Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions

Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions

This paper investigates problems in English pronunciation encountered byEnglish-majored freshmen at Thuong Mai University and proposes the bestsolutions for their English pronunciation improvement The researcher needed theparticipation and cooperation of 50 students from K55 of Thuong Mai University’sEnglish faculty to conduct the study Both qualitative and quantitative methods wereused to collect and analyze data from the participants The qualitative approach wasapplied to collect and analyze the pronunciation errors in the participants’recordings Simultaneously, the quantitative method was used to accumulateinformation relating to pronunciation levels, study methods, and difficulties inpronouncing those students’ English sounds

This paper showed that the freshmen’s pronunciation levels were diverse, butalmost all participants have encountered several problems in their Englishpronunciation The results revealed that they made any mistakes or had troubleproducing consonants, vowels, ending sounds, and word stress Several strategies ortechniques were proposed to improve pronunciation, and their effectiveness wasagreed upon by the participants

By showing English pronunciation problems and suggested solutions, I hopethat it will help first-year students at Thuong Mai University recognize theirpronunciation problems From that, they have suitable strategies to improve theirpronunciation and speak like a native speaker

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To complete my graduate paper, in addition to my extensive effort and study, I

also would like to express my high appreciation for the enthusiastic help of thepeople whom I approached during the various stages of writing this paper.

First of all, I would like to express my wholehearted gratitude to Ms Han ThiBich Ngoc, who directly guided and supported me with various knowledge andvaluable hints to complete this graduate paper in the best way

I would like to sincerely thank all Thuong Mai University teachers for givinghelpful courses and invaluable knowledge in this field of study

I also want to extend my thanks to all of the authors of the books, magazines,and other materials mentioned in the reference section for their contributions to theresearch

I am so thankful to students for the cooperation of first-year students-K55 ofthe English Faculty, Thuong Mai University Without your help, I can’t be able tocollect sufficient data to conduct the research

I am equally indebted to my classmates for their suggestions andencouragements in the process of my study

Last but not least, I’d like to express my gratitude to my parents for theirencouragement and support, which contributed significantly to the success of mygraduation paper

Hanoi, April 10, 2021

Do Thi Thuy Nguyen

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 AMEP Adult Migrant English Program

2 BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

3 ELT English Language Teaching

4 ESL English as a Second Language

6 IPA International Phonetic Alphabet

8 TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURE

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

Proper pronunciation is the key to master any language Whether vastvocabulary and good grammar you have, communication becomes less effectivewithout correct pronunciation Pronunciation is also a requisite for good listeningand speaking skills If we mispronounce a word, do not pronounce the endingsounds, choose an incorrect part of a word to give stress, or do not pronounce thecorrect intonation, the listener may misunderstand the word’s meaning Theseproblems prevent students from achieving native-like English and confidentlyspeaking to native speakers or any good English users and even put them inunexpected situations Therefore, to speak English well, English learners need tofocus on pronunciation first

In many Vietnamese universities and colleges, teaching specialized Englishsubjects and setting English requirements for graduates is generally applied;Thuong Mai University is not an exception However, most first-year students ofThuong Mai university’s English faculty have many difficulties and mistakes whenthey pronounce English words, phrases, or dialogues Even the students who have along history of learning English, when they apply their language skills in practice,still have pronunciation errors, especially difficult consonants, ending sounds,stress, and intonation rules To further study this issue, the author has conducted astudy entitled “Problems in the English pronunciation of English majored freshmen

at Thuong Mai university and some suggested solutions.” This paper hopes thatEnglish learners, especially the English majored first-year students of Thuong Maiuniversity, can recognize their English pronunciation problems and understand theimportance of correct enunciation, common errors in pronunciation, and solutions totheir problems

1.2 Previous studies

Pronunciation has been studied for a long time and has become a science field.However, research on pronunciation is not completed, and there is still atremendous amount of work to carry on The previous studies pointed out thatlearners’ pronunciation problems are not given much concern, and investigationsinto how to help learners correct their pronunciation have not been fulfilled yet

In some periods, the pronunciation was considered extremely important, while

it did not draw much attention Not until the 1890s, when the InternationalPhonetics Alphabet (IPA) was developed, pronunciation became a science study.Although “Intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communicativecompetence” (Morley, 1991), Brown (1991) shown that pronunciation was still aminimal skill in many language programs He surveyed the number of documentswritten on pronunciation in Applied Linguistics, Language learning, TESOLQuarterly and ELT journal between 1975 and 1988 and concluding that only 11,9%

of articles were written on pronunciation However, the last decade saw an increase

in the interest of teachers and scholars to accent Surveys indicated the growth ofpronunciation literature in language textbooks (Orlando, 2013) Pronunciation is notonly about the individual sound Intonation, stress, rhythm, connected speechshould be emphasized (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010) In recent years, research onpronunciation has been more practical Pronunciation problems of learners areidentified, which makes English acquisitions more efficient

The studies on English pronunciation problems of Vietnamese people alsowere conducted Pronunciation errors recognized are related to ending sounds,consonant sounds, stress (Ngo, 2009; Tuan, 2011; Thao, 2007) Researchers alsofound reasons for the poor English pronunciation of most Vietnamese people Ha,

C T (2005) pointed out that Vietnamese people encounter difficulties in learningEnglish because “Firstly, the English sound system has several sounds foreign toVietnamese speakers Secondly, the way English speakers pronounce the endingsounds is completely different from the one deeply rooted in Vietnamese speakers”

In Ha, C.T (2005), students from an examination room were surveyed There wereabout 20 English-majored students, and most of them were female The researcher,also the examiner, collected data from students’ performance in the final oral exam.The results showed that those students often omitted ending sounds andmispronounced /z/; /ʒ/; /dʒ/; /θ/; /ð/ The main reason is the affection of the mothertongue However, the study is not fulfilled and does not suggest any solutions.Based on prior research, the author carries on the study to investigate the mosttypical pronunciation problems facing English-majored first-year students atThuong Mai University and suggests some solutions

1.3 Aims of the study

This study is written to improve the pronunciation of students at Thuong MaiUniversity Generally, it aims at:

- Determining pronunciation problems facing English-majored freshmen atThuong Mai University

- Suggesting some practical solutions to overcome these obstacles and enhancepronunciation

To achieve the aims of the study, the author tends to seek answers for thefollowing question:

- What are problems in pronunciation of English- majored freshmen at ThuongMai University?

- What are techniques or strategies to improve their pronunciation?

1.4 Research subjects

The research subjects are problems in English pronunciation The participants

of this study included 50 students from K55N of TMU (the academic year 201) They are both boys and girls with different accents and from other provinces

2020-of Vietnam Many 2020-of them have learned English for ten years or even more, but theprevious English curriculum did not focus on pronunciation and practicing Englishskills As a result, despite good grammar, almost all students still face problems intheir English pronunciation Moreover, those students have just left high schools,and their pronunciation is weaker than others at English faculty

1.5 Scope of the study

Pronunciation is a vast field, including consonant sounds, vowel sounds, wordstress, sentence stress, etc Regarding its broad scope, the research focuses onidentifying problems in some consonant sounds, some vowel sounds, and consonantclusters of English-majored freshmen at Thuong Mai University The other parts ofEnglish pronunciation are not investigated Due to the researcher's limitation of timeand ability, the shortage of reference materials, this study cannot cover the wholeproblems of English pronunciation Moreover, the study could not touch upon allthe students at TMU Only 50 students from K55 of Thuong Mai University'sEnglish faculty took part in a survey and were required to answer questions andrecord their English

1.6 Research of methodology

This research is designed to apply both quantitative and qualitative methods Itspurpose is to identify the problems in the English pronunciation of freshmen based oncollecting and analyzing data from the recording and the survey questionnaire

First of all, the researcher recorded the English pronunciation of 50 studentswho are in the significant first year at the Faculty of English, TMU Each studentwas delivered a paper of one pronunciation exercise and was asked to pronounceloudly and clearly At the same time, the researcher recorded these participants'pronunciation and significant note-taking problems

Besides, a list of questions for the survey questionnaire was handed out toevery student The researcher explained the questionnaires to the students and gavethem instructions to fill out the questionnaires Finally, the researcher collected theanswers of the students

Finally, the data collected were saved carefully for the last analysis All files ofthe recording were stored on the computer to utilize the data efficiently The datafrom the survey questionnaire were also classified carefully and stored by images

on the computer

1.7 Organization of the study

This study is divided into four chapters:

- Chapter 1 (overview of the study) gives an overview of the study in which

rationale, previous studies, aims of the studies, research questions, researchsubjects, scope of the study, research methodology, and the organization of thestudy are briefly presented

- Chapter 2 (literature review) provides a summary of the theoretical basis,

including definitions of pronunciation In this chapter, some pronunciation aspectsare presented, and common English pronunciation problems of Vietnamese peopleare shown From that, suggesting some solutions

- Chapter 3 (research findings) discusses the methods used in the research It

also concludes the results of the survey showing English majored freshmen'scommon English pronunciation problems and pointing out the most effectivepronunciation techniques

- Chapter 4 (recommendations and suggestions) shares limitations of this

research and gives some recommendations for the subsequent studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of Pronunciation

Pronunciation is one of the vital skills and the basis of oral communication forEnglish learners at all levels There would be no oral language and no verbalcommunication without pronunciation, so what is pronunciation?

Many authors with different perspectives have answered this question inseveral ways According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic (1992:718),pronunciation is shortly defined as “how a language is spoken.” Dalton &Seidlhofer (1994:1) stated that pronunciation refers to “the production of soundsthat we use to make meaning It includes attention to the particular sounds of alanguage (segments), aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual soundsuch as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), howthe voice is projected (voice quality), and, in its broadest definition, attention togestures and expressions that are closely related to the way we speak a language”.AMEP research center (2000) gave another definition: “Pronunciation refers tothe production of sounds that we use to make meaning It includes attention to theparticular sounds of a language (segments), aspects of speech beyond the level ofthe individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm(suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality) and, in itsbroadest definition, attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related tothe way we speak a language.”

Richards et al (2001:175) indicated that: “Pronunciation (as known asphonology) includes the role of individual sounds and sound segments, that is,features at the segmental level as well as supra-segmental such as stress, rhythm,and intonation.”

There are so many diverse definitions of pronunciation, and pronunciation hasseveral segmental and suprasegmental aspects Yet only a small part ofpronunciation is taken into the research

2.2 Standard English Pronunciation

It is recorded that English is globally used as it is the official language in 67countries out of 195 countries worldwide (Wikipedia, 2015) It is the internationallanguage that serves as an official language in the Union Nations Therefore, there

are many English, such as American English, British English, and AustralianEnglish, to name a few Roach (2000) stated that “One of that everybody knowsabout languages is that they have diverse accents They are pronounced differently

by people from different geographical places, from different social classes, ofdifferent ages and different educational backgrounds” The UK is an example Thereare many different English accents, but the range becomes very much morecomprehensive if Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are considered As a result,

a Standard of English was set for English learners to follow

Steven in Larry Smith’s edition (1983:88) defined Standard English as “aparticular dialect of English, being the non-localized dialect, of global currencywithout any significant variation, universally accepted as the appreciate educationaltarget in teaching English, which may be spoken with an unrestricted choice ofaccent.” In other words, Standard English can be any dialect of English that isacknowledged in their countries in the world However, Vietnamese people andmany people from different countries tend to learn RP (received pronunciation),which is “the accent used by most announcers and newsreaders on serious nationaland international BBC broadcasting channels” (Roach, 2000) In this study, theresearcher will use RP as the criteria for investigating students’ problems in theirpronunciation The IPA will be used to transcribe the speech samples throughout theresearch

a few However, articulators are not only parts of the mouth

According to Wikipedia, “The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield ofphonetics In studying articulation, phoneticians explain how humans producespeech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures Generally,articulatory phonetics is concerned with the transformation of aerodynamic energyinto acoustic energy

Aerodynamic energy refers to the airflow through the vocal tract Its potentialform is air pressure: its kinetic form is the actual dynamic airflow Acoustic energy

is variation in the air pressure that can be represented as sound waves, which arethen perceived by the human auditory system as sound.”

Articulators include several different parts: nose, upper lip, lower lip, upperteeth, lower teeth, alveolar ridge, tongue, hard palate, soft palate, velum, pharynx,and larynx

2.3.1.2 Production of speech sounds

Kelly (2000:5) describes the production of speech sounds: “When we aremaking sounds, the air from the lungs comes up through the wind-pipe and arrivesfirst at the larynx Then it goes through the vocal cords into the pharynx and up thepharynx to the uvula At this point, it may go in either way It may go into the oralcavity (if the soft palate is raised) and go out of the mouth Or it may go into thenasal tract (if the soft palate is lowered) and get out through the nostrils”

i, Oral sounds and nasal sounds.

Oral sounds: In the process of making sounds, at the uvula, if the soft palate

is raised, blocking off the nasal tract, the airstreams can only go into the oral tractand go out of the mouth, then we have verbal sounds e.g., /g/, /s/

Nasal sounds: In the process of making sounds, if the airstream is blocked

somewhere in the oral cavity, but the soft palate is lowered so that the airstream canget into the nasal tract and get out through the nostrils, then we have nasal sounds.e.g., /m/, /n/

ii Consonant and vowel sounds.

Consonant sounds: When we are making sounds, if two articulators come

together, obstructing the airstream cannot get out freely, we have consonant soundse.g., /k/, /f/, /b/, /m/

Vowel sounds: When making sounds, if there is no obstruction to the airflow

as it passes from the larynx to the lips and the air can get out freely, we haveconsonant sounds

e.g., /ә/, /u/, /ӕ/, /ʌ/

iii Voiced and voiceless sounds.

Voiced sounds: When we are producing sounds, the airstream goes through

the vocal cords If the vocal cords come together, obstructing the airstream, theairstream cannot get out through them freely, and it makes them vibrate, then wehave voiced sounds

e.g., /d/, /v/, /m/

Voiceless sounds: When we are making sounds, the airstream goes through

the vocal cords If the vocal cords come apart, they are open The airstream can goout through them freely, and it does not make them vibrate, then we have voicelesssounds

Roach (2000:10) defined vowels as “sound in the production of which there is

no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips” There are 20vowels divided into 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs

a Pure vowels (monophthongs)

“A vowel which remains constant and does not glide is called a pure vowel.”(Roach 2000: 28) Vowels are different from each other According to Roach (2000),vowels are classified by four criteria:

*Part of the tongue which is raised

- Front vowels: The front of the tongue is the highest point: /æ/, /e/, /ɪ/, /i:/.

- Back vowels: The back of the tongue is the highest point: /ʊ/, /u:/, /ɔ:/,

/ɒ/, /ɑ:/

- Central vowels: The center of the tongue is the highest point: /ʌ/, /ə/, /ɜ:/.

*Degree of lip rounding

- Rounded vowels: The corners of the lips are brought towards each other

and lips are pushed forward: /ʊ/, /u:/, /ɒ/, /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/

- Unrounded vowels: The corners of the lips are moved away from each

other as for a smile: /ɜ:/, /ʌ/, /ə/

- Neutral vowels: The lips are neither rounded nor spread: /æ/, /i:/, / ɪ /, /e/.

*The length of the sounds:

- Short vowels: /ʌ/, /æ/, /ə/, /e/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, /ʊ/.

- Long vowels: /ɑ:/, /ɜ:/, /i:/, /ɔ:/, /u:/.

b Diphthongs

According to Roach (2000), diphthongs are “sounds which consist of amovement or glide from one vowel to another”

English has 8 diphthongs easily divided into 3 groups as follow:

Diagram 2.1:English diphthongs( by Roach 2000)

They are also divided into centering diphthongs (/eə/, /ɪə/, /ʊə/) - glidingtowards the (schwa) vowel- and closing diphthongs (/aɪ/, /aʊ/, /eɪ/, /oʊ/, /ɔɪ/) -gliding towards a closer vowel

2.3.2.2 Consonant sounds

In English phonetics and phonology (Roach 2000:10), the term “consonant” isdefined as “sounds in which there is a blockage to the flow of air as it passes thelarynx to the lips”

In English, there are 24 consonants: b/; /d/; /f/; /g/; /h/; /j/; /k/; /l/; /m/; /n/;/ŋ/; /p/; /r/; /s/; /ʃ/; /t/; /tʃ/; /θ/; /ð/; /v/; /w/; /z/; /ʒ/; /dʒ/.

Consonants are often classified in 3 ways:

a. The place of articulation.

The place of articulation is the location of the obstruction of the airstream inthe articulation of consonants

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

- Labio-dentals are the sounds produced with the lower lip touching the upperfront teeth, including: /f/, /v/

- Dentals are the sounds produced with the tip or blade of the tongue touchingthe upper front teeth, including: /θ/, /ð/

- Alveolars are the sounds which are produced with the tip or blaze of thetongue touching or approaching the alveolar ridge, including: /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/

- Retroflex is the sound produced with the tip of the tongue curling backtowards the back of the alveolar ridge, including: /r/

- Palato- alveolars are the sounds produced with the tongue tip or bladecoming close to the area between the back of the alveolar ridge and the front of thehard palate, including: /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/

- Palatal is the sound produced with the tongue’s front coming close to thehard palate, including: /j/

- Velars are the sounds produced with the tongue’s back touching the softpalate, including: /k/, /g/, /ŋ/

- Glottal is the sound produced without the tongue’s active users and otherparts of the mouth, including /h/

b The manner of articulation.

Manner of articulation is how the airstream is obstructed or altered in theproduction of speech sounds

- Nasals are the sounds produced with the airstream being stopped in the oralcavity, but the soft palate is down so that the air can go out through the nose,including: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/

- Plosives are the sounds, which are produced with the airstream being stopped

in the oral cavity and the soft palate is raised blocking off the nasal cavity,including: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/

- Fricatives are the sounds in the production of which two articulators comeclose together However, there is still a small opening between them, so theairstream is partially obstructed, and an audible friction noise (a hissing sound) isproduced, including: /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /h/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /θ/, /ð/

- Affricates are the sounds produced when a fricative immediately follows aplosive They begin like a plosive, with complete closure, but instead of a plosion,they have a very slow-release, moving backward to a place where friction is heard(palate-alveolar), including: /tʃ/, /dʒ/

- Lateral is the sound made when the airstream is obstructed at a point alongthe center of the oral tract, with incomplete closure between one or both sides of thetongue and the roof of the mouth, including: /l/

- Approximants are the sounds in the production of which two articulatorscome close together but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extentthat a friction noise is produced, including: /r/, /w/, /j/

2.4 Common problems in pronunciation of Vietnamese people.

Vietnamese learners face several pronunciation problems, and below are theissues which are investigated in this research

2.4.1 Problems with vowels.

Mother tongue has considerable influence on learning English pronunciation

of Vietnamese people In Honey (1987), English and Vietnamese vowel systemshave some similarities Some Vietnamese language alternatives to the pure closetvowel in pronouncing the pure vowel in English, such as lam /lam/ for lime andluc /lúc/ for look Pronouncing that way, Vietnamese speakers face several problemswhen speaking English

Avery and Ehrlich (1992) showed that “the distinction between tense and laxvowel pairs of English almost always creates problems.” They also found thatsecond language learners could pronounce “neither the tense nor the lax vowel, but

a vowel between the two Failure to make these distinctions can lead to

misunderstandings” Like that, almost all Vietnamese learners of Englisherroneously pronounce the two vowels of each pair For example, when Vietnamese

speakers pronounce these words like sleep, taste, and stewed, English native speakers may hear slip, text, and stood instead.

2.4.1.1 Problem with /i:/ versus /I/.

Vowel /ɪ/ is quite frequently spelled as letter [i] in Vietnamese, and sinceVietnamese rely on spelling to produce the English sounds, they are prone to

confuse /ɪ/ for /i:/ According to teacher Nguyen Tien Dung, faculty of Foreign Languages, Ba Ria – Vung Tau University, most of the students could not

distinguish the differences between these sounds, such as “seat” and “sit”, “sheep”and “ship” Although many people realize a difference between them due to the /i:/sound is more prolonged than /I/ sound, they pronounced both sounds the samewhen pronouncing them

2.4.1.2 Problem with /u:/ versus /u /.

Mr Dung ( 2014) mentioned that similar to the issues with the /i:/ and /I/sounds, some students learned how to pronounce the /u:/ and /u/ sounds but wereunable to distinguish between them Nevertheless, many English words containing

“oo” be pronounced as neither /u / nor /u:/, which can confuse many Vietnameselearners As a result, many students projected the same sound for both /u:/ and /u /

An example is that the word ‘good’ is pronounced /gud/ In contrast, the word ‘pool’

is pronounced /pu:l/

2.4.1.3 Problem with /e/ versus /æ/.

Some Vietnamese students cannot spot the vowels/e/ and /æ/, such as in bedand bad (Avery and Ehrlich, p 156) It is considered the most serious problem ofalmost Vietnamese English speakers when learning to speak English vowels.According to Avery and Ehrlich (p.99), students often pronounce these two vowels

in the same way Students usually fail to lower their tongue and jaw far enough inattempting to produce the /æ/ sound” For example, 'bag' / bæg / is often mistaken

for / beg /, or 'hand' / hænd / is mistaken for / hend.

2.4.2 Problems with consonants

According to Honey P J (1987), the Vietnamese consonant system isextremely distinct from that of English, and there is a considerable change betweendialects English learners in Viet Nam can be expected to come across particulardifficulty with some or all of the following sounds: /f/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/"

- Problem with final voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/:

which occurs at the end of a word in Vietnamese However, they pronouncethese consonants with concise duration, which is very difficult for English nativespeakers to hear these sounds from Vietnamese speakers For example, a

Vietnamese learner of English pronounces the word seat may sound like see (Avery

and Ehrlich, 1992, p 153)

- Problem with liquid /l/ and nasal /n/:

According to “some common pronunciation problems facing Viet Nam learners of English” ( Nguyen Tien Dung, 2014), both sounds exist in the

Vietnamese language However, many Vietnamese people, especially those who live

in the north of Vietnam, such as Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Bac Giang,Bac Ninh, or suburban Hanoi , cannot distinguish the differences between /l/, /n/ intheir national language Therefore, when they speak English, they always strugglewith the two sounds (Nguyen Tien Dung, 2014, For example, say /ləʊ/ for the word

no (/nəʊ/) or /laɪn/ for nine (/naɪn/), or they may say /ˈsnəʊ.li/ for the word ‘slowly’(/ˈsləʊ.li/)

- Problem with /θ/, /ð/:

Vietnamese people are often used to creating a heavily voiceless stop /t/

instead of a voiceless fricative /θ/ in a word like ‘thank’ They pronounce the

sound /t/ based on their language because in Vietnamese, the letter’ th’ is combined

by a heavily aspirated /t/ Therefore, the word ‘three’ can be vocalized exactly like

‘tree’ Vietnamese English learners commonly vocalize /d/ or /z/ for /ð/ sounds, so the word then may read similar to /dæn/ or /zæn/ (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992, p 155).

2.4.2.1 Problems with final consonants.

Honey P J (1987) said that, like other Asian speakers, Vietnamese speakershave trouble pronouncing words ending with consonants; they are usually confused

with final consonants Therefore, they delete or substitute most of them Theconsonants Vietnamese students commonly struggle with are: /z/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /ks/,/ʤ/ However, the most popular failures may be problems between consonant /s/and /z/ Many people usually omit /s/ sound in the spelling of some words While asmany speakers encounter is the redundancy of the /s/ sound Mr Dung ( 2014) alsoagreed that Vietnamese don’t use /s/ and /z/ sounds at the final position inVietnamese words, which is different from English As a result, many VietnameseEnglish learners are over aware of these sounds, and over-awareness leads them tomake pronunciation mistakes Vietnamese people often add the /s/ sound in bothadjectives and noncount nouns For instance, instead of saying “very good”, manyVietnamese speakers say “very goods,” and “a lot of money” sounds like “a lot ofmoneys”.

2.4.2.2 Problems with voiced-voiceless distinction

Vietnamese people are often confused with voiced and voiceless consonantsand thus mispronounce them As such, Vietnamese speakers can alternate a voicedstop /b/ or a voiceless fricative /f/ for /p/ Examples of this are that the word ‘pool’may sound like ‘fool’, and ‘pop’ may sound like ‘bop’ On the contrary, in the finalpositions, these consonants often provoke confusion for learners For example, ‘lab’might sound like ‘lap’ (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992, p 155)

2.4.2.3 Problems with silent sounds

Many words in English contain silent sounds However, Vietnamese speakersoften mispronounce them by producing English sounds based on their spelling

( Honey P J (1987)) Some common failures such as pronounce the ‘b’ in “climb” (/claym/), “debt” (/det/), or pronounce “d” in Wednesday (/wenzday/).

2.5 Techniques to improve English pronunciation.

Some numerous techniques or strategies are proposed by linguistics in theirphonetics books or the other English learners from their experience Below areseveral of the most used methods

2.5.1 Doing pronunciation exercises

Aim: Only learning theoretical knowledge about English pronunciation from

textbooks would not help students achieve good accent Doing phonetics exercises

is the best way for students to recall what they have learned and strengthened theirpronunciation skills.

How: There are numerous pronunciation exercises on the internet or textbooks

for students to choose from

Example:

I. Write the appropriate words.

1 [' kɪŋ ] 2 [ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ ] 3 [ˈspænɪʃ ] 4 [ˈbrʌðə(r) ] 5 [ˈærəʊ ]

6 ['hɔ:(r)s ] 7 [ˈfəʊtəɡrɑ:f ] 8 ['dɒɡ ] 9 [ˈtelɪˌvɪʒnn̩ ] 10 ['dʒi:p ]

II Choose the correct words.

11 [' kæt ] cat cut cot

12 [' ʃɪp ] cheap ship sheep

13 [' hæt ] hut hat hot

14 [' li:v ] live life leave

15 [' θɪn ] thing think thin

2.5.2 Listening and imitating

Aim: Native-like pronunciation is the ultimate goal that all English learners

aim to This technique improves the listening skills of students However, in themeantime, it can help students recognize the distinction between their pronunciationand the pronunciation of English native speakers Therefore, pronunciation errorsare recognized, and students can fix these errors by imitating native speakerpronunciation Furthermore, students’ English accents are also modified to be morenative-like

How: There are plentiful sources of English videos or soundtracks that can be

used However, English videos or soundtracks made by English native speakers aremore recommended, such as CNN news, BBC news, English movies, Englishsongs, and other English videos and soundtracks The student should pay attention

to the videos and soundtracks and imitate them

2.5.3 Reading aloud and clearly while recording produced sounds.

Aim: This technique is one of the most efficient techniques However, it

consumes a significant amount of time and requires enormous determination

Reading aloud helps students feel more confident when speaking English and avoidconcealing pronunciation errors Recording what they say can help studentsrecognize these errors and compare them to English native-speakers accents to seethe difference between their English speaking Therefore, students can amend theirpronunciation to become more English native-like.

How: Students can prepare a computer equipped with recording software and

a headphone or just a smartphone and recording applications Then, an Englishparagraph or an English video, to name a few, should be chosen After that, studentsread aloud while recording what they speak Finally, they should listen to their voiceand concentrate on their pronunciation errors and fix them

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS

The study has been conducted in quantitative and qualitative methods toanswer the research question in Chapter 1 to reduce the potential limitations ofusing only a single approach The researcher collected two different kinds of dataemploying the recording and the survey questionnaire

3 1 The recording

The recording is considered the most effective instrument to investigate theproblems in the English pronunciation of students Recording the students' English-pronounced sounds was easy for the researcher to estimate the Englishpronunciation skills of each of them Each student was given one pronunciationexercise (see Appendix 1) and asked to pronounce every word Meanwhile, theaudio recorder application was turned on, and the researcher placed the phone nearstudents for the excellent quality of the sound recordings The typical pronunciationerrors determined from the recording helped the researcher investigate the mostchallenging areas of pronunciation

3.2 The Survey questionnaire.

Because the recording cannot provide all data and information on subjects'pronunciation level and learning experience, the survey questionnaire (seeAppendix 2) was designed to collect those data A list of questions was writtenappropriately to answer the research questions initially addressed The question listcontained 13 questions and was divided into two parts The first part includes eightquestions on students' background information about English pronunciation skills.The other is students' opinions about problems in pronunciation and suggestions toimprove their pronunciation

3.3 Data analysis procedures

With the data collected, the researcher implemented a data analysis procedure.The quantitative data gathered in the survey questionnaires were converted intopercentages and showed in charts and tables Relating the result of recordingparticipants' pronunciation, the researcher listened carefully, then analyzed anddiscussed them to find the English pronunciation problems of English-majored first-

year students at TMU and the best solutions to improve their pronunciation.

Data analysis was conducted through excel, which is known as one of the mostpopular spreadsheet software that enables the calculation Therefore, the researcherchose to use Excel to enter the data, formulas, and functions into the worksheet.After calculating automatically, it is necessary to format the worksheet andembed pie charts and bar graphs to display the results Hence, the charts andsupporting data appeared to present exact percentages Besides, the word was alsoemployed as a standard method to create a simple table Those charts showeduncomplicated data and information which other people could easily understandthey were

After finding the study's answers, the researcher concluded the results of theresearch, writing the thesis paper to present all the findings and results of this study

3.4 Results from recording

From the recording, the researcher found several pronunciation errors Beloware the most common mistakes that the researcher discovered

a Problems with vowel sounds

Target

words

Target transcription

Mispronounced transcription

Table 3.1: Vowel sound errors