Improving english pronunciation for the first year students of english major at hanoi open university

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH Code : 18 - - GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES IMPROVING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH MAJOR AT HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY Supervisor : Nguyen Thi Kim Chi,M.A Student : Vu Van Huy Date of birth : 06/11/1994 Course : 1271A04 (2012-2016) Hanoi, 2016 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original written and under strict guidance of my supervisor The title: Improving English pronunciation for the 1st year students of English major at Hanoi Open University Hanoi, April 15th,2016 Student Signature Supervisor Signature i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This graduation thesis would never have been able to finish without the guidance of my lovely supervisor, help from friends and support from my parents Firstly, I would love to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, MA Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, for her excellent guidance, caring and patience, and providing me with a good condition for doing research, from whom I have received valuable comments and suggestions I would also like to thank M.A Vu Tuan Anh, Who gave me some excellent ideas, and lent me some useful books to help me finish this graduation thesis Secondly, I would like to thank to faculty of English, Hanoi Open University for giving me permission to commence this thesis in the first instance and to the necessary research work Thirdly, I want to show my appreciation to participants, including K22, the first year students of English major at Hanoi Open University, who provided me with valuable assistance in collecting data Last but not least, my gratefulness goes to my parents, who have been supporting me, especially my mother, She was always cheering me up and stand by me through the good and bad times ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES AND FIRGURES vi PART A:INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Research questions Method of the study Design of the study PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1- LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Pronunciation 1.2.1What is the definition of pronunciation 1.2.2 Main features of English pronunciation 1.2.2.1 Consonants 12 1.2.2.2 Vowels 14 1.2.2.3 Intonation 17 1.2.2.4 Word stress 19 1.3 The importance of English pronunciation 23 1.3.1 Teachers’ perception about the importance of pronunciation 23 1.3.2 Students’ perception about the importance of pronunciation learning 24 1.4 Difficulty for Vietnamese learners when pronouncing English 25 1.5 Summary 27 CHAPTER 2: PROBLEMS MET BY THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH MAJOR IN PRACTICING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION 28 2.1 Data collection 28 2.1.1 Data analysis 28 2.1.1.1 Participant’s attitude towards English pronunciation 29 2.1.1.2 Pronunciation problems of the first year students 31 2.1.1.2.1 English pronunciation ability of the 1st year English majors at HOU 31 2.1.1.2.2 Word stress 32 2.1.1.2.3 Intonation 33 iii 2.1.1.2.4 English final consonant 34 2.1.1.2.5 Linking sounds 35 2.1.1.3 Causes leading to the first year English majors’ problems about English pronunciation 36 2.1.1.3.1 Wrong methods of self-study 37 2.1.1.3.2 Big differences between English and Vietnamese language 37 2.1.1.3.3 Influence of Vietnamese mother tongue 40 2.1.1.3.4 Psychology factor of shyness 41 2.1.1.3.5 Teaching methods 41 2.1.1.3.6 Lacking of time practicing pronunciation at home 42 2.2 Summary 43 CHAPTER SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS HELP THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS IMPROVE THEIR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION 44 3.1 Practice hearing the sounds of English 44 3.2 Pay attention to word and sentence stress 45 3.3 Be aware of intonation 48 3.4 Practice linking sounds together and connected speech 50 3.5 Work out which sounds cause most difficult in pronouncing 54 3.6 Read out loud and recording 56 3.7 Summary 57 PART C:CONCLUSION 58 REFERENCES 60 APPENDIX 62 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESL : English as a second language EFL : English is spoken as a second language IC : Inner circle OC : Outer circle EC : Expanding circle HOU : Hanoi Open University v LIST OF TABLES AND FIRGURES TABLES Table Expression of emotions when speaking English 33 Table Student’s ability of linking sounds in English 35 FIGURES Figure 1: The importance of having good English pronunciation 29 Figure 2: The participants concern about English pronunciation and try to reach it 30 Figure English pronunciation ability of the 1st year students of English major 31 Figure Frequency of paying attention to word stress of the first year students 32 Figure Ability of pronouncing English final consonant sounds 34 Figure Reasons leading to the student’s incorrect pronunciation 36 Figure Habit of pronouncing English like Vietnamese sounds 40 Figure Amount of time students practice their English pronunciation at home 42 vi PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale Pronunciation regarded as the most important and difficult micro-skill of the four skills in English language learning Most non-native students of English face a lot of difficulties when they try to speak English and sometimes get frustrated when they could not understand or be understand by native English speakers English is a stressed language, and this means that more attention should be paid to where you put the stress in a word or sentence, rather than the number of syllables Most of the time, students who have trouble using the right stress and intonation speak native languages with very different rules Students of English as a second language know so well how important pronunciation is Nevertheless, sometimes it has been obvious that a student has been paid little attention to their English pronunciation in the process of second language learning Celce & Goodain (1991) states that over the past years, there have been different views about the value of teaching pronunciation in language teaching and they reported that the cognitive approach and grammar translation reading based method which used by teachers attach no importance to pronunciation Many people learning English language often not pay much attention to their pronunciation Even worse, some of them underestimate it They think that pronunciation is less important than grammar and vocabulary In fact, Pronunciation reflects your English speaking ability Many cases of misunderstanding in communication were caused by the mispronouncing of words or the improper intonation It has been realized the fact that most of English students who study English at Hanoi Open University have different background, they come from another provinces where their high school did not really teach them English pronunciation except for English grammar As a senior English major student, I realized how the first year student try their best to reach their specific goal to speak English better and to sound more naturally and more like native English speaker In addition, the first year student should be a perfect time to train their pronunciation Experts argue that pronunciation should be introduced by teachers in all their lessons, and teachers themselves should make learners aware of its importance (Gilakjani,2011) Yates and Zielinski (2009) found that pronunciation is a very difficult aspect of English to learn, but it seems that teaching pronunciation from the very beginning helps learners to be intelligible Therefore, I would like to a research with a wish to improve the freshman’s English pronunciation that they can speak English natural, confident and like a native speaker The research entitled “Improving English pronunciation for the first year students of English major at Hanoi Open University” Aims of the study This study is an attempt to:  Investigate the attitudes of the first year student at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University towards the importance of English pronunciation  Figure out some problems faced by the freshman during their studying English pronunciation, their habits to study English pronunciation  Give some solutions and suggestions to help them step by step learning English pronunciation so that they can improve their speaking skills Scope of the study In this research, I would like to focus on the problems of the first year English majors might meet when they learn English pronunciation, finding out the reality of learning English pronunciation to them Although I am well aware that the survey statistics are not fully representative of all English major students at other universities in Vietnam, I hope to propose some of the most popular facts that occurring in study Research questions The research has been following these questions below:  What are attitudes of the first year English major students toward to English pronunciation?  What are the problems faced by the first year students faculty of English at Hanoi Open University?  What are some practical solutions and suggestions to help them overcome their problems? Method of the study To achieve the main aim and objectives of the study, Survey questionnaire and interview methods have been applied The information from questionnaires can help to draw a picture about the reality of learning English pronunciation I am allowed to be in a class of K22 (the first year students) to interview the attitudes of the students while they are studying in an English pronunciation lesson Also, Analysis method is used to finalize the difficulties faced by the freshman at faculty of English in terms of their attitudes, language and cultural knowledge when joining in everyday conversation Statistic technique is also applied to calculate the results collected from survey questionnaire in order to figure out some specific problems and solutions to the students Design of the study The study is divided into three main parts as follows:  Part A: Introduction, which reveals the rationales, the objectives, the research questions, the method and the design of the study It also expresses reason why I decided to choose this subject  Part B: Development + Chapter is intended to give theoretical background related to English pronunciation, the definition of pronunciation, some main features of pronunciation and the importance of English pronunciation + Chapter provides an analysis on the situation of learning English pronunciation of the first year students of English major at faculty of English, HOU Therefore, the author could find out some specific difficulties and problems of the students faced during learning English pronunciation + Chapter focuses on the solutions and suggestions to help the students overcome their problems  Part C: Conclusion gives a brief summary of the whole study  The falling tone The falling tone is the most common, neutral tone used in English It suggests that speakers are simply conveying information As a result, it is most often used in plain statements, real, serious commands – as it expresses finality and definiteness –, in exclamations – expressing that the speakers are sure what they are saying –, and in wh-questions, questions starting with a question word (who, what, where, why, how, etc For example: I ‘think we ‘haven’t met This is the house where I grew up  The low rising tone In English, it is always used to respond to something that somebody said Often it expresses indifference – an "I-don't care attitude" –, it is used in apologies, greetings and when saying thanks, and also in cases of expressing encouragement For example: How was the movie? John asked It was all right! Emily answered  The high rise tone The high rise is most often used in Yes/No questions, which not start with a question word If something is said with a high rising intonation, it is always a real question For example: Have you ‘ever been to England? ‘Is Rachel ‘coming to the party? 49  The fall-rise tone The fall-rise is a combination of a fall from high or mid tone to low followed by a low rise, i.e., a rise from low to mid A fall-rise may be used for several purposes: on the one hand, it may indicate that the speaker is not telling everything, but a part of the message is only implied, the listener has to find it out from the context A fall-rise may be used for several purposes: on the one hand, it may indicate that the speaker is not telling everything, but a part of the message is only implied, the listener has to find it out from the context For example: I’ve ‘never ‘seen your house! (Invite me to see it) Being aware of intonation and practice speaking English with different tone will help the students sound more naturally and more like a native English speakers In conclusion, correct intonation and stress are the key to speaking English fluently with good pronunciation Intonation and stress refers to the music of the English language Words that are stressed are keys to understanding and using the correct intonation brings out the meaning 3.4 Practice linking sounds together and connected speech Many English learners pronounce each word clearly and distinctly, trying get the pronunciation perfect, but native English speakers not this In case of the students of English major at HOU, most of them see linking sounds is quite difficult They not recognize where exactly sounds they should link or not Natural spoken English contains links and reductions The words get connected together and some sounds change or disappear when spoken at normal speed Native English speakers not pronounce every individual word clearly Here are some examples: How are you feeling today? Sounds like I’m going to have luch Sounds like Howrya feelin’ today? I’m gonna avluch 50  Hints for linking sounds:  In a sentence, when a word ends in a consonant sound and the next words begins with a vowel sound, the words are put together and said as one (Ex “It’s upstairs.” -> “Itsupstairs.”, “I found it.” -> “I foundit.”, “That’s a lot of money.” -> “Thatsa lotof money.”)  Prepositions and other small words are usually pronounced as part of the word that comes before it in the sentence This is especially true for phrasal verbs and other expressions with prepositions (Ex “Take off your jacket.” -> “Takeoff your jacket.”, “Fill out the form -> “Fill out the form.”)  Some common expressions that are linked get shortened in speech with the “ah” sound taking the place of the shorter word (Ex “would have” -> “wouldah, “should have” -> “shouldah”, “want to” -> “wannah”, “have to” -> “haftah” or “gottah”)  Expressions in which the first word ends in a consonant and the second word begins with a consonant are often pushed together andsaid quickly because they are so common It can be difficult to tell what the words really are (Ex “last Friday” -> “lastfriday”, “they’ll be” -> “theyllbe”, “dish towel” -> “dishtowel”)  The “h” sound at the beginning of short words disappears and the other sounds get added to the word before it (Ex “Does he like it? -> “Doesee like it?”, “What’s her name?” -> “Whatser name?”)  When a word ends with a vowel sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound, they are sometimes combined using a “w” or “y” sound (Ex “Let’s it.” -> “Let’s dowit.”, “It’s too expensive.” -> It’s toowexpensive.”, “I’m free on Saturday.” -> “I’m freeyon Saturday.”, “Did you see it?” -> “Did you seeyit?”) Rule 1: When a word ending in /iy/, /ey/, /ay/, or /oy/ is followed by another word beginning with a vowel, the two words are connected by a /y/ glide: /iy/ /ey/ /ay/ + vowel = /y/ glide For example: Play a game /oy/ 51 Rule 2: When a word ending in /uw/, /ow/, or /aw/ is followed by another word beginning with a vowel, the two words are connected by a /w/ glide: /uw/ /ow/ + vowel = /w/ glide For example: How are you? /aw/ Rule 3: When the consonants /s, z, t, d/ are followed by /y/ in an unstressed syllable, the two sounds combine to form a palatalized consonant: /s/ + /y/ /ʃ/ /t/ + /y/ /ʧ/ ( For example: Pass ( For example : Eat your plate) your meat) Exercise 1: Let's practice this linking technique in some phrases and idioms How is it? /haɔwɪzIt/ she has blue eyes /bluwaɪz/ Show us your new i phone /nuwaɪfon/ Your speech blew us away /bluwsweɪ/ (amazed us) Exercise 2: Mark the place where two vowels are linked There are may be more than one position in one sentence where sounds are linked Do you know the answer? I didn’t say it Where is the office? May I ask? Her blue eyes are beautiful I didn’t go out last night I always tie it I didn’t go into the water 52 Key: Answer to exercise Do you know the answer? I didn’t say it Where is the May I Her blue I didn’t go I office? ask? eyes are beautiful out last night always tie I didn’t go it into the water Overall, if the students want to speak English with good accent and better sounds, it's important to learn how native English speakers connect the sounds of English Speaking with connected speech will make your speech smooth, flowing and more natural sounding 53 3.5 Work out which sounds cause most difficult in pronouncing Practicing and focusing on the words give the students difficult to pronounce that will help them get more in touch with those sounds and master them Whatever sounds in English give difficult to pronounce, try to practice them till getting easily to pronounce Each student will find their own difficult sounds, but in this paper just focus on some difficult sounds that the first year students of English major get in trouble As Vietnamese people, the first year students of English major at HOU may have problems with certain sounds According to the survey, the first year students English major at HOU found themselves get in trouble with some certain sounds in English, which gave them really difficult to pronounce or distinguish Those sounds are some final consonants such as /z/-/s/;/ʃ/-/s/;/dʒ/-/z/or/s/;/ʧ//c/;/t/-/d/ When speaking English, students often have confusion between /z/ and /s/ They always mispronounce words with “z” ending sound to “s” This mistake raises the confusion and misunderstanding in listeners There are no affricates in the Vietnamese consonant system so many Vietnamese learners of English find it hard to pronounce /dʒ/, for which they have to make great effort to place their tongue at the point to make a plosive /d/ then quickly move their tongue a little back to make a fricative /ʒ/ /ʧ/- Vietnamese/c/, Vietnamese /c/ is produced by the contact of the blade of the tongue against the front part of hard palate, voiceless and aspirated, whilst the English /ʧ/ is produced as a palato-alveolar consonant and voiceless with the tongue rolls a little bit In order to overcome this difficult it may take the students long time and effort to learn more about the way these sounds are produced, try to focus on these difficult sounds to become better aware of the mistakes they make so that they can become more automatic and natural in using the sounds, to away with the interference of Vietnamese-the language they were born with The students should be given enough practice both inside and outside classroom This may help them become more fluent and automatic in pronouncing the difficult sounds Practice makes perfect and can be done in the forms of variety of exercises and games There have been quite a number of pronunciation exercises given in phonetics books like Pronunciation Tasks, English Pronunciation in Use, Understanding English pronunciation, Three or Tree, Ship or Sheep, etc 54 One of the ways to help the first year students cope with this problem is to practice English tongue twisters Tongue twisters are one of the few types of spoken wordplay that are fun to recite and are a great tool to aid the students’ language development Tongue twisters are not only a linguistic fun and game but serve a practical purpose for language and speech development Tongue twisters are such good idea to improve their accent and speech pathologists often use them as a tool to help those with speech difficulties Practice: The following is some tongue twisters suggestion to help the students practice with those difficult sounds /ʃ/-/s/ /t/-/d/ /ʧ/-/dʒ/ A tree toad loved a she- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a toad That lived up in a tree She was a three-toed woodchuck could chuck Say this shortly, say this tree toad, But a two-toed wood? softly toad was he The two-toed Jumpy George enjoyed toad tried to win The shethe jungle gym Say this sixteen times in toad's friendly nod, For the succession two-toed toad loved the Joy to see your chin, jaw ground On which the and cheek three-toed tree toad trod But no matter how the two-toed tree toad tried, He could not please her whim In her three-toed bower, With her three-toed power, The three-toed shetoad vetoed him Say this sharply, say this sweetly, Tongue twisters have long been an integral part of a public speaker's tool kit As well as being fun, they are extremely effective The students also can find more tongue twisters on the internet and try to practice it every day Those difficult sounds will not be a problem to them anymore 55 3.6 Read out loud and recording One of the very easy techniques to improve English pronunciation is reading out lout and recording at the same time When the students listen to their recording, they will be able to spot various mistakes, they will notice that there are some words that require more work or they should change their pace by slowing down to make their accent clear Obviously, when they hear their own voice, they will know where they need improvements Recording yourself can improve the way you pronounce the language For beginners it may be hard to focus on speaking grammatically correct English and maintaining the proper flow of the language This can be helped with self-recording Start by listening to a recording of a native speaker uttering a sentence Then record yourself while you try to reproduce the same piece of text as closely as possible and analyze both recordings Review and correct any off sounds and the entire flow of the text Playing both recordings at the same time can be an easy way to find out what words need practice and how to improve your overall flow This will be evident as the closer your pronunciation and flow is to the original the louder the sound will be If you have trouble with your flow the overlapping tracks will sound off and distorted These differences will show you what parts you need work with The students can practice speaking English whenever they want, even if they don't live in a country where English is spoken It's free and there's no software to download All they need is a headset with a microphone or speakers and microphone Step 1: Listen to the correct pronunciation given by native English speakers Step 2: Repeat and record the phrase Step 3: Compare your pronunciation to native English speakers Analyzing recordings of their selves won’t just improve students flow and pronunciation, but can also help with the retention of certain grammatical lessons It is nearly impossible for someone to continuously point out mistakes while the students speak, mistakes that even when brought up wouldn’t be fixed because of the fragmented and difficult communication 56 By recording themselves while they learn, the students can more easily analyze their speech or even ask a native speaker or an English teacher to correct or bring up their mistakes 3.7 Summary With a purpose to help the first year students of English major at Hanoi Open University overcome their English pronunciation’s problems This chapter has pointed out some specific suggested solutions, some suggested solutions as follow:  Practice hearing the sounds of English  Pay attention to word and sentence stress  Be aware of intonation  Linking sounds together when speaking English  Work out with sounds that give difficult to the students  Read out lout and record themselves In each suggestion above, the learning strategy and instructions are shown In addition, there are also some exercises and practices are given to the students Practice English pronunciation every day, as often as possible with a purpose, practice the sounds of English until they feel as natural and comfortable as the sounds of their mother tongue There’s always the possibility to make dramatic improvements…the main ingredients here are: patience and hard work The combination of both will lead the students to success 57 PART C CONCLUSION Pronunciation is the most important and difficult problem that English as a second language students have to face when studying English Improper pronunciation can lead to negative impression, misunderstanding and ineffective communication Knowing this, the topic is to improve English pronunciation for the first year students of English major at Hanoi Open University has been carried out This paper started from the investigation into the literature review relating to the English pronunciation and the factual data collected by using survey questionnaire and interview which have been conducted at faculty of English, Hanoi Open University The survey questionnaire was given to 100 first year students of English major, some their English pronunciation problems have been shown They are bad ability of pronouncing English with specific word and sentence stress, intonation, linking sounds, English final consonants These weak points have been described in details and discussed so that the author can find solutions to help students The technique “hearing the English sounds was given to them, in this method, the importance of listening English is mentioned and show the students the way to practice with “shadow” technique to improve pronunciation Another is paying attention to word and sentence stress, and also be aware of intonation, intonation refers to the way the voice goes up and din pitch variation, without intonation, it is impossible to understand the expression and thoughts that with words There are some exercises and practices in this part of the suggestion To be able to speak English with good accent and better sounds, the method to linking sounds or connecting the sounds of English, Speaking with connected speech will make your speech smooth, flowing and more natural sounding Working out which sounds cause most difficult in pronouncing English also is mentioned to solve the problems of the first year students of English major The students need to know what specific sounds that they feel hard to pronounce and try to practice it every day In this part, there is mentioned only some specific sounds that are problems for the first year students of English major, there is also 58 exercises to practice, tongue twisters, which is very good idea to help them solve this problem Finally, the last suggested solution was given to the students is read out lout and record themselves, when the students listen to their recording, they will be able know their own mistakes, and notice which sounds that require more work Recording can improve the way they pronounce language In conclusion, to be able to speak English more fluently and naturally must take students times, it will not work one or two day, it is a practicing with instruction and strategy on a process Practice English pronunciation at least 30 minutes every day or even more With regularly practicing, English pronunciation will improve 59 REFERENCES Gilakjani, A “A Study on the Situation of Pronunciation Instruction in ESL/EFL Classrooms.” Journal of Studies in Education 1.2162-6952 (2011) Gerald Kelly (2007) “How to teach pronunciation” Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D M., & Goodwin, J M (1996) Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages New York: Cambridge University Press Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D M., & Goodwin, J M (1996) Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages New York: Cambridge University Press Dauer, R M (1993) Accurate English: A complete course in pronunciation Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents Colin Mortimer (1985) “Elements of Pronunciation” Cambridge University Press Charles W.Kreidler ( 2004) “The Pronunciation of English” A course book Blackwell Publising Coe, N (1987) in Swan, M & Smith, B Learner English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems Cambridge University Press Avery P & Ehrlich S (2003) Teaching American English Pronunciation New York, NY: Oxford University Press 10.Gardner, RC & Lambert, W 1972, Attitudes and motivation in second language learning, MA Rowley, Newbury House, California 11.Inouye, K, Sueres, S and Inouye, L 1996, Humming Bird: Pronunciation Course in American English An Interactive Method Advanced American Technology, Los Angeles 12.Jordan, J 1992, Helping ESOL Students to improve their pronunciation, Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit, London 13 Baker, 2008, Ship or Sheep, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 14 Water, at al 2007, Oxford student’s dictionary, Oxford University Press, Oxford 15.Jessica Bauman, MS, Allison Blodgett, PhD, C Anton Rytting, PhD, Jessica Shamoo, BA The ups and downs of Vietnamese tones 16.Đỗ Tiến Thắng (2009) Ngữ điệu tiếng Việt NXB Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội 17.Dina M Al-Sibai English intonation English 418, Structure of English II, Professor Mahmmoud Saleh, May 20, 2004 60 18.Tam Ha Cam, English phonetics and phonology, A course book for students of the English department, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, 1999 19.Roach, P., English phonetics and phonology - A practical course, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990 20 Ngo, Nhu Binh (2005) The Vietnamese learning framework – Part one: Linguistics COTSEAL Journal 2005 61 APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE 1ST YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH MAJOR AT HOU Is it important for you to have good English pronunciation? ( Circle one) A Strongly agree B Agree C Disagree D Strongly disagree Do you concern about correct pronunciation and try to reach it? a Yes, I strongly concern about it b I concern about it c I don’t care about it How would you rate your English pronunciation? a Good b So so c Bad d Really bad Do you focus on word stress when learning new words in English? a Always b Often c Sometimes d Never Do you often express your emotions when speak English? a Yes, I confidently raise my voice up and down to express my ideas b I often feel shy and speak with the same tone c No, I feel shy and speak a very little Do you get confused with English final consonant sounds such as / t/ = /ʧ/; /ʃ /= /s/;/s/ = /ʃ/ʒ/;ʤ = /j/d/s/t/z/ʧ/; /t/=/d/ ? a Yes, I find it’s extremely hard to distinguish them b I find it’s quite hard c No, They are not tough sounds for me Do you notice and connect sounds when speak English? a I concern about connecting sounds and linking English sounds easily b I concern about linking sounds but it’s really a challenge for me c I not care about linking sounds 62 Do you have a habit of pronouncing the sounds of English like sounds of Vietnamese? a Yes b No How often you practice your pronunciation at home? a More than 30 minutes b 30 minutes c 10 minutes d Less than 10 minutes 10 What are your difficulties in pronunciation? a Word transcription b Word stress c Intonation d Accent Thank you so much for your help! 63