Teaching the fricatives to english non majored students at university of transport in ho chi minh city prolems and solutions

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: The vocal organs Figure 4.1: Students’ viewpoint of the importance of English pronunciation Figure 4.2: Students’ self-evaluation of their interest in pronu



NGUYỄN TẤN LỘC

TEACHING THE FRICATIVE

TO ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS

AT UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT IN HO CHI MINH CITY:

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

SUPERVISOR

TÔ MINH THANH, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer

HO CHI MINH CITY – June 2009

STATEMENT OF AUTHORITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled

TEACHING THE FRICATIVE

TO ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS

AT UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT IN HO CHI MINH CITY:

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

in terms of the Statements of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee

This thesis has not previously been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, June 2009

Nguyễn Tấn Lộc

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN TAN LOC, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library

I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction for theses

Ho Chi Minh City, June 2009

NGUYỄN TẤN LỘC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of authority i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Table of contents iii

List of figures viii

List of tables x

List of abbreviations xi

Acknowledgements xii

Abstract xiii

INTRODUCTION 1

0.1 Background and rationale 1

0.2 Aims of the study 3

0.3 Significance of the study 3

0.4 Design of the study 4

0.5 Limitation 5

0.6 Delimitation 5

Chapter 1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 6

1.1 Curriculum and course books 6

1.2 Assessment 8

1.3 Teachers 8

1.4 Students 9

1.5 Summary .10

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW 11

2.1 Speech sounds 11

2.2 Classification of consonants 12

2.2.1 Places of articulation 13

2.2.2 Manners of articulation 14

2.2.3 Voicing 17

2.3 English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ 17

2.4 Consonant clusters 19

2.4.1 Definition 19

2.4.2 Common consonant clusters consisting of /T/ or /D/ 19

2.5 Mother tongue’s interference on second language acquisition 21

2.5.1 Theoretical background 21

2.5.2 Common Vietnamese sounds that may interfere with the students’ acquisition of the dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ 23

2.6 Possibilities of pronunciation training 26

2.7 Principles in pronunciation teaching 26

2.8 Techniques in pronunciation teaching 28

2.9 Previous studies related to teaching the fricatives /T/ and /D/ 32

2.10 Summary 32

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 34

3.1 Research questions 34

3.2 Materials and instruments 35

3.3 Subjects 38

3.4 Procedures of data collection 38

3.4.1 Getting started 38

3.4.2 Experimental teaching 39

3.4.3 Testing the students’ achievement 39

3.4.4 Data collection 40

3.4.5 Data analysis 40

3.5 Summary 40

Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 41

4.1 Results from the students’ survey questionnaire 41

4.2 Results from the teachers’ survey questionnaire 48

4.3 Results from the diagnostic test (the Pre-test) 57

4.3.1 Results from Part A (Sound recognition) 57

4.3.2 Results from Part B (Sound production) 58

4.3.2.1 Omission of the final /T/ or /D/ 58

4.3.2.2 Mispronunciation of the voiceless /T/ 58

4.3.2.3 Mispronunciation of the voiced /D/ 59

4.3.2.4 Mispronunciation of /T/ and /D/ 59

4.3.2.5 Problems in pronouncing consonant clusters containing /T/ or /D/ 59

4.4 Results from the achievement test (the Post-test) 60

4.4.1 Results from Part A (Sound recognition) 60

4.4.2 Results from Part B (Sound production) 61

4.5 Testing the two hypotheses 62

4.4.1 Testing the first hypothesis 62

4.4.2 Testing the second hypothesis 63

4.6 Summary 66

Chapter 5

SUGGESTED TEACHING STRATEGIES 67

5.1 Getting students to employ correct articulators 67

5.2 Distinguishing the voiceless /T/ from the voiced /D/ 68

5.3 Reminding the students of the final /T/ and /D/ 73

5.4 Distinguishing respectively /T/ from /t/ and /D/ from /d/ 74

5.5 Distinguishing respectively /T/ from /s/ and /D/ from /z/ 79

5.6 Distinguishing /T/ from /f/ 81

5.7 Teaching /T/ and /D/ in separate sentences 83

5.8 Dealing with consonant clusters including /T/ or /D/ 84

5.9 Using games to arouse students’ interest 87

5.10 Summary 89

CONTRIBUTIONS, TEACHING IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION 90

Contributions 90

Teaching implications 91

Teaching implications 92

APPENDICES 94

Appendix 1: Answer keys to the Bingo sheet 94

Appendix 2: Answer keys to the sample chant 94

Appendix 3: Answer keys to the cloze-texts 94

Appendix 4: Students’ questionnaire (in Vietnamese) 96

Appendix 5: Students’ questionnaire (in English) 98

Appendix 6: Teachers’ questionnaire (in Vietnamese) 100

Appendix 7: Teachers’ questionnaire (in English) 102

Appendix 8: Test 104

Appendix 9: Test answer keys 106

Appendix 10: Test CD 108

BIBLIOGRAPHY 109

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: The vocal organs

Figure 4.1: Students’ viewpoint of the importance of English pronunciation

Figure 4.2: Students’ self-evaluation of their interest in pronunciation classes

Figure 4.3: Students’ choices of their favorite activity in pronunciation classes

Figure 4.4: Students’ choices of the most activating and effective activity

in pronunciation classes

Figure 4.5: Students’ efforts in trying to pronounce /T/ and /D/ correctly

Figure 4.6: Students’ efforts in trying to pronounce English consonant clusters

containing /T/ or /D/ correctly

Figure 4.7: Students’ self-evaluation of their pronunciation progress

of the fricatives /T/ and /D/

Figure 4.8: Teachers’ evaluation of how important pronunciation teaching is

Figure 4.9: Teachers’ observation of their students’ interest in pronunciation classes

Figure 4.10: Teachers’ opinion about their students’ favorite activity in pronunciation classes Figure 4.11: Teachers’ choices of the most activating and effective activity

in pronunciation classes

Figure 4.12: Teachers’ observation of their students’ problems in pronouncing /T/ and /D/ Figure 4.13: Teachers’ observation of their students’ problems in pronouncing

English consonant clusters containing /T/ or /D/

Figure 4.14: Teachers’ evaluation of their students’ progress in producing /T/ and /D/

Figure 4.15: Teachers’ help to better their students’ pronunciation of /T/ and /D/

Figure 4.16: Teachers’ help to better their students’ pronunciation of

consonant clusters containing /T/ or /D/

Figure 4.17: Students’ problems of whatever involved in pronouncing /T/ and /D/

(A comparison between the diagnostic test and the achievement test)

Figure 4.18: Frequency distribution of students’ scores from the two tests

Figure 5.1: Articulators involved in producing /T/ and /D/

(The tongue tip and the upper front teeth)

Figure 5.2: The difference between the production of /T/ and /D/ Figure 5.3: Bingo sheet for individual work

Figure 5.4: “The Family Tree” for guided practice

Figure 5.5: Tongue position for /T/ and /D/

Figure 5.6: Tongue position for /t/ and /d/

Figure 5.7: Tongue position for /T/ and /D/

Figure 5.8: Tongue position for /s/ and /z/

Figure 5.9: Tongue position for /T/

Figure 5.10: Tongue position for /f/

Figure 5.11: Sample pictures for a listening activity

Figure 5.12: Sample pictures for games in pronunciation classes

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Classification of consonants according to places of articulation

Table 2.2: Consonant clusters consisting of /T/ or /D/

Table 4.1: Students’ responses to their difficulty in pronouncing /T/ and /D/

Table 4.2: Students’ opinion about their difficulty in pronouncing

English consonant clusters containing /T/ or /D/

Table 4.3: Students’ evaluation of how important pronouncing T/ and /D/ correctly is Table 4.4: Teachers’ view on their students’ difficulty in pronouncing /T/ and /D/ Table 4.5: Teachers’ view on their students’ difficulty in pronouncing

English consonant clusters containing /T/ or /D/

Table 4.6: Teachers’ view on how important their students’ correct pronunciation

of /T/ and /D/ is in communication

Table 4.7: Students’ results of the diagnostic test (Part A – Sound Recognition) Table 4.8: Students’ results of the two tests (Part A – Sound Recognition)

Table 4.9: Students’ test scores (Diagnostic Test and Achievement Test)

Table 5.1: Common consonant clusters containing /T/ or /D/

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL : English as a Foreign Language

ESL : English as a Second Language

ESP : English for Specific Purposes

L1 : Language one (the mother tongue)

L2 : Language two (the second/foreign language) SLA : Second Language Acquisition

UT-HCMC : University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and above all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my respective supervisor, Tô Minh Thanh, Ph.D (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City) — my senior lecturer of linguistics in the program of Master of Art in TESOL Had it not been for her enthusiasm, nonstop supports, clear explanation, specific guidance, careful proofreading, and line-by-line correction, this M.A thesis would not have been accomplished In addition, I am also indebted to her for the very valuable materials on which I base to carry out my thesis

My thanks also go to the authors for the ideas quoted in the thesis Their books are a great source for me to produce my M.A thesis Apart from these, I am also grateful to the twenty teachers and forty students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport who seriously took part in the study so that the thesis could be completed For specific help, I would like to send my thanks to Mr Jake Cattlet for his great help

in making the test CD My thanks are also offered to Mr Lê Thanh Tú and Ms Nguyễn Thị Nguyệt Ánh, my colleagues and also my classmates, for their patience in giving me a hand with the students’ recordings In addition, I am also grateful to my close friend, Mr Võ Hoàng Thi, for his careful discussion during the time of data analysis

Last but not least, I do not forget to say thank you to my wife and my parents for their care and supports

Ho Chi Minh City, June 2009

Nguyễn Tấn Lộc

ABSTRACT

The teaching and learning of English in the context of Vietnam clearly still places too much stress on grammar which has always been the dominant focus of attention in course books and syllabuses Hence, a great number of Vietnamese learners are not well-aware that English pronunciation should be one of the first things, if not the very first thing, to be acquired whenever they are engaged in the language if they want to speak it well Concentrating on how to master grammar, the learners of English almost ignore English pronunciation, especially the sound system of English As a result, such students more or less fail to understand their interlocutors as well as

to make them understood in face-to-face communication no matter how excellent their grammar is

As a matter of fact, the two English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/, which do not exist in Vietnamese, frequently occur in very common

words such as the, this, that, these, those, there, then, think, thank,

through, etc — those are usually employed in everyday conversations

Unfortunately, a large number of the students at University of Transport in

Ho Chi Minh City do not find themselves being exposed to the two consonants and therefore make a lot of mistakes in their speech as far as the two consonants are involved

By getting the students to be exposed to the explicit teaching and the conscious learning of the two consonants, the M.A thesis helps explore, to some extent, possible problems facing the students in acquiring

the two English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ Certain strategies are thence raised to serve as the students’ problem-solving tools The results of the student subjects at University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City after they are exposed to the acquisition of /T/ and /D/ note that the application of the thesis’ teaching strategies is in fact an effective way not only to better the students’ pronunciation of the two English dental fricatives but also to empower the student subjects with some listening and speaking skills Hopefully, the suggested strategies are beneficial to the teaching and learning of /T/ and /D/ to a great number of Vietnamese learners

of English of various types, including English-majored students

INTRODUCTION

The introduction presents the background and rationale for choosing the topic, identifies the aims of the study done for this M.A thesis, asserts the significance of the study, draws a brief look of the study’s design, and states the study’s limitation as well as delimitation

0.1 Background and rationale

There is no doubt that every learner wishes to speak English well whenever they are engaged in the process of teaching and learning the language According to an article at http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronuncwhy.htm, good pronunciation should

be one of the first things that students learn in English if they want to pursue such a goal Students can, it is true, live without advanced vocabulary, because they can use simple words to express what they want to say Similarly, they can survive without advanced grammar, for simple structures may be employed instead However, there is

no such thing as “simple pronunciation.”

The results of poor pronunciation are tragic, of course, because the content expressed in a speech may be altered due to the speaker’s mispronunciation Therefore, even if students use great vocabulary and grammar, people may simply not understand what they mean A great number of Vietnamese learners of English, especially the students at University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City (abbreviated to UT-HCMC), keep mispronouncing English words but do not make great efforts to improve their pronunciation, though These students usually make a wrong assumption that their pronunciation is good enough, and thus, there is no need to spend time and efforts on pronunciation

The students’ pronunciation problems may come from various causes one of which is the fact that the sound system of English and that of Vietnamese greatly differ from each other “Vietnamese is a tone language, that is, pitch changes distinguish word meaning Most of the words in Vietnamese consist of only one syllable; there are fewer consonants and there are no consonants clusters at all.” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 153] Consequently, most Vietnamese learners find it hard to properly produce some English consonants, especially the English voiceless-voiced pair of dental fricatives /T/ and /D/, which do not really exist in the system of Vietnamese phonemes1 On the one hand, a lot of students at UT-HCMC fail to give a clear-cut distinction between the voiced member and the voiceless one, which share the same

written form “th” On the other hand, those students are not able to distinguish these

two dental fricatives from some other sounds, and they usually incorrectly assume that those sounds are produced in the same way

As a matter of fact, the two English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ do not exist in

Vietnamese but occur very in very common English words such as the, this, that, these,

those, there, then, think, thank, through, etc — those are usually employed in everyday

conversations Unfortunately, the students at UT-HCMC do not find themselves exposed to the two consonants and therefore make a lot of mistakes in their speech as far as the two consonants are involved These students, for example, may pronounce

the word mouth as /maU/ instead of /maUT/, or they may produce forth as /fO:/ while

/fO:T/ is the correct pronunciation For a limited number of students, they will be

1

A phoneme is “the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words

(a) The English words pan and ban differ only in their initial sound:

pan begins with /p/ and ban with /b/

(b) The English words ban and bin differ only in their vowels: /&/ and /i:/

Therefore, /p/, /b/, /&/ and /i:/ are phonemes of English.”

[Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 214] According to Buchanan [1963: 90], “the functional sounds of speech, i.e., the sounds which

contrast in the same environment, are called phonemes.”

aware of this matter if reminded; however, they do not produce the sounds correctly since they usually substitute a /f/ or the heavily aspirated /t/ for the voiceless /T/ These

students, therefore, pronounce length as /leNkf/ or /leNkt/ instead of /leNkT/ Similarly, many students usually mispronounce that as /dA:t/ whereas /D&t/ is correct;

or breathe is often incorrectly produced as /bri:/ or without as /wIdaU/ while /bri:T/

and /wIDaU/ must be employed This is a critical error as it could interfere with the Vietnamese speakers’ comprehensibility Thus, acquiring the two English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ is a must for such students to better their pronunciation

0.2 Aims of the study

The study attempts to discover the student subjects’ real problems in dealing with the two consonants /T/ and /D/ as well as consonant clusters including either sound Thence, optimal solutions to these problems, i.e the study’s suggested teaching strategies, are raised for the sake of improving the students’ pronunciation of the two consonants as well as empowering them with some speaking and listening skills, to some extent Hopefully, the study done for this M.A thesis does highlight the fact that teaching the two English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ does help the student subjects enhance their pronunciation

0.3 Significance of the study

This thesis capitalizes on a particular aspect of the English language — the sound system Specifically, the thesis is supposed to provide a theoretical background for better understanding of English consonants, especially the two dental fricatives /T/ and /D/

Expectedly, the thesis further contributes to the current tendency of the acquisition of English pronunciation Of course, the discovery of UT-HCMC students’ real problems in pronouncing the two English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ lends foundation to the suggestion of some teaching strategies that help the student subjects in particular and Vietnamese learners of English in general to improve their pronunciation

0.4 Design of the study

In addition to its table of contents, lists of figures and tables, abbreviations, bibliography, and appendices, this M.A thesis consists of five main chapters with the introduction preceding and the conclusion placed after chapter 5

The introduction states the background and rationale for choosing the topic, asserts

the study’s aims, significance and design, and confirms its limitation and delimitation

Chapter 1 provides background information on how English has been taught at

HCMC and such factors affecting the teaching and learning of English at HCMC as the teachers, the students, the curriculum, the course books and the way in which students’ oral performance is assessed

UT-Chapter 2 supplies some relevant aspects of English consonants, especially the

production of the dental fricatives /T/ and /D/, and the interference of the mother tongue (abbreviated to L1) on second language acquisition (abbreviated to SLA) Also mentioned

in this chapter are possibilities of pronunciation training and principles and techniques in pronunciation teaching

Chapter 3 presents the methodology employed to conduct the study including

research questions and hypotheses, materials and instruments, subjects, and procedures of data collection

Chapter 4 analyzes and draws out the study’s results and discusses the findings

from its sources of data

Chapter 5 provides a number of teaching strategies including various activities and

exercises designed by the researcher and adopted from various textbooks that may serve

as the students’ problem-solving tools

The conclusion is for the study’s teaching implications, contributions as well as

the summary of the study

0.5 Limitation

Due to the constraints of time and resources, the study done for this M.A thesis mainly focuses on the two English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ and possible problems facing the student subjects at UT-HCMC in acquiring the two consonants Therefore, efforts are made only for the sake of improving UT-HCMC students’ pronunciation of the English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/

0.6 Delimitation

Vietnamese learners of English do share common problems in their acquisition

of pronunciation, especially of the two dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ irrespective of their varied purposes, background knowledge and/or learning styles If employed flexibly and tactfully, the solutions suggested in this M.A thesis can definitely help Vietnamese learners of various types

Chapter 1

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This chapter presents background information essential for a preliminary understanding of the attitudes the teachers and students at UT-HCMC have towards pronunciation, the problems facing them as well as the main causes of these problems

1.1 Curriculum and course books

As a required subject, English is supposed to equip graduates of UT-HCMC with sufficient knowledge of both General English (abbreviated to GE) and English for Specific Purposes (abbreviated to ESP) Depending on their majors, students attend between 300 and 615 forty-five-minute periods of English within their four years at university The first 240 periods, called the first stage, is devoted to GE with Lifelines

as the course books The objective of this stage is to build up learners’ confidence and English competence that are good enough for them to comfortably interact with other people in English During the remaining time, called the second stage, students study ESP which is aimed at providing learners with necessary technical terms relating to their majors and developing their reading skills, which is of great significance to their future work This stage, therefore, contains nothing related to pronunciation

During the first stage, students study the whole 14-unit elementary Lifelines and the first eight units of the 14-unit pre-intermediate Lifelines, so each unit is supposed to

be covered within 10 periods on average These 10 periods can be theoretically subdivided as follows: 3 periods for grammar, 3 for vocabulary and reading, 2 for listening, 1 for speaking and the last one for pronunciation, which mainly focuses on individual sounds and the pronunciation practice of individual words containing these sounds Students are also taught stress in multi-syllabic words, but they usually have word-level-based practice only Rarely do they have chances to practice pronunciation

with long complete sentences However, very little time is dedicated to the teaching of the two most troublesome fricatives /T/ and /D/ The tables below give more detailed information on how different aspects of pronunciation are apportioned in Lifelines

Elementary Lifelines

Unit 8 /I/ and /i:/

Unit 10 /æ/ and /eI/; and intonation of statements and yes/no questions

Unit 12 /h/; sentence stress

Table 1.1: Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in elementary Lifelines

Pre-intermediate Lifelines

Unit 4 /I/ and /i:/; sentence stress

Unit 5 /&/ and /A:/; reduced vowels

Unit 8 Silent letters; sentence stress

Table 1.2: Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in the first eight units

in pre-intermediate Lifelines

As shown in Table 1.1 and Table 1.2, the teaching of the two dental fricatives

/T/ and /D/, thinly disposed with only two times presented as part of pronunciation lessons, taking totally just around two forty-five-minute periods, is almost neglected in the English course books Even worse, besides the main course books, no supplementary materials on such consonants is included in the English syllabus That explains why students at UT-HCMC have spare understanding of the two dental fricatives, leading to their poor pronunciation of the consonants I question

1.2 Assessment

As mentioned above, the English curriculum applied at UT-HCMC is divided into two main stages: the GE stage and the ESP stage Students’ acquisition of English during the ESP stage is measured by means of written tests, pronunciation, therefore, plays no role in the assessment At the end of each term in the GE stage, students ought

to take an oral test which is comprised of five main sections No criteria for the assessment of students’ performance are specified, however

1.3 Teachers

There are totally 25 English teachers currently working at UT-HCMC, 20 of whom are full-time teachers, the others are part-time They are all qualified and experienced enough to teach English to non-English majors Unfortunately, they do not share their views on the target objectives of the teaching and learning of English, leading to considerable differences in the things they teach, the methods they employ and the activities they hold in their classes

Many teachers believe that teaching English means teaching English grammar

to students and learning English means learning everything about the English grammar

As a result of this belief, these teachers place a special focus on grammar and thus, spend most of their time in class teaching complex grammatical rules to students and

force them to learn all these rules by heart The practice of these grammatical points, however, is just sentence-based; the primary method employed in classroom is traditional grammar-translation and the main language used in interactions between teachers and students and among students themselves is Vietnamese Seldom is English pronunciation mentioned in such classes That means these teachers are, instead of teaching English, teaching their students about English Explaining for their viewpoint, these teachers put forward the idea that if students are not learning English grammar, then they are not learning English at all because without a solid knowledge of grammar, it is quite impossible for them to use English The truth in their argument is obviously undeniable; however, the problem with their teaching habit is that they tend

to teach English grammar out of contexts, which makes it impossible for students to know in what situations these grammatical rules should be used, leading to their failure

in expressing their ideas properly not only in spoken but also in written forms Moreover, they forget that English, like all other languages, is comprised of not only grammar but also many other important aspects and that in order to enhance learners’ communicative competence, which is the main focus of most English learners nowadays, it is not only the grammar but also the vocabulary and the pronunciation that count

All the-above stated facts undoubtedly result in students’ inadequate knowledge

of English pronunciation, which is believed to be one of the reasons for regretful breakdowns in their communications with native speakers of English if there are any

1.4 Students

Students at UT-HCMC are all non-English majors Most of them, after spending

at least 2 years learning English, enter university with a lame, unsystematic knowledge

of English grammar, an inadequate knowledge of English pronunciation system and poor competence in communicating in English This is the inevitable result of the way

English is taught at most high schools in Vietnam Unfortunately, the English teaching and learning situation at UT-HCMC is not much brighter Students’ deficient knowledge of English which is thought to be the natural result of the above-mentioned way of English teaching, together with their unclearly-specified motivation of English learning are believed to be the main causes of their improper attitudes towards English and English learning

1.5 Summary

Covered in chapter 1 is some background information about the curriculum and course books used at UT-HCMC, assessment of administrators and teachers towards the students’ examination, the teachers and the students’ attitude toward pronunciation teaching at UT-HCMC

Chapter 2

This chapter reviews the theory related to (1) speech sounds including the definitions of consonants and vowels, (2) classification of consonants, (3) detailed description of the English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/, (4) consonant clusters, (5) L1

interference on SLA, (6) possibilities of pronunciation training, and (7) principles and techniques in pronunciation teaching

2.1 Speech sounds

“Vocal sounds are produced in the human body by the organs of what is called the vocal tract2 Vocal sounds which are organized to communicate information are called speech sounds.” [Buchanan, 1963: 18] In other words, a speech sound is a sound produced by the vocal organs for the sake of communication According to Fromkin and Rodman [1993: 198], every language of the world contains the two basic classes of

speech sounds often referred to by the cover terms consonants (abbreviated to C) and

vowels (abbreviated to V)

In order to produce a consonant, the speaker has to obstruct the flow of air as it travels through the mouth This means that a consonant is a speech sound which is produced with the flow of air blocked in the mouth Finegan [1994: 34] defines consonants

as “sounds produced by partially or completely blocking air in its passage from the lungs

2

“The vocal tract is the air passages which are above the vocal cords and which are involved in the production of speech sounds.” The vocal tract can be divided into:

- THE NASAL CAVITY, which is “the air passage within and behind the nose”;

- THE ORAL CAVITY, which is “the air passage within the mouth”;

- THE PHARYNX, which is the air passage extending “from above the vocal cords up to

the soft palate (velum) at the back of the mouth.”

through the vocal tract.” That is, the passage of air from our lungs through our vocal tract must be partially or completely obstructed when we want to make a consonant In the

same vein, Richards et al [1992: 78] state that a consonant is a speech sound where the

air stream from the lungs is either completely blocked, partially blocked or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction In the production of some consonants, the air is blocked in the mouth but allowed to escape through the nose

As Avery and Ehrlich [1995: 28] held, vowels are differentiated from consonants by the relatively wide opening in the mouth when air travels from the lungs out of the body That is, in the production of vowels, there is relatively little obstruction of the air stream somewhere in the mouth in comparison to that of consonants In other words, a vowel is a speech sound which is produced with no

obstruction of the airflow in the mouth In the same vein, Richards et al [1992: 403] define

a vowel as “a speech sound in which the air stream from the lungs is not blocked in any way in the mouth or throat, and which is usually pronounced with vibration of the

vocal cords, e.g English /i:/ in /si:/ see and /u:/ in /tu:/ too.” According to Finegan’s

definition [1994: 39], vowels are produced by “passing air through different shapes of the mouth and different positions of the tongue and lips unobstructed by narrow passages (except at the glottis).”

2.2 Classification of consonants

English consonant phonemes can be distinguished along three main dimensions: place of articulation3 (where the sound is produced), manner of articulation (how the air flow is affected), and voicing (whether the vocal cords are vibrating when a certain

3

“The formation of discrete (individual) speech sounds is called articulation.” [Buchanan, 1963: 38]

According to Richards et al [1992: 22], “articulation is the production of speech sounds in the mouth

and throat.”

sound is being made) Attention to these dimensions helps linguists clearly describe the individual consonant phonemes and to distinguish them from each other Therefore, the three dimensions are the criteria for classifying consonants Let’s consider the following figure of the vocal organs to separate the parts involved in the production of speech sounds

2.2.1 Places of articulation

Places of articulation are defined a bit differently by linguists:

- “Parts of the mouth and throat (the oral cavity) that are used in the production of speech sounds” [Richards et al, 1992: 280];

- “The unmovable parts of the mouth involved in the articulation of speech sounds” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 11]

Figure 2.1: The vocal organs

In brief, a place of articulation is the area in the mouth at which a consonantal closure

or constriction occurs For instance, when the sounds /p/ and /b/ are made, the two lips

come into close contact whereas the lower lip moves to touch the upper front teeth so that

we could exactly produce the /f/ and /v/ sounds Based on places of articulation, English consonants are divided into seven groups as illustrated in Avery and Ehrlich’s [1995: 18] following table

bilabial labio-dental dental alveolar alveo-palatal palatal velar

Table 2.1: Classification of consonants according to places of articulation

As Avery and Ehrlich [1995: 11, 13] state, the sounds /p/, /b/, and /m/ are

referred to as bi-labial sounds because the two lips are involved in their production; the sounds /f/ and /v/ are referred to as labio-dental sounds since the lower lip and the upper

front teeth are involved in their production.” In the production of /T/ and /D/, the tongue tip is placed between the teeth, so they are referred to as inter-dental sounds O’Connor

[1986: 29] calls /T/ and /D/ dental sounds because the tongue tip is put “close to the

cutting-edge of the upper front teeth” in order for /T/ and /D/ to be precisely produced

In Avery and Ehrlich’s explanations [1995: 15-17], /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/ and /r/ are referred to as alveolar sounds because the tongue blade either touches or approaches the alveolar ridge (also called the tooth ridge) in their production In the production of //,

/Z/, /Í/, and /Ù/, the tongue blade is just behind the tooth ridge at the hard palate; therefore, these sounds are referred to as alveo-palatal sounds The term velar is used for /k/, /g/

and /N/ because these sounds are made with the tongue back rising to touch the soft

palate or velum

2.2.2 Manners of articulation

Defined a bit differently by linguists, a manner of articulation is the way in which:

- “The air stream is affected as it travels from the lungs up and out of the mouth and nose” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 193];

- “A speech sound is produced by the speech organs” [Richards et al, 1992: 220]

In brief, a manner of articulation is the kind of closure or constriction used in making a consonant From the viewpoint of manners of articulation, English consonants are divided into five different types: stops, nasals, fricatives, affricates, and approximants

In the production of the English stops (also called oral stops or nonnasal stops) /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/, the air stream is completely blocked in the oral cavity for a brief period because the soft palate is raised to shut off the nasal cavity and, at the same time, either the lips are pressed together or the tongue actually touches some part of the roof of the mouth to shut off the oral cavity The complete closure or stop is then suddenly released, and the air escapes with an explosive sound “The nonnasal or oral stops are also called plosives because the air that is blocked in the mouth ‘explodes’ when the closure is released.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 193]

In the production of the English nasals (also called nasal stops) /m/, /n/ and /N/,

the air stream is completely blocked in the oral cavity as it is for oral stops However, the velum is lowered, allowing air to escape through the nose

In the production of the English Fricatives /f/, /v/, /T/, /D/, /s/, /z/, // and /Z/, the

air stream is partially blocked in the oral cavity (simultaneously with the velum raised

to shut off the nasal cavity) “This partial obstruction results from the lip or the tongue coming close to some part of the upper mouth These consonants are called fricatives because the close approximation of the articulators4 causes turbulence or friction in the

air flow.” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 19]

In the production of the two English Affricates /Í/ and /Ù/, there is a combination of

an oral stop followed immediately by a fricative /Í/ and /Ù/ often have slightly rounded lips Both are made with the tongue blade first raised against and then moved away from the back part of the alveolar ridge Although the affricates can be said to be composed of an oral stop and a fricative, it is usual to regard them as single independent phonemes in

English The two components of an affricate must be homorganic: they must be made with the same articulator — the tongue blade, and have the same place of articulation

— alveo-palatal

In the production of the English Approximants /l/, /r/, /j/ and /w/, an articulator

approaches a certain place of articulation as for fricatives but the articulator does not

come close enough to the roof of the mouth to cause audible friction

4

“The movable parts of the mouth – the bottom lip, the bottom teeth, the tongue, and the jaw – are

referred to as articulators.” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 11]

2.2.3 Voicing

The third way in which consonants can differ from each other is in terms of voicing Consonants may be grouped in pairs, both members of a fortis/lenis5

(voiceless/voiced) pair having identical place and manner of articulation, but one with

voicing and the other without: /p/ and /b/, /f/ and /v/, /Í/ and /Ù/, etc

According to Avery and Ehrlich’s classification of English consonant phonemes [1995: 24-27], while English nasals and approximants are all voiced, English stops, fricatives and affricates consist of pairs of voiceless/voiced consonants: /t/ is voiceless while /d/ is voiced; /s/ is voiceless whereas /z/ is voiced; /Í/ is voiceless but /Ù/ is voiced

2.3 English dental fricatives /T/ and /D/

As Fromkin and Rodman [1993: 198] held, “in the production of consonants, the flow of air is obstructed as it travels through the mouth…” The sounds /T/ and /D/ both have some degree of obstruction and are therefore consonants In fact, when we produce the /T/ and /D/ sounds, we have to partially block the air flow as it travels through our mouth

Within the classification of consonants based on places of articulation, the sounds /T/ and /D/ are referred to as inter-dental sounds, because in their production the tongue tip is placed “between (inter-) the teeth (dental)” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995:11] Sometimes, the sounds /T/ and /D/ are called dental sounds since, in order to produce these consonants, the tongue tip is put “close to the cutting-edge of the upper front teeth.” [O’Connor, 1986: 29]

5

Fortis “describes a consonant which is produced with a relatively greater amount of muscular

force and breath, e.g in English /p/, /t/, /k/ The opposite of fortis is lenis, which describes consonants which are produced with less muscular effort and little or no aspiration, e.g in

English /b/, /d/, /g/.” [Richards et al, 1992: 145]

Based on their manners of articulation, /T/ and /D/ are referred to as dental fricatives Like other English fricatives, when /T/ and /D/ are produced, the air stream is partially blocked in the oral cavity (simultaneously with the velum raised to shut off the oral cavity) This partial obstruction results from the tongue coming close to the upper front teeth These two sounds are called fricatives because the close approximation of the articulators causes turbulence or friction in the airflow In the production of /T/ and /D/, a narrowing is formed by putting the tongue tip between the teeth or holdingthe tongue tip very close to the cutting-edge of the upper front teeth When the

air is pushed through the narrowing, it causes slight friction

As the above descriptions show, the sounds /T/ and /D/ do share some features

in common That is, they are made with the same articulators (the tongue tip and the upper front teeth) and in the same way (the air stream is partially obstructed somewhere in the mouth) These two sounds, nonetheless, differ from each other in terms of voicing, which is the third criterion that makes consonants distinguish from one another

If, as Fromkin and Rodman [1993: 187] say, the vocal cords6 are apart, the air stream is not obstructed at the glottis and it passes freely into the supra-glottal cavities7 The sounds produced in this way are voiceless… In contrast, if the vocal cords are together, the air stream forces it way through and causes them to vibrate Such sounds are called voiced sounds By this way, in the production of /D/, the air flow escaping through the mouth causes some vibration of the vocal cords whereas there is no vibration when /T/ is made The sound /D/ is, therefore, voiced and /T/ is voiceless

In their distribution, the dental fricatives /T/ and /D/ both commonly occur in

initial position such as in think /TINk/ and this /DIs/, in medial position such as in healthy /"helTI/ and without /wI"DaUt/, and in final position such as in north /nO:T/ and bathe

/beID/ However, the occurrence frequency of the final /T/ is much higher than that of the final /D/ In fact, popularly used words that consist of the final /D/ are not many,

among which are bathe, clothe, smooth, breathe, teethe, and with

2.4 Consonant clusters

1.4.1 Definition

A consonant cluster is “a sequence of two or more consonants.” [Richards et al, 1992: 79] For example, the word desk has a sequence of two consonants /s/ and /k/ that makes up a consonant cluster /-sk/ at the end of the word Similarly, appointment has three consonants /n/, /t/ and /m/ standing together forming a consonant cluster /-ntm-/

within the word As a matter of fact, English is different from Vietnamese in that the former has a variety of consonant clusters meanwhile the later does not

According to Roach [1991: 68], “when we have two or more consonants together we call them a consonant cluster.” In other words, a consonant cluster is a group

of two or more consonants standing together in a word Consonant clusters may occur at the beginning of a word, at the end of a word, or within a word In English, for instance,

the word throw has the consonant cluster /Tr-/ at the beginning and it is called an consonant cluster; the word healthy has the consonant cluster /-lT-/ in between which is usually called a medial-consonant cluster Similarly, the ordinal number fifth also has the

initial-consonant cluster /-fT/ at the end which is usually called a final-initial-consonant cluster

2.4.2 Common consonant clusters consisting of /T/ or /D/

According to Avery and Ehrlich [1995: 54], the English language has a limited number of permitted combinations of consonants in initial and final positions A famous example illustrating this limitation is the initial cluster /bn/ which does not occur in English Therefore, the combination between the dental fricatives /T/ or /D/ with other consonants is not an exception Below is the list of common consonant

clusters which consists of the dental fricatives /T/ or /D/ quoted in Le Duy Tam [1970: 122-115]

2.5 Mother tongue’s interference on second language acquisition

2.5.1 Theoretical background

Second language acquisition refers to “the processes by which people develop proficiency in a second or foreign language These processes are often investigated with the

expectation that information about them is useful in language teaching.” [Richards et

al, 1992: 325] From their own point of view, Wolfram and Johnson [1982: 187]

believe that learning to speak a foreign language involves learning another phonological system Whereas this acquisition may be linked in some respects to learning phonology

in the native language, there emerge some obvious and important differences In the acquisition of the native language phonological system, certain natural phonological processes have to be overcome or suppressed in learning the specific phonological patterns of the language In the acquisition of another language, it is the phonological patterns of the native language which have to be suppressed in learning the new system Failure to overcome the L1 patterns of phonology in speaking the second language (abbreviated to L2) results in foreign accents Technically, this phenomenon is calledinterference referring to the fact that L1 phonological patterns are imposed on those of the L2

system

As Avery and Ehrlich [1995: xv] state, “every language has a different inventory of sounds, different rules for the combinations of these sounds into words, and different stress and intonation patterns.” The nature of a foreign language accent, as mentioned above, is determined to a large extent by learners’ mother tongue Non-native speakers of English, thence, can be recognized as being characteristic of Spanish accents, Chinese accents, or Vietnamese accents, etc This indicates that the L1 sound patterns are transferred into the L2 ones According to Avery and Ehrlich [1995: xv], the students’ L1

sound system can be seen to influence their pronunciation of English in at least three ways

Firstly, when a learner encounters English sounds that are not part of the sound inventory of the learner’s native language, difficulties may arise That is, students usually find

it hard to properly produce sounds not included in their L1 As a matter of fact, the pronunciation of sounds depends on the proper use of the musculature in the mouth Therefore, Vietnamese adult learners may not be able to produce new sounds because they have never exercised their mouth in a particular way required to pronounce certain English sounds For instance, a large number of Vietnamese learners usually find it hard to properly produce some English sounds such as /Ù/, /Z/, /T/, /D/, etc

Secondly, difficulties may arise since the rules of combining sounds into words are different, as L1 compared to L2: English consonant clusters are a case in point

Vietnamese words, it is clear, are all in the shape of CV as in cỏ8, or VC as in ốm9, or

CVC as in cam10; there is no consonant cluster that has ever been found in the Vietnamese language On the contrary, certain English consonants can stand together

in order to form a consonant cluster such as throw or dreams

Thirdly, the patterns of stress and intonation, which determine the overall rhythm and melody of a language, can be transferred from L1 into L2 Let us take the sentence

Quê anh ở Hà Nội à?11 as an example Vietnamese people usually use the falling tone

asking this Vietnamese question whereas the speaker has to employ the rising tone for

this Yes/No question in English A great number of Vietnamese learners, however, have been uttering such English Yes/No question incorrectly, using the falling tone instead And this is too bad as being asserted by Avery and Ehrlich [1995: xv]:

The native language not only affects the ability to produce English sounds but also the ability to hear English sounds Experienced teachers certainly know the frustration involved in having students continually repeat a mispronounced word in

the same way Students may seem impervious to correction but, in fact, the problem often arises because the word is heard through the sound system of the native language Thus, sounds which occur in the native language will be heard rather than the actual sounds of English which are being produced by the teacher This highlights a very important point concerning the influence of the native

language It is as if learners hear the second language through a filter, the filter

being the sound system of the native language

In summary, the pronunciation errors that second language learners make are not just random attempts to produce unfamiliar sounds Rather, the errors reflect the L1 sound inventory, rules of combination, and stress and intonation patterns

1.5.2 Common Vietnamese consonants that may interfere with the students’

acquisition of the dental fricatives /T/ and /D/

Since /T/ and /D/ are the new sounds, from his own teaching experience, the researcher notices that Vietnamese learners tend to make it easier to pronounce these sounds by replacing them with some sounds that really exist in the L1 phoneme system

such as /th/, /đ/, /x/ (spelled as s or x)12, and /z/ (spelled as gi)13 For example, Vietnamese learners of English usually incorrectly transfer /th/ in the Vietnamese

language as in than, thím, and thỏ14, etc into the pronunciation of English words

containing the voiceless dental fricative /T/ like thank, thin, theme, etc Similarly, they

usually produce the voiced /D/ exactly the same as the unaspirated /đ/ in the

Vietnamese language Consequently, the English words like that or they are usually pronounced as the Vietnamese words đát or đây15 by a large number of students

In Đoàn Thiện Thuật’s descriptions [1976: 36-39], the Vietnamese /th/ and /đ/, from the viewpoint of manners of articulation, are stops usually produced with an explosion This kind of explosion is created as the flow of air is completely obstructed

when it travels from the lungs up and out of the mouth Thus, the two sounds are also called aspirated consonants On the contrary, the Vietnamese /s/ is a fricative pronounced with some audible friction which is caused by the partially-blocked air stream somewhere in the mouth Based on places of articulation, the Vietnamese /th/ is produced by putting the tongue tip very close to the back of the upper front teeth The Vietnamese /s/ and /đ/ are referred to as alveolar sounds: in the production of /s/, the tongue blade is raised to approach the alveolar ridge; the tongue tip is moved to touch the alveolar ridge when /đ/ is pronounced.16

In Thompson’s descriptions [1967: 24, 26 and 27], the Vietnamese /đ/ is a

“voiced apicoalveolar17 stop.” In other words, /đ/ is produced by moving the tongue tip to touch the alveolar ridge and there is an explosion released when /đ/ is made The /đ/ is usually pre-glottalized18 and imploded19 and occurs in the initial position only 20 The

16

“Về mặt phương thức cấu âm, người ta phân biệt phụ âm tắc (như “b”, “t”, “đ”, “b”) với phụ

âm xát (như “v”, “s”, “g” trong tiếng Việt) Đặc trưng của loại hình phụ âm thứ nhất là một

tiếng nổ, phát sinh do luồng không khí từ phổi đi ra bị cản trở hoàn toàn, phải phá vỡ sự cản trở ấy để phát ra Trái lại, đặc trưng của loại hình phụ âm thứ hai là tiếng cọ xát, phát sinh do luồng không khí di ra bị cản trở không hoàn toàn (chỉ bị khó khăn) phải lách qua một khe hở nhỏ và trong khi thoát ra như vậy cọ xát vào thành của bộ máy phát âm […] Khi cấu âm các phụ âm bật hơi, như “th” trong tiếng Việt, “kh” trong tiếng Tày, hay “c” trong tiếng Anh, không khí chẳng những phá vỡ sự cản trở gây nên một tiếng nổ nhẹ mà đồng thời khi thoát

ra cũng gây một tiếng cọ xát ở khe hở giữa hai mép dây thanh […] Miêu tả các phụ âm còn một điều quan trọng nữa là xác định vị trí cấu âm của chúng Hai âm “b” và “đ” trong tiếng Việt đều được cấu tạo theo phương thức tắc nhưng khu biệt nhau ở chỗ một đằng sự cản trở không khí xảy ra ở giữa hai môi, một đằng do sự tiếp xúc của đầu lưỡi với lợi […] Mặt khác, muốn mô tả tỉ mỉ đặc trưng cấu âm của một phụ âm cần nêu rõ tất cả những bộ phận

nào đã gây nên sự cản trở không khí […] “đ” là âm lưỡi-lợi…” [Đoàn Thiện Thuật, 1976:

i.e in the production of the voiced Vietnamese consonant /đ/, there is a partial closure of the

19

i.e the Vietnamese consonant /đ/ is producedwith an explosion caused inside the mouth

Vietnamese /th/ is a “voiceless apicodental21 stop” which is produced with aspirated release The production of /th/ involves the tongue tip placed “against the roots of the upper teeth.” The Vietnamese /x/ and /z/ are both “laminodental22 spirants23” but the

former is voiceless while the later is voiced The Vietnamese /x/ is “similar to English s

in see, but somewhat more palatalized24 and a little less shrill25.” Also, the Vietnamese /x/

is pretty similar to the English /T/ in that both are voiceless and can be continuously produced as long as there is enough air from the lungs The Vietnamese /z/ is “similar

to English z in zebra, but is somewhat more palatalized.”

To the researcher’s knowledge and practical experience, it is very interesting that the interference of the Vietnamese /th/, /x/ and /đ/ on the students’ acquisition of the English /T/ and /D/ is popular among Vietnamese learners from various geographical origins whereas the Vietnamese /z/ may only interfere with a large number of Vietnamese northern learners’ since the Vietnamese /z/ does not belong to the southerners’ dialects

2.6 Possibilities of pronunciation training

The Vietnamese /x/ and /z/ are referred to as lamino-dental spirants because they are produced

by obstructing the air passage with the tongue blade, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue on the top, approaching closer to the teeth

laminal (adjective) relating to the tongue blade; dental (adjective) relating to the teeth

23

According to Richards et al [1992: 384], spirant is a linguistic term “used by some American

linguists for a fricative.”

24

Unlike the English /s/, the Vietnamese /x/ is produced with the tongue blade not coming quite

close to the alveolar ridge but approaching closer to the hard palate instead

25

i.e the Vietnamese /x/ is produced with a lower degree of friction