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

NGUYỄN THỊ THU HƯƠNG
DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY SECOND YEAR STUDENTS
AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND
FORESTRY IN PRODUCING SOME ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Những khó khăn trong việc phát âm một số phụ âm Tiếng Anh
của sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại học Nông Lâm , Thái Nguyên M.A. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
CODE: 60 22 15

HA NOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page
Declaration ………………………………………………………………
i
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………
ii
Abstract …………………………………………………………………
iii
Table of contents ………………………………………………………
iv
List of abbreviations and figures……………………………………….
vii
List of tables……………………………………………………………
vii
List of speech organs…………………………………………………….
viii
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION………………………………….
1
I. Rationale……………………………………………………………
1
II. Aims of the study……………………………………
2
III. Research questions………………………………………………….
2

10
1.3.2. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /ð/
11
1.3.3. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /ʃ/
12
1.3.4. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /ʒ/
13
1.3.5. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /tʃ/
13
1.3.6. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /dʒ/
14
1.4 Previous works………………………………………………………
15
1.5 Sub- conclusion………………………………………………………
16
CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………
18
2.1 Research method……………………………………………………
18
2.2 Research context…………………………………………………….
19
3.2.1. Description of in – service training English courses at TUAF…
19
3.2.2. Description of in – service students at TUAF………
20
2.3 Research design………………………………………
21
3.3.1. Sample and sampling…………………………………………….
21
3.3.2. Research Instruments…………………………………………….

34
I. Summary of major points presented…………………
34
II. Concluding marks……………………………………………………
35
III. Limitations of the study…………………………………
38
IV. Suggestions for further study……………………………………….
38
References…………………………………………………………………
40
Appendices…………………………………………………………………

I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TUAF: Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry
No of Students: Number of Students
EFL: English as a Foreign Language

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Diagram of the vocal organ
Figure 2: English consonants
Figure 3: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /θ/
Figure 4: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /ð/
Figure 5: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /ʃ/ Figure 1: Diagram of the vocal organ


(TUAF) in particular. Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they
cannot speak it correctly and fluently in real-life situations, which makes the listeners
misunderstand, even results in communication breakdown. Surely, there are many reasons for this
reality. After teaching in some courses at TUAF for 7 years, I have recognized some big obstacles
which prevent English language teachers and learners in Vietnam from reaching their aims. These
obstacles are unprofessional environment, students‟ low level of English language proficiency, low
students‟ pronunciation ability and so on. Unfortunately, this is not only the situation at my
university but also the case for many other colleges and universities in Vietnam.
My desire is to conduct a research in order to find out the difficulties encountered by second
year students of English at TUAF in producing the English consonant sounds: /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/,
/dʒ/ as well as to explore the causes of the difficulty and some proposal approaches to improve
teaching and learning some English consonant sounds at TUAF and then help my students dealing
with the pronunciation‟s difficulties.
II. Objectives of the study
With the necessity of pronunciation teaching and learning above and the reality of the
difficulties in producing some English consonant sounds, the objectives of the research presented
here are as follows:
1. To identify difficulties in producing some English consonant sounds /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/,
/tʃ/, /dʒ/ by second year in - service English major students at TUAF (Academic Year 2009-
2010).
2. To explore the causes of these difficulties.
3. To provide some possible solutions to the identified problems.
It is hoped that this study makes a contribution in teaching pronunciation, especially the
consonant sounds /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ to the best results in courses at TUAF in particular and
to those who are in favor of improving the student‟s pronunciation and the result of the study is
considered to be useful for students of English to identify their difficulties in producing these
English consonant sounds and to self – improve their pronunciation.
III. Research questions
Due to limited time and knowledge, it is impossible to cover all difficulties which the students
may face in their using English. Hence this study mainly focused on the questions that have been

review of related literature, the role of pronunciation in language teaching, factors affecting
pronunciation learning, phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds
/θ/,/ð/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/,/tʃ/, /dʒ/ are presented in the second chapter. The third chapter is about methodology
used for the research study. The findings and discussion of relevant difficulties in pronunciation
teaching and learning viewed from subjective and objective causes are presented in the fourth
chapter. The final chapter is the conclusion of the study, which discusses the overview that can be
drawn from the study, voices some concluding marks from objectives given in the first chapter
with recommendations for teachers and students to overcome the obstacles and improve the
quality of their teaching and learning pronunciation in general and consonant sounds in particular.
In addition to this, moreover, the limitations of the thesis and suggestions for further study are
also pointed out. PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1. Theoretical Background
1.1.1. What is pronunciation?

pronunciation used to be taught along with other skills but at the present pronunciation courses
are provided at any universities where English is taught as a separate and major subject.
1.2. Factors affecting pronunciation in language learning
1.2.1. The native language
The native language plays a very important role in learning a foreign language. It affects a
great deal of aspects, such as the way to achieve the ideas and the way of using the speech organs
in order to produce sounds peculiar to the new language. The findings of many studied on
Vietnamese learners of English has revealed that the influence of their first language, Vietnamese
is the major contributor to the difficulty for Vietnamese learners. (Tran, 2002; Zielinski, 2006,
Honey, 2001). According to Lado (1957), who builds the CA hypothesis, the learners who learn a
particular second or foreign language will find some features of that language easier, while other
features more difficult. The easier elements are similar to those in his native language and the
difficult ones are different from his native language.
The speech of non-native English speakers may exhibit pronunciation characteristics that
result from such speakers imperfectly learning the pronunciation of English, either by transferring
the phonological rules from their mother tongue into their English speech ("interference") or
through implementing strategies similar to those used in primary language acquisition. They may
also create innovative pronunciations for English sounds not found in the speaker's first language.
The age at which speakers begin to immerse themselves into a language (such as English) is
linked to the degree in which native speakers are able to detect a non-native accent; the exact
nature of the link is disputed amongst scholars and may be affected by "neurological plasticity,
cognitive development, motivation, psychosocial states, formal instruction, language learning
aptitude," and the usage of their first and second languages. English is unusual in that speakers
rarely produce an audible release between consonant clusters and often overlap constriction times.
Speaking English with a timing pattern that is dramatically different may lead to speech that is
difficult to understand. More transparently, differing phonological distinctions between a
speaker's first language and English create a tendency to neutralize such distinctions in English,
and differences in the inventory or distribution of sounds may cause substitutions of native
sounds in the place of difficult English sounds and/or simple deletion. This is more common
when the distinction is subtle between English sounds or between a sound of English and of a

There is a common view that some people have a better ear capacity for foreign language than
some other people. So, they are able to discriminate between the two sounds more accurately
than the others and able to imitate sounds better. We can accept these people as those with
phonetic abilities. Also, this phonetic ability of the learner affects the development of his/her
pronunciation. But it does not mean that people who have a better phonetic ability will be
successful but the others won‟t be successful. So language aptitude ability exists in many
people, but its degree is variable, so some people have more ability but some have less.
Besides the factors mentioned above, the influence of age must be stated as an
efficient factor for phonetic ability because the beginners start to learn a language, the more they
become successful. It is clear that learners may lose some of their abilities when they become
older, so it can be difficult for them to pronounce the target language with a native or near native-
like accent. At the same time, immigrants, especially their children, have more chance in
learning the target language since they have started to their learning process in a target
language speaking environment. The poor phonetic ability can be cured again by the foreign
language teachers‟ patient attempts. There are several devices to motivate the poor pronunciation
of the learners such as the phonetic labs and remedial pronunciation teaching techniques.
Those learners must not be discoursed but must be treated meticulously.

1.2.4. Motivation to learning pronunciation
If the learners are highly motivated to have a better pronunciation, they can
develop a concern for pronunciation, and become more eager to take part in the
activities and pay more attention to discriminate the sounds of the target language, and they try
to produce better utterances. Motivation can be the key to learn the target language, and they
try to produce better sounds. Here it must be pointed out what the motivation is and how the
learners will be motivated. According to Brown (1997:114-115) the motivation is thought of
as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action. He also
stated that learning a foreign language requires some of all three levels of motivation which can
be global, situational, or task-oriented. For example, a learner may possess high global motivation
but low task motivation on the written mode of the language.
On the one hand, some factors such as intelligence, aptitude, and self-confidence

2.``Monitor component: Ensures that something is learned. A role taken by either the human
teacher, the learner (self-control) or by some programs.
3.``Fellow learners'' component: Improves the learning process (some research tries to implement
artificial ones).
4.``Learning material'': Contains what has to be learned in a very broad sense (knowing what,
knowing how). It can be computational in various ways (exploratory hypertext, lesson and task
oriented hypertext, simulation software, task solving environments, etc.).
5.``External information sources'': All kinds of information which is not directly stored in the
learning material (e.g. additional material, handbooks, manuals, etc.).
6.``Tools'': Everything which may help the learning process other then the learning material (e.g.
calculators, communication software, etc.)
7.``School'' [a category we added]: Something that provides a curriculum.
1.3.Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/
According to Gerald Kelly (2000), there are three ways of describing the consonant sounds,
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 (referring to the strong or fortis and
weak or lenis form of the consonants). His description about the above consonants is as follows

Figure 2: English consonants
1.3.1. Phonological characteristics and articulation of the consonant /θ/ Figure 3: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /θ/

made. The soft palate is raised so that all the breath is forced to go through the mouth. This sound
is made with the vibration of the vocal cords. /ð/ is devoiced at the end of a word. As in…the
/
đə
/
, them
/
đem /, mother /'m
ʌ
đə/, gather /'gæđə/, clothe /klouđ/, smooth /smu:đ/…
There are some possible pronunciation problems. This is an unfamiliar sound. It is difficult to
recognize and produce, especially for Vietnamese learners. We may substitute the more familiar
sound /d/, /z/, or /dʒ/.
Examples: If you substitute /d/ for /ð/: there will sound like dare.
If you substitute /z/ for /ð/: then will sound like Zen.
If you substitute /dʒ/ for /ð/: leather will sound like language.
In order to correct these mistakes the learners have to place their tongue between their teeth for
/ð/. If they place their tongue behind their teeth, they will make sounds /d/ and /z/.
1.3.3. Phonological characteristics and articulation manner of the consonant /ʃ/

Figure 5: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /ʃ/

produced with the vibration of the vocal cords. As in… vision /'viʒn/, measure /'me
ʒ
ə/, beige
/beiʒ/, garage / 'gær
ɑ
:
ʒ
/… /ʒ/ does not occur as an initial sound in English, and is rare as a final
sound.
There are some possible pronunciation problems. /ʒ/ is not a common and widely
distributed phoneme. It is easy to with similar English sound /ʃ/ and /dʒ/.
Examples: If you substitute /ʃ/ for /ʒ/: decision will sound like addition.
If you substitute /dʒ/ for /ʒ/: lesion will sound like legion.
In order to correct these mistakes, the learners are sure that their vocal cords are
vibrating when they say /ʒ/ or they will substitute /ʃ/ instead. That means they should
put their hand on the throat until feel the vibration from their neck
1.3.5. Phonological characteristics and articulation manner of the consonant /tʃ/

Figure 7: Place and manner of articulation of the consonant /tʃ/
The consonant /tʃ/ is one of the only two affricate phonemes in English. It is palato – alveolar,
voiceless and fortis sound. To produce this sound, the tongue tip, blade and rims close again the
alveolar ridge and side teeth. The front of the tongue is raised, and when the air is released, there
is audible friction. The soft palate is also raised. As in church / t∫ə:t∫/, chew /t∫u:/, nature / 'neit∫ə/,
teacher / 'ti:t∫ə/, match / mæt∫/, much / m

/, large /l
ɑ
:d
ʒ
/…
There are some possible pronunciation problems. The learners may have confusions of English
spelling patterns and similarities between /dʒ/ and other sounds, which causes the pronunciation
problems with /dʒ/.
Examples: If you substitute /j/ for /dʒ/: jet will sound like yet.
If you substitute /ʒ/ for /dʒ/: pledger will sound like pleasure.
If you substitute /tʃ/ for /dʒ/: ranger will sound like rancher.
In order to correct these mistakes, the learners are sure to make the tongue press against upper
gum ridge and the vocal cords are vibrating when they say/dʒ/.
1.4. Previous works
The study entitled “Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English ” of
Ha Cam Tam was set up to answer the question “What are the most common pronunciation
problems of the students in the English department?”
The data collection was administered through an oral final examination. During the exam, each of
the students who had finished four years of English at English department was requested to
present a talk about a particular topic in approximately five minutes. While listening to students
talking, the researcher took notes of the errors related to pronunciation. Ha Cam Tam found out
that Vietnamese speakers do not have to pronounce the ending sounds. In addition, some of the
sounds, such as /ʃ, ʤ, ʧ / are really hard for Vietnamese learners to pronounce especially when
these sounds occur at the end of words. She concluded three common errors on pronunciation of
her students : sound omission, sound redundancy and sound confusion.
In his study entitled “Pronunciation Matters: English Consonant Production by AUAP
Students” K. James Hartshorn, Central Washington University indicated some problems of his
students‟ pronunciation. This study examined the production of six English phonemes (/l/,
/r/, /v/, /f/, /ð/ and /θ/) by AUAP students after completing the five-month program at
Central Washington University. Two general English proficiency levels were represented. He

1.5. Sub – conclusion
This chapter provides us an overview of the theoretical background on which this study based
on. It includes the definition and the role of pronunciation in language teaching, the factors
affecting pronunciation learning such as the native language, the learner background,
pronunciation ability, motivation to learning English, teaching and learning environment and
techniques used by the teachers as well as phonological characteristics and articulation of the
sounds /θ/,/ð/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/,/tʃ/, /dʒ/. In addition to the above matters, a summary of previous works
related to the given issue was also presented. CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1. Research methods
In order to fulfill the objectives of the study, the qualitative and quantitative methods will be
used as the main method of the study, in which tape recording, a short listening test on

results obtained from questionnaires, tape recording and the students‟ results will be discussed in
the findings. At last, the author will provide some recommendations for teaching and learning
pronunciation in general and the consonant sounds /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ studying in particular.
2.2. Research context
2.2.1. Description of the English course at TUAF
The study was conducted at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF).
TUAF associated with Hanoi Open University to train in - service Bachelors of Art of major
English. The Center for Foreign Languages of TUAF has directly been run and controlled these
courses. Students are required to learn all English classes of a major English curriculum, such as
Language Practice 1,2,3,4 (including listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill and writing
skill), Grammar 1,2, English Pronunciation, Business English, Vietnamese – English Translation
1,2, English – Vietnamese Translation1,2, Background, English Literature, Teaching Method, ,
Lexicology, Foreign language 2… with some general subjects as Communist Party, Practical
Vietnamese, Foundation of Vietnamese culture, Introduction of Linguistics, Basic Informatics…
in Vietnamese. Language Practice subjects are required to learn all the course from the first
semester to the final – the eighth semester. They are ranged from elementary to advanced level. In
the first year, Language Practice and Grammar 1 are taught continuously. During semesters 3,4
(the second year) students have to learn English Pronunciation, Business English, Vietnamese –
English Translation 1, English – Vietnamese Translation1 and Language Practice. After finishing
these subjects, they continue to learn some general subjects in Vietnamese. In the third and
fourth years, they complete all the rest subjects.
The first stage- semester 1, 2, 3, 4- aims at providing students with general knowledge of English
grammar, vocabulary, phonetics and phonology as well as developing students‟ four language
skills with more focus on speaking skill, at this very first stage, the textbook Know How 1, 2,
English Grammar In Use, Practical English Grammar, Pronunciation Pair, English Phonetics and
Phonology, Business English, and Vietnamese – English Translation 1, English – Vietnamese
Translation 1 are used. Moreover, at this stage, all forms of tests are employed after each
semester: written middle-term tests, written end-term tests, listening tests, oral tests which forces
students to pay their more attention to speaking skill and pronunciation, but in fact teachers
usually ignore their students‟ mistakes in pronunciation, which results in the students‟ low

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, first and foremost, the survey will be
conducted among 100 second year English major students at TUAF. The questionnaire was
administered to them. They are in - service students at Center for Foreign Languages of TUAF. The
researcher selected them as the subjects of the study with the hope to find out the difficulties they
encounter in producing the English consonant sounds /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/. There are 40 male
and 60 female students who were randomly chosen from four English classes 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D with
the total number of 195 English major students. Only second-year in service English major
students of 1
st
term were chosen because they were learning English Pronunciation at the time of
delivering questionnaires. They were all aged between 20 and 22 . Most of them came from the
mountainous and remote area or from the country. They do not have the same level of English
language proficiency and ,certainly, their level is low as they either failed in the entrance
university examination or had no ability to learn at higher level. Some of them have learned
English for 7 years at junior and senior high schools; some have only learned English for 3 years
while a few have never learned English before. The researcher delivered the questionnaire to those
students in order to investigate the problems facing to producing the English consonant sounds /θ/,
/ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/. Moreover, tape recording and a small test on pronunciation will be conducted
among only 30 students who are in the questionnaires have ticked most options of assumed
difficulties they encounter in producing the English consonant sounds /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/.
2.3.2. Research instruments
Data were gained through the employment of two research instruments, namely, questionnaires
and tape recordings with marks measured from a listening test on pronunciation, which will be
discussed in details below.
Instrument 1: Survey questionnaires
The first data collection instrument was a survey questionnaire which served two main
purposes of the study: - to find out relevant difficulties the second year in service English major
students encounter in producing some English consonant sounds, namely /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/,
/dʒ/.
- to identify the respondents for the follow-up tape recording and