research on how to enrich english vocabulary among the english majors at facultyof foreign languages of industrial university of ho chi minh city

Ho Chi Minh City, 06/2021 hghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea

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MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - -

GRADUATION THESIS

A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES AMONG THE ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES OF INDUSTRIAL

UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY AND SOMESOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THEIR PRONUNCIATION

ID NUMBER : 17036801 CLASS CODE : DHAV13D COHORT : 2017-2021

SUPERVISOR NAME : HOÀNG THỊ PHONG LINH, M.A

Ho Chi Minh City, 06/2021

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hghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihh

69Thursday, June 13, 20249:29:44 PM9:29:44 PM69Thursday, June 13, 20249:29:44 PM9:29:44 PM69Thursday, June 13, 20249:29:44 PM9:29:44 PM

hghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhhghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihh

69hghieh euu moi lieh ket trohg xah xuat va tieu thu ea gci leo tai xa bao hieu huyeh yeh thuy tihh hoc bihhThursday, June 13, 2024

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MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - -

GRADUATIONTHESIS

A STUDY ON COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES AMONG THE ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES OF INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY AND SOMESOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THEIR

SUPERVISOR NAME : HOÀNG THỊ PHONG LINH, M.A

Ho Chi Minh City, 06/2021

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MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Supervisor Name : HOANG THI PHONG LINH, M.A

Student‟s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own work and does

not involve in plagiarism or collusion It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose elsewhere I accept heavy penalty for any cheating or plagiarism

Date submitted : June 20th, 2021

Word count : 8,488 words

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ABSTRACT

Pronunciation plays a vital part in learning English Students with poor pronunciation tend to fail in communication Many English- majored students were competent in vocabulary and grammar, but they still made pronunciation mistakes, which will be a serious problem if they choose English as their major now and use it at work every day later Therefore, the purpose of this study is (1) to explore common pronunciation mistakes of the English-majored students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH), and (2) to find out the method they applied to improve their pronunciation A quantitative research design was used to carry out this study 300 English-majored students at FFL of IUH participated in this study in total The researcher distributed the survey questionnaire to the students then collected and analyzed the data The results revealed that the students had common mistakes with vowels (/i:/, /æ/,/u:/, /ʊ/, /e/, /ʌ/, /ɪ/), consonants (fricative and affricate), word stress, sentence stress, and intonation (flat intonation) and they also used some methods, namely shadowing, using pronunciation applications, talking to native speakers, listening to English songs, watching videos and films in English, and practising tongue twisters to improve their pronunciation The researcher also offers some insightful recommendations to help the FFL students to overcome difficulties they may face in learning English pronunciation

Keywords: English-majored students, improving pronunciation, pronunciation mistakes

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

During my graduation thesis, I received plenty of enthusiastic help and support that guided and encouraged me to overcome all difficulties and finish this hard but meaningful time First of all, I would like to thank the School Board of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City and the Faculty of Foreign Languages for creating favorable conditions and opportunities for me to accomplish this study

Secondly I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Hoang Thi Phong Linh, for her dedicated guidance, crucial advice, constructive and critical comments she gave throughout my research She was always willing to assist me in conducting this thesis with her patience and immense knowledge Without her wholehearted support, this research would not have been completed

Thirdly, my sincere thanks go to the students at FFL of IUH who took the time to complete the survey questionnaire I really appreciate their warm cooperation during the time I collected data and information for my research

Moreover, I would like to show my gratitude to my two group members, Ms Nguyen Thi Hien and Ms Nguyen Thi Tran Tra, for their high responsibility for the group work Thank you for sharing my feelings and giving me timely advice during my study

In addition, the whole-hearted thanks and debts of gratitude are reserved to my family who always stands by me and supports me unconditionally in this intense academic year

Last but not least, I really thank all people helping me to finish this research directly or

indirectly

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1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS 5

2.1.1 DEFINITION OF PRONUNCIATION 5

2.1.2 DEFINITION OF PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES 5

2.2 RESULTS OF PREVIOUS STUDIES 6

2.2.1 COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN ENGLISH 6

2.2.1.1 VOWELS 6

2.2.1.2 CONSONANTS 7

2.2.1.3 WORD STRESS AND SENTENCE STRESS 9

2.2.1.4 INTONATION 9

2.2.2 SOME SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION 10

2.2.2.1 USING ENGLISH SONGS 10

2.2.2.2 USING PRONUNCIATION APPLICATIONS 10

2.2.2.3 USING TONGUE TWISTERS 11

2.2.2.4 USING AUDIO STORIES 11

2.2.2.5 USING SHADOWING TECHNIQUE 12

2.3 SUMMARY OF SOME PREVIOUS STUDIES 12

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN 14

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 18

4.1 THE FFL ENGLISH MAJORS‟ BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND ATTITUDE TOWARD THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING PRONUNCIATION 19 123docz.net - File bi loi xin lienhe: lethikim34079@hotmail.com

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4.2 COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES AMONG THE FFL ENGLISH MAJORS

SUPERVISOR‟S EVALUATION FORM 45

EXAMINER‟S EVALUATION FORM 47

RUBRICS FOR WRITTEN GRADUATION THESIS (70%) 49

RUBRICS FOR ORAL PRESENTATION (10%) 53

PROGRESS FORM 57

PEER EVALUATION FORM 60

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Figure 4.1 The academic year of students at FFL of IUH 19

Figure 4.2 Students‟ English learning period counted by years 19

Figure 4.3 Students‟ frequency of practicing their pronunciation 20

Figure 4.4 Students‟ self-assessment of their pronunciation ability 21

Figure 4.5 Students‟ awareness towards the importance of native-like pronunciation 21

Figure 4.6 Students‟ common pronunciation mistakes in consonant sounds 23

Figure 4.7 Students‟ habits of making stress mistakes in speech 25

Figure 4.8 Students‟ tendency of using intonation in speech 26

Figure 4.9 Student's approaches for improving their pronunciation 27

Figure 4.10 Students‟ self-practice pronunciation methods 28

LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Students‟ common pronunciation mistakes in vowel sounds 22

Table 4.2 Students' satisfaction with the effect of using some methods on improving their pronunciation 29

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

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1.1 RATIONALE

In order to gain a high level of competence in English, English learners of all ages need to master both four English skills; nonetheless, it seems that reading and writing are focused on rather than speaking by English learners in Vietnam, they spent a lot of time learning grammar and vocabulary for tests every semester Thus, speaking has become the most challenging skill for English learners in Vietnamese One crucial factor of these skills is pronunciation Nation (2009) stated, "Some teachers and students talk much about pronunciation when complaining about difficulties in speaking English, they are often talking about pronunciation" (p.75) Derwing and Munro (2005) stressed the role of pronunciation that, "having good pronunciation of the language can help in normal communication, particularly intelligibility" (as cited in Nation & Newton, 2009 p 75)

During the past four years, my friends and I had opportunities to learn English altogether at FFL of IUH Although my friends were competent in vocabulary and grammar, they still are able to communicate ineffectively because they made many pronunciation mistakes such as wrong vowels, missing consonants, misplaced stress, and odd intonation After a long time of observation and investigation, these mistakes are typical ones of Vietnamese learners concerned with their own language Vietnamese has single words with no ending sounds, stress, and intonation so the learners simply omit them Moreover, there are some English consonants and vowels not existing in Vietnamese that are mispronounced repeatedly

As the English-majored students at FFL of IUH who will use English a lot in their occupation, or become future teachers, realizing all of their pronunciation mistakes is exceedingly important After that, they can self-correct to be ready to speak or teach English in the future As can be seen, learners need to pay attention to pronunciation if they want to speak English correctly and fluently These above facts have fostered me to carry out the research titled "A study on common pronunciation mistakes among the English-majored students at Faculty of Foreign Languages of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City and some solutions to improve their pronunciation” Hopefully, this study will help students become well aware of their pronunciation problems in order to improve their pronunciation Besides, it is also useful for teachers who teach pronunciation in university

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pronunciation Based on the findings, the researcher would like to make some suggestions to help them improve their pronunciation

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This investigation seeks to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the common pronunciation mistakes made by the English-majored students at FFL of IUH?

2 What should the English-majored students at FFL of IUH do to improve their English pronunciation?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

English pronunciation includes many components such as vowels and consonants, but they are also divided into some terms such as voice, voiceless, etc Due to the limitation of time and the writer‟s ability as well as the narrow scale, the study only focuses on the most common pronunciation mistakes and finds out a few suggested solutions To ensure and increase the reliability of the result of this research, at least 3 classes of the English-majored students at FFL of IUH have been surveyed in the second semester of the academic year

2020-2021

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CHAPTER 2:

LITERATURE REVIEW

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2.1 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

2.1.1 DEFINITION OF PRONUNCIATION

Pronunciation plays an important role in learning English, especially in speaking skills Even if learners with good pronunciation make mistakes in other areas, they are more likely to be understood According to Hornby (2008, p.352) pronunciation is the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced Pronunciation refers to the sounds we choose to form words (Carrel & Tiffany, 1960, p.4) It includes attention to the particular sounds of language and aspects of speech such as stress, intonation, rhythm, vowel and consonants, “voiced and voiceless” sounds Moreover, Dalton (1998) pointed out that pronunciation is the production of significant sound in two senses Firstly, the sound is significant because it is used as a part of a particular language Secondly, sound is important because it is wont to achieve meaning in contexts of use From these definitions, it can be concluded that pronunciation is the way to speak the language with its meaning In other that the learners can communicate in English, their pronunciation must be mastered

2.1.2 DEFINITION OF PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES

The different systems of language, of course, will make learners do mistakes in speaking activities, especially in pronouncing the words A pronunciation mistake can be considered as a performance error that is either random or a slip of the tongue Green and Tanner (1998, p 93) stated that a mistake refers to “a slip of the tongue”; that is “the learner knows the correct form but has temporarily forgotten it” In addition, mistakes are caused by hesitation, slips of the tongue (Brown, 1980, p.165) According to Fromkin (in Clark, 1977, p.273) slip of the tongue occurs when the speaker‟s actual utterance differs from the intended utterance Some factors such a carelessness, memory lapses, and physical condition also lead to pronunciation mistakes as well as the failure to speak the language system correctly Green and Tanner (1998, p.93) also added that “There are several reasons why learners may make mistakes; for example, they may be tired, or not concentrating, learners can often catch and correct their own mistakes” The learners, who make mistakes, will have inconsistency They sometimes make a mistake and sometimes make more than one mistake The sources of mistakes in pronouncing a language might be derived from the interference of the learners‟ mother tongue and the general characteristics of the rule learning

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2.2 RESULTS OF PREVIOUS STUDIES

2.2.1 COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES IN ENGLISH

There are six basic components of pronunciation that English learners make so many mistakes when communicating in English including intonation, stress and rhythm, vowels and consonants, initial sounds and final sounds, and voiced and voiceless sounds However, the writer would like to focus on some most common pronunciation problems of English learners, especially in Vietnam

2.2.1.1 VOWELS

According to the Oxford dictionary (2000, p.483), a vowel is the sound pronounced when the mouth is open and the tongue is not touching the top of the mouth, the teeth English vowels are divided into two kinds of vowels, single vowels, and diphthongs There are two kinds of single vowels, short vowels, and long vowels

a Minimal pair confusion

Riadi (2013) said that learners have many problems in pronouncing short and long vowels because of the influence of their mother tongue In Riadi‟s research (2013), problems of students in pronouncing short and long English vowels are investigated The data collection was carried out through a performance test in which 30 students of the English Education Study Program pronounced some vowel minimal pairs one by one Riadi (2013) found that the minimal pairs of /I/ and /i:/, /ʌ/ and /ɑ:/, /ʊ/ and /u:/ were the most mispronounced Similarly, Alimemaj (2020) asked 30 English-majored students to take a performance test in her study on difficulties encountered by Albanian students while pronouncing English minimal pairs The research data shows that most the participant confused about five vowel minimal pairs, two more than in Riadi‟s research (2013), which were /I/ and /i:/, /ʌ/ and /ɑ:/, /ʊ/ and /u:/, /ͻ:/ and /ͻ/, /e/ and /æ/ However, even though these studies employed qualitative methodology, the number of the participants is likely not enough to increase the findings' reliability of vowel mistakes Avery & Ehrlich (1992) wrote a book about how to teach American English pronunciation to selected groups, and the difficulties listed, /e/ and /æ/ is also a difficult minimal pair, "students often pronounce these two vowels in precisely the identical way and most typically, students fail to lower their tongue and jaw far enough in attempting to provide the /æ/ sound" (p 99) However, the difficulties listed were generalized to English learners of all learning levels

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b Vowel mispronunciation

Through reading aloud test (audio recorded) and questionnaire, Shak, Lee, and Stephen (2016) investigated that the twelve low oral proficiency students, who participated in the study on English pronunciation errors of Low Proficient Students, mispronounced both pure short (/ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ɒ/, /ʊ/, /ə/) and long vowels (/iː/, /ɑː/, /ɔː/, /uː/) Razak (2010) concluded that the third-year students who were not English department in her school got some difficulty in pronouncing only 4 English vowel /i:/, /u:/, /ə/ and/Λ/ in her study on the students‟ difficulties in pronouncing the English vowel at the third year which applied the qualitative methodology where data came in the form of reading aloud voice recordings A pronunciation test and questionnaire were also completed by 30 students Therefore, although the result validity of these researches is high and focuses on learners of certain learning levels, the

reliability needs to be improved to find out the students' common pronunciation mistakes

2.2.1.2 CONSONANTS

Roach (2000, p.10) defined consonants as: “sounds in which there is an obstruction to the flow of air as it passes the larynx to the lips” The differences between the learners‟ language and the English consonant system make them feel difficult to pronounce some English consonants which do not exist in their mother tongue

a Final consonant omission

Nisa (2020) used qualitative analysis in her research on errors of English voiceless plosive consonants produced by the non-English majors in Cahaya Bangsa School 32 participants took a pronunciation test about pronouncing 14 words including voiceless plosive consonants and all their pronunciations were recorded The most common errors were consonant omission The word “parent” as pronounced /pɛrənt/ was being omitted from the aspiration of /p/; the students made errors in pronouncing plosive voiceless consonants, especially in the final position of the word Moreover, in the study of Simarmata and Pardede on the error of students‟ pronunciation in pronouncing English vowels and consonants (2018), the consonant omission was the first problem the students made "For the word lamp /læmp/, the student pronounced it into /læm/ because they did not know about the cluster word The student also pronounced the word "camp", which has a final consonant cluster /mp/, into /kæm/" (Simarmata and Pardede, 2018, p.28) By employing qualitative methodology, the research findings were collected from 10 non-English majors, three students of the high score, three students of the medium score, and four students of the low score, who took the pronunciation

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test Both these writers took a sample of a small number of students in a class According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992, p.154), "Vietnamese has no voiced stops at the ends of words”, so the word „seat‟ may sound like „see‟ when Vietnamese learners speak Moreover, Avery and Ehrlich also said that “there are no consonant clusters in initial or final position in Vietnamese", “when pronouncing a difficult cluster, Vietnamese students tend to omit one or more consonants" (p 155) However, the difficulties listed were generalized to Vietnamese learners of all learning levels There is clearly a need for more research in this area for the English majors

b Consonant mispronunciation

Altaha (1995) carried out a research study that investigated the problems Saudi Arabian students faced when learning English pronunciation The participants started learning English at age 13 By recording and analyzing spoken English of the participants in different conditions and situations, he found that his participants had problems with some pairs of consonant sounds (i.e /ʧ/ and /ʃ/ as in “chair” and “share”; /v/ and /f/ as in “van” and “fan”; /p/ and /b/ as in “pat” and “bat”); consonant clusters (i.e “grandfather” often mispronounced “grandifather”) However, the difficulties listed were generalized to learners of all learning levels These problems with the pairs of consonant sounds also appeared in Ha's research (2005) involving the most common pronunciation problems of English-majored students who had finished four years of English at the University of Languages and International Studies Ha's research (2005) is one of the few attempts to address this issue The data collection was carried out through an oral final examination and the researcher took notes of the errors involving pronunciation The researcher concluded that the sounds most frequently mispronounced by Vietnamese students were sound omitted (medial: /1/, /dʒ /,/ r/,/ s/, /i/,/ k/; final: /z/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /ks/, /dʒ/), sound confusion ( /t/ and //tʃ/; / tr/ and /tʃ/; /ð/ and /z/,/d/; /ʃ/ and /s/; /p/ and /b/; /s/ and /tʃ/; /dʒ/ and /tʃ/,/j/,/s/,/z/,/t/./d/; /r/ and /z/; /θ/ and /s/,/t/), sound redundancy (/s/,/z/) Similarly, Avery and Ehrlich (1992) wrote in their book that /ð/ sounds are substituted by /d/ or /z/ sounds, so Vietnamese learners speaks „then‟ /ðen/ may sound like /den/ or /zen/, and „cap‟ /kæp/ might sound like „cab‟ /kæb/ Ha‟s research was carried out by an English teacher and pointed out three kinds of consonant mistakes through a pronunciation test, therefore, the result is valid On the other hand, the study only focused on the English-majored seniors

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2.2.1.3 WORD STRESS AND SENTENCE STRESS

Stress refers to the prominence given to certain syllables within words and certain syllables or words within utterance stated by AMEP Research Centre (2002) Besides word stress, English also has sentence stress Huwari and Al-khasawneh (2019) conducted quantitative research on the use of stress in English among undergraduate students at Zarqa university to reveal the most frequent type of word stress among 1st and 4th-year students from the department of English Language and Literature at ZU by given the thirty participants almost 10 minutes to prepare the reading task including 46 words and then reading it aloud The results of the study showed that the most frequent type of stress that the students made a mistake in was Compound-adjective, while the least one was Two-syllable nouns, the stress on the second syllable Although researching stress mistakes, the researchers only focused on word stress mistakes and did not investigate sentence stress mistakes Also, the number of participants is not enough to prove the reliability of the result concluded Tran's research (2017) is one of the few attempts to address this issue of Vietnamese learners She carried out a study on "Some English Stress Mistakes and Solutions - A Phonetic Experimental Research on Vietnamese Students" The researcher used quantitative research and recorded the student's voice which was analyzed and illustrated by a speech analyzer The result showed that there were 3 types of English stress mistakes among the students, which were rhythmic error, wrong placement of stress, and both of them However, the difficulties listed were generalized to Vietnamese learners Tran (2017), although researching stress mistakes, did not investigate sentence stress mistakes

2.2.1.4 INTONATION

Wells (1996) defined intonation as the rising or falling melody of speech It is believed that

the speakers can express their emotions and attitudes through their intonation Sari, Hadriana,

and Erni (2017) carried out research on students' intonation ability in reading English short story text The researchers used qualitative research and the number of samples taken was 30 English Department students The participants did a pronunciation test which was a short story text consisting of 30 intonations The findings showed that the students' intonation ability was at enough level Whereas, some of the students only read the text without intonation they just read like flat sentences even there is falling and rising intonation Besides, there was another research on intonation that pointed out students‟ mistakes clearly Tran (2015) is one of the few Vietnamese researchers who address this issue The study "A Case Study of Solutions to Some Intonation Mistakes Made by Vietnamese Students - A Phonetic

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Experimental Research" employed both quantitative and qualitative methodologies 90 students did an intonation test and questionnaire The findings showed that few of the participants had exact intonation and there were 3 main types of intonation mistakes among Vietnamese students relating to the rhythmic pattern, tonic syllable identification, and intonation pattern In spite of employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to point out the types of intonation mistakes, the research only focused on non-English-majored students

2.2.2 SOME SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

It is necessary for students to correct their mistakes and improve their English pronunciation Some students have their own effective methods to learn pronunciation On the contrary, some of the others apply the wrong way, which leads to no good result and waste of their time Therefore, the goal of the researcher is to find out some methods to improve English pronunciation in some relating researches

2.2.2.1 USING ENGLISH SONGS

English songs became popular to offer interesting ways to improve students' pronunciation It is clear that everyone can learn English by listening to an English song Warnke (2006, p.2) wrote a book “The use of Music and Song in the-EFL Classroom” and claimed that learning with songs has a positive effect on comprehending language in terms of intonation, pronunciation, and articulation Rahayu‟s research (2018) on the use of English songs to improve pronunciation skills concluded that “English song as a media can be used in teaching and learning process By English songs, the students will be accustomed to pronounce them” (p.87) The researcher asked 25 students to do pronunciation tests before and after they practiced pronunciation by songs There was an improvement in the final average score from 64.20 to 79.48 However, the researches above were generalized to students of all learning levels There is clearly a need for more research in this area for the English majors

2.2.2.2 USING PRONUNCIATION APPLICATIONS

In contemporary society, technology develops rapidly so that there are many applications for study, especially English - an international language Luardini, Seflianti, and Asi (2019) concluded that students can improve their pronunciation by using the "Hello English" application “The use of HE app could be the speaking partner of the students and if the students mispronounced the word then the HE app could correct it and mark the words that

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were mispronounced” (Luardini et al., 2019) Quantitative and qualitative data were taken with 26 English Department students by action test and questionnaire The data finding in this research showed that the Hello English app was effective to improve the students' pronunciation ability when they kept practicing their pronunciation through the app “The app also could detect if the students mispronounce the word and corrected it Therefore, it gave a good effect on their pronunciation and makes the students could be practice continuously to pronounce the words in the correct ways” (Luardini et al., 2019) However, the researchers did not investigate self-study with these apps to motivate the students practice their pronunciation at home

2.2.2.3 USING TONGUE TWISTERS

Carmen (2010) defined a tongue-twister as a sequence of words that is not easy to pronounce quickly and correctly Similarly, Vas (2007) stated that it is difficult to pronounce tongue twister; including a word, phrase, or sentence; in a row that is packed with the repetition of the close sound and the repetition of a consonant sound This activity is completed orally and repeated again and again to train the tongue with specific sounds Sitoresmi (2016) conducted a study on tongue twisters in pronunciation class with 24 English Department students by employing quantitative methodology and stated that tongue twisters can improve learners‟ pronunciation Sitoresmi (2016) affirmed the benefit of tongue twisters in students‟ pronunciation learning process that “Tongue twisters motivate them They are actively involved in the learning process so they become more self-confident Their awareness of using accurate pronunciation also improves.” (p.30) Sitoresmi (2016) added that “they could minimize mistakes as they got models from native speakers using tongue twisters in Youtube videos and routine drills using tongue twisters before starting the class” (p.3) Although researching the effect of tongue twisters, the researcher only focused on the effect in class and did not investigate self-study with tongue twisters

2.2.2.4 USING AUDIO STORIES

When students were children, most of them became familiar with audio stories Rokni carried out qualitative research on “The Effect of Listening to Audio Stories on Pronunciation of EFL Learners” by asking 46 students at the intermediate level to do a pronunciation test The result of the study proved that using audio stories as a tool was effective in fostering the experimental group students' pronunciation There were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group on the pronunciation pre-test and post-test

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in pronunciation proficiency in favor of the post-test scores Rokni (2013) concluded that audio stories play a significant role in learning pronunciation, “using audio stories can help learners improve their pronunciation and speaking skills Students had more confidence to pronounce the words” (p.82) Rokni (2013) added that “This technique helps to reduce the stress that accompanies oral production in a foreign language Probably the greatest benefit of using audio stories is that they are enjoyable.” (p.82) Similar to these methods above, the researcher did not investigate self-study with audio stories

2.2.2.5 USING SHADOWING TECHNIQUE

Shadowing is an activity to learn a language in which students listen to and repeat a model‟s speech at the same time Hamzar (2014) found out from his research “The implementation of shadowing technique to improve students‟ speaking performance” that the shadowing technique improved the students‟ speaking performance and motivated the students to speak English fluently Qualitative data were taken with 40 English Department students who were motivated by the researcher before and after doing shadowing techniques to speak English like the native speaker on MP3 Moreover, the students were asked to do the shadowing technique at home and they had to record their voice during the shadowing process As a result, they were confident to speak English fluently even though their speaking did not sound like the native speaker "By giving the students shadowing materials with the MP3 and the websites, the students could repeat to shadow the last materials or other materials at home Every time at home, the students could shadow the native speakers” (Hamzar, 2014, p.206-207) It can be seen that this research is valuable to approach the students‟ self-study with shadowing technique

2.3 SUMMARY OF SOME PREVIOUS STUDIES

The researcher pointed out the limitation of the studies mentioned above In this subject, most components of pronunciation and the methods to self-improve pronunciation should be investigated The researcher can follow the results in the previous studies to find out whether the participants make those pronunciation mistakes or use those methods Considering those factors, in my study, I propose to investigate a group of the English-majored students of all learning levels at a big university The objective here is to find out mistakes in their pronunciation that are related to 4 components of pronunciation, vowel, consonant, stress, intonation Then, the methods which the students can use to practice pronunciation by themselves are pointed out This study will be limited to the identification and analysis of

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common pronunciation mistakes among the English majors The researcher focuses on the components of pronunciation that have been ignored in the studies mentioned above such as sentence stress, self-improve methods, etc

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CHAPTER 3:

RESEARCH DESIGN

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3.1 RESEARCH SITE

This study is conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City IUH is one of the biggest universities in Southern Vietnam which has tens of thousands of students from all over the country On September 24, 2018, the university obtained the ASEAN University Network AUN-QA accreditation FFL of IUH has approximately 2,000 students who always have energy, confidence, enthusiasm, and passion for learning English Moreover, the FFL lecturers always apply a variety of active teaching methods and enhance their creative educational abilities in order to improve student academic achievement They are both friendly and conscientious so they are always willing to answer students' questions They often organize some English competitions and clubs to create a pleasant environment for students to learn and practice English The teachers of FFL teach not only academic knowledge but also professional skills, professional manners and share their experience for their students to be able to work effectively in specialized fields using English

3.2 PARTICIPANTS

All related data used to analyze for this study were collected from 300 students included 90 freshmen, 70 sophomores, 70 juniors and 70 seniors at FFL of IUH by survey questionnaire It cannot be denied that pronunciation is significantly important to the English-majored students who usually speak English and have leant about pronunciation Whether they are first-year or fourth-year students, they still can face challenges in speaking and make some pronunciation mistakes The participants were asked to share their responses to the pronunciation mistakes they encountered, as well as the suggested solutions All the participants in this study were voluntary and anonymous

3.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH METHODS 3.3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study used quantitative research Quantitative data can be explained by statistical analysis based on mathematical principles, so quantitative research is not only scientific and rational to test the proposed hypotheses relating to pronunciation mistakes and methods to improve pronunciation but also suitable for research on attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of surveyed people who have made pronunciation mistakes Quantitative results from a sample group will be generalized to a larger sample population The high reliability of the research results, the high representativeness, so the quantitative research results can be generalized to

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the students' pronunciation mistakes as well as the methods used to improve pronunciation Therefore, the researcher employs quantitative analyses to provide a broad investigation to find out an overview of the students‟ common pronunciation mistakes and their solutions

3.3.2 RESEARCH METHODS

This study used a questionnaire to obtain quantitative data about students‟ common pronunciation mistakes and their solutions when they spoke English In research, a questionnaire is an instrument that is comprised of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents The researcher chose the questionnaire because it provides a relatively quick and efficient way of obtaining larger sample sizes that are representative of the population Therefore, it is affordable to gather quantitative data by questionnaire Information from the respondents gathered can be effortlessly transformed into quantitative statistics, often arranged in tables, charts, figures, or other non-textual forms Moreover, the questionnaire consists of standardized questions which are identical in the same order This means a questionnaire can be replicated or repeated, given its high reliability

The survey questionnaire in this study (Appendix 1) was distributed online through Google from DHAV16, DHAV15, DHAV14, and DHAV13 There were 300 respondents in total The survey questionnaire consisted of 12 questions that included five-point Likert scale items as well as multiple-choice questions The first five questions in the questionnaire were multiple-choice questions used to get information about students‟ English-learning process in general and their pronunciation in particular Question 6-9 asked students about the pronunciation mistakes they have encountered when speaking Question 6 and 7 were designed as checkboxes so that students could choose more than one mistake usually made when they pronounced vowels and consonants respectively Questions 8 and 9 were multiple-choice questions about their stress and intonation These questions bring specific and realistic data about their common ending sound mistakes and pairs of vowels which they tend to misunderstand The last three questions were used to inquire student‟s opinion about some solutions which can help them avoid pronunciation problems Question 10 and 11 were multiple-choice questions and checkboxes respectively to determine what methods students have used to improve their pronunciation Question 12 was a five-point Likert scale item that asked students to point out how helpful some suggested solutions were Moreover, the writer added an “Others” section with the expectation of receiving additional ideas from students

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Therefore, in case the given options failed to fit their opinions, they could provide their viewpoints In this way, the researcher collected more useful information than expected

3.4 PROCEDURES

The procedure of data collection was conducted in three steps following to design, deliver, and collect the questionnaires In the first step of the data collection procedure, the questionnaire was designed through Google form following the research questions with some suitable answers which were suggested from some related studies After the supervisor gave the feedback, the questionnaire was adjusted Next, the researcher started to share the Google form of the questionnaire on the public Facebook group of DHAV16, DHAV15, DHAV14, and DHAV13 who involved in the research All the respondents were oriented on the outcomes and objectives of the research It took two weeks to collect data The researcher kept sharing the questionnaire on these groups to get enough respondents After two weeks, 300 students joined in answering the questionnaires The survey was distributed online through Google form so the students answered in their free time without any disturbance and had enough time to complete the questionnaires carefully After that, the collected data were analyzed immediately

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS

300 respondents were completed through Google form which was designed carefully so it is sure that there are not any items in the questionnaires skipped To make the result from the research practical and worthy, validity and reliability are the most important criteria that must be reached

It is useful that the Google form could show the number of students choosing each answer, arranged in the bar and pie charts for each question contained in the questionnaire Therefore, the research did not take too much time to make sure the statistics are reliable and transform the results into numerical data The researcher expressed the figures in terms of percentage with charts and tables by Microsoft Excel software Then, this researcher analyzed the data on answering each question and gave conclusions

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CHAPTER 4:

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

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4.1 THE FFL ENGLISH MAJORS’ BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND ATTITUDE TOWARD THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING PRONUNCIATION

Question 1: What year are you in at FFL of IUH?

Figure 4.1 The academic year of students at FFL of IUH

As the above chart shows, 30% of the first-year English-majored students at FFL of IUH filled in the questionnaire through Google form The percentage of the sophomores, juniors and seniors is at the same level of nearly 23% In general, although the number of the freshmen is more than the others, it is not significant

Question 2: How long have you been learning English?

Figure 4.2 Students’ English learning period counted by years

30%

24% 23%

More than 7 years

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It can be seen from the chart, the majority of the students confirmed that they have learned English for more than 7 years, with 66.3%, nearly two-thirds of the respondents 27% said that they started to learn English 5-7 years ago The number of the students who have studied English for 2-5 years accounts for 5.7% Only 1% of the students have learned English in 2 recent years Overall, most students at FFL of IUH spent many years learning English, which is long enough for them to find out their pronunciation difficulties

Question 3: How often have you been practicing pronunciation?

Figure 4.3 Students’ frequency of practicing their pronunciation

The pie chart describes the frequency of practicing pronunciation of the students at FFL of IUH From the data in the chart above, the highest percentage belongs to the number of the students who sometimes practice pronouncing words, with 41% 32% of the students usually practice pronunciation Following is the number of the students who rarely spend time learning pronunciation with 15% There are 11% of the students always practice pronunciation 1% is the percentage of those who never practice pronouncing words Generally, most students at FFL of IUH did not spend much time practicing pronouncing English, which clearly is one of the main factors that make them hardly improve their pronunciation

1%

15%

41% 32%

11%

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Question 4: How would you rate your pronunciation?

Figure 4.4 Students’ self-assessment of their pronunciation ability

As shown in the above chart, 34.3% of the students chose „Neutral‟ to rate their pronunciation There is a similarity in the number of the students who believed that their pronunciation is good, a little good, and not good with 20.7% 3.3% of the responses demonstrated that there is a small number of the students who thought that their pronunciation is very good It can be concluded that most students at FFL of IUH did not have confidence in their pronunciation

Question 5: Do you think it is important to pronounce like a native speaker?

Figure 4.5 Students’ awareness towards the importance of native-like pronunciation

20.7%

20.7% 34.3%

21%

3.3%

Not goodA little goodNeutralGoodVery good

0.7% 2.3% 7.7%

40% 49.3%

Not importantA little importantNeutral

ImportantVery important

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The pie chart shows the percentage of the students‟ agreements about the importance of pronouncing like a native speaker 49.3% and 40% is the scale of the students who considered pronouncing like a native speaker was very important and important in order while the minority chose „Neutral‟ at 7.7% 2.3% of the respondents indicated that pronouncing like a native speaker is a little important Only 0.7% of the students claimed that pronunciation is not important In short, most students at FFL of IUH realized the importance of good pronunciation in the English-learning process

4.2 COMMON PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES AMONG THE FFL ENGLISH MAJORS

Question 6: Which mistakes have you been making when you pronounce these following

English vowels?

Table 4.1 Students’ common pronunciation mistakes in vowel sounds

/ɪ/ /i:/ /æ/ /e/ /ʊ/ /u:/ /ʌ/ /ɒ/ /ɔ:/ /ɜ:/ /ə/ /ɑ:/ Confusion 50.3

%

76 %

74.7 %

51 %

52 %

74 %

27 %

23 %

40 %

35.7 %

24.7 %

33.3 % Mispronun

-ciation

46 %

20.7 %

27 %

45.7 %

46 %

21.3 %

48.7 %

41.3 %

33.7 %

35.7 %

35 %

37.3 %

Question 6 demonstrates the common mistakes that the English-majored students encountered when pronouncing English vowels They have been confused about some vowel minimal pairs, which could make native speakers misunderstand their words as other 'similar' words, then get the wrong meaning According to the respondents‟ opinions in table 1, they had confusion about pronouncing long vowel /i:/, which had the highest percentage with 76% 74.7% of the students have been confused the vowel /æ/ with the other vowels, standing for the second-highest number 74% of the participants chose the long vowel /u:/ as the third common vowel confusion Meanwhile, the number of the participants who usually were confused about pronouncing the three vowels /ʊ/, /e/ and /ɪ/ accounts for 52%, 51% and 50.3% respectively, nearly a half of the respondents, while 40% of them have been confused about pronouncing the vowel /ɔ:/ They also had confusion about pronouncing long vowels /ɜ:/ and /ɑ:/, which is nearly one-third of the participants with 35.7% and 33.3% of the students respectively Conversely, /ʌ/, /ə/, and /ɒ/ were the three less confusing vowels among the 12 vowels in the table with 27, 24.7, and 23% respectively

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Besides, the students also have mispronounced English vowels, which could make native speakers failed to hear the words which students said The most common mispronounced vowel is the vowel /ʌ/ with 48.7% of the students, nearly half of the participants There was the same number of the students who mispronounced the two vowels /ɪ/ and /ʊ/, with 46% of the students 45.7% of the participants chose vowel /e/ as their common vowel mispronunciation, while 41.3% of them mispronounced the vowel /ɒ/ 37.3% of the participants usually mispronounced the vowel /ɑ:/ The number of the participants who usually mispronounced the three vowels /ɜ:/,/ə/, and /ɔ:/ accounts for 35.7, 35, 33.7% respectively, nearly one-third of the respondents The vowels /æ/ was less mispronounced, with 27% of the students The percentage of the students confirmed that they mispronounced the vowel /u:/ when speaking English was 21.3% There 20.7% of the students who mispronounced the vowel /i:/, with 20.7% of the students, which is the lowest percentage In summary, the data collected support Riadi (2013), Alimemaj (2020), Avery and Ehrlich (1992) findings that learners have many problems in pronouncing short and long vowels The students at FFL of IUH have been in trouble when pronouncing almost all English vowels Most of them have been confused when pronouncing the three vowels /i:/, /æ/ and /u:/, while /ʌ/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /e/ have been mispronounced the most in their speaking Although this result shows some different vowel sounds from the ones in the research of Shak et al (2016) and Razak (2010), vowels always are problems that the students faced

Question 7: Which mistakes have you been making when you pronounce these following

English consonants?

Figure 4.6 Students’ common pronunciation mistakes in consonant sounds

61.3% 59.7%

73% 28.3%

35% 20.7%

65.3%

56.7% 62.7% 62% 24.3%

25.7% 25.7%

42.3%

Plosive consonants (/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/,…Affricate consonants (/ʈʃ/,/dʒ/) Fricative consonants (/h/,/f/, /v/, /s/, …

Nasal consonants (/n/,/m/,/ŋ/)Lateral approximant consonant (/l/)Approximant consonants (/w/,/r/, /j/)

Consonant clusters(/θr/, /kt/, …

Mispronunciation Omission

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The chart above demonstrates the common mistakes that the English-majored students encountered when pronouncing English consonants When they communicate in English the omission of final consonants usually happens, which could make native speakers misunderstand their words as other words, then get the wrong meaning According to the respondents‟ opinions in question 7, the percentage of the students who had omitted the final fricative consonants (/h/,/f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/) is the highest one with 73%, nearly three-quarters of the respondents, because most these consonants only occur at the beginning of the words in their mother tongue 65.3% of the students have omitted consonant clusters (/θr/, /kt/, /kst/, /mpt/, etc), standing for the second-highest one They had difficulty in pronouncing the consonant clusters in some English words because Vietnamese do not have consonant clusters in the initial or final position Consequently, some consonant clusters can be omitted 61.3% of the participants chose plosive consonants (/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/) as the third common consonant omission Meanwhile, the percentage of the participants who usually omitted affricate consonants (/ʈʃ/, /dʒ/) accounts for 59.7%, while 35% of them have forgotten to pronounce lateral approximant consonants (/l/) In addition, they also had omission when pronouncing nasal consonants (/n/,/m/,/ŋ/), which is over a quarter of the participants with 28.3% Conversely, approximant consonants (/w/, /r/, /j/) were the consonants less omitted by the students among the consonants in the chart with 20.7%

Furthermore, although many students are aware of producing these consonants, they also have mispronounced English consonants, which could make native speakers failed to hear the words which students said The most common mispronounced consonants are affricate consonants (/ʈʃ/, /dʒ/) with 62.7% of the students There is the almost same number of the students who mispronounced fricative consonants (/h/, /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/) with 62% 56.7% of the students confirmed that they mispronounced plosive consonants (/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/) when speaking English 42.3% of the participants chose consonant clusters (/θr/, /kt/, /kst/, /mpt/, etc) as their common consonant mispronunciation, while there is a similarity in the number of the students who mispronounced lateral approximant consonant (/l/) and approximant consonants (/w/, /r/, /j/) with 25.7%, nearly a quarter of them The number of the participants who usually mispronounced nasal consonants (/n/, /m/, /ŋ/) accounts for 24.3%, which is the lowest percentage

The findings may also align with Avery and Ehrlich (1992), who concluded that the students tend to have no voiced stops at the ends of words Similar to the participant in Nisa (2019), Simarmata and Pardede (2018) research, the consonant omission was the problem the students at FFL of IUH made Most of them have omitted fricative consonants (/h/, /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /θ/,

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/ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/) when pronouncing the words, while affricate consonants (/ʈʃ/, /dʒ/) have been mispronounced the most in their speaking Especially, the researcher investigated all of the consonants and found out the specific consonant sounds the students made mistakes, which is similar to Ha (2005) research

Question 8: Which kinds of the following stress have you been making mistakes with?

Figure 4.7 Students’ habits of making stress mistakes in speech

Question 8 illustrates the students‟ difficulties in stressing correctly in each word or sentence As can be seen from the chart, both word stress and sentence stress were common mistakes among the students, which had the highest percentage with 61.7% The second position took up 18.3% of the students who often had problems with sentence stress, while 13.7% of them confirmed that stressing the correct syllables in each word was their problem On the other hand, 6.3% of the students believed that they did not make any stress mistakes To sum up, the findings may differ from the ones of Huwari, Al-khasawneh (2019), and Tran (2017), who found out the types of word stress mistakes in a specific way but not investigate sentence stress mistakes as the researcher do The majority of students at FFL of IUH had trouble with both sentence stress and word stress They tend to give equal weight to each syllable or word and often use their mother tongue's rhythmic pattern

13.7%

18.3%

61.7% 6.3%

Word stress

Sentence stress

Both word stressand sentence stress Neither word stressnor sentence stress

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Question 9: Which patterns of intonation have you been using in speech?

Figure 4.8 Students’ tendency of using intonation in speech

In this question, the respondents were questioned about the patterns of intonation that they have used in speech Intonation is a very important component in English pronunciation When it is misused, it can change the intended meaning Remarkably, 48% of the learners responded that they usually used flat intonation in speech, whereas 19% of the students answered that they used both rising and falling intonation when speaking English Their voice has fallen and then risen Furthermore, the number of the students who used rising intonation accounts for 17% They have risen their voice at the end of a sentence Conversely, 16% of them only used falling intonation in their speech Their voice has fallen on the final stressed syllable of a phrase or a group of words Generally, the findings may align with the ones of Sari et al (2017), who concluded that the students had flat intonation and their intonation ability was at enough level Being different from Tran (2015), who found out the types of intonation mistakes in a specific way, the researcher investigated flat, falling and rising intonation which the students used Nearly half of the students at FFL of IUH tended to use flat intonation when speaking English like speaking Vietnamese As a result, they lacked the falling and rising intonation in spoken English which is important to make their speaking better because it conveys meaning in many ways The minority of them used both falling and rising intonation, which causes a more serious problem because if the students make mistakes, even only one mistake with intonation, the whole meaning of their sentence could change

48%

17% 16%

Rising intonationFalling intonationBoth rising and fallingintonation