The document discusses key differences between the Vietnamese and English languages and provides a case study of a Vietnamese student named Sam Johnson. Some key differences highlighted include: Vietnamese is a tonal language with six tones represented by diacritics, while English is not tonal; Vietnamese does not use suffixes but English does; and Vietnamese has one form of verbs while English has multiple forms. The case study notes Sam struggles with English verb tenses and endings, vocabulary, and nouns. It provides recommendations for Sam such as focusing on verb endings and minimal pair activities.

1. Vietnamese and
English Language
Comparison
Amy Souder
ESL 502
Wilkes University

2. History and Key Features of
Vietnamese
 Austroasiatic language
 Official language of Vietnam
 Spoken in numerous other
countries around the world
(Omniglot, 2012)

3. Tonal Language
Vietnamese consists of six tones:
2.Midlevel
3.Low-falling
4.High-rising
5.Low-falling-rising
6.High-rising broken
7.Low-falling broken
(Ngo, 2011)

4. Vietnamese Alphabet
 Regular writing system
 Most of the letters
(grapheme) represent one
phoneme
(Ngo, 2011)
Vietnamese Alphabet Video
(YouTube, 2009)

5. Vietnamese and English
Comparison
Vietnamese English
 3 main dialects: northern, central,  Dialects are countless
and southern
 Non-tonal language
 Tone language
 Syllable is a sequence of sounds and
 Syllable is the minimal meaningful the smallest unit that cannot be
unit that cannot be divide into divided into smaller parts is a
smaller parts phoneme.
 Voiced and voiceless stops  Voiced and voiceless stops
 Syllable-timed language and  Stressed-timed language and the
rhythms are fairly level accented syllable recurs at intervals
(KrysTall, 2012; Ngo, pg. 7, 2011)

6. Vietnamese and English
Comparison cont.
Vietnamese English
 Tense markers are usually left out if  Past, present, and future tense
the time expression is clear from the markers
context or sentence
 Suffixes are added to nouns, verbs,
 No suffix endings, such as s and es adjectives, and adverbs
 A word succeeds the noun it  A word precedes the noun it
modifies (cat white) modifies (white cat)
 Interrogative words are placed at the  Interrogative words are at the
beginning or end of a question, beginning of a question
depending on the tense of time
(Ngo, 2011, pg. 17-18; Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, 1991, pg. 19). )

7. Diacritics used in the
Vietnamese Language
 Vietnamese is a tonal language
 Tones are represented by a diacritic (mark) positioned
over or under a vowel in the syllable
 Each of the six tones has its own diacritic
 Diacritics are not used in English
 This may cause confusion for an ELL
(Ngo, pg. 7, 2011; Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 5, 1991)

8. Aspiration
 English speakers aspirate when pronouncing the letters
p, t, and k at the beginning of words
 Vietnamese speakers pronounce these same sounds
and often do not aspirate, causing words such as pit,
tie, and call to sound like bit, die, and gall
(Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 9, 1991)

9. Suffixes
 English uses suffixes to show grammatical meaning
 Inflectional suffixes add meaning and agreement to
the words they are attached to
 Vietnamese language does not add suffixes to words
(Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 16-17, 1991)

10. Verbs
 In English, verbs are converted to nouns by adding ing
to the base word
 English forms of the verb “to be”: am, is, are, was,
were, be, and been
 In Vietnamese, words can be used either as verbs or as
nouns without any changes being made to the base
word
 Vietnamese only has one form of a verb, la
(Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 21, 1991)

11. Case Study
 Sam Johnson
 Vietnamese decent
 Migrated to the US two years of age, when Sam was eight years
old
 Neither of Sam’s parents speak English
 Vietnamese is the primary language spoken in the home
 Sam’s older sister is proficient in English
 Much L2 support is provided by Sam’s older sister

12. Sam Johnson
 5th grade student
 Attending ESL since his enrollment in school
 ESL three days a week; totaling six hours of
instruction
 Sam has made vast improvements in English since his
enrollment two years ago

13. Verbs
 Sam is having difficulties with the correct tense of
verbs
Example: Commonly dismisses the ing
ending of verbs or adds an ing ending
when not needed
 Errors with using the correct helping verbs
Example: Commonly used “are” when he
should have chosen “is”

14. Vocabulary
 Sam struggles with phonemics
 In result, often gets frustrated and creates nonexistent
words
Example: He wrote “merred” when it
should have been “purred”
 Difficulties with grammar rules; such as understanding
when to drop the “y” and add an “ies”

15. Nouns
 Sam is having trouble with correct noun usage
 Subject pronouns are a major concern
Example: Used “me” instead of “my” and
“she” instead of “her”

16. Instructional Findings
 There are sounds which occur in English but not in
Vietnamese, and there are sounds which occur in both
languages but are produced differently and pattern
differently
 Verb tense markers in English but not in Vietnamese
 English uses aspiration in some letter sounds and
Vietnamese does not
 The result of Sam’s errors my be the cause of language
transfer interference
(Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 6, 1991)

17. Areas of Focus
Sam would benefit from:
More emphasis on verb endings
More focus on aspiration of letter sounds
Minimal pair activities
(Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 10, 1991)

18. Correct the Errors?
Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese states that “a
student’s pronunciation should not be corrected when he
or she is attempting to communicate an idea except by
following a set of guidelines.

19. Guidelines
2. Only correct those aspects of pronunciation which the student is able to
appreciate. Making the learner correct a sound in an unfamiliar context or
in isolation is futile.
3. Stop a learner in the context of his utterance only when it is necessary for
communication. Other interruptions will frustrate the learner and stifle the
communication effort in progress.
4. Take note of the pronunciation problems of the learners from among those
aspects which they have been taught and drilled on. Make reference not
only to the nature of the error and its correction but also to the situation in
which the aspect was practiced. This helps the learner put the error into
perspective and take note of the things learned but not used correctly.
5. Correct no more than one or two things in a learner’s utterance or you will
provide more feedback than the learner is likely to be able to retain as well
as deflate the learner’s ego and confidence in learning the language.
(Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 14, 1991)

20. References
Center for Applied Linguistics. (1991). Teaching English to
speakers of Vietnamese. Refugee education guide: General
Information Series #23. Retrieved from: http://www.
eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED208681.pdf
KryssTal. (2012). The origin and history of the English language.
Retrieved from: http://www.krysstal.com/english.html
Ngo, B. (2011). The Vietnamese language learning framework. (Master’s
thesis, Harvard University). Retrieved from: http://www.seasite.niu.e
du/jsealt/past%20issues/volume%2010/VN%20LLF%20Part%20I.pdf
Omniglot. (2012). The online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. Retrieved
from:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vietnamese.htm
YouTube. (2009). Vietnamese alphabet. Retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GB6iHi8qvM&
feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLAA34FBF
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