KHOA LUAN TOT NGHIEP a study on problems in pronouncing english consonants of first year majored students

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTSFigure 1: Monophthongs pure vowels...4 Figure 2: Diphthongs...4 Figure 3: Consonant sounds...5 Figure 4: The positions of the lips in the production of bilabials...

In order to fulfill this graduation thesis, I have received a lot of help, advice,encouragement and supports from my teachers, my relatives and my friends.First of all, I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mrs Nguyen ThiTuong Nhu for her valuable advice, comments, encouragement and whole-hearted direction from the beginning days until the finished research thesis.Her supports have helped me a lot during the time of my writing

Secondly, I am also grateful to the Teachers of Faculty of Foreign LanguagesStudies at Tay Nguyen University for giving me valuable lessons andexperiences for four years I have been at Tay Nguyen University

Besides, I like to thank the English majored students course 2019 whowillingly supplied me with the necessary data so that I could conduct the studysuccessfully

Finally, I would like to thank my lovely family and friends who have given

me encouragement during the process of researching and writing thisgraduation thesis

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

TABLE OF CONTENT ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS v

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem 1

1.2 Objectives of the study 2

1.3 Significance of the study 2

1.4 The outline of the study 2

CHAPTER II – LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 The English sounds 4

2.1.1 Vowel sounds 4

2.1.2 Consonant sounds 5

2.2 The English consonants 5

2.2.1 Definition of English consonants 5

2.2.2 Significance of English consonants in pronunciation 6

2.2.3 Classification of English consonants 6

2.2.3.1 According to places of articulation 7

2.2.2.2 According to manners of articulation 9

2.2.2.3 According to states of the vocal cords 10

2.2.4 How to pronounce English consonants correctly 11

2.3 Common pronunciation problems of EFL learners with consonants 14

2.2.1 Some common problems 14

2.3.2 Causes of problems in pronouncing English consonants of EFL learners 15

CHAPTER III- METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Subject of the study 16

3.2 Scope of the study 16

3.3 Research question 17

3.4 Research method 17

3.5 Description of data collect instrument 17

3.6 Data collection and analysis procedures 18

3.7 Summary 18

CHAPTER IV – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20

4.1 Students’ common problems in pronouncing English consonant sounds 20

4.2 Students’ opinion on causes of the problems in pronouncing English consonants sounds 29

4.3 Summary 31

CHAPTER V – CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 32

5.1 Conclusion 32

5.2 Recommendations 34

REFERENCE 37

APPENDIX 39

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English Foreign Language

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS

Figure 1: Monophthongs (pure vowels) 4

Figure 2: Diphthongs 4

Figure 3: Consonant sounds 5

Figure 4: The positions of the lips in the production of bilabials 7

Figure 5: The positions of the teeth and lips in the production of labiodentals 7

Figure 6: The positions of the tongue the production of dentals 7

Figure 7: The positions of the tongue in the production of alveolars 7

Figure 8: The positions of the tongue in the production of postalveolar 8

Figure 9: The positions of the tongue in the production of palatal alveolars 8

Figure 10: The positions of the tongue in the production of velars 8

Table 1: Classification of the English consonants 10

Table 2: The analysis of English consonant sounds in different positions of word 19

Table 3: The analysis of the students’ most problem in pronouncing English consonants 24

Table 4: Most common types of problems of the students 27

Table 5: The percentage of the students’ opinion on causes of their problems in pronouncing English consonants 28

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of four sections In the beginning, the statement of theproblem is mentioned Then, the objectives and significance of the study aredisplayed one after another Finally, the outline of the study is shown to give anoverlook of the whole thesis

1.1 Statement of the problem

In recent years, Foreign Language becomes a subject of interest in Viet Nam,especially English For instance, Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Namdecides to make the getting started English program for students from grade 1 and 2and English is one of three compulsory subjects for primary students from grade 3instead two like before, in 2018 Moreover, nowadays, English is not only attachedspecial caring in big cities, but also in rural provinces in order that every student canspeak English However, though many students can speak English, there is a factthat many foreigners can not understand what Vietnamese students say in English.The reason causes that problem is that Vietnamese students have some problems inpronouncing English sounds According to Hinofitis and Baily (1980), the faultwhich most severely impairs the communication process in EFL learners, ispronunciation, rather than vocabulary or grammar

Pronunciation is an integral part of learning English, because it directly affectsstudents’ speaking tests and communicative competence as well as performance.Limited pronunciation skills can decrease students’ self confidence and restrictspeaker’s credibility and abilities According to Ha Cam Tam (2005), learning anew language means learning a new way of using the speech organ, a new way ofcontrolling the speech organ in order to produce sound peculiar to the language, andproduce an intelligible speech Honestly, speaking English like native speakers isthe dream of the English learners Therefore, a study on “problems in pronouncingEnglish consonants of first year majored students at Tay Nguyen University” wascarried out to help the students improve their pronunciation by identifying theirmistakes in pronouncing consonants, the causes of those mistakes and finding someeffective ways to improve pronunciation

1.2 Objectives of the study

With the hope of getting more comprehensive and specific understanding ofEnglish consonants, finding out common consonants pronunciation problems faced

by EFL learners and giving some solutions for those problems, the aims of thisresearch are:

- To find out problems that first year majored students have when they pronounceEnglish consonants

- To suggest some effective ways improving pronunciation of first year majoredstudents

1.3 Significance of the study

As said before, pronunciation is the essential part of learning English, because itdirectly affects students’ speaking tests and communicative competence as well asperformance Be successfully good at English is not only having a large amount ofvocabulary or a steady grammar knowledge, but also accurately pronunciation.This study focuses on pronouncing English consonants that account for 80percent in the English alphabet, which means that there are more consonantspronounced than vowels Moreover, this study will point out some commonproblems in pronouncing English consonants faced by first year majored students inorder that students can improve their pronunciation With good pronunciation skills,they can also get high marks in Speaking and Pronunciation in use subjects Inaddition, this thesis also studies on articulation above the larynx, which makes firstyear majored students be similar to Phonetic and Phonology subjects, a difficultsubject for every English majored students Last but not least, this study is easy to

be followed that can help students, who are majored or not majored in English, beaware of pronouncing English consonants correctly

1.4 The outline of the study

This graduated thesis consists of five main chapters:

Chapter I - Introduction: introduces reasons for choosing the topic, objectives,

significance and the outline of the study

Chapter II - Literature review: lays out the theoretical background for the study.

The first section gives an overview of English sounds The second sectionconcentrates on English consonant sounds and the last one shows some commonproblems in pronouncing English consonants of learners

Chapter III - Methodology: describes the subjects, scope, research questions and

the research methods of the study

Chapter IV - Findings and discussion: presents, analyzes, synthesizes and

discusses the findings revealed from the collected data according to the tworesearch questions

Chapter V - Conclusions and recommendations: gives some suggestions based

on the findings of the study and summarizes the important points of the whole

thesis This chapter is followed by the References and Appendices.

CHAPTER II – LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents some theoretical backgrounds that are related to the study

It contains three sections to answer these following relevant questions:

a How many sounds are there in English?

b What are English consonants?

c What are some common problems in pronouncing of EFL learners with

consonants?

2.1 The English sounds

How many sounds are there in English?

Many English learners feel difficult to learn English not only because the Englishalphabet system is different from the native learner’s system, but also because theEnglish sounds can not be represented adequately by the letters of the alphabet

According to Jespersen(1905), “If we know the sounds of a word (in English) we

can't know how to spell it; if we know the spelling, we can't know how topronounce it” In short, there is no one-to-one relationship between the sounds that

we hear and the spelling of those words For instance, the word “thank” has 5 lettersbut 4 sounds, or the word “six” has 3 letters and 4 sounds In another example, theletter “o” has many different sounds in different words like “hot”, “cow”,

“Monday”, “computer” Therefore, it is essential to distinguish the English alphabet

to the English sound The English alphabet contains only 26 letters, but the soundshave 44 sounds These 44 sounds are divided into 20 vowel sounds and 24consonant sounds

2.1.1 Vowel sounds

Figure 1: Monophthongs (pure vowels) Figure 2: Diphthongs

There are 20 vowel sounds that are consisted of 12 monophthongs and 8diphthongs The symbols of vowel sounds are presented in Figure 1 and 2

2.1.2 Consonant sounds

Figure 3: Consonant sounds

As showing in Figure 3, there are 24 consonant sounds in English although thereare only 21 consonant letters in the English alphabet, some of their phoneticsymbols are identified as letters

2.2 The English consonants

What are English consonants?

2.2.1 Definition of English consonants

Many pieces of researches about pronunciation and consonants have been done

“In articulatory phonetic, a consonant is a speech of sound that is articulated withcomplete of partial closure of the upper vocal tract.” (Harmer, 2001, p.23)

Comparing to vowel, Rogers (2014, p.32) has the same idea, “Consonants aresounds that involve a major obstruction or constriction of the vocal tract; vowels aremade with a very open vocal tract.”

To help students get more understanding, Mr Y’trou gave an obvious detail ofconsonant definition, “Consonants are speech sound When we pronounce them, theorgans of speech form the barriers; the air stream is completely or partially stoppedbefore getting out of the mouth; and the pronunciation is with or without vibration

of the vocal cords.”

In other words, “a consonant is the sound in the production of which onearticulator moves toward another or two articulators come together obstructing theair stream so the air stream can not get out freely” (Wikipedia) In brief, aconsonant that is a sound of spoken language is produced by closure or stricture ofthe vocal tract to make the vocal vibrate or not

2.2.2 Significance of English consonants in pronunciation

Learning to speak a foreign language, like English, is the first skills learnersoften look up to be able to be part of normal communication However, they have todeal with a new way of producing a new sound system Both native and nonnativelearners are required to spend time practicing and producing comprehensibly thatsystem (phonemes), which consist of vowels and consonants Besides, the act ofproducing sounds of speech refers to pronunciation Nobody can deny theimportance of pronunciation in both communication and language skillimprovement The good pronunciation helps learners have an effectivecommunication, and their listening skills and speaking are booted well In addition,sound is a significant aspect because these two benefits of sound, according to HaCam Tam (2005), it is used as part of a code of a particular language, and it is used

to achieve meaning in context of use By equivalently comparing set of pieces inchess game to phonemes, Roach (1983) point out, “the most important thing forcommunication is that we should be able to make use of the full set of phonemes”

If someone changes the rule of any pieces’ move, no one accepts that the game ischess In a similar way, if speaker changes a phoneme when pronounce a word, nohearer can understand that word; or the hearer even thinks of another differentword Therefore, pronunciation, a clearly sounds produce, attends an essential role

in speaking to communicate effectively Moreover, consonants have an influentialimpact on pronunciation because they account for 80% letters in the Englishalphabet There are more consonant sounds than vowels, it does not mean thatconsonants are more important than vowels, but there would be so many consonantsthat should be pronounced carefully

2.2.3 Classification of English consonants

According to Rogers (2014), consonants are usually classified by three ways:places of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing Base on the places ofarticulation we can know where the obstruction of the consonants occurs, themanners of articulation helps us know how the interaction between the articulation

and the airstream, and state of the vocal cord describes the vocal cords is vibrated ornot Those classifications describe how consonants are pronounced

2.2.3.1 According to places of articulation

There are 9 groups of consonants base on places of articulation:

a Bilabials

Bilabials are sounds made with the lips, two (bi-) lips (labial) involve in theproduction of sounds, include /p b m w/ The obstruction of the airstream thusoccurs at the lips

Figure 4: The positions of the lips in the

production of bilabials Figure 5: The positions of the teeth andlips in the production of labiodentals

of the tongue is between the teeth or just behind teeth

Figure 6: The positions of the tongue the

production of dentals Figure 7: The positions of the tongue inthe production of alveolars

d Alveolars

Alveolars are sounds made by alveolar, include /t d s n l/ These sounds are referred to as alveolar because the tongue either touches or approaches the alveolar ridge in their production.

e Postalveolar

There are only one post-alveolar sound: /r/ This is one of the gliding consonants

To produce /r/, the tongue raises up, reaches up the alveolar

Figure 8: The positions of the tongue in the production of postalveolar

Figure 9: The positions of the tongue in

the production of palatal alveolars

Figure 10: The positions of the tongue in

the production of velars

h Velars are sounds made by the tongue raise up articulating against the velum In English the velars are /k g ŋ/

i Glottal

Consonant sound belongs to glottal is /h/ Producing the consonant /h/ does notmake very much noise It is made by pushing the air from the lung out of the mouthwithout any obstruction.

2.2.2.2 According to manners of articulation

There are 6 groups of consonants classified according to manners of articulation:

a Plosives

There are 6 plosive sounds: /p b t d k g/ They are made by the air passes fromthe lung into the mouth then completely stops because of the lips or tip of thetongue or back of the tongue, and then escapes with a slight explosion

b Fricatives

Fricatives consist of 9 consonant: /f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ/ To produce these sounds, theair stream is partially stopped and gradually releasing This partial obstructionresults from the teeth or the tongue coming close to some part of the upper mouth

2.2.2.3 According to states of the vocal cords

Sounds that are made with the vibration in the vocal cord are voice and without vibration are voiceless

2.2.4 How to pronounce English consonants correctly

In the last part, consonants are classified to be easily described, thanks to table 1,

it is much easier This part will introduce how to produce each consonant base on itsdescribing

/p/: Bilabial, Plosive, Voiceless

As in the last part, we know that bilabials are sounds made with the two lips, andplosives are made by the air escapes the mouth with a slight explosion Therefore,

to pronounce /p/, the lips are close firmly and the soft palate is raised so that thebreath cannot get out, then the lips open suddenly, the breath get out with a strongpopping noise

/b/: Bilabial, Plosive, Voiced

The way pronouncing /b/ is similar to /p/, but there are quite difference as whenthe lips open, the breath get out with a weak popping noise, and the vocal cord isvibrated

/t/: Alveolar, Plosive, Voiceless

When pronounce /t/, the tongue-tip is firmly against the middle of the alveolarridge and the soft palate raise so that the breath cannot escape, then the tongue-tip islowered suddenly the breath rushes out with a popping noise

/d/: Alveolar, Plosive, Voiced

The way pronouncing /d/ is similar to /t/, but it makes the vocal cord vibrate./k/: Velar, Plosive, Voiceless

To pronounce /k/, the back of the tongue is firmly contact with the soft palate, thesoft palate raise, then the tongue is lowered suddenly, the breath rushes out of themouth with a strong popping noise

/g/: Velar, Plosive, Voice

The way pronouncing /g/ is similar to /k/, but when the tongue lower, the breathget out with a weak popping noise, and the vocal cord is vibrated

/f/: Labiodental, Fricative, Voiceless

To pronounce /f/, the upper teeth and the lower lip form barriers and the air ispushed through that barriers causes slight friction, the vocal cord is not vibrated./v/: Labiodental, Fricative, Voiced

The way pronouncing /v/ is similar to /f/, but the vocal cord vibrates when

pronounce /v/

/θ/: Dental, Fricative, Voiceless

When pronounce /θ/, the upper teeth and lower teeth combine together, thetongue-tip is against the upper teeth, where the breath goes out causes a very slightfriction

/ð/: Dental, Fricative, Voiced

The way pronouncing /ð/ is similar to /θ/, but the noise make by /ð/ is weaker andshorter than /θ/, and the vocal cord is vibrated

/s/: Alveolar, Fricative, Voiceless

To pronounce /s/, the tip and the blade of the tongue are very close to the alveolarridge The teeth are close together The soft palate is raised so that the breath goesout and causes a friction The friction sound is much greater than /f/ and /v/

/z/: Alveolar, Fricative, Voiced

The way pronouncing /z/ is similar to /s/, but when pronounce /z/, the vocal cordvibrates

/ʃ/: Palatal alveolar, Fricative, Voiceless

In order to pronounce /ʃ/, the soft palate raises so that the breath must go throughthe mouth, the tongue-tip is against the back of the alveolar ridge The lips areslightly rounded

/ʒ/: Palatal alveolar, Fricative, Voiced

The way pronouncing /ʒ/ is similar to /ʃ/, but there is vibration in the vocal cordwhen pronounce /ʒ/

/h/: Glottal, Fricative, Voiceless

In order to make /h/, the mouth is held ready for the vowel and a short gasp ofbreath is pushed up by the lungs

/tʃ/: Palatal alveolar, Affricative, Voiceless

The way make /tʃ/ is the combination of /t/ and /ʃ/ To make sound /tʃ/, the

tongue-tip touches the back part of the alveolar ridge, and the soft palate is raised sothat the breath is trapped for a short time Then, the breath released as friction The air stream is completely stopped then gradually releasing

/dʒ/: Palatal alveolar, Affricative, Voiced

The way pronouncing /dʒ/ is similar to /tʃ/, but voiced

/m/: Bilabial, Nasal, Voiced

To pronounce /m/, two lips combine together to close firmly, the soft palate islowered so that all the air is pushed out of the noise

/n/: Alveolar, Nasal, Voiced

To pronounce /n/, the soft palate is also lowered so that the air is forced to go out

of the noise, but the tongue-tip is against the alveolar ridge, and the sides of thetongue is against the sides of the palate

/ŋ/: Velar, Nasal, Voiced

In order pronounce /ŋ/, the soft palate is lowered and all the air passes outthrough the noise The back of the tongue against the soft palate blocks the mouth./l/: Alveolar, Lateral, Voiced

When we make the sound /l/, the soft palate is raised, the tongue-tip is in firmcontact with the alveolar ridge, obstructing the center of the mouth, the air passesbetween the sides of the tongue and the palate

/w/: Bilabial, Glide, Voiced

To make /w/, the two lips are rounded quite firmly, the vocal cord is open Itconsists of a quick glide from the vowel /u/ or /ʊ/

/r/: Post-alveolar, Glide, Voiced

To pronounced /r/, the tongue-tip raises up and touches the alveolar The tonguehas a curved shape with the tip pointing towards the hard palate at the back of thealveolar ridge

/j/: Palatal, Glide, Voiced

When we pronounce /j/, the body of the tongue reaches to the palate It consists

of a quick glide of vowel /i/ or /ɪ/

2.3 Common pronunciation problems of EFL learners with consonants

2.2.1 Some common problems

Speaking English like native speakers is dream of every English learner Theyare required to pronounce English accurately; however, they encounter many factors

to gain their desire One of those factors is that they have some common problemwhen they pronounce a different sound system from their first language According

to Avery and Ehrlich (1992), there are some common problems of English learnerswith consonants following:

a Aspiration of Plosives

Learners often have a number problems with the voiceless plosives /p t k/ Theyfailure to aspirate /p t k/ in initial positions, makes it sound like /b d g/ Forexample, pen, time, Kate may sound like ben, dime, gate

b Voicing of Fricatives

Learners are unable to make out the difference between voiced and voicelessfricatives They can easily make voiceless fricative /f s ʃ/, but difficulty with /v z ʒ/.There for, they pronounce rise and leave may sound like rice and leaf

c Voicing of Plosives in final distribution

Learners often pronounce voiceless final plosive instead of voiced For example,they will pronounce “cab” sound like “cap” Avery and Ehrlich (1992) state thatdemonstrating the distinction of voiced and voiceless of plosives is more difficult

than of fricatives Moreover, learners can also have problem with final voicedfricative, if they have problem in voicing final plosives.

d Dentals

Every learner, at first, always has difficulty with dentals, and then they willsubstitute voiceless consonants like /t s f/ for /θ/ and voiced consonants like /d z v/for /ð/ There for, mouth and lather may be pronounced as mouse and ladder

e Post-alveolar /r/

Many learners pronounce /r/ as in their native language, not like English /r/ Theypronounce /r/ with the tip of the tongue touches the tooth ridge repeatedly, while theEnglish /r/ with the tip of the tongue curled back and the lips rounded

In short, EFL learners often have problems in aspiration, distinction of voicedand voiceless consonants, mispronouncing dentals and the English /r/

2.3.2 Causes of problems in pronouncing English consonants of EFL learners

First, the influence of learner’s mother tongue affects to their pronunciation ofEnglish There are variety language systems that differ from the English system.Therefore, it makes the way of controlling speech organ of native EFL learners beunfamiliar to English Haries (2011) pointed out that since EFL learners often usetheir mother tongue as a starting point to learn English, they have problems inproducing English sounds Secondly, he also stated educational background mightcause problems in pronouncing The amount of time and the way practicepronunciation in English lesson can affect pronunciation ability of learners It canleads to leaners’ phonetic ability They may not know how to produce Englishsounds accurately To sum up, there are many factors that might effect learner’spronunciation of English consonants, yet mother tongue is the most influence

CHAPTER III- METHODOLOGY

In the previous chapter, a brief overview of the literature on the research topicwas given, which laid the theoretical basis for the whole study This chapterpresents the research methods that are used to carry out the study It also includesthe subject and the scope of the study Moreover, the research questions are clearlystated to act the parameter for the entire thesis

3.1 Subject of the study

This thesis focuses on problems in pronouncing English consonants faced by firstyear majored students in Tay Nguyen University who have not yet studiedPronunciation in Use subject in University, are students course 2019 of Faculty ofForeign Languages Studies at Tay Nguyen University Besides, the study aims todevelop solution to improve pronunciation by making the use of my experiencefrom Pronunciation in Use subject in second year and in Phonetic and Phonologysubject in third year, and from the use of previous studies from other Universities.Therefore, students from course 2019 classes of Faculty of Foreign LanguagesStudies at Tay Nguyen University are the most suitable subjects for this study There are three English majored course 2019 classes The English Pedagogyclass course 2019 contains 54 first year students, while there are 71 first yearstudents in the English language A class and 56 first year students in class B course

2019 However, this thesis does not concentrate on any specific pronunciation errors

or mistakes of every the students, and it just focus on the common problems thatthey have Therefore, there are only 60 first year students from course 2019 classestargeted as subject of the study Finally, 20 first year students of each class wereinvited randomly to do the recording and questionnaire survey

3.2 Scope of the study

To be good at pronunciation, there are numerous aspects students have toconcentrate on, including principle of vowels and consonants pronunciation,principle of the word stress or intonation of a sentence, etc…However, as said in2.2.2, there would be so many consonants that should be pronounced carefully, and

consonants should be first aspect to be concentrate on Thus, this thesis studies onthe problems in pronouncing English consonants of first year majored students.

3.3 Research question

In order to facilitate the study, the following research questions are conducted:

- Question 1: What are problems made by first year majored students when theypronounce English consonants?

- Question 2: What are causes of those problems?

3.4 Research method

To achieve the aims of the study successfully and effectively, the method of thisstudy is mix method of quantitative method and qualitative method The data arecollected by recording and survey questionnaire The reason of applying recordingmethod is that recording method can give voice and perception of the subjects forthe study It is a very useful tool to evaluate subjects’ pronunciation According toBurns (1999), the quantitative approach is employed when the research aims atachieving objectivity and control Therefore, to gain an overview of the causes ofproblems in pronouncing English consonants of first year majored students at TayNguyen University, a survey questionnaire was conducted

3.5 Description of data collect instrument

To answer the research questions, two methods are used: recording andquestionnaire First, recording are carried out to check what problems inpronouncing English consonants first year majored students have Therefore, 24single English consonant sounds are put in table There are 67 common words thatcontain English consonant sounds in initial, middle, and final distribution, are alsoput in the table following the consonant sounds The letters contains the consonantswere bolded in order to focus the students’ attentions on the consonants Therecording information also includes 11 sentences that contain many Englishconsonants, especially consonants in phonological oppositionss, are used to checkhow well the students can distinguish each consonant

After that, a questionnaire survey is delivered to obtain the students’ opinion onthe causes of their problems in pronouncing English consonants It consists of 6main causes that students may deal with and a blank for students to write more.

3.6 Data collection and analysis procedures

The data collection procedure was carried out when the SARS-CoV-2 pandemicspread, so the data was collected through e-mail and social media Though the datacollection procedure was executed online, there were some benefits First,participants can be more confidents and individual to do the survey Secondly, thestudents’ record reading can be clearer than those recorded in classes Beforerecording, students of majored course 2019 were sent information about Englishconsonant sounds, words, and sentences containing consonant sounds They wereall in a Microsoft word form The students had time to look for phonetictranscription of words they did not sure Afterwards, students were asked to readaloud the sounds, the words, and the sentences Their pronunciation were recorded

by their mobile phone and converted into MP3 format Finally, students did thequestionnaire survey and sent back to the researcher a recorded in mp3 file and aquestionnaire’s respond in Microsoft word file After all, 60 mp3 files andMicrosoft word files were collected to be analyzed

In the analysis procedures, the recorded readings were analyzed and compared toavailable recording, made by native-English speakers Then, students’ recordedreading were labelled inaccurate pronouncing English consonants in differentpositions of word, in order to check which consonants students have problems with.Besides, the responses of questionnaires were calculated in percentage After that,the results obtained from questionnaire and recording were analyzed and discussed

in the chapter IV Based on the results, some recommendations for improvingpronunciation in general and the English consonants in particular would be offered

to enhance the students’ English pronunciation and communication

3.7 Summary

This chapter has presented details about the subjects of the survey, whichincluded 60 students from English majored Course 2019 classes of Tay Nguyen