a study on common mistakes made by vietnamese beginners of english pronouncing θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ and possible solutions = nghiên cứu về những lỗi thường gặp của học viên người việt khi phát âm các phụ âm tiếng anh t

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE LÊ NGỌC HÂN A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY VIETNAMESE BEGINNERS OF ENGLI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE

LÊ NGỌC HÂN

A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY VIETNAMESE BEGINNERS OF ENGLISH IN

SOLUTIONS

(Nghiên cứu về những lỗi thường gặp của học viên người Việt khi phát

âm các phụ âm tiếng Anh θ, δ, ʃ , ʒ, ʤ , ʧ và cách khắc phục khả hữu)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Major: English Linguistics Code: 602215

HÀ NỘI,2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE

LÊ NGỌC HÂN

A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY VIETNAMESE BEGINNERS OF ENGLISH IN

SOLUTIONS

(Nghiên cứu về những lỗi thường gặp của học viên người Việt khi phát

âm các phụ âm tiếng Anh θ, δ, ʃ , ʒ, ʤ , ʧ và cách khắc phục khả hữu)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Major: English Linguistics Code: 602215

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.VÕ ĐẠI QUANG (PhD)

HÀ NỘI,2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract ii

Table of contents iv

List of figures vi

Chapter one: Introduction 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

1.2.1 Aims 1

1.2.2 Objectives 1

1.2.3 Research questions 1

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Organization of the study 2

Chapter two : Literature Review 3

2.1 Theoretical Background 3

2.1.1 The role of pronounciation in language teaching 3

2.1.2 Factors affecting pronunciation learning 4

2.1.2.1 The native language 4

2.1.2.2 The age factor 4

2.1.2.4 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation 5

2.1.4 Consonants 10

2.1.4.1 General description of English consonants 10

2.1.4.2 Articulatory features of θ, δ, ʃ , ʒ , ʤ , ʧ 10

2.1.4.2.1 Articulatory features of /θ, δ / and /ʃ , ʒ / 11

2.1.4.2.2 Articulatory features of /ʤ , ʧ / 12

2.1.5 Mistakes in language learning 12

2.1.5.1 Mistakes in language learning 12

2.1.5.2 Types of mistakes 13

2.1.5.3 Possible causes of mistakes in language learning 14

2.1.5.3.1 The interference of the mother tongue 14

2.1.5.3 2 Causes other than interference by first language 15

2.2 Previous works 16

Chapter three: Methodology 18

3.1 Survey research 18

3.1.1 Steps for conducting a survey research 19

3.1.1.1 Defining a population 19

3.1.1.2 Sampling 20

3.1.1.3 Methods of collecting survey data 20

3.1.1.4 Data analysis 20

3.2 Techniques employed in this thesis 21

3.2.1 Data collection instruments 21

3.2.1.1 Tape recording 21

3.2.1.2 Questionnaire 21

3.2.1.3 Interview 22

3.2.2 Methods of data analysis 23

3.3 Procedure 23

3.4 Summary 24

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Chapter four: Findings and discussion 24

4 1 Findings from tape recording 24

4.2 Findings and discussions from the questionnaire 26

4.2.1 Students’ attitude towards pronunciation 26

4.2.2 Students’ perceptions of their frequency of pronunciation mistakes 27 4.2.3 Students’ perceptions of the causes of those mistakes 28

4.2.4 Students’ self-treatment to overcome those mistakes 29

4.2.5 Reflection on teachers’ methods used to help students to overcome those mistakes 31

4.3 Findings from the interviews 32

4.4 Summary 33

Chapter five: Conclusion 34

5.1 Recapitulation 34

5.2 Concluding remarks 35

5.3 Pedagogical Implications 36

5.3 Suggestions for further research 37

References 38

Appendices……… ……… vii

Survey questionnaire……… ……….vii

Exercises for tape recording……… x

Interview sheet……… xi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Chapter one “Introduction” includes the reasons of choosing the thesis, the aims, the objectives, the scope, research questions and the organization of the study

1.1 Rationale

English, the most popular foreign language in Vietnam, has been taught from the early age (at the age of 7 or even younger) in most of schools and universities throughout the country as a compulsory subject however, not many of them “have intelligible English pronunciation so that they can be understood easily in direct communication with foreigners” It is the exact fact happening in Bac Ninh Specialized High School Over many years of teaching English in this school, the writer of the study has observed that there are quite a number of students who frequently make mistakes with English sounds Being fully aware of the necessity of correcting mistakes for students as well as Vietnamese learners of English, the writer

of this paper decided to conduct the study entitled “A study on common mistakes made by Vietnamese beginners of English in pronouncing θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ , ʤ , ʧ and possible solutions”

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims

The research aims at:

- improving students‟ pronunciation of the six English consonants θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ , ʤ , ʧ

- providing English teachers with a reference for the pronunciation of θ, δ, ʃ,

ʒ , ʤ , ʧ

1.2.2 Objectives

To achieve these aims, the following objectives are set forth as tasks of the study:

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

- find out causes of mistakes made by Vietnamese learners in pronouncing θ, δ,

ʃ, ʒ , ʤ , ʧ

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

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1.2.3 Research questions

The above-mentioned objectives can be elaborated into the following research questions:

Question 1: What common mistakes do Vietnamese learners have in pronouncing the English sounds θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ , ʤ , ʧ ?

Question 2: What are the causes of those mistakes?

Question 3: What are possible solutions to those mistakes?

1.3 Scope of the study

In thesis we only concentrate on common mistakes made by 30 students who are studying English as major field in Bac Ninh Specialized High School in pronouncing

“θ, δ, ʃ, ʒ , ʤ , ʧ ” and causes of those mistakes as well as possible solutions to eliminate them These collected mistakes are considered as the common ones made

by Vietnamese learners

1.4 Organization of the study

To achieve the aims of the study, this paper is divided into five chapters

Chapter one : Introduction

Chapter two :Literature Review

Chapter three :Methodology

Chapter four : Findings and discussions

Chapter five :Conclusion

CHAPTER TWO : LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter two “Literature Review” is devoted to the presentation of the theoretical background relevant to the research Firstly, the review of pronunciation as well as factors affecting pronunciation learning are introduced Then the literature related to mistakes is given It includes the notion of mistakes in language learning, types of mistakes and the main causes of mistakes Lastly, articulatory features of the six consonnants are mentioned

2.1 Theoretical Background

2.1.1 The role of pronounciation in language teaching 2.1.2 Factors affecting pronunciation learning

2.1.2.1 The native language

2.1.2.2 The age factor

2.1.2.3 Pronunciation ability

2.1.2.4 Motivation and concern for good pronunciation 2.1.3 Articulatory phonetics

2.1.4 Consonants

2.1.4.1 General description of English consonants

2.1.4.2 Articulatory features of θ, δ, ʃ , ʒ , ʤ , ʧ

2.1.4.2.1 Articulatory features of /θ, δ / and /ʃ , ʒ / 2.1.4.2.2 Articulatory features of /ʤ , ʧ /

2.1.5 Mistakes in language learning

2.1.5.1 Mistakes in language learning

2.1.5.2 Types of mistakes

2.1.5.3 Possible causes of mistakes in language learning 2.1.5.3.1 The interference of the mother tongue

2.1.5.3 2 Causes other than interference by first language

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2.2 Previous works

As mentioned above, there have been a great deal of notable works about pronounciation issues and pronounciation teaching ones but some of them express the writers‟ concern about pronounciation problems especially the learners‟ difficulties in pronouncing English sounds However, it can be confirmed that Avery & Ehlrich (1992:67) are the two first people mentioning problems Vietnamese learners may face with when studying English “As the sound systems of English and Vietnamese differ greatly, Vietnamese speakers can have quite serve pronounciation problems”

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

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

Vietnamese learners, namely sound omission, sound confusion and sound redundancy However, many previous studies found in books, linguistic magazines or on the Internet are only about general pronunciation problems of wide issues, none of them specifies in certain consonants that most impede Vietnamese learners from communication and common mistakes in English pronunciation For this reason, the research is carried out to find out the common mistakes made by the students studying in Bac Ninh Specialized High School in pronouncing some English consonants and improve their pronunciation

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

Chapter three “Methodology” describes in detail the research methodology which comprises the principles based on which the study is carried out It also presents techniques employed in this thesis, namely questionnaire, tape recording and interview

In order to fulfill the study, a combination of survey questionnaire, tape recording and interview is employed

3.1 Survey research

Among the research methods, survey research is one of the most important areas of measurement in applied social research The broad area of survey research encompasses any measurement procedures that involve asking questions of respondents A “survey” can be anything form a short paper-and- pencil feedback from to an intensive one-on-one in-depth interview

Survey research can be also defined in terms of the type of information gathered or the purposes for which the information is collected Alreck and Settle (1995:98) contended that the reasons for conducting survey include influencing a selected audience, modifying a service or product, and understanding or predicting human behaviour Rea and Paker (1997:88) added understanding people‟s interests and concerns as motivations for using surveys, with data reflecting descriptive, bahavioural or preferential characteristics of respondents

3.1.1 Steps for conducting a survey research

In this process of conducting a survey research, the researcher must make a series of careful decisions about how the study will be carried out These include a great deal of steps such as: determining the purpose of the study; stating the research questions; specifying the population and drawing a sample from the population; deciding on the methods of data collection; developing instruments, and training data collectors or interviewers ; collecting data ; analyzing the data; and addressing non response Understanding these steps will help researchers assess and construct their own meaning from reports of surveys that they read

3.1.1.1 Defining a population

After stating the research questions, it is advisable to define a population The population is the entire group of entities or people to which the results of a study are intended to apply The

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population can vary widely depending on the research questions and the purpose of the study

It can be a set of schools, a group of people such as students or teachers or a set of instances

of language uses

3.1.1.2 Sampling

Sample is a crucial factor in the survey research as it is not possible to survey the entire group

of interest (the population) but a subgroup (a sample) The selected sample must be similar to the population of interest in important ways if the results of the study are intended to apply to (be representative of) that population

3.1.1.3 Methods of collecting survey data

While conducting the research, the most prevalent data-collection methods are questionnaires, interviews and direct observations of language use In addition, many other types of information can be gathered including test results, compositions, or reactions to L2 oral or written language data

Questionnaire is the most common methods of data collection L2 survey research It can range from short items to long documents which require one or two hours to complete Items

in the questionnaire can be open-ended format (allowing respondents to reply in their own words) or closed one, requiring the respondent to select one from among a limited number of responses

3.1.1.4 Data analysis

Descriptive Analyses of the results of a survey are often reported in frequency and percentages These descriptive statistics are numbers that summarize the data

Correlational Analyses can be applied along with the descriptive to analyze relationships among variables

3.2 Techniques employed in this thesis

3.2.1 Data collection instruments

In order to complete this minor thesis, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been conducted to collect data They include: tape recording, questionnaire and interview

3.2.1.1 Tape recording

A task was designed to record the students‟ pronounciation including two main parts: In part one, students read aloud sounds and words which the sounds appear In part two, there is a

short passage for students to read aloud, this passage has many words with the sounds students always mispronounce

3.2.1.2 Questionnaire

Questionnaire was used as the first tool to collect data for this study This kind of method has proved to be effective and time-saving since it could yeild a variety of data ranging from factual, behavorial to attitudinal from numerous respondents in different situations

In this research, a great number of question types categorized by Youngman (1986, as cited in Nunan, 1992: 144) including frequency, list, category and ranking questions had been applied

In that way, some serious limitations of questionnaires as cited in Dornyei (2003:10), which are simplicity and superficiality of answers, unreliable and unmotivated respondents, respondent literacy problems and fatigue effects, seemed to have been solved

a Aims of the questionnaire

The questionnaire is designed to clarify:

-Students‟ attitude toward pronunciation (question 4)

-Students‟ perception about their pronounciation mistakes (questions 5,6)

-Students‟ perception about causes of their mistakes in pronouncing some consonants.(question 7)

-Students‟ self-treatment to oversome those mistakes (question 9)

-Reflection on teachers‟ methods to help students eliminate their mistakes in pronouncing some English consonants (question 11)

b Selection of participations

Thirty students from English Department of Bac Ninh Specialized High School participated All of the students are studying English as major field and 100% of the students taking part in the study spent 7 years and more studying English

3.2.1.3 Interview

Interview is one kind of questionnaire, it is the vocal questionnaires and it has been used by second language acquisition researchers seeking data on stages and processes of acquisition (Johnson,1985: 44), and also by language testers, who use the oral interview as a mean of assessing proficiency (Ingram, 1984: 24)