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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
It is obvious that communication among countries has greatly improved and become
more important, and that one of the factors has contributed for this process and development is
language. Vietnam is not an exception for this, since the open door policy has been carried out
especially, at the time of integration into the global development. People and the government
have been aware of the significance and necessity of foreign languages, especially English, an
international language. Teaching and learning of English in Vietnam has undergone changes
to find the efficient ways for the language learners. It is also realized that there are many
teaching methods, and it seems that no specific one has proved the best for all learners, and
nowadays, the combination of different methods has been suggested for language teachers.
There is also the fact that, although Vietnamese learners of English now have many good
opportunities to acquire this language, they still are not very successful, this can be clearly
seen in their speaking skill. This problem has raised a question for many linguists and teachers
to find the best solution to the language acquisition in general and speaking learning in
particular.
It is also said that one of the problems that cause difficulties for the learner is that there
exist the difference among languages and these are what the contrastivists are concerned with.
And contrastive analysis (one of the linguistic branch) has proved its influence in language
teaching.
2. The scope of the study
This study focuses on the application of teaching based on contrastive analysis in
teaching speaking skill to non-English majored students at Vietnam Forestry University under
the light of communicative teaching. Because of the limit of the thesis, it will mainly
concentrate on how to apply contrastive analysis effectively as a supporting method to develop
the student’s speaking skill in particular.
3. Aims of the study
With the knowledge and experience of language teaching, and in an effort to find out

objectives of the course, physical setting, the learners and teachers and time allocation of the
course.
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Chapter II contains a brief analysis on different teaching approaches and language
learning, an attention will be put on the communicative approach. And then the study on
contrastive analysis with the definition, the relationship between two branches of linguistics
(microlinguistics and macrolingustics) and contrastive analysis, Contrastive Analysis (CA)
and Error Analysis (EA). Further focus is on teaching based on contrastive analysis, its
specific application on teaching speaking; this will be illustrated with different procedures and
treatment of errors.
In chapter III, the detailed study on data analysis, research result and comment on the
application of teaching speaking based on contrastive analysis to non-English majored
students at Vietnam Forestry University will be presented, accompanied by the
recommendations and suggestions for the teacher and the student.
Part C ends with a conclusion, which tells all issues in the research, the appendix with
the survey questionnaires is also included, then a bibliography listing all reference books and
materials used for this research paper.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In this chapter, the general information about the current situation of English learning
and teaching in Vietnam Forestry University (VFU) will be presented with the purpose of
providing sufficient data for understanding the problems, and situation analysis of teaching
speaking. The information ranges from the description of the course, the teacher and the
student, the objectives, physical setting and the time allocation of the course.

3. Description of the Physical Setting
“Setting” mentioned here in the sense of class arrangements, the task of the lesson and
activities inside and outside the classroom. In VFU, learning and teaching activities are almost
carried out in the classrooms. Most of the lessons are performed in such fixed condition, so it
is very difficult for the teachers to apply new ideas of language teaching.
The class size is usually of more than forty five students in each class, this is a big
problem for the teachers, especially, when teaching speaking skill.
The available teaching facilities mainly consist of an overhead projector, overhead
transparencies, a cassette recorder, but the cassette is preferable, because there are few classes
equipped with projectors and some teachers are not interested in using it, it is not convenient
and available when the teachers want to use it and speaking skill is not much of attention,
there is only a written test at the end of each semester.
The material for reference and self study is often designed and given to the student by
the teachers, there are not many reference books available for the student, the students also do
not have many opportunities to read magazines or newspapers in English, and chances to
expose to the language they have studied.
All of the classrooms are designed for lecture lessons with the seating, which is orderly
arranged in front of the teacher and classroom equipment is just a chalkboard.
4. The objectives of the course
After graduating from VFU, the students will work in forestry field such as institutes,
companies, factories or farms etc And for them English is just a “tool” to support their work.
So the requirements for the graduates may be:
- To acquire the general knowledge of English and a certain amount of vocabulary.
- To be able to read the specific materials and documents in English of their specialties.
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- To be able to translate related documents and material into and from English at an
intermediate level.
From the objectives of the course and the student’s needs, it implies that speaking skill

paid on the need to regulate the stimuli by grading the input into a series of steps so that each
step forms a suitable and appropriate level of difficulty for the learner.
1.2 Cognitivisim
The second one is cognitivism, which views the learner as a passive recipient of
information and portrays the learner as an active processor of information. Learning is not
just behaviour, but involves mental processes in which the learner learns by thinking about
and trying to make sense of what he or she hears, sees and feels. (Canh, LV, 2004, p37).
Cognitive psychologists are therefore interested in the mental processes that are involved in
learning. Cognitive psychology is based on the assumptions that: people develop at different
rates; development is relatively ordered; and development takes place gradually. So the basic
teaching technique which they are most interested in is problem solving. With this approach,
the teacher selects learning tasks according to the learner’s developmental level, and elicits
learner reasoning in relation to those tasks.
1.3 Contructivisim
Constructivism is the third one, which characterizes learning as sense – marking and
the learner as an actor, not a passive recipient of information. Cognitive constructivist theories
emphasize the exploration and discovery on the part of each learner as explaining the learning
process.
Another theory is the interactionist view, which takes the learner as an active processor
of information, and considers the language acquisition is the result of an interaction between
the learner’s mental abilities and the linguistic environment. The learner’s processing
mechanisms both determine and are determined by the nature of input. Learning, then, is a
process in which the learner actively tries to make sense of data, and learning is said to take
place when the learner tries to impose some sort of meaningful interpretation or pattern on the
data.
Moreover, it is significant to realize the affective factors in language learning, it is said
that the age of the learner determines the rate of learning, and motivation to learn, individual
differences in aptitude for language learning, personal intelligence and learner’s preferences
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tongue. The text is often accompanied by a vocabulary list. Reading of difficult texts can be
early introduced in the course with little emphasis on speaking, listening and pronunciation.
The advantages of this method are easy to apply and cheap to administer, it also
requires not many resources. This is why it is still used by many teachers. However, the
Grammar Translation method concerns itself primarily with the written language of classical
literature and ignores authentic spoken communication and the social variation of language. In
other words, it overemphasizes the rules and neglects the communicative skills, as a result,
students learn rules of grammar and vocabulary without much feeling of progress in the
mastery of the target language, which will lead to lack of motivation in learning because they
have little opportunity to express themselves through it.
2.2. The Direct Method
The Direct method is characterized by the use of the target language as a mean of
instruction and communication in the classroom, and by the avoidance of the use of the first
language and translation as a technique (Stern, 1983). The lessons often begin with a dialogue
in the target language, the language items are introduced orally with actions or pictures
without translation, grammar is taught inductively with rules being generalized from the
practice and experience with the target language. There is an emphasis on correct
pronunciation and grammar.
With this method, students are exposed to target language situations, so their ability to
think in target language will be developed; it is also an interesting way of learning a language
through activity (River, 1981, p33). But the development of the student’s thoughts in the target
language may lead to the inaccurate fluency if they are not properly guided, this originated
from their trying to express them in the target language with insufficient knowledge about the
language
2.3. The Audio-lingual Method
As Stern (1983) claimed Audio- lingual Method was the first language teaching
method that was derived from linguistics and psychology. It reflects descriptive, structural and
contrastive linguistics and the behaviors principles of psychology. It was based on the

will analyze some of the ideas around this method and comment on the application. Firstly,
Nunan (1989, p194) views this method as follow:
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CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities involve oral
communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learner.
Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic
objectives. The learner’s role is a negotiator and integrator. The teacher’s role is as a facilitators of the
communication process. Materials promote communicative language use; they are task – based and
authentic.
The focus of CLT is on the functional language use and the learner’s ability to express
her/his own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires and needs. Open – ended questioning and
problem solving activities and exchanges of personal information are utilized to enable
learners to develop their communicative competence. There are three major principles of CLT:
The first is the communicative principle which emphasizes activities involves the real
communication promote learning. The second is the task principle, which supports that
activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning. The
third is meaningfulness principle, which claims that language that is meaningful to the learners
support the learning process. The focus of CLT, therefore, is not on language practice but on
learning about how language works in discourse.
Communicative lessons are characterized by activities where learners communicate
and where tasks are completed by means of interaction with other learners. Therefore, a
learner completing a task is foregrounded, and communicating with each other is back
grounded. To this end there may be considerable if not extensive use of pair work, group work
and mingling activities, with the emphasis on completing the tasks successfully through
communication with others rather than on the accurate use of form. Then the teacher’s role is a
facilitator and then to monitor, usually without interruption, and then to provide feedback on
the success or the communication, possibly on linguistic performance of the learner in the
form of post activity error correction.

means whereby a monolingual learns to be bilingual. Error analysis differs from contrastive
analysis in that it did not set out to predict errors, rather it sought to discover and describe
different kinds of errors in an effort to understand how learners process second language data.
CA is concerned with how a monolingual becomes bilingual and the way in which second
language affects foreign language in the individual.
3.2 Linguistic components of Contrastive Analysis
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The goal of CA is to explain certain aspects of L2 learning and their means are
descriptive accounts of the learner’s L1 and the L2 to be learnt, the techniques for the
comparison of these descriptions. CA is a form of linguistics, because their goals belong to
psychology while their means are derived from linguistic science.
CA adopts the linguistic tactics of dividing up the unwieldy concept “a language” into
three smaller and more manageable areas.
1. The levels of phonology, grammar and lexis.
2. Use is made of the description categories of linguistics: unit, structure, class and system.
3. A CA utilizes descriptions arrived at the same model of language.
3.3 Microlinguistic Contrastive Analysis
Traditional practice of CA is on three levels of phonology, lexis and grammar. The
general principles involve two steps: description and comparison. And CA consists of
descriptions of L1 and L2, and the two descriptions need to be parallel. The minimum
requirement of parallel description is that two languages can be described through the same
model of description; this is because of several following reasons:
Firstly, different models can describe certain features of language more successful than
other models, for example, the Transformation Grammar can effectively account for native
speakers’ intuition that certain construction–types are somehow related and that certain others
are ambiguous. Case Grammar, on other hand, provides apparatus for explaining the semantic
affinity between a pair of sentences. Furthermore, Harris (1963: 3) claimed that comparable
descriptions of two languages will only be guaranteed if identical methods of description are

suprasentential units or texts. The second direction is the functional one, and look at the ways
in which people put language to use.
3.5 Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis
Error Analysis (EA) differs from CA in that it did not set out to predict errors rather
than it sought to discover and describe different kinds of errors in effort to understand how
learners process second language data. (Patsy Light Brown and Nina Spada, p74). Or as Carl
James claimed (p184), CA has predictive power and EA has the power to diagnose errors that
have been committed. They should be viewed as complementing each other rather than as
competitor for some procedural prize of place. Furthermore, the learner’s errors are very
important because they are indicative both of the state of the learner’s knowledge and the
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ways in which a second language is learned. We also need to distinguish the difference
between “mistakes’ and “errors”. Mistakes are performance errors and errors are “true” errors
which are markers of the learner’s transitional competence. Mistakes are of no significance to
the process of language learning, or linguists distinguish mistakes from errors like this: errors
which are made out of the underlying system are called mistakes or unsystematically errors or
errors of performance because error maker has to resort to communication strategy and
performance effort to produce language images. Errors which are in the underlying system are
called ‘true error’ or errors of competence or systematic errors.
According to Jack C. Richards (1992) there are seven factors characterizing and
influencing the learner’s language use: language transfer; intralingual interference; the effects
of the sociolinguistic situation; the modality of exposure to the target language and the
modality of production; the age of the learner; the instability of the linguistic system; the
effects of the inherent difficulty of the particular item being learned.
As Jack C. Richards ( 1992) said, errors are significant in three ways: Firstly, they tell
the teacher the progress of the learner and what remains for him to learn; Secondly, they
provide the evidence of how language is required, what strategies or procedures the learner is
employing in his discovery of language; Thirdly, the most important thing, they are very

theoretical CAs) rather than independent execution.
4.2 Traditional Applications of Contrastive Analysis
Traditional applications of CA are predicting and diagnosing a proportion of the L2
errors committed by learners with a common L1, and in the design of testing instrument for
such learners. It is based on the assumption that we can predict and describe the patterns (of
L2) that will cause difficulty in learning and those that will not cause difficulty (Lado, 1957)
And there seems to be three things that a CA can predict: What aspects will cause problems?;
It can predict difficulty; It can predict errors. (Prediction errors mean either prediction that
there will be error or prediction of the form of that error).
And of course, there are purely quantitative limitations on the number of learner’s
errors that CAs can predict: Firstly, there is a fact that not all errors are the results of L1
interference, other major sources of errors are of a non – contrastive origin, including the
effects of language asymmetric, transfer of training; strategies of L2 learning and L2
communication strategies. The followings are some of applications of CA
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4.2.1 Hierarchy of foreign language difficulty. This hierarchy identified the types of
choices that either language makes available and relating these choices. There are three types
of choices: optional choices; obligatory choices and zero. For example, an optional
phonological choice refers to the possible among phonemes. Obligatory choice involves little
freedom, since phonetic context determines which of a set of allophones is required to
represent a freely selected phoneme. Zero reflects the absence of a category in one of the
language which is available in the other. This scale of difficulty is subject to empirical
validation, though there are other complicating factors such as motivation, aptitude, learning
and teaching styles, etc.
4.2.2 Diagnosis of error: An important role of the teacher as a monitor and assessor of
the learner’s performance is to know why certain errors are committed. This diagnosis is based
on the knowledge that the teacher organizes feedback to the learner and remedial work. The
purpose is to see if a particular arrested error is explicable in terms of L1 interference. If no L1

the mother tongue. Out of this, it would come an inventory of the area of difficulty which the
learner would encounter and the value of this inventory would be direct to the teacher’s
attention to these areas so that he might direct special care and emphasis on his teaching to the
overcoming or even avoiding, of the predicted difficulties?” (p.19).
Moreover the importance of CA in teaching is suggested as “ a CA has a significant
role to play , not only in pre- identifying the learning problems, but also in specifying the
controlled steps’ whereby the learner can most efficiently solve his learning problem. A
learner whose L1 system is isomorphic with the L2 system has no learning problem and where
the L1 and L2 system has do contrast, the algorithm will have to be specified at least in part in
conformity with the kind of contrast involved.” (Carl James, 1986, p.156).
5. Summary
Interference from the mother tongue is clearly a major source of difficulty in second
language acquisition, and contrastive analysis has proved valuable in locating areas of
interlanguage interference. Errors derive from many resources and constitute a natural part of
language learning. Many errors, however, come from the strategies employed by the learner in
language acquisition, and from the mutual interference of items within the target language.
These can not be accounted for by mere contrastive analysis. Teaching techniques and
procedures should take account of the structural and developmental conflicts that can come
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about in language learning. There are also various approaches to language learning and
teaching, this approach may work for this group of students, but may not for others. So the
teacher’s job is to decide which one matches with the local context and certain group of
students. In the following chapter there will be an illustration for this idea.
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CHAPTER III:
APPLICATION OF CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

(1992: 74) “If students are to use the spoken language effectively, stress and intonation need to
be given their real place in the teaching at all times.” Moreover, communication involves
structures, stress, intonation and purposes. Textbooks do not always reflect this. Most modern
textbooks draw explicit attention to the fact that they teach certain structures and certain
functions (purposes). But if the student does not have a reasonable control of pronunciation,
stress and intonation, he will be difficult to listen to and easily misunderstood.
+ Another teaching point comes from the fact that languages are different. In general,
students tend to assume that the language that they are learning behaves similarly to their own
native language. This assumption will result in making interference mistakes - carrying over
the patterns of their own language inappropriately to the language they are learning. So the
teacher needs over a period of time and in different ways, to persuade students that languages
are different and they must not be surprised by the differences.
When obvious differences occur attention should be drawn to them in the teaching. In
teaching speaking this can be done during pre-speaking and post -speaking stages with the use
of both target language and mother tongue. But it is noted for the teacher to avoid word for
word translation because this will discourage students and they should be encouraged to
understand, and to feel that learning a foreign language is learning to see the world through the
new eyes.
For example, when helping students to express an exclamation in English through various
situations the teacher can contrast the way to express this in English with it in Vietnamese
before asking them to carry out a speaking task like this:
A: Pre-speaking: To form an exclamation.
English Vietnamese
- Use “How + clause!”
How hot it is
How quickly the man runs!
- Use “What + noun phrase!
What a lot of books!
What a beautiful girl!
+ Use the words such as: ôi, chao ôi, tri i or

- Language is of an acceptable level: this means that learners’ expression is
comprehensible to others and at an acceptable level of language accuracy.
Besides, the following problems with speaking activities should be avoided in the
classroom:
- Learners are inhibited from speaking because of being worried about making
mistakes, or losing their face, being criticized, or simply being shy.
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- They are not motivated to say because they can not think of what to say, they find it
difficult to express themselves.
- They tend to use mother – tongue instead of target language, because it feels
unnatural to speak in a foreign language. They feel secure when speaking in their mother
tongue.
From the goal and some characteristics of a successful speaking class, the teacher’s job
is to find the appropriate method to achieve that goal. And the next part, we will see one of
these executions, that is teaching speaking based on CA.
2.2 Teaching speaking based on Contrastive Analysis
First and foremost when applying contrastive analysis on teaching speaking, we need
to affirm that “language transfer” is a phenomenon in language learning. This is the
phenomenon of borrowing and transferring learner’s native language patterns into the target
language. It is pragmatically proved that learner’s mother tongue and their way of thinking in
terms of culturally linguistic expression influence them a lot when they are trying to acquire a
foreign language. This is terminologically called “the interference” of the mother tongue into
the target language. Further more, in an effort to develop learners’ communicative competence
of both grammatical and social- linguistics from the above characteristics of a successful
speaking activity and some of the problems need to avoid when teaching speaking. In addition
to, we should based on the suggestion that “contrastive teaching should involve presenting to
the learner at the same time all the terms in a linguistic system of L2 which, as system
contrastive with the corresponding L1 system’. (Carl James, p154). From the perspectives of

Teaching speaking based on CA is not a total method, this means that it has not proved to
be a separate method that could be used in teaching speaking, but there are techniques of using
CA to support and help the learner to be successful in communication. There are several
reasons for this. Firstly, language is a complex phenomenon which can be viewed from many
different aspects. Good language teaching will reflect a variety of aspects of language.
Secondly, language is a system: certain items in language acquire meaning only by relation to
other items in the language. More importantly, certain structures in the language can only be
understood in contrast with other structures. In English, for example, the contrast is very
useful to distinguish the present simple and present continuous or the past simple and present
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perfect. These aspects of language as a system need to be understood and internalized. The
teacher who understands language as a system will see the necessity for activities which lead
to understanding. Thirdly, language is a set of conventions. And social conventions vary from
country to country; using the social conventions of one country in another may lead to the
embarrassment, confusion or misunderstanding. So it is important to contrast the learner’s
language and target language in the field of linguistics and socio-cultures to help understand
the similarities and differences between languages in order to avoid such above problems.
Moreover, CA has a predicted power that is it predicts the difficulties and problems
that learners may have as a result of the interference and the teaching should focus on these
predicted difficulties and problems. When the teacher finds it suitable, appropriate and useful
for the learner, CA then has a positive role in her teaching.
The specific application of CA in teaching speaking with different methods, techniques
and activities will be illustrated in the last part of this chapter.
3. Fundamentals of English and Vietnamese Contrastive Analysis on Phonology
and Teaching focus
Teaching speaking English based on CA to Vietnamese students could range from the
contrast of segmental phonemes consisting of vowels and consonants of the two languages,
and of suprasegmental phonemes( stress, rhythm and intonation in English and tonics in