VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THƠM
A STUDY OF COMMON ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS IN
PRONOUNCING ENGLISH CONSONANTS AT
WORLDLINK ENGLISH CENTRE

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG LỖI PHÁT ÂM THƯỜNG GẶP KHI PHÁT ÂM CÁC
PHỤ ÂM TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC VIÊN TẠI TRUNG TÂM ANH NGỮ
WORLDLINK)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111


Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Hà Cẩm Tâm
HANOI, 2014
i
DECLARATION
I, Nguyen Thi Thom, certify that this thesis A study of common errors made by
students in pronouncing English consonants at Worldlink English centre is the
result of my own research. I confirm this thesis has not been published or submitted
for any other degrees.

Researcher's signature Nguyen Thi Thom

and it is an honor for me to receive any comments from the readers.

iii
ABSTRACT
The research was conducted to examine the most problematic English
consonants facing the students at Worldlink English Centre. Consonantal phoneme
pronunciation error data was collected from the recording using two types of tasks,
namely reading out loud single words and reading out loud a story and analyzed
using narrow IPA phonetic transcription.
The findings indicate that learners at the centre have a tendency to
substitution, deletion and insertion of sounds in syllable-initial, middle and final
positions of the words. Specifically, it was found that the most common error was
sound substitution which most often happened to the affricate, fricative and lateral
sounds: /ʃ/, /ʒ/ and /l/. The second most popular error is called sound deletion,
which frequently occurred to three ending sounds: /p/, /s/, /tʃ/. Last but not least
most frequent error named sound insertion appeared when the participants added the
sound /s/ at the end of many words in the study. The errors were identified in terms
of both the interference of the mother tongue and inadequate knowledge of the
articulation of the sounds. From the results, some pedagogical suggestions were
offered to improve the English pronunciation of students at Worldlink English
Centre.

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 27
v
3.1. Sound deletion errors. 28
3.2 Sound substitutions 31
3.3. Sound insertion 34
PART III. CONCLUSION 35
1. Conclusion 35
2. Implications 37
3. Limitations and suggestions for further study 38
REFERENCES 40
APPENDIX 1: SINGLE WORDS AND STORY NARROW TRANSCRIPTION I
APPENDIX 2: EXERCISES FOR TAPE RECORDING IV

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LIST OF TABLE, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATION
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Features of pronunciation
Figure 2: The manner of articulation
Figure 3: The manner of articulation

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: English Consonant Phonemes
Table 2: Vietnamese initial consonants
Table 3: Vietnamese final consonants
Table 4: The initial consonants of the Hanoian variety
Table 5: Similarities between English and Vietnamese
Table 6: Overview of the consonant errors found in the data
Table 7: Types of consonant errors found in the data
Table 8: Sound deletion errors
Table 9: Sound substitution errors

this study.
2. Aims of the study
The aim of the study is mainly to figure out common errors in pronouncing
English consonants by the learners taking part in English basic pronunciation
courses at Worldlink English Centre. Basing on the identified errors, the causes,
especially, the influence of mother tongue on learners' pronunciation will be
discussed and some pedagogical suggestions will be provided to improve teaching
and learning English pronunciation courses at the centre.
The study, therefore, answers the following question: What common errors
do students at Worldlink English Centre have in pronouncing English consonants?

2
3. Scope of the study
The main focus of this study is on investigating common errors made by
students in pronouncing twenty four English consonants. Basing on the results, the
question of whether or not Vietnamese language influence the English
pronunciation of the students at Worldlink English Centre is also discussed
and answered.
Participants are 20 non-English major students who are learning basic
pronunciation courses at Worldlink English centre. Textbook for teaching the
course is English Pronunciation in Use – Elementary by Jonathan Marks.
4. Methodology of the study
The data was collected by employing the tool of recording the participants'
pronunciation of single words and story reading. All the data collected are presented
in the form of narrow transcription and then compared to the standard version to
find out the errors. Details of methodology applied in the study are discussed in Part
III - Methodology
5. Design of the study
To achieve the aims of the study, this paper is divided into five chapters.
Part I: Introduction: An introduction consists of the rationale, aims of the


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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
The aim of this chapter is to analyze the relevant bodies of knowledge and
give a brief overview of the literature on the research topic. Firstly, key concepts of
English pronunciation, intelligibility in pronunciation, English consonants,
Vietnamese and English consonant comparison and contrast, English pronunciation
errors and related key terms will be explained critically. Secondly, the interference
of mother tongue in English pronunciation acquisition will be discussed to indicate
the impacts on learners‟ pronunciation learning and sound producing. Finally, an
overview of studies related to common errors made by learners in pronouncing
English consonants will be given. Throughout the review, gaps in the current
knowledge will be filled.
1.1. English Pronunciation
In order to have an insight into the study, it is necessary to understand the
main features of pronunciation. Pronunciation refers to the production of sounds
that human use to make meaning. Generally, it includes segmental and

air as it passes from the larynx to the lips.
Sharing the same idea with Roach (1983), Kelly (2000) supposes that
“Consonant sounds are formed when the airflow is interrupted, restricted or diverted
in variety of ways” (p.10). The formation of consonants is mentioned in this
definition.
As cited in the book named The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language written by Crystal (2003), „from a phonetic point of view, consonants are
articulated in one of two ways: either there is a closing movement of one of the
vocal organs, forming such a narrow constriction that it is possible to hear the sound
of the air passing through; or the closing movement is complete, giving a total
blockage. The closing movement may involve lips, tongue, or throat, but in each

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case the overall effect is very different from the relatively open and unimpeded
articulation found in vowels”(p.242).
In short, the “obstruction”, “interruption”, “blockage”, “restriction” of the
airflow is the key words to define consonant. Specifically, consonants are the
sounds in the production of which one articulator moves towards another or two
articulators come together, obstructing the air-stream and the air-stream can‟t get
out freely.
1.2.2. Classification of English consonants
There are 24 consonant sounds in most English accents, conveyed by 21
letters of the regular English alphabet. “To differentiate the 24 consonants form
each other, phoneticians use a classification based on the place and manner of
articulation, in addition to the criteria of whether they are voiced or voiceless” (
Crystal, 2003,p.243). To be more specific, there are three ways of describing the
consonant sound, namely the manner of articulation (the interaction between the
various articulators and the airstream), the place of articulation (the description for
more detailed information about what the various articulators actually do) and the
force of articulation (the strong or fortis and weak or lenis form of the consonants).

Approximant
Vocal organs come near to each other, but not so
close as to cause audible friction.
1.2.2.2. The place of articulation
The place of articulation identifies where in the vocal tract the sound is
made, and which vocal organs are involved.
Figure 3: The manner of articulation
Place of articulation
Bilabial
Using closing movement of both lips
Labio-dental
Using the lower lip and the upper teeth
Dental
The tongue tip is used either between the teeth or close to
the upper teeth
Alveolar
The blade of the tongue is used close to the alveolar ridge
Palato-alveolar
The blade(or tip) of the tongue is used just behind the
alveolar ridge
Palatal
The front of the tongue is raised close to the palate
Velar
The back of the tongue is used against the soft palate
Glottal
The gap between the vocal cords is used to make audible
friction

Velar
Glottal
Plosive
p b t d k g

Affricate

tʃ dʒ
Fricative

f v
θ ð
s z
ʃ ʒ h
Nasal

elision and linking. Roach (1983) clearly discussed and demonstrated those types in
his book named English phonetics and Phonology. Firstly, assimilation happens
when a sound changes and one of its features will be more similar to an adjacent
sound. In other words, when two words come together, the sound of one word can
cause changes in sounds belonging to neighboring words. Roach (1983) emphasized

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that assimilation "is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely
in slow, careful speech".(p.124). The final consonant /t/ in the word that, for
example, will become /p/ before a bilabial consonant, as in: that person
/ðæp
pɜːsən/.
Secondly, in speaking, there are a number of phonemes which are not
actually pronounced and this is called elision. For instance, in words like potato,
tomato, today, the vowel in the first syllable may disappear; the aspiration of the
initial plosive takes up the whole of the middle portion of the syllable resulting in
these pronunciations /p
h
te
ɪ
.tə
ʊ
/, /t
h
m
ɑː
.tə
ʊ
/, /t
h

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7.The approximants / w, r, j, l / are at least partially voiceless when they occur after
initial / p, t, k /, as in play, twin, cue[ pleɪ, twɪn, kju ].
8.The gestures for consecutive stops overlap, so that stops are unexploded when
occur before another stop in words such as apt[æt ] and rubbed[rʌbd ].
9.In many accents of English, syllable final / p, t, k / are accompanied by a glottal
stop, as in pronunciations of tip, pit[tɪ?p, pɪ?t,]. (This is another case where
transcription cannot fully describe what is going on.)
10.In many accents of English, / t / is replaced by a glottal stop when it occurs
before an alveolar nasal in the same word, as in beaten['bi?n]
11.Nasals are syllabic at the end of a word when immediately after an obstruent as
in leaden, chasm ['lɛdn,'kæzm]
12.The lateral / l / is syllabic at the end of a word when immediately after a
consonant
12.a. The liquids / l, r / are syllabic at the end of a word when immediately after a
consonant
13. Alveolar stops become voiced taps when they occur between two vowels, the
second of which is unstressed.
13.a.Alveolar stops and alveolar nasal plus stop sequences become voiced taps when
they occur between two vowels, the second of which is unstressed.
14.Alveolar consonants become dentals before dental consonants, as in eighth,
tenth, wealth [eɪtθ, tɛnθ, wɛlθ]. Note that this statement applies to all alveolar
consonants, not just stops, and it often applies across word boundaries, as in at this
[ æt ðɪs ].This is a statement that in English the gestures for these two consonants
overlap so much that the place of articulation for the first consonant is changed.
15. Alveolar stops are reduced or omitted when between two consonants.
16.A homorganic voiceless stop may occur (i.e., be inserted) after a nasal before a
voiceless fricative followed by an unstressed vowel in the same word.
17. A consonant is shortened when it is before an identical consonant.
18. Velar stops become more front before more front vowels.


Un-aspirated
voiceless

t
ƫ
ć
k
ʔ
voiced
b
d

Nasal
m
n

ɲ
ŋ

Fricative
Voiceless
f
s
ʂ

x

-w
-j

(Adapted from Le Quang Thiem, p.101)
The Vietnamese phonetic system contains 22 initial consonant phonemes:
/b/, /f/ (ph), /v/, /m/, /t/, /d/ (đ), /ť/ (th), /s/ (x), /z/ (d), /n/, /l/, /ƫ/ (tr), /ʂ/ (s), /ć/ (ch),

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/ɲ/ (nh), /k/ (c, k, q), /ɣ/ (g), /x/ (kh), /ŋ/ (ng), /h/, /r/ (Nguyen, 2009). According to
Duong (2009), three sounds ƫ (tr), ʂ (s), ʐ are not used by Hanoian and the
neighboring provinces. In this study, most of the subjects of this study come from
the Northern provinces such as Ha Noi, Hai Duong, Phu Tho. Therefore, it is
necessary to include another table which presents the consonants of the Hanoian
variety.
Table 4: The initial consonants of the Hanoian variety
Place of articulation/Manner of
articulation
Labial
Alveolar
Alveo-
palatal
Palatal
Velar
Glotta
l
Stop
Aspirated

ť

x
h
Voiced
v
z ɣ

Nasal

I

(Adapted from Duong, 2009)
1.4. A comparison of English consonant and Vietnamese consonant
In order to find the background to answer the question of whether or not
Vietnamese language influences the English pronunciation of the students, a
comparison between English and Vietnamese consonants system was carried out.
According to Ivy (2011), it is significant to compare the structure of one‟s native
language with the structure of the target language because the influence of native
language in the learners‟ target language can be positive and negative.
Basing on the two English consonant and Vietnamese consonant tables, the
researcher found the following similarities and differences:
Generally, most Vietnamese sounds are not much different from English in
terms of pronunciation. There are some initial consonants in English similar to

/k/ (c, k, qu)
/h/ (h)
(Adapted from Harvard. edu, p.7)
However, there are some distinctive differences that should be taken into
consideration in this study. Based on the numbers, Vietnamese sound systems have
twenty two consonants compared to English which has 24 consonants. Especially,
Vietnamese consonants are represented by the same way they are pronounced while
English consonants may be presented by identical letters but different
pronunciation. This can be demonstrated by the example of the Vietnamese word
"ta" (we) which is pronounced like / ta/ and English word "differentiate" which is
pronounced like /dɪf.əren.ʃi.eɪt/.
There are some sounds that exist in English but not in Vietnamese, and vice
versa. For example, Vietnamese consonant phonemes, especially Hanoian varieties
do not include any affricates or dentals; therefore, the English consonant sounds
/dʒ/, /θ/, /ð/, /tʃ/ are considered as clearly different consonants in comparison with
Vietnamese consonants. This may be the reason why learners are not familiar with
those sounds and tend to make errors pronouncing them.

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English consonants can be at initial position, medial position and final
position while in Vietnamese, there are only eight consonants exist in word-final
position( table 3) and twenty-two items are initial consonants.
Regarding initial-syllable consonants, Vietnamese and English share the
following consonant sounds: /p, k, b, d, m, n, f, v, s, z, h, l/ (Tang 2007,p.6).
However, the differences between the two sound systems can be found in the
similar sounds themselves.
First, the sounds /p, k/ in English may be aspirated relying on context
(Harris 1994) while /p, k/ are unaspirated in Vietnamese (Đoàn 2006). These two
sounds may sound like “b” and “g” to an English speaker (Nguyen, 2009).
Second, the voiceless sound “s” as in sáng “morning” (in the southern

shoe and its rare voiced counterpart /ʒ/ in measure, /θ/ as in thing and /ð/ as in this,
and the aspirated sound /t/ in toy. (Nguyen, 2009).
Concerning final-syllable consonants, Vietnamese does exist ending sounds;
however, "they are never pronounced or heard" (Duong, 2009). Vietnamese and
English share the following consonant sounds: /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ/. Among them, Tang
(2007) points out that in Vietnamese, syllable-final /p, t, k/ are unreleased or “held
in,” whereas these sounds may be released in English. The sounds that only exist in
English syllable-final words are /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /l/ which may be strange to
Vietnamese students when pronouncing ending sounds.
There are so many differences between Vietnamese and English that the
learners have to overcome. These differences will harm Vietnamese learners of
English, since they might not familiar with all of the English sound systems.
1.5. The interference of the mother tongue to students' English pronunciation.
The role of the native language influences in the target language has been a
controversial topic. The opponents of this issue suppose that the mother tongue does
not prevent learners from pronouncing language correctly. However, most
researchers agree that the learner‟s native language has certain impact on the
pronunciation of the target language.
Ivy (2011) believes that the similarities of the two languages will facilitate
learning whereas the differences will increase the learners‟ difficulty to learn. This
shows a both sides of positive and negative impact of the first language on the
second language learning.

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Sharing the same opinion with Ivy but Leah (2012) gives a clearer viewpoint
which points out that learner's first language can have significant influence on the
level of accent and intelligibility of the new language. Interference which is
negative transfer means that the features of the first language are carried into the
second language. With differences between the two languages, negative transfer can
lead to erroneous production of aspiration, rhythm, and intonation in the new

The term intelligibility is regularly mentioned in studies about pronunciation.
“ Intelligibility is being understood by a listener at a given time in a given
situation”(Kenworthy, 1987, p.13). In other words, intelligibility is
“understandability”. In pronunciation learning, intelligible speakers are those who
can master their pronunciation to communicate effectively. It may not really native-
like pronunciation but the ability to make others understand the speech. However,
many learners encounter intelligibility problems in pronunciation. Kenworthy
(1987) pointed out some learner pronunciation strategies which can lead to
intelligibility problems. They are: sound substitutions, sound deletions, sound
insertion, links between words, the use of stress, the use of rhythm, the use of
intonation. Among them, the researcher pays much attention to three kinds of
problems which are sound substitutions, sound deletions and sound insertion.
a. Sound substitutions
If a speaker substitutes one sound for another, this may cause difficulties for
the listener. For example, many speakers whose native languages do not have “th”
sound as in “thick” will substitute the sound /s/ as in sick for it. Therefore, the
listener will have to decide whether the speaker said “ My friend is sick” or “My
friend is thick” (i.e. stupid).
b. Sound deletions
Another set of problems might be given the cover term “deletion”, where the
speaker leaves out a sound. In the case of consonants, a single consonant at the
beginning, middle, or end of the word may be deleted, or one or two of the
consonants in a group or cluster may be deleted. An example would be the word
“hold” pronounced without the final „d‟ – it would sound like „hole‟
c. Sound insertion
Non-native speakers may add sounds. For example, many learners when
pronouncing words like „speak‟, „spoon‟ or „Spain‟ add a short vowel sound at the
beginning of these words. So „speak‟ may sound like „a-speak‟, a two-syllable word.