find that their mother tongue influences their pronunciation of English Many studies have looked as the influence of the native language (L1) on the learning of a second language (L2) as having both positive and negative effects

on the learning of an L2 The L2 is affected by the L1 in various ways depending on the characteristics of both languages This research investigates the pronunciation final sounds, especially ending consonant sounds in English pronounced by the 9thgrade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary school in Thua Thien Hue There are some most crucial concepts chosen to be clarified in this part: English pronunciation, consonants in English, consonants in Vietnamese, pronunciation errors and some common mistakes about final consonants that English learners in Vietnam tend to make

2.1 English pronunciation

Generally speaking, pronunciation is simply put as ‘the way in which a language

is spoken’ (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992:718) The American

Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 4th ed (2007) defines pronunciation

as ‘a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood’ The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 8th ed (2008) makes

clear pronunciation is “the way in which a language or a particular word or sound pronounced”

One of the most difficult problems facing non-native speakers of English is pronunciation It is usually the largest obstacle to overcome when trying to achieve fluency Many non-native speakers have studied grammar for many years but are unable to speak like native speakers due to their inability to pronounce the sounds

of words properly The pronunciation is the first and most important thing native speakers notice during a conversation Knowing grammar and vocabulary are important but useless if non-native speakers are unable to pronounce those structures or words correctly Also, native speakers are more likely to understand them, even if they make grammatical mistakes rather than if they make mistakes in pronunciation Even the simplest words mispronounced will keep them from effectively communicating with native English speakers Achieving good pronunciation should be the main goal

It is common knowledge that many learners ignore pronunciation in language learning All learners of English claim that they do not need to study pronunciation Many of them are convinced that it is simply a waste of time They just want to communicate in English and, as long as they are understood Unfortunately, numerous teachers are not aware of the importance of pronunciation In the first place, they emphasize the role of grammar and vocabulary learning in the acquisition of a foreign language The overwhelming majority of English language teachers help students become competent above all in listening and reading (Harmer, 2001: 183) Secondly, many of them think that pronunciation study is too difficult, and worse, boring for young learners Besides, teachers complain about the lack of high quality and suitable teaching and learning materials and about the lack

of time to practice pronunciation According to Harmer (2001: 183), ‘they feel they have to do already and pronunciation teaching will only make things worse.’

However, according to the AMEP Fact sheets, learners with good pronunciation

in English are more likely to be understood even if they make errors in other areas, whereas learners whose pronunciation is difficult to understand will not be understood, even if their grammar is perfect It is generally recognized that pronunciation is the first and most important thing native speakers notice during a conversation Knowing grammar and vocabulary is important but useless if the speaker is unable to pronounce those structures or words correctly Additionally, native speakers are more likely to understand someone, even in spite of grammatical errors, if this person uses correct pronunciation When mispronounced, the simplest words will prevent the speaker from communicating effectively in English

Based on the above reasons, many adult learners find pronunciation one of the most difficult aspects of English to acquire, and need explicit help from the teacher (Morley 1994& Fraser 2000)

These days, at all schools or centers when teaching a foreign language, people usually focus on skills such as listening, reading, writing, and speaking They require learners to speak exactly and fluently but they ignore the way to pronounce sounds Pronunciation is also as important as other skills To speak correctly and fluently, we pay attention to how a sound is pronounced Benjawan Becker said,

‘Since it is one of the critical factors in determining a syllable’s tone, you must know the consonant class in order to correctly pronounce what you have read’

First of all, what is consonant? According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s

Encyclopedic (1992:192), consonants are ‘speech sounds made by completely or partly stopping the flow of air breathed out through the mouth’ According to Roach (2000) consonants can be defined as ‘sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips’ A consonant is a speech sound that

is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k],

pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], which are noisy (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals) Kelly (2000) and Roach (2000) categorized the 24 (b, p, d, t, g, k, v, f,

θ, ð, z, s, ʒ, ʃ, m, n, ŋ, l, r, dʒ, tʃ, h, j, w) consonants into 6 groups:

- Stops (plosive): are the sounds which are produced with the air-stream being stopped in the oral cavity and the soft palate is raised blocking off the nasal cavity Then the two articulators come apart quickly and the air escapes through the oral tract /p, b, t, d, k, g/

- Fricatives: are the sounds in the production of which two articulators come close together but there is still a small opening between them so the air-stream is partially obstructed and an audible friction noise is produced /f, v, ʃ, ʒ, θ, ð, s, z, h/

- Affricatives: are the sounds which are produced when a stop is immediately followed by a fricative / tʃ , dʒ/

- Nasals: they are produced with the air- stream being stopped in the oral cavity but the soft palate is down so that the air can go out through the nose /m, n, ŋ/

- Laterals: is the sound which is made when the air-stream is obstructed at a point along the centre of the oral tract, with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth / l /

- Approximants: are the sounds in the production of which two articulators come close together but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a friction noise is produced /r, w, j/

Table 2.1: Consonants sounds

( Roach, 2000:p.96 )

The Chester of final ending sounds is called the coda: ‘The coda is the final consonant or consonant cluster.’ (Barbara and Brian, 1997) According to Rachael-

Anne Knight (2003), there can be up to 4 consonants in a coda Spencer (1996)

shares Yule’s (2006) ideas about the English coda: ‘The simplest way of handling these data is to say that English permits any number of coronal obstruent to be tagged onto the end of syllable This would seem to make the coda rather a

complicated animal’ (Spencer, 1996: 99) He also gave many examples of ending clusters containing two consonants such as lamp, film, health, grasp; three consonants such as prompt, against, next and four-member clusters from plural of

past tenses such as glimpsed, sculpts, twelfths, texts, sixths and thousandths

If there are no consonants at the end of the word, it has a zero coda A single consonant is called the final consonant Any consonant except h, r, w and j may be a final consonant Since almost every English word appears word- finally, except for /h/, /w/ and /j/ (Cummins, 1998)

When there are two or more consonants standing at the end of the word, the terms “pre-final” and “post-final” consonants are used

- Pre-final includes: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /s/

- Post-final includes: /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/

Two consonant clusters:

- Pre-final m, n, ŋ, l, s followed by a final consonant

- Consonant plus post-final s, z, t, d, θ

Three consonant clusters:

- Pre-final plus final plus post-final

- Final plus post-final plus post final s, z, t, d, θ

Four consonant clusters:

- Most are pre-final plus final plus post-final

- Occasionally there is one final and three post final consonants

Besides, many sounds that are not involved in linguistic cognition of non- native speakers, its consonant clusters as well as phonetic changes in consonant quality in formal and informal speech prevent non- natives from accessing and adopting

English pronunciation fully This is the problem not only of speakers of Asian origins whose native languages are mostly mono- syllabic, but also for other parts

of the world, even those who share the same language family with English Vietnamese is not an exception

Vietnamese is one of the syllable-timed languages which each syllable is short and simple in construction The structure of each syllable is (C) V (C) Taiwan Buffalo International (2001) characterized syllabic structure in Vietnamese by this

table:

Initial Tone

Final (rhyme)

Onset Nucleus Coda

According to Doan Thien Thuat, meanwhile, there are 22 initial consonants (at initial position of syllable) in Vietnamese consonants Those are b, m, f, v, t’, t, d, n,

s, z, l, ţ, ʂ, ʐ, c, ɲ, k, n, x, γ, ʔ,h

Table 2.2: Vietnamese consonants

(Le Quang Thiem, 2004:p.105)

In Vietnamese, the number of the consonants in the coda is just limited to a certain portion Apart from 22 initial consonants and zero ending consonants (endure and preserve the timbre of the main phoneme: for example: má, cho, đi), in Vietnamese, there are only six consonants and two semi- vowels which can stand in word- final position:

- 2 semi- consonants: /ṷ/, /ḭ/ (which have both feature of not only vowels but consonants) For instance: /ṷ/ đau, /ḭ/ mai

Table 2.3: Final consonants in Vietnamese

( Le Quang Thiem, 2004: p.101) From the list above, it is easy to see that Vietnamese final consonant sounds just consist of nasal sounds (/m/, /n/, /N/) and three plosive (/p/, /t/, /k/) However, they are voiceless and unaspirated It means that they are different from those in English phonetics, which are clearly aspirated In Vietnamese, distinguishing between initial consonants and ending consonants, which make consonants increased in quantity In contrast, English differs There is no discrimination in English between initial consonants and ending consonants, however, it distinguishes between fortis (voiceless) and lenis (voiced) For example: plosive consonants: /b/, /d/, and /g/ at final position called lenis- meaning (weak) and /p/, /t/, and /k/ called fortis- meaning (strong)

It must be also noticed that in Vietnamese, there is only one final consonant at a time; when in English there can be up to 4 consonants at the end of words to form consonants clusters

2.5.1 Definition of pronunciation errors

In learning English, it is undeniable that making errors cannot be avoided People cannot learn language without first systematically committing errors (Dulay, Burt and Krashen, 1982)

What is error? In linguistic, according to Collins English Dictionary (2003),

“error” was defined as “a mistake or inaccuracy, as in action or speech” According to Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982:138) errors are defined as “the flawed side of learner speech or writing”, which “deviates from some selected norm of mature language performance” In pronunciation, errors are defined as the incompetence in language and incorrect pronunciation that may affect intelligibility

in communication (Nguyen, 2007) Therefore, what are pronunciation errors? According to Jenkins (2006:36; in Nguyen (2007)), “pronunciation errors are variants of pronunciation which prevent one communicator from understanding the propositional content of the other’s utterances” 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 We must make a clear distinction between mistakes and errors Ellis (1997) states 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 (Ellis, 1997)

All in all, a mistake occurs because of a slip of the tongue, tiredness, anxiety, etc, it can be self-corrected However, an error is a performance that a speaker who

has not yet mastered the rules of the target language cannot correct by himself and this has to do with his acquired linguistic data So, to ESL learners, they would make English pronunciation errors at least one time while learning English

2.5.2 Final consonant sound errors

According to Mark (2008), ending sound errors can be defined as “the inaccurate pronunciation of the final consonant in a word” According to Treiman (1989) there are 6 errors with final consonant sounds: cluster reduction, cluster simplification, epenthesis, coalescence, omitting nasal and liquid sounds and phonetically possible spelling

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 (2005) Treiman)

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 (2005) Treiman)

Epenthesis: This is the insertion of some vowel (normally a schwa) between cluster elements (Dyson & Paden (2005) Treiman)

Coalescence: It occurs when the yielded pronunciation contains a new consonant composed of features from the original consonants

Omitting nasal and liquid sounds: In consonants cluster consisting of pre-inal + 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 (Zukowski & Richmond, W (2005)) 17

Phonetically possible spelling: In representing the first consonant of a cluster, spellers tend to spell words in an inaccurate but phonetically plausible ways (Bourassa (2004) Treiman)

Among the six types above, the first, fifth and sixth types of errors are predicted

to be the problems for Vietnamese learners

2.5.3 Common mistakes about final consonant sounds that English learners in

Vietnam tend to make

To ESL learners such as Vietnamese, pronunciation mistakes with final consonant sounds are extremely popular There are many final consonants that exist

in English but not in Vietnamese According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992), some common mistakes that Vietnamese students often make are:

Firstly, it was the word-final voiceless stop consonants: /p/, /t/, /k/

Secondly, it was the error of voiced and voiceless stops in word final position: /b/, /d/, /g/, vs /p/, /t/, /k/

Last but not least, it was about word final fricative consonants: /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, and /d /

Vietnamese speakers of English have a number of problems with 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" (p 154) Additionally, Vietnamese learners of English encounter problems with word-final fricative consonants /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, and /d /, as these voiceless stop consonants occur at the final position of a word in Vietnamese However, Vietnamese speakers pronounce these consonants with extremely short duration, and therefore, the sounds are never released at the end position of a word

It can be very difficult for English native speakers to hear these sounds from Vietnamese speakers For example, a Vietnamese learner of English producing the

word seat may sound like see (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992: p 153)

6 CHAPTER 3

All the related data that used to analyze for this research were collected from

120 students of the 9th grade at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue within the survey by meaning of questionnaires The number of males and females seemed to be equal and they are at the same age Because this study focus on final ending consonants sounds, I decided to choose these students for research The first reason is that the 9th grade students do not have

a lot of knowledge of ending sounds, so that they often make errors in pronouncing ending sounds especially final consonant sounds Secondly, the 9th grade always is the most important one because it is the necessary base for the high school Most of these students are from Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue so there is no different local dialect which relatively affects their English speaking and pronunciation

individual opinions on the difficulties they meet in learning English final ending consonants sounds Since the questionnaires are for the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School, they were both in English and in Vietnamese Yet, with the 9th grade students, language used was quite simple and familiar so that students can feel free and be at their best to express their thoughts

In current study, the survey questionnaires were used with three main purposes Firstly, the survey questionnaires were raised to find out the students’ attitudes toward English pronunciation and their difficulties of pronouncing final consonant sounds in the first three questions Secondly, the aim of this survey was to get information about the reality in these classes, the situation of learning and teaching pronunciation The last purpose is to find out the students’ expectations toward teachers in pronunciation classes

The survey questionnaires consist of 7 questions which were raised to the 9thgrade at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue It was designed as below:

 The first three questions 1, 2 and 3 aim to give out and discuss the students’ attitudes toward English pronunciation and their difficulties of pronouncing final ending consonants sounds

 Question 4 and 5 were designed to get information about the reality in these classes, the situation of learning and teaching pronunciation

 The last two questions 6 and 7 aim to find out the students’ expectations toward teachers in pronunciation classes

for three teachers of English at the Junior Secondary School who are more

experienced and better at presenting their viewpoints These teachers will be chosen for the interview since they used to be or are responsible for pronunciation courses

of the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School

Nine interview questions aim at “an investigation into final ending sounds (consonants) pronounced by the 9th grade students at Nguyen Huu Da Junior Secondary School in Hue city” Possible solutions are hoped to be found after the interviews

Hopkins (1993) described classroom observation as a “pivotal activity” which played crucial role in classroom research, teacher’s “personal professional growth and school development as a whole” (as cited in McDonough and McDonough, 1997: 101) In this study, classroom observation was employed before and after the two main research instruments above In other words, classroom observation will give me reasons for doing this research and then it will help me test the validity of the data collected in the questionnaires and interview

To collect data for research, an observation scheme was created right from the start It will be designed carefully with reference from earlier researches Besides, survey questionnaires and interviews were also used The survey questionnaire is one of the most necessary research instruments to collect information Before giving

survey questionnaire to students, observation and evaluation were conducted in three classes of the 9th grade at Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue In survey questionnaire, English pronunciation, especially final consonant sounds and difficulties in learning them were discommend They will be both in English and Vietnamese because participants of this study were the

9th grade students; the questions seemed to be simple and easy to understand Thus, students can feel free to share their points of view After collecting answers from the students, in order to get more persuasive data, a number of students were asked

to pronounce to be recorded All related data were collected from the 9th grade at Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue After all, the results were drafted from information and related data for analysis The findings of students’ errors will be classified and presented in the form of charts and tables

8 CHAPTER 4

4.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward the pronunciation of final consonant sounds

As can be seen from the pie chart, half of participants agreed that it is important

to pronounce final ending consonants sounds in English, 15.80% of the questionnaire respondents considered it to be very important and there was 15.80% who thought that is not very important

4.1.2 Students’ frequency of pronouncing ending sounds

From chart 4.1 we can see that most of the students (50%) acknowledged the importance of English pronunciation of final consonant sounds However, the frequency of pronouncing final sound is not as what we expected

Chart 4.2: Students’ frequency of pronouncing final consonant sounds

From chart 4.2, the results were not very positive It can be seen very clearly that students do not pay attention to pronounce final consonant sounds very much Just 48.30% participants said that they sometimes pronounce final ending sounds in English The number of students who pronounce very often or often those sounds was just only 3.30% and 20.80% Meanwhile, 20.80% and 6.70% of them rarely or never do that before in learning English

4.1.3 Difficulties in pronouncing final consonant sounds

After collecting data from 120 students of about final consonant sounds that students have difficulties with, the data are presented in the table below:

Table 4.1: Final consonant sounds that students have difficulties with

Final

consonant

sounds

No of students with difficulties

Percentage Final

consonant sounds

No of students with difficulties

As has been shown in table 4.1, all the English final sounds were given out for students to choose Of 20 final consonant sounds have given, there were 6 consonants which students have more difficulties than others These six underlined sounds /ŋ/, /ʒ/, /dʒ /, /θ/, /ð/, and /tʃ/ are the sounds that most of students find it hard

to pronounce Most of them found that the final sound /tʃ/ (66.7%) is the most difficult one to pronounce, followed by /ð/, /θ/, /dʒ /, /ŋ/, and /ʒ/ (respectively 62.5%, 57.5%, 53.3%, and 43.3%) Most of informant students made mistake with these sounds

The result that received from the tape recorded and classroom observation sheets seems quite similar to the survey questionnaires’ findings There were some common final sounds which students frequently make mistakes with in pronunciation Of three types of errors in the pronunciation of final consonant sound: sound omitted, sound confused, and sound redundant it is not too hard to realize that the omission of ending sounds were more frequent than others As the observation in three classes at Huu Da Junior Secondary School located in Quang Vinh, Quang Dien, Hue shows there are about 98% of students making the errors with consonant omission Besides, substitution error or sound confusion ranked the second place Mostly, students replaced difficult final consonant sounds with the sounds that they are familiar to them It is shown more clearly in the table below