A study of common errors in pronouncing a group of fricative sounds experienced by 11th grade students in yen lac high school

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No.2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ HA THI KIM ANH A STUDY OF COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING A GROUP OF FRICATIVE SOUNDS EXPERIENCED BY 11 th GRA

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No.2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

- -

HA THI KIM ANH

A STUDY OF COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING

A GROUP OF FRICATIVE SOUNDS EXPERIENCED

BY 11 th GRADE STUDENTS IN YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF

THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS OF ENGLISH)

B.A THESIS IN ENGLISH

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI MINH PHUONG M.A

DR WILLIAM H SALAZAR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mrs Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong, my research supervisor, for her patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work I am truly grateful to her ideas, comments and instructions as well as constant support Without these, the thesis could not have been completed

I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr William H Salazar my researcher supervisor for his great contribution to my study He helped me whenever I met a trouble or had a question about my research or writing He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but drove me in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it Without his invaluable contribution and input, the survey could not have been successfully conducted

I would also like to thank many beloved students in Yen Lac High School who took part in my research inquires enthusiastically and completely If I had not received their support, I would have not been completed my research on time

My special thanks are expressed to my friends in Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 for their great help and comments They inspired and encouraged

me a lot when I have trouble during my research process

Finally, I wish to thank my parents for their support and encouragement throughout my study

ABSTRACT

This research was conducted to explore the fricative sounds which students

in Yen Lac High School frequently mispronounce Then researcher suggested some techniques and solutions to improve their pronunciation skills in terms of fricative sounds The scope of the study was done with the participant from two classes included forty 11th grade students Questionnaire, recorded test and classroom observation were employed as the data collecting instruments The results of the research revealed the problematic sounds and the ways that Yen Lac High School students made mistakes when pronouncing fricative sounds The study, based on the findings, would help students and teachers recognize the limitation of learners in pronouncing English Hence, teachers and students could find appropriate ways to teach and correct English pronunciation

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Tittle:

A STUDY OF COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING A GROUP OF

FRICATIVE SOUNDS EXPERIENCED BY 11 th GRADE STUDENTS IN

YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL

I certify that I am the sole author of this bachelor of art thesis and this study has not been copied by me from any other person‘s work than sources listed in the bibliography as references I further declare that this work is written by my best under the instruction from my supervisor

Date submit: May, 9th 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ii

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale .1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research question 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 2

6 Overview of the study 2

PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Pronunciation 4

1.1.1 Definitions of pronunciation 4

1.1.2 The significance of pronunciation 4

1.1.3 Aspects of pronunciation 5

1.1.3.1 Phonemes .5

1.1.3.1.1 Vowels 5

1.1.3.1.2 Consonants 6

1.1.3.2 Stress 11

1.1.3.2.1 Word stress 12

1.2 Fricative sounds 12

1.2.1 Definitions of fricative sounds 12

1.2.2 Classification of fricative sounds 13

1.2.3 Descriptions of “/θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/, /f/, /v/” sounds 14

1.3 Pronunciation errors 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOG Y

2.1 Participants 19

2.2 Data collection instruments 19

2.2.1 Questionnaire 19

2.2.1.1 Rationale of questionnaire 19

2.2.1.2 Procedure of questionnaire 19

2.2.2 Recorded Test 20

2.2.2.1 Rationale of recorded test 20

2.2.2.2 Procedure of recorded test 20

2.2.3 Classroom observation 20

2.2.3.1 Rationale of the classroom observation 20

2.2.3.2 Procedure of the classroom observation 21

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Findings 23

3.1.1 Results of the questionnaire 23

3.1.2 Results of the recorded test and classroom observation 25

3.2 Discussion 29

CHAPTER 4: PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION 4.1 Suggested solutions 31

4.1.1 Suggested solutions for teachers 31

4.1.2 Suggested solutions for learners 31

PART III: CONCLUSION 1 Summary of the study 34

2 Limitations of the study 34

3 Suggestions for further studies 35

REFERENCES 36

APPENDICES 38

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Vowels in English 5

Table 2: English vowel chart 6

Table 3: Consonants in English 7

Table 4: Classification of NAE Consonant Phonemes .7

Table 5: Place of articulation of plosive phonemes 9

Table 6: Place of articulation 13

Figure 1: Students' attitudes toward the importance of pronunciation skills 23

Figure 2: Students’ self-evaluation of pronunciation 24

Figure 3: Students' difficulties in pronouncing English 25

Figure 4: Mispronounced fricative sounds 25

Table 7: Errors that students made when pronouncing some fricative sounds 26

Table 8: Errors with /f/ sound 27

Table 9: Errors with /θ/ sound 27

Table 10: Errors with /ð/ sound 28

Table 11: Errors with /s/ sound 28

Table 12: Errors with /z/ sound 28

Table 13: Errors with /h/ sound 28

Table 14: Errors with /v/ sound 28

Table 15: Errors with /ʃ/ sound 29

Table 16: Errors with /ʒ/ sound 29

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

As a developing country, Vietnam currently has an urgent need to use the international language English, to promote economic investment, especially after becoming a member of World Trade Organization (Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, 2007) English has been a compulsory subject in school for many years, from primary school

to higher education Nowadays, people are aware of the significant role of English and take it as a mean to develop other career like Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology Pronunciation is the most important skill in spoken language; however, many of English language learners find it difficult to master English pronunciation (Gilakjiani, 2011) Hinofotis, 1981 stated “Problems in pronunciation weaken their communicative competence” Moreover, though many of students have learnt English as Second Language they still lack sufficient competence in pronunciation skills (Charity and Mallision, 2011) That is because of many factors The first reason is the impact of mother tongue on English Like some other languages, Vietnamese has phonotactic features that keep native learners from pronouncing English like native speaker (Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, 2007) The second reason is that high school students likely to focus on grammar and vocabulary instead of speaking skills There are extremely limited opportunities for learning listening and speaking of English in Vietnam In fact, the pronunciation of English challenges Vietnamese learners; however students were not trained on how to pronounce English phonetics accurately and how to correct their mispronunciations at the beginning stage of learning English Kelly (2004), pointed out two problems concerning teaching pronunciation: “First, it tends to be neglected And secondly when it is not neglected, it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in the classroom rather than being strategically planned” Therefore, this paper will investigate and find out the common errors in the pronunciation of fricative sounds mostly faced by students in high school and give some suggestions for this phenomenon

2 Aims of the study

This study was conducted to achieve the main following aims:

1 To investigate fricative sounds (/θ/, /s/, /f/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /h/, /v/) which students frequently make mistakes in pronouncing

2 To investigate the factors that cause the poor pronunciation of Yen Lac High

4 Scope of the study

The research was conducted to investigate the common errors in pronouncing a group of fricative sounds “/θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/, /f/, /v/” The research was carried out on a group of forty 11th grade students from two classes in Yen Lac High School, they accounts for ten percent of the total population

5 Significance of the study

After the research, it is hoped that the results will be helpful to provide:

1 Input for English learners to minimize their difficulties in pronouncing fricative sounds which they mostly pronounce wrongly Then they can self-correct their incorrect pronunciation

2 Input for English teachers some methods to help students pronounce better

6 Overview of the study

The research work has three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Part I: The “Introduction” consists of the rationale, aims of the study, research

question, scope of the study, significance of the study and overview of the study

Part II: The “Development” consists of four main chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review This chapter reviews previous studies of some well-known researchers to give the reader a theoretical background of English pronunciation and fricative sounds

Chapter 2: Methodology This chapter describes how to do the study by presenting the techniques and procedures of the research

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion This chapter presents the result of research and the analysis of the data

Chapter 4: Pedagogical implication This chapter gives some suggested solutions for learners to enhance their pronunciation

Part III: In the “Conclusion” part the researcher gives a brief summary of the study,

the limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies

PART II DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Pronunciation

1.1.1 Definitions of pronunciation

Gilakjani (2016) claimed that pronunciation refers to the making of English sounds We learnt pronunciation by repeat the sounds over and over and correcting them when pronounced incorrectly When beginners start learning pronunciation they have to make new habits and overcome the trouble coming from the mother tongue According to Yates (2009), pronunciation is the production of sounds that is used for making meaning Similarly, Paulston & Burder (1976) stated that pronunciation is the production of a sound system which does not interfere with communication from the speakers’ and the listeners’ viewpoints as well To add to the understanding of pronunciation Otlowski (1998) said that pronunciation is the way of saying a word in

an accepted manner In addition, Richard and Schmidt (2002) defined pronunciation as the way of producing certain sounds

1.1.2 The significance of pronunciation

Otlowski (1998) claimed that the way we speak reveals something about ourselves to the people around us Learners with good pronunciation in English are more likely to be understood even if they make errors in other aspects like grammar

No matter how perfect a learner’s grammar is, and no matter how extensive and large his vocabulary is, if he pronounces poorly then this immediately makes a negative impression of his overall language level (Brown, 2009) Surveys of student needs consistently show that they need for pronunciation lessons in class (Willing 1989) Thus a pronunciation class is essential

Gilakjani (2011) in The significance of pronunciation in English Language Teaching claimed that pronunciation should be considered as more than correct

production of single sounds or detached words Instead, it should have been seen as an essential element of communication that should be involved in classroom activities

We should view English pronunciation instruction as the same role as the other aspects and skills of the English language, such as vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing since it is a crucial part of communication In conclusion, pronunciation must be incorporated in the materials, classroom activities and testing tools; and the teachers

should take English pronunciation teaching seriously and bring it into school lessons

- How high is the tongue? According to this criterion there are:

▪ High vowels if they are made with either the front or the back of the tongue is high in the mouth It is raised above its rest position, such as in /i:/, /u:/

▪ Low vowels if they are made with the tongue below its rest position, such as in /ʌ/

▪ Mid vowels if they are made with the tongue between its position, not too high and

not too low in the mouth such as in /e/

- What part of the tongue is raised? According to this question we have:

▪ Front vowels: are the vowels produced when the front of the tongue is raised to the highest point in the mouth, such as in /i:/

▪ Back vowels: are the vowels produced when the back of the tongue is raised to the highest point in the mouth, such as in /u:/

▪ Central vowels: are the vowels produced when the middle of the tongue is raised to the highest point in the mouth, such as in /ə/, /ʌ/

- How long or short is the vowel? According to this question we have

▪ Long vowels: are the vowels pronounced longer and stronger than the short one, such

All of these categories can be presented in the diagram below:

Table 2: English vowel chart

phonemic alphabet There are 24 consonants in English They are listed as follows:

Table 3: Consonants in English

According to Roach (1991) in English Phonetic and Phonology consonants

are divided based on place of articulation and manner of articulation

The place of articulation is the location of the obstruction of air stream in the articulation of the consonants Here is the classification of North American English consonant phonemes

Table 4: Classification of NAE Consonant Phonemes

According to the place of articulation: It describes the point at which the articulation actually touches or it is at its closest Describing the consonant sounds this way gives more information about what the various articulators actually do

Bilabials: are the sounds made with the two lips pressing together or coming together / p, b, m, w/

Labio-dentals: are the sounds which are produced with the lower lip touching the upper front teeth /f, v/

Dentals: are the sounds which are produced when the tip tongue touching the inside of the lower front teeth and the blade touching the inside of the upper teeth, for instance: /θ/ and /ð/

Alveolars: are the sounds which are produced when the air escape through a narrow passage along the center of the tongue, for instance: /t/ and /d/

Palato alveolars: are the sounds produced with the tongue tip or blade coming close to the area between the back of the alveolar ridge and the front of the hard palate, such as /ʒ/ and /ʃ/

Palatals: are the sounds produced with the back to of tongue touching the soft palate, such as /k/ and /g/

Glottals: are the sounds produced without the active use of the tongue and other part of the mouth /h/

According to the manner of articulation: is the way where the airstreams are obstructed and so altered the production of speech sound It describe the time of obstruction caused by the narrowing or closure of articulators

Plosive (stops): are the sounds produced when there is a complete closure of articulators involved so that air streams cannot escape through the mouth They are also sometimes called stop sounds There are two types of plosives: Oral plosives and nasal plosives

Fricatives: are the sounds with the characteristics that when they are produced, air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound Fricatives are continuant consonants, which means that you can continue making them without interruption as long as you have enough air in your lungs

Affricates: they appear when a complete closure is made somewhere in the mouth, and the soft palate is raised Air pressure increases behind the closure, and then

is released more slowly than in plosives

Laterals: are the sounds made with an obstruction of the airstream at a point

along the center of the oral tract with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the tongue

Nasals: are the sounds made when a complete closure is made somewhere in the mouth, the soft palate is lowered, and air escapes through the nasal cavity

Approximants: are the sounds produced when two articulators come close together but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a friction noise is produced

According to the voicing: We use the following terms: fortis and lenis In some certain situations in the linguistic level, the voice opposition may be lost then the energy of articulation becomes an important factor For instance, a voiceless/ voiced

sounds such as p, t, k and b, d, g are distinguished not only by the presence or absence

of voice but also by how strong we breathe involved in the articulation In English, there are some consonants which are tend to be articulated with pretty weak power, while there are some which are always voiceless are relatively strong Thus, it may be

easy to define p, t, k as fortis (strong) and b, d, g as lenis (weak) Fortis consonants

normally shorten the preceding vowels, while lenis consonants often lengthen the preceding vowels (Tam, p15-16) Actually, it is a little difficult to remember the term fortis and lenis; however, we will follow the practice of many books and use these terms According to Roach (1991), the plosive phonemes of English can be presented

in the form of table as shown below:

Table 5: Place of articulation of plosive phonemes

The above table can be designed for all the other different consonants Each

group of consonant such as plosive like p, t and k fricatives like s and z and nasals like

m and n obstructs the airflow in a different way, and they are categorized as different

manners of articulation

According to the classification of consonants in English table we can easily see some fricative pairs of sounds

Both /f/ and /v/ are labiodental sound which are articulated with lower lips and upper lips The fricative noise is never very strong and is scarcely audible in the case of /v/

/θ/ and /ð/ both of them are dental fricatives The air escapes through the gaps between the tongue and the teeth

/s/ and /z/ both of them are alveolar fricatives The air escapes through a narrow passage along the center of the tongue and the sound produced is comparatively intense

/ʃ/ and /ʒ/ both are palate-alveolar, which can be understand that their place of articulation is partly palate and alveolar

1.1.3.2 Stress

A stress syllable is made when we pushing more air out of the lungs It may also have an increase in laryngeal activity Stress can always be define in term of something a speaker does (Ladefoged, 1975)

Roach (1991) said that stress, as a sound phenomenon, can be studied from two aspects: production and perception The production of stress syllables is said to signify

a greater energy than the production of unstressed syllables From the perceptive point

of view, stressed syllables are outstanding Prominence includes of different factors such as loudness, length, pitch and quality

Roach (2009) stated that many experiments have been conducted on the perception of stress, and it is clear that many different sound characteristics are important in making a syllables recognizably There are four main different reasons which make stressed syllable important

 The time we articulate a syllable plays an important part in prominence If one of the syllable in our “nonsense word” is made longer than the others, that syllables are likely to be heard as stressed

 Every voiced syllable is said on some pitches; in this term it refers to the frequency of vibration if the vocal fold and to the musical notion of low and high-pitched notes If one syllable in our “nonsense word” is said with a pitch that is remarkably different from the others, this is likely to produce the effect of prominence

 If a syllable contains a vowel which is not similar with its neighboring vowel, it will be prominent

 Actually, loudness is an element of prominence so if one syllable is made louder than the others, it will be heard as stressed

Functions of stress

 Stress can be used to express the speakers’ attitude and emotion

For instance: A said: “Chocolate and ice-cream, which one do you choose?”

B said “Chocolate ‘and ice-cream”

In the B’s answer, he stresses the word “and” to emphasize that he wants both of chocolate and ice- cream

 Stress also can indicate the syntactic relationships between words or parts

of words

For example:

The word “present”, if we put the stress on the first syllable we have a noun

“present” which means “gift” If we put the stress on the second syllable we have a verb “present” which means “give a speech, or explanation”

 Stress has a syntactic function in distinguishing between compound nouns For example: ‘Whitehouse (Official work place and residence of president), White

‘house (A house painted in white)

1.1.3.2.1 Word stress

According to Ann (2013) claimed that stress is one of the most magical speech tools used by English speakers to convey meaning English speakers emphasize what they think is important by using stress Moreover, every English word which has more than one syllable or word part has a defined stress pattern Therefore, you can know which syllable is stressed by looking up The importance of English stress is the same to English sounds

The English stress system is divided into some categories stressed and unstressed syllables, stressed and unstressed words Stressed syllable are longer and more emphasized than unstressed syllable They also have some pitches change or movement of the voice up or down Normally, stress in a word is divided into three groups: a primary stress, characterized by prominence and by a rise –fall tone; a secondary stress, weaker than the primary stress but stronger than that of the unstressed syllables; and unstressed syllables, defined by no prominence, becoming then the background against the prominent stressed syllables appear Unstressed syllables normally have the short closed vowels and the schwa

1.2 Fricative sounds

1.2.1 Definitions of fricative sounds

According to Roach (1991) fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced, air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sounds, sometimes called “friction” In fact, every language has fricatives, including some sounds like “s’’ Fricatives are continuant consonants, which means you can keep saying these consonants continually without interruption as long as you have enough air in your lung (There are some consonants which are not continuant like

plosives: p, b, f, t) In the consonant articulation, two organs are brought and held close

together or the escaping airstreams to produce strong friction Hence, like plosives, fricatives are characterized by a noise component This friction may or may not be

1.2.2 Classification of fricative sounds

According to classification of English consonant phonemes we have some types

of fricatives

 Labio-dental fricatives /f, v/ (example: fan, van, fish, halve)

When producing these sound we raise the soft palate and close the nasal resonator In order to produce friction form the escaping air, the inner surface of the lower lip makes a light contact with the edge of the upper teeth For /f/, the friction is voiceless, whereas they may become vocal cord vibration accompanying /v/ In short, /f/ and /v/ are labiodentals, that is, the lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth The fricative noise is never strong and is scarcely audible in the case of /v/

 Dental fricatives /θ, ð/ (example: this, that, thank, think)

When producing these sounds, we raise the soft palate in order to force all the breath to go through the mouth, the tip of the tongue contact with the inner surface of upper teeth These sounds have sometimes been described as if the tongue was actually placed between the teeth and it is common for teacher to teach the students to do this However, the tongue normally placed inside the teeth The tip of the tongue touches the inside of the lower front teeth and the blade touches the inside of the upper teeth The air escapes through the gaps between the tongue and the teeth

 Alveolar fricatives / s, z/ (example: see, star, increase, rice, zip, zoo)

These sounds are produced when we raise the soft palate and close the nasal resonator then the tip and blade of the tongue make a high contact with the upper alveolar ridge The friction between the tongue and the alveolar ridge is created because the air stream escapes through the narrow groove in the center of the tongue

In other words, alveolar fricatives share the same articulation as t and d The air

escapes through a narrow passage along the center of the tongue and the sound produced is comparatively intense

 Palato – alveolar fricatives /ʃ, ʒ/ (example: shoes, measure, sure)

As we can see from the name of this fricatives, their place of articulation is palatal, partly alveolar The tongue is in contact with an area slightly further back than that for /s/ and /z/ When speakers make /s/ then /ʃ/, they should be able to feel their tongue move backward, the air then escapes through a passage along the center of the tongue as in /ʒ/ and /z/ Most BBC speakers have round lips for /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ and this is

an important difference between these consonants and /s/ and /z/ /ʃ/ is a common and widely-distributed phoneme, but /ʒ/ is not Very few English words begin with /ʒ/ (most of these words come from French) and not many end with this consonant Only medially, in words such as “measure”, “usual”

 Glottal fricatives /h/ (horse, house, ahead)

The place of articulation of this consonant is glottal This means that the narrowing which produces the friction noise is between the vocal folds If you breathe out silently, then produce h, you are moving you vocal folds from wide apart to close together In speaking English, there are many different cases happen in different contexts For example, the word ‘hot’, the /h/ followed by an /ɒ/ vowel The tongue jaw and lip position will be produced together in order to create /ɒ/ quality of glottal

fricative Likewise, the h sound will always have the quality of the next vowels

Phonologically, /h/ is a consonant It is usually identified before vowels As well as being found in initial position it is found medially in words such as: ‘ahead’ and

‘greenhouse’ It is obvious that when /h/ occurs between voiced sounds, it is pronounced with voicing-not the normal voicing of vowel but a weak, slightly fricative sound called breathy voice

1.2.3 Descriptions of “/θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/, /f/, /v/” sounds

 /θ/ sound is a voiceless interdental fricative sound

Possible positioning

▪ Initial position as in thin, thief, thought

▪ Medial position as in athlete

▪ Final position as in health

When you pronounce voiceless sounds you cannot feel any vibration of the throat You can feel air being forced between the tip of your tongue and your upper front teeth Any sound that is created by creating friction by forcing air through a narrow channel

is known as a fricative

 /ð/ sound is a voiced sound

Possible positioning

▪ Initial position as in these, there, that

▪ Medial position as in weather, leather, father

▪ Final position as in with

If you pronounce /ð/ sound, you would feel the vibration in your throat You can also feel your tongue tip acting against your upper front teeth

 /s/ sound

Possible positioning

▪ Initial position as in sound, sit, sea

▪ Medial position as in essay, escape

▪ Final position as in pass, increase, difference

This sound is totally voiceless You will be able to feel air being forced between the tongue and alveolar ridge

 /z/ sound

Possible positioning

▪ Initial position as in zoo, zebra

▪ Medial position as in exit, represent

▪ Final position as in bronze, was

This sound is very clearly a voiced sound As the /s/ sound you can feel air being forced through the tongue and the alveolar ridge, meaning that it is a fricative being articulated at the alveolar

 /ʃ/ sound

Possible positioning

▪ Initial position as in shoe, sure, shooting

▪ Medial position as in mission, fashion

▪ Final position as in accomplish

This sound is a voiceless sound; however, it is quite difficult to differentiate where in the mouth it is articulated It seems to be between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate and so some people call it a palato – alveolar

 /ʒ/ sound

Possible position

▪ Initial position genre

▪ Medial position as in usual, leisure

▪ Final position as in rouge, beige

When pronounce this sound, you can easily feel the vibration in your throat when you place your finger on The position of the tongue is around where the hard palate and the alveolar ridge meet, making it a palato – alveolar consonant You should also be able to feel the air being forced between the tongue and palato – alveolar ridge, making it a fricative

 /v/ sound

Possible positioning

▪ Initial position as in venture, vanish, visit

▪ Medial position as in never

▪ Final position as in of, behave

This is a voice sound, if you put your fingers on your throat Because /v/ is a labio – dental, fricative, you can be able to feel the air being squeezed past your lower lip and upper front teeth

 /f/ sound

Possible positioning

▪ Initial position as in fish, find, friend

▪ Medial position as in effort

▪ Final position as in leaf, laugh

This sound is voiceless You can feel that your top teeth are touching your lower lip, and so is a labio-dental sound Finally, you should be able to feel the friction of the air

as it forces its way between the lips and teeth, and this is what is called a fricative

 /h/ sound

Possible positioning

▪ Initial position as in heart, heal, help

▪ Medial position as in ahead, adhere, behave

▪ Final position does not appear

This sound is the voiceless equivalent of /g/ The place of articulation should be felt as being the soft palate at the back of your mouth

1.3 Pronunciation errors

According to Duong Thi Nu (2008) Vietnamese learners of English often

confuse /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /ʧ/ /ʤ/ with other sounds It is classified into four pairs:

1 /ʃ/ - /s/

The confusion of this sound pair can be explained that the speakers cannot

figure out the difference between the two sounds Another reason for this confusion is the negative impact of the mother tongue Vietnamese learners are too much

influenced by the way they pronounce /s/ in Vietnamese Consequently, though they are able to aware of the difference between too sounds, they do not pronounce them differently For instance: /ʃiːt/ (sheet) is frequently pronounced as /siːt/ (seat)

of articulation is partially palatal and partially alveolar This sound is produced when the tongue is in contact with an area further back than that of /z/ and the air escapes through a passage along the center of the tongue as in /z/

3 /ʤ /- /z/ or /s/

When learners commit errors, they fail to make /ʤ / palatal and voiced In

Vietnamese consonant system, there are no affricatives so many Vietnamese who learn English have difficulties in pronouncing /ʤ /

4 /ʧ/ - Vietnamese/ć/

When learners make this mistake, they make /ʧ/ plosive stop instead making alveolar and affricate Like /ʤ/, /ʧ/ is produced by beginning with a plosive stop sound and finishing with a fricative sound Vietnamese when learning English often

mispronounce /ʧ/ like Vietnamese / ć/ which is a voiceless palatal stop and which is produced with the blade of tongue is in contact with the hard palate

According to Ha Cam Tam (2005) pronunciation was divided into three main groups:

The first type is “sound omission” When l, ʤ, r, s, i, ei, k appears in the middle and z, s, t, v, ks, ʤ appears in the final of a word learners are likely to omit them

The second type is “sound confusion” The most frequent confusion are t = ʧ,

tr = ʧ, ð = z/d, ʃ = s, ʤ = /j/d/s/t/z/ʧ/, s = /ʃ/ʒ/, p = b; ʧ = s, θ= /s/t/; r = z There are

learners who mispronounced /t/ and changed it into /ʧ/ instead This confusion may be due to the misperception of articulation of this sounds The mispronunciation of /s/ to