HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH

Code : 18

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GRADUATION THESIS
B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES

IMPROVING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST
YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH MAJOR AT HANOI OPEN
UNIVERSITY

Supervisor

: Nguyen Thi Kim Chi,M.A

Student

: Vu Van Huy

Date of birth : 06/11/1994
Course

: 1271A04 (2012-2016)

Hanoi, 2016


DECLARATION

with valuable assistance in collecting data.
Last but not least, my gratefulness goes to my parents, who have been
supporting me, especially my mother, She was always cheering me up and stand
by me through the good and bad times.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION .................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES AND FIRGURES ................................................................ vi
PART A:INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1
1. Rationale ........................................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the study ............................................................................................. 2
3. Scope of the study ............................................................................................ 2
4. Research questions ........................................................................................... 2
5. Method of the study .......................................................................................... 3
6. Design of the study ........................................................................................... 3
PART B DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 1- LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................ 4
1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Pronunciation .................................................................................................... 6
1.2.1What is the definition of pronunciation ....................................................... 6
1.2.2 Main features of English pronunciation ..................................................... 8
1.2.2.1 Consonants ......................................................................................... 12
1.2.2.2 Vowels ................................................................................................ 14
1.2.2.3 Intonation............................................................................................ 17

CHAPTER 3 SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS HELP THE FIRST YEAR
ENGLISH MAJORS IMPROVE THEIR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION . 44
3.1 Practice hearing the sounds of English ........................................................ 44
3.2 Pay attention to word and sentence stress ................................................... 45
3.3 Be aware of intonation ................................................................................. 48
3.4 Practice linking sounds together and connected speech .............................. 50
3.5 Work out which sounds cause most difficult in pronouncing ..................... 54
3.6 Read out loud and recording ........................................................................ 56
3.7 Summary ...................................................................................................... 57
PART C:CONCLUSION.................................................................................... 58
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 60
APPENDIX .......................................................................................................... 62

iv


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESL : English as a second language
EFL : English is spoken as a second language
IC : Inner circle
OC : Outer circle
EC : Expanding circle
HOU : Hanoi Open University

v


LIST OF TABLES AND FIRGURES
TABLES

language learning. Celce & Goodain (1991) states that over the past years, there
have been different views about the value of teaching pronunciation in language
teaching and they reported that the cognitive approach and grammar translation
reading based method which used by teachers attach no importance to
pronunciation.
Many people learning English language often do not pay much attention to
their pronunciation. Even worse, some of them underestimate it. They think that
pronunciation is less important than grammar and vocabulary. In fact,
Pronunciation reflects your English speaking ability. Many cases of
misunderstanding in communication were caused by the mispronouncing of
words or the improper intonation.
It has been realized the fact that most of English students who study English at
Hanoi Open University have different background, they come from another
provinces where their high school did not really teach them English pronunciation
except for English grammar. As a senior English major student, I realized how
the first year student try their best to reach their specific goal to speak English
better and to sound more naturally and more like native English speaker. In
addition, the first year student should be a perfect time to train their
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pronunciation. Experts argue that pronunciation should be introduced by teachers
in all their lessons, and teachers themselves should make learners aware of its
importance (Gilakjani,2011). Yates and Zielinski (2009) found that pronunciation
is a very difficult aspect of English to learn, but it seems that teaching
pronunciation from the very beginning helps learners to be intelligible .Therefore,
I would like to do a research with a wish to improve the freshman’s English
pronunciation that they can speak English natural, confident and like a native
speaker. The research entitled “Improving English pronunciation for the first
year students of English major at Hanoi Open University”

help to draw a picture about the reality of learning English pronunciation. I am
allowed to be in a class of K22 (the first year students) to interview the attitudes
of the students while they are studying in an English pronunciation lesson. Also,
Analysis method is used to finalize the difficulties faced by the freshman at
faculty of English in terms of their attitudes, language and cultural knowledge
when joining in everyday conversation. Statistic technique is also applied to
calculate the results collected from survey questionnaire in order to figure out
some specific problems and solutions to the students.
6. Design of the study
The study is divided into three main parts as follows:
 Part A: Introduction, which reveals the rationales, the objectives, the research
questions, the method and the design of the study. It also expresses reason
why I decided to choose this subject.
 Part B: Development
+ Chapter 1 is intended to give theoretical background related to English
pronunciation, the definition of pronunciation, some main features of
pronunciation and the importance of English pronunciation.
+ Chapter 2 provides an analysis on the situation of learning English
pronunciation of the first year students of English major at faculty of English,
HOU. Therefore, the author could find out some specific difficulties and
problems of the students faced during learning English pronunciation.
+ Chapter 3 focuses on the solutions and suggestions to help the students
overcome their problems.
 Part C: Conclusion gives a brief summary of the whole study.

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PART B DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

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this. First of all, the importance of good writing ability in academic English, the
students learn that writing is considered more important than other skills as it is
weighted more in most tertiary institutions in Australia. Teachers spend more
time working on students’ grammar and writing skills in order that students are
best prepared for examinations. The time factor is the second important factor
which causes students to leave little time for pronunciation in the classroom
(Germana ECKERT, 2003).
Pronunciation is a very important factor in the speech process, when the
speaker achieves the goal to communicate effectively by being understood. The
speech process is a process that involves several stages, beginning with speaker’s
ideas and ending with the understanding of those ideas by the listener (Dauer,
1993).
Dauer (1993:8) states that the speaker thinks decides what he or she is going
to say and puts the ideas into words and sentences of a particular language. The
speaker’s brain the transforms the words and sentences into nerve impulses that it
sends to the muscles in the speech organs. The speaker’s speech organ moves.
The lungs push air up through the larynx and into mouth and nose. The air is
shaped by the tongue and lips and comes out of the speaker’s mouth as sound
waves. The sound travels through the air. Sometimes, the sound is changed back
into sound waves by an electronic speaker. The listener hears the sounds when the
sound waves hit his or her ear. The ear changes the sound waves into nerve
impulses and sends them to the brain. The listener understands the message. The
listener’s brain identifies specific speech sounds, interprets them as words and
sentences of a particular language, and figures out their meaning. The importance
of good pronunciation starts from the process of the speech organs move
(pronunciation) which is related to the proficiency of the speakers until the
sounds travels through the air.

meaning. It includes attention to the particular sounds of a language (segments),
aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation,
phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is
projected (voice quality) and, in its broadest definition, attention to gestures and
expressions that are closely related to the way we speak a language.
A broad definition of pronunciation includes both suprasegmental and
segmental features. Although these different aspects of pronunciation are treated
in isolation here, it is important to remember that they all work in combination
when we speak, and are therefore usually best learned as an integral part of
spoken language.
Traditional approaches to pronunciation have often focused on segmental
aspects, largely because these relate in some way to letters in writing, and are
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therefore the easiest to notice and work on. More recent approaches to
pronunciation, however, have suggested that the suprasegmental aspects of
pronunciation may have the most effect on intelligibility for some speakers.
Usually learners benefit from attention to both aspects, and some learners may
need help in some areas more than in others. This overview starts with
suprasegmental features. One considerable practical advantage of focusing on
suprasegmental is that learners from mixed L1 backgrounds in the same class will
benefit, and will often find that their segmental difficulties improve at the same
time.
Pronunciation training includes micro-level skill (accuracy-based learning),
macro-level skill (fluency-based learning) and awareness-raising classroom
activities. At the micro-level skill, learners should be trained both in segmental (a
study of sounds) and suprasegmental features (training in stress, intonation,
rhythm, linking) (Morley, 1979, 1991; Gilbert 1984 and Wong, 1987). CelceMurcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996), Gilbert (1990), and Morley (1991)
describe segmentals as the basic inventory of distinctive sounds and show the

the various regional varieties of English e.g. American, Australian, Indian, and
local UK dialects. Internationally, English teachers refer in their teaching to the
sounds, stress and intonation of The International Phonetic Association (IPA).
Speech can be broken down into pronunciation and intonation, accuracy and
fluency or can be categorised in terms of strategies or it can be regarded as a form
of interaction and analysed using the methods of pragmatics or discourse analysis.
This means that the accurate speaker may communicate effectively (Skehan,
1998). It should include all aspects of English pronunciation and the goal of
pronunciation teaching is to foster communicative effectiveness (Wong, 1987).
1.2.2 Main features of English pronunciation
English pronunciation involves far more than individual sounds. Word stress,
sentence stress, intonation, and word linking all influence the sound of spoken
English, not to mention the way we often slur words and phrases together in
casual speech. “What are you going to do?” becomes “ Whatddaya gonna do?”
English pronunciation involves a lot of complexities for learners to strive for a
complete elimination of accent, but improving pronunciation will boost self
esteem, facilitate communication, and possibly lead to a better job or at least more
respect in the workplace. Effective communication is of greatest importance, so
choose first to work on problems that significantly hinder communication and let
the rest go. Remember that your students also need to learn strategies for dealing
with misunderstandings, since native pronunciation is for most an unrealistic
goal.
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A student's first language often interferes with English pronunciation. For
example, /p/ is aspirated in English but not in Spanish, so when a Spanish speaker
pronounces 'pig' without a puff of air on the /p/, an American may hear 'big'
instead. Sometimes the students will be able to identify specific problem sounds
and sometimes they won't. You can ask them for suggestions, but you will also

humming. Intonation is variation of spoken pitch that is not used to distinguish
words; instead it is used for a range of functions such as indicating the attitudes
and emotions of the speaker, signaling the difference between statements and
questions, and between different types of questions, focusing attention on
important elements of the spoken message and also helping to regulate
conversational interaction.
Linking
We pronounce phrases and even whole sentences as one smooth sound instead of
a series of separate words. 'Will Amy go away,' is rendered 'Willaymeegowaway.'
To help learners link words, try starting at the end of a sentence and have them
repeat a phrase, adding more of the sentence as they can master it. For example,
'gowaway,' then 'aymeegowaway,' and finally 'Willaymeegowaway' without any
pauses between words.
Vowel length
You can demonstrate varying vowel lengths within a word by stretching rubber
bands on the longer vowels and letting them contract on shorter ones. Then let the
students try it. For example, the word 'fifteen' would have the rubber band
stretched for the 'ee' vowel, but the word 'fifty' would not have the band stretched
because both of its vowels are spoken quickly.
Syllables
Illustrate syllable stress by clapping softly and loudly corresponding to the
syllables of a word. For example, the word 'beautiful' would be loud-soft-soft.
Practice with short lists of words with the same syllabic stress pattern ('beautiful,'
'telephone,' 'Florida') and then see if learners can list other words with that
pattern.
Specific Sounds
Minimal pairs, or words such as 'bit/bat' that differ by only one sound, are useful
for helping students distinguish similar sounds. They can be used to illustrate

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combination are known as diphthongs. An additional term used is tripthongs
which describes the combination of three vowel sounds (/ˈaʊər/in our). Single
vowel sounds may be short (/lɪft/ as in lift) or long (/hiːt/ as in heat).
1.2.2.1 Consonants
According to Wikipedia, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated
with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced
with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with
the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced by
forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air
flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with consonants are vowels.
Since the number of possible sounds in all of the world's languages is much
greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised
systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique and
unambiguous symbol to each attested consonant. In fact, the English alphabet has
fewer consonant letters than English has consonant sounds, so digraphs like "ch",
"sh", "th", and "zh" are used to extend the alphabet, and some letters and digraphs
represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled "th" in "this"
is a different consonant than the "th" sound in "thin". (In the IPA they are
transcribed [ð] and [θ], respectively.)
The word consonant is also used to refer to a letter of an alphabet that
denotes a consonant sound. The 21 consonant letters in the English alphabet are
B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, Z, and usually W and Y. The
letter Y stands for the consonant /j/ in yoke, the vowel /ɪ/ in myth, the vowel /i/ in
funny, and the diphthong /aɪ/ in my. W always represents a consonant except in
combination with a vowel letter, as in growth, raw, and how, and in a few
loanwords from Welsh, like crwth or cwm.

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the more common phonetic definition, a vowel is a sound pronounced with an
open vocal tract, so that the tongue does not touch the lips, teeth, or roof of the
mouth, such as the English "ah" /ɑː/ or "oh" /oʊ/. There is no build-up of air
pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as the
English "sh" [ʃː], which have a constriction or closure at some point along the
vocal tract. In the other, phonological definition, a vowel is defined as syllabic,
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the sound that forms the peak of a syllable. A phonetically equivalent but nonsyllabic sound is a semivowel.
A vowel is a speech sound made by the vocal cords. It is also a type of letter
in the alphabet.
The letters of the English alphabet are either vowels or consonants or both. A
vowel sound comes from the lungs, through the vocal cords, and is not blocked,
so there is no friction. All English words have vowels.
These letters are vowels in English: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y
The letter Y can be a vowel (as in the words "cry", "sky", "fly" or "why"), or
it can be a consonant (as in "yellow", "yacht", "yam" or "yesterday").
These five or six letters stand for about 20 vowel sounds in most English
accents. This important fact helps to explain why pronunciation can be difficult
for both native speakers and learners of English.
The articulation of vowel sounds was introduced to show learners how those
sounds are produced so they would correctly pronounce them, especially, the
voicing (Celce-Murcia & Goodwin, 1996). The mouth shape will control the
deviation of voice production to be clearly pronounced (Dauer, 1993).
Vowels are articulated when a voiced airstream is shaped using the tongue
and the lips to modify the overall shape of the mouth. English speakers generally
use twelve pure vowels and eight diphthongs.
It is important to keep in mind what is exactly which makes a phoneme valid
as a unit for analysis; the distinctions between phonemes hold, in that they are

are made in the front of the mouth, the right-hand rows of the vowel section are
made in the back of the mouth, and those in between are made in between. Thus
the chart can serve as a useful reminder for both teacher and learner! A fuller
description of the vowels in English can be found in Roach (1991), Underhill
(1994) and Yallop (1995). English may have many more vowel sounds or longer
vowels than learners are used to in their first languages, and so learners may need
a lot of careful listening to vowel sounds, and to think about how to distinguish
them, as well as where in the mouth they should make them. An important issue
which is not always treated in the reference texts is that adult learners will already
have ‘drawn the boundary’ of what counts as a particular sound in a slightly
different place or manner in their first language. An example of this would be the
characteristic French /r/ compared with the English sound. Sometimes there are
two separate sounds capable of distinguishing differences in meaning in English,
but not in the learner’s first language. An example would be the distinction that is
made in English between /l/ and /r/, which is not made in the same way in
Chinese. The converse may also be true – that is, English may only have one
sound, where their first language has two, as in the so-called light /l/ (in ‘leaf’)
and dark / l/ (as in ‘feel’) in English. Russian distinguishes these as two separate
phonemes. Another difficulty may arise when learners do not have the English
phoneme at all in their first language and they need to learn it from scratch,
although this seems to present less of a problem for learners in the long term.
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1.2.2.3 Intonation
The term ‘intonation’ has been defined in at least two different ways in the
literature. A narrow definition equates intonation with ‘speech melody’,
restricting it to the “ensemble of pitch variations in the course of an utterance” (‘t
Hart et al. 1990: 10).
In many languages, including English, intonation can show which parts of



understood how these choices from a set of opposites affect the way an utterance
can be interpreted. Not so much pitch variation itself as the meaning differences
that some of that variation helps us to perceive should be focused upon.
Therefore, although Cauldwell and Allen (1999:12) and Brazil (1994, Teacher’s
Book: 7) report that there is no agreement about what sound features intonation
has and the definitions of intonation provided by Cauldwell and Allen (1999:13)
vary, general agreement on intonation is introduced as follows:
a. The form of intonation centres on pitch and variation in pitch.
b. The existence of a system.
c. Intonation has meaning, although the nature of that meaning is in dispute.
British descriptions of English intonation can be traced back to the 16th
century. Early in the 20th century the dominant approach in the description of
English and French intonation was based on a small number of basic "tunes"
associated with intonation units: in a typical description, Tune 1 is falling, with
final fall, while Tune 2 has a final rise. Phoneticians such as H.E. Palmer broke
up the intonation of such units into smaller components, the most important of
which was the nucleus, which corresponds to the main accented syllable of the
intonation unit, usually in the last lexical word of the intonation unit. Each
nucleus carries one of a small number of nuclear tones, usually including fall,
rise, fall-rise, rise-fall, and possibly others. The nucleus may be preceded by a
head containing stressed syllables preceding the nucleus, and a tail consisting of
syllables following the nucleus within the tone unit. Unstressed syllables
preceding the head (if present) or nucleus (if there is no head) constitute a prehead. This approach was further developed by Halliday and by O'Connor and
Arnold, though with considerable variation in terminology. This "Standard
British" treatment of intonation in its present-day form is explained in detail by
Wells and in a simplified version by Roach. Halliday saw the functions of
intonation as depending on choices in three main variables: Tonality (division of
speech into intonation units), Tonicity (the placement of the tonic syllable or