An analysis of errors in pronouncing english final consonants by h’re ethnic group students at

NGUYỄN THỊ THU QUYÊN AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH FINAL CONSONANTS BY H’RE ETHNIC GROUP STUDENTS AT SON HA HIGH SCHOOL, QUANG NGAI PROVINCE Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

NGUYỄN THỊ THU QUYÊN

AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH FINAL CONSONANTS BY H’RE ETHNIC GROUP STUDENTS AT SON HA HIGH SCHOOL,

QUANG NGAI PROVINCE

Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Code: 822.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF

FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Da Nang, 2020

NGUYỄN THỊ THU QUYÊN

AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH FINAL CONSONANTS BY H’RE ETHNIC GROUP STUDENTS AT SON HA HIGH SCHOOL,

QUANG NGAI PROVINCE

Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 822.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF

FOREIGN COUNTRIES

SUPERVISOR: Dr HUỲNH NGỌC MAI KHA

Da Nang, 2020

Pronunciation is an integral part of foreign language learning since it directly

affects learners’ communicative competence as well as performance Limited pronunciation skills can decrease learners’ self-confidence, restrict social

interactions, and negatively affect estimations of a speaker’s credibility and abilities

This study, therefore, has been carried out basing on the contrastive analysis between

H’Re and English final consonant systems in order to find out errors in pronouncing English final consonants of H’Re students at Son Ha High School, Quang Ngai Province The hypotheses in this thesis were tested on the actual pronunciation performances on the available words in the trial word tables The study points out some typical errors in pronouncing English final consonant of H’Re students Another feature is the inability to pronounce the English final consonant combinations Two typical types of errors related to consonant combinations are that students remove consonants in combinations or syllabic sonorant of combinations Then some suggestions for the effective pronunciation teaching and learning are also mentioned here to help learners overcome the problems

Page

List of figures and schemata ix

Chapter 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL

2.2.1.4 The importance of contrastive linguistics for

foreign language teaching

21

2.2.2.3 Types of phonetic interference error 26 2.2.2.4 The meaning of error and error analysis 27 2.2.3 An overview of H’Re and English language 28

2.3.3.1 English final single-consonant 38 2.3.3.2 English final two-consonant combination 38 2.3.3.3 English final three-consonant combination 38

2.3.4 H’Re consonants 39

2.3.6 The similarities between English and H’Re final consonant

Chapter 4 ANALYSIS OF ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING

ENGLISH FINAL CONSONANTS

4.1.2.2 Errors of combination syllabic sonorants 61

4.1.3.1 Errors of consonant omission in combination 62 4.1.3.2 Errors of combination syllabic sonorants 63

4.1.4.1 Errors of consonant omission in combination 64 4.1.4.2 Errors of combination syllabic sonorants 66 4.2 Some solutions fixing the errors in pronouncing English final

consonants of H’Re students at Son Ha High School

67

4.2.2.2 Classification of pronunciation errors 68 4.2.2.3 Transmission of basic knowledge 68 4.2.2.4 Creating good conditions for students to listen 68

Table Name of Table Page

Table 4.13 Error of final consonant [-g] 57

Figure/Schema Name of figure/schema Page

Figure 1.2 Minority language groups of South VietNam Central 3

Figure 4.1 Waveform and Spectrum of texts of the collaborator

Appendix Name of appendix Page

Appendix 4 The international phonetic alphabet 88

Chapter One INTRODUCTION

This is the opening chapter of the thesis which covers seven sections: rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, research methods, scope of the study, significance of the study, and organization of the study Through this chapter,

people can get an overview of issues and research directions around the topic “An

Analysis of Errors in Pronouncing English Final Consonants by H’Re Ethnic Group Students at Son Ha High School, Quang Ngai Province”

1.1 RATIONALE

Vietnam is facing a major challenge of survival in history, that is to find a creative way to integrate into the region and the world, successfully implement the industrialization-modernization career, building and developing the country in the era of information technology boom In that context, foreign language has a new role and position in substance: truly becoming the necessary communication tool, the rich and sensitive media; raised as a role of a necessary quality capacity for the personality of modern Vietnamese people The strategic goal of foreign languages is closely linked to the major objectives of education and training, defined on three areas: improving people's intellectual standards, training human resources and fostering talents Foreign languages in general and English in particular have an important role and position in the education and training career and in the development of the country In the general context of the country and the world, the Party's view on Education and Training is that “Education is really considered as the top national policy ”

Pronunciation is an integral part of foreign language learning since it directly affects learners' communicative competence as well as performance Limited pronunciation skills can decrease learners’ self-confidence, restrict social interactions, and negatively affect estimations of a speaker’s credibility and abilities The current focus on communicative approaches to EFL pronunciation learning and the concern for building communication skills are renewing interest in the role that

pronunciation plays in EFL learners’ overall communicative competence Correct pronunciation, therefore, is not only good for speaking, but also helps to better understand However, pronunciation is a difficult skill Without regular and positive guidance and practice, progress will be almost impossible In addition, there are many different factors related to teaching methods, learning methods, influence of mother tongue or communication conditions with native English speakers not much affect progress of learners

For English language learners as a foreign language, learning and mastering pronunciation is a major obstacle because the spelling system of English is

"notoriously useless" if someone wants to deduce the pronunciation of a word from the spelling of that word (Lecumberri & Maidment, 2000) Unlike languages in which the writing system can suggest the pronunciation of words at some level, such as Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, or French, the relationship between spelling and phonetics in English is very loose, making it difficult for learners For people who are ethnic minority students, this is even more hindrance because:

- Most ethnic minority students face difficulties in accessing information technology Therefore, their vocabulary, knowledge and skills are very limited, affecting the process of learning new English

- They are less exposed to the social environment, so they are very shy Their understanding is limited, especially Vietnamese vocabulary is limited, communication skills and information comprehension are not good, so teaching and learning English for teachers and students has many difficulties

- The topics in new English textbooks are very suitable for students’ age but there is some knowledge that is quite strange to ethnic minority students so communication is still difficult A lesson consists of many different kinds of knowledge so that teachers are struggling to convey all, students are also more difficult to absorb

- In order to study English well, learners must regularly cultivate knowledge

in combination with communication practice But most students only study in class

lessons, have no sense of self-study outside the school, have no sense of practicing communicating English with friends This greatly affects the process of applying English in their daily activities

H’Re ethnic group has a long process of reproduction in the Middle Central region of Vietnam, belonging to the Truong Son range of western Quang Ngai Province The residence area of H’Re ethnic minority in Quang Ngai Province is mainly in three mountainous districts: Ba To, Minh Long and Son Ha In addition, there are scattered in some districts of Son Tay, Tra Bong, Nghia Hanh, Tu Nghia, Duc Pho H’Re residents outside Quang Ngai Province also reside in An Lao District, Binh Dinh Province, in Kon Plong District in Kon Tum Province and in the Central Highlands provinces According to statistics, up to December 31, 2015, the total of H’Re population in Quang Ngai province is 132.745 people, of which Son

Ha district has 65.823 people

The language of H’Re residents belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group (South Asian linguistic family) Before 1975, some H’Re intellectuals studied the writing of H’Re by using the Latin character system to transcribe, but it was lost in

Figure 1.1 Ethnic minorities of Figure 1.2

South VietNam

Minority language groups of South VietNam Central

Highlands, including Pleiku, KonTum, and Quang Ngai Provinces

oblivion So far, the H’Re script has been studied by the Institute of Linguistics (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences) in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology (People's Committee of Binh Dinh Province) The project leader is Prof & Dr Nguyen Van Loi (Institute of Linguistics) The direct editor is

Dr Ta Van Thong (Institute of Linguistics) and Mr Dinh Van Thanh of H’Re ethnic group (Binh Dinh Department of Education and Training) The H’Re script is studied, drafted and edited in combination with H’Re teaching materials of Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh provinces It is possible that phonetics has different places, but because H’Re people have had a common voice for a long time, they still understand each other

Son Ha High School is a mountainous school where most of students are ethnic H’Re students account for 90 percent of all students in the school (640 H’Re students) The situation of their family faces many difficulties and hardships They live far away from school and lack care and education of the family The family and school do not have close coordination in management, which has significantly affected their studying and training, especially the English learning Therefore, they have some difficulties in learning English pronunciation Until now, no research in learning English pronunciation for ethnic learners at Son Ha High School has been carried out The researcher, therefore, decides to do the research with the hope that this study can help students improve their English pronunciation

From above-mentioned reasons, the researcher has decided to carry out “An

Analysis of Errors in Pronouncing English Final Consonants by H’Re Ethnic Group Students at Son Ha High School, Quang Ngai Province” for studying We hope that

it can help the learners study English better in the future

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aims

This study aims at identifying errors in pronouncing English final consonants

by H’Re ethnic group students and suggesting some solutions to the problems

1.2.2 Objectives

The study is planed to:

- Investigate typical errors in pronouncing English final consonants that H’Re students are often made

- Find out reasons affecting English final consonants pronunciation of H’Re students at Son Ha High School

- Propose suggestions to improve English final consonants pronunciation of H’Re students at Son Ha High School

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is concerned with analyzing errors in English final consonants pronunciation of H’Re students at Son Ha High School All studies focusing on errors in pronouncing English final consonants of other knowledge of other students

at other schools are outside the scope of this study In the scope of this thesis, we only mention on the English consonants at the end of syllables

Data collected for this thesis are mainly from H’Re learners at Son Ha High School, Quang Ngai Province

- Describing phonetics – phonology

In this study, the sample was from recording English audio files

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This paper is divided into five chapters:

Chapter one: Introduction

This chapter presents rationale, aims and objectives, research questions and research methods, scope of the study, significance of the study, and organization of the study

Chapter two: Review of literature and theoretical background

In this chapter, the thesis presents two main issues Firstly, we review some previous works related to our topic, particularly the studies of English pronunciation errors in the world and in Vietnam Secondly, the thesis presents the theoretical

foundations of contrastive linguistics and error analysis In addition, in this chapter, the thesis presents an overview of H'Re and English phonology because we think that the English pronunciation error of H’Re students at Son Ha High School has deep origin from differences in syllable structure as well as H'Re and English languages

Chapter three: Research Methods

This chapter presents some methods which were used in this thesis

Chapter four: Analysis of errors in pronouncing English final consonants

In this chapter, the thesis first describes and collates the H’Re and English consonant systems, the thesis then predicts possible types of final consonant errors for Son Ha High School students Based on the analysis results, we describe which consonant errors can be overcome, which ones are inherent and difficult to overcome On the basis of the thesis database, we propose reasonable measures to fix the errors

Chapter four: Conclusion

This chapter provides conclusion, limitation and further research of the study

Chapter Two REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter is an introduction about the previous studies on pronunciation and errors in pronouncing English The thesis also presents the theoretical foundations of contrastive linguistics and error analysis In addition, in this chapter, the thesis presents not only an overview of H'Re and English phonology but also the consonant systems of H’Re and English as well as the similarities and the differences between these two languages because we think that the English pronunciation error of H’Re students at Son Ha High School has deep origin from differences in syllable structure as well as H'Re and English languages

2.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES

to build discourse, sociolinguistics and strategic competence (Morley, 1994) Many studies also show that the older the learner is, the less likely pronunciation of native speakers, even if other elements of the language such as grammar or vocabulary may not be different than native speakers It can be mentioned here that the typical

authors support this view as Oyama (1976), Werker et al (1981) or Kenworthy (1988)

Researching errors in general and errors in pronouncing in particular has been done by many authors around the world Mathew (2005) studied errors in pronunciation of consonants by learners of English as a foreign language whose first languages are Indonesian, Gayo and Acenhnese Research results show that these groups of people often make mistakes in English extracts Those are the occlusive consonants, the fricative consonants, and the affricate consonants By

using various research facilities such as observing, recording and surveying, Hassan and Muhammad (2014) explored the English pronunciation errors of Saudi speakers

results show that the Saudis have difficulty in pronouncing vowels with multiple pronunciations (inconsistency in how words are expressed and pronounced) and some opposing consonant pairs such as [z] and [ð], [s] and [θ], [b] and [p], [ʃ] and

Saudis makes mistakes in pronunciation due to the language interference, the differences between the Saudi and English audio systems, and the word expression

is not consistent with pronunciation, especially English vowels

Zhang and Yin (2009) studied the pronunciation of English learners in China The authors have demonstrated many factors affecting the pronunciation of Chinese people such as language interference, age, attitude as well as knowledge of phonetics - phonology in English Among the factors mentioned, the interference between Chinese and English is the most influential and also the main reason of the Chinese pronunciation errors

Hjollum and Mees (2012) recorded the speech of six people in Faroes island

in Denmark when they studied English By analyzing their 3547 statements, the authors concluded that Faroese speakers often have difficulty in pronouncing English The most common errors include replacing the English syllable with an equivalent Faroese one (such as replacing the [θ] consonant with the [t] consonant

of Faroese), reducing the resonance of the nasal consonants ([m], [n], [ŋ], thrill and lateral approximant consonants ([l], [r]) and the most common errors in English voiceless plosive consonants [p], [t], [k]

Luo (2014) explored the English pronunciation errors of Chinese university students in three groups: firstly, students who confuse the sound of [n] and [l] in the Yangtze River area, China; secondly, students speak southern dialects, who are almost unable to distinguish consonant pairs [f] and [h] and thirdly, students speak the Chuang dialect in the western of China, who cannot distinguish voiced and voiceless consonants Jianping Luo asserted that language interference (namely the three different dialects above) was the main cause of difficulty for students to speak

or read English Enli (2014) studied consonant and vowel pronunciation errors of Chinese Mandarin speakers Based on the pronunciation analysis of 50 people, the author concluded that Chinese Mandarin speakers have difficulty in pronouncing dental consonants [θ] and [ð] and final consonants in plural nouns as well as singular verb [s], [z] or [iz] Regarding to vowels, they often make mistakes with vowels [i:], [i], [ei], [u:], [aʊ] and [eə]

Ahmad (2011) studied the English pronunciation errors of college preparatory students at Najran University, Saudi Arabia Based on the analysis of the Arabic and English phonetic systems and the collaborative analysis of the collaborators, the author concluded that the following 7 consonants are the most difficult for Arab Saudi students (in order of most difficult to least difficult): [ʒ], [p], [ŋ], [d], [tʃ], [v] and [t]

Ahmad and Muhiburrahman (2013) explored the viewpoint of the Saudi consonant pronunciation errors by English teachers in the preparatory program at Najran University, Saudi Arabia The authors concluded that because of lack of attention to pronunciation instruction and lack of motivation to study, students make mistakes in pronunciation According to research data, students often mispronounce the consonants such as [p], [d], [v], [tʃ], [ʒ] and [ŋ]

2.1.2 In Vietnam

The studies of bilingual phenomenon and interference between Vietnamese and Vietnamese languages as well as between Vietnamese and some popular languages in the world were mentioned and studied by many authors

Typically, Bùi Khánh Thế (2013) studied and pointed out some facts about bilingual and bilingual research problems in Vietnam; Phùng Thị Thanh (2007) has analyzed and contrasted the first consonant system, rhymes and vocals between Vietnamese and H’Mong language Based on the division of types of errors of Hmong students, the author proposed solutions to overcome Vietnamese pronunciation errors of H’Mong students In addition to the above works, there are many research projects on bilingual phenomenon and interference between Vietnamese and ethnic languages to apply the teaching of ethnic minority languages

in Vietnam

Nguyễn Thiện Nam (2001) surveyed Vietnamese grammar errors of foreigners and related issues The author has initially applied Corder's error analysis theory (1973) to classify errors and point out some causes of their grammatical errors while learning and using Vietnamese The author relied on data collected from Khmer, English, and Japanese speakers to classify their errors into two subcategories: common target language errors (general errors) and interference errors (specific errors) With some valid arguments about errors, the author has proposed some solutions to help foreigners overcome difficulties in learning and using Vietnamese grammar

Phạm Đăng Bình (2003) surveyed and pointed out language and culture interference errors in the discourse of Vietnamese people learning English, especially deeply analyzing cultural interference errors Based on the analysis of learners' errors, the author points out the types of consonant errors at the beginning

of the syllable, the end of the syllable, the vowel, the errors of grammar, vocabulary and culture In general, the author has generalized some errors of Vietnamese people learning English but he has not really deeply analyzed the causes of errors

Nguyễn Văn Phúc (1999) studied and provided a systematic view of reality

of Vietnamese pronunciation errors of English-speaking foreign students The author has made a significant contribution when making descriptions of errors in terms of phonetics, considering errors in dynamic languages, that is, describing errors in the service of language

Buarapha (2006) contrasted and analyzed the Thai and Vietnamese tones systems Depending on the description of Vietnamese and Thai tones, the author pointed out the causes of the errors and how to fix the Vietnamese tone pronunciation errors of Thai students studying Vietnamese

The issue of studying pronunciation errors of foreign language learners has also been carried out by researchers Vũ Bá Hùng (2000a) studied the phenomenon

of language interference on phonetic aspect and corrected pronunciation errors in the process of teaching German for Vietnamese students Miller (1976) studied types of phonic interference in Vietnamese speakers of English By comparing the vowel and consonant systems in Vietnamese and English, the author generalized a type of Vietnamese people’s English pronunciation error according to Weinreich's error classification framework (1953) Nguyễn Huy Kỷ (2004) studied English intonation errors of Vietnamese to help them speak English better, namely students

at Hanoi Pedagogical College By phonological descriptive method, Dương Thị Nụ (2009) researched the pronunciation errors of 4 English phonemes [ʃ], [ʒ], [tʃ] and [dʒ] The author concluded that English pronunciation errors are caused by a lack of pronunciation knowledge and, most importantly, the influence of the mother tongue With the exactly reasons for errors, the author has pointed out 4 pairs of errors: [ʃ]

to [s], [ʒ] to [z], [dʒ] to [z] or [s] and [tʃ] to [k], and recommended some solutions to surmount them

Trần Thị Thanh Diệu (2013) conducted an experimental study to investigate the pronunciation of English stress and intonation of Vietnamese people Based on the results of empirical research, the author has initially described the types of

errors that pronounce the English intonation elements of Vietnamese and offered solutions to overcome errors related to English stress and English intonation

Researching errors and offering application solutions in teaching foreign languages have also been studied in a number of master's theses For example,

Nguyễn Vũ Phương (2006) compared English mono-phonemic dipthongs with

Vietnamese ones, pointed out the similarities and differences between them and found solutions to help Vietnamese learning English avoid pronunciation errors Nguyễn Tấn Lộc (2009) described two fricative consonants [θ] and [ð], compared them with consonants which are often considered similar in Vietnamese to help non-language students at Ho Chi Minh University of Transport pronounce correctly English Lê Thanh Tú (2009) applied minimal pairs to teach English discrete sounds

to English non-majored students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport Trần Thị Thu Giang (2010) researched and proposed some solutions to help students in Yen Vien High School, Hanoi speak English better Vũ Đoàn Thị Phương Thảo (2011) researched and corrected common errors in pronouncing consonants of the second-foreign language students, University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Nguyễn Thị Kim Ba (2009) explored the Pronunciation problems faced by first year English learners at Mekong University and proposed some measures to help students pronounce better Phạm Thị Tú Hằng (2010) explored the problems of Ha Tinh learners in pronouncing English final consonants

It can be said that these works have initially established a system of theoretical background of errors through language contact and interference

2.1.3 The situation of teaching and learning English at Son Ha High School

At Son Ha High School, the teaching staff of English teachers includes 12 people, university-level majors in English language and teaching methods and they are all trained in Vietnam All the teachers are Kinh people, sometimes they have difficulty in communicating with H’Re students This is a cause of great obstacles

in the process of teaching and learning English Son Ha High School is a

mountainous school, so students do not have the opportunity to interact with foreigners It means the English communication environment with native speakers

is almost not available This is a great obstacle to their listening and speaking learning

The program for teaching English pronunciation here is not focused Teachers focus on teaching grammar primarily Besides, students practice listening

to the radio or through the voice of the teacher As a result, many students' standard

of speaking English is limited

In general, the situation of teaching English pronunciation at Son Ha High School needs to be improved to meet the learning needs of students Firstly, the teaching staff has not received intensive training in phonetics and has never been trained in native English speaking countries Secondly, the teaching of pronunciation has not been focused in the curriculum of teachers at the school Thirdly, students have almost no chance to practice speaking English with native speakers so that they have the opportunity to identify and correct their pronunciation errors

a decisive factor for a new scientific method of teaching foreign languages When discussing the research trend of contrastive linguistics, Lê Quang Thiêm cited the preface in Contrastive Linguistics magazine in Bulgaria in 1978 Linguistics Review

as follows: “Nowadays, in the era of the scientific and technological revolution, the

era of the peoples in the world speaking in different languages exchange more and more with plentiful and diverse forms, etc It is clear that the study of contrasting languages is extremely urgent The study on both two basic aspects: deep scientific reasoning and application - practical methodology is essential” (Lê Quang Thiêm, 2004)

Currently, the terminology of comparison and contrast in Vietnamese language learning materials are used with different ways of understanding In the usual sense, comparative and contrasting words are used in the same sense to find the similarities and differences between the two things According to the Vietnamese Dictionary, the comparison means “looking at this thing and considering another to get the similarity or difference” (Viện ngôn ngữ học, 2010), while contrast is “comparing this one to the other (often with the standard one), to understand more from the similarities and differences.” (Viện ngôn ngữ học, 2010)

In linguistics, the two words “compare” and “contrast” are used as terms The concept of Comparative linguistics is a linguistic term, used in a general sense

to refer to a method or approach to a research object that is two or more languages The purpose of the study is to elucidate the similarity or difference or just clarify different features

b/ Language interference

Interference is a term used in physics to indicate the phenomenon that two or more waves enhance or weaken each other when meeting at the same point This term is borrowed into the linguistic field to indicate the interaction between two or more communities in the process of language and culture exchanges When studying bilingual and polyglot language, Weinreich (1953) discovered the collision, impact and mutual penetration between languages during the contact and he remarked: “Some anthropologists have noted that linguistic exposure is an aspect of cultural contact and linguistic interference is one aspect of the process of cultural spread and exposure” Robert Lado (1957), when comparing the languages, also commented: “Bilingual individuals tend to change the form, meaning and

distribution of forms and meanings of native language and culture into foreign language and culture - both in the production of speech and behaviour in that culture and in the acquisition of language - when they seek to master and understand language and culture like a native speaker”

Language interference is divided into two types: positive interference and negative interference Positive interference is the similarities between the source language and the target language For example, when learning English, learners will quickly pronounce any sounds that Vietnamese has, such as the sounds [m], [r] etc Negative interference makes learning a foreign language more difficult by improperly applying the tools, structures, rules from the native language to the foreign language learning process, making the use of that language false This interference phenomenon has a profound reason from the differences between the two languages, and is the cause of errors for learners

2.2.1.2 The purpose, task and object of contrastive linguistics

The general purpose of a contrastive linguistics is to describe in the context

of geometrical range of languages, to translate and to teach language Nowadays, it

is often thought that the task of contrastive linguistics is to point out the similarities and differences between two or more languages and the results of the study will better serve the teaching of foreign languages In fact, contrastive linguistics is also very helpful for linguistic theory

According to Lê Quang Thiêm (2004), based on the similarities of two or more languages indicated by contrastive linguistics, we can identify the scope of the study and the relation of linguistics with other branches of linguistics

Firstly, the common similarity is the similarity of linguistics family Studying similar aspects to identify linguistics family is the task of comparative - historical linguistics

Secondly, the striking similarity is the similarity in terms of structural typology (isolative language, agglutinative language, polysynthetic language, and fusional language) Studying this similarity is the task of typology

Thirdly, both historical and structural similarity is the similarity in terms of register Studying this similarity is the task of linguistics

Thus, in parallel with the improvement of the quality of foreign language teaching, contrastive linguistics also helps a lot for linguistic reasoning and solving the posing issues of linguistic theory: the universal concept problem, universal grammar, type of geometry These issues cannot be solved from a monologue perspective

The object of the study of the contrastive linguistics may be the units of all linguistic levels, from phonemes, syllables, syntagm to texts Most of studies refer

to contrast two languages Some other opinions said that it can be contrasted two or more than two languages Within the scope of this thesis, I compare the final consonant systems in H'Re and English syllables My dissertation as its name, is a contrastive study of H'Re and English aimed at teaching English pronunciation to the H'Re people

2.2.1.3 The principles of collation

Basing on the research of Harris (1963), James (1983), Bùi Mạnh Hùng (2008), ect and our own research practices, we found that when research and collate languages, researchers need to obey the following four basic principles:

Principle 1: Facilities in two languages must be described in a complete, accurate and profound manner

Contrastive linguistics is carried out in two main steps in the order of description and comparison According to the traditional view, the description first and then comparison is a basic methodological principle of comparative analysis The description of linguistic facilities is not the task of contrastive linguistics but of descriptive linguistics But in order to carry out its work, the contrastive linguistics must perform the described work first

Indeed, when the vehicles have not been described, the researcher has nothing to compare with In Bùi Mạnh Hùng's words, the descriptive result is the input of the collation, or “the contrastive study begins where the description ends”

(2008) Corder (1981) consider applied linguistics consists of three steps: description, comparison and expression In these three steps, the author still regards the description and comparison as the two most important factors Fries (1945) also shared this view The author wrote: “The most effective materials for teaching a second language are those based on the scientific description language learned, compared carefully with the parallel description of the native language of the learners”

Further discussing in describing first, comparing later, Nguyễn Văn Chiến (1991) offers three possibilities for the principle of describing the facilities in two contrastive languages as follows:

Firstly, the reference object has been described in full and detail At the same time, study the contrast or continue to describe the contrast phenomenon more closely, then proceed with the reconciliation tactics or proceed with the reconciliation tactics aimed at the contrast phenomenon

Secondly, the contrast phenomenon has not been described in full and detail

In this case, the contrastive study should continue to describe and analyze the contrast phenomenon before conducting contrast

Thirdly, the contrast phenomenon is only described in one of the two languages At that time, the contrastive study described the contrast phenomenon in the remaining language before conducting the contrast

Attention should be paid to the description of research facilities in two languages that must adhere to the principle of linguistic homology In addition, this description should pay attention to the dialect element of the source language The dialect element is also interested by Nguyễn Văn Chiến when referring to the contrastive research principles The author writes: “It is the dialects of native languages that directly affect foreign language learning that cause interferences Thus, linguistic reconciliation should focus on the distinction between local variations of the reference languages The most pronounced proverbial aspects are the phonetic and lexical aspects”

Principle 2: Objects in two languages need to be described in a model

Researchers must adhere to this principle for the following reasons First, this model can describe some linguistic characteristics more successfully than others

Second, if the researcher uses two different models to describe the means from the source language to the target language, that description can lead to different perspectives on the research data This is a very basic principle of contrastive analysis that the researcher must not violate

James (1983) explained that: “When this happens [described according to different models], the lack of comparison becomes an undesirable difficulty, which can even lead to a poor contrast The comparator is uncertain about the different things he has identified: Is it a representation of the difference between the source language and the target language or does it reflect the use of different models?” Harris (1983) also asserts that the description and collation of two languages will only be valid if using the same model to describe both languages simultaneously The author writes: “Any differences between the descriptive results will not be due

to differences in the methods used, but to differences in the way linguistic data responds to the homogeneous treatment methods”

Linguistic classification shows us that human language is divided into different categories according to grammatical characteristics, phonemes or lexical that people are more interested in If some models describe some linguistic characteristics more successfully than others, it can be said that some models describe some specific languages better than others We can see that the grammatical model was generated and built by an American linguist - Noam Chomsky, describes English better than other languages The modified grammar model was proposed by a Russian linguist – Shaumjan, is suitable for describing Russian rather than English

Theoretically, it is ideal if the source and target languages are described by the researcher in a model On the other hand, in terms of research practices, we also have equally compelling reasons that show that this would not make sense since there is not

any model which could successfully describe the two languages equally In this dilemma, James (1983) proposed two following solutions:

Firstly, describe source and target language data independently, using different models to best represent each language Then convert those two descriptions into a neutral form, which is the intermediate form between the source language and the target language In fact, it is a combination of two languages, which Mel’chuk (1963) calls “superalingua”, including the source language structure and the target language structure

Secondly, James proposed eliminating the requirement that the two descriptions must be perfectly balanced Some contrastive researchers suggest that the description of two languages should work in the imbalance in the description A typical example of this proposition is Sciarone, when he points out: “If you are too focused on describing both languages before, it means you are too interested in overly necessary contrastive analysis…and more important to the target language than the source language because it is the language to be learned”

Principle 3: The language facilities need to be collated in system According

to Bùi Mạnh Hùng (2008), contrastive research can’t only pay attention to language facilities separately but must be placed in the system This principle was established

on the basis of the systematic language of the language that Saussure had long pointed out The author asserts that what we contrast between languages are the values defined by the systems

Principle 4: It is necessary to consider the reference objects not only in the system but also in communication activities In this principle, Bùi Mạnh Hùng (2008) affirms: “Only when taking into differences in context and taking into non-linguistic factors, contrastive research can be considered sufficient and valuable, especially in terms of language teaching”

2.2.1.4 The importance of contrastive linguistics for foreign language teaching

It can be said that the contrastive study of languages with the basis of contrastive linguistics is from observations of similar and different aspects between the mother tongue and the foreign language learned

The application of the achievement of contrastive linguistics to teaching was strongly developed in the United States in the 1940s The first was Fries’s work

(1945), called “Teaching and learning English as a foreign language” Discussing

the role of contrastive linguistics in compilation of foreign language teaching materials, Fries said that the most effective materials are those based on the scientific description of the language being studied, are carefully compared to equivalent description about the learner's native language The comparison of the mother tongue with the foreign language to be learned helps to clarify the difficulties that learners may encounter Subsequently, the contrastive linguistics developed strongly with well-known works such as Languages in Contact, Weinreich (1953), Structural Linguistics, Harris (1963), and Linguistics Across Cultures, Lado (1957) Among these works, Lado's work is considered to be more valuable both in theory and practical meaning of foreign language teaching A strong supporter of Fries' contrastive method, Lado asserts that: “The curriculum must be based on the assumption that we can predict and describe which structures will make it difficult to learn and which structures will not, by systematical comparing the language and culture learned with the language and culture of the learner.”

Contrastive linguistics was formed in the trend of general comparative research, but perhaps the need to find a solution to learn foreign languages as quickly as possible was the main factor impulsing the development of this field of study Probably Pietro was right in thinking that contrastive linguistics came from the experience of teaching language Each foreign language learner and teacher easily recognizes that in many cases, the native language has greatly hindered the

understanding and mastery of the foreign language Therefore, the accumulation of knowledge and experience will help us effectively overcome these difficulties The same as that view, Lado (1957) asserted: “The elements that resemble the mother tongue will be easily learned, while the different elements will be more difficult”

In the process of development, contrastive linguistics also encountered many critics, even in the scope of application to teaching and learning foreign languages Empirical studies have demonstrated that contrastive linguistics does not produce predictions about difficulties of learners First, the predictive errors do not occur Second, unanticipated errors occur in teaching practice

For these reasons, many linguists began to apply contrastive analytical theory

to the teaching and learning foreign languages For instance, Reed mentioned the problem of contrastive analysis when analyzing the importance of native language

in learning foreign language With the work of Language across cultures, Lado (1957) built a theoretical system and research methodology independently to compare the language of learners and foreign languages on different aspects (lexical, phonetics, grammar, culture etc.) Later, Lee added the important role of contrastive research The author asserted that: The method of contrastive analysis is the most effective way for language teaching Teachers now need to have an understanding

of the method of contrastive analysis in order to find similarities and differences between languages

In Vietnam, linguistic reconciliation research is also interested early Nguyễn Văn Chiến (1991) presented general theoretical issues of contrastive linguistic systematically in order to apply to the analysis of the system of pronouns in the same language and different type Lê Quang Thiêm (2004) presented systematically

of contrastive linguistics as a sub-discipline of linguistics The author has introduced the process of formation and development, theoretical premises, methods

of comparison on different aspects: phonic - phonology, morphemes, sentences, words and meanings Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (2012) presented in detail the basic

concepts of linguistic methodology and linguistic research methods, including comparative - contrastive method

2.2.2 Error and analyzing error

2.2.2.1 The concept of error

In the Compilation of Primary English textbooks: Approaching the topic, author Hoàng Văn Vân (2012) affirms: “Errors are a natural and inevitable part in the process of foreign language learning” In general, linguists have acknowledged the presence of errors in the process of learning language and learning foreign languages in particular

There are many different definitions of errors According to Richards and Schmidt (2013): “The learner’s error (while speaking or writing a second language

or a foreign language) is the phenomenon of using a language unit (such as one word, one sentence, one grammatical unit) by the way that the native speaker or the person who is good at that language thinks it is wrong or incomplete, etc Sometimes errors are categorized into phonetic errors, vocabulary errors, grammatical errors and pragmatic errors”

Corder (1981) is the first author distinguish the concept of error and mistake most clearly Theoretically, these two concepts are distinguished as follows:

(1) Errors occur due to limited knowledge of target language while mistakes

by physiological factors such as tired, vacant

(2) Errors occur frequently and systematically while mistakes are random, non-systematic

(3) Errors related to competence while mistakes related to performance Learners can detect and correct their mistakes by themselves but they cannot identify and correct their mistakes right away For example, when learner first

learned English, he did not realize his mistake in the sentence: She go to the city

yesterday The error here is the wrong use of the verb: went [went] to go [goʊ]

After a period of study (specifically about the use of verb in different tenses)

Missed the sentence above, the learner can identify error and can repeat again: She

went to the city yesterday Thus, at first learner makes errors but the same errors

become mistakes over time Consequently, the distinction between error and mistake is only theoretical and no one can create an absolute boundary between these two concepts For practical purposes, I only focus on the frequent occurrence

of errors as Littlewood (1999) suggested: “The most reliable criterion is the regularity: The best evidence that an error reflects the depth system of the learner is when it appears regularly in the words of the learner”

When studying the errors of L2 learners, Ellis (2001) stated that the learners not only made comprehension errors but also production errors For example, the following comprehension error: On the table, a native speaker tells the Vietnamese

learned English: “Could you pass the paper, please?”, but the Vietnamese heard it wrong: “Could you pass the pepper, please?” because the listener confused [ei] sound in the word paper into the [e] sound in the word pepper Then the result of

communication is limited However, according to him, this type of error has not received much attention in linguistic research works Corder himself (1981) also explained: “It is difficult to assert that the reason why listeners misunderstand a statement is due to insufficient knowledge of a semantic definition.”

In language teaching, Kreidler (1972) defined pronunciation as “how foreign language learners pronounce English by imitating the sounds and rhythms spoken

by native English speakers” And Richard and Platts said that “pronunciation is the way that the sound is produced and interest in the way the listeners receive”

We think that pronunciation involves the word perception and production of

a certain language Therefore, we define pronunciation errors:

“Pronunciation errors are the difficulties that foreign language learners encounter in perceiving and producing phonetic units that deviate from the chosen standard.” In the framework of the thesis, we do not study comprehension errors but only production errors

2.2.2.2 Analyzing error

In the process of development, contrastive linguistics encounters two problems: First, there is no satisfactory explanation why all the errors that are predicted do not occur Second, many errors are predicted not found in the actual study Therefore, the contrastive linguistics no longer occupies the top position like the strong version at the beginning, it has been transformed into a second version, the weak version The second version only acknowledges the ability to explain some errors due to the impact of L1 by comparing and contrasting with L2 This is the premise for the official introduction of applied linguistics subdivision of error analysis (EA) in the 1970s to overcome the limitations of comparative analysis subdivision

During the implementation of this topic, the writer used Corder's error analysis model (1981) According to the author, the error analysis process consists

of five steps in the following order:

(1) Choosing analytical materials: Considering the material consistency (level, age, gender, mother tongue, the language learning environment experienced)

(2) Defining errors: four basic issues need to be considered First, determining the standard as the basis for identifying errors Second, distinguishing the competence errors and performance errors Corder thinks it is only necessary to study competence errors Third, determining whether overt errors or covert errors Fourth, considering errors according to rules of usage or pragmatics

(3) Describing errors: Classifying and describing errors due to research criterions and purposes

(4) Explaining errors: The errors after being classified, will be compared, contrasted in detail with the standard as a basis for finding the causes of the errors

(5) Assessing errors: Considering the severity of the errors and the impact of the error on the information content of the speaker

2.2.2.3 Types of phonetic interference error

Weinreich (1953) suggested that phonemes can be used as a starting point to compare the non-correspondence levels between the two systems Because the starting point to compare is phonemes, there are theoretically four possibilities The author tested these four theoretical possibilities and used them as a framework for categorizing types of phonetic interference in bilingual individuals using the Romansh language spoken in Feldish and Schwyzertutch villages, a dialect in Thusis village, Switzerland

According to Weinreich, interference phenomenon occurs when bilingual individuals identify the phoneme of the target language with the source language phoneme, and that phoneme is produced according to the principles of the source language Phonological interference research aims to show how bilingual individuals receive and create source languages according to the principles of the target language From a phonological perspective, Weinreich (1953) classified the phonetic interference of two languages into the following four categories:

English vowels For example, they cannot distinguish [i:] and [i] in the words sheep [ʃi:p] and ship [ʃip]

- Phone substitution:

Interference occurs when bilingual individuals replace the target phoneme with a source phoneme The two phonemes of the source language and the target language may be similar, but in communicative practice it does not allow learners to directly replace a phoneme in the target language with a phoneme in the source language because the two sounds have different features

2.2.2.4 The meaning of error and error analysis

Understanding the essence of error and the process of analyzing error makes sense both theoretically and practically in language teaching

- Theoretical meaning:

Linguists in general, applied linguists and psychological linguists and contrastive linguists in particular want to know the process of learning a second language or a foreign language of a person They make different theories and conduct research, analyze experimental results to test their theory Error research and analysis also has a similar purpose The results obtained during error research and analysis will confirm or negate the validity of the proposed hypothesis

The results obtained through error research and analysis will help theoretical linguists, anthropological, sociological and applied linguists judge more clearly the close relationship between language, culture and mentality in the process of inter-language communication and interaction between them in the learning process and acquiring languages in general and foreign languages in particular On the other hand, the research and analysis of errors shows the similarities and differences of learning mother tongue and foreign language What difficulties will learners face and how well can theoretical and applied researchers help language learners

The results of errors research and analysis of learners before, during and after the learning process also help psychological linguists and contrastive linguists to verify the theory of movement, the ability to predict difficulties and errors of learners due to differences between mother tongue and language being studied

Error analysis also helps researchers to understand more and produce more evidence

of people's ability to acquire languages in the absence of language environment

- Practical meaning:

Error analysis is very important for language teachers The learner's error gives the teacher a feedback signal about the effectiveness of the program, the curriculum, teaching methods, and the form of assessment The error of the learner

is one of the very important evidences to show the inappropriate points to adjust in teaching activities

The error analysis results not only show the teachers the difficulties of the learners but also create conditions for the teachers to admit the causes of the errors

to have solutions to help the students handle the errors and they themselves can overcome the difficulties in language learning process

Errors are a very useful source of information to help textbook authors for the preparation of curricula, textbooks, exercise systems and suitable assessment content for each type of learners The error research results also show researchers the learning methods and strategies of foreign language learners so that they can develop the initiative and creativity of the students, help them more active and creative and turn learning process into self-training process

The study of errors and causes of error also presents that not only teachers and students need to make efforts in teaching and learning languages, but also educational managers must have appropriate and synchronous policies, if not, the quality improvement of teaching and learning English is difficult to achieve the desired results

2.2.3 An overview of H’Re and English language

2.2.3.1 H’Re phonology overview

Oliver et al (1974) showed that the H’Re language is a member of the Khmer language family and is spoken by the tribespeople living in Ba To, Son Ha, Minh Long districts in the Quang Ngai province, and in the district of An Lao in Binh Dinh province