The interference of mother tongue as vietnames in learning english souds and stress at high school = ảnh hưởng của tiếng mẹ đẻ đối với việc học âm và trọng âm tiếng anh ở trường phổ thông

For the reasonsabove, the author decides to work on "The Interference of Mother Tongue asVietnamese in Learning English Sounds and Stress at High School".. These differences are regarded

Acknowledgements

I could not have completed my graduation thesis if my teachers, my family as well as my friends had not given me advice, guidance and help

I especially would like to express my deepest thanks to Mrs Nguyen Thi Van Lam, my supervisor, who has given me enthusiastic help, encouragement and advice to shape and complete my thesis.

I also would like to thank all my teachers whose useful materials and faithful advice have helped me a lot during the thesis writing process.

I also acknowledge to all the teachers and pupils at Gia Vien A high school for giving me a chance of carrying out the survey for my study.

Finally, I am grateful to my family as well as my friends for their help and encouragement during the process of writing this graduation thesis

I have made great efforts to complete the study However, due to my limited knowledge, the thesis is far from being perfect Thus, it is my responsibility for any shortcomings the thesis may be considered to have

1 The Reasons for Choosing the Study 4

2 The Aims of the Study 5

3 The Scope of the Study 5

4 The Methods of the Study 5

5 The Design of the Study 6

Part II: Investigation Chapter 1: Theoretical Background 1.1 Interference 7

1.1.1 Language Interference 7

1.1.2 Causes of Interference in Learning Language 7

1.1.3 Mother Tongue Interference 8

1.2 Pronunciation 9

1.2.1 Sounds 9

1.2.1.1 Production of Sounds 9

1.2.1.2 Articulators 10

1.2.1.3 Types of Sounds 1

1.2.1.3.1 Vowel Sounds 10

1.2.1.3.2 Consonant Sounds 10

1.2.2 Stress 11

1.3 Vietnamese Pronunciation 11

1.3.1 Vietnamese Vowels 11

1.3.2 Vietnamese Consonants 12

1.4 English Pronunciation 13

1.4.1 English Vowel 13

1.4.2 English Consonants 14

1.5 Summary Chapter 2: Differences between English and Vietnamese Pronunciation

2.1 Vowels 15

2 2 Consonants 20

2.2.1 Fricative Consonants 20

2 2.2 Word-Final Voiceless Consonants /p/, /ƚ/, /k/ 21

2.2.3 Fricative Consonant /θ/ 22

2.2.4 Fricative consonant /ð/ 23

2 2.5 Aspirated Consonant /ƚ/ in the Initial Position 24

2 2.6 Consonant Clusters 24

2.2.6.1 Consonant Clusters in English 25

2.2.6.2 Consonant Clusters in Vietnamese 26

2.3 Sound Linking 26

2.3.1 Sound Linking in English 26

2.3.2 Sound Linking in Vietnamese 27

2 4 Sound- Spelling Correspondence 28

2 4.1 Principles of Constructing Spelling 28

2 4.2 Sound- Spelling Correspondence 29

2 4.2.1 Sound- Spelling Correspondence in English 29

2 4.2.2 Sound- Spelling Correspondence in Vietnamese 29

2 5 Pronunciation of Grammatical Endings 30

2 5.1 Pronunciation of Grammatical Endings in English 30

2.5.1.1 The Importance of Pronunciation of Grammatical Endings 30

2 5.1.2 Types of Grammatical Endings 30

2.5.2 Pronunciation of Grammatical Endings in Vietnamese 31

2.6 Pronunciation of Contractions 32

2.7 Word Stress 33

2.7.1 Word Stress in English 33

2.7.1.1 Definition 3

2.7.1.2 Importance of Word Stress 34

2.7.1.3 Characteristics of Word Stress 34

2.7.2 Word Stress in Vietnamese 35

Chapter3 : The Survey 37

3.1 Overview of the Survey 37

3.1.1 Aims of the Survey 37

3.1.2 Informants and their background 37

3 2 Description of the Survey Questionnaire 38

3.3 Findings and Discussions 38

3.3.1 The Results 38

3.3.2 Discussions 39

Chapter 4: Suggestions for Practising English Sounds and Stress 41

4.1 Vowels 41

4 2 Consonants 45

4 3 Sound Linking 49

4.4 Sound - Spelling Correspondence 50

4 5 Grammatical Endings 51

4 6 Contraction 52

4 7 Word Stress 52

Part III : Conclusion 54

References 55

Appendix

1 The Reasons for Choosing the Study

Everyone is now aware of the importance of English, which is the reason why English is learnt with the great motivation However, it is not easy to master and use it effectively because of many reasons such as learning environment, age, ability and especially mother tongue interference It is shown that interference appears in almost aspects of English like grammar, preposition, article especially pronunciation, which is really important It is important for the following reasons

Firstly, it is pronunciation and the first impression It is clear that pronunciation is definitely the biggest thing that people notice when we are speaking English When we meet a native person, he could already tell if our English is good or bad He realizes our English is good or bad because we use advanced grammar structures or difficult words In fact, it is not structures or words but pronunciation that helps him to realize that Thus, in communication, the first thing that people can realize is pronunciation Secondly, it is pronunciation and meaning Pronunciation should be one of the first things that learners study in English We can communicate without

advanced vocabulary because we can use simple words to express what we

want to say We can communicate without advanced grammar because we can

use simple grammar structures in stead However, there is no such as thing as

simple pronunciation If we have bad pronunciation, even if we use advanced

vocabulary or grammar, people may not understand what we want to say.Thus, pronunciation creates meaning that helps people understand each otherwhen communicating

Like learners from other countries, Vietnamese learners are coping withmany difficulties in pronouncing English The main cause, which can be seen,

is the mother tongue interference It is shown that there are so manydifferences between English and Vietnamese pronunciation Therefore,Vietnamese learners fail to pronounce English successfully As an Englishlearner for many years, the author can see mistakes that her friends and pupilshave made when she hears them speak These mistakes are regarded to befrequent and prevent them from speaking English correctly For the reasonsabove, the author decides to work on "The Interference of Mother Tongue asVietnamese in Learning English Sounds and Stress at High School"

2 The Aims of the Study

This thesis aims to:

-Compare Vietnamese pronunciation and English pronunciation and findout differences between them These differences are regarded as the proofs ofdifficulties to learners

- Demonstrate how Vietnamese affects English pronunciation learning byanalyzing those differences

-Provide some suggestions for the problems that have been mentionedwith the hope that they could make a small contribution to the improvement inteaching English especially in teaching pronunciation in Vietnam

3 The Scope of the Study

In this thesis, mother tongue interference in pronunciation is dealt with.However, the thesis cannot cover all the problems related to pronunciation butfor the effect of mother tongue in vowels, consonants, sound linking andstress

4 The Methods of the Study

With the aim to compare and demonstrate differences between Englishand Vietnamese pronunciation, the following methods have been used duringthe study process:

-Contrastive analysis

-Investigative method

-Collective method

-Illustrative method

5 The Design of the Study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

Part I is the introduction of the thesis in which we present the reasons forchoosing the subject, the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of thethesis

Part II is the development with four main chapters:

Chapter 1 entitled, "Theoretical Background", which providesinformation about interference, Vietnamese and English pronunciation

Chapter 2 provides a comparison between English and Vietnamesepronunciation

Chapter 3 deals with the survey and the results

Chapter 4 is about suggestions for the problems mentioned

Part III is the conclusion of the thesis, which summarizes the contentsmentioned in part II

Besides these three main parts, the thesis also opens with theacknowledgements, the table of contents and ends with the references andappendix

Part II : Investigation

Chapter 1 : Theoretical Background

1.1 Interference

1.1.1 Language Interference

To understand clearly what language interference means We will putlanguage interference in the process of learning a language becauseinterference and this process are related closely to each other

We know that the process of learning a new language is the one ofgaining a new habit system In that process, the habits of using the mothertongue affects language learning This effect consists of two aspects, negativeand positive The positive effects called ‘transfer’ are ones that are useful tolearning process On the contrary, negative effects cause difficulties tolearning process and they are called ‘ Interference’

According to pedagogy- living language viewpoint, interference is akind of special errors that learners meet because of their habits or naturaleffects from the mother tongue into the target language As a result, errorsappear and learning is out of the standard of the target language

1.1.2 Causes of Interference in Learning Language

According to Nguyen Van Chien (1992:30), there are some causes ofinterference in learning language

The first one is learner’s habit When learning a new language, learnershave a habit of applying this language’s elements to another language.According to the Behaviorism, it is assumed that a person learning a secondlanguage starts off with the habits associated with the first language Thesehabits interfere with those needed for second language speech and new habitsmust be formed Besides, in the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis where thereare similarities between the first language and second one, students will learnstructures with ease; where there are differences, the learner will havedifficulties that may lead to making errors

In addition, age and competence also cause interference People thinkthat, the young especially the children tend to learn language more quicklythan the old At the certain language level, these children will get lessinterference than the other Because the mother tongue has not become asystem of sign that is present deeply in their mind, therefore the children’smother tongue has a few natural elements that cause interference

Besides the method of teaching is also an important problem that isrelated to language interference such as time, deadline, languageenvironment, linguistics, teaching lessons and reasonable time division

The last one is communicative situation If the speakers are forced tospeak a language that is related to a topic spoken by another language,interference might happen In other words, differences in communicativefunction or language in social situation can cause interference This is a field

of communicative habits attached tightly to specific situations in family, inschools or outside the society (at markets or offices) and to different languagestyles like communicative and scientific languages

1.1.3 Mother Tongue Interference

Mother tongue interference is defined as the use of elements from one’snative language while learning the second language It is one of the causes oferror When we learn a foreign language, there are, of course, many otherinfluences, but the one that the mother tongue has on the language we producewhen we use a foreign language has become a very important area of study forpeople interested in second language acquisition We know that the languageproduced by foreign learners is so unavoidably influenced by the mothertongue of the learner and that is certainly clear For example:

A German learner says: ‘How much costs the buss?’

A French learner says: ‘ I must to do my homeworks.’

A Spanish learner says: ‘I go to the town walking’

A Vietnamese learner says: ‘This person not old’ or ‘you not write

letters.’

From the above examples, we see that it is the mother tongueinterference that makes these learners say the sentences which are full oferrors Indeed, the mother tongue has a great effect on the English languageproduced by learners

According to Swan and Smith (1999:238), mother tongue interferenceappears in many aspects of language It influences Grammar, vocabulary…etcespecially pronunciation However, in the scope of thesis, the mother tongueinterference in pronunciation especially sounds and stress is discussed

1.2 Pronunciation

Pronunciation consists of three aspects: sound, stress and intonation.However, in the thesis, only sounds and stress are focused on

1.2.1 Sounds

1.2.1.1 Production of Sounds

According to Roach (1998:20), all the sounds we make when we speakare the result of muscles contracting The muscles in the chest that we use forbreathing produce the flow of air that is needed for almost speech soundswhile muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in the flow

of air from the chest to the mouth After passing though the larynx, the airgoes through the vocal tract, which ends at the mouth and nostrils Here theair from the lungs escapes into the atmosphere

1.2.1.2 Articulators

Fig.1 The Articulators

According to Roach (1998:20), articulators consist of nose, upper lip,

lower lip, upper teeth, lower teeth, alveolar ridge, tongue (including tip, blade,front, back and root), hard palate, short palate, velum, pharynx and larynx

1.2.1.3 Types of Sounds

1.2.1.3.1 Vowel Sounds

From the common view, vowels are considered to be sounds in whichthere is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to thelips Vowels are distinguished according to four characteristics which aretongue height (whether the tongue is high or low in the mouth), front or back

of tongue (whether vowels are pronounced in the position of the front or the

back of the tongue), tenseness/ laxness (whether the muscles are tense or lax)and lip rounding (whether the lips are rounded, spreaded or neutral)

1.2.1.3.2 Consonant Sounds

Consonant sounds are considered to be difficult or impossible for the air

to pass through the mouth Consonant sounds have the followingcharacteristics:

The first is place of articulation (where in the mouth the air streamobstructed) According to the places in the mouth, consonants are calledbilabial, labiodentals, glottal, velar, and alveolar

The second is manner of articulation (the way in which the air stream isobstructed) At the different places of articulation in the mouth, there areseveral basic ways that the air stream can be obstructed We have plosives,fricatives, affricates and nasals

The third is voicing that is whether there is vibration of the vocal cords.Consonants with this feature are divided into types: voiced and voicelessconsonants

1.2.2 Stress

According to Clarey and Dixson (1963:15), stress is the emphasis given

to a particular syllable within a word or to a particular word within a group ofwords Stress consists of two features, loudness and length

In term of loudness, that stressed syllables or words are louder thanunstressed ones It means that loudness is a component of prominence In asequence of syllables or words, if any syllables or words are stressed, we canhear them more clearly than the others

Besides loudness, the length of syllables or words also makes a signal ofstressed ones It is the fact that the length contributes an important part ofsyllables or words’ prominence Thus, when we hear a longer syllable orword, we tend to think them to be stressed

1.3 Vietnamese Pronunciation

1.3.1 Vietnamese Vowels

 Medial vowel /u/

This is only phoneme in the second position It is a semi-tone andconsidered as round vowel Therefore, it does not go with the other roundvowels It is present in spelling ‘u’ and ‘o’

 Back vowels

According to Cu Dinh Tu, Hoang Van Thung and Nguyen NguyenTru(1978:55), back sounds consist of fourteen vowels in which there areeleven monophthongs and three complex vowels Back vowels are divided inthe following groups:

The first is unrounded front monophthongs that are /i/, /e/ and /ε/

The second is rounded back monophthongs that are /u/, /o/, /ɔ/

The third is unrounded back vowels that are /ɯ/, /ɣ/, /ɣ/, /a/, /ă/ The final is complex vowels that are /ie/, /uo/, /ɯɣ/

 Final semi vowels

In the final position, there are two semi-vowels, they are /i/and /u/ /i/ isunrounded front semi vowel It is present in spelling ‘i’ or ‘y’ /u/ is arounded back vowel and its spelling is ‘o’ or ‘u’

Fig.2 Vietnamese Vowels

1.3.2 Vietnamese Consonants

According to Nguyen Huu Quynh (1994:76), there are twenty- sevenconsonants of which twenty-one are in the first and six in the final position ofsyllables

 Consonants in the first position

Consonants are divided into groups based on manner of articulator andplace of articulators

Based on manner of articulator, consonants are divided into stops/b, d, t,t’, t, c, k, m, n, ɳ, / and fricatives /f, v, s, z, l, Ş, ʐ, Ƴ, Χ, h/; voicedconsonants /b, d, v, z, ʐ,, Ƴ / and voiceless ones /t, t’, t, c, k, f, s, Ş, Χ, h/

Based on place of articulators, initial consonants can be divided intobilabials /b, m, f, v/, lingual sound /d, t, t’, s, z, n, l, t, Ş, ʐ, c, k, л,ŋ,Χ/and glottal sound: /h/

 Consonants in the final position

In the final position, Vietnamese has six consonants which are /p, t, m, n, k/

Diphthong ending in /ɪ/: /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/

-Triphthongs: there are five triphthongs

Based on the manner of articulation, consonants are divided in thefollowing groups:

-Plosives: there are six consonants, they are /p/, /Ɨ/, /k/, /b/, /d/, and /g/

-Fricatives: there are nine fricative consonants, they are /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /Ʒ/ and /h/.

- Affricatives: there are two complex consonants They are /ʧ/, /ʤ/

-Nasals: there are three consonants They are /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/

-Lateral: There is one /l/

-Approximant: There are three consonants /w/, /r/, /j/

Based on place of articulation, consonants are divided into the followinggroups:

-Bilabial: there are three consonants: /p/, /b/, and /m/

-Labiodentals: there are two consonants: /f/ and /v/

-Dental: there are two consonants: /θ/ and /ð/

-Alveolar: there are six consonants, they are /Ɨ/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/ and /l/ -Plato-alveolar (post-alveolar): there are five consonants: /ʃ/, /Ʒ/, /ʧ/,/ʤ/, and /r/

-Palatal: There is one consonant /j/

-Velar: There are three consonants: /k/ and /g/

-Glottal: There is one consonant /h/

1.5 Summary

In this chapter, we have discussed the theoretical foundations includinginterference, pronunciation, Vietnamese and English pronunciation for theanalysis of the differences between English and Vietnamese pronunciation inthe later chapter II

2.1 Vowels

For some Vietnamese learners, vowels are thought to be easy topronounce because there are some Vietnamese vowels in Vietnamese thatseem to be like English ones Thus, English vowels may be pronounced in theway of Vietnamese vowels In fact, English vowels are not pronounced asVietnamese vowels A vowel in Vietnamese such as /i/ does exist in themother tongue, however, this vowel is separated in English that consists oftwo separated vowels /i:/ and /ɪ/ As a result, many learners pronounce /i/ forboth /i:/ and /ɪ/

As mentioned, a vowel does exist in the Vietnamese language, but not aseparate vowel causes difficulties to learners Learners often produce the twovowels of each pair identically It means that they do not pronounce /i:/ or /ɪ/

but pronounce /i/ They fail to make these distinctions that may lead tomisunderstanding For example, ‘sleep’ may sound ‘slip’ and ‘sheep’ maysound ‘ship’

Pairs of English vowels such as /i:/ and /ɪ/, /æ/ and /e/, /ɔ:/ and /ɔ /, /з:/and /Ə/, /ɑ:/ and /ʌ /, /u:/ and /ʊ/ are compared with Vietnamese vowels /i/, /

Ɛ/, /o/,/ɣ/,/a/ and /u/

Front Central Back

 /i/, /i:/ and / ɪ/

Tongue position Tongue height Lips Figure

Open

/i/

Near close Slightly

spread

/ ɪ/ is nearer inthe center

More openthan /i/

Slightlyspread

Mid- open Unrounded

English

pair of

vowels

/ æ/is a frontvowel

Near open Slightly

spread

/e/ is a frontvowel

Mid- open Slightly

Mid- close Rounded

English

/ɔ:/ is almost fullback It is a longvowel

Between close and mid-open

Near close

Nearer open than / Ə/

mid-Neutral

/ Ə/is a centralvowel

Between close and mid-open

Open Unrounded

English

pair of

/ɑ:/ is not asback as /a/ It is

/ʌ/ is nearcentral

Near mid-close Neutral

 /u/, /u:/ and / ʊ /

Tongue position Tongue height Lips Figure

Vietnamese

vowel

/u/ is a backvowel

a long vowel

Near close Rounded

/ʊ/ is not asback as /u/

2 2 Consonants

2.2.1 Fricative Consonants

 The position of fricatives in English

Fricatives in English are /f/, /v/, /θ/,/ð/,/s/,/z/, /ʃ/, and /Ʒ/ Which occur in

the final position as in ‘wife , leave , truth , bathe , wash , tables’ ‘ ’ ‘ ’ ‘ ’ ‘ ’ ‘ ’

 To know if these consonants appear in the final position or not, we willhave a look at final consonants in Vietnamese

Nguyen Huu Quynh (1994:90)

Therefore, fricatives do not appear in the final position in Vietnamese As

a result, Vietnamese learners are not used to pronouncing fricatives Theymay delete them at the end of words even when they are aware that theymust pronounce Moreover, fricatives are consonants with the characteristicthat when they are pronounced, air escapes through a small passage andmake a hissing sound This means that fricatives should be heard So,Vietnamese learners tend to delete fricatives that make native speakers feelhard to hear them A sentence such as

‘The boys always pass the garage on their way home.’

May sound like:

‘ The boy always pa the gara on their way home.’

Avery and Ehrlich (1997:154)

2 2.2 Word-Final Voiceless Consonants /p/, /ƚ/, /k/

The second phase is called the hold phase when the compressed air isstopped from escaping During this phase, /p/, /ƚ/, /k/ has no voicing

The third phase is called the release phase when the articulators used toform stricture are moved to allow air to escape In this phase, /p/, /ƚ/, /k/ areheard by a burst of noise

The fourth phase is called the post- release phase It is the final phaseduring which air escapes through the vocal folds, making a sound like /h/ andthis is called aspiration Then the vocal folds come together and voicingbegins

 /p/, /ƚ /, /k/ in Vietnamese

-The position: /p/, /ƚ/, and /k/ also appear in the final position such as

‘tèt’, ‘hép’, etc

-Production: According to Doan Thien Thuat (1978:25) /p/, /ƚ/, /k/ areclose consonants It means that there is no release phase in their production.After airflow is obstructed, it is not escaped by opening the articulators As aresult, there is no particular noise that can be heard

In conclusion, the difference between production of /p/, /ƚ/, and /k/ inEnglish and in Vietnamese is the third phase in which air is released InEnglish, we can hear a burst of noise, however, in Vietnamese we cannot.Thus, when Vietnamese learners produce words with final consonants /p/, /ƚ/and /k/, these consonants are never released and are much shorter than theirEnglish equivalents This means that even when Vietnamese speakerspronounce these consonants in final position, English speakers may havedifficulty in hearing them They feel that Vietnamese speakers do notpronounce these final consonants For example, ‘beat’, ‘cook’ and ‘stop’ maysound like ‘bea’, ‘coo’, ‘sto’

-Manner of articulation: /θ/ is a fricative, so when it is produced, airescapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound

 /t’/ in Vietnamese

-Spelling of /t’/: In Vietnamese, spelling of /t’/ is also ‘th’ It only occurs

in the initial position such as ‘th¬’, ‘thanh’, etc

-Place of articulation: It is produced with the blade of tongue andalveolar

-Manner of articulation: According to Cu Dinh Tu (1978:52), /t’/ is anaspirated stop consonant The air is obstructed completely and then escapesthrough the mouth

We can see that both /θ/ and /t’/ represent spelling ‘th’ However, theyare different in place of articulation and manner of articulation From ourresearch, when learners pronounce the words with spelling ‘th’, they tend

to pronounce /t’/ instead of /θ/ As a result, listeners may hear aVietnamese sound rather an English sound

2.2.4 Fricative Consonant / ð /

 /ð/ in English

According to Roach (1998:96), / / is likeð /θ/ in term of the place andmanner of articulation and manner of articulation Nevertheless, they aredifferent in term of voicing /θ/ is voiceless, but /ð/ is voiced

‘gi’ in words ‘giái giang’, ‘giµ giÆn’

-Place of articulation: It is produced by the blade tongue and alveolar -Manner of articulation: It is a fricative consonant

The similarities between two these consonants are that both are fricatives.However, they are different in place of articulation that creates the differences

between them For example, the word ‘they’ may be said ‘d©y’ in Vietnamese

2 2.5 Aspirated Consonant /ƚ/ in the Initial Position

/ ƚ/ in English /t/ in Vietnamese

Spelling Top, team, table Tin tëng, tôc t»n

Place of articulation It is produced by the

tongue blade andalveolar ridge

It is produced by thetongue blade andalveolar

Manner of

articulation

It is aspirated It is stop and unaspirated

Voicing Voiceless Voiceless

Although two consonants both present spelling ‘t’, they are produceddifferently The noticeable and important difference between them isaspiration of / ƚ/ in English When learners pronounce words with spelling ‘t’,they may say the words in a Vietnamese way because of their habit Listenerscan hear a Vietnamese sound easily because the sound is not aspirated It isthe fact that many learners make this mistake until they are taught how topronounce it

2 2.6 Consonant Clusters

According to linguists' view, a consonant cluster is a group of consonantsthat have no intervening vowel

For example: /kƚ / in ‘booked’ is a consonant cluster

2.2.6.1 Consonant Clusters in English

It is clear that many languages do not permit consonant clusters at all,however, consonant clusters are a feature of many of the world’s language andEnglish is an example In a study of 104 world languages, people show that inEnglish, there are one third of monosyllables that begin with a consonantcluster and other consonants predominate in word-final position It is veryimportant for us to pronounce clusters especially those at the end of wordsbecause they are a grammatical marker that carries the meaning For example,

if ‘booked’/bʊkƚ/is pronounced as ‘book’ /bʊk/, listeners will misunderstandthat the speaker expresses something in present but not in the past

According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992:55), in English, consonant clustersoccur in the initial and final positions of words

 Initial clusters: Initial two-consonant clusters beginning with a stopconsonant such as ‘pl, pr, bl, br, tr, tw,dr, kl,kr,.etc.’; initial two-consonant clusters beginning with a fricative such as ‘fl, fr, sl, sw, sp,

st, sk, sm, sn, sf, et.’ and initial clusters of three consonants such as

‘spl, spr,str, skr,skw, et.’

 Final clusters: Final clusters of two consonants beginning with a nasalsuch as ‘mp, nt, nd, ns, nθ, ndʒ, ŋk’; final clusters of two consonants

beginning with ‘l’ or ‘r’ such as ‘lp, lt, ld, lk, lf, lv, lθ, ls, rp, rb, rt, rd,

rk, rv, rm, rn, rl.’; final clusters of two consonants beginning with africative or stop such as ‘sp, st, sk, ft, fθ, pt, pθ, ps, tθ, kt, ks, dz’and final clusters of three consonants such as ‘kst, mpt, nts, nst, rts,rld’

2.2.6.2 Consonant Clusters in Vietnamese

According to Nguyen Huu Quynh (1994:35), Vietnamese has noconsonant clusters like other languages For example:

Word Syllable type

Avery and Ehrlich (1998:53)

Avery and Ehrlich (1998:53) showed that there are two ways ofpronouncing clusters incorrectly One is to insert vowels between consonants.For example, Spanish speakers will insert the vowel /e/ at the beginning of theword such as ‘speak’ or ‘street’ pronounced ‘espeak’ and ‘estreet’ The other

is to delete one of consonant clusters like Vietnamese Vietnamese pupilshave difficulties in pronouncing consonant clusters especially final clusters.The English clusters make syllables extraordinarily complex (in words such asstrength) or creates more complex phoneme sequences such as sixths Thus,learners must learn to pronounce them that are not available in Vietnamese.For example, bump /bʌmp/ may sound /bʌm/

2.3 Sound Linking

2.3.1 Sound Linking in English

Sound linking is understood to connect one sound of this word toanother when two words stand together For example:

He likes everything

She liked all of it

It is the fact that English speakers do not separate all their words, butinstead they connect them together Because of this linking, the words in asentence do not always sound the same as when they are said individually.Linking is very important in English because we will understand other peoplemore easily and the others will understand us more easily According to Averyand Ehrlich, there are four basic types of linking sounds in English:

The first type is linking consonants to vowels when a word that ends with

a consonant is followed by a word that begins with a vowel For example:

stop it

come in

The second one is linking consonants to consonants when a word that endswith a stop consonant is followed by a word that begins with a consonant Thestop consonant is usually not released For instance:

stop trying

keeping speaking

Another type is linking identical consonants when the consonant thatends one word is identical to the consonant that begins the next word In thiscase, the two consonants are pronounced as one long consonant For example:

2.3.2 Sound Linking in Vietnamese

In contrast with English, Vietnamese usually separate words when theypronounce them For instance:

'TiÕng- chim- hãt- s¸ng- trªn- cµnh

Tù – bao- giê- giã- thæi- xanh- mÆt- hå bao- giê- giã- thæi- xanh- mÆt- hå L¸- vµng- víi- léc- non- t¬

T«i- n©ng- niu- c¶- hai- bê- thêi- gian’

(Thêi gian, L÷ H÷u Nguyªn)

According to V¬ng H÷u LÔ (1994:72), the reason is because of Vietnamesesyllables The final consonants in Vietnamese are unaspirated They are close,thus they stop syllables immediately that does not let them to link with the

following sounds As a result, many learners do not link sounds when theyspeak English that derives from their habit of speaking Vietnamese

2 4 Sound- Spelling Correspondence

2 4.1 Principles of Constructing Spelling

According to Vuong Huu Le, Hoang Dung (1994:105), there are twobasic principles of constructing spelling

The first principle is phonetics According to this principle, we

pronounce the words in the same way we transcript them At first, all

spellings follow this principle, then spellings change step by step andphonetics also transfer deeply This principle is not followed tightly So far,Vietnamese spelling is based on this principle However, English have ignored it The second principle is morphology This is a principle that is based onmorphemes According to this principle, although a morpheme is alike, it ispronounced in different ways However, this principle is contrast to thephonetic one It is especially important to inflected languages because it helps

to realize morphemes, formation of words that results in understandingmeaning For example, in English plural morpheme ‘s’ in words like ‘cats’and ‘dogs’ is pronounced in different ways /s/ or /z/

2 4.2 Sound- Spelling Correspondence

According to Avery and Ehrlich, sound-spelling correspondence is one correspondence between the sounds that we hear and the letters that wesee on the page It means that we pronounce as we write the words

2 4.2.1 Sound- Spelling Correspondence in English

It is the fact that, the English spelling system often fails to represent thesounds of English in a straightforward manner Here are examples ofdisagreement between spelling and sounds in English:

Firstly, different letters may present the same sound

to two too through threw clue shoe

All of these words contain the same vowel sound /u:/ but it is presented byseven different spellings