Some simple ideas about pronunciation difficulties for Vietnamese learners of English, and some ideas for teaching pronunciation

1. How can we teach pronunciation
(and speaking in general)
effectively in Lower Secondary and
High Schools in Vietnam?
Michael Carroll

2. The problem
What i
Teachers want to teach pronunciation (and speaking), but there
is little time when students are preparing for exams
Students are shy of speaking
Sounds in English that are not in Vietnamese
Linking sounds in English

3. Today’s talk
• my experience of learning Vietnamese
• problems of sounds and linking (segmental and suprasegmental
pronunciation)
• how to ‘teach’ these sounds IN CONTEXT, without taking too
much TIME, and in a LIVELY way (to keep students
MOTIVATED)

4. Vietnamese

5. • time? No problem
• shyness? No, no problem
•sounds? YES

7. Difficulties for English
speakers learning Vietnamese
• vowels: ư ơ
• Word beginnings:
t / th ng / nh tr / ch
• word endings học / họp ; thích / trước
• tones ` ̉ ~ ´ ̣

8. Some observations
• ư
• ơ
• th
• ng
• nh
• word endings học / họp ; thích /
trước
• tones ` ̉ ~ ´ ̣
• hardly used in English (strongly
marked for humour, surprise …)
• close to the English schwa [ə]
• softer than English “th” or “t”
• never begins English words, softer
than English word ending “ng”
• close to the “n” in “new”
• much softer than English
• difficult for English speakers

9. Tang – Cross-linguistic Analysis of Vietnamese and English
Table 1
Compariso
n of
Vietnames
e and
English
Sounds
Vietnamese
Only
Shared Sounds English Only
Syllable (to) (thỏ) p (pin or pie) ; b (bà or
bear)
t (time) g (go) Ɵ (thing) ð (then)
initial (trời)
(chơi)
d (đen or doll) ; k (kéo
or kite)
ʃ (shoe) Ʒ (measure) ʧ (chain) ʤ
(june)
(rắn)
(sáng)
m (má or me) ; n (năm
or note)
ɹ (rope) w (water)
(gà)
(không)
f (phở or fire) ; (và or
very)
s-clusters (sk scr sm sn
str…)
(ngủ)
(nhỏ)
s (xin or send) ; z (rồi or
zebra)
r-clusters (br cr scr dr gr)
h (hết or hair) ; l (làm or l-clusters (bl cl fl gl)

10. Vietnamese
Only
Shared
Sounds
English Only
syllable p (lớp or hop) b (lab) d (sod) g (bag) Ɵ (bath) ð (bathe)
final t (ít or bat) f (laugh) v (love) s (kiss) z (buzz)
k (gác or luck) ʃ (ash) Ʒ (rouge) ʧ (itch) ʤ (bridge)
m (làm or
lamb)
l (ball)
n (sơn or sun) -pt (slept) -ps (oops) -kt (walked)
ŋ (sông or
song)
-ks (licks) -ft (laughed) -sp (lisp)
-st (list) -sk (brisk) –lp (help) -lb (bulb)
-lt (wilt) -ld (wild) -lk (bulk) -lf (elf)
-lv (delve) -lƟ (wealth) -lʧ (belch)
-lʤ (bulge) -lm (balm) -mp (bump)
-mf (triumph) -mƟ (warmth) -nt (mint)
-nd (wand) -nƟ (tenth) -nz (lens)
-nʧ (wrench) -nʤ (binge) - ŋk (bank)
-ksƟ (sixth) -kst (whisked) -lpt (helped)
-mpt (bumped) -mps (bumps)…

11. For Vietnamese learners of
English
• sounds at the end
of a syllable
• consonant clusters
• long/short vowels
• Voiced/unvoiced
sounds
Also:
• linking sounds

12. Some examples
Where’s my book?
Very good!
This moNTH
Are you tired?
(NOT “are you TIRE”)
my teacher
Her Father (HerFAR thə)
Endings (Syllable final)
vowels and diphthongs

13. this~Institution
(ThiSIN STI CHU SHON)
my eXPERience
(MaiyeKS PEER RI ence
most of us (mo STOV us)
(NOT “mo ov us”)
consonant clusters
misplaced ’s after ~t
It’s mean
(INSTEAD OF it meanS)
It just (It’s just …)
omitted ’s after ~t

14. • teach and practice SOUNDS
• teach and practice sounds in phrases and real life contexts
• Put hearing and pronunciation together
• (We need to HEAR the sounds in order to PRONOUNCE them)
• make it lively - to engage the students
How can we teach these things? (some
principles)

15. minimal pairs
(comparing sounds that are similar: bat-bad,
exaggerating pronunciation
shadowing
dictation
What can we do to teach them?

16. Pushed Pulled started
/t/ /d/ /ɪd /

17. /t/ /d/ /ɪd /
Pushed Pulled Started
Past endings dictation
Listen and write the words in the correct column

18. The rule?
after /p/ , /k/ , /f/ , /θ/ , /s/ , /ʃ/ , /tʃ/ —> ????
after /t/ , /d/ —> ???
after everything else —> ???

19. Shadowing
• ANY audio is OK - but at an easy level for the students -
SLOW and CLEAR
• start with short phrases and sentences
• Use PAUSE frequently - let the students control the audio
• ACCURACY is the most important thing
• REPEAT the same audio as many times as you can
Check English Central and Real English websites
(Listen and repeat one second after the speaker)

20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUWviK5baSU
… and this …

21. Shouting dictation

22. Tang, Giang (2007) "Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Vietnamese and English with Implications for Vietnamese Language Acquisition and
Various resources for pronunciation
http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/
http://www.tinyteflteacher.co.uk/teacher/pronunciation.html
Thoughtco is an excellent site for very clear, understandable explanations of many topics related to language and teaching
https://www.thoughtco.com/past-tense-regular-verb-pronunciation-1210045
http://ipa.typeit.org/
A useful site for typing IPA symbols
Shadowing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUWviK5baSU (very good, simple introduction)
(Also here: http://howdoyoulearnenglish.blogspot.com/2014/03/improve-listening-and-speaking-skills.html )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bri4tpCbjR4 (Tim Murphey’s video instructions for shadowing)
https://www.real-english.com/ (Try this one first: “Are you married?” at https://www.real-english.com/reo/11/unit11.htm)
https://www.englishcentral.com/videos (also has pronunciation training videos)

23. Tang, Giang (2007) "Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Vietnamese and English with Implications for Vietnamese Language Acquisition and Main
Various resources for pronunciation
http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/
http://www.tinyteflteacher.co.uk/teacher/pronunciation.html
Videos for shadowing
https://www.real-english.com/ (Try this one first: “Are you married?” at https://www.real-english.com/reo/11/unit11.htm)
https://www.englishcentral.com/videos (also has pronunciation training videos)
Thoughtco is an excellent site for very clear, understandable explanations of many topics related to language and teaching
https://www.thoughtco.com/past-tense-regular-verb-pronunciation-1210045
http://ipa.typeit.org/
A useful site for typing IPA symbols
Shadowing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUWviK5baSU (very good, simple introduction)
(Also here: http://howdoyoulearnenglish.blogspot.com/2014/03/improve-listening-and-speaking-skills.html )