VNU UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST-GRADUATE FACULTY

LÊ NGỌC HÂN

A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY
VIETNAMESE BEGINNERS OF ENGLISH IN
PRONOUNCING AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
(Nghiên cứu về những lỗi thường gặp của học viên người Việt khi phát âm
các phụ âm tiếng Anh và cách khắc phục khả hữu)

M.A. Minor Thesis
Major: English Linguistics
Code: 602215

SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Pro.Vo Dai Quang (PhD)

Bacninh, August 2011


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Acknowledgements
On conducting this research, I would like to thank my supervisor Assoc.Pro.Vo Dai
Quang (PhD) for his helpful lectures on Principles of Phonetics and Phonology,
suggestion, crucial advice, constructive and critical comments without which this
research would not have been sucessfully completed.

Also, thanks are sent to my former course mates’research for providing me with such
informative reference for my thesis.


Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... i
Abstract....................................................................................................................... ii
Table of contents ....................................................................................................... iii
List of figures.............................................................................................................. v
Chapter one: Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
1.1 Rationale ........................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study ................................................................... 1
1.2.1 Aims............................................................................................................ 1
1.2.2 Objectives .................................................................................................. 1
1.2.3. Research questions................................................................................... 2
1.3. Scope of the study ........................................................................................... 2
1.4 Organization of the study ................................................................................ 2
Chapter two : Literature Review ............................................................................. 4
2.1 Theoretical Background .................................................................................. 4
2.1.1 The role of pronounciation in language teaching .................................. 4
2.1.2 Factors affecting pronunciation learning ............................................... 4
2.1.2.1 The native language ............................................................................... 4
2.1.2.2 The age factor ......................................................................................... 5
2.1.2.3 Pronunciation ability ............................................................................. 5
2.1.2.4 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation ................................ 5
2.1.3 Articulatory phonetics .............................................................................. 6
2.1.4. Consonants ............................................................................................. 11
2.1.4.1 General description of English consonants ....................................... 11
2.1.4.2. Articulatory features of θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ ............................................ 12
2.1.4.2.1 Articulatory features of /θ, δ / and /ʃ, ʒ / ....................................... 13
2.1.4.2.2 Articulatory features of /ʤ, ʧ/ ......................................................... 13
2.1.5. Mistakes in language learning .............................................................. 13
2.1.5.1 Mistakes in language learning ............................................................ 13
2.1.5.2 Types of mistakes ............................................................................... 14
2.1.5.3 Possible causes of mistakes in language learning.............................. 16

those mistakes................................................................................................... 33
4.3 Findings from the interviews ........................................................................ 34
4.4 Summary......................................................................................................... 35
Chapter five: Conclusion......................................................................................... 36
5.1 Recapitulation ................................................................................................ 36
5.2 Concluding remarks ...................................................................................... 36
5.3 Pedagogical Implications............................................................................... 38
5.4 Suggestions for further research .................................................................. 39
Appendices……………………………………………………..…………………...vi
Survey questionnaire……………………………………………………………….vi
Exercises for tape recording……………………………………………………....ix
Interview sheet……………………………………………………………………...x
References…………………………………………………………………………...xi


v

List of figures

Figure 1: English consonants ..................................................................................... 12
Figure 2: Common mistakes found in data………………………………………….25
Figure 3: Students’ attitude towards pronunciation .................................................. 28
Figure 4: Students’ perception of their frequency of pronunciation mistakes........... 29
Figure 5 : Students’ perceptions of causes of those mistakes .................................... 30
Figure 6: Students’ self-treatment to overcome those mistakes ................................ 31
Figure 7: Reflection on teachers’ methods ............................................................... 33


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identify Vietnamese learners’ common mistakes in pronouncing θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ

-

find out causes of mistakes made by Vietnamese learners in pronouncing θ, δ, ʃ,
ʒ, ʤ, ʧ

-

find out solutions to make teaching and learning process better so that mistakes
in pronouncing θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ can be avoided.


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1.2.3. Research questions
The above-mentioned objectives can be elaborated into the following research
questions:
Question 1: What common mistakes do Vietnamese learners have in pronouncing the
English sounds θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ?
Question 2: What are the causes of those mistakes?
Question 3: What are possible solutions to those mistakes?
1.3. Scope of the study
In English there are twenty six consonants which are divided into groups according to
the place, manner of articulation and degree of voicing.Vietnamese learners do have
mistakes in pronouncing the English consonants. However, due to the limited time and
the scale of the minor thesis we only concentrate on common mistakes made by 30
students who are studying English as major field in Bac Ninh Specialized High School
in pronouncing “θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ” and causes of those mistakes as well as possible

2.1 Theoretical Background
2.1.1 The role of pronounciation in language teaching
Sound is the core of the language so that is the reason why when teaching a language
the first thing the teachers should do is to let the leaners have chances to explore the
sounds of that language. Moreover, communicative approach is considered as the major
language teaching in the twenty first century as what the leaners really need after
graduating is that they can communicate successfully in their work and their life. That
is the reason why pronunciation teaching has been paid more and more attention by all
the teachers. Some years ago, pronounciation used to be taught along with other skills
but at the present pronounciation courses are provided at any universities where English
is taught as the major subject.
2.1.2 Factors affecting pronunciation learning
There are many major factors affecting the learners’pronunciation such as: the native
language, the age factor, pronunciation ability as well as motivation and concern for
good pronunciation.
2.1.2.1 The native language
The native language plays an important role in learning to pronounce English as it is
clearly seen that a foreign accent is influenced by some of the sound characteristics of
the learner’s native language. These can be used to distinguish between the native
speakers and nonnative speakers (untrained as well as trained speakers). Due to the role
of native language, there has been a great deal of research on the differences between
sound systems of English and other languages in terms of sound systems as well as
problems, difficulties the learners face when studying English.
According to Kenworthy, J(1992:4): “To put it very crudely, the more difficulties there
are, the more difficulties the learners will have in pronouncing English”.


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2.1.2.2 The age factor


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favourabe attitudes towards learning the language”. A key issue in Gardner’s
motivation theory is the relationship between motivation and orientation (goal). Thus,
in his view, “motivation” refers to a kind of central metal “engine” or “energy-centre”
that subsumes effort, want/will and task enjoyment. However, they are internal factors
not external factors. Motivation is affected by both internal and external factors.
According to Ellis (1997:75), learners’attitude and effective states constitue the
learners’ effort degree when learning an L2 belong to “motivation”.
The same point of view can be found in the definition given by Little Wood. “In second
language learning as in every other filed of human learning, motivation is crucial force
which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he
devotes to it, and how long he perseveres it. It is a complex phenomenon and includes
many components: the individual’s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity,
desire for stimulation and new experience and so on” (Little Wood, 1998:53).
In fact, motivation is without question, the most complex and challenging issue facing
teachers today (Scheidecker & Freeman).
Some learners seem to be more concerned about their pronunciation than others. This
concern is often expressed in statements about how “bad” the pronunciation is and in
request for correction-both blanket requests and frequent pauses during speech used to
solicit comments on the accuracy of pronunciation. It may even be reflected in a
reluctance to speak. Moreover, the desire to do well is a kind of “achievement
motivation”. Conversely, if you do not care about a particular task or do not see the
value of it, you won’t be motivated to do well. Learners may also be unconcerned
because they simply are not aware that the way they speak is resulting in difficulty,
irritation or misunderstanding for the listeners.
There are several factors which may affect pronunciation accuracy leading to common
mistakes in pronunciation in process of studying English.
2.1.3. Articulatory phonetics

 Lungs

 Hard palate

 Uvula

 Soft palate

 Diaphragm

 Pharynx
Articulatory phonetics deals with the major aspects of speech production. They
are the air stream mechanism, the state of vocal cords, the state of velum, the
place and the manner of articulation (Davenport & Hannahs, 1998: 98). On the
other hand, this study is paid attention to consonants, particularly the six studied
ones, therefore, the manner and the place of articulation and voicing, the three
main features of consonants, are discussed with more interest, as followed.
Clark and Yallop use two features to describe the manner of articulation of
consonants: constriction and articulation. The degree of constriction decreases
from total closure via partial constriction to a fully open vowel like manner.
Articulation divides into dynamic and stable. Altogether, there are seven
recognized manners of articulation : stop, fricative, approximant, nasal, flap, tap
and trill.
The manners of articulation are described as followed:
Manner

Description

Stop



a dynamic articulation where there is a
brief occlusion in the vocal tract, a
single deliberate movement to create a
closure, equivalent to a very short stop.

Flap

a dynamic articulation where there is a
brief occlusion in the vocal tract, one
articulator strikes the other in passing
not so much to create a brief closure
but more as the incidental effect of the
articulatory gesture.

Trill

a dynamic articulation produced by the
vibration of any articulator, a series of
vibrations.

The place of articulation defines both the area of the oral-pharyngeal vocal tract
where the constriction is made and the part of the tongue used for the constriction.
This gives us the following places of articulation:
 Bilabial: the two lips.
 Dental: the tongue lip or (usually) the tongue blade with the upper teeth.
 Alveolar: the tongue blade or (usually) the tongue tip with the alveolar ridge


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consequence, they tend to break up the stream up speech, defining a perceptual and


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articulatory edge, or margin, for a unit (word or syllable in a word) that includes one or
more vowels. Consonants can be divided into different kinds in accordance with three
categories, i.e., the degree of vocal cord vibration, the place of articulation and the
manner of articulation.
Most dialects of English have about 24 distinctive (phonemic) consonant sounds
divided according to three different categories: voicing, place and manner of
articulation.
2.1.4.2. Articulatory features of θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ
The sounds θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ can be called in different terms: fricatives/ affricatives if
basing on the manner of articulation ; dental sounds /θ, δ /, post- (palato) alveolar sound
/ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ/ if basing on the place of articulation. /θ, ʃ, ʧ/ are strong and long fiction
sounds; the others are weak and short ones. They are similar at this point but different
at another point due to their own characteristics in the language, thus it is much easier
to take them into consideration in pairs, that is /θ, δ / ; /ʃ, ʒ /; / ʤ, ʧ /.
VOICING

Stop
Fricative

Bilabial Labiodental

Interdental Alveolar Palatal Velar

Voiceless


Voiceless

ʧ

Affricate

Voiced

ʤ

Nasal

Voiced

LIQUID

SONORANTS

OBSTRUENTS

MANNER

PLACE

Lateral

Voiced

Rhotic


According to the manner of articulation, Katamba (1996 : 121) descibes FRICATIVE;
the articulators are brought very close together leaving only a very narrow channel
through which the air squeezes on its ways out, producing turbulence in the process,
such as /f,v, θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ /.
Kelly (2000: 35) provided the detailed descriptions of consonants in his books
including dental sounds /θ, δ / (as in think, the, bath, bathe, mathematics, father). “The
toungue tip makes light contact with the back of the top, front teeth. Or, tongue tip may
protrute between upper and lower teeth. The soft palate is raised. / θ / is unvoiced and
fortis./ δ / is voiced and lenis.”
Also, he wrote “/ʃ, ʒ / (as in she, fish, beige, nation, measure) are post-alveolar
sounds. But when pronouncing them, the tongue blade makes light contact with the
alvealar ridge, and the front of the tongue is raised. / ʃ / is unvoiced and fortis. /ʒ / is
voiced and lenis. It also devoiced at the end of the word. /ʒ / does not occur as an initial
sound in English, and is rare as a final sound.”
2.1.4.2.2 Articulatory features of /ʤ, ʧ/
Cruttenden (2001: 9) gives the description of affricative : a complete closure at some
point in the mouth, behind which the air pressure builds up ; the separation of the
organs is compared with that of a plosive, so that more extended friction is a
characteristic second element of the sound. English has only two affricatives, the
voiceless palato-aveolar /ʧ/ and its counterpart /ʤ/.
/ ʤ, ʧ / (as in church, judge, nature, larger) are also palato-aveolar sounds. The
tongue tip, blade and rims close against 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. /ʧ/ is unvoiced and fortis. /ʤ/ is voiced and lenis. /ʤ/ is voiced at
the end of a word.
2.1.5. Mistakes in language learning
2.1.5.1 Mistakes in language learning
Mistakes are said to be unsystematic in nature and correctable when attention is drawn
to its producers. Mistakes are caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, and


because he focused on the influence of errors on the sense of a sentence or an utterance.
According to him, the global errors not the local ones could make the sentence
ambiguous or senseless. Duley, Burt and Krashen (1982: 53) classified errors relating


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to their observable characteristics. For them there are 4 types of errors, namely
omission, addition, misformation and misordering.
Abbot (1980:82) divided errors into competence errors and performance errors. The
competence errors consists of transfer, intralingual and induced. Performance errors
include errors of processing problems and errors of communication strategies.
Pham Dang Binh (2003), in his PhD thesis dissertation on Vietnamese students’ errors,
classifies errors into two main types: common errors and typical errors. Common errors
are those which are committed by any second language learners when learning the
same target language even when they come from different countries. These errors
normally appear at the beginning of the learning process and consist of competence
errors with errors in phonology, vocabulary and grammar and performance errors with
intralingual and interlingual errors. Errors that are typical of certain groups of learners
who speak the same first language or live in the same culture are called typical errors.
Those errors include two main types: interlingual errors and culture interference errors.
Richards (1984:19-27) distinguishes three main major types of errors: interlingual
errors, intralingual errors and developmental errors. Interlingual errors result from
language transfer, that is, which is caused by the learner’s native language.
However, with their classifications, they showed very little concern about error types
and did not reflect the process of making errors and causes of errors made by learners
as well.
Ha Cam Tam (2005: 9-10) in her science article believes that the main problems in
pronunciation of Vietnamese learners are sound omission, sound confusion and sound
redundancy. According to her, they are the most frequent errors of Vietnamese learners.

room settings, the clearners may be forced to perform tasks they do not want or their
linguistic competences fail to meet; therefore, they may fall back on the language most
familiar to them that is their mother tongue. Windowson (1990:13) realized that when
learners write under pressure, they may rely on systematic resources from their native
language for the achievement and synthesis of meaning. Secondly, the limited foreign
language environment also contributes to mistakes in language learning. The lack of
natural linguistic inputs with native speakers results in learners’ resource on their
language. Moreover, language tasks assigned for the learners have a significance affect
on their verbal production. Among these tasks, translation is said to “increase the
foreign language learners’ reliance on first language structures ” (Dulay et al., 1982:
110). Lastly, Dulay et al (1982) considered the monitor as “an important factor
associated with the learners’ use of foreign language acquisition” (1982: 110). Learners
tend to think in the first language and attempt to put the idea in the target language.


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Thus, the first language interference takes place because of four factors : performance
and the monitor use.
Myle (2002:186) defined the above four factors as social factors affecting writing in
foreign language. These factors are closely related to learners’ attitudes, motivation and
goals. “Research based on direct and indirect measures generally shows that learners
with positive attitudes. Motivation, concrete goals will have attitude reinforced if they
experience success. Likewise, learners’ negaive attitudes may be strengthened by lack
of success or by failure” (2002: 2). He concluded that learners’ negative attitudes,
motivations and goals can explain why some foreign language writers perform better
than others.
2.1.5.3. 2 Causes other than interference by first language
Causes independent of the first language include :overgeneralization, false concepts
hypothesized , incomplete application of rules, cross association and fossilization.

2.2 Previous works
As mentioned above, there have been a great deal of notable works about
pronounciation issues and pronounciation teaching ones but some of them express the
writers’ concern about pronounciation problems especially the learners’ difficulties in
pronouncing English sounds. However, it can be confirmed that Avery & Ehlrich
(1992:67) are the two first people mentioning problems Vietnamese learners may face
with when studying English “As the sound systems of English and Vietnamese differ
greatly, Vietnamese speakers can have quite serve pronounciation problems”
In their works, the most common problem for the Vietnamese learners have is the
problem with the words with final consonants including voiceless stop consonants
/p/,/k/,/t/ , fricative consonants , /f/,/v/, /θ/ as in “truth”. For example, in Vietnamese the
voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/ and /k/ can stand at the final position of the word but
they are not released in the final position and much shorter than their English
equivalents. A word “beat” may sound like “bee”. Moreover, in Vietnamese there are
no fricatives at the word-final position, Vietnamese speakers may not produce fricatives
at the end of the words. The word “pass” can be pronounced as “pa”. They also have
found out the Vietnamese difficulty in pronouncing the sound /θ/ and /δ/, they often
produce a heavily aspirated stop in stead of /θ/ in the word “think”. This probably
based on the orthographic system of Vietnamese, where the letter combination/th/
represents a heavily aspirated /t/. They will usually sustitute a /b/ or an /f/ for /p/. The
word “put” may sound like “foot”.


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Recently, an article named Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of
English

by Ha Cam Tam (2005:7) also pointed out some main problems in


rigorous sampling procedure (Miller, 1983: 24). Some other authors even make a
distinction between a survey as data collected from a sample and a census as data based
on all unit of a given population (Jolliffe, 1986: Schwars, Groves and Schuman, 1998).
Johnson (1992:35) gave the same idea when confirming “The purpose of a survey is to
learn about characteristic of an entire group of interest (a population) by examining a
subset of that group (a sample)”
Survey research can be also defined in terms of the type of information gathered or the
purposes for which the information is collected. Alreck and Settle (1995:98) contended
that the reasons for conducting survey include influencing a selected audience,
modifying a service or product, and understanding or predicting human behaviour. Rea
and Paker (1997:88) added understanding people’s interests and concerns as