Luận văn thạc sĩ Luật học: Nghiên cứu một số lỗi phát âm thường gặp của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành Tiếng Anh trường Đại học Luật Hà Nội và một số biện pháp khắc phục

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGHANOI LAW UNIVERSITY LE QUYNH CHI 443031 AN INVESTIGATION INTO SOME COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES MADE BY FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORE

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

LE QUYNH CHI

443031

AN INVESTIGATION INTO SOME COMMON

PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES MADE BY YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED

FIRST-STRATEGIES TO COPE WITH

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

LE QUYNH CHI

443031

AN INVESTIGATION INTO SOME COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES MADE BY FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED

STRATEGIES TO COPE WITH Major: English Language

Hanoi - 2023

I hereby state that I: Lê Quỳnh Chi- student code 443031, being a candidate

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the University relating

to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in

the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in

accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care,loan or reproduction of the paper

Supervisor Student

Tran Thi Thuong Le Quynh Chi

April 4", 2023

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSFirst of all, I would like to acknowledge the great assistance of mysupervisor, Mrs Tran Thi Thuong I am very grateful to her for all the help she haskindly given to me She has always provided helpful comments, and support for my

thesis whenever I needed it I would never have completed this thesis without her

kind help

Additionally, I owe a special debt to all my research subjects that are year English major students at Hanoi Law University for giving their time andenthusiastic participation during my data collection I wish to express my respectand most grateful thanks to Foreign Language Department, especially the Englishteam for their support during my study

first-Above all, I owe my greatest debt and most heartfelt thanks beloved familyand my dearest friends for their support, patience, and active encouragement.Without all of which, my thesis would have not been possible

This study investigated the common pronunciation mistakes made by

first-year English-majored students at Hanoi Law University and suggested strategies toimprove their pronunciation This study adopted a mixed research design, includingboth quantitative and qualitative data, and used voice recording to find out a deepinsight into the pronunciations that students made The study utilized pronunciation

tests and questionnaires to collect data from 30 students The findings indicated that

students struggle with vowel and consonant sounds as well as suprasegmental errorssuch as word stress and intonation Additionally, the study found that Vietnamesestudents frequently mispronounce specific ending sounds Furthermore, tosupplement the data gathered from the pronunciation test, a survey questionnairehas been designed specifically for Legal English Department lectures at Hanoi LawUniversity The questionnaire aimed to gather information on the most commonmistakes made by first-year students in their pronunciation of English as well as themost effective methods for improving it In order to collect information on the mosteffective methods for improving English pronunciation, a survey questionnaire for

students has been developed The study showed the most effective method for

improving pronunciation, according to both students and teachers, was watchingmovies and TV shows in English The study provided practical recommendationsfor teachers to design effective teaching methods and materials to help studentsovercome their pronunciation difficulties

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1 Question 1: "What are the common pronunciation errors made by first-yearEnglish-majored?" (Finding from questionnaires and the pronunciation test) 28

2 Question 2: "What strategies should be taken by first-year English-majored

students to improve their pronunciation?" (Findings in the questionnaires) 39

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Appendix II: Survey questionnaire for SfU[€TIÉS c5 555 << 5 5 555595 vi

Appendix ITI: Survey questionnaire for lectures - 55 <5 55<<<< seees+ xi

vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURESFIGURES

Figure 1 Features of English pronunciation (Burns, 2003) -«++++<ss+2 7Figure 2 The Articulators (Roach 2000) c6 2+ 2111112111118 11EExkE 8Figure 3 Subdivisions of the tongue (Roach 2000) - .- 5 S< + ++ssvessseeereeeee 8Figure 4 The articulation of vowels (Kelly, 2001) cccccccesccecssseceesteeeesseeeesseeeeeees 9Figure 5 Vowel mistakes made by students (N=30) eceececceeeeteceeeteeeeeneeeeseneeees 28Figure 6 Teacher's beliefs in the difficulty of vowel sounds (N=10) 29Figure 7 Consonants mistakes made by students (N=30) S2 31Figure 8 Teacher's beliefs in the difficult of consonat sounds (N=10) 32Figure 9 Ending sounds mistakes made by students (N=30) . -~ 34Figure 10 Teachers' beliefs about common pronunciation mistakes made byJ0 S0) C0 0 37Figure 11 Methods used by first year students to improve pronunciation (N=99) 42Figure 12 Teachers'thought about the Methods students should use (N=10) 42

Table 1 Chart of English consonant phoneimes - s + ss+++++seex+eex+sss2 10 Table 3: Manner GỀ Sr CO Oth ss nen scunnggn nà ga ùn thì Ha G8108 san ncna HỘ GB) H81 Rann ABA ORDA ARI II Table 3 Place of arfICuÏafIOTI - 56 s6 1163111 119111 911 91 HH 11

Table 0/10 c 0 e Ả - 26

Table 5 Number of stundents mispronounced vowel sounds (N=30) 29

Table 6 Number of students mispronounced consonant sounds (N=30) 32

Table 7 Number of students mispronounced ending sounds (N=30) 36

Table 8 Students common mistakes in pronunciation (N=30) - 37

Table 9 The importance of good pronunciation for learning English (N=99) 39

Table 10 Descriptive Statistics of the importance of good pronunciation for learning English 0) 0 40

Table 11 Frequency of learning and practicing pronunciation (N=99) 41

Table 12 Descriptive Statistics of the frequency of learning pronunciation by 9991911116)16:1511500ÀI-5201010087 “da 4I Table 13 Descriptive Statistics of the Frequency of the methods (N=99) 43

Table 14 Descriptive Statistics of the effectiveness of the methods (Students) S44 45

Table 15 Descriptive Statistics of the effectiveness of the methods (Teachers) 00 46 Table 16 The level of efficiency of the methods (N=99) 525 css++<sss+sss 47

1 Rationale for the study

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for English languageproficiency around the world As society continues to develop, it has become morenecessary than ever to be able to communicate effectively in English In order tocommunicate effectively, it is crucial to have good pronunciation Salikhova (2020)argued that pronunciation is the most important and difficult problem that non-native speakers face when learning a foreign language Improper pronunciation canlead to negative impressions, misunderstandings, and ineffective communication.Salikhova also emphasized that, in real-life conversations, pronunciation is the firstthing noticed, and people will quickly determine if someone has good or badpronunciation Even with a limited vocabulary, good pronunciation is critical foreffective communication, and a strong foreign accent can overshadow goodgrammar and vocabulary skills Pronunciation is particularly important for non-

native speakers, who may struggle to be understood even if their grammar and

vocabulary are correct Therefore, it is essential to address pronunciation as part oflanguage education and practice Duong (2009) claimed that Vietnamese people aregenerally good at grammar and do not make many grammar mistakes However,they tend to have a different attitude towards pronunciation mistakes, which are

often considered less important and not given much attention

Recognizing the importance of correct pronunciation, this study will focusspecifically on improving speaking skills, with an emphasis on pronunciation Theresearcher has chosen to conduct a study on the common pronunciation mistakesmade by first-year English majors at Hanoi Law University Although there havebeen many research papers at Hanoi Law University on the topic of pronunciation,

no one has yet mentioned the mistakes that English students often make Theresearcher has observed that many students struggle with pronunciation, which canlead to misunderstandings and difficulty communicating with native speakers.Furthermore, many students are not aware of the specific sounds they aremispronouncing, and they may have trouble learning and practicing properpronunciation Therefore, this study aims to identify common pronunciation

1

mistakes and provide suggestions for improving pronunciation skills so that

students can communicate more effectively in English

For the reasons mentioned above, the author decided to choose the topic "Aninvestigation into some common pronunciation mistakes made by first-yearEnglish-majored students at Hanoi Law University and some suggested strategies

to cope with" to find out the pronunciation errors of first-year students at HanoiLaw University

2 Aims of the study

This research aimed to investigate common pronunciation mistakes made byfirst-year English major students and the methods that should be taken to improvepronunciation at Hanoi Law University Specifically, this research aimed to obtaintwo objectives The first objective was to identify the typical English pronunciationmistakes made by first-year English major students at Hanoi Law University Thelast one was to give some solutions to improve the English pronunciation learning

of students at Hanoi Law University

In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, this study focused

on two research questions:

(1) What are the common pronunciation errors made by first-year majored?

English-(2) What strategies should be taken by first-year English-majored students toimprove their pronunciation?

3 Scope of the study

The study focused on surveying K47 freshmen majoring in English This

study focused more on researching and identifying the pronunciation mistakes

related to English pronunciation than on speaking skills Through their involvement,the study will be able to investigate the pronunciation errors and suggest appropriate

methods to address these issues Due to the constraint of human capacity to deal

with a great amount of data within the time limit, the theoretical framework for this

research will be merely based on certain features of pronunciation, such as vowelsand consonants in English, as well as intonation, linking, word stress.

4 Significance of the study

The study on the concentration of learning English pronunciation forstudents at Hanoi Law University is of great importance for several reasons Firstly,

it aimed to provide insights on the crucial role of pronunciation in the process oflearning English, which is an essential language for academic and professionalsuccess Secondly, the findings of this study can be utilized to develop effectiveteaching strategies that can improve English pronunciation skills among students,thereby enhancing their overall language proficiency Thirdly, the study results can

be shared with other institutions and educators to promote a greater understanding

of the significance of pronunciation in language learning Additionally, the datacollected from this study can serve as a valuable resource for future research onEnglish language learning and pedagogy in Vietnam and beyond Therefore, thisstudy has the potential to contribute significantly to the field of English languageteaching and learning, and can help pave the way for further research anddevelopment in this area This study is important because it addresses a criticalaspect of language learning: pronunciation By identifying common mistakes made

by English learners and providing guidance on how to improve pronunciation skills,this study can help students communicate more effectively in English and achievetheir academic and professional goals

5 Methods for the study

In order to accomplish the objectives outlined above, this study adopted amixed research design that includes both quantitative and qualitative data Apronunciation test was used to collect thirty participants pronunciation mistakes.This test served as the main instrument for detecting errors in the students' Englishpronunciation The test was conducted at Hanoi Law University, with the researcherpersonally recording the students

Furthermore, to supplement the data gathered from the pronunciation test, asurvey questionnaire has been designed specifically for Legal English Department

teachers at Hanoi Law University The questionnaire aimed to gather information

on the most common mistakes made by first-year students in their pronunciation of

English, as well as the most effective methods for improving it

Finally, in order to collect information on the most effective methods forimproving English pronunciation, a survey questionnaire has been developed Thisquestionnaire will be administered to K47 English-majoring students at Hanoi LawUniversity By gathering their insights and experiences in the hope of gaining amore comprehensive understanding of the issue at hand and developing moreeffective strategies for improving English pronunciation among first-year students

6 Organization of the study:

Part A, Introduction, presents rationale, objectives, research questions,scope, methods, significance, and design of the study

- Chapter 3, Findings and Discussion shows the analytical findings of the

of the data obtained

Part C, Conclusion provides summary, limitations, implication and

recommendations

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this section, previously conducted research in the detail fields ofpronunciation will be presented and discussed This must be done in order to placethe thesis in the relevant context for the research that will be conducted.Furthermore, it will provide the readers with some basic knowledge of thebackground and present state of this field of research

because it is used to convey meaning in various contexts Here, the code interacts

with other factors to enable communication In this sense, we can discusspronunciation in terms of speaking acts Harmer (2007) explained thatpronunciation refers to how we make language sounds, where and how we placestress, and how we use pitch and intonation to convey how we feel and what wemean According to the Adult Migrant English Research Center (2002, as cited in

Ly Bui, T., Mai, T., & Diep, H., 2021), the production of sounds that we use tomake meaning is referred to as "pronunciation." It includes paying attention to thespecific sounds of a language (segments), aspects of speech that go beyond the level

of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, and rhythm

(suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality), and, in itsbroadest definition, paying attention to gestures and expressions that are closelyrelated to how we speak a language Furthermore, the Oxford Advanced Learner'sDictionary defines pronunciation as "the way a language or a particular word or

sound is pronounced."

This study will use the definition provided by the Oxford AdvancedLearner's Dictionary because the study will identify mistakes made by studentswhen pronouncing a specific word or sound in English.

1.2 The importance of pronunciation

Pronunciation is important because it affects how well a speaker can beunderstood by others If a speaker's pronunciation is poor, it can lead tomiscommunication, confusion, and even frustration In addition, pronunciation isalso an important aspect of language learning Learning proper pronunciation canhelp learners communicate more effectively and confidently in their targetlanguage It can also help them better understand native speakers and improve theiroverall language skills O’Connor (1980) stated that "the main problem of Englishpronunciation is to build a new set of boxes corresponding to the sounds of Englishand to break down the arrangement of boxes which the habits of our nativelanguage have so strongly built up We do this by establishing new ways of hearing,new ways of using our speech organs, and new speech habits" Furthermore,according to Burns (2003), clear pronunciation is essential in spokencommunication Even if students make minor mistakes in their vocabulary andgrammar, they are more likely to communicate effectively if they have goodpronunciation and intonation

As a result, in order to improve their English-speaking skills, students shouldpractice their pronunciation every day

2 The Features of Pronunciation

The features of English pronunciation are adapted from the book ClearlySpeaking - Pronunciation in Action for Teachers by Burns, A., Claire, S (2003)

Figure 1 Features of English pronunciation (Burns, 2003)

FEATURES OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

As the diagram above illustrates, pronunciation involves features at:

* the segmental (micro) level

s the suprasegmental (macro) level

2.1 The segmental features

According to Roach (2000), all of the sounds we make while speaking are

caused by muscles contracting The breathing muscles in the chest produce the flow

of air required for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the larynx produce manydifferent modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth After passingthrough the larynx, the air enters the vocal tract, which terminates at the mouth andnostrils Air from the lungs escapes into the atmosphere We have a large andcomplex set of muscles that can change the shape of the vocal tract, and it isnecessary to become familiar with the different parts of the vocal tract in order to

learn how the sounds of speech are produced These various parts are known as

articulators, and the study of them is known as articulatory phonetics

The diagram below represents the human head seen from the side and shows thearticulators

Figure 2 The Articulators (Roach 2000)

h

nose Pin hard soft palate (velum)

alveolar ridge palace

upper lip lower lip

pharynx lower teeth

larynx

The figure describes the different parts of the mouth and throat that are involved inproducing speech sounds The pharynx is a tube-shaped part of the throat thatconnects to the back of the mouth and the nasal cavity The velum, or soft palate, isone of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue, and it can be raised toprevent air from escaping through the nose during speech The hard palate is the

"roof of the mouth" and has a smooth, curved surface that can be felt with the

tongue The alveolar ridge is a bumpy surface between the top front teeth and the

hard palate, and sounds made with the tongue touching here are called alveolar.The tongue can be moved into many different places and shapes and is divided intodifferent parts such as the tip, blade, front, back, and root

Figure 3 Subdivisions of the tongue (Roach 2000)

front back

; blade up

speech, but the larynx and jaws also play a role, and the nose and nasal cavity areimportant for nasal consonants.

2.1.1 Phonemes

Phonemes are different sounds in a language Although there are slightdifferences in how individuals produce sounds, phonemes reasonably describe howeach sound is made Sounds are divided into "voiced" and "unvoiced" (sometimes

referred to as 'voiceless') Voiced sounds occur when the vocal cords in the larynx

vibrate It's easy to tell if a sound is voiced by putting a finger or two on the Adam'sapple The vibrations occur when making a sound with a voice; with a voicelesssound, the larynx will not vibrate Phonemes include vowel sounds and consonantsounds Consonants can be voiced or voiceless It is possible to define many pairs ofconsonants that are essentially the same except for the voiced element (Kelly,2001)

"power") Single vowels can be short (like /1/, as in ship) or long (like /1:/, as in

sheep) Vowels are formed when the airstream is voiced by vibrating the vocal

cords in the larynx and then shaped with the tongue and lips to change the overallshape of the mouth The position of the tongue is a useful reference point fordescribing the differences between vowel sounds, as illustrated in the diagrambelow (Kelly, 2001)

Figure 4 The articulation of vowels (Kelly, 2001)

Front Centre Back

2.1.3 English Consonants

As previously stated, consonants can be voiced or unvoiced The only

difference between /p/ and /b/ articulation is that the latter is voiced and the former

is unvoiced Because the relative force required to produce /p/ with more force thanthat required to produce /b/, the terms fortis (strong) and lenis (weak) are sometimesused interchangeably Try making both sounds while holding a small slip of paper

in front of your mouth; the paper should flap for /p/ and barely move for /b/ InEnglish, at least, 'fortis' refers to unvoiced consonant sounds like /p/, whereas 'lenis'refers to voiced consonant sounds like /b/ Roach (2000) also states that voicelessplosives p, t, and k are sometimes referred to as fortis (meaning "strong"), while b,

d, and g are referred to as lenis (meaning "weak") It is likely that p, t, and k areproduced with greater force (though nobody has really proved it; force ofarticulation is very difficult to define and measure) The terms fortis and lenis, onthe other hand, are difficult to remember

The table below shows the chart of 24 English phonemes according to Roach

Table 1 Chart of English consonant phonemes

According to Kelly (2001), she outlined the manner of articulation and place ofarticulation 1n two tables down below:

Table 2 Manner of articulation

Manner of articulation

plosive a complete closure is made somewhere in the vocal tract,

and the soft palate is also raised Air pressure increases

behind the closure, and is then released ‘explosively’, e.g /p/

and /b/

affricate a complete closure is made somewhere in the mouth, and

the soft palate is raised Air pressure increases behind the

closure, and is then released more slowly than in plosives, e.g /tƒ⁄ and /d3/

fricative when two vocal organs come close enough together for the

movement of air between them to be heard, e.g /f/ and /v/

nasal a closure is made by the lips, or by the tongue against the

palate, the soft palate is lowered, and air escapes through the nose, e.g /m/ and /n/

lateral a partial closure is made by the blade of the tongue against

the alveolar ridge Air is able to flow around the sides of the

tongue, e.g /I/

approximant |vocal organs come near to each other, but not so close as to

cause audible friction, e.g /r/ and /w/

Table 3 Place of articulation

Place of articulation

bilabial using closing movement of both lips, e.g /p/ and /m/

labio-dental lusing the lower lip and the upper teeth, e.g /f/ and /v/

dental the tongue tip is used either between the teeth or close to

the upper teeth, e.g /8/ and /ð/

alveolar the blade of the tongue is used close to the alveolar ridge,

e.g /t/ and /s/

palato- the blade (or tip) of the tongue is used just behind the

alveolar alveolar ridge, e.g /t{/ and /d3/

palatal the front of the tongue is raised close to the palate, e.g /j/

velar the back of the tongue is used against the soft palate, e.g.

/k/ and /n/

glottal the gap between the vocal cords is used to make audible

friction, e.g /h/

2.2 Suprasegmental features

At the macro level, suprasegmental features are related to sounds Unlike

tonal languages like Vietnamese or Chinese, English is stress-timed and

syllable-timed (for example, WHAT's his addRESS?) Burns (2003) claimed that linking,

11

intonation, and stress are all important aspects of effective suprasegmentalpronunciation.

2.2.2 Intonation

The rise and fall of our voice when we speak is referred to as intonation Ithas the ability to convey emotions, attitudes, and meaning For example, risingintonation at the end of a sentence can indicate a question, whereas fallingintonation can indicate a statement Different intonation patterns can convey variousemotions, such as surprise, excitement, or disappointment

Intonation can be thought of as the language's melody—the way the voicerises and falls in response to the context and meanings of the communication

Consider the following examples: request (rising pitch), command (falling pitch)

(Burn 2003)

2.2.3 Stress

Burn (2003) stated that the emphasis we place on certain syllables in a word

is referred to as stress It can alter the meaning of a word and is an importantcomponent of natural-sounding speech Stress in English can fall on different

syllables depending on the part of speech of the word, and it can also change

depending on the context

The prominence given to certain words in an utterance is referred to as "wordstress."

e the overall rhythm of the utterance These focus words are stressed (madelong and loud)

e the most important part of the utterance.

Some words are given more prominence than others at the meaning level to

emphasize which meaning is important Consider the following:

e Can YOU want to take the scissors? (not someone else)

e Can you take the SCISSORS! (but not the knife)

3 Factors Affecting Pronunciation Learning

Pronunciation learning is a complex process that can be influenced byvarious factors Understanding these factors can help learners and teachers developeffective strategies for improving pronunciation This section will discuss thedifferent factors that can affect pronunciation learning

3.1 Native Language or Mother Tongue

The first factor that can impact pronunciation learning is the learner's nativelanguage Learners whose native language is similar in pronunciation to the targetlanguage may have an easier time learning the correct pronunciation For example,learners whose native language is Spanish may have an easier time learning thecorrect pronunciation of English words that have a similar sound in Spanish On theother hand, learners whose native language has a very different pronunciationsystem may struggle more with pronunciation With Vietnamese learners, theVietnamese alphabet is evaluated quite similarly to the English alphabet According

to Duong (2008), one of the reasons Vietnamese students frequently makepronunciation errors is due to the negative interference of the mother tongue,namely the English sounds being pronounced in the Vietnamese way

3.2 Age

Another factor that can impact pronunciation learning is age Youngerlearners may have an easier time learning pronunciation due to their brains beingmore malleable They have a greater capacity for learning new languages anddeveloping native-like pronunciation than adults However, it is still possible forolder learners to improve their pronunciation, although it may require more effortand practice

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3.3 Language transfer (from first language L1 to second language L2)

According to Nguyen and Tran (2022), various factors influencing learners'

pronunciation have been identified in various studies LI is one of the mostcommon causes of student mispronunciation In fact, language differences would

cause learners to struggle with pronunciation to some extent Avery and Ehrlich

(1992) also consider L1 to be an important factor, demonstrating that the soundpattern of the learners' L1 1s likely the cause of foreign accents, which reduce theintelligibility of L2 speakers

3.4 Motivation

Motivation is another factor that can greatly impact a learner's willingness topractice and improve their pronunciation Learners who are motivated to learn thetarget language and improve their pronunciation are more likely to put in the effortand practice necessary to achieve their goals On the other hand, learners who lackmotivation may not be as committed to improving their pronunciation and may notput in as much effort

3.5 Environment

The environment in which a learner is exposed to the target language canalso impact their pronunciation learning Living in a country where the targetlanguage is spoken can provide more opportunities for immersion and practice,which can help learners develop more natural-sounding pronunciation On the otherhand, learners who are not exposed to the target language on a regular basis mayhave a harder time developing native-like pronunciation

3.6 Physical Limitations

Some learners may have physical limitations that can impact their ability to

produce certain sounds For example, learners with a speech impediment may have

difficulty with certain consonants or vowels, which can make it harder to developnative-like pronunciation In these cases, specialized training or therapy may benecessary to overcome these limitations Nguyen (2015) showed that with

Vietnamese people, in some different cities or countrysides, there will be accent

characteristics For example, there are some people that cannot correctly pronounce

the consonants "I" and "n" in Vietnamese, leading to difficulties in English; theywill also have difficulty pronouncing these two consonants.

In conclusion, pronunciation learning is a highly complex process that can beinfluenced by a variety of factors Understanding these factors can help learnersdevelop effective strategies for improving pronunciation and achieving morenatural-sounding speech

4 Errors and Mistakes

Brown (2007) stated that to understand learner language accurately, it'simportant to differentiate between mistakes and errors, which are two differentthings Brown defines a mistake is when someone makes a performance error byguessing or making a "slip." It happens when they don't use the right systemcorrectly Everyone makes mistakes in their first and second languages Nativespeakers can naturally recognize and fix these "lapses" or mistakes, which are notbecause they lack competence but because of a temporary breakdown orimperfection when speaking These mistakes, such as hesitations, tongue slips,random grammar errors, and other lapses in native-speaker production, also happen

in second language speech When people notice their mistakes, they can correctthem themselves Dulay Richards (1982), who defines two types of errors:performance errors and competence errors Performance errors are those that resultfrom factors such as exhaustion and inattention, while competence errors are thosethat stem from a lack of knowledge of the language's rules (Cited by Ton, 2016).Errors reveal gaps in a student's knowledge, and they arise because the learners are

unsure whether the answer is correct or incorrect However, errors indicate periodic

failures in performance; they occur when the learners are unable to accomplish whatthey understand Ellis (1997) explains that errors are a result of learners not yetunderstanding the rules of the target language

In brief, when a mistake arises due to a slip of the tongue, exhaustion,nervousness, or other factors, it might be due to self-awareness and self-correction

On the other hand, an error is a performance that the speakers, who have not yetgrasped the rules of the target language, cannot remedy on their own

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5 Related Studies

Nguyen (2015) discussed the common mistakes made while producing

vowels due to their complexity Tense and lax vowels can cause confusion to thespeakers Moreover, the differences between Vietnamese and English consonants,

vowels, sounds, words, and tones made Vietnamese students face a variety of

difficulties Ha Cam Tam (2002) states some common problems with English

pronunciation among Vietnamese learners The first one is the omission of ending

sounds Next, the most frequent error is sound confusion Finally, "soundredundancy" seems to indicate that several learners tend to overpronounce theending sounds Duong (2009) showed four pairs of confusing sounds that studentscommonly made mistakes with ( 1 /f/-/s/ 2 /3/-/z/ 3 /de/-/z/ or /s/ 4 /H7-Vietnamese/¢/.) She also claimed the four main reasons for these pairs of soundsare: failure in distinguishing the differences; influence of the mother tongue;perceptions of mistakes; and inadequate drills and practice

Based on Avery and Ehrlich's statement, "Vietnamese has no voiced stops atthe ends of words" Similarly, Ha (2005) argued that the way Vietnamese speakers

pronounce the ending sounds is completely different from English speakers Le

(2014) also agreed that some students do not completely pronounce final

consonants due to the influences of Vietnamese structure

Priscilla Shak et al (2016) conducted a study to highlight the pronunciation

challenges of low-proficient pupils According to the author's thematic analysis,

pupils frequently mispronounce vowels (short vowels, long vowels, and sonicdiphthongs), consonants, tones, silent letters, and "-ed" sounds The researchers alsonoted that individuals made several errors while pronouncing fricative sounds The/ð / sound (e.g., then, other, that) and the /9/ sound were identified as troublesome

sounds by error analysis

Tran (2021) did a general study of common pronunciation errors in childrenand came to the conclusion that Vietnamese students often make mistakes with long

vowel sounds, plosive consonants, and endind sounds With long vowels, studentsoften mispronounce the sounds /i:/, /a:/, /2:⁄, /u:/ because they have not paid

attention to the length that makes these sounds short vowels With plosive

consonants, most students do not pronounce consonants like /t/ and /p/ and do not

pronounce the final sounds /t/, /z/, /s/, /k/, /v/ The influence of the mother tongue isresponsible for long vowel pronunciation problems and ending sound errors

Because final sounds are not spoken in Vietnamese, English learners adopt this

practice for English pronunciation

Nhi V.B Dang, (2022) investigated the common mistakes in English spoken

by Master of Business Administration students at Tay Do University, in Vietnam.The investigation revealed two types of errors: pronunciation and grammaticalerrors MBA learners had several problems with intonation, ending sounds,consonant clusters, and word stress The first difficulty was speaking English with aflat tone They were unable to communicate in English smoothly and organically.Other typical errors were a lack of finishing sounds and incorrectly pronouncing thelast sounds Because of these errors, listeners misinterpreted what the learners weretrying to say Moreover, consonant clusters were difficult for students to enunciate,causing them to mispronounce word sounds Last but not least, students emphasized

incorrect word segments Some of them said that they were unaware of the English

word stress rule

Despite a wide range of pronunciation problems topics, few researchesfocused on the common flaws of Hanoi Law University first-year English majors.Despite the fact that they are English linguistics students, they have clearly notconcentrated on pronunciation As a result, the investigator wants to investigate this

issue in order to clarify it

5.1 Consonant mistakes

Omission of voiced and voiceless consonants ending sounds

Vietnamese usually does not aspirate the final consonants in almost any

context due to the fact that the Vietnamese consonants system is quite differentfrom English (Honey, 1987, p240) Vietnamese still has the voiced sounds in finalconsonants, but they are not pronounced and aspirated long enough, so whenVietnamese people pronounce these final sounds, they will often omit them (Avery,

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Ehrlich, 1992, p 153) Vietnamese speakers of English have a number of problems

with the voiced versus the voiceless stops in word final position: /b/, /p/, /d/, /g/ vs

/p/, /t/, /k/ Additionally, Vietnamese learners of English encounter problems withwords final fricative consonants /f/, /v/, //, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ƒ / and /3 / Vietnamese

speakers can pronounce fricatives such as /f/, /v/ and /s/ at the beginning of English

words However, fricatives do not occur in word-final position in their mothertongue Thus, the omission of a fricative at the end of words usually occurs whenthey speak English (Nguyen, 2015)

Misformation of final "-ed"( past simple ending)

Priscilla Shak et al (2016) demonstrated the pronunciation problems of proficient students through a case study Based on the thematic analysis conducted

low-by the author, the sounds were often mispronounced low-by students, such as the "-ed"sounds Nguyen, Dang (2022) stated that the /ed/ sounds in regular verb past tenseshave a different way or set of rules to pronounce, but Vietnamese learners tend tohave problems producing the /ed/ sounds properly The pronunciation of "-ed" at the

end of verbs depends on the last sound in the verb before "-ed" is added There are

three possible pronunciations of "-ed", and they are /1d/, /d/, and /t/ For example:

after these voiceless sounds (/p/, /k/, / t{/, /f/, /s/, /f/), "-ed" is pronounced /t/; forverbs that end in a /t/ or /d/ sound, the "-ed: ending is pronounced /1d/; When thelast sound of a verb is voiced and is not /d/ the "-ed" is pronounced /d/ (The

Britannica Dictionary) Vietnamese speakers tend to pronounce /ed/ as /1d/ such as[‘lukid] instead of [‘lukt]

Mispronounced Alveolar Fricatives /s/ and /z/

Vietnamese speakers often get confused between /s/ and /z/ because theybasically cannot distinguish the difference between these two sounds Most of themreplace /s/ for /z/ regularly; as a result, with final consonants, a word such as peas ispronounced as peace and prize is pronounced as price In conversational situations,

the /s/ sound may present two types of problems The first problem is that in thespelling of some words, the /s/ sound is omitted The second problem that many

speakers encounter is the redundancy of the /s/ sound As mentioned above, the /s/

and /z/ sounds do not occur at the final position in Vietnamese words, but forEnglish words, they do (Duong, 2009) Certain regulations are in place to educateindividuals on how to pronounce the /s/ sound For example, with /-s/, we havethree options: /s/, /z/, and /iz/ According to Ha (2005), "Vietnamese speakers may

pronounce /z/ as /Ss/." When pupils enunciate /s/ and /z/ sounds, it is difficult to

distinguish between them

Mispronounced fricative // and /0/

Vietnamese speakers will often produce a heavily aspirated stop /t/ instead of/0/ in words like 'think' This is probably based on the orthographic system ofVietnamese, where the letter combination th represents a heavily aspirated /t/ Theywill usually substitute a /d/ for /9/1n words like 'this' (Avery, Ehrlich, 1992, p 155)

Ha (2001) also stated the sound /9/ is mispronounced to /t’/ (written th inVietnamese)

Mispronounced fricative ⁄ƒ and /s/

/{/ is often pronounced as /s/ due to the failure in distinguishing the

difference between the two sounds and the negative influence of the mother tongue.The learners are too much affected by the way they pronounce the Vietnamese /s/,

thus they do not attempt to pronounce these two sounds differently, although theyare well aware of the difference Examples, fish /fif/ is often pronounced incorrectly

as /fis/ Learners fail to distinguish between a voiceless alveo-palatal fricative /{/and a voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ (Duong, 2009) Nhi V.B Dang (2022) detected,

examined mistakes in the pronunciation of the English consonants /s/, /z/, /{/, /f/,

and /v/ According to their data analysis, the two most common types of mistakeswere omission and substitution Students did not enunciate the consonants in thelast words Also, students spoke syllables containing the requisite five consonantsinaccurately by substituting other consonants; for example, the sounds /z/ and /f /were replaced by the sound /s/

Mispronounced liquid WV and nasal /n/

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According to Nguyen (2015), these two sounds can be found 1n Vietnamese.However, people in many parts of Vietnam, particularly those in the north, areunable to distinguish between them in their mother tongue They frequently getconfused between the /n/ and /1/ sounds As a result, they always make mistakes

with these sounds when speaking English One example is that they say /IOw/ for

no, /lain/ for nine, or /snOwni/ for "slowly"

Consonant clusters

Avery and Ehrlich indicate that "Vietnamese has no consonant clusters in theinitial or final position" (p 155) As a result, many English consonants do notappear in Vietnamese, causing Vietnamese students to make mistakes whenspeaking English Vietnamese students frequently leave out one or moreconsonants in a difficult cluster The most frequent problem is the deletion of the

consonant /s/ in the middle of the word "abstract" /œb.trekt/ for /œb.strekt

(Nguyen 2015, cited Honey, 1987) or the final words "six'/sis/ for /sIks/ and

"box" /bps/ for /bpks/

Mispronounced velar /k/ and affricate Af

Vietnamese learners tend to pronounce the written form "ch" in English as

/c’/chu6n chuồn (dragonfly) instead of /t{/ (Duong, 2009) Moreover, the minimal

pair /k/ and /t{/ such as in choir /‘kwal.a-/-chore /tfo:r/ leads to confusion whilepronouncing

5.2 Vowels mistakes

After researching a number of scientific research papers on pronunciationmistakes, some of the common vowel mistakes made by students are summarized asfollows:

Mispronounced / and /1⁄

Students find it difficult to distinguish between long vowels and short

vowels; in this case, Vietnamese students do have this problem Do (2021) claimed

that Vietnamese L2 learners could use their /1/ for both /1:/ and /1/ He stated thatVietnamese learners do not have the habit of prolonging the sounds due to

Vietnamese equivalents Nguyen (2015) shared that while he was teaching these

two sounds to his students, most of them could not distinguish the differences

between them He used some minimal pair words, such as "seat" and "sit", "sheep"and "ship" and tried to lengthen the /1:/ sound for them to listen to, so that they

could recognize the difference because the /i:/ sound is longer than the /1/ sound

However, when the students practiced pronouncing these sounds, they pronouncedboth sounds exactly the same

Mispronounced /u/ and /u/

Nguyen (2015) argued that, similarly to the issue concerning /1:/ and /1/sounds, students learned how to pronounce /u:/ and /u/ sounds and could distinguishthe differences between them However, in English, there are many words with ‘oo’that may be pronounced as neither /u:/ nor /u / This can produce confusion forVietnamese learners; as a result, students projected the same sound for both /u:/ and/0 / For example, the word ‘good’ is pronounced as /gud/ In contrast, the word

‘pool’ is /pu:l/ For the most part, students could not vocally distinguish thedifferences between them Tran (2021) stated that long vowels are pronouncedsimilarly to short vowels by these students Most learners may be unable to identify

between short and long vowels, which might explain these problems Learners fail

to distinguish between English single vowel pairs using the long/shortdistinguishing criteria According to Nguyen Thanh Hoa (2016), these vowels existsolely in the English sound and not in the Vietnamese sound

Mispronounced /e/ versus /4/

Vietnamese students cannot identify the vowels /e/ and /œ/, such as in bedand bad (Avery and Ehrlich, p 156) The confusion between /e/ and / œ/ may beconsidered as the most serious problem that Vietnamese speakers encounter whenthey learn to speak English vowels They cannot identify the differences Learnersusually make numerous mistakes with these sounds According to Avery andEhrlich, "students often pronounce these two vowels in exactly the same way Most

commonly, students fail to lower their tongue and jaw far enough in attempting to

produce the /z / sound" (p 99)

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5.3 Linking

Vietnamese students often omit consonants at the ends of English words.Consequently, words will not be linked in connected speech The differencesbetween the phonetic system, like ending consonant sounds and vowel sounds, for

example, in the sentence Breathe in and breathe out, the ending sound /ð/ is linked

to the vowels /1/ and /au/ so the sentence would become /bri:d m and brið aut!(Avery and Ehrlich, 1992)

5.4 Intonation

Vietnamese students typically have a flat tone when speaking English Theirvoices do not rise or fall, nor do they emphasize the words Some of them strugglewith sloppy intonation, raising their voices in the inappropriate parts of phrases,particularly in wh-questions and tag questions In fact, these errors result innumerous misunderstandings (Nguyen, Dang, 2022) Vietnamese speakers maystruggle with English intonation patterns because pitch acts differently inVietnamese (Vietnamese is a tonal language)

5.5 Word stress

Avery and Ehrlich claimed that stress in English can fall on almost anysyllable of a word In many other languages, word stress regularly falls on the same

syllable Students who speak such languages may have difficulty changing the

location of the stress for different vocabulary items As Vietnamese words generally

consist of only one syllable, Vietnamese speakers may have difficulty producing the

longer words of English with appropriate stress patterns Nguyen and Dang (2022)stated that when speakers emphasize the wrong syllable in a word, it can make theword difficult to hear and understand We say each syllable with the same lengthand amount of time in syllable-timed language, while in stress-timed language, thestress syllables are pronounced at regular intervals Vietnamese students strugglewith the timing of emphasized words They frequently speak English withoutstressing any syllables or with incorrect stress They basically speak all of the wordcomponents at the same volume In contrast, word emphasis in English varies

widely The emphasis can exist in any syllable of a word, including the first,

second, third, and even fourth

6 Chapter summary

In chapter one, some previous research on learning English pronunciationhas been mentioned in this chapter Furthermore, some theoretical foundations forlearning pronunciation have been discussed These are the ideas and characteristics

of its pronunciation Factors and difficulties associated with pronunciation andlearning have also been discussed Previous research on common mistakes anderrors 1s specifically referenced The methods and techniques used to conduct theresearch will be demonstrated in the following chapter

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

1 Design of the study

This study adopted a mixed research design, including both quantitative andqualitative data The participants were K47 English majors and teachers of legalEnglish at Hanoi Law University The reliability and validity of the research resultswere based on the instruments The data from the participants was collected throughthe questionnaires for teachers and students and the pronunciation test by recordingK47 students The collected information from these two instruments was used toinvestigate the common pronunciation mistakes of K47 English-majored freshmen

at Hanoi Law University, as well as the methods that they chose to improve theirpronunciation skills

2 Participants

Data for the study were collected from the pronunciation test, which 1sconsidered the main instrument to find out the errors in their English pronunciation.The test was given to thirty first-year English language students who were randomly

selected from different classes: 14 students from 4727A and 4727B and 16 students

from 4728A and 4728B The majority of them were between the ages of 18 and 20.They came from different parts of the countryside and cities The proficiency levelrepresented by the participants of the study could be described as somewherebetween BI and B2, specified in the levels laid out in the Common EuropeanFramework of Reference for Languages Two survey questionnaires were designedfor 10 teachers of the Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages and 99 students of theEnglish-majoring first year of the second term at Hanoi Law University in order tofind out the pronunciation mistakes and some suggested methods All of theteachers are female and range in age from 25 to 40 They have been teachingEnglish for at least 4 years, so it can be said that all of them are experienced inteaching English

There were about 180 freshmen students in the Faculty of Legal Foreign

Languages 99 students completed the survey, with 68 female and 28 male students;

only three people did not want to disclose their gender 74 students out of 99

responded that they have been studying English for more than 4 years Students

self-assessed their English proficiency, and the results showed that first-year

students assessed themselves as being at an intermediate level, chosen by 40

students, and 34 students chose an upper-intermediate level Only one student chose

to be at the beginner level, while three students chose to be at the proficient level

The result showed that only three students said that they have been studying English

for less than a year

3 Data collection instruments and procedures

few words to make the test more diverse In part two, the paragraph was taken from

the book "English Pronunciation in Use: Elementary," page 75, and the

conversation was taken from the book "Teaching American English Pronunciation,"

page 193 The author added the sentence to make the test cover the pronunciationaspects The author used simple and basic words so that the students couldpronounce them all Each student was recorded for 1 to 2 minutes After collectingthe recordings, the author asked a native teacher working at an English center inHanoi named Francis Peter William Le Duc III (British) to mark the students'pronunciation tests

3.2 Questionnaire for students

In order to obtain relevant data, the following questions were asked in thequestionnaire for the freshmen to collect methods for improving pronunciation Thisquestionnaire was created on Google Forms, and the author sent a link to the K47

English-majored class's group chat for feedback The questionnaire for freshmen

included questions about how long they've been studying English, their English

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language level, the importance of good pronunciation, and the methods they used topractice English pronunciation.

3.3 Questionnaire for Teachers

The questionnaire for the teachers was designed to identify the commonpronunciation mistakes students make and the methods for improving theirpronunciation The questionnaire asked about the common pronunciation mistakesstudents make, the difficult vowels and consonants, and the methods theyrecommend for improving pronunciation The questionnaire survey for teachers wasalso created on GG Forms, and the author sent a link via the teachers' email toreceive responses

4 Data Analysis

4.1 Qualitative Analysis

The author began analyzing the data after the collection was complete Theauthor then proceeded on to analyze the data by listening to the recordings and

assessing the errors The researcher used Excel to analyze the data, classifying the

errors and presenting them in the form of charts and tables

4.2 Quantitative Analysis

The answers were collected by Google Forms with designed questionnaire.The analysis started with input of the data into SPSS statistics and Excel, whichpresented the data in charts and tables This type of analysis involved counting thenumber of the interviewees’ responses and calculating percentages

Table 4 Mean Range

Mean Range Frequency Importance Difficulty Efficiency

4.21 - 5.00 Always Very Very easy Very inefficient

unimportant,3.41 — 4.20 Often Unimportant Easy Inefficient

2.61 - 3.40 Sometimes Neutral Neither Neither

1.81 — 2.60 Rarely Important Difficult Efficient

1.00-1.80 Never Extremely Very difficult Very efficient

important

5 Chapter summary

This chapter described the study's search setting, participants, and methods to

conduct the study Because the data was collected, analyzed, and compared in two

stages: the students’ and teachers' questionnaire and the students' test, it is reliableand valid All of the data numbers were carefully and clearly presented in tables

The next chapter will discuss the data analysis, findings, and discussions, aswell as possible suggestions for teaching English pronunciation to students at HanoiLaw University

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CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISSCUSION

1 Question 1: "What are the common pronunciation errors made by first-yearEnglish-majored?" (Finding from questionnaires and the pronunciation test)

Vowel mistakes

Figure 5 Vowel mistakes made by students (N=30)

Vowel mistakes made by students

Ii lel Jel Jal lDÍ lu Jal HH J3/ Jaz! /2/ far! lai /eal luai Je /a/ /2U/ /9u/ /au/

The chart depicts the number of students who made vowel pronunciationmistakes The vowel that students mispronounce the most is the diphthongs /au/ in

the word "sew" For long vowels, errors focus on the vowels /u:/ in the word

"group", /a:/ for the word "card", /i:/ for the word "sheep" Moreover, the shortvowel /œ/ with the word "bad", 11 students pronounced it as /bed/ With errors indiphthongs /au/ pronunciation as /s10/, the spellings of the word sew are the same asthe word few /fju:/ leading to students mispronouncing up to 27 (90%) out of 30students The next highest vowel mistake made by 26 (87%) students is long vowel

/u:/, students tended to pronounce the long vowel /u:/ to short vowel /0/ so that the

word group /gru:p/ became /grup/ 24 (80%) Students mispronounced the word

"card" with vowel /a:/ When taking the test, students did not prolong the /a:/

sound when pronounced The next mistake is the /i:/ sound in the word "sheep",students do usually not prolong vowels that make them sound like /frp/

Through the process of analyzing the GG Forms, the common vowel

mistakes that teachers believed the students could make will be discussed in the

The column chart shows the survey results about the vowel sounds that

students could make As can be seen in the chart, the top three choices were

diphthongs /au/, diphthongs /au/ and short vowels /œ/ After comparing the resultswith the student's pronunciation test, the results are shown in the chart below

Table 5 Number of stundents mispronounced vowel sounds (N=30)

Vowel Phonetic Words Number of studentsounds symbol mispronounced