An investigation into the pronunciation of final consonants performed by english majored freshmen at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY of LINGUISTIC and LITERATURE An Investigation into the Pronunciation of Final Consonants Performed by English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University Supervisor: Student’s name: Duong Thi Mong Tuyen Wa Thai Nhu Phuong, M.A Student’s code: 0857010105 Class: English 3C May, 2012 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In this chapter, there are two main parts The background information and the reason why I choose the topic are focused on the rationale And the content of the rest part is about organization of the thesis In this part, I would like to introduce the main compositions of the study 1.1 Rationale For thousands of years, language has been a tool for communication To express the thoughts and understand what the others speak, people must have a general language system and English is considered as general language Nowadays, English is the most popular language which is interpreted as a useful vehicle for international communication (Varasarin P, 2007) and plays an important role in acknowledging customs, scientific and technology information Therefore, the demand of learning English is increasing more and more To communicate with foreigners, we are required being good at pronunciation, listening and speaking skills In this research, only the field of pronunciation is mentioned because this field is believed to be extremely helpful to the enhancement of communicative skill in English At the present, almost English majored students think that learning pronunciation which is easy, they just listen and repeat after what their pronunciation teacher pronounce However, in reality, the learning pronunciation is very difficult Students often make various mistakes such as word and sentence stress, intonation, the length of vowel sounds, ending consonants, linking words and so forth Moreover, the common errors of all language background, Vietnamese students have their typical errors concerned their own language First of all, missing final sound is among some factors of need specific to Vietnamese students because Vietnamese tongue which final consonants are never paid attention to or pronounced them So, Vietnamese people often tend to make mistakes with final consonants when they learn or use English as the foreign language For these above reasons, I decided to conduct the research about the final consonant sounds of English learners in general and the English majored freshmen at Tay Do University (TDU) in particular 1.2 The organization of the thesis The thesis consists of five chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature review, (3) Research methodology, (4) Results and Discussions, and (5) conclusion Chapter 1, the introduction of the thesis provides the rationale and organization of the thesis Chapter 2, the literature review presents the definitions of terminologies and carrying out the related literatures The organization of the chapter consists of five main parts: (1) the term of pronunciation, (2) the term of English sounds, (3) The importance of English pronunciation, (4) the term of English pronunciation error and (5) some previous studies Chapter 3, the research methodology of the thesis, shows some aspects such as the purpose of the research (1), research question (2), hypothesis (3), the participants (4), instruments (5) and procedure (6) Chapter 4, the results and discussions of the thesis, there are two main parts in this chapter The data collected from the test about the final consonant sounds of the English majored freshmen at TDU is summarized in the result part In the rest part, discussion is conducted to discuss the results in the previous part Chapter 5, the conclusions and implications of the thesis, there are four part in this chapter: (1) conclusion, (2) implications, (3) limitations, and (4) suggestions for further study CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW The aim of this chapter is to review the literature which is related to this research In this chapter, I would like to show the definitions and related literature The organization of the chapter consists of five main parts The first part is the term of pronunciation The second part is the term of English sounds The importance of English pronunciation is also mentioned in the third part In addition, the term of English pronunciation error is shown in the fourth part Final part is some previous studies 2.1 The definition of the term pronunciation In our life, we always communicate with other people such as our family members, friends, teachers and any body else wherever and whenever even foreigners But how can we it? Surely, we perform it out by speaking, what sort of tools we use to speak? To answer this question, every one knows obviously that we use language to speak And in speaking, we need the manner of word or language is usually spoken that is called pronunciation Pronunciation is a sound of a word or language in which people usually use as tool of communication Generally speaking, pronunciation is defined as “the way in which a language is spoken” (Oxford advanced learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992) According to Quirk (1987), pronunciation is the way in which a language or particular word is pronounced According to the American Heritage Dictionary of English language, th ed (2007), pronunciation is defined as “the way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood” as cited in (Nguyen 2008, p6) In addition, pronunciation is a word can be spoken in different ways by various individuals or groups, depending on many factors, such as the time in which they grew up, the area in which they grew up, the area in which they now live, their social class and their education Therefore, pronunciation is an important tool to communicate well and understand each other better 2.2 Definition of the term English sounds There are 44 sounds in English They are divided into groups: 20 vowel sounds which contain 12 vowels, diphthongs, and 24 consonant sounds In this thesis, the researcher would like to investigate the final consonant sounds However, the sounds system in English is also mentioned to create a premise for the problems which need to analyze 2.2.1 Vowel sounds A vowel is a speech sound produced with the vibration of the vocal cords and in which the air stream from the lung is not blocked in anyway in the mouth or throat (vowel sounds that have no obstructions), (Oxford advanced learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992) According to Roach (2000, p10), a vowel is a speech sound pronounced with no obstruction of the air stream in the mouth or throat, and usually with vibration of the vocal cords Vowels not have exact points of articulation The tongue does not touch anywhere and it performs a very general role Figure Vowel chart 2.2.2 Diphthong sounds Diphthongs are types of vowels where two vowel sounds are connected in a continuous, gliding motion Kelly (2003) states diphthong sound is “a combination of vowel sounds” Roach (2000, p23) asserts “A diphthong is un-segmental, gliding speech sound which is usually considered as one distinctive vowel of a particular language but really involves two vowels, with one vowel gliding to the other” 2.2.3 Consonant sounds The present thesis focuses on final consonant sounds Thus, the definition of consonant sounds is essential to concern in part to support later analysis In previous study, the researchers have been defining the term “consonant sounds” In general, “consonants are the speech sounds made by completely or partly stopping the flow of the air breathed out through the mouth” (Oxford advanced learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992:192) In articulatory phonetics, a sound in spoken language is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence is defined as a consonant sound (From encyclopedia) According to Roach, (2000) “sound in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips” In generally, consonant sounds include 24 sounds and can be divided into groups: (oral) stops, nasal (stops), fricatives, affricates, lateral/ liquid, and glide Manners Places of articulation Work of of articulatio n vocal Bi- Labio- Inter- Apico- Post- Alveo- Fronto- Dorso- labio dental dental Alveolar alveola palatal palatal velar Glottal cords r Oral stops Nasal p t k Voiceless b d g Voiced m n ŋ Voiced stops Fricatives f v Lateral θ s ʃ Voiceless ð z ʒ Voiced l Voiced Affricates Glides r tʃ Voiceless dʒ Voiced j w h Voiceless Voiced Figure 2: Classification of English consonants by Nguyen (2010, p.21) 2.2.4 English final consonants Final consonants are important in English It is necessary to clarify the definition of final consonants Final consonants in English pronunciation can be described as those consonant sounds which occur at the end of words They are also called Codas “the Coda is the final consonant or consonant cluster” (Barbara & Brian, 1994) Richael (2003) states that there are consonants in the coda:  If there are no consonants at the end of word, it has a zero coda For example: zoo [zu:], pie [pai], tea [ti:]…  A single consonant is called the final consonant, except /w/, /j/, /r/, /h/ For example: sleep [sli:p], ride [ raid], feel [fi:l]……  When there are two consonants standing at the end of word, the term prefinal consonants, which include the consonant sounds /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /s/……, are used beside the term final consonants For example: help [help], link [link], think [θiŋk]  When there are more than two consonants standing at the end of word, we add the term post- final consonants after pre- final consonants and final consonants For example: helped [he-l-p-t], fifths [fi-f-θ-s], sixths [si-k-s-θ-s]…… 2.3 The importance of English pronunciation In communication, if a person mispronounces a sound, a stress, and a word or wrong usage the rhythm, intonation of his utterances, he will surely cause misunderstanding, even no understanding for his partner, and he will get failure in communication To be successful in communication with others, it is recommended that people should have good pronunciation in general and good English pronunciation in particular Therefore, achieving good English pronunciation is very, very important for English learners The well- known English Phoneticians A C Gimson (2010, p.3) states that “To speak any language a person must know nearly 100% of its phonetics, while only 50-90% of its grammar and 1% of the vocabulary may be sufficient” as cited in Essential Phonetics for IELTS The statement mentions that main factors of language that are arranged following the important level In contrast, with some people who think vocabulary is the most important thing in learning English and after know much more vocabulary, they have to know and use grammar structure well However, they not know when they not have a good pronunciation background, they cannot memorize, read and write the vocabulary well And if they cannot memorize, read and write the vocabulary, how can they memorize the vocabulary? Therefore, their learning English is more and more difficult and boring The English linguistic Firth (2010, p.3) also says that “Without phonetics there can be no morphology of a spoken language, without intonation no syntax” as cited in Essential Phonetics for IELTS Thus, English pronunciation is the important subject it can be a good foundation at the English learners as a foreign language In short, we can not deny the fact that English pronunciation plays a very important role in learning English 2.4 Definition of the term English Pronunciation error 2.4.1 What is pronunciation error? First of all, the definition of the term “errors” would be mentioned first to make a basic foundation for later theory Corder (1967, p161- 170) states, error can be considered as systematic consistent deviance characteristic of the learner’s linguistic system at a given stage of learning In linguistic field, Dulay, Burt and Krashen, (1982, p138) define errors as “flawed side of learner speech or writing” In pronunciation, errors are considered as the inability in language and mispronunciation that may affect intelligibility in communication (Nguyen, 2007) In addition, Jenkins (2006, p36) also defines pronunciation errors are “variants of pronunciation which prevent one communicator from understanding the propositional content of the other’s utterances” Until the late 1960s, errors error of English learners would be one of the reasons for conversation breakdown Thus, some of implications would be expressed following with the wish partly contributes to improve the English pronunciation skill of English learners 5.2 Implications To have a standard pronunciation in English, pronouncing the final consonants is very very important Due to the effect of mother language, many English learners often omit or glide the English final consonants The ways to produce the English consonants are not difficult, but it require the learners have to recognize its present to avoid the habit omit or glide the final consonants In brief, English learners cannot speak English as the native speakers, but we can speak English correctly and standard To have a standard pronunciation in English, we have to effort so much in the process learning English Through the research, I would like to help the freshmen majoring in English at TDU recognize the importance of English pronunciation and pronunciation final consonant correctly that is helpful for communication by English To make others understand what speakers say easily, first the speakers must pronounce in standard and keep the final consonants in their speech To this, I would like to give some suggested solutions like - Listening the pronunciation in the CDs and repeat them Firstly, try to listen a word or a sentence the CD’s voice and repeat them Next, you continue to repeat and start to record your voice Finally, listening again your voice in the recorder and compare your final consonants and pronunciation with the CD If it is not really similar to the CD, try to repeat these steps many times - Looking at your pronunciation teacher’s mouth and repeat while you see your mouth in the mirror, and compare your mouth and your teacher’s mouth If it is not really similar to your teacher’s pronunciation, try to repeat and correct it many times 35 - English learners should know about linking sounds The final consonant of one word will be linked with the beginning vowel of another word If you this well, you will not be afraid that mispronouncing of the final consonants - English learners should have a basic knowledge about how to produce consonants, especially with consonants are at the ending position I hope with these above suggested solutions which can help the English learners in general and the freshmen majored English at TDU in particular who can improve pronunciation in communication And through the improvement pronunciation they can study other skills in English well 5.3 Limitations The research was finished However, from a critical point of view, the research still remained some limitations Firstly, during the study, there were many difficulties in finding out the relevant materials to get the clear and believable information to support the research Secondly, the number of participants was limited In addition, after getting data from tap recorders, there were some recorders were not clear enough to clarify all of their features because of lacking of necessary instruments for recording Finally, the research was carried out in months which was considered as the limited time 5.4 Suggestions for further study For these limitations above, I would like to give some suggestions for further studies First, the further studies should be conducted on a large number of participants with a longer time Moreover, as concerning final consonant sounds, I hope that this thesis will be useful reference for later researches on the investigation into consonant sounds or it will be suggested in the investigation into the initial or medial consonant sounds 36 REFERENCES Barbara A H and Brian B (1997) The Status of Final Consonant Clusters in English Syllables: Evidence from Children Journal of Experimental Child Psychology Volume 64, Issue P 119-136 University of New England, New South Wales, Australia Retrieved January 16, 2009 from the web http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S002209659692322X Bourassa & Treiman (2003) Spelling in Children with Dyslexia: Analyses from the Treiman- Bourassa Early Spelling Test Corder, S.P (1967) The Significance of Learner’s Errors International Review of Applied Linguistics 5:4, 161-170 Chang, F C (2002) Chinese-Speaking EFL Learners’ Performances of Processing English Consonant Clusters National Chiayi University Dulay, H., Burt, M and Krashen, S (1982) Language Two Oxford: Oxford University Press Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., Collins, P & Blair, D (1993) An Introduction to Language Second Australian Edition, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1988) Ha, C.T (2005) Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English Journal of Science- Foreign languages Retrieved on http://news.vnu.edu.vn/Bai3.pdf Hu Min- John A Gordon Dịch giả: Lê Huy Lâm Essential Phonetics for IELTS Nhà xuất bản: Tổng hợpTP.HCM Jenkins J (2000) The phonology of English as an International Language: New Models, New Norms, New Goals- Oxford University Press, Hongkong Jenkins, J (2004) Research in Teaching Pronunciation and Intonation Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24:109-125 Kelly, G (2003) How to teach pronunciation Oxfordshire: Bluestone Press Kelly, G (2003) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 37 Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching New York: Cambridge University Press Littlewood, W (1981) How to teach pronunciation Oxfordshire: Bluestone Press McDonald, Doris and Yule G (1995) The different effects of pronunciation teaching Nguyen, H.D (2008) Common mispronunciations made by CLC students at English Department, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University VNU, Hanoi Nguyen, H.Q (2010) English Phonetics and Phonology Can Tho University press Nguyen, T.T.G (2011) Some common mistakes in final consonant pronunciation of English majored students at Tay Do University Tay Do University Nguyen, T.T.T (2007) Difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English final consonants Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska C Uppsats Oxford Advanced Learner's Encyclopedic (1989) Oxford: Oxford University Press Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic (1992) Oxford: Oxford University Press Quirk Sr (1987) in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Rachael, A.K (2003) Understanding English Variation University of Surrey Roehampton, Week Richards, J.C (1971) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Roach, P (2000) English Phonetics and Phonology Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Treiman, R (1985) Phonemic awareness and spelling: Children's judgments not always agree with adults’ Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 39, 182-201 Treiman, R (1985) ISSN 1740- 4983 Phonemic English teaching forum, volume 43, number Journal of Language and Learning Vol.3 No Treiman, R (1989) The internal structure of the syllable In G Carlson and M Tanenhaus (Eds.), Linguistic structure in language processing Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic 38 Treiman, R., Zukowski, A., & Richmond-Welty, E D (1995) What happened to the “n” of sink? Children’s spellings of final consonant clusters Cognition, 55, 1-38 Treiman, R., & Bourassa, D C (2000a) Children’s written and oral spelling Varasarin P (2007) An Action Research Study of Pronunciation Training, Language Learning Strategies and Speaking Confidence Other degree thesis, Victoria University 39 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my honest appreciation of the following people who provided great assistance with my research My graduation paper could not be accomplished without these highly valuable contributions First and foremost, I would love to send my heartfelt gratitude towards my supervisor, Ms Wa Thai Nhu Phuong, who helped me during my research process She supported, instructed and edited my drafts with her friendly mind She helped me from the first step to the end step of the research In addition, she also encouraged me afford to research when I had troubles Without all of which it is impossible for me to complete the research Secondly, I would like to say the sincerest thanks to Mrs Dang Thi Bao Dung, who gave me valuable encouragements when I faced to the problems and enthusiastically supplied for my study Moreover, all 30 English majored freshmen at Tay Do University, the participants of my research are also acknowledged, for their cooperating and allowing the time to my interview and pronunciation exercises in the research Furthermore, I would like to show my warm and truly thanks to my friends especially Lai who supported me so much I also thank my family who had never failed to encourage me to overcome many difficulties during the research process Last but never least, I owe my thanks to the readers for their interests in and feedback of the research i COMMENTS  ii ABSTRACT Nowadays, English has become more and more popular It has been considered as an international language and the most popular foreign language in Vietnam It is an important duty of education that users of English should communicate successfully with the target language Therefore, the teaching and learning of pronunciation should be focused more Thus, this study aimed to find out which final consonant sounds caused difficulties for English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Data were collected randomly from 30 English majored freshmen in English at Tay Do University The main instruments were two pronunciation exercises to test the student’s pronunciation ability and an interview to get their information The results showed that freshmen majoring in English tended to omit, replace the final consonants, or add an/some additional sound(s) to the end of consonants which belong to fricatives groups /f, v, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ/ especially with the sounds /ð/ and /ʃ/ In addition, /θ/-/ð/, /ʃ/-/dʒ/ and /ʃ/-/tʃ/ were the three minimal pairs of final consonants which caused difficulties for the freshmen at Tay Do University iii TABLE OF CONTENTS  Acknowledgement i Comments ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of tables, figures and charts vi Chapter I Introduction 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The organization of the thesis Chapter II Literature Review 2.1 Definition of the term English Pronunciation 2.2 Definition of the term English sounds 2.2.1 Vowel sounds 2.2.2 Diphthong sounds 2.2.3 Consonant sounds 2.2.4 English final sounds 2.3 The importance of English pronunciation 2.4 Definition of the term English Pronunciation error 2.4.1 What is pronunciation error? 2.4.2 English final consonants error 2.5 Previous studies 11 Chapter III Research Methodology 12 3.1 Research Aim 12 3.2 Research Question 12 3.3 Hypothesis 12 iv 3.4 Participants 13 3.5 Instruments 13 3.5.1 Test 13 3.5.2 Questions for interview 14 3.6 Procedure 14 Chapter IV Results and Discussions 16 4.1 Results 16 4.1.1 The result of analyzing of the errors in pronunciation exercises 16 4.1.1.1 The errors with single final consonant sounds via the pronouncing single words 16 4.1.1.2 The errors with single final consonant sounds via the pronouncing minimal pairs of sounds 20 4.1.2 The results of the interview 22 4.2 Discussion 24 4.2.1 The problems of pronouncing final consonant sounds via the pronouncing of single words 25 4.2.2 The problems of pronouncing final consonant sounds via the pronouncing of minimal pairs of sounds 28 4.2.3 The discussion of the interview 31 Chapter V Conclusions and Implications 34 5.1 Conclusions 34 5.2 Implications 35 5.4 Limitations 36 5.5 Suggestions for further studies 36 References 37 Appendix I vii Appendix II viii v LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS Chart 1: The errors of five groups of consonants Chart 2: Number of errors with minimal pairs of final consonants Figure 1: Vowel chart Figure 2: Classification of English consonants Table 1: The errors with single final consonant sounds Table 2: Errors in pronouncing final consonants in minimal pairs of words vi APPENDIX I TEST Hello! My name is Tuyen I have been majoring in English in class English 3C at Tay Do University since 2008 I am now doing a research on the above topic for my graduation thesis I would like to ask for your help with this test, which serves as the major source of data for my thesis I just record your voice when you help me to pronounce the test and you not have to give your name Thus, please pronounce the test as sincerely and correctly as possible Thank you in advance! I Please pronounce these words Friendship Maximum Cough Ask Feel Exchange Active Top Adverb Machine Short Frog Life Massage Standing Between Published Tongue Length Stretch Remained Address Breathe Garage Windows Earth Prize Furnish Cake Punish Job Wonderful Message Switch Reference Booth Column Pig postcard Move II Please pronounce these minimal pairs of sound Mop – Mob Tome - Tone Fife - Five Pill - Pin Bath - Bathe Back - Bag Beat - Bead Rope - Robe File - Fine Teem - Teen Breath-Breathe Win - Wing Ash – Age Swing-Swim Wash – Watch Cash -Catch Place - Plays Rice – Rise Pick - Pig Half - Halve Sung - Sum Wet – Wed Sin - Sing Cash - Cage vii APPENDIX II QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW Do you think that pronouncing the final consonants is important? Why or why not? (Bạn có nghĩ việc phát âm phụ âm cuối quan trọng không? Tại quan trọng/ không quan trọng?) Do you often pay attention to pronouncing the final consonants when you speak or read? How often? (Bạn có thường ý đến việc phát âm phụ âm cuối bạn nói đọc không? Bạn cho biết mức độ thường xuyên phần trăm?) What are your difficulties in pronouncing the final consonants? Please explain and give examples (Bạn có gặp vấn đề việc phát âm phụ âm cuối khơng? Bạn vui lịng nói rõ vấn đề cho ví dụ?) In your opinion, what would happen, if you not pronounce the final consonant sounds? (Theo ý kiến bạn, điều xảy bạn không phát âm phụ âm cuối?) According to you, why the English learners often mispronounce with the final consonants when they speak English? (Theo bạn, người học tiếng Anh thường mắc lỗi phụ âm cuối họ nói tiếng Anh?) THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! viii ix x