Luận văn difficulties encountered by second year students at thai nguyen university of agriculture and forestry in producing some english consonants

TUAK: Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry No of Students: Number of Sturtents EFL: English as a Foreign Language LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1; Diagram of the vocal organ igure

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUTHES:

NGUYÊN TII THIU IƯƠNG

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY SECOND YEAR STUDENTS

AT TIIAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

FORESTRY IN PRODUCING SOME ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Những khó khăn trong việc phát âm một số phụ âm Tiếng Anh

của sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại học Nông Lâm , Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: ó0 22 15

TIA NOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUTHES:

NGUYÊN TII THIU IƯƠNG

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY SECOND YEAR STUDENTS

AT TIIAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

FORESTRY IN PRODUCING SOME ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Những khó khăn trong việc phát âm một số phụ âm Tiếng Anh

của sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Dại học Nông Lâm , Thái Nguyên

MLA MINOR TILESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

CODE: 60 22 15

SUPERVISOR: : Assoc Pref Dr VO DAI QUANG

HANOI - 2010

List of speech organs

I Rationale

IL Aims of the study

LLL Research questions

IV The scope of the study

V Design of the study

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.2 Factors affecting pronunciation in language learning,

2.2.1 Tho native language

2.2.2 The learners’ background

2.2.3 Pronunciation ability

2.2.4 Molivation lo lowing English

2.2.5, Teaching and learning environment

1.3.Phonolegical characteristics and articulation of the sounds /8/, /2/,

1J?, /g, HÚI, /d5/

1.3.1 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /6/

1.3.2 Phonological characlzrislics and articulation af the consonant (0/

1.3.3 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /J!

1.3.4 Phonological characteristics and arliculation of the consonant /3/

1.3.5 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant ‘1f/

eas

1.3.6 Phonological charaetorislics and articulation of the consonanl /đ3/

3.2.1 Doscriplion of in — service training Engti

3.2.2 Description of service students atTUAF 2.3 Research design

3.3.1, Sample and sampling

3.3.2, Rescarch Distruments 0 ceeccscseesescsneesietnseneeee

3.3.4 Dala analysis,

2.4 Sub- conclusion

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Difficulties due to subjective causes

3.1.1, Low pronunciation ability

3.1.2 Passive way of learning

3.1.3 Low motivation to language learning English

3.2 Difficulties due to objective causes

3.2.1 Mother tongue’s influence

3.2.2 Poor learning background

3.2.3 Articulatory features of the eonsơnants tnđer reszarch 3.2.4 Teaching and learning environment efficiency

3.2.5 Simple techniques used by the teacher

PART THREE: CONCLUSIONS

1 Summary of major points presented

IT Concluding marks

II Limitations of the study

TV Suggestions for further study

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TUAK: Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry

No of Students: Number of Sturtents

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1; Diagram of the vocal organ

igure 2: English consonants

Figure 3: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /0/

Figure 4; Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /5/

Figure 5: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /f/

Figure 6: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /3/

Figure 7: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /tJ/

Figure 8: Place and manner of articulation ofthe consonant /d3/

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Students? opinions on the causes of difficulties in producing ths

sonsonant sounds /8/, /ð/, /[7, /3/, ă?, {dg

Table 2: Shudenis’ mistakes m producing English consonant sounds /9/, 18!

iy, Afi, fag

‘Table 3: Students’ methods to improve their pronunciation

Table 4: Sludents’ reasoms for learning English

Table 5: Students’ opinions on pronunciation

‘Table 6: Teachers’ methods on teaching pronunciation

Glottis

WON aAuaRWH

centre

back

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

L Rationale of the study

English has been playing ils significant role in Victnarn sinee 1986 duc to the “Open Policy’ of Vietnamese government Many foreigners ftom English language backgrounds came to Vietnam for their investments and traveling This has created the movement of leaming English among people from rwal to urban areas in Vietnam, Currently, English has been a compulsory subject at all levels in education except in lower primary school in rural areas in Viemam, Although communicative language caching method has been employed instead of the Grammar Translation method with the hope that Vietnamese students will have better speaking skill, they are still poor in oral communication As commented by a native English speaker (Ha, hp/jsvnueduvr) “Many Vietnamese speakers can speak [English but only a few have intelligible English pronunciation so that they can be understood easily in direct communication with foreigners”

One of the main reasens laading to poor pronunciation of Vietnamese learners of English is the difficulties in producing the English sounds that are unfamiliar with their native language, Vietnamese, such as 0// 8/ or consonants occurring at the final position of the word such as /2/, iff (3/, Aff, etc; consonant clusters; vowels, and some English features not existing in their frst language such as syllable stress and connected speech (Honey, 2001, Tran, 2002; Zielinski,

2006, Yates, 2002)

Most of the learners of English agree that the ability to express themselves ficcly in communication is of great importance for their future career, especially in modem societies where contacting with foreigners often occurs However, there still exist many difficulties in learning and toaching English in Victnamn in gencral and at Thal Ngnyon Universily of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF) in particular Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they cannot speak it correctly and fluently in real-life situations, which makes ths listeners misunderstand, even results in communication breakdown Surcly, there are many reasons for this reality, After teaching in some courses at TUAF for 7 years, I have recognized some big obstacles which prevent Dnplish language teachers and lsaruers in Vietramn from reaching their aims These obstacles are unprofessional enviroranent, students" low level of English language prafigiency, low

students’ pronunciation ability and so on Unfortunately, this is not only the situation at my

university but also the case for many other colleges and universilics in Vicltarn

My desire is to conduct a research in order to find out the difficulties encountered by second

LL Objectives of the study

With the necessily of pronunciation teaching and learning above and the rteatily of the difficulties in producing some English consonant sounds, the objectives of the research presented hare are as follows:

1 To identify difficulties in producing some English consonant sounds (0, /0/, if, /3,

jf, fag’ by second year in - service English major students at 'UAF (Academic Year 2009- 2010)

2 To explore the causes of these difficulties

3 To provide some possible solutions to the identified problems

It is hoped that this study makes a contribution in teaching pronunciation, especially the consonant sounds /6/, /8/

3}, Aff, fg? to the best results in courses at TUAF in particular and

to those who are in favor of improving ths student’s pronunciation and the result of ths study is considered to be useful for students of English to ideutify their difficulties in producing these English consonant sounds and to self improve their pronunciation,

TH Rescarch questions

Due to limited time and knowledge, it is impossible to cover alll difficulties which the students may fice in their using English, Hence this study mainty focused on the questions thal have boon raised:

1 What are the difficulties encountered by second year students of English at TUAF in producing these English consonant sounds: 49, A0, (1/81 4

2 What are the causes of the difficulties?

3 What are the possible solutions to the difficulties?

IV The scope of the study

Inan overview of the Linglish sound system, its alphabet is based on Latin which

contains Wwenly six letters: twenly- four consonants, twelve vowels, cight diphthongs

anda total of 44 phonemes (Sousa, 2005, p 37) It should be noted that other

authorilies vary slightly from this, bul the number is between 43 and 45 phonemes, Iowever,

Vietnamese learners do not have difficulty in pronouncing all the English sounds but some of them only in both consonants and vowels With the limitaton of the type of the thesis, the researcher does not have the desize for finding out all the sounds causing problems for the

author's sludents but articulatory and acouslic features of some lypieal consemant ones like /8/,

iff, 73, Aff, Jay’ Also, due to the researcher’s limited ability, time constraints and narrow- sealed stndy, this sludy only involves in finding oul crrors and mistukes commonly committed by sccond-year students of English at TUAF in producing these consonants of a small number of

‘TUAF-English major students in their second academite year

‘VIL Design of the study

The thesis consists of five chapters The first chapter is an introduction to the thesis The review of related fiterature, the role of pronunciation in language teaching factors affecting

prommeiation learning, phonological charseteristics and articulation of the sounds 10/585 1§)./3.A§f, /ag/ are presented in the second chapter ‘The third chapter is about methodology used for the research study ‘he findings and discussion of relevant difficulties in pronunciation teaching and Icaming viewed from subjective and objective causes arc presented in the fourth chapter ‘he final chapter is the conclusion of the study, which discusses the overview that can be drawn from the siudy, voices some conchuting marks from objectives given in the first chapter with recommendations for teachers and students to overcome the obstacles and improve the quality of their teaching and learning pronunciation in general and consonant sounds in particular

In addition to this, moreover, the limitations of the thesis and suggestions for fiuther study are also pointed ont

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CILAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical Background

1.1.1 What is pronunciation?

The notion of “pronunciation” has been defined in different ways by many writers Ur (1996)

affirm that “Zhe concept of “pronunciation” may be said to conduce the sounds of the language

or phonology; sires and rhythm; intonation; combination of sounds; linkage of sounds’

Dalton, (1994:3) stated pronunciation can be defined “ay she production af significant sound

in two senses First, sound is significant because it is used as part of a code of a particular language In this sense we can talk about pronunciation as the production and reception of sounds of speech, Second, sound is significant because it is used to achieve meaning in corext of use Here the code combines with other factors to make canmunication possible in this sense we can talk about pronunciation with reference to acts of speaking”

In Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary of curent English (1995), “pronunciation” is

defined “the way in which a word ix pronounced” and the pronunciation of a word is represented

through alphabetic spelling

In this paper, the author has no intention of analyzing all definitions of pronunciation but only gives some simple definitions above that are close to the thesis

1.1.2 The role of pronunciation in language leaching

Nowadays pronunciation tends to be de-emphasized in language courses Advocates of modern comprehension based or communicatively oriented language curricula generally take the view that pronmnistign should nơi be taught explicilly but should rather be allowed to develop naturally as a by product of attempts by students to communicate However, there has been little systematic research to discover if certain teaching practices or condition of training can have positive cflecls on pronunciation, Haneo, we have no firm basis for asscrting calogorically that

pronunciation is not teachable or that 1s not worth spending time on pronunciation training in a

language course New ways of teaching pronmciation are still developed and tested, then there

still a need for careful experimentation Lo determination and cfeetivencss of methods.

Sound is the core of the language so that is the reason why when teaching a language the Girst thing the teachers should do is to Ict the Ieamers have chances to explore to the sounds of that language Moreover, communicative approach is considered as the major language teaching

in the bwenty first century as what the learners really need aller graduating is that they cam communicate successfully in their work and their life That is the reason why pronunciation teaching has been paid more and more attention by alll the teachers, Some years ago, pronunciation used to be taught along with other skills but at the present prommeiation courses arc provided at any universilies where English is taughl as a separate and major subject

1.2 Factors affecting pronunciation in language learning,

1.2.1 The native language

The native language plays a very important role in learning a foreign language It affeets a great deal of aspects, such as the way to achieve the ideas and the way of using the speech organs

in order to produce sounds peculiar to the new language The findings of many studied on Vietnamese learners of English has revealed that the influence of their first language, Vietnamese

is the major contributor to the difficulty for Vietnamese learners, (Tran, 2002, Zielinski, 2006, Toney, 2001) Accarding to Lado (1957), who builds the CA hypothesis, the learners who learn a particular second or foreign language will find some features of that language easier, while other features more difficult ‘he easier elements are similar to those in his native language and the

difficull ones are diffe

ont, fiom his mative language

The speech of non-native English speakers may exhibit pronunciation characteristics that result from such speakers imperfectly learning the pronunciation of Linglish, either by transferring

the phonological rules from their mother longue into their English speceh ("umlerference”) or through implementing strategies similar to those used in primary language acquisition They may also create innovative pronunciations for English sounds not fond in the speaker's first language

Tho age at which spoukers begin lo immerse themselves into a language (such as English) is linked to the degree in which native speakers are able to detect a non-native accent; the exact nature of the link is disputed amongst scholars and may be affected by “neurological plasticity, cognitive development, motivation, psychosocial stalcs, formal instruction, language learning aptitude," and the usage of their first and second languages English is unusual in that speakers rarely produce an audible release between consonant clusters and often overlap constriction times Spoaking English with a timing pattern thal is dramatically different may fead lo speach that is

difficult to understand, More tiansparently, differing phonological distinctions between a speaker's first language and English create a tendency to neutralize such distinctions in English, and differences in the inventory or distribntion of sounds may cause substitutions of mative sounds in the place of difficult English sounds and/or simple deletion This is more common

when the distinction is subtle between Linglish sounds or between a sound of English and of a speaker's primary language While there is no evidenec to suggest that a sismple abscnee of a sound or sequence in one language's phonological inventory makes it difficult to learn, several theoretical models have presumed thal non-native speech perceptions reflect botlr the absiracl phonological properties and phonetic details of the native language Such characteristics may be tiansmitted to the children of bilmguals, who will then exhibit a number of the same characteristics even if they are monolingual Vietnamese

Final /s/ is likely to be confuused with /3/ or sumply outted

Finat /3/ is likely to be omitted

Final /z is likely to be confused with /3/or /s/

Final ‘tf? is likely to be confused with /3/

Speakers often have difficulty with the following phonemes

8), whch is confused with /té or /s!

J8/, which is confused with /d/ or /z/

fdg/, which is confused with //

/8/, which is confused with /2/ or /đs

ist, which is confused with (ff

‘Vietnamese is a tonal language and speakers may tiy to use the Vietnamese tonal system or use

a monotone with English words, They may also associate tones onto the intonal pattern ofa

sentence and becoming confused with such inflectional changes

1.2.2 The learners’ background

Tl ahnost gozs without saying thal, students come inlo the classroorn with uuique backgrounds and life experiences, Vietnam has three regions, the Noxth, the South and the Central with

different socio-economic, cultural, traditional conditions, especially with different accents that the people, even ira country, ean nol understand casily According to an author, the accent is one of

the difficultics in causing misunderstanding of the communicative competence, Coming from

different certain backgrounds, the learners have different acquisitions and perceptions Being

aware of this, the bs

hers, instructors pay more their altention to those who are inadaqnate of knowledge mainly due to objective conditions

1.2.3 Pronunciation ability

“There is a common view that some people have a better ear capacity for foreign language than some other people So, they arc able lo discriminate bebveen the two sounds more accurately Than the others and able to imitate sounds better We can accept these people as those with

phonetic abilities Also, this phonetic ability of the leamer affects the devslopment of his*her

pronunciation, But it does not mean that people who have a better phonetic ability will be

successfill 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

Besides the ficlors mentioned above, the influsnce of age must be slated as ant

efficient factor for phonetuc ability because the beginners start to leam a language, the more they become successful It is clear that leamers may lose some of their abilities when they become older, so it can be diftieult for them to pronounce the target language with a native or near native- like accent At the same time, immigrants, especially their children, have more chance in learning the target language since they have started to their lemming proccss ina targel language speaking environment, The poor phonetic ability can be cured again by the foreign

language teachers’ patient attempts There are several devices to motivate the poor pronunciation

of the learners such as the phonetic labs and remedial pronunciation teaching techniques Those leamers must not be discoursed but must be treated meticulously

1.2.4, Motivation to learning pronunciation

If the Jearners ave highly motivated to have a better pronunciation, they can

develop a concem for pronunciation, and become more eager to take pat in the aclivilics and pay more allertion lo discriminate the sounds of the target language, and they iy

to produce better utterances Motivation can be the key to learn the target language, and they try to produce better sounds Here it must be pointed out what the motivation is and how the Jearners will be motivated According to Brown (197-114-115) ths motivation is thought of

as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a paiticular action He also stated that learning a foreign language requires some of all three levels of motivation which can

de global, situational, or task-oricnted, For example, 2 leaner may possess high global motivation but low task motivation on the written mode of the language

‘On the one hand, some factors such as intelligence, aptitude, and self-confidence

have much contribution to the formation of motivation, For cxampte, lo motivatz the less intelhgent people will be more difficult than the intelligent ones because these people cannot appeal to their needs Motivation, of course, is a number of different kinds of

attihudes and can be divided into lwo basic Lypes: instrumental and integrative motivation (Brown, 1997: 115-117) First one refers to the instrumental goals such as furthering a career, reading

some kinds of materials, translation, etc An integrative motivation is the one which is

employed when the learners want themselves to be in the culture of the second language group, to identify themselves with and become part of the society Needless to say, teachers may need to

discern the source of a student motivation in order to meet particular needs That is,

pronunciation teaching must be directed according to the needs, expectations, attitudes,

intelligence, etc of the learners If the learners’ main goals are to make translation from the

native language to the target language, less time may be needed for pronunciation activities,

and therefore teachers will spend less time for motivating them If the learners are highly

motivated to have a better pronunciation, they can develop a concer for pronunciation, and

become more eager to take part in the activities, and pay more attention to discriminate the

sounds of the target language, so they try to produce better sounds and utterances At the same

time, motivation can be achieved by paying attention to the learners’ concern for

pronunciation because learners generally are not awared of that the way they speak is full of imitation and misunderstanding for the hearer

1.2.5 Teaching and learning environment

It can be undeniable for the important of teaching and learning environment to the second

language learning As a teacher of English with eight years’ experience, I notice that the

environment affect directly the students’ learning motivation and their results Sandberg (1994 —

retrieved from tecfa.unige.ch/ /node4.html) identified the seven components of a teaching and

learning environment must all be there in order to optimize learning Each component has

functionalities as follows

1Teacher" component: Its role is to provide something between loose guidance and direct

instruction It can be a human agent (present or distant), an intelligent agent, instructions like

some text books provide, etc This component provides information from the syllabus to the task

level

2 Monitor component: Ensures that something is learned A role taken by either the human

teacher, the learner (self-control) or by some programs

3.’ Fellow learners" component: Improves the learning process (some research tries to implement artificial ones)

4 Learning material’: Contains what has to be learned in a very broad sense (knowing what,

knowing how) It can be computational in various ways (exploratory hypertext, lesson and task

oriented hypertext, simulation software, task solving environments, etc.)

5

:xternal information sources": All kinds of information which is not directly stored in the

learning material (e.g additional material, handbooks, manuals, etc.)

6

‘ools": Everything which may help the leamning process other then the leaming material (e.g calculators, communicalion software, cls.)

7." School" |a category we added|; Something that provides a curriculum

1.3.Phonological characteristics and articuls

n of the sounds /0/, /8/, /f?, /57, /Vï, !ử5/

According to Gerald Kelly (2000), there are three ways of describing the consonant sounds, namely the manner of articulation (the interaction between the various articulators and the airstrearn), the place of arliculation (the description for tore detailsd information shout whal the various articulators actually do.) and the force of articulation (referring to the strong or fortis and weak ot lenis form of the consonants) Llis desoription about the above consonants is as follows

Figure 2: English consonants

1.3.1, Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /0/

Figure 3: Place and manner of aruculation of the consonant /0/

‘The consonant /O/ is a dental, fricative and voiceless consonant according to the place, manner

and foree of articulation, In order to pronounce (his sound, the tip of The longue wakes light

contact with the back of the top, #ont teeth, or the tip of the tongue may protrude between the

upper and the lower (ceth then blow the air oul gently The soll palate is raised ILis a voic:

sound so speakers should tel no vibration fiom their neck when pronounoing it As in thik /

Oink’, thief’ O1:f, author /'2:82/, nothing fain’, mouth/ mandy, bot: ƒbouÔ/

There are some possible pronunciation problems This sound docs not cxist in most languages

Because it is difficult to recognize, the learners sometimes substitute a variety of more familiar

sounds

Examples: If you substitute /s/ for /@/, thank will sound like sank

Tfyou substiluts /f/ for /6/, drank will sound like shank

Tf you substilute /? for /0/, lath will sound like laugh

Ifyou substitute #ứ for /6/: bath will sound like bat

In order to correct these mistakes the leamers have to place their tongue between their teeth for

18,

1.3.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation manner of the consonant /6/

Ifthey place their tongue behind their tecth, they will make sounds /4/ and /s/

igure 4: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /8/

This consonant is a dental, fficative, voiced and Icnis consonant according to the place, manner and force of articulation ‘'o produce this sound the tip of the tongue is put between the upper

teeth and the lower leelh lo make a voiced sound from the throal The tip of Ihe longue is closs to the cutting edge of the upper front teeth, blow air through thus position so that the fiction is

made he soft palate is raised so that all the breath is forced to go through the mouth ‘his sound

is wade wilh the vibration of the vocal cords /8/ is devoiced at the end ofa word As in the

/8b/ them fdem/, mother |'mAdoi, gather /'gced/, clothe Skdoud, smooth jsmu:d’

“There are some possible prommnciation problems ‘I'his is an unfamiliar sound It is difficult to recognize and produce, especially for Vietnamese leamers We may substitute the more familiar

sound fd, ff, or (đạt

Esamples - Ifyou substitute /d/ for AV: adhere will sound like dare

If you substitute /z/ for /0/: #te will sound like Zen,

Ifyou substitute /d3/ for /6/: leather will sound like fanguage

In order to corect these mistakes the learners have to place their tongue between their teeth for

If they place their tongue behind their teeth, they will make sounds /d/ and /z/

1.3.3, Phonological characteristics and articulation manner of the consonant /J/

Figure 5: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /f/

The consonant /ff is a palatal alveolar, fricative, unvoiced and fortis consonant To produce this sound, the tongue blade makes light contact with the alveolar ridge and the front of the tongue is

raised The soft palate is also raised Asin she 4i:/ shop [api rubbish f'rabi/, finish

A final

‘There are some possible pronunciation problems Although this is a familiar sound, we may

confise it with /t{/ ot /s! As in shop /2p/, shy Jail, patient /'peilnl, mission /'min!, finish

fini’, cash ‘keel’

Ifyou substitute /s/ for /ff: seep will sound like sip

In order to corrsct these mistakes, The learners are sure to pucker their lips for

forma smile for /s/

1.3.4, Phonological characteristics and articulation manner of the consonant /7/

Figure 6; Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /5/

“The consonant /3/ is an alveolar - palatal, fricative, voiced and lenis consonant To produce this sound, the front of the tongue touches the part between the alveolar ridge and the hard patate The air is constricted, causing fliction when passing through the organs of speech This sound is

produced with the vibration of the voeal cords As in vision *vi3n/, measure me jo! heige sbeig’, garage / 'ạœr@' 7 Í5/ doas not occur as animtial sound in English, and is rare as a final sound,

There arc some possible promunciation problems /3/ is not a common and widely

distributed phoneme It is easy to with similar English sound /fi and Aa3j

Famples: If'you substitute iff for /3 decision will sound Tike addition

Ifyou substitute /d3/ for /3/: feston will sound like legion

In order to correct these mistakes, the learners are sure that their vocal cords are

vibrating when they say /3/ or they will substitute /{/ mstead, That means they should

put their hand on the throat until feel the vibration fiom their neck

1.3.5, Phonological characteristics and articulation manner of the consonant /tf/

Higwe 7: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant ă?

‘The consemant Uff is one of the only two alfricale phonemes in English, 1 is palato — alveolar, voiceless and fortis sound, To produce this sound, the tongue tip, blade and rims close agam the

alveolar ridge and side teeth ‘'he front of the tongue is raised, and when the air is released, there

is audible friction The soft palate is also raised As in church / Ue:tl, chew “ifu:/, nature 7 ‘nett a/,

teacher / 'ti:t.a/, match / meet’, much / mad?

Ther

are som possible pronunciation problems The sound Aji and /f/ are casily

contised with each other

Examples: If you substitute {J/ for /t[/: which will sound like wish

Tn order Ip correct these mistakes, the Jearners are sure to press your tongue tip

against the gum ridge behind your upper front teeth, or they will say /J/ by mistake

Aff isan explosive sound — like 4 snecze!

1.3.6 Phonological characteristics and articulation manner of the consonant /d3/

Figure 8: Diacc and nmumer b[srtienlatiem of the consonant (đất

"The consanant /dý is the other afficate phoneme in English is palato — alveolar, voiced and lenis sound ‘'o produce this sound, the tongue tip, blade and rims close against the alveolar ridge

and side lecth, The front of the tongue is raised, and when the sir is reloasod, there is audible

friction The soft palate is also raised, It is devoiced at the end of a word Asin jab / gab

1, joy (dD, engle Meindl, adjust ‘o'd gael, age ‘eid y, large 1447

There are some possible pronunciation problems The learners may have confusions of English spelling pattems and similarilics botween /d3/ and olher sounds, which emuses the pronunciation problems with /dy/

Examples: If you substitute ‘jf for /dg/:_ jer will sound like yet

If you substitute /g/ for /dg/;_pledger will sound like pleasure

If you substitute Aff for /43/: ranger will sound like rancher

In order to correct these mistakes, the learners are sure to make the tongue press against upper

gum ridge and the vocal cords are vibrating when they say/ds/

1.4 Previous works

The sludy entitled “Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English " of

Ha Cam Tam was set up to answer the question “What are the most common pronunciation problems of the students in the English department?”

The data collection was administered through an oral final examination, During the exam, each of the students who had finished four years of English at English department was requested to

present a talk about a particular topic in approximately five minutes While listening to students

lalking, the rescarcher took noics of the errors related lo pronunciation, Ha Cam Tarn found oul that Vietnamese speakers do not have to pronounce the ending sounds, In addition, some of the sounds, such as /f, dg, tf / arc really hard for Victnamesc Icarners to pronounce especially when these sounds occur at the end of words She concluded three common errors on pronunciation of

her students : sound omission, sound redundancy and sound confusion

Tn his study enlitled “Proméeciation Matters: English Consonant Praduction hy AUIAP

Students” K James Hartshorn, Central Washmgton University indicated some problems of his

students’ pronunciation ‘This study examined the production of six English phonemes (/l/, fri, ivi, (0, 28 and (64) by AUAP students aller completing the five-month program at

Central Washington University Two general English proficiency levels were represented He

indicated that the greatest reason for the pronunciation pitfalls that Japanese students encounter is because of the phonological differences belween Japanese and English Student

observation suggests that many Japanese ESL leamers can produce these consonants

correctly if they learn how to position their mouths, even when perception skills may not be as

developed

Jae /8 is the study of Nguyen Thi Quynh Iloa, 2007 This study found out some difficulties of Vietnamese

“Vietnamese learners’ difficulties when pronouncing same Lingtish sounds jee! i

students when producing some English sounds such as /œ/ /ôi, /ð/, /ƒ¡, /3”” and pointed out the causes of the difficulties of their promeiation ‘They are a3 follows, students lack of real English speaking environment, influence by their native language, these sounds mentioned above have different place and manner of articulation, the students’ low ability of prommeiation, the amount

of exposure and the methods of leaming She also gave some suggestions for further research on difficultics in pronouncing Frigtish sounds,

In her research entitled “Difficulties for Viemamese when pronouncing English - Final Consonants” Nguycn Thi Thu Thao indicated that Victnamese people have many difficulties when pronouncing English Among those, that paper will firstly deal with the hypothesis

nghah word-ñnal eonsonanis are not pronotmeed in a native-like way by Vietnamese speakers” Theorclical phonological rescarch aboul final consonants in the Victnamesc language and English has been carried out to characterize the difficulties, The author collected and analyzed dala from Vietnamese informants to drav the findings thal Vietnamese effart to pronounce English word-final consonants was towards omitting, adding schwa or replacing, by sounds closer to those existing in their mother-tongue Results of native speakers’ evaluation of Viemnamese-accented final consonants were also concluded to clarify how comprehensible informants’ prommeiation is

In short, all studies mentioned above arg really meaningful to this study in the way that they also consider some factors affecting Vietnamese when pronouncing English

1.5 Sub— conclusion

This chapter provides us an overview of the theurctieal background on which this study based

on It includes the definition and the role of pronunciation in language teaching, the factors affecting prommeciation learning such as the native language, the learner background, pronunciation ability, motivation to leaming English, teaching and learning environment and techniques used by the teachers as well as phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds /0/,/

(/[/5//U, /d5! In addition to the above matters, a summary of previous works related to the given issue was also presented

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCTT METHODDLOGV

2.1, Research methods

In order to fulfill the objectives of the study, the qualitative and quantitative methods will be used as the main method of the study, in which tape recording, a short listening test on

pronunciation, information collection and analysis as well as questionnaire to collect data are

used As Boutna has stated “bot qualitative and quantitatwa approaches are essentials to the

research process in social sciences” (1996: 173), moreover, each methodology has its strengths

and weaknesses, thus it could not alone help to find out satisfactory and sufficient information As

a result, I choose te make full use of both approaches rather than approve one and dispose the

other so as to achieve the reliable results

First, the dala including books, jaurnals, ¢-jourtwils and other kinds of materials on the subject

have to be reviewed caretillly Then, the certam and detailed problems and difficulties in teaching

and learning pronunciation at TUAF will be collected and analysed through survey questionnaire, tape recording, and a short promneiation listening test One of the salient features of the

quantitative methodology is its objectivity According to Burns (1999), the quantitative approach

is employed when the researcher aims at achieving objectivity and control as it is held that it can

“offer ways of testing hypothesis that are widely accepted or standardized” (1999-22) Therefore,

to gain an overview of difficulties in producing the English consonant sounds /0/, /0f, ff, /s/, /tƒ7,

Ag/ by the socond year students al, TUAP, a survey will be conducted to the 100 scond -ycar in service English major students

On the other hand, according to Burns (1999), qualitative research is the methodology of studying the participants’ opinion, actions and experiences through tape recording, a listening test and observation Correspondingly, this method will be made usc of in the phrase of collecting, analyzing and synthesizing basic knowledge for the literature review since, in this part, | need to have a deep understanding aboul the selling of the study, the hislory of relating studies, ideas, facts and figures

One strong point of the qualitative method is that the data collected is usually “extensive” and

archers with

“detailed” (Burns, 1999:23) or as held by Larson Froermn & Long, it supplic

“veal”, “rich” and “deep” data (199112) For these reasons, I decide lo design a listening lest on pronunciation and a tape recording in order to collect the data trom 30 of the above students as I would like lo gain profound understanding of relevanl difficulties in producing the English

consonant sounds /0/, /0/, ff, #3), /t[/, /A3/ by the second year students at TUAE,

‘The author also use the real teaching and learning process in the classroom, and results of a short listening Lest on pronunciation for more information and detailed analysis Afler that the results obtained from questionnaires, tape recording and the students’ results will be discussed in the findings Al lasl, the author wilt provide some recommendations for teaching and learning pronunciation in general and the consonant sounds /@, /0/, /f?, /3/, t{/, /dg/ studying in particular 3.3 Rescarch context

2.2.1 Description of the English course at T'UAF

The study was conducted at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF)

‘TUAF associated with Llanoi Open Liniversity to train in - service Bachelors of Art of major English The Center far Forcign Lamguages of TUAF has dircelly been run and controlled these courses Students are required to Icarn all English classes of a major English cuzriculum, sueh as Language Practice 1,2,3,4 (including listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill and writing skill), Grammar 1,2, English Pronunciation, Business English, Vietnamese — English Translation 1,2, English Vietnamese Translation!,2, Background, English Literature, Teaching Method, , Lexicology, Voreign language 2 with some general subjects as Communist Party, Practical

fourth years, they complete all the rest subjects

The first stage- semester 1, 2, 3, 1- aims at providing students with general knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary, phonetics and phonology as well as developing students’ four language skills with more focus on speaking skill, at this very first stage, the textbook Know How 1, 2, English Grammar In Use, Practical inglish Grammar, Pronunciation Pair, English Phonetics and

Translation 1 are used Moreover, at this stage, all forms of tests are employed after each

semester written middle-term tests, written end-term tests, listening tests, oral tests which forces

students to pay their more attention to speaking skill and pronunciation, but in fact teachers usually ignore their students’ mistakes in pronunciation, which results in the students’ low

prommeiation ability

At the second stage-semester 5, 6, 7, &, the students are equipped with the knowledge of terms

The textbooks ulilized at his phrase consist of Vietnamese — English Translation 2, English — Vietnamese Translation 2, Background,

and structures relaled to Lheir future jobs af advanced leve

English Lilerature, Teaching Method, Lexicology, Foreign language 2 ele with Language Practice 3, 4, Students are equipped all the necessary knowledge before getting a job as a teacher

of English or an interpreter Therefore, at this stage, students also have oral tests, listening tests and written tests at mich more difficult level

2.2.2 Descripti

Students in the research are those who graduated ttom secondary schools and have no abihty to attend to regular training courses (or failed in the university entrance examination) They are from

in-service students al TUAF

mountainous and remote area, Most ofthem live and grow up in poor economic condition, They

do not have the same level of English language proficiency Some of them have learned English for 7 yoars al junior and scnior high schools; some have only Iearned English for 3 yours while ø few have never learned English, Only a few of them study English well, but they are only good at grammar, not speaking in general and pronunciation in particular They are likely to do

grammatical exercises confidently at their level but when given a topic to speak, most of them need the teacher’s correction on pronunciation Moreover, motivation to their teaming English in these in service training classes, even 2s major of English, is generally low since English, for

most of Ihe students, is a difficull language and learning these courses is am objective solution

atter graduation, More importantly, because manly commng from the country, most of them have different dialects which are not Kinh ethnic group standard accent Some of them are ethnic

minority groups including the Tay, Thai, Muong, Nung and Dao, Hence, il is very important that the staff at the Center for Foreign Languages of TUAF find out effective ways to help these

students overcome all of their difficulties in learning English in general and in correcting

prommeiation in partioutar

2.3, Rescarcli design

Data were gained through the employment of three research instruments, namely, questionnaires, tape rovording and a listening test on pronunciation, which will bs disenssed in detail below

2.3.1, Sample and sampling

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the stufy, first and foremost the survey will be