A study on common mistakes committed by vietnamese learners in pronouncing english word final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” at espeed english center

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TÔN THỊ THUỲ DƯƠNG A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES C

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

TÔN THỊ THUỲ DƯƠNG

A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES COMMITTED BY VIETNAMESE

LEARNERS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH WORD-FINAL

CONSONANTS “L, ʃ, T, D, K, G” AT ESPEED ENGLISH CENTER

Nghiên cứu về các lỗi thường gặp của học viên Việt Nam tại trung tâm anh ngữ

Espeed khi phát âm phụ âm cuối “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” trong tiếng Anh

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

Hanoi – 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

TÔN THỊ THUỲ DƯƠNG

A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES COMMITTED BY VIETNAMESE

LEARNERS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH WORD-FINAL

CONSONANTS “L, ʃ, T, D, K, G” AT ESPEED ENGLISH CENTER

Nghiên cứu về các lỗi thường gặp của học viên Việt Nam tại trung tâm anh ngữ

Espeed khi phát âm phụ âm cuối “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” trong tiếng Anh

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Code : 60140111

Supervisor : Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang

Hanoi – 2016

DECLARATION

This is to certify that the thesis entitle, “A study on common mistakes committed by Vietnamese learners in pronouncing English word-final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” at Espeed English center”, submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Degree of MA in English Teaching Methodology I have provided documented references to the works or others and I am fully responsible for the content of the thesis The research reported in this thesis was approved by the University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Hanoi, 2016

T n Th Thu Dư ng

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I gratefully acknowledge my deep indebtedness to a number of people who helped me in this study

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deep appreciation to

my advisor, Associate Professor Võ Đại Quang (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), for his help and his insightful comments on my work from the beginning to the end of my study In addition, my sincere thanks also go to Mr David (an ESL native Teacher who comes from London) for supporting me in the data collection

I also would like to convey my thanks to all of my teachers who gave me knowledge in my life The completion of this study would not have been possible

without the cooperation from all 120 students at Espeed English Center who

participated in this study

Finally, I wish to deeply thank my best friends and beloved family for their continuous encouragement during my study

ABSTRACT

In Vietnam, English language has played a significant role as a result of globalization trend Despite being increasingly facilitated in learning English from very young age, many learners of English as second language have major difficulties with pronunciation

The aim of this thesis is to identify the common problems related to pronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center when pronouncing English word-final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g”, as well as to investigate the causes of these problems and the possible solutions to the above

some solutions to these problems

The findings reveal that the most common problems related to pronunciation mistakes in the final position were sound omission and sound deviation The causes contributing to these problems were mainly the lack of understanding how to pronounce English sounds, the lack of exposure to real English environment and little practice To help students overcome these problems, some pronunciation teaching techniques are being applied effectively such as recoding and giving feedback; listening and using “shadowing” techniques; applying mirror techniques/making Vlog This study concludes by considering the implications of these findings for the students and teachers to deal with these problems found

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the research 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the research 2

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Review of theoretical background 4

2.1.1 General descriptions of English consonant sounds 4

2.1.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” 5

2.1.2.1 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound / l / 5

2.1.2.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /ʃ/ 6

2.1.2.3 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /t/ 7

2.1.2.4 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /d/ 7

2.1.2.5 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /k/ 8

2.1.2.6 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /g/ 9

2.1.3 English final consonants 10

2.1.3.1 Definition 10

2.1.4 Pronunciation errors 11

2.1.4.1 Errors and mistakes 11

2.1.4.2 Ending sound errors 12

2.1.5 Teaching and learning pronunciation 12

2.1.5.1 Teachers’ role 12

2.1.5.2 Learners’ role 14

2.1.5.3 Pronunciation goals 14

2.1.5.4 Factors influencing learner’s pronunciation 14

2.1.5.5 Techniques used in pronunciation class 16

2.2 Review of previous studies 18

2.3 Summary 21

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 Research questions 22

3.2 The participants of the study 22

3.3 Research design 22

3.4 Research method 23

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 Reports on the results collected by means of recordings 25

4.2 Reports on the results collected by survey questionnaires 29

4.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards English ending sounds pronunciation 29

4.2.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards the importance of English ending sounds 29

4.2.1.2 Students’ frequency in pronouncing ending sounds 30

4.2.2 Students’ perceptions about the possible reasons for their problems of pronunciation 31

4.2.3 Teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation in class 33

4.2.4 Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class 34

4.3 The possible solutions to these pronunciation problems 35

4.3.1 IPA transcript lesson 36

4.3.2 Using pronunciation videos 37

4.3.3 Saying it aloud 37

4.3.5 Recording yourself 39

4.3.6 Role-play 40

4.3.7 Applying poems, raps, songs 40

4.4 Summary 41

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 43

5.1 Recapitulation 43

5.2 Concluding marks 43

5.3 Pedagogical Implication 45

5.4 Limitation and suggestion for further study 46

REFERENCES 48 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 II

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Place and articulation of the sound / l /

Figure 2: Place and articulation of the sound /ʃ/

Figure 3: Place and articulation of the sound /t/

Figure 4: Place and articulation of the sound /d/

Figure 5: Place and articulation of the sound /k/

Figure 6: Place and articulation of the sound /g/

Figure 7: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of English ending sounds

Figure 8: Students’ frequency in pronouncing ending sounds

Figure 9: Students’ perception about the possible reasons for their problems of pronunciation

Figure 10: Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class Figure 11: The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: English consonants

Table 2: Vietnamese initial consonants

Table 3: Vietnamese final consonants

Table 4: Common pronunciation mistakes committed by students

Table 5: The number of students producing sound omission

Table 6: The number of students producing sound deviation

Table 7: Students’ perception about the possible reasons for their problems of pronunciation

Table 8: The frequency of teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation

Table 9: The effectiveness of teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation Table 10: Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

As a result of globalization trends in every field all over the world, foreign languages in general and English in particular have played a greater role The Vietnamese government, than ever before, is concerning and investing in the education system, particularly on teaching English English is now officially taught for learners from very young age – six years old, gradually becoming the second language in Vietnam In addition, there is an increasingly big demand of studying English at all ages in big cities; English centers, therefore, are rising more and more

to satisfy this

Despite being facilitated those education programs, English learners remain being the victims of a traditional education that haven’t paid much attention to listening and speaking although they can read and write pretty well The fact has shown that there is a large percentage of Vietnamese people who have been learning English for many years but cannot freely speak out or may find it hard to get involved in conversation as most of them encounter pronunciation problems It could be seen that pronunciation is the key factor to maintain successful oral communication If speakers pronounce clearly and properly, their listeners could easily understand what they are trying to express On the other hand, when words are inaccurately pronounced, misunderstanding may occur These sometimes bring unexpected effects or even lead to miscommunication Therefore, the emphasis on teaching correct pronunciation (recognizing errors in pronunciation and correcting them), is necessary for an improvement of student’s pronunciation ability

There are a number of problems relating to pronunciation errors that ESL learners tend to make: intonation, word or sentence stress, linking words, ending sounds… Of those mentioned pronunciation problems, ending sounds seem to be the hardest one for Vietnamese people to learn They in particular encounter difficulties in pronouncing some English consonants due to the differences between the Vietnamese and English phonological systems Vietnamese is a kind of

language which has single words with no ending sounds while these sounds play a very important role in English Native speakers may find it hard to understand the words being spoken without pronouncing ending sounds

All of these motivated me to conduct this research which will go into details

of pronunciation mistakes concerning ending sounds of Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center On the foundation of these mistakes, some solutions are

suggested to mitigate the problems

1.2 Aims of the research

The specific aims of the study are:

- Investigate the most common mistakes when pronouncing English final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center

word Identify the reasons for students’ problems of pronunciation

- Propose possible appropriate techniques to correct their problems

1.3 Research questions

Based on the purposes of the study, the researcher attempted to find out the pronunciation problem relating ending sounds by Vietnamese learner at Espeed English Center This investigation was designed to answer the following questions:

1 What are the ending sound mistakes that Vietnamese learners at Espeed English center are likely to make?

2 What are the possible reasons for their problems of pronunciation?

3 What are appropriate techniques to correct their problems?

1.4 Scope of the research

The research was conducted on Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center Regarding its scope, the research was only aimed at finding out their most typical mistakes when pronouncing sounds: /ʃ/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/ Certain teaching techniques related to pronunciation will be studied and discussed to find out the suitable ones

1.5 Significance of the study

This research provide an insight into the common pronunciation problems that most of the Vietnamese students who are studying English as their major encounter regarding English consonant sounds (particularly /ʃ/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/)

In addition, the results of the study will be a useful reference to ESL (English as a second language) teachers while they work on this part of pronunciation training

1.6 Design of the study

The study consists of 5 chapters as follows:

CHAPTER 1 is the introduction, which provides an overview of the study

with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope and the structural organization of the thesis

CHAPTER 2 presents a review of theoretical background about general

descriptions of English consonant sounds (/ʃ/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/) and a review of previous studies related to the research of the thesis

CHAPTER 3 gives a detailed discussion of the method used in the study It

presents the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect the data and the procedure of the data collection

CHAPTER 4 is a detail description of data analysis and a discussion of the

findings of the study

CHAPTER 5 is the conclusion including the recapitulation of the main

points presented in the thesis and concluding remarks The limitations of the study and some recommendations for further research are also discussed in this chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Review of theoretical background

2.1.1 General descriptions of English consonant sounds

In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic (1992:192), consonants are described as “speech sounds made by completely or partly stopping the flow of air breathed out through the mouth”

In his view, Roach (2000) mentioned consonants as “sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips”

It is essential to distinguish consonant sounds and consonant letters A consonant letter usually represents one consonant sound Some consonant letters, for example, c, g, s, can represent two different consonant sounds The g letter is found in “g” sounds like get, go, give and in the /dʒ/ sounds like suggest, energy, general

According to Kelly (2000:47) consonants can be described in terms:

(1) The place of articulation (2) Manner of articulation

Table 1: English Consonant Phonemes

It can be seen in figure 1, consonant sounds /t/ and /d/ are alveolar stop while /k/ and /g/ are velar stop Besides, while consonant sound /l/ is alveolar lateral, /ʃ/

is alveolar palatal fricative

2.1.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g”

2.1.2.1 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound / l /

Only one alveolar, lateral phoneme occurs in English, there being no opposition between fortis and lenis, voiced or voiceless, or fricative and non-fricative Within the /l/ phoneme three main allophones occur:

- Clear [l], with a relatively front vowel resonance, before vowels and /j/

- Voiceless [l0], following aspirated /p, k/

- Dark [ł], with a relatively back vowel resonance, finally after a vowel, before a consonant, and as syllabic sound following a consonant

For clear [l], the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate at the same time as the tip contact is made For dark [ł], the tip contact is again made on the teeth ridge, the front of the tongue being somewhat depressed and the back rose in the direction of the soft palate, giving a back vowel resonance

Both [l] and [ł] are voiced, though partial devoicing may take place when a preceding consonant is fortis

Figure 1: Place and articulation of the sound / l /

(As retrieved fromhttp://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)

2.1.2.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /ʃ/

/ʃ/is an alveo palatal, voiceless, fortis fricative consonant The blade of the tongue is raised against the region behind the alveolar ridge and the air is forced out through a groove a little wider than in the case of /s/, its more fronted counterpart

/ʃ/is distributed in all three main positions in the word It is often spelt sh in words like shoe, cushion or push It can also be spelt s(e.g sure, sugar) or ss(e.g pressure, mission) or ci (ancient, delicious), sci(conscious) ce(ocean),si(pension, mansion), ti (tuition, retribution) It is a variant of [sju:] in words like issue,

tissue

Figure 2: Place and articulation of the sound /ʃ/

(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)

2.1.2.3 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /t/

/t/ is a voiceless, alveolar, fortis plosive The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the tip and rims of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart for /t/ It has an aspirated variant that occurs before stressed vowels when the phoneme is distributed in syllable initial position: tube If preceded by “s”, however, /t/ is unaspirated (E.g: stain) Its distribution includes all

basic positions: truck, attend, hot It is laterally or nasally released if followed by

[l] or by a nasal consonant, repectively: little, written, utmost It is spelt with t: toe,

with tt: cutteror , with th: Thomas,Thames

Figure 3: Place and articulation of the sound /t/

(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)

2.1.2.4 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /d/

/d/ is the voiced, lenis counterpart of /t/, voicing and force of articulation differentiate between the two sounds that share the same place of articulation in the alveolar region Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart and may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for /d/ according to its situation in the utterance

The sound is distributed in initial, medial and final position: doctor, addition, bed It is partially devoiced in initial position as “drink” and devoiced in final position as “road” It is laterally released if followed by /l/: “noodle” and

nasally released if followed by /m/ or /n/: admit, garden It is spelt d: reader, dd:

addict

Figure 4: Place and articulation of the sound /d/

(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)

2.1.2.5 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /k/

/k/ is a voiceless, dorso-velar, fortis, plosive sound To make this sound, the soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the back of the tongue and the soft palate Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart for /k/ Like the other voiceless plosives described above, it has

an aspirated variant if the sound is distributed in syllable-initial position, in front of

a stressed vowel: cat

/k/ is distributed in initial, medial and final position: cook, account, think It

can be followed by a nasal consonant and be consequently nasally released:

conquest or by the lateral liquid and be laterally released: snorkel In spelling, the

sound can be represented by the letter c(e.g cry) or by cc (e.g accuse), by k(e.g kitchen), by ck(e.g kick), by ch(e.g christmas), by qu (e.g quick)

Figure 5: Place and articulation of the sound /k/

(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)

2.1.2.6 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /g/

/g/ is the voiced, lenis pair of /k/ and it has basically the same features as its counterpart /k/ Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart and may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for /g/ according to its situation in the utterance

It is distributed in initial, medial and final position: give, dragon, rug Its

allophones include partially devoiced variants in initial position: gain, devoiced

variants in final position: dog, laterally released, when followed by /l/: giggle and nasally released when followed by /m/: dogmatic In spelling, the consonant can be rendered by g: “get” , by as “gg”: “begged”, or by “g” followed by “h”, as in ghastly, by “ua, ue or ui” ,as in guarantee, guess or linguist, respectively The

voiced counterpart of /ks/, /gz/ can also be rendered by “x” in words like example

Figure 6: Place and articulation of the sound /g/

(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)

2.1.3 English final consonants

2.1.3.1 Definition

To ESL learners, the term “final sound” is very popular while learning English To understand easily, “final sounds” are sounds that occur at the end of the word It refers to the consonant sounds as the word can end with one or more consonant sounds (consonant clusters)

The English language has 24 consonants and most of them can occur in word-initial position, word-medial position and word-final position About the position of final consonants, Yule (2006) showed the basic structure syllable found

in English

According to Rachael – Anne Knight, 2003, University of Survey – Roehampton (Understanding English Variation, Week 3), there can be up to 4 consonants in a coda:

- If there are no consonants at the end of the word, it has a zero coda

- A single consonant is called the final consonant Any consonant except h,

r, w and j may be a final coda

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

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

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

- Two consonant clusters:

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

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

Example: help, bank, books, blind etc

- Three consonant clusters:

Pre-final plus final plus post-final (e.g helped, banks, bonds)

Final plus post-final plus post final s, z, t, d, θ (e.g fifths, next)

- Four consonant clusters:

Most are pre-final plus final plus post-final (e.g twelfths, prompts)

Occasionally there is one final and three post final consonants (e.g sixths, texts )

2.1.4 Pronunciation errors

2.1.4.1 Errors and mistakes

There are several definitions regarding to errors According to Dulay Richards, there are two different kinds of errors: performance errors, caused by, such as, fatigue and inattention, and competence errors resulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of the language Brown (1994: 205) differentiates between mistakes and errors A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or slip in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly All people make mistakes, in both native and second language situations Native speakers are normally capable of recognizing and correcting such mistakes, which are not the result of a deficiency in competence but the result of some sort of breakdown in the process of production Apart from that, Ellis states in his research that errors show gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know if it is wrong or not However, mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur because in particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what she or he knows (Ellis, 1997)

In a nutshell, a mistake occurs because of a slip of the tongue, tiredness, anxiety, etc, it can be self-realized and self-corrected However, an error is a performance that a speaker who has not yet mastered the rules of the target language cannot correct by himself

2.1.4.2 Ending sound errors

According to Mark (2008), ending sound errors can be defined as “the inaccurate pronunciation of the final consonant in a word”

In his research, Treiman classified ending sounds errors into 6 types

- Cluster reduction: This is the “deletion of one or more consonants from a target cluster so that only a single consonant occurs at syllable margins” (Grunwell (2005) Treiman)

- Cluster Simplification: The error occurs when one/some elements of a cluster being is/are produced in a different manner from the target phoneme (Grunwell (2005) Treiman)

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

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

Omitting nasal and liquid sounds: In consonants cluster consisting of final + final consonants with nasals (/n/,/m/) or liquids (/r/,/l/) as the first element, (/m, n, l, r/ + final consonant), nasals and liquid sounds are often omitted (Zukowski

pre-& Richmond, W (2005))

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

2.1.5 Teaching and learning pronunciation

2.1.5.1 Teachers’ role

Teachers are supposed to play an important role in guiding and helping learners to learn pronunciation According to Kenworthy 1987), the teacher has to perform the following roles:

 Helping learners hear: part of the role of the teacher is to help learner

perceive sounds If not, learners may continue their misperception about the target language and perceive the sounds in a wrong way

 Helping learners make sounds: some sounds of English do not occur

in other languages Sometimes, learners will be able to imitate the new sound, but if they can’t, then the teacher needs to be able to give some hints which may help them to make the new sounds

 Providing feedback: both the above tasks require the teacher to tell

learners how they are doing Often learners themselves can’t tell if they’ve got it right, the teacher must provide them with information about their performance In other cases, learners may overdo something; they may inaccurate assumptions about the way English is pronounced

 Pointing out what is going on: Learners need to know what to pay

attention to and what to work on Because speaking is for the most part unconsciously controlled, learners may miss something important For example, they may not realize that when a particular word is stressed or said in a different way, this can affect the message that is sent to the listener Teacher need to make learners aware of the potential of sounds

 Establishing priorities: Learners themselves will be aware of some of

the features of their pronunciation that are different, but they will not be able to tell

if this is important or not Learners need the help of the teachers in establishing a plan for action, in deciding what to concentrate on

 Devising activities: teachers must consider what types of exercises

and activities will be helpful Which activities will provide the most opportunities for practice, experimentation, exploration? In designing activities for learning, teachers must also keep in mind that certain activities suit the learning styles and approaches of some learners better than others

 Assessing progress: this is actually a type of feedback Learners need

to know at what level they are in pronunciation Teacher could give tests to students When they look at their mark, they have a clear sense of how much they have gained



2.1.5.2 Learners’ role

With various aspects of the teachers’ role, all learners need to do is respond The ultimately success in pronunciation will depend on how much effort the learner puts into it The teacher may be highly skilled at noticing mispronunciations and pointing these out, but if learners take no action and do not try to monitor their own efforts, then the prospects of change or improvement are minimal

2.1.5.3 Pronunciation goals

The great majority of learners will have a very practical purpose for learning English and will derive no particular benefit from acquiring a native like pronunciation However, there will be some learners who may want to approach a native like speakers in an English speaking country or abroad In this case, we must use criteria which are occupation-related Learners who plan to become teachers of English will want to approximate a native accent Learners who want to work as air traffic controllers or telephone operators will need to have a pronunciation which is easily understood in less-than-ideal conditions In setting goals for our learners, we must consider the effect of mispronunciation on the listener and the degree of tolerance listeners will have for this

2.1.5.4 Factors influencing learner’s pronunciation

According to Kenworthy (1987), the factors affecting students’ acquisition of pronunciation can be:

- Native language: The native is an important factor in learning to

pronounce English Students from different nationalities have varying degrees of difficulty learning proper pronunciation The difficulty depends on how different their native language is from English For example, English is a stressed language; Spanish is a syllabic language; Chinese is a tonal language Vietnamese learners may find it easier to learn English than Chinese, because of the fact that both English and Vietnamese are Latin one, whereas Chinese is hieroglyphic language

However, there are some foreign sounds to Vietnamese language such as : //θ/&/ ð/;

/∫/&/ʒ/ ; /tʃ/- /dʒ/

- Learners’ ages: it is assumed that the younger learners are, the easier

for them to acquire accurate pronunciation- a greater chance of having a native-like accent Oyama carried out a study of Italian learners of English in the USA The subjects were tape-recorded reading aloud a short paragraph and telling a story about frightening episode in their lives Their pronunciation was judged by two experts based on a five point scale, ranging from “no foreign accent” to “heavy foreign accent” The results showed that the younger a person was when he started learning English, the more native-like was his accent However, other researches showed opposite results Snow and Hoefnagel conducted the research in two parts: laboratory study and a long term study The results of laboratory study showed that the two oldest groups of learners received the highest scores The two youngest groups cored the lowest In the second part of the study which the subjects were tested in much the same way at intervals during their first year of studying Dutch This time, at first, older learners seemed to get better results However, after four to five months, there seemed to be no significant age difference among the results of those subjects It could be concluded that there is no trusted evidence relating to the relationship between age and a person’s ability to pronounce a new language

- The amount of exposure to English: It will come as no surprise that

ESL students who live in English-speaking environment acquire better pronunciation faster because they are immersed in the language But it is obvious that we cannot talk simply in terms of residency Many learners live in an English speaking country, but spend much of their time in non English speaking environment Conversely, many people live in non English speaking countries but use English in many areas of their lives such as work or school In such complex bilingual and multilingual situations, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of how much exposure to English a learner has received Various studies have compared the pronunciation accuracy of people living in an English speaking country and

those who are not, and it seems that amount of exposure, though clearly a contributory factor, is not a necessary factor for the development of pronunciation skills

- Students’ own phonetic ability: it is a common view that some people

have a better ear for foreign language than others There are some exercises that they may benefit from such as: imitating, drilling or distinguish sounds Some people may encounter problems and find it hard to be able to realize specific sounds However, their innate abilities enable them to exploit all the opportunities

to compare what they are doing with the model presented Teachers should provide

a variety of exercise so that all learners can benefit

- Their attitude to the learning of the language: Research and studies

consistently show that ESL students with a positive attitude towards learning English learn faster By the same token, students who are genuinely open-minded and interested in improving their pronunciation often do improve it It is truly amazing what the right attitude can do On the other hand, students who have prejudices or a natural dislike for English will be less successful than those with a positive attitude and open mind In this case, the teacher may increase the learners’ positive attitude towards the foreign language by providing vivid information about that language culture, or making using of authentic materials to make the lesson more interesting

- Motivation: motivation is the one that can really make a difference

Highly motivated students will in all likelihood have a better pronunciation If learners really care much about their pronunciation, they will become more careful with their speaking and gradually build good pronunciation competence

2.1.5.5 Techniques used in pronunciation class

There has always been a great deal of techniques to teach pronunciation for teachers In the previous research on the use of continuous feedbacks to improve the first year students’ pronunciation by Tran Thach Phuc, some common techniques which are proposed by Celce (1996) and Kelly (2000) are discussed:

- Listen and imitate: the pronunciation of the target language is

provided by the teacher and tape recorders, language labs, etc Students are to listen

to a sequence of sounds or sentences and repeat it This is not only to help students achieve better pronunciation, but remember new items more easily as well This technique usually takes two forms, which are either all class or individual These two forms are actually the two phases of the same techniques Normally, at first, the whole class repeats after certain sounds and phrases After a certain amount of class-drilling, individual student take turns and pronounce those items on his/her own

- Phonetic training: this technique makes use of articulatory

descritption, articulatory diagrams and a phonetic alphabet Learners are provided with the basic theoretical knowledge about how sounds are formed They are also aided by the teacher to make genuine sound production However, this kind of technique is not supposed to teach to too young learners as it is unlikely that they are able to comprehend such a complicated matter

- Minimal pair drills: These relate to words which differ by only one

phoneme Normally, learners are allowed to listen to the tape and distinguish between the two sounds This type of activities is particularly useful to teach sounds which cause difficulties for learners or sounds that are easily mismatched After listening, learners are asked to produce the sounds themselves

- Contextualized minimal pairs: when minimal pair drills seem a bit

boring and too theoretical with separated sounds, their contextualization compensates for this weakness The sentence stem serves as a basis for students to produce appropriate responses with correct pronunciation When words are put in sentences, it seems to be more useful than the vague minimal pairs because it is more practical

- Tongue twisters: when other techniques look serious and sometimes

put learners under much pressure, tongue twister provide a more delighting way to learn pronunciation Sounds which are difficult to differentiate are put together to

make meaningful sentences This technique rooted from speech correction strategies for native speakers One of the most typical examples for this technique is the sentence “she sells seashells by the seashore”

- Reading aloud/ recitation: students are provided with a passage or

scripts and then read aloud, focusing on stress, timing, and intonation This activity

is often done with texts such as poems, rhymes, song, lyrics, etc It is true that reading aloud is not popular in English class today, due to the fact that it can have negative effect on student’s pronunciation The spelling of words can affect pronunciation adversely However, according to Kelly (2000), reading aloud provides a good chance for students to realize the linking between spelling and pronunciation Moreover, it provides a vivid example of how stress and intonation are related, as well as the importance of linking sounds between words in connected speech

- Recording of learners’ production: Students are asked to record their

reading over passage or their spontaneous speech in a tape recorder Then, the tape

is played back so that the students can get feedback from the teacher and have evaluation This activity is time consuming However, it gives a true reflection of how learners are making progress in their pronunciation The learners’ mistakes can

self-be easily identified, so that learners know what aspects of pronunciation to focus for improvement

2.2 Review of previous studies

So far, in Vietnam, there have been a quite number of studies about Vietnamese’s mistakes and difficulties in pronouncing English sounds Most of them put much attention on consonant sounds as they are of major pronunciation problem of EFL These have led to important findings, which become a valuable basic for further studies, most visibly, for this paper

As cited by Thao Nguyen (2007), “after analyzing a case study on a Vietnamese native speaker who came to the United States in 1972, Osburne, (1996) finally drew the conclusion that final consonants are not permitted by Vietnamese

Vietnamese L1 speakers do not only reduce cluster but also delete single final consonants, especially fricatives (For example /l/ in control, z in because)”

syllable-Thao Nguyen (2007) conducted a research into the difficulty of Vietnamese

in pronouncing English final consonants Five informants had participated in recording the word list and the text, and six native speakers helped to evaluate on the data From the results analyzed, the researcher concluded that difficulties of Vietnamese speakers in English final consonants mostly result in some common mistakes which are deleting the ending sound that are too difficult or foreign to Vietnamese language, reducing and transferring the final consonants and clusters towards their mother language, adding schwa in final clusters

To answer the question involving the common pronunciation problems of the students in the English Department of the University of Languages and International Studies, Ha (2005) carried out a data collection through an oral final examination During the exam, each of the students was asked to give a talk about a particular topic in nearly five minutes The researcher took notes of the errors related to pronunciation while listening to students talking She finally classified consonants errors into three main types: Sound Omitted, Sound confusion and Sound redundancy She also added that sound omission had seemed to be the most common errors that Vietnamese learners tend to make /s, z, dʒ, t, l, k, ks, v/ were reported as being most frequently omitted by Vietnamese learners (Ha Cam Tam)

Tang (2007) pointed out that Vietnamese learners of English may have difficulty producing syllable-final consonant sounds They often simplify or omit the consonants in the final syllables of English words He highlighted the influence

of the Vietnamese L1 on the production of English With the error of simplifying the final sounds, they tend to substitute the English endings with sounds that are shared to both Vietnamese and English languages It is also important to understand the final syllable sounds that pose the greatest struggle for Vietnamese

Dao (2012) studied on 150 English non-major students at Thai Nguyen university of Economics and Business Administration to find out common mistakes

when pronouncing final consonant sounds These informants were requested to undergo through two stages In the first stage, 30 informants were asked to record 4 tasks (isolated words, sentences, conversation, and a story) by reading out loud Then, the questionnaire was given to 150 informants after collecting data from recording part in order to identify the causes and solutions to the problems She affirmed that the most common mistakes that the informants often made were the sound omission and sound deviation The way they produced the studies sounds was different from those described in the theoretical background by omitting them

or replacing by a sound similar to it in a certain pair

When it comes to the causes of troubles with English sound, as proved by (Thao Nguyen: 2007), Vietnamese does not have the same final consonants like English A lot of English consonants were not found in Vietnamese language Moreover, the manner and the articulation of English sounds are absolutely different from the Vietnamese one, which is seen as a big barrier to Vietnamese learners studying English

Dr Duong Thi Nu (2009) studied Vietnamese learners’ pronunciation of English sounds She figured out five main reasons that contribute to their pronunciation mistakes: failure in distinguishing the difference, influence of the mother tongue, consciousness of mistakes, insufficient drills and practice

Equally important, Huong (2010) carried out a research into the difficulties encountered by second year student at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry in producing some English consonants with 100 participants Data collected from the survey revealed the seven difficulties producing the consonant sounds //θ/&/ ð/; /∫/&/ʒ/ ; /tʃ/- /dʒ/ as : low pronunciation ability, Inadequate drills and practice: passive ways of learning and low motivation to English language learning, mother tongue interference, poor learning background: articulation features of the consonants under the research, teaching and learning environment inefficiency, inappropriate technique used by teachers, inadequate perceptions of mistakes

2.3 Summary

All the theoretical background of the study was presented in this chapter with the purpose of giving a general view to readers to get information about English pronunciation, English and Vietnamese ending sounds, and some studies on related topics It was believed that the Vietnamese students participating in this study would struggle with the pronunciation of the final consonant sounds The next chapter will present the findings and discussion of the stud