Difficulties encountered by vietnamese efl learners at east europe language school in articulating the english fricative in syllabic context

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY VIETNAMESE EFL LEAR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS AT EAST EUROPE LANGUAGE SCHOOL IN ARTICULATING THE ENGLISH FRICATIVES IN SYLLABIC CONTEXT

Submitted to the Department of English Linguistics and Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

LE NHU THAO

Supervised by

NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2013

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled:

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS

AT EAST EUROPE LANGUAGE SCHOOL IN ARTICULATING THE

ENGLISH FRICATIVES IN SYLLABLE CONTEXT

in terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not previously been submitted for any degree or diploma at Universities and Institutions

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2013

LE NHU THAO

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, LE NHU THAO, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accepted the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Masters’ Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2013

LE NHU THAO

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thu Huong who has spent much time giving me valuable support as well as dedicated guidance and beneficial advice He also provided me many references that related to my topic as well as supported and corrected my study at every stage Without his guidance and support, I could not finish this thesis

Secondly, I also would like to give my special thank to all lecturers in the

MA courses in TESOL 2008 at USSH for their useful instruction and dedication

Thirdly, I would like to thank sincerely to Mr Robert A Singh (B.A), Mr Paul Gardiner Kelley (B.A) and Mr Nguyen Hung Vu (M.A), who were willing to spend their time evaluating the pronunciation voice recording which made my data analysis more accurate

Fourthly, my deepest gratitude and special thanks are sent to my friends for their comments, suggestions and advice Especially, I am indebted to Mr Huynh Phong Nhuan (M.A), Ms Nguyen Thi Ngoc Minh (M.A), Mr Nguyen Hung Vu (M.A) and Ms Nguyen Thi Nhu An (M.A), who were willing to spend their time proofreading language used in this thesis

I am also indebted to all of forty non-major participants from East Europe Foreign Language Center for their generous taking part in the voice recording and questionnaire so that I can collect the data

Last but not least, I am sincerely grateful to my parents and my older sister and also my husband who were always by my side for great encouragement and motivation Without their love and support, all of this would have been impossible

ABSTRACT

The thesis aimed at investigating Vietnamese EFL learners’ difficulties in pronouncing English fricatives (interdental fricatives: /θ/, /ð/, alveolar fricatives: /s/, /z/, labiodental fricatives: /f/, /v/ and post-alveolar fricatives: / /, /ʒ/) in the syllable context The participants taking part in this study were 40 learners at East Europe Language School They were classified into two groups: elementary group and advanced group Each group was composed of 20 participants The major instruments were questionnaire and recording The questionnaire aimed to elucidate students’ opinions on fricatives problems and their attitudes towards L1 transfer and teachers’ instruction Whereas, the recording clarified subjects’ pronunciation difficulties of the fricatives and explored pronunciation differences of each factor in level, gender and regional dialect

The findings revealed that the students encountered pronunciation difficulties

of the fricatives and with reference to place of articulation, the students ran into the most challenge with the interdental fricatives (/ð/, /θ/) and the post-alveolar fricatives (/ʒ/, / /) Specifically, they met more problems in lenis sounds in comparison with fortis counterparts Additionally, the students’ pronunciation failure resulted in the influence of L1 transfer and teachers’ instruction The statistical analysis of the recording results also demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the elementary and the advanced groups However, there was no significant difference between the participants of the gender and the regional dialect in articulating the fricatives

The results from this study serve as a foundation for the improvement of learning and teaching fricatives in particular and teaching pronunciation in general

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents v

List of tables ix

List of figures and charts xi

List of abbreviations xii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 2

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Research hypotheses 4

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Organization of the thesis 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Theoretical concepts 6

2.1.1 The definition of consonants classification 6

2.1.1.1 Voicing 6

2.1.1.2 Place of articulation 7

2.1.1.3 Manner of articulation 7

2.1.2 Fricative descriptions 8

2.1.2.1 Interdental fricatives: /θ/ and /ð/ 8

2.1.2.2 Alveolar fricatives: /s/ and /z/ 9

2.1.2.3 Labiodental fricatives: /f/ and /v/ 10

2.1.2.4 Post-alveolar fricatives: / / and /ʒ/ 10

2.1.3 Reasons for ESL learners’ difficulties in pronouncing the fricatives 11

2.1.3.1 The Influence of L1 Transfer 12

2.1.3.2 The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) 13

2.1.3.3 The Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) 13

2.1.3.4 Teachers’ instruction 14

2.1.3.5 Time of exposure 15

2.1.3.6 The Gender 16

2.1.3.7 Regional dialect 17

2.2 Empirical research 17

2.2.1 Studies about ESL/EFL learners’ pronunciation rather than Vietnamese 18

2.2.2 Studies about Vietnamese EFL learners’ pronunciation 23

2.3 Conceptual framework 38

2.4 Summary 39

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 40

3.1 Research Design 40

3.2 Study Setting 40

3.3 Participants 40

3.4 Research Instruments 41

3.4.1 Questionnaire 41

3.4.2 Recording the word list, the paragraph and the interview 42

3.5 Scoring criteria 43

3.6 Data analysis 45

3.6.1 Frequency analysis 45

3.6.2 Descriptive Statistics 46

3.6.3 T-test 46

3.6.4 One-Way Anova 46

3.6.5 Bivariate correlation 46

3.7 Procedures 47

3.8 Summary 47

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 48

4.1 Statistical analysis of the students’ difficulties in articulating

the fricatives 48

4.1.1 Statistical analysis of the students’ errors made in practice 48

4.1.2 Statistical analysis of the students’ report on their fricatives errors 51

4.1.3 Correlation results between the students’ perception of the problem and their problem in practice 55

4.2 Statistical analysis of the students’ recording results on the level, the gender and the regional dialect 56

4.2.1 Statistical analysis of the students’ recording results on the level… 56 4.2.2 Statistical analysis of the students’ recording results on the gender 58

4.2.3 Statistical analysis of the students’ recording results on the regional dialect 59

4.3 Statistical analysis on the students’ perception of the difficulties causes… … 60

4.3.1 Statistical analysis on the students’ attitudes towards the influence of L1 transfer 61

4.3.2 Statistical analysis on the students’ attitudes towards the influence of teachers’ instruction 62

4.4 Discussion of the findings 64

4.5 Chapter summary 70

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 71

5.1 Summary of the key findings 71

5.2 Implications for Teaching of Pronunciation 72

5.3 Limitations of the Study 73

5.4 Recommendations for further research 74

5.5 Chapter Summary 75

REFERENCES 76

APPENDICES 81

APPENDIX 1: Syllabus for pronunciation teaching to elementary level 81

APPENDIX 2: Syllabus for pronunciation teaching to intermediate level 81

APPENDIX 3: Syllabus for pronunciation teaching to advanced level 82

APPENDIX 4A: Questionnaire (English Version) 83

APPENDIX 4B: Questionnaire (Vietnamese Version) 85

APPENDIX 5: Recording in the word list, the context and the interview 87

APPENDIX 5A: Recording in the word list 87

APPENDIX 5B: Recording in the context 88

APPENDIX 5C: Recording in the interview 88

LIST OF TABLES

Pages Table 3.4.1 Content and distribution of items on the questionnaire 42 Table 4.1.1.a Summary of the students’ fricatives pronunciation 48 Table 4.1.1.b Summary of the students’ fricatives articulation based on the

Table 4.1.2.c Summary of the students’ perception on the fricatives

pronunciation based on the place of articulation 53

Table 4.1.2.d Summary of the students’ report on the voicing of the fricatives

Table 4.2.1.a Summary of the elementary and the advanced students’

pronunciation of the fricatives in the syllable context 56

Table 4.2.1.b Summary of the elementary and advanced students’

pronunciation of each of the fricatives in the syllable context……… 58

Table 4.2.2 Summary of the male and the female students’ pronunciation

of the fricatives in the syllable context 59

Table 4.2.3 Summary of the three regional dialect students’ pronunciation

of the fricatives in the syllable context 60

Table 4.3.1.a The students’ report on the influence of L1 transfer 61

Table 4.3.1.b The students’ report on the existed sound in Vietnamese

Table 4.3.2.c The students’ report on the mean scores between L1 transfer

and the teachers’ instruction 64

LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS

Pages

Figure 2.1.2.1 Tongue position for /θ/ and /ð/ 9

Figure 2.1.2.2 Tongue position for /s/ and /z/ 9

Figure 2.1.2.3 Tongue position for /f/ and /v/ 10

Figure 2.1.2.4 Tongue position for /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ 11

Figure 3.5.a Spectrogram for cloth by a native speaker of English 44

Figure 3.5.b Spectrogram for cloth by a Vietnamese speaker 44

Chart 4.1.1.a Mean scores of articulating the fricatives based on the place of articulation 49

Chart 4.1.1.b Mean scores of articulating the fricatives based on the voicing 50

Chart 4.1.2.a The students’ perception on the fricatives pronunciation based on the place of articulation 52

Chart 4.1.2.b The students’ perception on the voicing pronunciation 53

Chart 4.2.1 The mean scores between two groups of the level 57

Chart 4.2.2 The mean scores between two groups of the gender 59

Chart 4.2.3 The mean scores between three groups of the regional dialect 60

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A.E : American sound system CAH : Contrastive analysis hypothesis CPH : Critical period hypothesis EFL : English as a Foreign Language ELS : East Europe Language School ESL : English as a Second Language ITC : Information Technology College L1 : Mother tongue

L2 : Second Language MDH : Markedness differential hypothesis

OAU : Obafemi Awolowo University

p : significance (two-tailed) PHS : Pleiku High School students

SD : Standard Deviation Sig (2-tailed) : significance (two-tailed) SLA : Second language acquisition SPSS : Statistics Package for the Social Sciences

SV : South Vietnamese TESOL :Teaching of English to speakers of other languages

TL : Target language

UT : University of Transport Viet : Vietnamese sound system

X : Mean Score YSE : Yobura learners of English

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Under the influence of communicative approach, many practitioners have found much on the role of acquiring meaning rather than form (Jireghie, 2012) Pronunciation and grammar have been considered of secondary status It has been observed that some teachers cannot teach all of the sounds mentioned in the textbook on the ground of time pressure Hence, it is obvious that students find it challenging to produce sounds accurately For example, the students mispronounce

the desired sound /f/ as the undesired one /v/ as in the word fan, the correct

pronunciation is /fæn/ while most of them produced as /væn/ or the

mispronunciation shoe as /sju:/ instead of /ʃu:/

The mispronunciations above can negatively affect learners’ communication in politics, business dealings, television programs, everyday life, education and work promotion in Vietnam nowadays Nguyen Tan Loc (2009) stated that the students could employ simple words instead of advanced words and apply simple structures instead of advanced grammar to express their thought except the simple pronunciation In fact, “a certain in proficiency standard, the fault which most severely impairs the communication process in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners is pronunciation, rather than vocabulary or grammar” (Hinofitis & Baily, 1980, p.p124-125, as cited in Ha Cam Tam, 2005) In addition, the accuracy of pronunciation influences how listeners judge speakers and how they are successful

in other skills (Fraser, 2000, as cited in Malthus, 2008) According to Saylor (2011), our communication will be breakdown on account of improper pronunciation In reality, it leads to “incomprehensible speech in English” (Ha Cam Tam, 2005, p.2) It is proper pronunciation that is paramount to the understood message or it would effortlessly understand and know what the message conveys In addition, according to Szynalski (2001), good pronunciation

is regarded as the first priority when you learn English Native speakers may

understand you except mispronunciation even though you make grammatical mistakes Rimando (2010) also claimed, “many non-native speakers have studied grammar for many years but are unable to speak like native speakers due to their inability to pronounce the sounds of words properly” Actually, pronunciation plays a crucial role in learning English and communication

1.1 Background to the study

Before providing the aims of the study, the researcher would like to focus

on the background to the study

The thesis was launched at East Europe Language School (ELS), located

in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where the learners were trained how to communicate well and master grammar, pronunciation, listening as well as writing

skills in English To achieve these goals, the students are taught about American

English File textbook (Oxenden, Loenig & Seligson, 1996) It takes 6 months (i.e

144 periods) for the learners to accomplish each book In addition, all of them attend three 90-minute classes a week More specifically, the elementary learners

spend time studying the books American English File 1A and American English

File 1B (see Appendix 1) while the intermediate students need to cover the

textbooks American English File 2A and American English File 2B (see Appendix 2) American English 3 (see Appendix 3) is taught about the advanced students

Each unit comprises five skills (1) reading (2) speaking (3) writing (4) listening and (5) pronunciation; however, it is obvious that four fricatives such as /z/, /f/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are neglected in the English course books (see Appendix 1, 2 and 3) The knowledge of stress including sentence stress and word stress holds a key position

The students are of variety of level, gender and regional dialect in ELS The key problem lies in the fact that through teaching at ELS to the students for years, the researcher does realize that most of her students encounter difficulties in pronouncing the fricatives like interdental fricatives: /θ/, /ð/; alveolar fricatives: /s/, /z/; labiodental fricatives: /f/, /v/ and post-alveolar fricatives: /ʃ/, /ʒ/ These drawbacks can hinder their communication in virtue of misunderstanding each other and detracting message value Specifically, most of the learners, for example,

may produce the word wife as /wain/ for the desired sound /waif/, or they may

substitute /saʊnd/ for the correct sound /saʊθ/ as in the word South and breathe as /bri:d/ whereas /bri:ð/ is correct; many students mispronounce she as /si:/ while the

desired sound is / i:/; or the undesired sound /wet/ is substituted with the correct

sound /west/ as in the word west; and the sound /z/ in zoo is often produced

incorrectly as the sound /j/ /v/ and /ʒ/ are the two last fricatives that cause many

difficulties for the learners For instance, have is substituted with /hæ/ while /hæv/

and /həv/ must be employed and casual is incorrectly produced as /'kæzuəl/ for

desired sound /'kæʒuəl/

All mentioned above have strongly encouraged the researcher to make a study in this field

1.2 Aims of the study

The present thesis aims to investigate EFL learners’ difficulties in articulating the English fricatives (the interdental fricatives: /θ/, /ð/, the alveolar fricatives: /s/, /z/, the labiodental fricatives: /f/, /v/ and the post-alveolar fricatives: / /, /ʒ/) It attempts to find out errors that students make in reality and what areas

of fricatives that present difficulties for them The thesis also aims to find out how students view the reasons of their difficulties

1.3 Research questions

This thesis attempts to answer three following questions:

1 With reference to fricative articulation, what are the errors (1) that students make in practice and (2) that they report having difficulties in articulating them?

a Do students make significant errors in articulating fricatives?

b Is there a relationship between the errors made in practice and the difficulties reported?

2 Do problems of articulating fricatives differ in terms of:

a Level

b Gender

c Regional dialect

3 How do students attribute their difficulties in articulating fricatives?

To what extent do they attribute their difficulties to:

2 There will be significant differences in the difficulties of articulating fricatives As far as the level, the gender and the regional dialect are concerned

3 In terms of the factors influencing the articulating, the interference of L1 transfer is regarded as a key one besides the teachers’ instruction

1.5 Significance of the study

As presented in the conceptual framework of chapter 2 There has been no research on the specific sounds in terms of aspect of pronunciation only-the fricatives Expectedly, the study will be beneficial reference for EFL teachers and other researchers who have been interested in this area

Moreover, the findings of the thesis have demonstrated that the fricatives posed a real problem for Vietnamese students Hence, the language teachers should pay more attention to this problem especially in the aspect of place of articulation (the interdental fricatives: /θ/, /ð/ and the post-alveolar fricatives: / /, /ʒ/) and the voicing to avoid the students’ communication breakdown or

misunderstanding More clearly, the mispronunciation of ship as /sip/ instead of / ɪp/ or in the word beige as /bei/ for the corrected sound /beiʒ/ may result in

misunderstanding and communication breakdown

Last but not least, the thesis hopefully provides useful groundwork for EFL teachers to be flexible in applying raising consciousness and physical training in teaching pronunciation

1.6 Organization of the thesis

Chapter 1 presents an introduction about this M.A thesis Specifically, it

aims to provide the background of the problem at East Europe Language Center on the specific aspect of the only sounds named fricatives Besides that, the aim of the study, research questions, hypotheses, significance of the study, and organization

of this thesis cannot be ignored

Chapter 2 is the literature review, providing theoretical concepts,

especially the consonants classification, fricatives descriptions including the eight relevant fricatives Also mentioned in this chapter are the reasons for pronunciation difficulties and recapitulating ESL/EFL learners’ empirical research

in acquisition of English pronunciation This chapter is also considered as conceptual framework

Chapter 3 supplies the methodology including research design, study

setting, participants, and research instruments, scoring criteria, data analysis, and procedures in details

Chapter 4 analyzes the results of the study based on the relevant theories,

questionnaire and recording Discussions of these findings are also indispensable

Chapter 5 provides the conclusion of the study Some implications for

language pedagogy, limitations and recommendations for future research are reported

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The present study was implemented to investigate EFL learners’ difficulties in articulating the English fricatives (the interdental fricatives: /θ/, /ð/, the alveolar fricatives: /s/, /z/, the labiodental fricatives: /f/, /v/ and post-alveolar fricatives: / /, /ʒ/) at ELS Accordingly, this chapter entails two major parts: the theoretical background of the study and empirical research It first presents the definition of consonants classification It then introduces the fricatives descriptions Next, it provides an overview of the reasons for difficulties in pronouncing fricative sounds Moreover, the empirical research is stated In addition, it presents the conceptual framework Finally, the chapter also gives its

summary

2.1 Theoretical concepts

This section reviews consonants classification Describing these eight sounds is also the key aspect Some main causes of the difficulty in pronouncing fricative sounds are also given out

2.1.1 The definition of consonants classification

2.1.1.1 Voicing

For Avery and Ehrlich (1992), voicing means “whether there is vibration

of the vocal cords”1 (p.12) In comparison with lenis (voiced) fricatives, fortis (voiceless) counterparts are articulated with greater and louder force in their friction Moreover, to know whether a consonant sound is voiced or voiceless, according to Bowen and Marks (1992), we can use a sheet of paper For example,

to put the sheet in the distance of nine centimeters in front of the face and the space between the bottom of the sheet and the face is about the level of the chin In

a pair of consonant like /b/ and /p/, for example, the sound /p/, a large amount of

1 “The vocal cords are the vibrating bands of tissue within the larynx, or voiced box.” Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin, 1996, p.42)

(Celce-air (fortis) is released whereas the lenis is hardly released To sum up, when the vocal cords vibrate, the lenis exists On the contrary, the fortis counterpart does not The next part concentrates on place of articulation

2.1.1.2 Place of articulation

According to Davenport and Hannahs (1998, p.13), the place of articulation is “the horizontal relationship between the articulators”2

or the relationship between the active articulator and passive one3 Meanwhile Avery and Ehrlich (1992), defined place of articulation as follow “in the production of speech sounds, the articulators approach the upper unmovable parts of the mouth, causing the airstream to be altered in different ways” (p.11) Besides that, Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996, p.43) asserted, “speech organs are in which position

in order for a particular consonant sound to be produced”

To conclude, in producing a speech sound, there is a contact between two speech organs and basing on which position to form an equivalent sound, is called place of articulation For instance, to form the labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/,

there is a production of the upper teeth and inner lower lip as in the words fee and

van Besides the place of articulation, manner of articulation also plays a key role

in pronouncing the fricatives

2.1.1.3 Manner of articulation

Like the place of articulation, definitions of the manner of articulation are diverse Avery and Ehrlich (1992) claimed that “manner of articulation refers to the way in which the obstruction of the airstream, which characterizes all consonants, is achieved (p.18)” Davenport and Hannahs (1998, p.13), stated that the manner of articulation is “the distance between the active and passive articulators, from being close together, preventing air escaping, to wide part” Then, Ladefoged (2006, p.13) declared, “at most places of articulation there are several basic ways in which articulatory gesture can be accomplished” While

2

According to Roach (2000,p.8), the different parts of the vocal tract are called articulators

3 “Some parts of the tongue or lower lip are active articulator, which does most of the moving during a speech gesture while “the passive articulator involved typically gives its name to the place of articulation.” (Davenport & Hannahs, 1998, p.13).

Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996, p 43) said “how those various speech organs interact with each other”

In a word, the manner of articulation implies how parts of speech organs like lips, tongue, and teeth and so on involve making sound For example, to produce the interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, it is essential to let air move out of the mouth in the process of articulating the sounds and the tongue tip is between the teeth The next key part is the description of the fricatives

2.1.2.1 Interdental fricatives: /θ/ and /ð/

According to Rogers (2000), the voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ is produced by placing the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower teeth while the air escapes through the passage in between The tip of the tongue is near or just barely touches the rear surface of the teeth It occurs at the beginning of a word (initial), between the other sounds (medial) and at the end of a word (final) such as

thick, nothing and breath In addition, the voiced counterpart /ð/ is produced the

same as /θ/ It also happens in all word positions as in they, father and breathe

However, when pronouncing /ð/, there is some vocal cord vibration or voice

These two sounds are spelt with th (see Figure 2.1.2.1) The next part involves

sounds: /s/ and /z/

Figure 2.1.2.1 Tongue position for /θ/ and /ð/

2.1.2.2 Alveolar fricatives: /s/ and /z/

According to Chomsky and Halle (1968), voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ is produced with the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge Also, it is made with a small opening, allowing the air to escape with some friction The escaping air is turbulent and produces a noisy friction-like sound, called friction It occurs in

all words position such as skin, seaside and piece In final position, it is spelt as ss,

x, se as in hiss, axe, and hearse Moreover, it can be spelt as s, ss or c in front of i,

e and y such as cigarette, ceiling and bicycle; exceptionally, s is silent in words

like corps and island The voiced alveolar fricative /z/ is articulated in the same

manner with /s/ but the vocal cord vibrates when /z/ occurs before vowel and

inter-vocalic positions: zone, reason It also occurs in initial, medial and final position

such as zero, easy and peas The sound is often spelt s in medial and final position

as in easy, desire, nose, calls and adds (see Figure 2.1.2.2) The following section

focuses on the labiodental fricatives: /f/ and /v/

Figure 2.1.2.2 Tongue position for /s/ and /z/

2.1.2.3 Labiodental fricatives: /f/ and /v/

In Chomsky and Halle’s opinion (1968), /f/ is a voiceless labiodental fricative, which articulates with the upper teeth and inner lower lips come close together The air comes out of lips and teeth to create friction It occurs at the beginning of a word, between the other sounds and at the end of a word such as

feel, office and sniff The sound can be spelt with the letters ph as in graph, physic,

f as in fire, loaf, ff as in effort, sniff, or gh as in laugh, enough whilst the voiced

labiodental fricative /v/ has the same characteristics as /f/ However, the vocal cord

is arisen Furthermore, the sound /f/ also occurs in initial, medial and final position

such as veil, invite and leave In addition, this sound is spelt with v except f in of and ph in nephew and Stephen (see Figure 2.1.2.3) The last two vital sounds are

post-alveolar fricatives: / / and /ʒ/

Figure 2.1.2.3 Tongue position for /f/ and /v/

2.1.2.4 Post-alveolar fricatives: / / and /ʒ/

Post-alveolar fricatives are intermediate between alveolar and palatal This is an involvement between alveolar (or sometimes only the back portion) and the front part of the palate In addition, it is vital for the top of the tongue to be kept down and not to be involved in post-alveolar sounds In comparison with sounds: /s/ and /z/, sounds: / / and /ʒ/ have escaping air through the passage along the tongue center in common However, in terms of the passage which is a little higher and also the tongue is fairly further back Whenever the vocal cord is not

vibrated, the sound / / is present and in this case, this sound is voiceless while the voiced /ʒ/ vibrates Like the above sounds, the voiceless sound / / also has three

positions such as initial, medial and final as in these examples shirt, washing and

English We often see this sound pronounced as sh in the words like shoe, push

and ash Also, it can be spelt with s in sugar, sure or ss in mission, pressure or ci

in delicious, ancient or sci in conscious or ce in ocean, si in pension, ti in tuition

In comparison with the voiceless sound, the voiced counterpart /ʒ/ just distributes

at medial and final position such as treasure and garage The sound can be spelt as

z in case of following by u in seizure, ge in massage In addition, when followed

by u or i, it can be spelt as s as in visual and decision (Chomsky & Halle, 1968)

(see Figure 2.1.2.4) The following section aims to provide reasons for ESL/EFL learners’ difficulties in pronouncing the fricatives

Figure 2.1.2.4 Tongue position for /ʃ/ and /ʒ/

2.1.3 Reasons for ESL/EFL learners’ difficulties in pronouncing the

fricatives

On the basis of the material from books and Internet, the researcher found that there are a number of factors that can lead to ESL/EFL learners’ drawbacks in pronouncing the fricatives They all include the influence of L1 transfer, the contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH), the markedness differential hypothesis (MDH), teachers’ instruction, time of exposure, gender, the regional dialect This part aims at introducing the above theories contributing to the learners’ pronunciation difficulties as follows

2.1.3.1 The Influence of L1 Transfer

The first and most general point to be made is that in second language acquisition research, native language plays a crucial role and regarded as the subfield of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Besides that, the term transfer considering to the subsequent learning of task B is influenced by learning of task

A More apparently, before being good at doing something, the learners need to study something else first For Postman (1971, p.1019, as cited in Nunan, 1999),

“the more knowledge and skills an individual acquires, the more likely it becomes that his new learning will be shaped by his past experiences and activities Transfer

of training from old to new situations is part and parcel of most, if not all, learning”

Another point is that the definition of transfer has been considered problematic and broadened (Odlin, 1989 & Ellis, 1994) It is not simply a consequence of habit information or interference on the native language Transfer can be defined as “the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the Target Language (TL) and any other language that has been previously and perhaps imperfectly acquired (Odlin, 1989, p 27)” Later on, Gass and Selinker (1992, p.23, as cited in Nunan, 1999) revised the transfer concept as

“the use of native language (or other language) knowledge – in some yet unclear way – in the acquisition of a second language (or additional language)” There are two kinds of language transfer: negative transfer and positive transfer

Interference is also considered as the negative transfer It occurs when language learners commit errors because of dissimilarity between Mother tongue (L1) and Second Language (L2) According to Kenworthy (1987), the learners’ obstruction can increase more and more in company with the difference between two languages For example, dropping final consonant sounds such as the alveolar fricative /z/ and the interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ of Cambodians is so common because Cambodian’s sound system lacks those sounds On the contrary, similarity between L1 and L2 results in the positive transfer, facilitation It means that due to

the similarity between learners’ L1 and L2, the learners find it easy to learn L2 and make fewer errors

In sum, in the process of learning a foreign language, native language effect is definitely crucial Besides the influence of L1 transfer, the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis is also deemed to be another significant factor that poses a problem for the learners’ difficulties in articulating the fricatives

2.1.3.2 The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)

One of the most widespread influences on ESL/EFL learners’ difficulties

in articulating the fricatives is the contrastive analysis hypothesis On the ground

of the students’ regular errors in language, the assumption of language teacher is that they could predict what mistakes the learners would encounter The teachers’ assumption of those mistakes continues and it also leads the information of CAH According to Lado (1957, as cited in Le Huu Ly, 2007), CAH is classified into two versions The first version is a strong version, which states that when the native language and TL are different, the learners get trouble in inference from their L1 into L2 Therefore, they make L2 errors, these errors could be predicted through comparing L1 and L2 The second version is a weak version, which claims that by comparing L1 and L2, linguists can analyze the learners’ errors and find out the reasons why they commit those errors as well (Gass & Selinker, 2001) Hence, strong version is considered as a helpful device for predicting some of the errors a second language learner makes The next sector points out the markedness differential hypothesis; another factor poses difficulties for the learners to produce the fricatives

2.1.3.3 The Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH)

In relation to reason for ESL/EFL learners’ difficulties in producing the fricatives, the markedness differential hypothesis was given out Key (1939) and Jakboson (1941) are pioneers to propose and develop the markedness theory (as cited in Ekman, 1977), which is considered as one of the theories that attributes to

L2 acquisition In the area of L2 phonological acquisition, Ekman (1977) has applied MDH, which explained why ESL/EFL learners encounter difficulties in learning English Ekman (1977) asserted that language learners find it difficult to learn marked sounds, which do not occur in their L1, but the unmarked ones will not be difficult to learn In fact, the more marked of target language is, the more difficult the learners have to face According to Celce-Murcia; Brinton and Goodwin (1996), the theory is very helpful to explain the phonological differences among languages In terms of phonology, sounds that are universal, more frequent are called unmarked ones meanwhile the marked sounds are more limited and less frequent For example, the interdental fricatives /θ, ð/ marked in Vietnamese sound system That is why Vietnamese find it difficult to pronounce those two sounds or they tend to find the similar sounds to substitute The next part provides teachers’ instruction

2.1.3.4 Teachers’ instruction

Another crucial factor leading to the learners’ difficulties to attain pronunciation acquisition is the teachers’ instruction For MacCarthy (1978), the reason for the learners’ drawbacks in pronunciation is ordinary person’s ability in perceiving auditory the phenomenon of the language to be learnt is widely Hence,

on account of raising the students’ consciousness of pronunciation, not only do the students acquire the articulation of the new sounds but also they achieve the phonemes system Before the learners can obtain to produce the new sounds of a language, it is vital for them to learn how to perceive sounds first The teachers’ raising consciousness is a way that instills motivation and helps the students understand and use the language features by drawing their attention to them According to MacCarthy (1978), the teachers can apply raising consciousness of pronunciation through the following important steps

First and foremost, using the phonetic training is essential for the teachers

to explain how particular sounds are articulated by using the videos, head diagrams, articulatory description or even a phonetic alphabet Secondly, it is also

beneficial for the teachers to provide models for their students to repeat or imitate the sounds In a sense, the teachers’ mispronouncing due to not checking the sounds before class may lead to their learners’ mistakes Thus, looking up the

pronunciation of new words for both the teachers and learners in a dictionary is

also a good investment in learner autonomy Then, the teachers who are in charge

of English pronunciation lessons must make sure that sounds are practiced in all positions like initial, medial and final one

Besides that, Underhill (2005) supported that teaching pronunciation is making pronunciation physically and visible That means the teachers should teach the way to take pronunciation out of the students’ head and into their body to find where the muscles are This is a connection between the head and the muscles It is also vital to use gesture of hand for teaching pronunciation illustration

In brief, the teachers’ instruction by raising consciousness and physical training play major roles to the students’ pronunciation acquisition The factor time

of exposure also contributes to the learners’ problems in acquiring the new language and is presented as below

2.1.3.5 Time of exposure

Another factor needed to concerned is the time of exposure that relates to the learners’ drawbacks in articulating the fricatives According to Kenworthy (1987), to be good at obtaining pronunciation, the length of time surrounding and using English holds a key role In fact, the more a speaker uses English, the more influent they obtain Moreover, language improvement completely bases on the amount of time spending on contacting with the English language For example, they can surround themselves with English or live in an English speaking country

or another country in a definite period time as in work and school On the contrary, the speakers do not attain much improvement on the ground of the lack of time contact in English constantly like at work, school or in daily life It is worth noticing that the learners just cover English in the class with their teachers and

friends That also implies that they communicate mainly by their first language when being outside the classroom Actually, the learners can benefit if they are provided as many chances of time to practice and correct English as possible To conclude, time of exposure serves as one of the important foundations for good pronunciation

Together with the influence of time of exposure, the gender is the next reason for difficulties in fricatives articulation

factors” We have dissimilar roles, abilities, aptitudes as well as behaviors in

accordance with the different gender

McMillan and Schumacher (2001) provided some vital influence of sex in acquiring language For example, Nowicki and Strickland (1973) showed that male learners tend to be independent, striving and self-motivate behaviors in their study

In addition, Lochel (1983) stated that responsibility reducing and lack confidence results in female students’s failure (as cited in McMillan & Schumacher, 2001)

Another view by Dweck and Reppucci (1973), in comparison with the female, the male counterpart does not have enough effort in studying (as cited in McMillan & Schumacher, 2001) According to Ellis (1994, p.p 202-204), the female students seem to be better in acquisition of L2 than male counterparts, which is a result of “they are likely to be more open to new linguistic forms in the L2 input” Actually, the researchers Burstall (1975) and Boyle (1987) proved in their study that “the girls scored significantly higher than boys” (as cited in Ellis,

1994, p.202) when taking the French test during the period time of study in primary school Also, Boyle (1987) affirmed that Chinese the female students got

better proficiency in ten English tests by comparison with the male counterparts Moreover, Nyiko (1990) showed that women have the more positive attitudes and sensitive input result in the capacity of memorizing German vocabulary seems to

be dominated by women than men (as cited in Ellis, 1994)

In sum up, gender actually plays an important role in second language acquisition Another factor is regional dialect, which is presented in the next section

2.1.3.7 Regional dialect

In the perspective of ESL learners’ difficulties in producing the fricatives, the regional dialect also plays a key role The identity of any language can be recognized by the regional dialect or geographical origin of the speakers The regional dialect is regarded as the crucial determiner of the acquisition of good pronunciation English pronunciation varies from place to place That is why living

in different residences results in dissimilarity in the way of articulating any words (Saylor, 2011) For instance, it is common for the English speakers with a Southern dialect to lengthen vowel and for the Mid-Western United State and New York residents who tend to produce words with numerous nasal In fact, each country has its own characteristic of the language and people who live in the same nation, can have the nearly same pronunciation Furthermore, even people in the same country but different regions, sometimes cause various articulation, for example, the sound /d/ in Vietnam, Ha Noi people produce as /z/ in English whereas Ho Chi Minh City people articulate as /y/ (Dinh Si Trang, 1993) This is actually apparent evidence that in the same Vietnam country, Vietnamese also has diverse Vietnamese pronunciation Accordingly, foreign language likes English; of course, various residences cause dissimilar pronunciation

2.2 Empirical research

Previous studies on ESL/ EFL learners’ difficulties in producing the fricatives can be classified into two categories Part one aims to recapitulate the

studies of ESL/EFL learners rather than Vietnamese and part two summarizes the studies about Vietnamese EFL learners’ pronunciation difficulties of the fricatives

2.2.1 Studies about ESL/EFL learners’ pronunciation rather than

Vietnamese

There are extensive studies investigating the ESL/ EFL learners’ pronunciation of the fricatives rather than Vietnamese More clearly, a great number of the studies were launched on pronunciation errors on the ground of L1 transfer and MDH (Chan & Li, 2000; Bada, 2001; Ohata, 2004; Akade, 2004; Adana, 2007) while others paid attention to the influence of the teachers and facilities (Akade, 2004; Gonet & Pietron, 2005)

Through the contrastive differences of English and Cantonese consonants,

Chan and Li (2000) identified the English pronunciation problems that Cantonese

speakers faced in both segmental and suprasegmental According to them, in the light of dissimilar phonology between two languages, the speakers met some problems in pronouncing the fricatives That was why the speakers tended to replace sounds with the nearest sounds corresponding to their own sound system Particularly, Cantonese pronounced the undesired voiced alveolar stop /d/ or the labiodental fricative /f/ in final position for the desired sound /ð/ For example, the

word with was produced as /wid/ or /wit/ while the correct sound was /wið/ At the same time, the voiceless counterpart /θ/ became /t/ or /f/ as in thin /θɪn/ Together

with those sounds, the learners also confused between the voiced and the voiceless

labiodental fricatives /f, v/ at the final position Thus, the word live /laɪv/ was

pronounced as /laɪf/ However, when standing initially, the subjects mispronounced /w/ for /v/ Like the interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ does not exist in Cantonese phonological inventory, so it

tended to be replaced by the voiceless counterpart /s/ For example, the word zip became sip Last but not least, the post-alveolar fricatives / / and /ʒ/ were mostly substituted with /s/ and sometimes /ʒ/ changed into / / such as in shave confused

with save Finally, the researcher concluded that the lack of L1 sounds was the

main factor resulting in pronunciation difficulties for Cantonese Hence, ESL teachers should realize this problem and the differences between the two languages should be emphasized to help their students overcome pronunciation problems In other words, the researcher should focus on participants and the instruments more apparently and more reasons causing pronunciation problems besides the differences of English and Cantonese consonants should be taken into consideration

One year later, Bada (2001) examined whether the native language influenced the pronunciation of English sounds by Japanese speakers or not 18 participants in total (16 females and 2 males) took part in the study at two universities in Japan and United Kingdom and were at an average age of 19 They acquired English in 8 years In addition, all of the informants had the same Japanese dialect The researcher had the subjects read the thirty-eight sentences and recorded in the tape recorder It took five to eight minutes for each learner to finish The result indicated that the Japanese speakers tended to replace the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ with the correct voiced counterpart /z/ at the end of the word Moreover, the interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ did lead to major difficulty of production and were substituted by native language counterparts Specifically, the subjects produced undesired sounds of the voiceless stop /t/, fricatives /s/ and /z/ for the desired sound /θ/ in the final position In addition, the voiced interdental fricative /ð/ was mainly replaced by voiced alveolar stop /d/ initially, medially and finally In some cases, it was also produced as /z/ at the beginning and end of the words The undesired sounds /t, s, θ/ were substituted with the voiced interdental fricative /ð/ finally Due to absence from the Japanese sound system, the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ also caused difficulties and misunderstood with sounds /f/ and /w/ at the final place and at initial position articulated as /w/ By comparison with the sound /v/, the voiceless counterpart /f/ did not seem very difficult to pronounce That was why the students just mispronounced it with /h/ /∫ / was the last fricative sound, which the learners

produced as /s/ and /t∫/ incorrectly In fact, the researcher revealed that native language extremely affected the Japanese speakers’ production of English That was why the learners tended to replace non-existent sounds with the sounds existed

in their sound inventory Therefore, drawing out the differences between the two languages is actually prominent However, the frequency occurrence of the sounds was not much to test the subjects’ articulation and more judges are should taken into consideration to analyze the result Similarly, the participants should have been given clear instruction before recording Besides that, the study did not illustrate words that the learners encountered problems

In a study in 2004, Ohata contrasted the sound systems of English and Japanese consonants to find out several potentially problematic pronunciations for EFL Japanese learners The sound inventory of Japanese showed that there are more consonants in English than in Japanese More specifically, the interdental fricatives /ð/ and /θ/ are absent in the Japanese consonantal system In addition, the post-alveolar fricatives / / and /ʒ/ usually did not arise as separate phonemes in the Japanese However, when the two fricatives /s/ and /z/ stand before the vowels /i/ and /u/, the learners tended to pronounce them as the fricatives / / and /ʒ/ such as

the words sip and see changed into ship and she Furthermore, /v/ is non-existent

sound in the Japanese sound inventory That is why the speakers pronounced the

sound /b/ for the desired sound /v/ as in the word vanilla and very changed into

banana and berry In short, the reflection of L1 phonological transfer and the

differences between the two languages are the major reasons resulting in the students’ pronunciation problem Through this finding, the researcher hopefully helps the teachers to create helpful activities for their students However, the study

is on basis of the differences between the two languages and observations of students only The next study would carry out this mission

A study conducted by Akande (2004) investigated the pronunciation problems and reasons for these difficulties of Yobura learners of English (YSE) Fifty first year undergraduate students coming from Obafemi Awolowo

University (OAU) of Nigeria were chosen as the participants All of the subjects had exposed to English since they were in primary school The informants all had taken a semester at OAU in different departments about 4 months English text, telling stories and questionnaire were three major types of research instruments Particularly, the researcher got the participants to read aloud a prepared English text having all –present- English sounds in 15 sentences, which was required to be transcribed and recorded on tape The students kept on telling any stories of their choices in the 10 minutes time constraint so that it could limit the formality for the first instrument The last instrument, the questionnaire aimed at recognizing the reasons for the students’ drawback in pronouncing English sounds The finding clearly proved that YSE confused to pronounce the undesired /t/ and /d/ sounds for

the desired interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð, for example, two words think and

though were produced as /tiŋk/ and /do:/ Similarly, the YSE were unable to

distinguish the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ and the voiceless counterpart /s/ Thus,

they mispronounced the final sound /s/ in the word bags The result revealed that

the interference of Yoruba language in English, lack of major teachers and facilities led to those mispronunciations Additionally, the researcher hopefully suggested the responding amendments However, when reading English text; to have the natural speech, the researcher should not underline the examined words and the more judges were used, the more reliable the results were

Besides the above research, Gonet and Pietron (2005) carried out the study about Polish learners’ pronunciation of the English interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ aiming at ascertaining the effective ways in teaching and learning these two sounds To conduct this study, the researcher chose 14 English intermediate students at the age of 17 years old and taught four English lessons per week Additionally, the writer got various contextual positions of 80 words and phrases containing {th}, picked from the common secondary textbooks recorded The finding proved that in comparison with the voiceless counterpart /θ/, the subjects found it harder to produce the voiced interdental fricative /ð/ Likewise, the sounds /f/ and /t/ were substituted with the desired sound /θ/ while the frequency of /f/

replacement took more percentage than the /t/ sound as in the words faithful or

throw

One more thing was that the participants tended to produce the undesired sounds /d/ and /v/ for the correct voiced interdental fricative /ð/ as in the phrase

with me Through this result, the researcher drew out that the position in which

words happened affected the way Polish pronounce For instance, in producing the /ð/ sound, the students tended to substitute /d/ for /ð/ when the sound /ð/ stands in

front of the vowel as in that and in case of before consonants, the subjects would replace undesired /v/ with /ð/ as with me In the context, moreover, the learners had

a tendency to produce the incorrect /f/ or /t/ as in bath Hence, the suggestions

were that the teachers should occupy a fundamental role to realize those substitutions and have an efficient method in teaching as well as help their students distinguish sounds confusion by clear instructions on the place and manner of articulation However, the thesis was limited only two sounds and did not apply many materials besides words and phrases recording In addition, it seemed to be subjective in virtue of one evaluator-the researcher

Later on, Adana launched a study on pronunciation of Turkish students in

2007 in order to find out the teachers and students’ errors in pronunciation on the basis of the theory of Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) and aid them in overcoming such problems There were two chosen groups in total: treatment and control including 26 sophomore students per group at English Language Teaching department of Cukurova University Department All of them had diverse educational backgrounds such as state high schools and private high schools and had already taken the Phonetics and Phonology Course Each of the participants received a pre-test containing 60 English problematic words, which needed to be read aloud, and the music pen digital audio recorder was utilized as a recording instrument Based on the errors in pronunciation of consonants, treatment was conducted to help the participants be aware of the pronunciation errors After ten weeks of the treatment for the experimental group, the participants of two groups took the post-test, which also contained a same word list as in the pre-test

Moreover, the procedure of the recording had a clear instruction as in the pre-test The researcher had the subjects’ recording and American English native speakers’ recording compared

The result demonstrated that most of the Turkish EFL learners mispronounced the voiced interdental fricative /ð/ with the alveolar stops /t/ and /d/

in the pre-test as in word bathe pronounced incorrectly /beit/ and word there

becoming to /deə/ More particularly, 92.3 % of controlled participants produced

the undesired sound /d/ initially in the word there In other words, the experimental subjects incorrectly pronounced the word father as /t/, took the percentage of

88.5% meanwhile the control counterpart was in 73.1% mispronunciation The

participants also faced problem with the word bathe, which was undesiredly

produced as /t/ sound, 88.5% of mispronunciation was experimental group and 80.8% was the control group In addition, the sound /ð/ resulted in many drawbacks for the Turkish EFL learners in the post-test That was why pronouncing the incorrect sound /t/ finally and /d/ initially and medially was the common errors among the learners Specifically, the experimental group pronounced the interdental fricative /ð/ initially incorrectly was 30.8%, medially was 42.3 % and 53.8% for the final position In contrast, the control group had problem about 11.5% at the beginning of the word, 15.4% at the middle position and 84.6% at the end of the word However, the learners showed little or no improvement in producing the word-final /ð/ The result showed that the Turkish EFL learners found it difficult to produce such sounds due to these marked sounds for the Turkish speakers and the environmental that the sounds occurred However, the thesis would be better if the writer utilized the questionnaire and spontaneous speech as the instruments

2.2.2 Studies about Vietnamese EFL learners’ pronunciation

Those above studies were launched in the foreign countries and this part aims to provide the studies in Vietnam There have been numerous studies on the Vietnamese EFL learners’ pronunciation which laid much emphasis on the

learners’ pronunciation difficulties and the reasons for these problems (Santre, 1992; Nguyen Thi Phuc Hoa, 1999; Ha Cam Tam, 2005; Ha Thanh Bich Loan, 2005; Nguyen Hong Quang, 2006; Le Huu Ly, 2007; Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, 2007; Nguyen Thi Kim Ba, 2009 and Nguyen Tan Loc, 2009) In addition, Nguyen Thi Nhu Diep (2007) was the only researcher mentioned in the difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation

The first pioneer was Santre (1992); he conducted the study on South Vietnamese (SV) learners’ pronunciation errors of English consonants, tense and lax vowels on the ground of the contrastive analysis theory The participants were ten Vietnamese who was living in Australia The instruments were word lists, a short reading passage and the interview as well The participants were conveyed ten pronunciation lessons between the first and second test in three contexts: the word lists, interview and reading passage Then, they took three tests After six months, the researcher continued to record the third identical test Nonetheless, the subjects did not get any more pronunciation lessons The finding identified that the

SV learners encountered diverse pronunciation difficulties, for example, the S.V speakers replaced the voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ with the alveolar stop /t/ as

in thin and /d/ as in myth The omission of this sound also occurred in the final position as in sixth Similar to /θ/ sound, the voiced interdental fricative /ð/ was difficult to pronounce and was substituted by the alveolar stop /t/ as in bathe and palatal affricate /ʧ/as in the word bather

Another sound posed problem for the S.V was the voiceless alveolar

fricative /s/, which was confused with the voiced counterpart /z/ as in months and the S.V tended to delete it at the final position as in moves The next problematic

consonant was the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ Accordingly, the speakers

mispronounced the voiceless counterpart /s/ for /z/ sound as in zip, pizza and fizz Omitting /z/ medially and finally as in Mazda and moves was also common

Additionally, the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ presented problem in the medial

position and the learners tended to delete /f/ sound as in fifteen or coughs It was

also mispronounced with the sound /s/ as in flat By comparison with the voiceless

labiodental fricative /f/, the participants had more trouble in articulating the voiced counterpart /v/ More explicitly, it was confused for the voiceless counterpart in

both medial and final positions such as avid and have, together with mispronouncing with the /b/ (as have) and /s/ sound (as in improve) In terms of

the voiceless post-alveolar fricative / /, it just presented problem in substituting initially and medially for the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ The participants could

not distinguish these two sounds like in the word ship or fisher In some cases, it was deleted medially like distinguished

The last problem was the voiced post-alveolar fricative /ʒ/ Due to its absence in Vietnamese sound system, they had a tendency to replace it with the

sound /z/ and /s/ medially as in vision and usually respectively and with /ʤ/ sound

in the middle and ending position like the words vision and rouge A few participants mispronounced /ʤ/ with the /ʧ/ as in rouge Finally, the researcher

claimed that non-existent sounds in Vietnamese were difficult for the Southern Vietnamese speakers to pronounce because there are no counterparts in Vietnamese sound system However, there were only 10 attendees in this thesis Therefore, there should be more participants to generalize consonant pronunciation difficulties Also, there should be studies on the other factors influencing on pronunciation acquisition such as gender, the role of teacher or regional dialect

Many years later, Nguyen Thi Phuc Hoa conducted a research in 1999 to investigate some pronunciation problems made by English students of Hue University in natural speech The study aimed at providing some pronunciation problems as well as reasons for such difficulties made by the differences between the two language sound systems, English and Vietnamese Besides that, supplying some amendments for teaching and learning pronunciation played a crucial role There were in total three kinds of instruments such as questionnaire, tape recording, in-depth interviews including non-scheduled interviews and moderately ones The process was as follows All of 120 fourth- year students were in range of

22 to 26 age (67 females and 43 males) took part in the survey questionnaire whilst

35 of them (20 females and 15 males) participated in the non-scheduled interviews

to reveal the difficulties they encountered when communicating orally in connected speech by English Foreign Language The researcher provided a main list of questions to continue the moderately scheduled interview for 15 students (8 females and 7 males) on the ground of the results of the questionnaire and non-scheduled interviews In the process of tape recording for 15 students, which aimed at investigating what typical pronunciation errors the informants encountered in natural speech The researcher got the participants to pronounce words in isolation, group and the dialogues and monologues

The result indicated that just 97 subjects returned the answers, which were equal to 80%, and the participants encountered many difficulties when pronouncing words in connected speech Explicitly, 84% students deemed that they faced problems in articulating the final consonants in the light of non-existent

in Vietnamese sound inventory That was why the subjects omitted sounds at the

end of the words as in months, sixth or bathe Furthermore, 76% to 95% of the

students were of the same idea that English fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ were so hard to

pronounce as in thin or nothing; sometimes, the students would like to substitute

them for another sound For instance, /z/, /th/ or /θ/ was replaced by the desired

sound /ð/ in the final position as in they, bathe and them in order In addition, the

sound /z/ was also difficult when preceding the voiceless consonants Through this study, she suggested that the students need more time studying, practicing natural speech in class and using more materials besides the compulsory ones As for the learners, they should learn the classification of speech sounds and apply in natural speech Last but not least, a good pronunciation instructor needed to be taken into consideration However, it seemed to exist some inadequacies in the study, especially in the questionnaire, the researcher did not supply any clear examples

on final sounds and fricatives in questions 8 and 13, which might be ambiguous for the subjects In addition, the researcher did not explain the steps in the process of

recording apparently and English native speakers were not included in the study to discuss the tape recording

In an investigation into the most common pronunciation problems of

English on Vietnamese EFL learners’ pronunciation, Ha Cam Tam (2005) carried

out this study Fifty-one participants spent four years studying English and had final oral exam as a research test All of them were arranged between 20 and 23 of age It took the subjects 5 minutes to state a specific topic in an oral exam The researcher noted pronunciation errors while listening to her students The result showed that omission, confusion and redundancy sounds were three main kinds of errors However, omission in the final position was more frequent than the others;

for example, the participants deleted the alveolar fricative /s/ as in rice and /z/ as in

rise or the labiodental fricative /v/ due to not pronouncing the ending sounds in

their L1 In some cases, the sound /s/ was also deleted medially as in sister The

second error was sound confusion in which the most frequent errors were the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ and the voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ More clearly, the subjects tended to pronounce the incorrect / / and /ʒ/ instead of the

desired /s/ sound as in person The fricative /θ/ also caused confusion for the learners and was mispronounced as the stop /t/ and fricative /s/ as in thumb or

breath Besides, the learners also confused the voiced interdental fricative /ð/ with

the incorrect alveolar fricative /z/ and the alveolar stop /d/ as in breathe

Articulating / / as the undesired /s/ also occurred among the participants like the

word ship The last error was sound redundancy Some learners tended to over pronounce the ending sounds by adding fricatives /s/ and /z/ finally like dog and

market

Through this study, the researcher pointed out some reasons why Vietnamese encountered those above errors Firstly, there were some non-existent English sounds in Vietnamese sound system Secondly, Vietnamese did not have

to pronounce ending sounds in their L1 Hence, she also suggested not only phonetic teachers but also all English teachers needed to notice and correct any