A study on some common pronunciation problems of first year english major students at thuongmai university

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY ---GRADUATION PAPER TOPIC: A STUDY ON SOME COMMON PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS OF THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY HANOI -

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

-GRADUATION PAPER

TOPIC:

A STUDY ON SOME COMMON PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS

OF THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY

HANOI - 2020

Nowadays, there is no doubt that English has become an international languagespoken in almost every corner of the world Besides, English actually plays anirreplaceable role in the period of integration, it not only allows us to broaden ourknowledge around the world, but also brings us many opportunities to connect withforeigners from different countries Thus, English has become a second language inVietnam Among four skills in English, speaking seems to be paid great attention ofEnglish learners Nevertheless, there is a large percentage of Vietnamese students whospeak English making mistakes with pronunciation

Therefore, understanding the difficulty of Vietnamese students about learningEnglish in general, and pronouncing English in particular This study will go into ofsome common pronunciation problem encountered by freshmen of English faculty atThuongmai University

In other words to find out the problematic sounds and the factors that causethese problems, then find some techniques that help improve their pronunciation Thedata from this survey are conducted by the freshmen of English faculty at ThuongmaiUniversity through questionnaire to collect essential information

The results of the study revealed that common pronunciation problemsencountered by the first year English major students at Thuongmai University werehow to accurately pronounce 5 common ending sounds /dʒ/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ð/ and /ʒ/ Thecauses of such errors that are also indicated that factors such as the interference, thedifferences in the sound system or cultural background between twolanguages.Besides, The study also provides the techniques, solutions and suggestionscompletely for both students and teachers Based on these findings, teachers aresuggested to increase students’ awareness on these errors and provide sufficientremedies to prevent students from internalizing such errors

Especially, I would like to express my my sincere thanks to my supervisor - Ms.Pham Thi Phuong Lien for her guidance to do the thesis in a effective way andprecious comments she gave throughout my research I really appreciate all her helpand suggestions on various drafts of the thesis Without her valuable advice andsupport, my graduation paper would have been impossible to be done on schedule

Additionally, I owe my deepest gratitude to my dear friends for their supportand warm encouragement throughout my hard times Without them, I could not haveovercome such times and concentrated on my study

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my lovingparents for their continuous encouragement during my study Thanks to their intensedevotion, I have overcome all difficulties and challenges and completed this thesis

Hanoi, 23th April, 2020

Student

Phung Thi Diem

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS AND TABLES vi

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous study 2

1.3 Aims of the study 6

1.4 Research subjects 6

1.5 Scope of the study 7

1.6 Research methodology 7

1.7 Organization of the study 9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 Pronunciation 10

2.1.1.Definition 10

2.1.2 The importance of pronunciation 11

2.2 Pronunciation error 12

2.2.1 What is pronunciation error ? 12

2.3 English sounds 13

2.3.1 Vowel sounds 13

2.3.2 Consonant sounds 16

2.4 English ending sounds 20

2.4.1 Definition 20

2.4.2 Ending sound errors 21

CHAPTER 3:RESEARCH FINDINGS 23

3.1 General introduction about English faculty of Thuongmai University 23

3.2 Participants and purposes of the survey questionnaire 24

3.3 The survey questionnaire 24

3.4 Data analysis 25

3.4.1 Data analysis from the questionnaire 25

3.4.2 Data analyzing from the Audio Record 34

3.5 Discussion 36

3.5.1 Objective causes 36

3.5.2 Subjective causes 37

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS 38

4.1 Suggestions to accurately pronounce 5 common ending sounds /dʒ/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ð/ and /ʒ/ 38

4.2 Suggested solutions to avoid ending sound errors and have good pronunciation 41

4.2.1 Suggested tips 41

4.2.2 Games and exercises 42

4.2.3 Tongue twisters 46

4.2.4 English songs 47

4.2.5 Using books, magazines, newspapers 48

CONCLUSION 50

REFERENCES vii

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE viii

APPENDIX 2: PASSAGE FROM CNN NEWS (audio record) x

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

No Abbreviated words Full phrase

1 TMU Thuongmai University

2 ESL English as a second language

LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS AND TABLE

Table 2.1: Classification of English consonants (Cawley, 1996) 20

Table 3.1 The percentage of the most difficult ending sounds 32

Table 3.2 Presents the number of errors made in the reading aloud test 35

Chart 3.1 The most favorite skill of first year English majors students 25

Chart 3.2 Student’s frequency of speaking English 26

Chart 3.3 The percentages of important factors in speaking 27

Chart 3.4 The importance of pronunciation in English speaking 28

Chart 3.5 Student’s experience in English pronunciation 29

Chart 3.6 Student’s frequency of making pronunciation mistakes 30

Chart 3.7 Student’s common pronunciation mistakes 31

Chart 3.8 The percentage of having difficulty in ending sounds 32

Figure 2.1 Vowel sounds 13

Figure 2.2 Diphthong vowels 16

Figure 2.3: Consonants and vowels (Reprinted from Sound foundations 1994 by Adrian Underhill with kind permission of Macmillan Education, UK) 17

Figure 2.4: Diagram of the vocal tract showing the places of articulation 18

Figure 4.1.Production of the sound /dʒ/ 39

Figure 4.2: Production of sound /θ/ 39

Figure 4.3.Production of the sound /ʃ/ 40

Figure 4.4: Production of sound /θ/ 40

Figure 4.5 Production of sound /ʒ/ 41

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

In 4.0 technology era, English has become a extremely popular language allaround the world Up to now, there are out of approximately 7.5 billion inhabitants inthe world, and 1.5 billion speak English that occupy 20% of the overall population onthe Earth However, most of those people aren’t native English speakers, only 360million people speak English as their first language This demonstrates this language iswidely used for communicating among people from different countries throughout theglobal

Especially, with the rapid booming age of information and technology inVietnam ,English also plays an essential role in the period of integration, as well as inthe industrialization and modernization process of our country As a result, it hasadopted as one of the most important subjects in many schools with the aim toimprove English skill as well as to get advantageous opportunities to develop instrongly competitive economy Since English is one of the core subjects at school,more and more schools are teaching English to their pupils, and English centers an befound popular in any cities in Vietnam, especially big cities

However, we all perceive that if learners want to learn English well, fourEnglish skills are essential for every English learners.However, Vietnamese studentsseem to focus on reading and writing rather than speaking.At school, they are taughtabout vocabulary and grammar by teachers, and they spend a lot of time on doinghomework for examination Meanwhile speaking english seems to be less paidattention than the others, which is the main reason why they get difficulties withspeaking

In fact, there are many other factors that affect speaking English such asintonation, grammar, linking, rhythm, context and so on … and pronunciation isconsidered the most important one

After long time of observing and investigation, I found that Vietnamese learnersencounter great difficulties in learning English pronunciation for several reasonsbecause the English sound system has several sounds that Vietnamese do not have Or

the way English speakers pronounce the ending sounds is completely different fromthe one deeply rooted in Vietnamese speakers, making it more difficult for them topronounce English appropriately Moreover, Vietnamese is kind of language whichhas single words with no ending sounds while those play an important role in Englishpronunciation.

Consequently, English learners have difficulties with English pronunciation,especially ending sounds And ending sound errors are also typical and popular to firstyear of English faculty at Thuongmai University

For these reasons, the writer made a decision to prefer the topic : “A study onsome common pronunciation problems of first year English major students atThuongmai University” in an attempt to find out their common pronunciationproblems Hopefully, this study will help students understand deeply about the issuesthat they have not noticed before and suggest some solutions to solve the problems andhelp them improve their pronunciation

1.2 Previous study

Understanding the importance of English in general, as well as Englishpronunciation skill in specific and variety of pronunciation problems faced bylearners , many studies have been carried out to help them recognized their commonproblems and will be the useful reference with the solutions suggested which help thestudents be able to selfcorrect their common mistakes and find out their own effectiveways in leaning in order to improve their pronunciation skill Furthermore, it helps thestudents not only improve their language learning but also have a great advantage fortheir future ideal job These studies have been written by experienced translators orteachers who clearly understand the issues related to pronunciation Thus, I would like

to rely on these studies as references materials for my graduation paper

According to the study by Ms.Afsana Begum with the title : “A case study about English Pronunciation Problems of the Tertiary Level Students in Bangladesh”.

This study has been conducted with 35 students of various districts fromdifferent departments of five universities in Bangladesh Presentation of 10students has also been observed by the researchers

This paper analyzes some problems concerning pronunciation of Englishlearners in Bangladesh Ten teachers specialized in language and linguistics fromfive universities have also been provided with a structured questionnaire to havecomplementary information and to know their opinions regarding pronunciationproblems of the students A mixed method methodology has been adopted by theresearchers for this research Using mixed methods methodology, the paper providessome problematic English vowel and consonant sounds the tertiary students make, onthe basis of sources like interview of students and recording it for collectingpronunciation samples, questionnaire distributed to the teachers for collecting opinionsregarding students‟ English pronunciation, reading a passage that contains some words

of problematic pronunciation and presentation of some selected tertiary students Thedata collected from above sources have been analyzed following the StandardPronunciation system of English

On the basis of findings, there are some outstanding factors which areresponsible for poor pronunciation of English From interaction with the teachersand students the factors that this study brings out are: social factors, such as- studentsare not motivated by the friends or the family members or even by the teachers

to produce correct English; lack of efficient teachers in phonetics and phonology;lack of using modern technology at the educational institutions; economic factor; lack

of motivation; students‟ lack of exposure to the target language; poor pronunciationstandard of the teachers; massive first language interference and pre-establishedsystems of English pronunciation After pinpointing the common errors and the causesleading to these errors, some pedagogical implications and recommendations havebeen presented for the students and the teachers to improve existing Englishpronunciation problems of students gradually

There are some factors which are responsible for poor pronunciation ofEnglish From interaction with the teachers and students the factors that this studybrings out are: social factors, such as- students are not motivated by the friends orthe family members or even by the teachers to produce correct English; lack ofefficient

teachers in phonetics and phonology; lack of using modern technology at theeducational institutions; economic factor; lack of motivation; students‟ lack ofexposure to the target language; poor pronunciation standard of the teachers; massivethe first language interference and pre-established systems of English pronunciation.

Another study which is also about pronunciation problems was written by

Elkhair Muhammad Idriss Hassan The tittle of her study is : “Pronunciation Problems: A Case Study of English Language Students at Sudan University of Science and Technology” This study investigates the problems in English pronunciation

experienced by learners whose first language is Sudanese Spoken Arabic In otherwords to find the problematic sounds and the factors that cause these problems

In this study, the data has been collected from 50 students (first year) of SUST,College of Education after they have completed a whole year at the university.Samples of their pronunciation were recorded in addition to the observation in whichsome notes were written about their pronunciation A structured questionnaire to beanswered by the university teachers to write their opinions and ideas about the exactreasons that make SSEs mispronounce some English sounds, and suitable ways thathelp them improve their pronunciation All the data were analyzed later on statisticaland descriptive basis.For calculating the validity and the reliability of the questionnairedifferent methods were used e.g Split-half using Spearman-Brown equation For thereliability and the validity of the findings of the whole study sample some statisticalinstruments were used such as mean, median and Chi-square Test, and this isdescribed in detail in the discussion section of the whole study

The findings of the study revealed that Sudanese Students of English whoselanguage background is Sudanese Spoken Arabic, had problems with thepronunciation of English vowels that have more than one way of pronunciation inaddition to the consonant sound contrasts e.g /z/ and /ð/, /s/ and /θ/, /b/ and /p/, /ʃ/and /tʃ/ Based on the findings, the study concluded that factors such as Interference,the differences in the sound system in the two languages, inconsistency of Englishsounds and spelling militate against Sudanese Students of English (SSEs) competence

in pronunciation Then, some recommendations and techniques were suggested thatthe Sudanese Students of English can apply to improve their pronunciation

In the study of Sawsan Mohamed Ali Mabyou with the title : “ Investigating Pronunciation Problems among 8th Level Basic Schools “.The study aims at

investigating the problems of pronunciation for 8th level of basic schools students inKhartoum Locality, Sahafa Basic Schools, and also finding the relationship betweenpronunciation errors and factors such as mother tongue interference differences insound system between first languages a second language inconsistency betweenspellings and sound especially Arabic and English

The study employed test research method where the researcher used Englishlanguage such as vowels and consonants in pronunciation words in the experimentalgroup to help explaining things when they were not clear The findings of the researchsupport the hypothesis that mother tongue interference, inconsistency, spelling andsound system differences between two languages that affect pronunciation and leadthe learners of other languages to mis pronunciation

After pinpointing the common errors and the causes leading to these errors, theresearcher gives some suggestion for students to improve their pronunciation skill aswell as some teaching strategies for teacher to apply to classroom teaching andlearning

The forth study is researched and written by Sattra Sahatsathatsana The title of

this study is: ” Pronunciation Problems of Thai Students Learning English Phonetics:

A Case Study at Kalasin University ” The purposes of this study were: to investigate

the students’ opinions on problems in phonetics learning, and to find out factorscausing the problems in phonetics learning of students The samples were 12undergraduate English for International Communication students studying an EnglishPhonetics course of which 6 of them were purposively selected for an interview Theresearch instruments used were a questionnaire and a semi-interview form The resultsfrom the students’ opinion reflected that some sounds especially [θ], [ð], and [ʤ]θ], [θ], [ð], and [ʤ]ð], and [θ], [ð], and [ʤ]ʤ]caused students’ serious problems of phonetics learning in the segmental level.Linking was also reported that it caused serious problems of phonetics learning insuprasegmental level Besides, phonetic ability was reported as the factor mostlycaused problems in phonetics learning It could be concluded that the opinion ofdifference of sound system between English and Thai and some factors including

phonetic ability, native language, prior English pronunciation learning, instruction, andmotivation caused the students’ problem in phonetics learning as well.

This study has been conducted with 35 students of various districts fromdifferent departments of five universities in Bangladesh Presentation of 10students has also been observed by the researchers Ten teachers specialized inlanguage and linguistics from five universities have also been provided with astructured questionnaire to have complementary information and to know theiropinions regarding pronunciation problems of the students A mixed methodmethodology has been adopted by the researchers for this research

1.3 Aims of the study

My study is about to find out common pronunciation problems of the first yearEnglish faculty students at Thuongmai University as well as suggest solutions toimprove their pronunciation skill To summarize the above, the study is implemented

to two main aims :

 The first one is to figure out the common pronunciation problemsencountered by the freshmen of English faculty at Thuongmai University

 The second one is to provide techniques possible solutions to help themovercome the problems and improve their own pronunciation skill

I hope this study can help them to see the problem and self-correct forthemselves

1.4 Research subjects

In the study, the research subjects are various pronunciation problems made bythe first year English faculty students at Thuongmai University Particularly, below arethe research problems to handle in the study:

 Various main difficulties English-majored freshmen faced as pronunciation

in English

 Some common problems in pronouncing English of freshmen in EnglishDepartment

 Some solutions and suggestions to enhance pronunciation skill of freshmen

as well as develop the appropriate methods for educators

1.5 Scope of the study

There are many mistakes of English pronunciation that first years studentsencounter when speaking However, this study does not aim to cover all problems withpronunciation errors of the learners With the time limitation, the research just focus

on the most common pronunciation mistakes of first year English majors atThuongmai University, that is five common ending sounds : /dʒ/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ð/ and /ʒ/

The study was conducted on 46 first-year students of English Department atThuong Mai University The author hopes this study will be a useful material for everystudent who concern this issue and help to get rid of their pronunciation mistakes

1.6 Research methodology

Data collection instruments: The main instrument used in the study to collect

data was Online questionnaire survey and Reading aloud test (audio recorded)

1 Online questionnaire: The questionnaire is considered as a common

instrument to collect data in research It aims at finding out the attitude and problems

of students toward pronunciation problems , their view of errors as well as their

3

Data Analysis & Presentation

Analyzing data questionnaire Error analysis and identification of students' pronunciation errors through audiorecording of reading aloud test

difficulties in pronunciation skill The questionnaire helps us look for necessaryinformation and research main problems relating to the research subject.

The questionnaires of study are described as below:

 What are the common types of pronunciation problems which majored freshmen at Thuongmai University frequently make in speaking English ?

English- What are techniques and solutions to improve English pronunciation on dailybasis ?

Procedures

Step 1: Determining and preparing the content of designing questions

Step 2: Starting survey by asking English-majored freshmens at ThuongmaiUniversity the listed questions and determine the solutions they apply when speakingEnglish

Step 3: Collecting the solutions from their answers

Step 4: Giving reliable figures with charts and conclusion from the calculatedresults

After the survey, the researcher analyze quality and quantity of the question andinterview, then collect information sources and statistics to conduct and makejudgement on results to give the accurate proportion of pronunciation made bystudents

2 Reading aloud test (audio recorded).

The audio recordings were analyzed for mispronounced sounds based on thepassage of a newspaper from CNN News When error analysis was performed, eachstudent recording was listened to and analyzed to confirm the mispronounced sounds.The analyzed data are quantified to illustrate the pronunciation errors and theirfrequencies

Procedures

Step 1: Preparing the passage for the audio record

Step 2: Sending the passage for English-majored freshmens at ThuongmaiUniversity to record

Step 3: Gathering the results from their records

Step 4: Analyzing the records and finding out the mistakes of speaking as well

as pronunciation from the record results

1.7 Organization of the study

The study was divided into four following chapters:

Chapter 1: Overview of the study

In this part, the study deals with certain primary sessions including rationale,previous study, aims of study, research subjects, the scope of the study, researchmethodology and organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

This chapter presents the theoretical background related to the issue includingEnglish pronunciation, its importance and some opinions of pronunciation errors

In addition, the chapter distributes the discussion of researcher, gives varioustechnique to summary literature databases for research findings

Chapter 3: Research findings

Basing on the data collection from survey questionnaire and, the issues will beanalyzed in depth in order to provide realistic information about ending soundmistakes of first year English majors

Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions

This chapter will give first year English majors solutions to improve theirEnglish pronunciation Conclusion is the quick summary of the above chapters andsome limitations in doing research on From that, the researcher can give somerecommendations for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Pronunciation

2.1.1.Definition

English pronunciation is considered as one of the most difficult skills to acquireand learners should spend lots of time to improve their pronunciation Therefore, toevery English speaking learners, the first thing they need to learn is pronunciation.They have to know how to pronounce a word correctly before they learn the otherskills in English, so what is pronunciation? In this part, definition of pronunciation will

be presented to provide more information for all students

First of all, the definition of Wikipedia about pronunciation is that:

“Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken This may refer togenerally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language

in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation"), or simply the way a particular individualspeaks a word or language.”

On the other hand, Cook (1996 as cited in Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2016) definedpronunciation as the production of English sounds Pronunciation is learnt by repeatingsounds and correcting them when produced inaccurately When learners start learningpronunciation they make new habits and overcome the difficulties resulting from thefirst language

According to the AMEP Fact sheets, pronunciation was defined that: “Theproduction of sounds that we use to make meaning It includes attention to theparticular sounds of a language (segments), aspects of speech beyond the level of theindividual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (suprasegmentalaspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality) and, in its broadest definition,attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related to the way we speak alanguage Each of these aspects of pronunciation is briefly outlined below, andreferences for further study are suggested”

Or “Pronunciation is the production of a sound system which doesn't interferewith communication either from the speakers’ or the listeners’ viewpoint” (Paulston &Burder, 1976) Pronunciation is the way of uttering a word in an accepted manner

(Otlowski, 1998) Furthermore, Richard and Schmidt (2002) defined pronunciation asthe method of producing certain sounds.

Besides, pronunciation was also put as “the way in which a language is spoken”(Oxford Advance Learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992:718) The Oxford AdvancedLearner’s Dictionary, 8th end (2008) makes clear pronunciation is “the way in which alanguage or a particular word or sound pronounced” There are so many differentdefinitions of pronunciation, this one from Oxford Dictionary seems to be easier tounderstand: “ pronunciation is the way in which a word is pronounced”

Seeing a number of definition about pronunciation, learners also understandthat pronunciation plays an essential role beside other skills in English in order toconcentrate more in learning pronouncing

2.1.2 The importance of pronunciation

As mentioned above, pronunciation is very important in speaking but manystudents studying English as a second language is not paying adequate attention toEnglish pronunciation This underestimation of the importance of pronunciation ismainly because students tend to think mistakenly that pronunciation is less importantcompared to other aspects of the English language such as grammar, lexicology andvocabulary

However, there is a fact that the others can not understand if words werepronounced wrong Therefore, in order to speak English correctly and precisely,pronunciation should be paid more attention to Furthermore, right pronunciation canhelp with the process of acquiring new vocabulary Pronouncing words is often a part

of memorizing them in learning language, so getting a strong, basic foundation incorrect pronunciation early will equate to more effective learning overall

According to AMEP Fact sheets of AMEP Research Centre, “ learners withgood pronunciation in English are more likely to be understood even if they makeerrors in other areas, whereas learners whose pronunciation is difficult to understandwill not be understood, even if their grammar is perfect”.Obviously, foreigners onlyunderstand what you say when you pronounce correctly as them, so learners with poorpronunciation need improve their speaking skill

Talking about the importance of pronunciation, Harmer (2001) expressed thatthe first thing that native speakers notice during a conversation is pronunciation.Grammar and vocabulary are important elements of language and they can be useless

if the speakers cannot pronounce those elements or words accurately Native speakerscan understand people, despite their grammatical errors, if they use accuratepronunciation Communicative efficiency can be guaranteed by correct pronunciation.Pronunciation is an essential part of communication and without correct pronunciationnobody can say that he/she knows the English language perfectly Harmer (2001) alsoemphasized that through pronunciation instruction, students not only learn differentsounds and sound features but also improve their speaking skill Concentrating onsounds causes learners aware of where words should be stressed and they give themmore information about spoken English and help them get the goal ofcomprehension and intelligibility

In short, pronunciation is something that is very important to English learners.Obliviously, no one can deny the importance of pronunciation It considered as one ofthe most significant factors in English speaking It makes foreigners understand clearlywhen people have a conversation Thus, students should take pronunciation intoaccount to have good pronunciation when speaking English

2.2 Pronunciation error

2.2.1 What is pronunciation error ?

When we learn any new language in general or English in particular, it isunvoidable to make mistakes in pronunciation, especially for new English learners.However, do we have a clear understanding about the question what is pronunciationerror ?

According to Pham Cam Chi, she gave out the definition of pronunciationbasing on the definition of Jenkins (2006:36) in Nguyen (2007)is that , “pronunciationerrors are variants of pronunciation which prevent one communicator fromunderstanding the propositional content of the other’s utterances” Or error can bedefined “the flawed side of learner speech or writing”, which “deviates from someselected norm of mature language performance” by Dulay, Burt and Krashen(1982:138)

Therefore, pronunciation error is the factor which causes the misunderstandingbetween language learners and foreigners, and there are many kind of the errors.Richards (1971) acknowledges 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 In another research, Ellis (1997) states thaterrors reflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the learner does notknow what the correct one is However, mistakes reflect occasional lapses inperformance; they occur because in particular instance, the learner is unable to performwhat she or he knows (Ellis, 1997)

In general, there are many reasons that cause pronunciation error and makelearners have difficulty in speaking, so every English learners will make pronunciationmistakes at least several times while learning speaking and also need time and theirpatience to improve Especially, students should realize and solve their pronunciationproblems as soon as possible

Vowels are “sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips” (Roach, 2000:10).

On the other hand, Vowel is defined as:” a speech sound produced by humanswhen the breath flows out through the mouth without being blocked by the teeth,tongue, or lips”, according to Cambridge dictionary

According to English phonetics and phonology, vowel was defined as below: “Vowel is a speech sound inn which the air stream from the lung is not blocked in anyway in the mouth or throat and which is usually pronounced with the vibration of thevocal cords”

2.3.2.2 Classification and description of Vowels

 Monophthongs

The most basic vowel sound is known as a monophthong (pronounced /ˈmɑnəfYθɑŋ/) A monophthong is a single sound within a single syllable Most of these areshort vowels, though there are some long vowel monophthongs as well

1) The first monophthongs

/ i: / as in the words bean, leap, sheep etc is pronounced in the front part of thevocal tract with the lips in a relatively close and spread position This is a long vowel

2) The second monophthongs / ɪ / as in the words bin, lip, ship, it, etc isproduced in the front-centralized part the vocal tract with the lips in a half close andspread position This is a short vowel

3) The third monophthong / e / as in the words men, pen, ten, etc is articulated

in the front part of the vocal tract with the lips in their mid and spread position This is

a short vowel

4) The fourth monophthong / æ / as in the words man, pan, tan etc ispronounced in the front part of the vocal tract with the lips in a half open and spreadposition This is also a short vowel

5) The fifth monophthong / ʌ / as in the words cut, nut, shut, etc is articulated inthe central part of the vocal tract with the lips in a half open position It is short vowel

6) The sixth monophthong / ɑ: / as in the words bards card, farm etc is produced

in the back part of the vocal tract with the lips with their completely open and spreadposition It is a long vowel

7) The seventh monophthong / ɒ / as in the words dog, pot, fog etc is articulated

in the vocal tract with the lips in a half open and rounded position It is a short vowel

8) The eight monophthong / ɔ: / as in the words lord, cord, short etc is produced

in the back part of the vocal tract with the lips in their mind rounded position It is along vowel 9) The ninth monophthong as / ə / in the words ago, today, perhaps etc ispronounced in the part of the vocal tract with the lips in their mid position It is theshortest vowel in the English language

10) The tenth monophthong as / ɜ: / in the words bird, girl, shirt etc is produced

in the central part of the vocal tract with the lips in their mid position It is a longvowel

11) The eleventh monophthong as / ʊ / in the words book, look, cook, etc isarticulated in the back-centralized part of the vocal tract with the lips in their half-closeand rounded position It is a short vowel

12) The twelfth monophthong as / u: / in the words fool, cool, tool etc ispronounced in the back of the vocal tract with the lips in their close and proundposition It is a long vowel

There are eight diphthongs commonlyused in English They are: /eɪ/, /aɪ/,/əʊ/,/aʊ/, /ɔɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, and /ʊə/

Before studying about ending sounds, students also have to learn aboutconsonants first because consonant sound is the factor that is relevant to resulting inending sound mistake is consonant sounds Hence, in the process of providingtheoretical background with relevant literature of the study, I also would like to givingdefinition, classification and description of consonant sounds for the bestunderstanding for this research.

Figure 2.3: Consonants and vowels (Reprinted from Sound foundations

1994 by Adrian Underhill with kind permission of Macmillan Education, UK)

2.3.2.1 Definition

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic (1992:192),consonants are “speech sounds made by completely or partly stopping the flow of airbreathed out through the mouth”

Besides, the term consonant is defined as: “a consonant is a speech sound that isarticulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract”

Consonants is also defined “ A speech sound that's not a vowel; a letter of thealphabet that represents a speech sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction

of the air stream by a constriction of the speech organs”

In English phonetics and phonology (Peter Roach, 2000:10), the term consonantcan be defined as: “sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passesthe larynx to the lips” The production of sounds, consonant was defined: “Consonantsounds are the sounds, in the production of which one articulator moves towardsanother or two articulators come together obstructing the air stream and the air streamcan’t get out freely.”

2.3.2.2 Classification and description of consonants

Marianne, Donna and Janet (1996:42,43) presented that the consonants

system was classified according to place and manner of articulation

Figure 2.4: Diagram of the vocal tract showing the places of articulation

According to place of articulation, consonants are classified into 9 types:

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

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

Dentals: are the sounds which are produced with the tip or blade of the tonguetouching the upper front teeth / θ, ð/

Alveolar: are the sounds which are produced with the tip or blade of the tonguetouching or approaching the alveolar ridge /t, d, s, z, n, l/

Retroflex: is the sound which is produced with the tip of the tongue curlingback towards the back of the alveolar ridge /r/

Palate - alveolar: are the sounds which are produced with the tongue tip orblade coming close to the area between the back of the alveolar ridge and the front ofthe hard palate /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ 9

Palatal: is the sound which is produced with the front of the tongue comingclose to the hard palate /j/

Velars: are the sounds which are produced with the back of the tongue touchingthe soft palate /k, g, ŋ/

Glottal: are the sounds which are produced without the active use of the tongueand other parts of the mouth /h/

According to manner of articulation, consonants include 6 types:

Nasals: they are produced with the air- stream being stopped in the oral cavitybut the soft palate is down so that the air can go out through the nose /m, n, ŋ/

Plosives: are the sounds which are produced with the air-stream being stopped

in the oral cavity and the soft palate is raised blocking off the nasal cavity Then thetwo articulators come apart quickly and the air escapes through the oral tract /p, b, t,

d, k, g/

Fricatives: are the sounds in the production of which two articulators comeclose together but there is still a small opening between them so the airstream ispartially obstructed and an audible friction noise is produced /f, v, ʃ, ʒ, θ, ð, s, z, h/

Affricates: are the sounds which are produced when a stop is immediatelyfollowed by a fricative / tʃ , dʒ/

Lateral: is the sound which is made when the air-stream is obstructed at a pointalong the centre of the oral tract, with incomplete closure between one or both sides ofthe tongue and the roof of the mouth / l /

Approximants: are the sounds in the production of which two articulators comeclose together but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that afriction noise is produced /r, w, j/

Table 2.1: Classification of English consonants (Cawley, 1996).

2.4 English ending sounds

2.4.1 Definition

To every English learners, the word “ ending sound” is pretty popular inspeaking To understand easily, “ending sounds” are sounds that occur at the end ofthe word It refers to the consonant sounds as the word can end with one or moreconsonant sounds (consonant clusters) Ending sounds are called Codas: “The coda isthe final consonant or consonant cluster.” (Barbara and Brian, 1997) According toRachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey– Roehampton (UnderstandingEnglish Variation, Week 3)

There are 4 consonants in a coda If there are no consonants at the end of theword, it has a zero coda A single consonant is called the final consonant Anyconsonant except “h, r, w and j” may be a final coda

Example: Final consonant sounds in English are listed as below:

/p/ - sheep, stop, cheap

/b/ - transcribe, crab

/t/ - start, smart, seat, meat, wet

/d/ - ride, sad, bread, road,

/k/ - pick, speak, peak

/f/ - leaf, belief, roof, half, sniff

/v/ - leave, arrive, live, love, five

/tʃ/ - teach, watch, much/dʒ/- bridge, large, village/m/- come, some, warm, time/n/ - than, man, sun, tin, cone/ŋ/ - sing, spring, wrong, wing/l/ - pool, smile, veil, call, girl/ʒ/ - message, garage, massage

/θ/ - earth, health, worth

/ð/ - breathe, clothe, with

/s/ - stress, goes, rice, bus, six

/z/ - these, plays, buzz, prize

/g/ - beg, dog, clog, bag/ʃ/ - crash , wash, rush

When there are two or more consonants standing at the end of the word, theterms “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: stopped, speaks)

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

2.4.2 Ending sound errors

According to Mark (2008), ending sound errors can be defined as “theinaccurate pronunciation of the final consonant in a word” In the previous research onending sounds errors by Pham Cam Chi (Errors 1st year students at E.D, Hulis), theclassifications of ending sounds errors were given out according to Treiman (1989).They are: Cluster reduction, Cluster Simplification, Epenthesis, Coalescence, Omittingnasal and liquid sounds and phonetically possible spelling

Hereunder is introduction about 6 types of ending sounds errors accordingtoTreiman (1989):

Cluster reduction: This is the “deletion of one or more consonants from a targetcluster so that only a single consonant occurs at syllable margins” (Grunwell, 1987:

217, as cited in Treiman (1989) )

Cluster Simplification: The error occurs when one/some elements of a clusterbeing is/are produced in a different manner from the target phoneme (Grunwell.(1987), as cited in Treiman(1989))

Epenthesis: This is the insertion of some vowel (normally a schwa) betweencluster elements (Dyson & Paden (1983), as cited in Treiman(1989))

Coalescence: It occurs when the yielded pronunciation contains a newconsonant composed of features from the original consonants (Dyson & Paden(1983), as cited in Treiman(1989))

Omitting nasal and liquid sounds: In consonants cluster consisting of prefinal+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 (Treiman, Zukowski &Richmond, Wetly, (1995 ))

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

&Bourassa (2000).)

In her research, ending sound errors were divided into 3 groups:

Reduction is omitting the final consonant or one element of a cluster

Insertion is inserting a consonant to the ending of word

Substitution is replacing an English consonant by a phonetically similar ofVietnamese sound In current study, the findings of students’ tapes recorded andobservation will be analyzed according to the three types of errors as mentioned above

CHAPTER 3:RESEARCH FINDINGS

3.1 General introduction about English faculty of Thuongmai University

Thuongmai University (formerly named as Vietnam University of Commerce)

is a multi-major training university with a large number of teaching staffs with lots ofexperience and enthusiasm And English is the faculty that I am studying and carryingout the survey for the study

The English faculty of Thuongmai University was established in 2007 In thefaculty, students studied the specialized knowledge of four skills: listening, reading,writing and speaking The curriculum of English Department has changed duringmany years At present, each skill is considered as a different subject In the middlesemester, students must a middle test and presentation with each skill to examine theirability of language When making them in writing subject, the students need to use andpractice writing skills about academic paragraphs or segments of various topicsincluding: education, politic, economic, culture, etc

In so far as I concerned, the number of the first year English faculty students in

a class quite big, approximately 45-55 students, even higher in each class That is notmention the fact that they have just left the high school and they come from differentplaces and experienced different learning condition Their basic English, therefore, notequal However, they begin to acquaint with the new learning environment atuniversity and are fully aware of the fact that English is really important and necessaryfor their future work As a consequence, their attitudes toward learning English seem

to be serious

At Thuongmai University, each classroom of the first year English majorstudents is equipped a radio and many cassettes in English lesson Additionally, theteachers sometimes use projector to make English lessons more interesting andeffective Teachers often organize English contests encourage students to express theirabilities Moreover, there are many useful activities such as organizing some smallfestivals such as: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine… to play together, exchangeknowledge and relax Sometimes, they have many chance to talk and study withforeigners This is an outstanding advantage and a good condition to help them