Common errors with final consonants of english majored sophomores at tay do university

LIST OF TABLESTable 1: Classification of English final consonants...8Table 2: The participants’ awareness of pronunciation...15Table 3: The participants’ causes of pronunciation errors..

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements i

Comments ii

Table of Contents iii

List of Abbreviations vi

List of Tables vii

List of Figures viii

Abstract ix

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 The significance of the study 3

1.3 The organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Definition of pronunciation 4

2.2 The importance of pronunciation in communication 5

2.2.1 The advantages of pronunciation competence 6

2.2.1.1 Positive impression 6

2.2.1.2 Better listening comprehension skills 6

2.2.1.3 Improving English speaking skills 6

2.2.2 The disadvantages of mispronunciation 7

2.2.2.1 Miscommunication 7

2.2.2.2 Misunderstanding 7

2.2.2.3 Bad habits 8

2.3 Final consonant sounds in English 8

2.3.1 Structural features of /s/, /z/ and /iz/ ending sounds 9

2.4 Previous studies 10

CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 12

3.1 Research questions 12

3.2 Research aims 12

3.3 Hypothesis 12

3.4 Design 13

3.5 Participants 13

3.6 Instruments 13

3.6.1 Questionnaire 13

3.6.2 Recording 14

3.6.3 Interview 14

3.7 Procedures 14

CHAPTER 4 – RESEARCH RESULTS 15

4.1 Results of Pronunciation error collection 15

4.1.1 Questionnaire 15

4.1.1.1 The participants’ awareness of pronunciation 15

4.1.1.2 The participants’ causes of pronunciation errors 17

4.1.2 Recording 21

4.1.2.1 Group 1 21

4.1.2.2 Group 2 22

4.1.3 Interview 23

4.2 Causes of errors 24

CHAPTER 5 – DISCUSSION, IMPLICATION, LIMITATION, SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FURTHER RESEARCH, CONCLUSION 27

5.1 Discussions 27

5.2 Implication 29

5.3 Limitation 30

5.4 Suggestions for the further research 30

5.5 Conclusion 31

REFERRENCES APPENDICES APPENDIX A: Questionnaire x

APPENDIX B: Interview xvi

APPENDIX C: Recording xviii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

L2: Second Language

IPA: International Phonetic Association

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Classification of English final consonants 8Table 2: The participants’ awareness of pronunciation 15Table 3: The participants’ causes of pronunciation errors 17

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Pronunciation errors of Group 1 21Figure 2: Pronunciation errors of Group 2 22

The present study aims to investigate whether or not English – majored sophomoresmake mistakes the consonant /s/, /z/ and /iz/ of English words in the coda position.The focus is on two points The first one is to identify the most common error in theword – final position that was employed by students at Tay Do University, and thesecond one is to find the reasons which caused these errors in their pronunciation.Fifty participants from two Bachelor of English classes at Tay Do University wererecruited for this study A questionnaire, an interview and a recording areinstruments in the research The results of this study demonstrate that students domake errors with the final consonants /s/, /z/ and /iz/ After data analysis, theresearcher concluded that the omission errors which was often encountered bylearners The study also found that the main reason led to pronunciation errors wasthat Vietnamese language does not have the same sound /s/, /z/ and /iz/ in the coda

APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear friends,

My name is Nguyen Hong Hanh and I am currently a senior majoring in English I

am very grateful to you for spending your valuable time helping me Now I am

carrying out a research entitled “Common Errors with Final Consonants of English-Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University” This is the questionnaire

used to collect the necessary information from you, so please take your time tofinish these below questions carefully because your answers are very important andhelpful to my research Once again, thank you so much!

Student’s full name: Age: ……Class: Gender: Male  Female 

A. Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answers for each question Give specific answers if needed

1. How long have you studied English? years

2. Where do you come from?

8. Do you take your time to practice pronunciation at home?

a. Yes (continue question 8)

d. More than 1 hour

B. Please read the following statements and mark () in the suitable column to

express your opinion

Statements Stronglyagree

(1)

Agree(2)

Noideas(3)

Disagree(4)

Stronglydisagree(5)

1. Pronunciation is the first

importance aspect so that

learners can speak like a

native speaker

2. Pronunciation is an

essential part of language

3. Pronunciation connects with

four language skills

(listening, reading, writing

6. Pronunciation is the first

thing that natives notice

when communicating

7. The clear pronunciation

makes sure of success in

finding a job

8. I often make mistakes of

pronunciation, specifically

final consonants

9. I feel difficult to pronounce

the ending sounds because

Vietnamese people do not

have to pronounce them

10. I concentrate on other skills

(listening, reading, writing

and speaking) than learning

pronunciation

11. I am not confident enough

to speak the ending sounds

out loud

12. I am confused about the

final consonants /s/, /z/, /iz/

because I lack knowledge

of these consonants

13. I do not have enough time

to practice pronunciation in

class

14. I do not have many chances

of talking with the English

native speakers

15. I do not have effective

methods of practicing the

final consonants /s/, /z/, /iz/

16. I have not got good habits

of pronouncing the final

consonants yet

17. Sometimes I forget how to

pronounce plural words;

therefore, I cannot speak

English properly

18. Teachers do not give their

feedback or guide to show

the correct way to

pronounce

19. Teachers pay attention to

theory more than practice

20. The university does not

provide good facilities to

support in learning English

pronunciation

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

APPENDIX B

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Student’s full name: Age: ……

Class: Gender: Male  Female  1. Did you often make mistakes of pronouncing the final consonants? If yes, continue question 2; if no, continue question 4 (Bạn có thường mắc lỗi trong phát âm phụ âm cuối hay không? Nếu có, tiếp tục với câu 2; nếu không, tiếp tục với câu 4)

2. What your errors in pronouncing the final consonants /s/, /z/, /iz/? (substitution, omission and insertion or other errors) (Bạn mắc những lỗi gì khi phát âm phụ âm cuối /s/, /z/, /iz/? thay thế thành âm khác, bỏ qua không đọc hoặc thêm một âm nữa hay là những lỗi nào khác)

3. Can you tell me some possible reasons for these errors? (Bạn có thể kể một vài lí do cho những lỗi phát âm trên?)

4. What do you think about pronunciation? (Bạn nghĩ gì về phát âm?)

5. How do you feel about your pronunciation skill? (excellent, normal or bad)? (Bạn có cảm nghĩ gì về kĩ năng phát âm của mình?)

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

APPENDIX C

RECORDING

Today is Jessica’s first day of kindergarten Jessica’s Mom walks with her to herclassroom Jessica meets her teacher His name is Mr Parker The school bell rings

at 8:00am Jessica hugs and kisses her Mom to say goodbye Jessica’s Mom says “Ilove you” Mr Parker calls out children’s name Each child yells back “Here” MrParker requests the students to sit on the carpet Mr Parker teaches them aboutletters Mr Parker teaches them about numbers Mr Parker reads the students a story

Mr Parker teaches the students a song The lunch bell rings Jessica’s first day ofschool is over

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes in detail (1) the rationale of the study, (2) the significance of

the study, and (3) the organization of the thesis.

1.1 Rationale

English may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is theofficial language in a large number of countries According to Wikipedia, Englishhas developed over the period of more than 1,400 years and it is considered as theofficial language in almost 60 countries, hence it is the third most popular nativelanguage in the world, after Mandarin (the official language of China) and Spanish.Besides, more and more people who have learned English as a second languagethan native speakers, they are using it as a common way to communicate with eachother such as international businesses, conferences, social events and in their dailylives even Therefore, it is impossible to avoid being a situation that manyemployers will need to hire people who can speak more than their own nativelanguage

From awareness of that situation, Vietnam has promoted and interested indeveloping communication English competence for Vietnamese people, specifically,English has become one of the official subjects in their state education system.Generally, children start to learn the language as soon as they are grade 3 or earlierbecause their parents may suppose that the sooner they can access with English, thebetter they can reach a high level in school after In fact, because of their increaseddemands more and more, the series of free English courses online have appearedand hundreds of English training centers have been built in Vietnam so far

Although many Vietnamese people begin their English education very early

at schools, they cannot pronounce English properly because many teachers only pay

attention to study grammar more than practice People do not speak the samelanguage, of course, they cannot communicate so there is a barrier between thesound systems of the two languages For this reason, it is not easy for those whowant to be good at pronunciation because the sound systems of the mother tongueand L2 are different in many aspects Ly (2007) stated that both second and foreignlanguage learners run into difficulties to advance in second language (L2)pronunciation accuracy because of the differences of sound systems between theirfirst language and L2 Also, Bintuki (2008) argued that almost all of the L2 learnersbelieve that pronunciation is the main difficulty when speaking English.

The concept of final consonants do not exist in the Vietnamese sound systemlike /s/, /z/, /iz/ As Nguyen (2007) states, "English, as prestigious as it is, hasextremely many final sounds that are foreign to Vietnamese speakers" (p.8).Similarly, Ha (2005) argued that the way Vietnamese speakers pronounce theending sounds is completely different from English speakers In addition, Nguyen(as cited in Ngo, 2005; Tran, 2002) showed that although the Vietnamese languageonly has six final consonants such as /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ/, they are not often producedsounds For example, /p/ (pháp/ lap), /t/ (cắt/ cut), /k/ (rác/ luck), /m/ (làm/ mom),/n/ (sơn, son) and /ŋ/ (phông/ song) While English has the variety of more complexfinal consonants /p, b, f, v, s, z, tʃ, dʒ, ʒ, ʃ, θ, ð,…/ and they may be articulated inEnglish

The amount of research about the pronunciation problems of L2 learners isgrowing so far, for both international and national studies For instance, currentresearchers analyze errors of pronunciation with some English consonants made byEnglish major students (Nguyen & Ha, 2015), there also find out the difficulties forVietnamese when producing English final consonants (Nguyen, 2007) However,there have not had the studies that show common errors with final consonants, morespecifically, /s/, /z/, /iz/ Thus, this paper will find out whether students often makemistakes with –s/-es ending consonants and some common errors in pronouncingfinal sounds This research desires both students and teachers to realize the

differences between Vietnamese and English language soon And they must attempt

to find an effective solution for themselves to deal with the influences of the mothertongue on their English pronunciation

1.2 The significance of the study

After investigating common errors with final consonants, the findings of thestudy are hoped that the students may reduce the mistakes of their pronunciation aswell as in their communication And the students will be able to pronounce finalsounds /s/, /z/, /iz/ more exactly so that they will have full confidence to say it outloud

Besides analyzing the causes, it will also help teachers to better understandthe matter and quickly apply more practice in their classroom routine well.Therefore, students may succeed in reaching better effects in their learning andteachers may achieve particular goals of their education

1.3 The organization of the study

This thesis includes five chapters consisting of (1) Introduction, (2)Literature review, (3) Research methodology, (4) Research result, and (5)Discussion and conclusion for further research

Chapter 1 introduces the rationale and the significance of the research Thissection also presents the organization of the research

Chapter 2 is the review of literature, introduces the definition and theimportance of pronunciation and some final consonants will also be discussed.Previous studies on these issues are then included

Chapter 3 focuses on research methodology This chapter shows the researchquestion, the research aim and the hypothesis Moreover, it also indicates the design

of the research, the instruments and participants

Chapter 4 analyzes the result of the data from the questionnaire, therecording and the interview From that, the results are reckoned up from them

Chapter 5 discusses about the discussion, the implication, the limitations andthe suggestions for further research and conclusions

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter describes in detail (1) the definition of pronunciation, (2) the importance of pronunciation, (3) the final consonant sounds, and (4) the previous

studies.

2.1 Definition of pronunciation

There is much-related research suggested many definitions of pronunciation.According to Hoang (as cited in Kelly, 2000), pronunciation is a method ofproducing sounds so that the speaker can express ideas and feelings with otherpeople Meanwhile, Schlippe et al (2013) wrote that the International PhoneticAssociation (IPA) uses special symbols to represent the sounds of the oral languagewhich is used widely and accepted agreements and they suggest pronunciations interms of IPA symbols These conventions are meant to maintain languages and arevery convenient when including pronunciations for multi-languages

Moreover, according to Çimenli (as cited in McArthur, 1992, p.810), “the act

or result of producing the sounds of speech, including articulation, intonation, andrhythm” In addition to many studies, Wikipedia supposed pronunciation is the way

in which a word is pronounced or the way a particular individual makes the sound

of a word in a correct pronunciation simply By the same token, Richards andSchmidt (2002) defined that:

The way a certain sound or sounds are produced Unlike articulation, whichrefers to the actual production of speech sounds in the mouth, pronunciation stresses

more the way sounds that are perceived by the hearer, for example: You have not

pronounced this word correctly And it often relates the spoken word to its written

form, for example: In the word knife, the k is not pronounced (p.429)

Furthermore, pronunciation has been described as the "Cinderella" area ofthe language learning because pronunciation is forgetful by teachers like

"Cinderella" who is also neglected from the social life by her stepsisters in thefamous fairy tale (see Çimenli, 2015) In another research, Chavangklang (2013)also agreed that pronunciation is awarded as one of the main subjects of L2,students are still difficult to deal with English pronunciation although they havestudied English for many years And Ha (2005) claimed that many foreignerscommented that only a small number of Vietnamese people had the ability to speakEnglish intelligibly in communication

2.2 The importance of pronunciation

Like some other languages, English pronunciation training is the firstimportant aspect that any learners have to master in order to speak like a nativespeaker According to Centerman and Krausz (2011), the goal of teaching thesecond language (L2) has to prepare a comfortable English-speaking environmentfor students so that they can achieve their English language development Studentsneed to be aware of pronunciation in order to gain a high level of competence inEnglish as well as they are able to participate in conversations and get moreinformation in the L2 language Pronunciation is an essential part of language in adirect connection with four language skills (listening, reading, writing andspeaking) because the main purpose of language is considered as communication inthe target language (Çimenli, 2015)

As Ly (as cited in Hinofitis & Baily, 1980) states, "pronunciation isconsidered one of the most important aspects of second language acquisitionbecause it affects learners’ communication competence" (p.1) Besides, Jones(1950) provided the two concepts in pronunciation as a good speech and a badspeech He defined a good speech as a way of communication which is sensible andeasy to understand to all people while a bad speech is a way of speaking which has

a difficulty understanding for most people From that point, the research will show a

clearly intelligible pronunciation which brings some useful things and badconsequences of communication breakdown

2.2.1 The advantages of pronunciation competence

2.2.1.1 Positive impression

When communicating in the real life, the pronunciation is the first thing thatEnglish natives notice during a conversation If they take a lot of efforts tounderstand, they will avoid communicating with people who have a badpronunciation as much as they can Otherwise, they will enjoy a pleasantcommunication with non-natives who make native speakers hear and understandeasily Similarly, Shak et al (2016) said that for university graduates, the obviouspronunciation is an important thing to make sure of their success in finding a jobduring interviews Employers will have a bad impression and right away refuse toaccept their employment applications unless they make a good impression to theemployers by showing their professional language

2.2.1.2 Better listening comprehension skills

According to Wei and Zhou (as cited in Ueno, 1995) “pronunciationinstruction may facilitate listening comprehension ability” (p.3) Therefore,listening videos, radios or conversations will become easier; otherwise, it is reallydifficult for listeners to find out the main ideas in the text O'Neal (2015) suggestedthat if the speakers pronounce a word or express their feelings, and the listenerscannot realize the pronunciation, then the pronunciation is impossible to understand

to the listeners; if the speakers pronounce a word or express their feelings, and thelisteners can understand the pronunciation, the pronunciation is intelligible to thelisteners

2.2.1.3 Improving English speaking skills

It is not enough to only learn English speaking, people should try to keep abalance between practice pronunciation and speaking progress Initially, if peoplebuild a strong base pronunciation themselves, they will get easy to improve Englishspeaking skills Although perfect speaking is dependent on many aspects, such as

vocabulary, grammar, fluency, etc pronunciation experience is not less importantthan them Good speaking will reflect how speakers tried their best in pronunciationand it plays an important role in being more confident of speaking in English Frompronunciation practice every day, it supports not only in learning a new word butalso in developing fluency in speaking skills.

2.2.2 The disadvantages of mispronunciation

How is the impact of wrong pronunciation? There are three disadvantages ofspeaking English incorrectly

2.2.2.1 Miscommunication

Speakers may have a high-level vocabulary and an excellent grammar.However, if the pronunciation is not correct, the speaker will not make the listenerunderstand what they want to say because listeners may pay attention to thepronunciation right away without interesting in perfect vocabulary and grammar ornot Ly (2007) stated that, L2 learners with correct pronunciation are more probablyunderstood in spite of their grammatical errors than learners whose perfectgrammar; however, they have weak pronunciation Sometimes the speaker cancommunicate by using simple but effective sentences, which will help them toachieve the goal of communicating Wei and Zhou (2002) also agreed that peopleare for sure easy to communicate with natives or non-native speakers by intelligiblepronunciation and the main aim of learning English is that everyone may be able tocommunicate with native speakers or non-native ones

2.2.2.2 Misunderstanding

Vocabulary knowledge is meaningless if people do not pronounce wordsexactly and no one understands the words they use In English, there are somevocabularies that have similar sounds but different meanings, thus mispronunciationcan lead to serious consequences For example, a German coastguard trainee whotried to understand the Mayday call from a ship in English He heard a crewmember saying "We are sinking" into "We are thinking", then he answered, "Whatare you THINKING about?" Because of his limited pronunciation, he could not

hear the sound /s/ in "sinking" At times, there are more serious mistakes than this,thus the researcher wants to emphasize the importance of English pronunciation forstudying in general and communication in particular

2.2.2.3 Bad habits

Many people believe that they can communicate in English because they canspeak with their teachers and other students However, the teachers may listen tomany pronunciation errors for years so they may understand their limitedpronunciation and their friends speak the same English with them because all ofthem live the same country As Wei and Zhou (2002) concludes, “a languageteacher's pronunciation is served as a model for the students The students have toimitate his or her pronunciation otherwise the teacher will correct the students'pronunciation.” (p.9) For this reasons, if they do not recognize their mistakestimely manner, they will continue to misconceive for a long time

In conclusion, people do not ignore learning pronunciation and do not justcommunicate in the classroom They had better concern phonetic transcription,intonation and practice it whenever they have the opportunity to use English

2.3 Final consonant sounds in English

English includes 20 final consonants are classified into three categories:work of vocal cords, manners and places of articulation According to Le (as cited

in Roach, 2010), there were 21 English consonants in the final positions except for

3 sounds such as /h/, /w/ and /j/

Table 1: Classification of English final consonants

Manners of

articulation

Places of articulation

Work of vocal cords Bi-

labia l

dental

Labio- dental

Inter- alveolar

Apico- palatal

Alveo-Fronto - palatal

velar Plosive p

Dorso-b

t d

k g

voiceless voiced

v

θ ð

s z

ʃ ʒ

voiceless voiced

Affricate tʃ

dʒ

voiceless voiced

2.3.1 Structural features of /s/, /z/ and /iz/ ending sounds

Jones (1950) wrote that the sound /s/ was a voiceless alveolar fricative with asmall hole in the mouth for the air to escape through This sound is pronounced bythe tip of the tongue down near the lower teeth The manner of articulation dependslargely on the shape of the individual speaker’s teeth and palate He also said thatthe sound /z/ is voiced or partially voiced alveolar fricative, in initial and finalpositions the voicing is generally only partial The sound /z/ differs from /s/ solely

in being pronounced with weaker breath force

Besides, Mealings et al (2012) defined that the segmental -s plurals has threeallomorphs which are suffixed to the end of most nouns such as /s/, /z/ and /iz/.When the singular form ending with a voiceless consonant (/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/ or /θ/) isadded the /s/ allomorph to form the plural like cat – cats /kæts/, lap – laps /læps/,cuff – cuffs /kʌfs/ And the /z/ allomorph is added after the words ending withvoiced consonants or vowels such as boy – boys /bɔɪz/, girl – girls /ɡɜːrlz/, shoe –shoes /ʃuːz/ Finally, when sibilants end in singular nouns, the plural is formed byadding /iz/ like kiss – kisses /ˈkɪsiz/, watch – watches /wɑːtʃiz/, dish – dishes /'dɪʃᵻz/

Research done by Ha (2005), her data analysis showed that the mostcommon problems of the students were sound omission of ending sounds such as [z,

s, t, v, ks, dʒ] She concludes, “It is easy to understand why ending sounds wereomitted so frequently, because in Vietnamese speakers do not have to pronounce theending sounds.” (p.42) Similarly, Le (2014) agreed that some students didn’tcompletely pronounce final consonants due to the influences of Vietnamesestructure

2.4 Previous studies

Recently many papers were conducted to investigate the pronunciationproblems of Vietnamese learners in universities and schools Despite a variety ofpronunciation topic, there is not any researcher who find out common errors with