Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions

Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions Factors leading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourthyear English major students at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions

Pronunciation is an integral part of foreign language learning since it directlyaffects learners' communicative competence as well as performance The limitation inpronunciation can decrease learners’ self-confidence, restrict social interactions, andnegatively affect estimations of a speaker’s credibility and abilities The current focus

on communicative approaches to EFL pronunciation learning and the concern forbuilding communication skills are renewing interest in the role that pronunciationplays in EFL learners’ overall communicative competence

This study investigates the factors which affect English pronunciation of year English major students at Thuongmai University In other words to find theobstacles of students and the factors that cause these problems Then find sometechniques that help fourth-year English major students at Thuongmai Universityimprove their pronunciation The method used for researching is quantitative Theinstruments used for collecting the data were interviews, recordings and a structuredquestionnaire The collected data were analyzed both descriptively and artistically The purposes of this paper are to identify the features of pronunciation, find outthe common English pronunciation mistakes, explain factors affecting the learning ofpronunciation, discuss the strategies that can help fourth-year English major students

fourth-at Thuongmai University improve their pronuncifourth-ation The review of literfourth-ature showsthat with careful preparation and integration, pronunciation can play a significant role

in supporting the learners’ overall communicative skill

During the process of conducting my graduation paper, I have received plenty ofenthusiastic help and support from my teachers and friends who have guided andencouraged me to overcome all difficulties and finish this hard but meaningful time Iwould like to extend my sincere thanks to those lending me a hand in accomplishingthe graduation paper

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the teachers

of The English Faculty at Thuongmai University, who have imparted goldenknowledge to me From these supports, I can improve me English skills and have agood background to achieve my dream

Secondly, I sincerely thank Master Do Thi Bich Dao, my supervisor who hasgiven me useful guidance and advice for finishing my graduation paper successfully.Last but not least, I am grateful to all of the lovely English major students ofThuongmai University who contributed and had warm cooperation to help me duringthe process I carried out my survey

In short I am really thankful to all people helping me to finish my graduationpaper

Thank you sincerely!

Ha Noi, November, 2020

Nguyen Huu Ngoc Anh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 1

1.2.1 Foreign studies 1

1.2.2 Domestic Studies 3

1.3 Aims of the study 5

1.4 Research Subjects 5

1.5 Scope of the study 5

1.6 Research methodology 6

1.7 Organization of the study 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 English pronunciation 9

2.1.1 Definition of pronunciation 9

2.1.2 The importance of pronunciation 10

2.2 Factors affecting pronunciation learning 11

2.2.1 The native language 11

2.2.2 Exposure to English and native speakers 12

2.2.3 Phonetic ability 12

2.2.4 Background knowledge of learners 13

2.2.5 Attitude 13

2.2.6 Motivation 13

2.3 The common mistakes in English pronunciation 14

2.3.1 Consonants 15

2.3.2 Ending sound 16

2.3.3 Word stress 17

2.3.4 Intonation 18

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 20

3.1 Data analysis 20

3.1.1 Research question 1: What are the situations of fourth-year English major students at Thuong Mai University toward English pronunciation? 20

3.1.2 Research question 2: What are the common mistakes in English pronunciation of fourth-year English major students at Thuongmai University? 24

3.1.3 Research question 3: What factors affect English pronunciation of fourth-year English major students at Thuongmai University? 26

3.1.4 Research question 4: What are the suggestions to deal with pronunciation problems of fourth-year English major students at Thuongmai University? 28

3.2 Interview 33

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 37

4.1 Major findings of the study 37

4.2 Ways to improve pronunciation 39

4.2.1 Ways for students to improve pronunciation 39

4.2.2 Ways for teachers to create motivation learning pronunciation for students 41

4.2.3 Some suggested books for students referring 44

4.3 Limitation of the study and suggestion for further study 46

4.4 Future Research Recommendations 46

REFERENCES 48 APPENDIX

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Consonants and vowels in English by Pedro Gumie 15Figure 3.1 Number of years students have been learning English 20Figure 3.2 The distribution of participants by level of Phonetics and Phonologysubject’s score 21Figure 3.3 Student’s frequency in making pronunciation mistakes when speaking 22Figure 3.4 Students’s attitudes toward subjects related to English pronunciation such

as speaking and phonetics & phonology 23Figure 3.5 Participant's frequency of practicing English pronunciation at home 24Figure 3.6 The common mistakes in English pronunciation of fourth-year Englishmajor students at Thuongmai University 25Figure 3.7 The influence of factors on English pronunciation of fourth-year Englishmajor students 26Figure 3.8 Solutions for teachers to improve students’ English pronunciation 32

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

In recent years, English has been one of the most commonly used languages inthe world English is not only used for communication purposes but also used in manyother fields such as tourism, foreign trade, culture exchanges etc among a lot ofcountries around the world In the context of globalization in Vietnam, English is alsoused as the second language and plays an important role for students whencommunicating Nonetheless, most of the students focus on reading and writing skillsrather than speaking They spend a lot of time learning grammar to deal with tests andexams rather than practicing pronunciation and speaking skills in class and at home toimprove their communication skills Therefore, it is quite obvious that students areafraid of speaking English Moreover, like students elsewhere in the non-Englishspeaking countries, Vietnamese students encounter great difficulties in learningEnglish pronunciation because they have little opportunity to contact with nativespeakers in the target language while teachers are the main source of modellingpronunciation in the classroom During my English learning at Thuongmai especially

my own experience in learning Phonetics and Phonology subject in the third year.However, I find out that if I spend more time on practicing, the English pronunciationproblems will be overcome and I really want to enhance my English pronunciation.For these reasons I mentioned above, I have decided to carry out a study on: “Factorsleading to pronunciation mistakes when speaking of fourth-year English majorstudents at Thuong Mai University and possible solutions” to research

1.2 Previous studies

There have been a lot of outstanding studies which research the factors affectingthe English pronunciation These studies not only gave the author valuable referencematerial but also inspired the author to conduct this study to fulfill the gap left bythem

1.2.1 Foreign studies

Firstly, the study “Non-Native Pronunciation of English: Problems and

Solutions” was written by Norma It was issued in September 2017 (Vol.7, No.3) inthe American International Journal of Contemporary Research The aims of the study

include: Finding the obstacles that Jordanian students face in pronunciation, as a result

of linguistics interference, investigating the factors that cause the phonologicalinterference between Arabic and English, and trying to find fundamental solutions forthis problem and trying to find fundamental solutions for these obstacles The study isalso conducted with the research questions: What are the obstacles that Jordanianstudents encounter in English pronunciation? What factors cause these obstacles? Andwhat solutions can be suggested to ease these obstacles? The author uses somemethods to do the research with Jordanian students such as: oral interview andpronunciation test The research subjects are the obstacles that Jordanian studentsencounter in English pronunciation, causes and solutions for the obstacles Finally, theauthor obtained the following research results: the English Jordanian students in bothuniversities committed different kinds of errors in: vowels, diphthongs, consonants,stress, and consonant clusters, an important challenge the Jordanian studentsencountered in the pronunciation test is “the consonant cluster”, the differencesbetween Arabic and English in: Vowels, diphthongs, consonants, consonant cluster,and stress create errors in pronunciation for the Jordanian students and there was anurgent need to find some solutions that could help the English Jordanian students toencounter such a problem

Secondly, “Discovering factors that influence English pronunciation of nativeVietnamese speakers” was conducted by Leah Tweedy in August 2012 The purpose

of this study is to uncover the factors that lead to intelligibility issues for a nativeVietnamese woman tested as proficient in English The study was carried out withthree research questions: What are native Vietnamese women's attitude towardlearning North American? What is the specific pronunciation background? And whatare the different factors influencing the native Vietnamese women’s Englishpronunciation? The research subjects are native Vietnamese women's attitude towardlearning North American, the specific pronunciation background and the differentfactors influencing the native Vietnamese women’s English pronunciation Researchmethodology includes a survey questionnaire and interview At the end of the research,the author concludes that the participant’s age at arrival, first language influence, andlack of directed pronunciation instruction appear to have all contributed tointelligibility issues, the participant’s positive attitude and motivation toward acquiring

clear pronunciation and language exposure have likely been positive influences andthe participants do exhibit pronunciation errors that interfere with intelligibility, butintelligibility improves when the participant is allowed to speak freely about familiartopics and select her own words.

Thirdly, “The Pronunciation Errors of L1 Arabic Learners of L2 English: TheRole of Modern Standard Arabic and Vernacular Dialects Transfer” was carried out by

El Zarka, Amro Mohamed El Said in October 2013 It was published by The BritishUniversity in Dubai The purpose of this study is to concentrate on Englishpronunciation errors made by native Arab speakers, while they make conversation,deliver speeches or give presentations The research questions are divided into twoparts: In what way do vernacular dialects of Arabic affect the pronunciation of English

as a second language? And what are the common errors and repair strategies theparticipants employ? The two questions also are the research subjects of the author.The quantitative and the qualitative methods are used to do the research At last, thegiven research results are: intelligibility is the core of any communication process andpronunciation is its tool, in one’s native language the other party might tolerate anaccent, fast speech, falling tones etc., as they can still get the message and whenlearning a second language the significance of proper pronunciation doubles

1.2.2 Domestic Studies

In Tam’s graduation paper written 2005, the researcher conducted a study named

“Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English” The aim of thestudy is to find out English department students’ common pronunciation problems.With research subjects are the common pronunciation problems of Vietnameselearners of English, the given research question was “what are the most commonpronunciation problems of the students in the English department?” The researchmethodology is oral examinations Lastly, the author concludes that the sounds mostfrequently mispronounced by the informants include: /z/, /tʃ/, /f/, /z/, /ch/, /s/, sincelanguage learning, like music, painting or architecture, requires some gift fromlearners, aptitude test would be necessary in order to get rid of students who havelanguage deficiency, for instance people with confusion of /1/ and /n/, as languageaptitude exam is still not possible, it would be desirable to use “task force” periods forpronunciation practice to help improve then- pronunciation

Secondly, “A study on common pronunciation mistakes and recommendedsolutions to improve receptionists’ English speaking skills at Sea View Hotel” wascarried out by Nguyen Thi Tam and issued in April 2019 at Hai Phong privateuniversity The aim of the study is to help receptionists realize their ending soundserrors and find out some solutions for receptionists’ pronunciation problems Theresearch questions include: What is the most common pronunciation mistake thatreceptionists at Sea View Hotel tend to make when speaking English? What are theending sound errors that receptionists’ are likely to face? And what are solutions tohelp receptionists’ avoid pronunciation mistakes and solve their problems? The threegiven questions are also the research subjects The research methodology was a surveyquestionnaire and the research subjects were receptionists at Sea View Hotel In theend, the author concluded that there are 5 common ending sounds that receptioniststend to make when speaking English in work: /dʒ/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ð/ and /ʒ/.

Thirdly, the study “A Case Study of Solutions to Some Intonation Mistakes” wasconducted by Dieu (2015) The final target of the study is to improve Vietnamesestudents’ pronunciation skill as well as catching the main idea in the conversation inorder to have successful communication in English The research includes twoquestions: What is the effect of combining Phonological Knowledge, Rhythm andMelody in Teaching English Intonation Strategy? And what are the students' thinking

of the treatment and students' attitude towards English intonation? The researchsubjects are the effect of combining Phonological Knowledge, Rhythm and Melody inTeaching English Intonation Strategy and the students' thinking of the treatment andstudents' attitude towards English intonation The research is the combination ofquantitative and qualitative methods The given results of the research are that without

a sufficient, threshold-level mastery of the English prosodic system, learners’intelligibility and listening comprehension will not advance, no matter how mucheffort is made drilling individual sounds, and teachers should spend more time trainingstudents how to count the number of syllable in a word, identify the syllable weightand should be given to the training process of this new strategy and more research isneeded into how to use this strategy effectively to make students accustomed toapplying this method, especially on their own independently for their extracommunicative

1.3 Aims of the study

With the hope of getting a more comprehensive and specific understanding ofEnglish pronunciation, this study will help fourth-year English major students atThuongmai University realize their pronunciation mistakes in consonants, endingsounds, word stress and intonation Besides, the study also gives some suggestions todeal with common pronunciation problems of fourth-year English major students atThuongmai University

In order to achieve these mentioned aims, the study is my effort to find theanswers to the following research questions:

1 What are the situations of fourth-year English major students at Thuong MaiUniversity toward English pronunciation?

2 What are the common mistakes in English pronunciation of fourth-yearEnglish major students at Thuongmai University?

3 What factors affect English pronunciation of fourth-year English majorstudents at Thuongmai University?

4 What are the suggestions to deal with pronunciation problems of fourth-yearEnglish major students at Thuongmai University?

1.4 Research Subjects.

The subjects of the study are the situations of fourth-year English major students

at Thuong Mai University toward English pronunciation, the common mistakes inEnglish pronunciation of fourth-year English major students at Thuongmai University(mistakes in consonants, word stress, ending sounds and intonation), the factors affectEnglish pronunciation of fourth-year English major students and some suggestions todeal with the pronunciation problems

1.5 Scope of the study.

Firstly, the researcher would like to find out the factors which affect Englishpronunciation, thus the study focuses on the situations of students, the commonmistakes and the factors causing English pronunciation obstacles and suitable solutionsfor them

Secondly, the author will pay much attention to four issues including consonants,ending sounds, word stress and intonation mistakes The results of this study will bebased on the survey questionnaire that is given to 90 fourth-year English studentswhose English are supposed to be at the intermediate level upward Studying atuniversity for more than three years, this group of students would be quite accustomed

to the academic environment at university and would have a solid foundation inEnglish pronunciation

Thirdly, the researcher only shows concern about the student’s attitudes towardEnglish pronunciation and factors which affect the English pronunciation of them.Thus, the collected data were derived from their own experience in practice and werenot influenced by other factors such as friends or family The author hopes that thisstudy will be useful material for every student who concerns this problem and wants toimprove pronunciation mistakes when speaking

1.6 Research methodology

All related data for this study were collected from 90 fourth-year English majorstudents at Thuongmai University by survey questionnaire The participants werefourth-year English major students at Thuong Mai University who were takenrandomly from all 6 classes: N1, N2, N3, N4, N5 and N6

The study was conducted with a survey research design Questionnaire andinterview were two methods which were chosen to conduct this survey The firstinstrument was a questionnaire consisting of several parts The first part referred to thesituations of fourth-year English major students towards English pronunciation, “Howlong have you been learning English?”, “Which level is the result of your EnglishPhonetics and Phonology subject?”, “How often do you make pronunciation mistakeswhen you speak?”, “Do you like subjects relating to pronunciation such as Speakingand Phonetics and Phonology?”, and “Do you often practice pronunciation at home?”.The author used a 4-point Likert scale, from A to D to discover the respondents’attitudes toward learning and practicing English pronunciation Research subjectsshowed their interest and frequency in descending order from A to D Part twoincluded a question which aimed at answering the question: “What are the commonEnglish pronunciation errors when you speak?” The author listed several errors suchas: consonants, ending sounds, word stress and intonation The researchers used 4-

point Likert scale to discover the degree to which participants thought the variableshad affected their pronunciation In third part, the researcher would like to find out theanswer the question: “What factors affect your English pronunciation?” Many factorswere listed by the author such as: the native language, exposure to English and nativespeakers, phonetic ability, background knowledge of learners, attitude and motivation.The researcher used 4-point Likert scale to discover the degree to which participantsthought the variables had affected their pronunciation The participants were to markhow these factors affect their English pronunciation by circle the number from 1 – Not

at all to 4 - Significantly

The respondents were requested to provide the data and most of them spentapproximately 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire The questionnaire waspiloted with three voluntary respondents and then gave out to all 90 participants Thequantitative data gained from three parts: II, III, IV of the questionnaire werecalculated and transferred into numerical form with regard to the items’ percentage ofparticipants who share similar answers

The second instrument was interviews which were conducted with a view toinvestigate further attitudes of fourth-year English major students at ThuongmaiUniversity toward English pronunciation and then find out the factors that affect theirEnglish pronunciation the most The researcher selected twenty volunteers out of 90participants In these interviews, the researcher would like to research thoroughly fourmain questions in the questionnaire by asking twenty participants some morequestions Then the researcher asked for some suggested solutions from these subjects

1.7 Organization of the study.

This study consists of four chapters:

Chapter 1, Overview of the study, provides an overview of the study in which thereasons for choosing the study were presented It also includes the aims of the studyrationale, previous studies, aims of the studies, research subjects, scope of the study,research methodology and organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review provides the definition of English pronunciation, itsimportance in speaking English and factors affecting on pronunciation learning Thecommon mistakes in consonants, word stress, ending sounds and intonation are alsopresented in this chapter

Chapter 3: Research findings: Based on the data collection from a surveyquestionnaire, the issues will be analyzed in depth in order to provide realisticinformation about consonants, word stress, ending sounds, and intonation mistakes offourth-year English major students at Thuongmai University.

Chapter 4: Recommendations to deal with pronunciation problems of fourth-yearEnglish major students at Thuongmai University: This chapter also is about somerecommendations to avoid students’ pronunciation problems which are mentionedabove and solutions in order to help English major students at Thuongmai Universityhave good pronunciation

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The current chapter presents a review of literature which is related to thedefinition of English pronunciation, the standard English pronunciation and theimportance of correct English pronunciation More importantly, factors affectingEnglish pronunciation would also be highlighted

Besides, Cook (1996) defined pronunciation as “the production of Englishsounds” English pronunciation is learnt by repeating sounds and then correcting themwhen produced wrongly When learners start learning pronunciation, they make newhabits and overcome the obstacles resulting from the L1

According to Pourhosein Gilakjani (2012), pronunciation is defined as “themethod of producing the sounds for constructing meaning” It includes consonants andvowels of a language (segments), features of speech such as stress, intonation, timing,rhythm, phrasing (suprasegmental features), and voice quality All of the mentionedelements can work together when speakers speak so that difficulties in one elementmay affect another and this may make an individual’s pronunciation easy or difficult

to understand

Other reliable pronunciation definitions include Richard and Schmidt (2002)stating, “pronunciation as the way certain sounds are produced Pronunciationemphasizes the way sounds are understood by the listeners They continued thatpronunciation is a significant part of English because mispronunciations make itdifficult for listeners to understand the meaning of sentences correctly”

There are so many different definitions of pronunciation, the researcher considerspronunciation is the way in which a word is pronounced

2.1.2 The importance of pronunciation.

As mentioned above, pronunciation is a very important element for every studentlearning English And the most important purpose of each learner is to be able topronounce being the same or similar to native speakers Even if students have a goodgrammar foundation, a rich vocabulary source, but they cannot pronounce accurately,they are not highly appreciated or even difficult for foreigners to understand them

According to Fangzhi (1998:39), that it is important to pay attention topronunciation since it results in whether or not someone's message can be passed ornot by other people In addition, Gilbert (cited in Otlowsky (2004:3) stated that ifsomeone cannot hear English well, she or he is cut off from the language And ifsomeone cannot be understood easily, she or he is cut off from conversation withnative speakers Pronunciation is an essential thing in good communication becausethe wrong pronunciation will lead to misunderstanding and negative impressions withthe other person

Researching about pronunciation goals, Joanne Kenworthy (1987) wrote inTeaching English Pronunciation that "We come to the question of what goals should

be set for individual learners or groups of learners How "good" should the learner'spronunciation aim to be? Whereas some time ago it might have been said that the goalshould always he native - like pronunciation, even though it was realized that thiswould be achieved by relatively few, most people now think that this is aninappropriate goal for most learners The great majority of learners will have a very

practical purpose for learning English and will derive no particular benefit fromacquiring a native - like pronunciation

According to AMP Fact sheets of AMP Research Centre, “learners with goodpronunciation in English are more likely to be understood even if they make errors inother areas, whereas learners whose pronunciation is difficult to understand will not beunderstood, even if their grammar is perfect” and “Yet many adult learners findpronunciation one of the most difficult aspects of English to acquire, and need explicithelp from the teacher (Morley 1994; Fraser 2000) Surveys of student needsconsistently show that our learners feel the need for pronunciation work in class (eggwilling 1989) Thus some sort of pronunciation work in class is essential”

From Higgs Graph of Learner Needs, pronunciation is something that is veryimportant to beginners It allows them to feel more comfortable when speaking.Obliviously, no one can deny the importance of pronunciation It is considered as one

of the most significant factors in English speaking Therefore, students should takemore notice of pronunciation in order to have good speaking

Therefore, “pronunciation instruction is of great importance for successful oralcommunication to take place since it is an important ingredient of the communicativecompetence” (Hismanoglu, 2006)

2.2 Factors affecting pronunciation learning.

Although some researchers believe that all learners have the same capacity tolearn a second or foreign language because they have learned their first language, anumber of EFL teachers have difficulties in improving the students’ pronunciationproblems As a result, in the past, several researchers have put great efforts, assertedand suggested many factors affecting students’ pronunciation (e.g Brown, 1994;Celce-Murcia et al., 2000; Gillette, 1994; Kenworthy, 1987) In this regard, theseprevious studies have been repeatedly substantiated that factors such as the nativelanguage, exposure, phonetic ability, background knowledge, attitude, and motivationand concern for good pronunciation ability, appeared to have an influence on teaching

and learning pronunciation

2.2.1 The native language.

According to Avery and Ehrlich (1987), learners of a language have differentways to speak the target language The way they speak the target language issometimes slightly different and sometimes highly different than the native speakers’

do Kenworthy (1987) also stated that the native language is the most influential factor

in accounting for students’ pronunciation, especially foreign accents That is, if thestudents are familiar with the sound system of their native language, they will be able

to effectively diagnose their own difficulties Kenworthy suggested that many first andsecond language carryovers can be overcome through a focused awareness and effort

on the learners’ part In this sense, as asserted by Senel (2006), it should be noteworthythat interference or negative transfer from the first language is likely to cause errors inaspiration, intonation, rhythm, and melody in the target language To illustrate, thisproblem can occur when the rules for combining the sounds in forms of syllables are

different in two languages

2.2.2 Exposure to English and native speakers

“Exposure, it is difficult to define” (Brown, 2007) Generally, it is relevant to thelength of time that the learners live in a target language environment No matter wherethe learners live, the matter should be considered is how much the learners use English

in the daily conversation The more learners spend time on speaking and listeningEnglish, the better English pronunciation will be

Regarding the factor to learners’ exposure, it seems that people who are exposed

to the L2 before the age of puberty seem to acquire all languages equally However, itdoes not simply mean that learners who live in the target language country will havegood native-like pronunciation The crucial point is whether the learners grasp allopportunities to use the target language and to take full advantage of the environment

If the learners have been living in an English-speaking country, then the learners willhave many opportunities to listen to and to use English since they will be surrounded

by the English- speaking environment In addition, it is very important that they havethe desire to associate with native speakers and get to know the new culture andcustoms

However, it should bear in mind that there are many learners who live in speaking countries, but spend much time within a non-English speaking environment

English-or communicate with the native-speaking group even though these learners are inEnglish- speaking countries This is the reason why it is not merely exposure thatmatters, but how the learners respond to the opportunities Senel (2006) stated that,

“Exposure can be a contributory factor, but it cannot be a whole and necessary factorfor the development of pronunciation” If a learner is aware of the necessity of beingexposed to the target language, learners should make use of its opportunities If thelearner does that, these learners will be more successful in case of improvingpronunciation

2.2.3 Phonetic ability

According to Brown (1992), phonetic ability is sometimes called phonetic codingability It is a common view that some people have a better listening skill for a foreignlanguage than others Therefore, they are able to discriminate between the two soundsmore accurately than the others and are able to imitate sounds better Althoughstudents may have had exposure to a foreign language as children and attuned tophonetic discrimination, some studies (e.g Kanoksilapatham, 1992) have suggestedthat some elements of learning are a matter of awareness of the different sounds Also,learners’ pronunciation ability can be improved by putting effort and concentration onthose sounds

2.2.4 Background knowledge of learners

Lacking of English pronunciation knowledge is another prominent problem toadvancing in English pronunciation Several studies compared the pronunciationaccuracy of people having good English pronunciation knowledge and those who didnot, revealing the difficulty with pronunciation of learners who did not have Englishpronunciation knowledge in mastering English pronunciation For instance, Siriwisut(1994) and Serttikul (2005) indicated that language knowledge had an effect onpronunciation ability In their studies, language knowledge meant the awareness to useEnglish language correctly The studies suggested that students with poorpronunciation, who were regarded as less knowledgeable, had more language transfer

problems than the students with good pronunciation For this reason, the students withgood pronunciation would improve better than the poor ones.

2.2.5 Attitude

Many research studies conducted over the years have shown that attitude is animportant factor for foreign language acquisition, especially in the pronunciation ofEnglish As early as 1975, Gardner and Smythe indicated that attitude promotesmotivation and motivation promotes second language achievement Similarly, Clément(1980) showed that EFL learners who have a positive attitude towards learning aforeign language use the language more frequently and are more motivated to go onlearning the language Sparks and Glachow’s work (1991) on personality found similarresults In other words, if students with encouragement to learn positive attitudestowards the target language and their speakers have been more successful thanstudents with less positive attitudes

2.2.6 Motivation

If the learners are highly motivated to have a better pronunciation, they candevelop a concern for pronunciation, and become more eager to take part in theactivities and pay more attention to discriminate the sounds of the target language, andthey try to produce better utterances Motivation can be the key to learn the targetlanguage, and they try to produce better sounds Here it must be pointed out what themotivation is and how the learners will be motivated According to Brown (1997:114-115) the motivation is thought of as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire thatmoves one to a particular action He also stated that learning a foreign languagerequires some of all three levels of motivation which can be global, situational, or task-oriented For example, a learner may possess high global motivation but low taskmotivation on the written mode of the language

Motivation for learning also can support or impede pronunciation (Florez, 1998).Elliott (1995) showed that a student’s motivation toward achieving the targetlanguage’s pronunciation was the principal variable in their accuracy of actualpronunciation output

We still found that the students’ motivation is of importance in his or herpronunciation learning And sometimes, some students speak English when theyreceive others’ praise for their beautiful English, which might give them a strong sense

of achievement

2.3 The common mistakes in English pronunciation

When learning English pronunciation, it is so difficult for English learners tomake the sounds being the same and close to these sounds of native speakers Makingmistakes in pronunciation is unavoidable, especially for new English learners whenthey study English as a second language According to Dulay, Burt and Krashen(1982), “mistake can be defined as the flawed side of learner speech or writing”, which

“deviates from some selected norm of mature language performance”

Besides, Richards (1971) acknowledges two different kinds of errors:performance errors, caused by, such as, fatigue and inattention, and competence errorsresulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of the language

In another research, Ellis (1997) states that errors reflect gaps in a learner’sknowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what the correct one is.However, mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance because in particularinstances, the learner is unable to perform what she or he knows Ellis (1997)

In short, every English learner would make pronunciation mistakes at leastseveral times while they learn English pronunciation and each one has their ownproblem

2.3.1 Consonants

There are many mistakes of pronunciation that English learners often make whenspeaking English such as ending sounds, word and sentence stress or intonation etc.But this part will pay attention to some consonants that English major’s students atThuongmai university make mistakes

2.3.1.2 The common consonant mistakes

To examine the problems that Vietnamese speakers meet when they learn tospeak English, the author will explain general problems based on the work of severallinguists The author shall also point out specific problems based on her own learningand teaching experiences

According to Honey, "the Vietnamese consonant system is very different fromthat of the English, and there is considerable variation between dialects Vietnameselearners of English can be expected to come across particular difficulty with some orall of the following sounds: /f/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/

Vietnamese speakers can pronounce words with final voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/ and /k/, as these voiceless stop consonants occur at the final position of a word inVietnamese However, Vietnamese speakers pronounce these consonants with

extremely short duration, and therefore, the sounds are never released at the endposition of a word It can be very difficult for English native speakers to hear thesesounds from Vietnamese speakers For example, a Vietnamese learner of Englishproducing the word seat may sound like see (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992, p 153)

2.3.2 Ending sound

2.3.1.1 Definition

In English, attention to ending sounds is a very important factor in pronunciation

To understand easily, “ending sounds” are sounds that occur at the end of the word Itrefers to the consonant sounds as the word can end with one or more consonant sounds

(consonant clusters) According to Davis, “the coda is the final consonant or consonant cluster.” Rachael-Anne Knight (2003) states that there are 4 consonants in

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

2.3.1.2 The common ending sound mistakes

According to Mark (2008), ending sound errors can be defined as “the inaccuratepronunciation of the final consonant in a word” The classifications of ending soundserrors were given out according to Treiman (1989) They are: Cluster reduction,Cluster Simplification, Epenthesis, Coalescence, Omitting nasal and liquid sounds andphonetically possible spelling

Hereunder is introduction about 6 types of ending sounds errors according toTreiman (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 new consonantcomposed 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 isomitting the final consonant or one element of a cluster, insertion is inserting aconsonant to the ending of word and substitution is replacing an English consonant by

a phonetically similar of Vietnamese sound In current study, the findings of students’tapes recorded and observation will be analyzed according to the three types of errorsmentioned above

2.3.3 Word stress.

2.3.3.1 Definition

When studying English, word stress is one of the most important factors thatstudents have to attend and spend a lot of time studying and practicing What is thedefinition of word stress? Students can understand easily that stress is often called toindicate how strong or weak the sound is

According to Macmillan English Dictionary (2002): “The stress accent on

syllables of individual words either in a sentence or in isolation”

Besides, the definition of word stress is shown in Put English Phonetics intoPractice compiled by Szilagyi Laszlo (2014) that “in English, we do not say each

syllable with the same force or strength In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable Wesay one syllable is very strong, and all the other syllables are very quiet”

2.3.3.2 The common word stress mistakes

Vietnamese and English differ a great deal, with Vietnamese being timed and tonal, and English being stress-timed and non-tonal For example, whenEnglish speakers change intonation to signal a question, Vietnamese speakers changetone to distinguish between two completely different words Also, Vietnamesespeakers tend to give each syllable the same amount of time, while English speakersfollow a rhythm where stressed syllables happen at regular intervals This disparityindicates that native Vietnamese speakers can be expected to have difficulty acquiringappropriate English stress and rhythm patterns (Byrne, Butcher, & McCormack, 1996)

syllable-Moreover, Vietnamese people often have the wrong way of pronouncing wordstress in English They tend to pronounce the stress in a too loud voice or too longsound It is pointed out by Nguyen (2000a: 79) that in case of bi-syllabic words, thestressed syllable (if known to the speakers) is produced with a greater loudness It isnatural that the vowel is over-lengthened as in: (e.g IM.por.tant vs im.POR.tant)

It is proved by Nguyen (2000a) that stress production by Vietnamese learners is acombination of duration and loudness of utterances From that definition, we can seethat the production of English word stress by Vietnamese speakers also lacks pitchheight and vowel quality This point of view is partly shared by Nguyen (2005), who,through her research, finds out that Vietnamese beginners of English fail to producestressed syllables long enough The case does not really apply to Vietnamese advancedlearners, which may be an indication that Vietnamese students can be trained toproduce correct stress in English words This coincides with the researcher’sexperience in teaching English pronunciation: when asked to produce word stress, herstudents (at elementary level) tend to exaggerate it by making it longer and louder (andcertainly lacking pitch height and vowel quality), whereas students of upper-intermediate or advanced levels usually get it correct right from the first time practice

2.3.4 Intonation.

2.3.4.1 Definition

According to R Kingdon (2003): “when we talk about English intonation we mean the pitch patterns of spoken English, the pitch tunes or melodies, the musical features of English”

Moreover, in “Phonetics and Phonology Book” of Thuongmai University (by Peter Roach – 1998), intonation defined “is the melody of the sentence Intonation is created by changes in the pitch of the voice (the voice goes higher and lower, remains

on the same level, rises or falls), by sentence stress (strong stress on important words, weak stress or no stress on less important words), and by rhythm (stressed syllables occur at more or less equal intervals)”

2.3.4.2 The common intonation mistakes

According to Dieu (2015), there are seven types of English intonation mistakeswhen Vietnamese students pronounce a fragment/ tone unit

Type 1: Mistake of rhythmic pattern (A) Even though students identify stress onthe right syllable, pronounce each syllable with equal force to make the intensitydifference between the peak of 2 or 3, 4 the syllables zero, or just a minor difference

Type 2: Mistake of tonic syllable identification (B) = not stress on the tonicsyllable Students place stress on the wrong syllable

Type 3: Mistake of rhythm and tonic syllable identification (A + B)/ Studentsneither place stress on right syllable nor adapt the rhythmical pattern S_W (S: Strong,W: weak)

Type 4: Mistake of intonation pattern (C) Students make wrong pitch contoursdue to being unable to identify the intonation pattern in which this kind of sentenceshould be pronounced with raising or lowering voice

Type 5: Mistake of rhythmic and intonation pattern (A +C) Students neitheradapt the rhythmic patterns nor intonation patterns

Type 6: Mistake of tonic syllable identification and intonation pattern (B +C).Students neither stress on the tonic syllable of a tone unit nor adapt the intonationpatterns

Type 7: Mistake of rhythm, tonic syllable identification and intonation pattern (A+ B+C) The combination of the three types of mistake: rhythmical pattern (A), tonicsyllable identification (B) and intonation pattern (C): students place stress on thewrong syllable, cannot pronounce with rhythm (the intensity difference between thepeaks of 2 or 3, 4 the syllables are zero, or just a minor difference) and make thewrong pitch contour

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS

In this chapter, all data collected from the questionnaire and the interview wereanalyzed and discussed to provide answers for the four research questions

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Research question 1: What are the situations of fourth-year English major students at Thuong Mai University toward English pronunciation?

3.1.1.1 Number of years student have been learning English

In order to find out the attitudes of fourth-year English major students at ThuongMai University toward English pronunciation, it is important to collect informationrelating to the number of years students have been learning English

24.4

26.742.2

Number of years students have been learning English

Less than 1 year 1-2 years2-3 years More than 3 years

Figure 3.1 Number of years students have been learning English

As can be seen, it is clear that the period of over 3 years accounts for the largestsection with 42.2% and the second large section is 2-3 years with 26.7% 1-2 years andless than 1 years make up 24.4% and 6.7% respectively This proves that most fourth-year English faculty students at Thuongmai University have been learning Englishpronunciation more than 3 years and a few students are exposed to Englishpronunciation learning

3.1.1.2 The distribution of participants by level of Phonetics and Phonology subject’s score

12.21.2

The distribution of participants by level of Phonetics and Phonology subject’s score

Level A Level B Level C Level D

Figure 3.2 The distribution of participants by level of Phonetics and Phonology

subject’s score

The next question revealed that the number of students who reach level A 10) are 34 students, accounting for 48.9%, while only 1 student gets level D (4.9-5.4),making for 1.2 The percentage of students who get level B (7-8.5) make up 37.8%

(8.5-and 12.2% of English faculty students at Thuongmai University achieve level C.

Collected data show that there is no student out of 90 participants got level F (0-3.9)for the Phonetics and Phonology subject It can be seen clearly that the result ofPhonetics and Phonology of fourth-year English major students at ThuongmaiUniversity is very high

3.1.1.3 Student’s frequency in making pronunciation mistakes when speaking

Figure 3.3 Student’s frequency in making pronunciation mistakes when speaking

Of the research made, the majority of participants make pronunciation mistakeswhen speaking Specifically, of the total participants in the survey, there are 48students state that their frequencies of making pronunciation mistakes are

“sometimes”, which accounts for 53.3% of the students Following this, 24.4% of theparticipants say that they “often” make pronunciation mistakes The number oflearners who seldom make pronunciation mistakes occupies 17.8% While 4 students,constituting 4.4% of the population state that they always make pronunciationmistakes English pronunciation In conclusion, the collected data show that themajority of participants make pronunciation mistakes when speaking

3.1.1.4 Students’s attitudes toward subjects related to English pronunciation such as speaking and phonetics & phonology

5.6

36.7

41.1

16.7

Students’s attitudes toward subjects related to English pronunciation such as speaking and phonetics & phonology

Do not like Average Like Really Like

Figure 3.4 Students’s attitudes toward subjects related to English pronunciation

such as speaking and phonetics & phonology

The pie chart clearly shows that most of the students state that they enjoysubjects relating to English pronunciation such as speaking and phonetics &phonology Of the total participants, there are 37 students who state their level ofinterest in English pronunciation subjects are “Like” one, occupying 41.1% Followingthis, 36.7% of the population whose level of interest is so-so The number ofparticipants who really enjoy subjects relating to English pronunciation is 15,constituting 16.7%, while 5 students out of 80 students show that subjects relating toEnglish pronunciation are not really appealing to them, accounting for 5.6% In short,the gathered data show that the majority of fourth-year English major students enjoylearning subjects which relate to pronunciation such as speaking and phonetics &phonology This is a sign which shows the positive attitudes of students towardEnglish pronunciation in general

3.1.1.5 Participant's frequency of practicing English pronunciation at home

22.20%

51.10%

25.60%

1.10%

Participant's frequency of practicing English pronunciation at home

Figure 3.5 Participant's frequency of practicing English pronunciation at home

Of the research made, the majority of students spend a significant time onpracticing English pronunciation at home In particular, it can be seen clearly that51.1% of the students surveyed claim that their frequencies of practicing pronunciationare “sometimes” Following this, 25.6% of the participants say that they “often”practice English pronunciation The number of learners who seldom spend time forEnglish pronunciation are 20 students, accounting for 22.2%, while only 1 student,constituting 1.1% of the population state that they pay a lot of attention to learnEnglish pronunciation In conclusion, the collected data show that the majority ofparticipants concern about practicing English pronunciation and spend time for it

3.1.2 Research question 2: What are the common mistakes in English pronunciation of fourth-year English major students at Thuongmai University?

For common mistakes, participants consider consonants, ending sounds, wordstress and intonation mistakes in pronunciation that they make when speaking

Consonants Ending sounds Word stress Intonation0

102030405060

The common mistakes in English pronunciation of fourth-year English major students at Thuongmai University

Seldom Sometimes Often Always

Figure 3.6 The common mistakes in English pronunciation of fourth-year English

major students at Thuongmai University

For common mistakes, the result from figure 3.6 indicates 4 common ones whichstudents make when speaking are: consonants, ending sounds, word stress andintonation

Consonants

The chart clearly shows that the majority of the students (41 students) declarethat they sometimes make consonant mistakes in pronunciation, while 32 participantsseldom make these mistakes Besides, only 1 student states that they always makeconsonant mistakes and 16 students surveyed claim that their frequencies of makingconsonant mistakes are “often”

Ending sounds

There are 54 students who sometimes make ending sound errors, while only 4students always make these ones The number of students who often make endingsound mistakes is 16 and the number of students who seldom make this mistakes is 17

Word stress

The number of students claiming that their frequencies of word stress mistakesare “sometimes” and “often” is 48 and 34 students respectively Only 1 student stateshe/she always makes word stress mistakes, whereas 17 students always make thismistakes when they speak.

Intonation

Most participants sometimes make intonation mistakes (50 students) and thenumber for students who often make the mistake are 21 students Besides, 7 studentsclaim that they seldom make intonation mistakes and only 2 students declare that theyalways make this one

In conclusion, it can be seen from the chart that most students sometimes makecommon pronunciation mistakes such as: consonants, ending sounds, word stress andintonation The number of participants who always make the common mistakes is notmany

3.1.3 Research question 3: What factors affect English pronunciation of fourth-year English major students at Thuongmai University?

For factors, participants consider the influence of six main factors, including: thenative language, exposure to English or native speakers, phonetic ability, educationalfactors, background knowledge of learners, attitude and motivation

peakers

Phonetic abi y

The influence of factors on English pronunciation of fourth-year English major students

Not at all Fairly Significantly Strongly