A study on common mistakes committed by Vietnamese learners in pronouncing English word-final consonants l, ʃ, t, d, k, g at Espeed English center.pdf

1. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************
TÔN THỊ THUỲ DƯƠNG
A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES COMMITTED BY VIETNAMESE
LEARNERS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH WORD-FINAL
CONSONANTS “L, ʃ, T, D, K, G” AT ESPEED ENGLISH CENTER
Nghiên cứu về các lỗi thường gặp của học viên Việt Nam tại trung tâm anh ngữ
Espeed khi phát âm phụ âm cuối “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” trong tiếng Anh
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field : English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60140111
Hanoi – 2016

2. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************
TÔN THỊ THUỲ DƯƠNG
A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES COMMITTED BY VIETNAMESE
LEARNERS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH WORD-FINAL
CONSONANTS “L, ʃ, T, D, K, G” AT ESPEED ENGLISH CENTER
Nghiên cứu về các lỗi thường gặp của học viên Việt Nam tại trung tâm anh ngữ
Espeed khi phát âm phụ âm cuối “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” trong tiếng Anh
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field : English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60140111
Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr Võ Đại Quang
Hanoi – 2016

3. i
DECLARATION
This is to certify that the thesis entitle, “A study on common mistakes
committed by Vietnamese learners in pronouncing English word-final
consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” at Espeed English center”, submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Degree of MA in English
Teaching Methodology. I have provided documented references to the works or
others and I am fully responsible for the content of the thesis. The research
reported in this thesis was approved by the University of Language and
International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Hanoi, 2016
T n Th Thu Dư ng

4. ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I gratefully acknowledge my deep indebtedness to a number of people who
helped me in this study.
First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deep appreciation to
my advisor, Associate Professor Võ Đại Quang (Vietnam National University,
Hanoi), for his help and his insightful comments on my work from the beginning to
the end of my study. In addition, my sincere thanks also go to Mr. David (an ESL
native Teacher who comes from London) for supporting me in the data collection.
I also would like to convey my thanks to all of my teachers who gave me
knowledge in my life. The completion of this study would not have been possible
without the cooperation from all 120 students at Espeed English Center who
participated in this study.
Finally, I wish to deeply thank my best friends and beloved family for their
continuous encouragement during my study.

5. iii
ABSTRACT
In Vietnam, English language has played a significant role as a result of
globalization trend. Despite being increasingly facilitated in learning English from
very young age, many learners of English as second language have major
difficulties with pronunciation.
The aim of this thesis is to identify the common problems related to
pronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center
when pronouncing English word-final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g”, as well as to
investigate the causes of these problems and the possible solutions to the above
mentioned problems
In order to fulfill the study, data was collected through tape recordings and
questionnaires. While the former aimed at finding out the common problems related
to pronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center
when pronouncing English word-final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g”, the latter was
applied with a view to figuring out the causes of these problems and discussing
some solutions to these problems.
The findings reveal that the most common problems related to pronunciation
mistakes in the final position were sound omission and sound deviation. The causes
contributing to these problems were mainly the lack of understanding how to
pronounce English sounds, the lack of exposure to real English environment and
little practice. To help students overcome these problems, some pronunciation
teaching techniques are being applied effectively such as recoding and giving
feedback; listening and using “shadowing” techniques; applying mirror
techniques/making Vlog. This study concludes by considering the implications of
these findings for the students and teachers to deal with these problems found.

6. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1
1.1 Rationale................................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Aims of the research .............................................................................................. 2
1.3 Research questions................................................................................................. 2
1.4 Scope of the research ............................................................................................. 2
1.5 Significance of the study........................................................................................ 3
1.6 Design of the study ................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................... 4
2.1 Review of theoretical background .......................................................................... 4
2.1.1 General descriptions of English consonant sounds .................................................... 4
2.1.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” ............ 5
2.1.2.1 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound / l / ................................ 5
2.1.2.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /ʃ/................................. 6
2.1.2.3 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /t/.................................. 7
2.1.2.4 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /d/ ................................. 7
2.1.2.5 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /k/ ................................. 8
2.1.2.6 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /g/................................. 9
2.1.3 English final consonants ...................................................................................... 10
2.1.3.1 Definition............................................................................................................. 10
2.1.4 Pronunciation errors............................................................................................. 11
2.1.4.1 Errors and mistakes.............................................................................................. 11
2.1.4.2 Ending sound errors............................................................................................. 12
2.1.5 Teaching and learning pronunciation.................................................................... 12
2.1.5.1 Teachers’ role ...................................................................................................... 12
2.1.5.2 Learners’ role....................................................................................................... 14
2.1.5.3 Pronunciation goals.............................................................................................. 14
2.1.5.4 Factors influencing learner’s pronunciation.......................................................... 14
2.1.5.5 Techniques used in pronunciation class................................................................ 16
2.2 Review of previous studies................................................................................... 18
2.3 Summary ............................................................................................................. 21

7. v
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.......................................................... 22
3.1 Research questions............................................................................................... 22
3.2 The participants of the study ................................................................................ 22
3.3 Research design ................................................................................................... 22
3.4 Research method.................................................................................................. 23
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................... 25
4.1 Reports on the results collected by means of recordings ....................................... 25
4.2 Reports on the results collected by survey questionnaires..................................... 29
4.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards English ending sounds pronunciation......................... 29
4.2.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards the importance of English ending sounds................... 29
4.2.1.2 Students’ frequency in pronouncing ending sounds .............................................. 30
4.2.2 Students’ perceptions about the possible reasons for their problems of
pronunciation. ................................................................................................................. 31
4.2.3 Teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation in class ....................................... 33
4.2.4 Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class ................ 34
4.3 The possible solutions to these pronunciation problems ....................................... 35
4.3.1 IPA transcript lesson ............................................................................................ 36
4.3.2 Using pronunciation videos.................................................................................. 37
4.3.3 Saying it aloud..................................................................................................... 37
4.3.5 Recording yourself............................................................................................... 39
4.3.6 Role-play ............................................................................................................. 40
4.3.7 Applying poems, raps, songs................................................................................ 40
4.4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 41
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION...................................................................................... 43
5.1 Recapitulation...................................................................................................... 43
5.2 Concluding marks................................................................................................ 43
5.3 Pedagogical Implication....................................................................................... 45
5.4 Limitation and suggestion for further study.......................................................... 46
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 48
APPENDIX 1....................................................................................................................I
APPENDIX 2...................................................................................................................II

8. vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Place and articulation of the sound / l /
Figure 2: Place and articulation of the sound /ʃ/
Figure 3: Place and articulation of the sound /t/
Figure 4: Place and articulation of the sound /d/
Figure 5: Place and articulation of the sound /k/
Figure 6: Place and articulation of the sound /g/
Figure 7: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of English ending sounds
Figure 8: Students’ frequency in pronouncing ending sounds
Figure 9: Students’ perception about the possible reasons for their problems of
pronunciation
Figure 10: Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class
Figure 11: The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

9. vii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: English consonants
Table 2: Vietnamese initial consonants
Table 3: Vietnamese final consonants
Table 4: Common pronunciation mistakes committed by students
Table 5: The number of students producing sound omission
Table 6: The number of students producing sound deviation
Table 7: Students’ perception about the possible reasons for their problems of
pronunciation
Table 8: The frequency of teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation
Table 9: The effectiveness of teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation
Table 10: Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class

10. 1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
As a result of globalization trends in every field all over the world, foreign
languages in general and English in particular have played a greater role. The
Vietnamese government, than ever before, is concerning and investing in the
education system, particularly on teaching English. English is now officially taught
for learners from very young age – six years old, gradually becoming the second
language in Vietnam. In addition, there is an increasingly big demand of studying
English at all ages in big cities; English centers, therefore, are rising more and more
to satisfy this.
Despite being facilitated those education programs, English learners remain
being the victims of a traditional education that haven’t paid much attention to
listening and speaking although they can read and write pretty well. The fact has
shown that there is a large percentage of Vietnamese people who have been learning
English for many years but cannot freely speak out or may find it hard to get
involved in conversation as most of them encounter pronunciation problems. It
could be seen that pronunciation is the key factor to maintain successful oral
communication. If speakers pronounce clearly and properly, their listeners could
easily understand what they are trying to express. On the other hand, when words
are inaccurately pronounced, misunderstanding may occur. These sometimes bring
unexpected effects or even lead to miscommunication. Therefore, the emphasis on
teaching correct pronunciation (recognizing errors in pronunciation and correcting
them), is necessary for an improvement of student’s pronunciation ability.
There are a number of problems relating to pronunciation errors that ESL
learners tend to make: intonation, word or sentence stress, linking words, ending
sounds… Of those mentioned pronunciation problems, ending sounds seem to be
the hardest one for Vietnamese people to learn. They in particular encounter
difficulties in pronouncing some English consonants due to the differences between
the Vietnamese and English phonological systems. Vietnamese is a kind of

11. 2
language which has single words with no ending sounds while these sounds play a
very important role in English. Native speakers may find it hard to understand the
words being spoken without pronouncing ending sounds.
All of these motivated me to conduct this research which will go into details
of pronunciation mistakes concerning ending sounds of Vietnamese learners at
Espeed English Center. On the foundation of these mistakes, some solutions are
suggested to mitigate the problems.
1.2 Aims of the research
The specific aims of the study are:
- Investigate the most common mistakes when pronouncing English word-
final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center.
- Identify the reasons for students’ problems of pronunciation
- Propose possible appropriate techniques to correct their problems
1.3 Research questions
Based on the purposes of the study, the researcher attempted to find out the
pronunciation problem relating ending sounds by Vietnamese learner at Espeed
English Center. This investigation was designed to answer the following questions:
1. What are the ending sound mistakes that Vietnamese learners at
Espeed English center are likely to make?
2. What are the possible reasons for their problems of pronunciation?
3. What are appropriate techniques to correct their problems?
1.4 Scope of the research
The research was conducted on Vietnamese learners at Espeed English
Center. Regarding its scope, the research was only aimed at finding out their most
typical mistakes when pronouncing sounds: /ʃ/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/. Certain teaching
techniques related to pronunciation will be studied and discussed to find out the
suitable ones.

12. 3
1.5 Significance of the study
This research provide an insight into the common pronunciation problems
that most of the Vietnamese students who are studying English as their major
encounter regarding English consonant sounds (particularly /ʃ/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/).
In addition, the results of the study will be a useful reference to ESL (English as a
second language) teachers while they work on this part of pronunciation training.
1.6 Design of the study
The study consists of 5 chapters as follows:
CHAPTER 1 is the introduction, which provides an overview of the study
with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope
and the structural organization of the thesis.
CHAPTER 2 presents a review of theoretical background about general
descriptions of English consonant sounds (/ʃ/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/) and a review of
previous studies related to the research of the thesis.
CHAPTER 3 gives a detailed discussion of the method used in the study. It
presents the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect the data and the
procedure of the data collection.
CHAPTER 4 is a detail description of data analysis and a discussion of the
findings of the study
CHAPTER 5 is the conclusion including the recapitulation of the main
points presented in the thesis and concluding remarks. The limitations of the study
and some recommendations for further research are also discussed in this chapter.

13. 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Review of theoretical background
2.1.1 General descriptions of English consonant sounds
In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic (1992:192), consonants are
described as “speech sounds made by completely or partly stopping the flow of air
breathed out through the mouth”.
In his view, Roach (2000) mentioned consonants as “sounds in which there is
obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips”.
It is essential to distinguish consonant sounds and consonant letters. A
consonant letter usually represents one consonant sound. Some consonant letters,
for example, c, g, s, can represent two different consonant sounds. The g letter is
found in “g” sounds like get, go, give and in the /dʒ/ sounds like suggest, energy,
general.
According to Kelly (2000:47) consonants can be described in terms:
(1). The place of articulation (2). Manner of articulation
(a). Labio dental (a). Plosive
(b). Dental (b) Affricative
(c). Alveolar (c). Fricative
(f). Palatals (d). Nasal
(g). Velars (e) Lateral
(h). Glottal (f) Approximant

14. 5
Table 1: English Consonant Phonemes
It can be seen in figure 1, consonant sounds /t/ and /d/ are alveolar stop while
/k/ and /g/ are velar stop. Besides, while consonant sound /l/ is alveolar lateral, /ʃ/
is alveolar palatal fricative.
2.1.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g”
2.1.2.1Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound / l /
Only one alveolar, lateral phoneme occurs in English, there being no
opposition between fortis and lenis, voiced or voiceless, or fricative and non-
fricative. Within the /l/ phoneme three main allophones occur:
- Clear [l], with a relatively front vowel resonance, before vowels and /j/.
- Voiceless [l0], following aspirated /p, k/.
- Dark [ł], with a relatively back vowel resonance, finally after a vowel,
before a consonant, and as syllabic sound following a consonant.
For clear [l], the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard
palate at the same time as the tip contact is made. For dark [ł], the tip contact is
again made on the teeth ridge, the front of the tongue being somewhat depressed
and the back rose in the direction of the soft palate, giving a back vowel resonance.
Both [l] and [ł] are voiced, though partial devoicing may take place when a
preceding consonant is fortis.

15. 6
Figure 1: Place and articulation of the sound / l /
(As retrieved fromhttp://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)
2.1.2.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /ʃ/
/ʃ/is an alveo palatal, voiceless, fortis fricative consonant. The blade of the
tongue is raised against the region behind the alveolar ridge and the air is forced
out through a groove a little wider than in the case of /s/, its more fronted
counterpart.
/ʃ/is distributed in all three main positions in the word. It is often spelt sh in
words like shoe, cushion or push. It can also be spelt s(e.g. sure, sugar) or ss(e.g.
pressure, mission) or ci (ancient, delicious), sci(conscious) ce(ocean),si(pension,
mansion), ti (tuition, retribution). It is a variant of [sju:] in words like issue,
tissue.
Figure 2: Place and articulation of the sound /ʃ/
(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)

16. 7
2.1.2.3 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /t/
/t/ is a voiceless, alveolar, fortis plosive. The soft palate being raised and the
nasal resonator shut off, the primary obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a
closure made between the tip and rims of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge
and side teeth. Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the
vocal cords are wide apart for /t/. It has an aspirated variant that occurs before
stressed vowels when the phoneme is distributed in syllable initial position: tube. If
preceded by “s”, however, /t/ is unaspirated (E.g: stain). Its distribution includes all
basic positions: truck, attend, hot. It is laterally or nasally released if followed by
[l] or by a nasal consonant, repectively: little, written, utmost. It is spelt with t: toe,
with tt: cutteror , with th: Thomas,Thames.
Figure 3: Place and articulation of the sound /t/
(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)
2.1.2.4 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /d/
/d/ is the voiced, lenis counterpart of /t/, voicing and force of articulation
differentiate between the two sounds that share the same place of articulation in the
alveolar region. Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the
vocal cords are wide apart and may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage
for /d/ according to its situation in the utterance.
The sound is distributed in initial, medial and final position: doctor,
addition, bed. It is partially devoiced in initial position as “drink” and devoiced in
final position as “road”. It is laterally released if followed by /l/: “noodle” and

17. 8
nasally released if followed by /m/ or /n/: admit, garden. It is spelt d: reader, dd:
addict
Figure 4: Place and articulation of the sound /d/
(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)
2.1.2.5 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /k/
/k/ is a voiceless, dorso-velar, fortis, plosive sound. To make this sound, the
soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary obstacle to the
air-stream is formed by a closure made between the back of the tongue and the soft
palate. Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal
cords are wide apart for /k/. Like the other voiceless plosives described above, it has
an aspirated variant if the sound is distributed in syllable-initial position, in front of
a stressed vowel: cat.
/k/ is distributed in initial, medial and final position: cook, account, think. It
can be followed by a nasal consonant and be consequently nasally released:
conquest or by the lateral liquid and be laterally released: snorkel. In spelling, the
sound can be represented by the letter c(e.g. cry) or by cc (e.g. accuse), by k(e.g.
kitchen), by ck(e.g. kick), by ch(e.g. christmas), by qu (e.g. quick).

18. 9
Figure 5: Place and articulation of the sound /k/
(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)
2.1.2.6 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /g/
/g/ is the voiced, lenis pair of /k/ and it has basically the same features as its
counterpart /k/. Lung air is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the
vocal cords are wide apart and may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage
for /g/ according to its situation in the utterance.
It is distributed in initial, medial and final position: give, dragon, rug. Its
allophones include partially devoiced variants in initial position: gain, devoiced
variants in final position: dog, laterally released, when followed by /l/: giggle and
nasally released when followed by /m/: dogmatic. In spelling, the consonant can be
rendered by g: “get” , by as “gg”: “begged”, or by “g” followed by “h”, as in
ghastly, by “ua, ue or ui” ,as in guarantee, guess or linguist, respectively. The
voiced counterpart of /ks/, /gz/ can also be rendered by “x” in words like example.
Figure 6: Place and articulation of the sound /g/
(As retrieved from http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html)

19. 10
2.1.3 English final consonants
2.1.3.1 Definition
To ESL learners, the term “final sound” is very popular while learning
English. To understand easily, “final sounds” are sounds that occur at the end of the
word. It refers to the consonant sounds as the word can end with one or more
consonant sounds (consonant clusters).
The English language has 24 consonants and most of them can occur in
word-initial position, word-medial position and word-final position. About the
position of final consonants, Yule (2006) showed the basic structure syllable found
in English.
According to Rachael – Anne Knight, 2003, University of Survey –
Roehampton (Understanding English Variation, Week 3), there can be up to 4
consonants in a coda:
- If there are no consonants at the end of the word, it has a zero coda.
- A single consonant is called the final consonant. Any consonant except h,
r, w and j may be a final coda.
When there are two or more consonants standing at the end of the word, the
terms “pre-final” and “post-final” consonants are used:
Pre-final includes: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /s/
Post-final includes: /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/
- Two consonant clusters:
Pre-final m, n, ŋ, l, s followed by a final consonant
Consonant plus post-final s, z, t, d, θ

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Example: help, bank, books, blind etc
- Three consonant clusters:
Pre-final plus final plus post-final (e.g. helped, banks, bonds)
Final plus post-final plus post final s, z, t, d, θ (e.g. fifths, next)
- Four consonant clusters:
Most are pre-final plus final plus post-final (e.g. twelfths, prompts)
Occasionally there is one final and three post final consonants (e.g. sixths,
texts..)
2.1.4 Pronunciation errors
2.1.4.1 Errors and mistakes
There are several definitions regarding to errors. According to Dulay
Richards, there are two different kinds of errors: performance errors, caused by,
such as, fatigue and inattention, and competence errors resulting from lack of
knowledge of the rules of the language. Brown (1994: 205) differentiates between
mistakes and errors. A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random
guess or slip in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. All people
make mistakes, in both native and second language situations. Native speakers are
normally capable of recognizing and correcting such mistakes, which are not the
result of a deficiency in competence but the result of some sort of breakdown in the
process of production. Apart from that, Ellis states in his research that errors show
gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know if it is
wrong or not. However, mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they
occur because in particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what she or he
knows (Ellis, 1997).
In a nutshell, a mistake occurs because of a slip of the tongue, tiredness,
anxiety, etc, it can be self-realized and self-corrected. However, an error is a
performance that a speaker who has not yet mastered the rules of the target
language cannot correct by himself.

21. 12
2.1.4.2 Ending sound errors
According to Mark (2008), ending sound errors can be defined as “the
inaccurate pronunciation of the final consonant in a word”
In his research, Treiman classified ending sounds errors into 6 types.
- Cluster reduction: This is the “deletion of one or more consonants
from a target cluster so that only a single consonant occurs at syllable margins”
(Grunwell. (2005). Treiman)
- Cluster Simplification: The error occurs when one/some elements of a
cluster being is/are produced in a different manner from the target phoneme
(Grunwell. (2005). Treiman)
- Epenthesis: This is the insertion of some vowel (normally a schwa)
between cluster elements (Dyson & Paden. (2005). Treiman)
- Coalescence: It occurs when the yielded pronunciation contains a new
consonant composed of features from the original consonants.
Omitting nasal and liquid sounds: In consonants cluster consisting of pre-
final + final consonants with nasals (/n/,/m/) or liquids (/r/,/l/) as the first element,
(/m, n, l, r/ + final consonant), nasals and liquid sounds are often omitted (Zukowski
& Richmond, W. (2005)).
- Phonetically possible spelling: In representing the first consonant of a
cluster, spellers tend to spell words in an inaccurate but phonetically plausible ways
(Bourassa. (2004). Treiman)
2.1.5 Teaching and learning pronunciation
2.1.5.1Teachers’ role
Teachers are supposed to play an important role in guiding and helping
learners to learn pronunciation. According to Kenworthy 1987), the teacher has to
perform the following roles:
 Helping learners hear: part of the role of the teacher is to help learner
perceive sounds. If not, learners may continue their misperception about the target
language and perceive the sounds in a wrong way.

22. 13
 Helping learners make sounds: some sounds of English do not occur
in other languages. Sometimes, learners will be able to imitate the new sound, but if
they can’t, then the teacher needs to be able to give some hints which may help
them to make the new sounds.
 Providing feedback: both the above tasks require the teacher to tell
learners how they are doing. Often learners themselves can’t tell if they’ve got it
right, the teacher must provide them with information about their performance. In
other cases, learners may overdo something; they may inaccurate assumptions about
the way English is pronounced.
 Pointing out what is going on: Learners need to know what to pay
attention to and what to work on. Because speaking is for the most part
unconsciously controlled, learners may miss something important. For example,
they may not realize that when a particular word is stressed or said in a different
way, this can affect the message that is sent to the listener. Teacher need to make
learners aware of the potential of sounds
 Establishing priorities: Learners themselves will be aware of some of
the features of their pronunciation that are different, but they will not be able to tell
if this is important or not. Learners need the help of the teachers in establishing a
plan for action, in deciding what to concentrate on.
 Devising activities: teachers must consider what types of exercises
and activities will be helpful. Which activities will provide the most opportunities
for practice, experimentation, exploration? In designing activities for learning,
teachers must also keep in mind that certain activities suit the learning styles and
approaches of some learners better than others.
 Assessing progress: this is actually a type of feedback. Learners need
to know at what level they are in pronunciation. Teacher could give tests to
students. When they look at their mark, they have a clear sense of how much they
have gained.


23. 14
2.1.5.2 Learners’ role
With various aspects of the teachers’ role, all learners need to do is respond.
The ultimately success in pronunciation will depend on how much effort the learner
puts into it. The teacher may be highly skilled at noticing mispronunciations and
pointing these out, but if learners take no action and do not try to monitor their own
efforts, then the prospects of change or improvement are minimal.
2.1.5.3 Pronunciation goals
The great majority of learners will have a very practical purpose for learning
English and will derive no particular benefit from acquiring a native like
pronunciation. However, there will be some learners who may want to approach a
native like speakers in an English speaking country or abroad. In this case, we must
use criteria which are occupation-related. Learners who plan to become teachers of
English will want to approximate a native accent. Learners who want to work as air
traffic controllers or telephone operators will need to have a pronunciation which is
easily understood in less-than-ideal conditions. In setting goals for our learners, we
must consider the effect of mispronunciation on the listener and the degree of
tolerance listeners will have for this.
2.1.5.4 Factors influencing learner’s pronunciation
According to Kenworthy (1987), the factors affecting students’ acquisition of
pronunciation can be:
- Native language: The native is an important factor in learning to
pronounce English. Students from different nationalities have varying degrees of
difficulty learning proper pronunciation. The difficulty depends on how different
their native language is from English. For example, English is a stressed language;
Spanish is a syllabic language; Chinese is a tonal language. Vietnamese learners
may find it easier to learn English than Chinese, because of the fact that both
English and Vietnamese are Latin one, whereas Chinese is hieroglyphic language.

24. 15
However, there are some foreign sounds to Vietnamese language such as : //θ/&/ ð/;
/∫/&/ʒ/ ; /tʃ/- /dʒ/
- Learners’ ages: it is assumed that the younger learners are, the easier
for them to acquire accurate pronunciation- a greater chance of having a native-like
accent. Oyama carried out a study of Italian learners of English in the USA. The
subjects were tape-recorded reading aloud a short paragraph and telling a story
about frightening episode in their lives. Their pronunciation was judged by two
experts based on a five point scale, ranging from “no foreign accent” to “heavy
foreign accent”. The results showed that the younger a person was when he started
learning English, the more native-like was his accent. However, other researches
showed opposite results. Snow and Hoefnagel conducted the research in two parts:
laboratory study and a long term study. The results of laboratory study showed that
the two oldest groups of learners received the highest scores. The two youngest
groups cored the lowest. In the second part of the study which the subjects were
tested in much the same way at intervals during their first year of studying Dutch.
This time, at first, older learners seemed to get better results. However, after four to
five months, there seemed to be no significant age difference among the results of
those subjects. It could be concluded that there is no trusted evidence relating to the
relationship between age and a person’s ability to pronounce a new language.
- The amount of exposure to English: It will come as no surprise that
ESL students who live in English-speaking environment acquire better
pronunciation faster because they are immersed in the language. But it is obvious
that we cannot talk simply in terms of residency. Many learners live in an English
speaking country, but spend much of their time in non English speaking
environment. Conversely, many people live in non English speaking countries but
use English in many areas of their lives such as work or school. In such complex
bilingual and multilingual situations, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of how
much exposure to English a learner has received. Various studies have compared
the pronunciation accuracy of people living in an English speaking country and

25. 16
those who are not, and it seems that amount of exposure, though clearly a
contributory factor, is not a necessary factor for the development of pronunciation
skills.
- Students’ own phonetic ability: it is a common view that some people
have a better ear for foreign language than others. There are some exercises that
they may benefit from such as: imitating, drilling or distinguish sounds. Some
people may encounter problems and find it hard to be able to realize specific
sounds. However, their innate abilities enable them to exploit all the opportunities
to compare what they are doing with the model presented. Teachers should provide
a variety of exercise so that all learners can benefit.
- Their attitude to the learning of the language: Research and studies
consistently show that ESL students with a positive attitude towards learning
English learn faster. By the same token, students who are genuinely open-minded
and interested in improving their pronunciation often do improve it. It is truly
amazing what the right attitude can do. On the other hand, students who have
prejudices or a natural dislike for English will be less successful than those with a
positive attitude and open mind. In this case, the teacher may increase the learners’
positive attitude towards the foreign language by providing vivid information about
that language culture, or making using of authentic materials to make the lesson
more interesting.
- Motivation: motivation is the one that can really make a difference.
Highly motivated students will in all likelihood have a better pronunciation. If
learners really care much about their pronunciation, they will become more careful
with their speaking and gradually build good pronunciation competence.
2.1.5.5 Techniques used in pronunciation class
There has always been a great deal of techniques to teach pronunciation for
teachers. In the previous research on the use of continuous feedbacks to improve the
first year students’ pronunciation by Tran Thach Phuc, some common techniques
which are proposed by Celce (1996) and Kelly (2000) are discussed:

26. 17
- Listen and imitate: the pronunciation of the target language is
provided by the teacher and tape recorders, language labs, etc. Students are to listen
to a sequence of sounds or sentences and repeat it. This is not only to help students
achieve better pronunciation, but remember new items more easily as well. This
technique usually takes two forms, which are either all class or individual. These
two forms are actually the two phases of the same techniques. Normally, at first, the
whole class repeats after certain sounds and phrases. After a certain amount of
class-drilling, individual student take turns and pronounce those items on his/her
own.
- Phonetic training: this technique makes use of articulatory
descritption, articulatory diagrams and a phonetic alphabet. Learners are provided
with the basic theoretical knowledge about how sounds are formed. They are also
aided by the teacher to make genuine sound production. However, this kind of
technique is not supposed to teach to too young learners as it is unlikely that they
are able to comprehend such a complicated matter.
- Minimal pair drills: These relate to words which differ by only one
phoneme. Normally, learners are allowed to listen to the tape and distinguish
between the two sounds. This type of activities is particularly useful to teach sounds
which cause difficulties for learners or sounds that are easily mismatched. After
listening, learners are asked to produce the sounds themselves.
- Contextualized minimal pairs: when minimal pair drills seem a bit
boring and too theoretical with separated sounds, their contextualization
compensates for this weakness. The sentence stem serves as a basis for students to
produce appropriate responses with correct pronunciation. When words are put in
sentences, it seems to be more useful than the vague minimal pairs because it is
more practical.
- Tongue twisters: when other techniques look serious and sometimes
put learners under much pressure, tongue twister provide a more delighting way to
learn pronunciation. Sounds which are difficult to differentiate are put together to

27. 18
make meaningful sentences. This technique rooted from speech correction strategies
for native speakers. One of the most typical examples for this technique is the
sentence “she sells seashells by the seashore”
- Reading aloud/ recitation: students are provided with a passage or
scripts and then read aloud, focusing on stress, timing, and intonation. This activity
is often done with texts such as poems, rhymes, song, lyrics, etc. It is true that
reading aloud is not popular in English class today, due to the fact that it can have
negative effect on student’s pronunciation. The spelling of words can affect
pronunciation adversely. However, according to Kelly (2000), reading aloud
provides a good chance for students to realize the linking between spelling and
pronunciation. Moreover, it provides a vivid example of how stress and intonation
are related, as well as the importance of linking sounds between words in connected
speech.
- Recording of learners’ production: Students are asked to record their
reading over passage or their spontaneous speech in a tape recorder. Then, the tape
is played back so that the students can get feedback from the teacher and have self-
evaluation. This activity is time consuming. However, it gives a true reflection of
how learners are making progress in their pronunciation. The learners’ mistakes can
be easily identified, so that learners know what aspects of pronunciation to focus for
improvement.
2.2 Review of previous studies
So far, in Vietnam, there have been a quite number of studies about
Vietnamese’s mistakes and difficulties in pronouncing English sounds. Most of
them put much attention on consonant sounds as they are of major pronunciation
problem of EFL. These have led to important findings, which become a valuable
basic for further studies, most visibly, for this paper.
As cited by Thao Nguyen (2007), “after analyzing a case study on a
Vietnamese native speaker who came to the United States in 1972, Osburne, (1996)
finally drew the conclusion that final consonants are not permitted by Vietnamese.
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28. 19
Vietnamese L1 speakers do not only reduce cluster but also delete single syllable-
final consonants, especially fricatives. (For example /l/ in control, z in because)”.
Thao Nguyen (2007) conducted a research into the difficulty of Vietnamese
in pronouncing English final consonants. Five informants had participated in
recording the word list and the text, and six native speakers helped to evaluate on
the data. From the results analyzed, the researcher concluded that difficulties of
Vietnamese speakers in English final consonants mostly result in some common
mistakes which are deleting the ending sound that are too difficult or foreign to
Vietnamese language, reducing and transferring the final consonants and clusters
towards their mother language, adding schwa in final clusters
To answer the question involving the common pronunciation problems of the
students in the English Department of the University of Languages and International
Studies, Ha (2005) carried out a data collection through an oral final examination.
During the exam, each of the students was asked to give a talk about a particular
topic in nearly five minutes. The researcher took notes of the errors related to
pronunciation while listening to students talking. She finally classified consonants
errors into three main types: Sound Omitted, Sound confusion and Sound
redundancy. She also added that sound omission had seemed to be the most
common errors that Vietnamese learners tend to make. /s, z, dʒ, t, l, k, ks, v/ were
reported as being most frequently omitted by Vietnamese learners (Ha Cam Tam).
Tang (2007) pointed out that Vietnamese learners of English may have
difficulty producing syllable-final consonant sounds. They often simplify or omit
the consonants in the final syllables of English words. He highlighted the influence
of the Vietnamese L1 on the production of English. With the error of simplifying
the final sounds, they tend to substitute the English endings with sounds that are
shared to both Vietnamese and English languages. It is also important to understand
the final syllable sounds that pose the greatest struggle for Vietnamese.
Dao (2012) studied on 150 English non-major students at Thai Nguyen
university of Economics and Business Administration to find out common mistakes

29. 20
when pronouncing final consonant sounds. These informants were requested to
undergo through two stages. In the first stage, 30 informants were asked to record 4
tasks (isolated words, sentences, conversation, and a story) by reading out loud.
Then, the questionnaire was given to 150 informants after collecting data from
recording part in order to identify the causes and solutions to the problems. She
affirmed that the most common mistakes that the informants often made were the
sound omission and sound deviation. The way they produced the studies sounds
was different from those described in the theoretical background by omitting them
or replacing by a sound similar to it in a certain pair.
When it comes to the causes of troubles with English sound, as proved by
(Thao Nguyen: 2007), Vietnamese does not have the same final consonants like
English. A lot of English consonants were not found in Vietnamese language.
Moreover, the manner and the articulation of English sounds are absolutely
different from the Vietnamese one, which is seen as a big barrier to Vietnamese
learners studying English.
Dr. Duong Thi Nu (2009) studied Vietnamese learners’ pronunciation of
English sounds. She figured out five main reasons that contribute to their
pronunciation mistakes: failure in distinguishing the difference, influence of the
mother tongue, consciousness of mistakes, insufficient drills and practice.
Equally important, Huong (2010) carried out a research into the difficulties
encountered by second year student at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and
Forestry in producing some English consonants with 100 participants. Data
collected from the survey revealed the seven difficulties producing the consonant
sounds //θ/&/ ð/; /∫/&/ʒ/ ; /tʃ/- /dʒ/ as : low pronunciation ability, Inadequate drills
and practice: passive ways of learning and low motivation to English language
learning, mother tongue interference, poor learning background: articulation
features of the consonants under the research, teaching and learning environment
inefficiency, inappropriate technique used by teachers, inadequate perceptions of
mistakes.
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30. 21
2.3 Summary
All the theoretical background of the study was presented in this chapter with
the purpose of giving a general view to readers to get information about English
pronunciation, English and Vietnamese ending sounds, and some studies on related
topics. It was believed that the Vietnamese students participating in this study
would struggle with the pronunciation of the final consonant sounds. The next
chapter will present the findings and discussion of the stud

31. 22
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research questions
The study was carried out to address the following three questions:
1. What are the ending sound mistakes that Vietnamese learners at
Espeed English center are likely to make?
2. What are the reasons for students’ problems of pronunciation?
3. What are appropriate techniques to correct their problems?
3.2 The participants of the study
There were 120 students in this study. These participants are from Espeed
English Center. They were supposed to take different parts of the survey. Due to the
time limitation, only 30 of them were randomly chosen to join in the recordings and
120 respondents participated in the questionnaires. They are from English for Life
level 1 classes. Their ages range between 18 and 24. All the participants are native
speakers of Vietnam, coming from the north of Vietnam. They have learnt English
for more than 7 years. With the aim of focusing on ending sounds mistakes in this
study, the author decided to choose these students for research. First and foremost
reason, none of them lived or studied in an English speaking country before the
preparation program, so they often make errors in pronouncing ending sounds.
Moreover, the first level always is the most important one and the foundation key to
the next level as well.
3.3 Research design
Borg and Gall (1989) define research design as the procedures used by
researchers to explore relationships between variables to form subject into groups,
administer measures, apply treatment conditions and analyze the data. This study is
a survey research in an attempt to describe a work in progress of a research
approach to identify the most common mistakes when producing the 6 sounds (/ʃ/,
/l/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/) at final positions and some solutions to the pronunciation
problems.
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