A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University

A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’

Nowadays, when English is used in larger and larger scale as

an international language, it is an essential duty of education thatusers of English should communicate successfully with the targetlanguage It is quite natural that the learners of English as asecond or foreign language encounter some mistakes in theirpronunciation One of the most common mistakes that learnersoften make is ending sounds Due to several reasons,pronunciation instruction had often been neglected in English.Consequently, many students find it difficult to speak confidentlybecause of their poor pronunciation Therefore, the researcher has

decided to choose the topic ‘A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ This study investigates the difficulties and

errors of English pronunciation faced by the first year studentswhen pronouncing consonant ending sounds The researchinstruments used for collecting data and information arequestionnaires and recordings The participants were providedwith special practices on pronunciation including listening to someEnglish expressions and speaking them out Then, the researcherrecorded and compared with the native speaker’s pronunciation.The results show that the participants had difficulties pronouncingconsonant ending sounds

The survey revealed that, for the participants, the approachwas interesting and helped pronunciation development andincreased self-confidence in English speaking

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During the process of conducting my graduation paper, I havebeen lucky to receive many supports and helps from my teachersand friends It is a pleasure for me to thank those who havecontributed to this and made it possible

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to mysupervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Thuy Chung, for her guidance andprecious comments from the beginning to the final phase With herdepth of knowledge as well as her experience, she has directlysupported and helped me since I conducted the study Thanks toher encouragement, I have finished my thesis in the best way.Secondly, I am also grateful to teachers from Faculty of English atThuongmai University who had useful lectures and valuableknowledge in this field of the study

Thirdly, I would like to give my thanks to first year Englishmajors at Thuongmai University for their warm co-operation duringthe time I collected data and information for my research in order

to complete the survey questionnaire

Finally, I take this opportunity to express my indebtedness to

my family for nurturing and teaching me to be a good person aswell as giving me the best condition in life and study I also thank

my friends who always stand by me and give me their supports toaccomplish this study

Because of the limitation of theoretical level and practicalexperience, I look forward to receiving recommendations fromteachers so that I can improve my knowledge

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I sincerely thank you!

Hanoi, February 22nd,

2021 Student Hoang Thi Hang

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

LISTS OF ABBRECIATIONS v

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 2

1.3 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Research subjects 3

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Research methodology 4

1.7 Organization of the study 4

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Pronunciation 6

2.1.1 Definition 6

2.1.2 The importance of pronunciation 7

2.2 Common English pronunciation errors 8

2.3 Consonants 9

2.3.1 Definition of consonant 9

2.3.2 Classification and description of consonants 10

2.4 English Ending sounds 12

2.4.1 Definition 12

iii

2.4.2 Ending sound errors 13

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 15

3.1 Research methodology 15

3.1.1 Research method and the design of the questionare 15

3.1.2 The participants 17

3.2 Findings and discussion 18

3.1.1 Students’ attitude toward English speaking skill in general and pronunciation in particular 18

3.1.2 Students’ ending sound mistakes and their frequency of making pronunciation mistakes 21

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 29

4.1 Suggestions to accurately pronounce 5 common ending sounds sounds /dʒ/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ð/ and /ʒ/ 29

4.2 Recommendation for students 30

4.3 Recommendation for teachers 35

CONCLUSION 37 REFERENCE I APENDIX II

iv

LISTS OF ABBRECIATIONS

No Abbreviat

ion

English

v

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Picture 2.3 Diagram of the vocal tract showing the places of

articulation 11

Figure 3.1 The importance of pronunciation in speaking English.18 Figure 3.2 The reasons of learning pronunciation 19

Figure 3.3 Students’ attitudes towards learning pronunciation 20

Figure 3.4 Frequency of making pronunciation mistakes 21

Figure 3.5 Students’common pronunciation mistakes 21

Figure 3.6 Students’ ending sound mistakes 22

Figure 3.7 Studens’ reasons for difficulties when pronouncing ending sounds 23

Figure 3.8 Students’methods of learning pronunciation 24

Figure 3.9 The importance of the ways of improving pronunciation .25

Table 3.1 Percentage of making ending sounds mistakes 28

Picture 4.1 /dʒ/ sound illustration 29

Picture 4.2./θ/ sound’s illustration 30

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

In today’s global world, the importance of English can not bedenied and ignored since English is the most common languagespoken everywhere People use English for communication, travel,for culture and trade exchanges and so many other fields in life.Vietnam is one of the countries which use English as the secondlanguage and as a result, English has been adopted as one of themost important subjects in many schools in Vietnam Four Englishskills are essential for every English learner of all ages,nonetheless, learners seem to focus on reading and writing ratherthan speaking They spend a lot of time learning grammar forweekly tests and examinations each semester, meanwhile theyare quite afraid of speaking English In high school, speakingEnglish seems to be less paid attention than the others They donot spend much time practising speaking in class and that is themain reason why they have difficulties in speaking English.Moreover, many students are not good at grammar, they lackvocabulary and feel so shy when communicating in English

In fact, there are many other factors that affect speakingEnglish such as intonation, grammar, linking, rhythm, context and

so on and pronunciation is considered the most important one.During speaking periods in class and speaking tests, the factshows that there are many students who get trouble withpronunciation, especially English beginners and making Englishpronunciation becomes a popular problem After a long time ofobservation and investigation, ending sounds seem to be the mostcommon pronunciation mistakes of first year English majors atThuongmai University

As can be seen, if students want to speak English correctly

and fluently, they need to pay attention to pronunciation.Vietnamese is the language which has single words with no endingsounds while those play an important role in English pronunciation.That is the reason why Vietnamese learners have difficulties withEnglish pronunciation, particularly ending sounds and that is alsothe main problem of first year English majors at ThuongmaiUniversity Therefore, in order to study this problem in depth, I

have conducted the research entitled: ‘ A study on common pronunciation mistakes faced by first year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University’ Hopefully, this study will help

students understand deeply about the issues that they have notnoticed before and suggest some solutions to solve the problemsand help them improve their pronunciation

1.2 Previous studies

Due to the importance of English in the context ofglobalization and international integration, companies andemployers always prioritize candidates who can speak a correctforeign language in work Pronunciation plays a vital part inemployability Graduates are often unfairly judged when they fail

to convince others of their capabilities due to poor pronunciationand not having the language to express themselves well In order

to present confidently to impress potential employers or enhancemobility, it is important to improve students' pronunciation,especially those with low oral proficiency level Hence, there aremore and more students who invest their time and finance to learnEnglish Learning another language is not easy, so many studentssometimes meet difficulties and make errors in pronunciation Tofind out and overcome the difficulties and the errors, many studieshave been carried out These studies are also made byexperienced students with clearly proving databases through realsurveys Relating to the researcher’s topic, there are several

previous studies which she has consulted for the thesis.

The first study was conducted by Ms.Priscialla Shak who wasprevious an excellent student in English at Malaysia SabahUniversity Her topic was ‘A case study on English pronunciationerrors of low proficient students’ For different participants in theresearch, Hago (2015) conducted a study on pronunciationproblems faced by Saudi EFL learners of secondary students Thisstudy investigated the difficulties of English pronunciation bySaudi secondary students The study showed that the participantshad difficulties pronouncing eleven consonant sounds This surveyprovides some useful solutions to prevent and deal with Englishpronunciation problems Another research on pronunciation was inIndonesian context Fadilah (2012) reported some problematicEnglish vowel, consonant and dipthong sounds in reading the NewItems text Similar to this, the research done by Imam (2004)described the eighth grader students’ ability in pronouncingEnglish words beginning with nouns, verbs and adjectives bilabialconsonants He suggested that the students’ ability in pronouncingEnglish words should be improved since it is essential to be used

as a means of developing speaking and reading skills The recentstudy was done by a student (Nguyen Thi Hang) at HaiphongUniversity with the title ‘A study on pronunciation errors faced bythird year English majors at Haiphong Private University It helpedstudents have good awareness of pronunciation problems and givesome suggestions to deal with their ending sound errors

In summary, through these studies above, the researchrealizes that conducting a study on English pronunciation errors inThuongmai University context, especially, ending sound ones is ofgreat significance Therefore, the study on common pronunciationmistakes faced by first – year students of English faculty atThuongmai University is carried out to serve this need Hopefully,

after this study, students can find out the suitable ways to improvetheir pronunciation.

1.3 Aims of the study

English phonetics is of great importance as it lays basic foreffective oral communication However, many students havedifficulties in pronouncing correctly For that reason, theresearcher decided to do a study on pronunciation mistakes made

by first year students at TMU This study is to help them realizetheir errors in ending sounds It also makes students haveawareness of pronunciation problems and give some suggestions

to deal with their mistakes This study will focus on two mainissues The first one is to find out the most common English endingsound errors The second one is to give some solutions for them toovercome pronunciation problems It is hoped to meet thestudents’ expectation in looking for a method to improve theirpronunciation

1.4 Research subjects

The research subjects of the study are mistakes inpronouncing the consonants in ending sounds After finding outthe mistakes that students often make in pronunciation, theresearcher will suggest some solutions to help them improve andgradually raise their speaking ability

1.5 Scope of the study

There are many mistakes of English pronunciation that firstyears students encounter when speaking However, this study willnot cover all problems in learner’s pronunciation and there are somany different material resourses that require a lot of time andeffort while my abilities and experiences are limited Therefore,this research will focus on the most common pronunciationmistakes of first year English majors at Thuong Mai University, that

is ending sounds The researcher will concentrate on five common

ending sound mistakes from survey questionnaire chosen by 50first year students at TMU This study will be a useful material forevery student who concern this issue and help to get rid of theirpronunciation mistakes.

1.6 Research methodology

To study the students’ pronunciation mistakes and getaccurate findings, the researcher uses two methods, includingquantitative method and qualitative method The studentsreceived a questionnaire with a list of questions After collectingthe questionnaires from the respondents, the researcher willanalyze the original databases The survey was administered to 50students from both classes K56N1 and K56N2

Moreover, some types of research instruments can be used tocollect data such as recording, observations or in-depth interviewsfor teachers The pronunciation test is conducted by recording thestudents’ utterances while they are reading some sentences or apassage The recorded utterances will be transcribed into phonetictranscriptions After that, student’s phonetic transcription wascompared to native speaker’s During the action researchimplementation, an observation sheet was also employed Inaddition, the researcher should interview directly teachers andlisten to their views

1.7 Organization of the study

This study is comprised of the four following chapters:

Chapter 1: Overview of the study: In this chapter, a briefdescription of the study provides general information about theresearch The chapter consists of seven parts such as rationale,previous studies, aims of the study, research subjects, scope ofthe study, research methodology and organization of study

Chapter 2: Literature review: Some important theories related

to the study are presented in this chapter Theoretical background

provides the definition of English pronunciation, its importance andsome opinions of pronunciation errors Consonant is alsopresented in this chapter The study focuses on the most common

pronunciation mistake ‘ending sound errors’.

Chapter 3: Research findings and discussions – The chapterincludes 2 main parts: research methodology and researchfindings and discussions

Chapter 4: Recommendation and suggestions – This chapterstates some suggestions to help students avoid pronunciationproblems which are mentioned above and solutions for studentsand teachers in order to better students’ pronunciation It alsosummarizes the whole study and presents some limitations ofstudy and some recommendations for further study

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.1 Definition

To every English speaking learners, the first thing they need is

to learn pronunciation They have to know how to pronounce aword exactly before they learn the other things, so what ispronunciation? In this part, the definition of pronunciation will bepresented to provide more information for all students

It can be said that Pronunciation is “the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers

to both within a particular dialect”, according to Wikipedia Also, It

is the act or manner of pronouncing words, utterances of speech, away of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted orgenerally understood A word can be pronounced in different ways

by various individuals, groups, depending on many factors, such

as : culture exposure, speech or voice, social class, education, soon

Besides, pronunciation was also considered as “the way inwhich a language is spoken” (Oxford Advance Learner’sEncyclopedic, 1992:718) The Oxford Advanced Learner’sDictionary, 8th end (2008) makes clear pronunciation that is “theway in which a language or a particular word or sound ispronounced”

Dictionaries indicates another definition of pronunciation:

‘Pronunciation refers to the ability to use the correct stress, rhythm, and intonation of a word in a spoken language A word can be spoken in different ways by various individuals or groups, depending on many factors, such as: the area in which they grew

up, the area in which they now live, if they have a speech or voice disorder, their ethnic group, their social class, or their education.”

In the AMEP Fact sheets that have been funded by theDepartment of Immigration and Multicultural and IndigenousAffairs through the AMEP Special Project Research Program,

pronunciation was defined as: “The production of sounds that we use to make 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 Each of these aspects of pronunciation is briefly outlined below, and references for further study are suggested.”

In general, there are many different definitions ofpronunciation It is easy to understand pronunciation is the way inwhich a word is spoken

2.1.2 The importance of pronunciation

When studying any language, especially English,pronunciation plays an essential part in speaking However,phonetic skills are often ignored by many English learners.Learners with good English pronunciation are likely to beunderstood even if they make errors in other areas, whereaslearners with bad pronunciation will not be understood, even iftheir grammar is perfect Such learners may avoid speaking inEnglish, and experience social isolation, employment difficulties

and limited opportunities for further study We judge people by theway they speak, and so learners with poor pronunciation may bejudged as incompetent, uneducated or lacking in knowledge Yetmany learners find pronunciation one of the most difficult aspects

of English to acquire, and need explicit help from the teacher

Furthermore, Pronunciation contributes to the competence of

a speaker Some English native speakers and advanced learnerswill think English speakers have poor competency and fluency inEnglish if their utterances are peppered with pronunciation errors,even if you have good grammar and vocabulary This can haveserious consequences for your career, your relationships withothers, and even your own peace of mind

Pronunciation and clear understanding of English speech are 2skills that complement each other If you know how to pronouncethe words correctly, with proper intonation, your level of speechwill be increased Proper pronunciation is the key to master theEnglish language Without correct pronunciation, the vocabularythat you know will be less effective when communicating It isalways better to know fewer words and pronounce them well than

to know a lot of words and pronounce them badly

Therefore, in order to speak English correctly and fluently,pronunciation should be paid more attention to Besides, rightpronunciation can help with the process of acquiring newvocabulary Pronouncing words is often a part of memorizing them

in second-language learning, so getting a strong, basic foundation

in correct pronunciation early on will equate to more effectivelearning overall

According to AMP Fact sheets of AMP Research Centre, “learners with good pronunciation in English are more likely to beunderstood even if they make errors in other areas, whereaslearners whose pronunciation is difficult to understand will not be

understood, even if their grammar is perfect” and “Yet many adultlearners find pronunciation one of the most difficult aspects ofEnglish to acquire, and need explicit help from the teacher (Morley1994; Fraser 2000) Surveys of student needs consistently showthat our learners feel the need for pronunciation work in class (eggWilling 1989).

2.2 Common English pronunciation errors

We all have a mother tongue which functions as a filter forwhat sounds we are able to distinguish When you learn a foreignlanguage, you have to understand that it uses a different set ofsounds and different orthographic rules than your mother tongue(the same letter written in a different language may be pro-nounced differently)

It can be easily understood that “pronunciation errors arevariants of pronunciation which prevent one communicator fromunderstanding the propositional content of the other’sutterances” Also, error can be defined “the flawed side oflearner speech or writing”, which “deviates from some selectednorm of mature language performance” Richards (1971)acknowledges two different kinds of errors: performance errors,caused by, such as, fatigue and inattention, and competenceerrors resulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of thelanguage In another research, Ellis (1997) states that errorsreflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because thelearner does not know what the correct one is

Making pronunciation mistakes is a common part of thelanguage learning process There are three primary Englishpronunciation errors that learners should focus their attention onword stress, missing middle sounds of multi-syllable words andfinal consonant sounds (ending sounds)

Learners have problems pronouncing a final consonant sound,

such as /z/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /k/, /ʤ/ For example: “ mice, right, manage’ Instead, they leave them out These same sounds cause

difficulties when they are in the middle of words too – for example:

‘never, president’ Speakers also find the /ð/ sound difficult to

pronounce – as in weather, rather – and so they pronounce it as a /d/ or /z/ sound Similarly, the /θ/ sound – as in both – is replaced by/t/

There are so many mistakes of pronunciation that studentsoften make when speaking English such as ending sounds, wordand sentence stress or misunderstanding of vowels However, theresearcher would like to concentrate on the most commonmistakes of students in English Faculty at TMU That is endingsound

2.3 Consonants

Before studying about ending sounds, students have to learnabout consonants first In this chapter, students will get someuseful information about definition, classification and description

of English consonants

2.3.1 Definition of consonant

According to Wikipedia, a consonant is a speech sound that isarticulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract.Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced withthe front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of thetongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced byforcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n],which have air flowing through the nose (nasals) Contrasting withconsonants are vowels

A consonant is also defined as a speech sound that is not avowel It also refers to letters of the alphabet that represent thosesounds: Z, B,T,G and H are all consonants

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic,

consonants are “speech sounds made by completely or partly stopping the flow of air breathed out through the mouth”.

Another definition of consonant in phonetic and phonology is

that “sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips” The production of sounds, consonant was defined: “Consonant sounds 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.”

2.3.2 Classification and description of consonants

Consonants are classified according to how they are produced.The articulatory description for each consonant includes threepieces of information, the voicing, the place of articulation and themanner of articulation

The first type of consonant is its voicing- is it voiced orvoiceless ? For voiced consonants like [z] and [v], the vocal foldsvibrate For voiceless sounds like [s] and [f] the vocal folds areheld apart to let the air pass through

The second thing we need to know about consonant is place ofarticulation

 According to place of articulation, consonants are classifiedinto 8 types:

Bilabials : are made with two lips pressed together or coming

together./ b, p,w,m/

Labial-dentals : are produced with the lower lip touching the

upper front teeth /f,v /

Dentals : are produced with the lip or blade of the tongue

touching the upper front teeth./ θ, ð /

Alveolar : are produced with the lip or blade of the tougue

touching or approach the alveolar ridge /t, d ,s, z, n, r,l/

Palate – alveolar : are produced with the tougue tip or blade

coming close to the area between the back of the alveolar ridge andthe front of hard palate./ ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ /

Palatal : is produced with the front of the tongue coming

close to the hard palate / j /

Velars : are produced with the back of the tongue touching

the soft palate / k, g, ŋ/

Glottal : are produced without the active use of the tongue

and other parts of the mouth /h /

 According to manner of articulation, consonants includes 6types:

Nasals: are produced with the air-stream being stopped in the

oral cavity but the soft palate is down so that the air can go outthrough the nose / m, n, ŋ/

Plosives : are produced with the air-stream being stopped in

the oral cavity and the soft palate is raised blocking off the nasalcavity /p, b, t,d, k, g/

Fricatives : are the sounds in the production of which two

articulators come close together but there is still a small openingbetween them /f, v, ʃ ,ʒ, θ, ð, s, z, h/

Affricatives : are the sounds which are produced when a stop

is immediately followed by a fricative /tʃ , dʒ/

Lateral : is made when the air stream is obstructed at a point

along the centre of the oral tract, with imcomplete closurebetween one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of themouth

Approximants : are the sounds in the production of which two

articulators come close together but without the vocal tract being

narrowed to such an extent that a friction noise is produced /r, w,

j/

Picture 2.3 Diagram of the vocal tract showing the places

of articulation 2.4 English Ending sounds

Ending sound is pretty familiar to every English speakerbecause they occur at the end of many English words Tounderstand more about ending sounds, the researcher hasconducted to find out the definition and some ending sound errorswhich students make mistakes frequently And then, they cansuggest some effective methods to improve it

2.4.1 Definition

To ESL (English as second language) learners, the term

‘ending sound’ is familiar as it refers to those ultimate sounds in aword More precisely, it refers to the consonant sound as the wordcan end with one or more consonant sounds Thus, “endingsounds” in English pronunciation can be defined as thoseconsonant sounds which appear at the very end of words

In other words, Ending sound is called Coda which is the finalconsonant or consonant clusters (Barbara and Brian, 1997).According to Rachael (2003), there are 4 consonants in a coda Ifthere is no consonant at the end of word, it has a zero coda Asingle consonant is called the final consonant Any consonant

except ‘h, r, w and j’ may be a final coda.

/η/ - spring, ceiling, song

/l/ - call, file, smile

When there are two or more consonants standing at the end

of the word, the terms pre-final” and “post-final” consonants areused

Pre-final includes: /m/, /n/, /η/, /l/, /s/

Post-final includes: /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/

Two consonant clusters:

Pre-final: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, s followed by a final consonantConsonant plus post-final /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/

Example: help, bank, books, blind etc

Three consonant clusters:

Pre-final plus final plus post-final (e.g: stopped, speaks)

Final plus post-final plus post final /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/ (e.g: next,

Four consonant clusters:

Most are pre-final plus final plus post-final (e.g twelfths,prompts) Occasionally there is one final and three post finalconsonants (e.g sixths, texts )

2.4.2 Ending sound errors

To examine the mistakes that first-year students of EnglishFaculty at TMU meet when they speak English , the researcher willexplain general problems based on the works of several linguists.According to Mark, ending sound errors can be defined asinaccurate pronunciation in a word It is obvious that Vietnameseconsonant system is not similar to that of the English, and there isconsiderable variation between dialects Students can be expected

to come across particular difficulty with some or all of the followingsounds: /f/, /θ/, /z/, /ed/, /ð/, /ʤ/ because they have no equivalent

in their native language Students will simply delete the sound orsubstitude a more familiar one They can pronounce words withfinal voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/, /k/ However, theypronounce these consonants with extremely short duration andthe sounds are never released at the end position of a word

Moreover, the mistakes students often make is final consonant deletion This is the “deletion of one or more

consonants from a target cluster so that only a single consonantoccurs at syllable margins” It is a phonological process in languagewhere student delete the final consonant off words

Deleting the final consonants on words looks like this—> Catbecomes Ca At the word level, it may not sound too difficult tounderstand

For example:

/Mom I want ice cream/ suddenly becomes /Mo I wan I crea/

Mispronunciation : The consonant /θ/ is hard to pronounce for

some students They mostly pronounce it as the sound of /t/ For

example: “Teeth, path, with, breath, bath,” Besides, there are

some other ending sounds that students often make mistakes:/v/—>/f/

/ð/—>/d/

/ʤ/—>/d/

/∫/—>/s/

/z/—>/d/

According to Treiman, there are some ending sound mistakes

Omitting nasal and liquid sounds: In consonants cluster

consisting of prefinal+ final consonants with nasals (/n/,/m/) orliquids (/r/,/l/) as the first element, (/m, n, l, r/ + final consonant),nasals and liquid sounds are often omitted (Treiman, Zukowski &Richmond, Wetly, (1995)

Phonetically possible spelling: In representing the first

consonant of a cluster, spellers tend to spell words in aninaccurate but phonetically plausible ways

In her research, ending sound errors were divided into 3groups:

Reduction is omitting the final consonant or one element of a

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

It can be said that this chapter is the most important one Inthis chapter, student’s pronunciation mistakes will be given outand a survey questionnaire is conducted in order to collectinformation and data for the research First of all, the researcherwill present methodology, participants, design of the surveyquestionnaire Then, student’s pronunciation mistakes in realityare also analyzed by result from the survey questionnaire

The researcher uses some types of instruments to collect datasuch as recording, observations, information included inquestionare or indepth interviews for teachers To collect data, atfirst an observation scheme was created It was designed carefullywith reference from earlier researches It was then brought toclass and noted with type and frequency of students’ endingsound mistakes And then, the researcher classify them and put it

different categories.

Besides, A tape-recorder was used to record students’sspeech and can be in-depth analysis.The pronunciation test isconducted by recording the students’s utterances while they arereading some words and sentences The recorded utterances will

be transcibed into phonetic transcriptions After that, tapesrecorder will be sent to 2 native speakers to help analyze and finderrors and frequency with which errors are made

Also, the researcher should interview directly teachers andhear their views The lecturerd are asked some questions like

‘Which ending - sound mistakes do you think first year Englishmajor students might make when speaking English? Or Whichmethods of teaching do you use to help students improve theirpronunciation (ending sound)? Because only teachers knowstudents’s ending sound mistakes and the reasons for them

Design of the questionare

In this study, survey questionnaire is conducted to find outstudent’s opinions and information about common pronunciationmistakes that first year English majors at Thuongmai Universityhave to face The survey questionnaire includes 11 questions

Question 1, question 2, question 3 and question 4 are aboutstudent’s attitudes toward English speaking skill in general and theimportance of pronunciation in particular

Question 5 and question 6 are designed to find out student’sdegree in pronunciation as well as their frequency of makingpronunciation mistakes when speaking English

Three next questions 7,8,9 get information of some commonpronunciation mistakes that first year English majors studentsencounter when speaking These questions bring specific andrealistic data about their common ending sound mistakes whichthey tend to misunderstand

Question 10 and question 11 are conducted to inquire

students ‘opinions about some suggested solutions and theimportance of methods which can help them avoid pronunciationproblems and improve their speaking.

The survey questionnaire is designed for 3 main followingpurposes:

To find out the student’s attitude about Englishpronunciation and its importance

To get information of student’s pronunciation problems inreality

To inquire about student’s opinions on suggestedtechniques in order to solve the problems

Except for above questions for the students, the researcheralso has conducted a direct interview with teachers Becauseteachers are well specialized, they can easily find students’ endingsound mistakes Some following questions for the teachers :

Question 1: What do you think about the importance ofpronunciation to first-year English majors at TMU?

Question 2: How often do students make pronunciationmistakes when they speak English in the class?

Question 3: Which ending - sound mistakes do you think firstyear English majored students might make when speakingEnglish?

Question 5: What are the causes of difficulties whenpronouncing ending sounds?

Question 6: Which methods of teaching do you use to helpstudents improve their pronunciation (especially ending sounds)?

3.1.2 The participants

One of the most important tasks a qualitative researcher canundertake is the selection of participants In this study, theresearcher has conducted the survey at Thuongmai University All

related data used to analyze for this study were collected fromfirst year English majors in two classes K56N1 and K56N2 atThuongmai University by survey questionaires Besides, theparticipants were some teachers form English of facultyspecializing in pronunciation 53 students selected randomly in 2two classes were sent the questionaires and then they filled in Allparticipant data was collected within a week A total of fiftystudents were approached with about 80% positive responses.This survey is comprised of 48 girls and 5 boys at the age of 19.The study is about Students’ ending sound mistakes so if weonly interview students, the results will not be satisfactory andreliable enough Therefore, the researcher had direct interviewswith some teachers It is obvious that teachers are well –qualifiedwho can easily realize students’ mistakes during their teachinglessons and the difficulties of pronouncing ending sounds Andthen, they can give their students effective methods to improvepronunciation.

3.2 Findings and discussion

3.1.1 Students’ attitude toward English speaking skill

in general and pronunciation in particular

60.40%; 60.40%

7.50%

32.10%

Extremely Very important Important Not very important Unimportant

Figure 3.1 The importance of pronunciation in speaking

English

The aim of this question is to find out pronunciation‘simportance in speaking English There are five degrees which areextremely important, very important, important, not veryimportant, unimportant The results given in figure 3.1 reveals apositive point It proves how much students care about Englishpronunciation The results shows the level of the importance ofpronunciation which was answered by first year English majorstudents at TMU

The good result is that most students understand thesignificance of pronunciation with 60,4 % of student choosing

“extremely importance” 32,1 % of them also find pronunciation

very important It is so good because no students have a doubt ofthe role of pronunciation in speaking ( unimportant with 0%)

natu-Get a better grade in lish speaking test

eng-Help you listen to english better

Feel confident to nicate with foreign people

commu-Good pronuncation can make it easier to be un-derstood

I'll choose 2 options better listening a

Figure 3.2 The reasons of learning pronunciation

From thefigure above, it can be said that the majority ofstudents learn pronunciation with the aim of being more naturaland fluent in English speaking and improve speaking skill whichaccount for about 56.6% The other reason is to feel confident to

communicate with foreign people with 17% The reason for good pronunciation can make it easier for you to be understood is the

one that has the smallest percentage with only 1.9 %.

About the time students spend on studying pronunciation andtheir level of pronunciation, the result from the surveyquestionnaire makes clear that the number of students who getgood level is relatively high with 35.8% Therefore, they will notspend too much time on learning pronunciation 56.6 % studentsonly spend less than one hour However, there are a lot ofstudents who study pronunciation at normal level (not very good)with 49.1 % It takes them about 1-2 hours to improve every day.Luckily, just a small number of students are poor at pronunciation(7.5 %) Thus, they spend up to 3 hours finding the effective ways

of learning