iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
PART I. INTRODUCTION 1
1. Statement of the Problem and the Rationale for the Study 1
2. Aims of the Study and Research Questions 3
3. Scope of the Study 4
4. Methodology 4
4.1. Design 4
4.2. Participants 4
4.3. Data collection instruments 5
4.4. Data collection process 6
4.5. Data analysis 6
5. Significance of the Study 7
PART 2. DEVELOPMENT 8
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW 8
1.1. Key Concepts 8
1.1.1. English Pronunciation 8
1.1.2. English Sounds and English Consonants 9
1.1.3. Vietnamese Consonants and a Comparison with English Consonant
System 11
1.2. Related Studies 13
1.2.1. Problems with Pronouncing English Consonants among Learners of
English as a Second/ Foreign Language 14

3.3.2. Minimal pairs 53
3.3.3. Tongue twisters 54
3.3.4. Comparing students’ speech with the model 55
3.3.5. Games 56
3.3.6. Continuous feedback 56
3.4. Research Question 4. What are students’ remaining problems in terms of
pronunciation of English consonants after the project? What are possible
reasons? 57
PART III. CONCLUSION 64
1. Major Findings of the Study 64
2. Limitations of the Study 67
3. Suggestions for Further Research 68
4. Recommendations 69
REFERENCE 71
APPENDICES I
APPENDIX 1 I
APPENDIX 2 II
APPENDIX 3 IV
APPENDIX 4. V
APPENDIX 5 VII
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LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATION
TABLES
Table 1: Classification of English consonants
Table 2: Vietnamese initial consonants
Table 3. Vietnamese final consonants
Table 4. Classification of participants basing on gender and time learning

The essentiality of teaching and learning the pronunciation of a language
has been proved by many researchers in the world. Setter and Jenkins (2005: 3)
did show the significance of the ability to communicate orally in English. In
other words, it is the key factor to maintain successful oral communication.
Speaking such an international language, effective communicators of English,
especially non-natives need to have an acceptable pronunciation. Therefore,
learning pronunciation is of significance in English study for learners of English
as a foreign language (EFL learners).
In University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National
University Hanoi (VNU-ULIS), English has been taught in all faculties. It is the
major of students of Faculty of English Language Teaching Education. Other
students learn English as their second foreign language. The latter group are
addressed non-English majors in this study. They spend four semesters, from the
fourth to the seventh ones, officially learning English at university. The current
study take non-English majors in their first semester, who are assumed at
elementary level as its subjects.
2
Despite its significance to the successful learning of English,
pronunciation has not been paid enough attention considering its proportion in
the syllabus of non-English majors at VNU-ULIS. With 4 or 3 credits (for non-
English majors at their first and later terms respectively), those students are
required to cover all four skills. The limitation of time is a challenge to ensure
students’ improvement in pronunciation as it is not a separate skill or subject. As
an important condition to the proficiency of listening and speaking skills (Setter
and Jenkins, 2005: 1), it is believed that pronunciation deserves to receive more
emphasis in the syllabus of non-English majors.
English pronunciation is divided into two main aspects: segmental and

participants. This part of the study can enrich the abundant research on ESL
learners’ problems of pronunciation (Chan & Li, 200, Nguyen, 2005, Sang,
2007, Vu, 2008). Secondly, the factors that caused the problems will be
identified, so that possible techniques to solve the problems will be proposed.
Finally, students’ progress after the project will be assessed. 18 students of
Chinese Faculty will be involved in the research as participants.
The study will, therefore, answer four questions below:
1. What are English consonants that are often mispronounced by non-
English majors?
2. What are the reasons for the students’ problems of pronunciation?
3. What are appropriate techniques to correct the problems?
4
4. What are students’ improvements in terms of pronunciation of
English consonants after the project?
3. Scope of the Study
As stated above, the research will focus on non-English majors from
different faculties at VNU-ULIS in their third semester when they begin learning
the language formally at university. Those students at their first English term are
chosen because it is believed that any help given at their beginning period may
have better effect later on. Certain teaching techniques related to pronunciation
training will be studied and discussed to find out the suitable ones. The treatment
will be conducted on the subjects during 10 weeks’ time of the semester.
4. Methodology
4.1. Design
To identify non-English majors’ problems with English consonants, their
causes, effective techniques for pronunciation teaching, an action research will
be carried out.


4.4. Data collection process
Data from field notes and journals will be keep during all 10 weeks so that
the state and changes of the class can be well followed. Whereas, those from
questionnaire, audio tapes and interviews will be collected at the specific time
mentioned above.
4.5. Data analysis
The data collected will be categorized and serve answering each research
question as follows:
Research question 1: data from teacher’s field notes in the second week
and in the following one will be analyzed to clarify problems of pronunciation
and their causes. Those pieces of information will then be classified into smaller
hierarchies of segmental aspect in English pronunciation.
Research question 2: the analysis of data through interviews and
questionnaires will help find out the causes of students’ pronunciation problems.
Research question 3: the effectiveness of teaching and correcting
techniques will be judged during the whole process. Then the ones which work
well on the student participants will be chosen.
Research question 4. Teachers’ field notes on mini-presentations in the
last week and during the research project as well as the students recordings in
week 13 will be the answer to the last question
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5. Significance of the Study
Once completed, the project will serve as part of continuous research on
the teaching of pronunciation for non-English majors at ULIS - VNUH.
Firstly, the participant students will experience helpful activities and thus
improve their pronunciation of English consonants. Secondly, the results of the

but also “phrases and sentences”. In other words, he emphasized on message-
transferring function of pronunciation. However, this is still too general a
definition. Setter and Jenkins (2005: 1) provides readers with a clear view of the
issue:
“Pronunciation involves the production and perception of segmentals
(sounds), both alone and in the stream of speech, where they undergo number of
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modifications and interact with suprasegmental (prosodic) features, particularly
stress and intonation”
The researcher is in favor of the last definition for its inclusion of all the
aspects that are universally accepted in the pronunciation of a language. Details
are presented in figure 1 below. (adapted from Kelly, 2000)
Figure 1: Features of pronunciation
1.1.2. English Sounds and English Consonants
Among the two major features of pronunciation, the current study
concerns with only sounds (or phonemes). Phonemes are the smallest units of
sounds which distinguish two words. English has 44 phonemes, 24 consonants
and 20 vowels (see Jones, 1998, Roach, 2000, Cruttenden, 2001).
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Despite being a debatable issue, a distinction between consonantal and
vowel phonemes is of significance concerning the current study. It is common to

Post-
alveolar
Palato-
alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Glottal
Plosive
+ 
- 


+ 
- 



+ 
- 

Fricative

+ 
- 
+ 
- 
+ 
- 

+ 






Approximant




+ 

+ 
+ 

+ : voiced - : unvoiced
(adapted from Cruttenden, 2001)
Table 1: Classification of English consonants
1.1.3. Vietnamese Consonants and a Comparison with English Consonant
System
A comparison between English and Vietnamese consonant systems can
help identify items that the two languages do not share, which could be a major
cause of students’ mispronunciation as shown by Dr. Duong Thi Nu (2009).
Therefore, the classification of Vietnamese consonants are provided here for this
purpose.