Common errors with final consonants of english majored sophomores at tay do university

TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Comments ii Table of Contents iii List of Abbreviations vi List of Tables .vii List of Figures viii Abstract ix CHAPTER – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The significance of the study 1.3 The organization of the study CHAPTER – LITERATURE REVIEW .4 2.1 Definition of pronunciation .4 2.2 The importance of pronunciation in communication .5 2.2.1 The advantages of pronunciation competence 2.2.1.1 Positive impression .6 2.2.1.2 Better listening comprehension skills 2.2.1.3 Improving English speaking skills 2.2.2 The disadvantages of mispronunciation 2.2.2.1 Miscommunication .7 2.2.2.2 Misunderstanding .7 2.2.2.3 Bad habits 2.3 Final consonant sounds in English 2.3.1 Structural features of /s/, /z/ and /iz/ ending sounds .9 2.4 Previous studies .10 CHAPTER – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 12 3.1 Research questions 12 3.2 Research aims 12 3.3 Hypothesis .12 3.4 Design .13 3.5 Participants 13 3.6 Instruments 13 3.6.1 Questionnaire 13 3.6.2 Recording .14 3.6.3 Interview 14 3.7 Procedures .14 CHAPTER – RESEARCH RESULTS .15 4.1 Results of Pronunciation error collection 15 4.1.1 Questionnaire 15 4.1.1.1 The participants’ awareness of pronunciation 15 4.1.1.2 The participants’ causes of pronunciation errors .17 4.1.2 Recording .21 4.1.2.1 Group .21 4.1.2.2 Group .22 4.1.3 Interview 23 4.2 Causes of errors .24 CHAPTER – DISCUSSION, IMPLICATION, LIMITATION, SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FURTHER RESEARCH, CONCLUSION 27 5.1 Discussions 27 5.2 Implication 29 5.3 Limitation 30 5.4 Suggestions for the further research 30 5.5 Conclusion 31 REFERRENCES APPENDICES APPENDIX A: Questionnaire .x APPENDIX B: Interview .xvi APPENDIX C: Recording xviii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L2: Second Language IPA: International Phonetic Association LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Classification of English final consonants Table 2: The participants’ awareness of pronunciation 15 Table 3: The participants’ causes of pronunciation errors 17 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Pronunciation errors of Group 21 Figure 2: Pronunciation errors of Group 22 ABSTRACT The present study aims to investigate whether or not English – majored sophomores make mistakes the consonant /s/, /z/ and /iz/ of English words in the coda position The focus is on two points The first one is to identify the most common error in the word – final position that was employed by students at Tay Do University, and the second one is to find the reasons which caused these errors in their pronunciation Fifty participants from two Bachelor of English classes at Tay Do University were recruited for this study A questionnaire, an interview and a recording are instruments in the research The results of this study demonstrate that students make errors with the final consonants /s/, /z/ and /iz/ After data analysis, the researcher concluded that the omission errors which was often encountered by learners The study also found that the main reason led to pronunciation errors was that Vietnamese language does not have the same sound /s/, /z/ and /iz/ in the coda APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE Dear friends, My name is Nguyen Hong Hanh and I am currently a senior majoring in English I am very grateful to you for spending your valuable time helping me Now I am carrying out a research entitled “Common Errors with Final Consonants of English-Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University” This is the questionnaire used to collect the necessary information from you, so please take your time to finish these below questions carefully because your answers are very important and helpful to my research Once again, thank you so much! Student’s full name: Age: …… Class: Gender: Male  Female  A Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answers for each question Give specific answers if needed How long have you studied English? years Where you come from? a City b Countryside a b c d Which subject did you learn when you were in school? Listening Speaking Reading Writing a b c d Which subject you like best? Listening Speaking Reading Writing Have you studied pronunciation in Speaking? a Yes b No What you think about pronunciation? a b c d Very important Important Normal Not important a b c d e What you think about your pronunciation skill? Very good Quiet Good Average Bad Very bad Do you take your time to practice pronunciation at home? a Yes (continue question 8) b No a b c d How much time you have to practice pronunciation? 15 minutes 30 minutes hour More than hour B Please read the following statements and mark () in the suitable column to express your opinion Statements Strongly agree (1) Pronunciation is the first importance aspect so that learners can speak like a native speaker Agree (2) No ideas (3) Disagre e (4) Strongly disagree (5) Pronunciation is an essential part of language Pronunciation connects with four language skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking) Pronunciation affects learners’ communication competence Students need to be aware of pronunciation so that they are able to participate in conversations Pronunciation is the first thing that natives notice when communicating The clear pronunciation makes sure of success in finding a job I often make mistakes of pronunciation, specifically final consonants 10 the final consonants which the participants often go wrong Results analyzed from this category are performed below 4.1.2.1 Group The researcher chose randomly five students of English 11A to participate the recording The process was carried out in a quiet classroom with the aim to listen clearly their final sounds and analyze easily the data after Figure 1: Pronunciation errors of Group As shown in Figure 1, it is easy to see that the participants of the group often made omission errors in their reading the paragraph (58%) and the others encountered substitution errors (42%) In addition, there was no student who had an insertion error in their pronunciation With substitution errors, the participants often substituted the consonants /s/ for /z/ and /iz/ This results showed that they had attention to the final sounds but they had not pronounced correctly yet Most of the students met both omission errors and substitution errors; however, the third and fifth speakers who only encountered omission errors To put it simply, they totally ignored all the consonants /s/, /z/ and /iz/ in final words From this point, it contributed to increase the probability of omission higher than the probability of substitution 4.1.2.2 Group Five participants were chosen randomly from English 11B to take part in the recording The researcher carried out the process as soon as the students finished their lessons with the aim to record easily in a peaceful classroom Figure 2: Pronunciation errors of Group As can be seen from Figure 2, there were 43% of the participants who encountered substitution errors and 57% of the others had omission errors in pronouncing the final consonants /z/, /s/ and /iz/ More specifically, the seventh and ninth recorders did not pronounce these consonants completely Interestingly, the 35 tenth recorder pronounced “teaches” into “teacher” which appeared three times in the paragraph; however, this speaker pronounced the word “kisses” correctly This findings showed that they did not grasp the knowledge of the consonants /iz/ deeply, so they seemed to mispronounce “teaches” It may also be meant that they replaced the consonants /iz/ with /ə/ From the data analysis of the recording group 2, this results were rather similar to the results of group Therefore, the researcher firmly stated that the findings of this study were absolutely right and reliable In conclusion, analysis of the data revealed that there are two main errors including the omission and the substitution Between them, the omission is the most prominent type of errors and the second position is the substitution 4.1.3 Interview After analyzing participants’ answer, the researcher investigated their errors as well as their possible causes in the interviews more specifically It seemed to get difficult to express students’ ideas in English Hence, answers were demonstrated in Vietnamese to help the interviewer get responses more effectively and sufficiently All of participants had the same opinion that they often pronounce the final consonants in the wrong way (Q1= 100%) Because of their agreement, they released their errors for question two From data analysis, there were 75% of participants (Q2) thought that they encountered errors of omission …I often omit the final consonants… …I did not pronounce /s/, /z/ and /iz/… …I always skip the final sounds… In addition, about 18,75% of students (Q2) claimed that they met substitution errors in their production word-final consonants …I usually pronounce /s/, /z/ and /iz/ into the sound /s/… …I often incorrectly speak /z/ into /s/… … I had substitution of /iz/ with /ə/… Besides, 6,25% of the others (Q2) said that they had insertion errors …I inserted /ə/ when I read words which had final sounds… 36 Additionally, most of the interviewees stated that they had some possible reasons for their errors (Q3= 100%) Almost all of their reasons were mentioned in the questionnaire above …because I did not have enough time to practice… …because I did not get used to pronouncing final consonants… …I forgot to pronounce the ending sounds… …I did not remember how to read plural words… In the fourth question, all students performed their thinking about the importance of English pronunciation (Q4= 100%) …pronunciation is not only important but also difficult problem that non-native English speakers have to face …to speak English fluently, pronunciation is essential… As Table shows, the researcher realized that most of the students had a high awareness of learning pronunciation; however, just these positive attitudes were not enough to improve their English speaking skills because they still had to encounter mistakes in their pronouncing Last, the interviewees assessed their competence in English pronunciation by their own (Q5= 100%) All of them did not feel certain that their own ability to pronounce English successfully …my pronunciation is very bad because I not practice frequently… …I not think that I can pronounce very well… …my pronunciation is not excellent… In general, the results of data via the interview have completely coincided with the result of data via the recording and the questionnaire Therefore, it is firmly stated that students often encounter errors of omission more than substitution errors Although all students realize how important pronunciation is in English, their communication abilities as well as their speaking skills are not getting better 4.2 Causes of errors Based on the result of questionnaire and interview, there are many causes for making mistakes in pronouncing the final consonants First, the most common reason which leads to errors is that the final consonants not exist in Vietnamese 37 As Le (2014) states, “the most difficult consonants for speakers are that they not exist in Vietnamese, especially when they appear at the end of syllables” (p.80) Besides, Nguyen and Ha (2015) found that mistakes happen in pronouncing consonants because Vietnamese does not include these consonants Interestingly, Wei and Zhou (2002) concluded that the largest language barrier is that different languages distinguish different pronunciation Students got used to employ their mother tongue on learning another language; therefore, it affects students’ competence pronunciation completely if they have no chance to study English pronunciation and practice frequently Another study on the effect of the sound system on causes of pronunciation errors was done by Hassan (as cited in Alkhuli, 1983) who showed that the differences in the sound system of English and the mother tongue make speakers confuse with unfamiliar sounds which they not found in their native language If learners are not trained and practiced to make such sounds, they will pronounce in the wrong way Furthermore, the students lack many opportunities to use English with native speakers and they not enough time to practice pronunciation in class According to Nguyen and Ha (2015), the majority of students had no many chances of talking with natives to learn the way making English sounds correctly and time for practicing at school was restricted, which gives many problems of their pronunciation Besides, Nguyen (2013) said that students not have many chances of practicing English inside as well as outside classroom because Vietnam only use one language Although they had learnt more new subjects after two years at university, they still felt confused what the foreigner said Therefore, students did not have enough confidence to speak English with native speakers because they felt nervous about making mistakes in communication In addition, the students have ineffective methods of practicing the final consonants Nguyen and Ha (2015) stated that the majority of students had no good way of practicing English consonants at school and at home as well For example, 38 an interviewee said “I have never practiced the final sounds in English, therefore I not find any ways which produce a successful results in practice” Moreover, the students concentrate on other subjects (listening, writing, reading and speaking) more than learning pronunciation And they not feel confident enough to pronounce the final consonants out loud Wei and Zhou (2002) wrote that if someone spoke in a native speakers’ tone, they would considered to be “aloof” by their classmates Therefore, students usually did not want to spend time on following native speaker’s pronunciations and intonations To sum up, the researcher investigated the main reason that led the students to make mistakes is no existence of the final sounds in Vietnamese Next, the second reason is that they have few opportunities to talk with foreigners, especially native speakers And the third reason is that they lack attention to practicing the final consonants effectively 39 CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS, IMPLCATIONS, LIMITATIONS, SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FURTHER RESEARCH, AND CONCLUSIONS This chapter states (1) discussions, (2) implications, (3) limitations, (4) suggestions for the further research about common errors with final consonants of Englishmajored sophomores, and (5) conclusions 5.1 Discussions The purpose of the research was to investigate whether the majored students at Tay Do University would make mistakes in pronouncing the ending sounds so that the researcher looked at common errors with final consonants of Englishmajored sophomores and analyzed to find causes of these errors The findings clearly suggest that they often make mistakes with the final consonants The students who took part in information collection from the questionnaire and the interview before, they performed their pronunciation abilities on reading paragraphs while the researcher recorded and followed them The students showed that particular errors with final consonants in their recordings which suggested that the 40 final sounds really make the students fail in pronouncing these sounds /s/, /z/ and /iz/ and reaching English speaking competence According to the data analysis, although the participants interest in the importance of pronunciation which is an indispensable part of learning and participating in communication, they reported that they often pay no attention to pronounce the final consonants More specifically, both the syllabic –s and –es plurals which are completely skipped by the third, fifth, seventh and ninth speakers while the others have both mistakes in their pronunciation such as omission errors and substitution errors Moreover, the results shown in section Figure revealed that the students performed the omission errors more than the substitution errors From this finding, it supports the researcher's hypothesis that the omission is the most common errors with the final consonants /s/, /z/ and /iz/ As can be seen in chapter 4, there are some factors caused those pronunciation errors First, the students feel difficult to pronounce the ending sounds because these sounds are foreign to Vietnamese coda For example, an interviewee said “I did not want to pronounce final consonants since I did not get used to them and they really hard to speak clearly” Second, according to Wikipedia, Can Tho city is considered as the fifth biggest city in Vietnam and has rather many people who come from many different countries However, the students not have many chances of talking with the foreigners or English natives Finally, most of students have not ever identified what is effective with practicing the final consonants This finding seemed to be similar to the researcher's hypothesis that the main cause, which leads to the difficulties of pronouncing the ending sounds, is no existence of the final sounds /s/, /z/ and /iz/ in Vietnamese The results of the current study were in accordance with the work of some other previous researchers Typically, Ha (2005) stated that among three main type of errors, the most common errors were sound omission in which omission of ending sounds were more frequent than others It is easy to understand why final consonants were omitted so frequently, because Vietnam not have the same 41 sounds in Vietnamese language She also concludes, “with this particular sound /z/, many learners try to pronounce them but often end up with /s/ instead, just because they usually push the air through too hard” (p 42) Similarly, Nguyen (2013) stated that omission of final consonants was the most difficult part of speakers In their production, speakers did not pronounce or reduced sounds when they are at final positions These studies and this research seemed to report the same finding that the students encounter omission errors in pronunciation with words that have consonants in final 5.2 Implication Investigating common errors with final consonants /s/, /z/ and /iz/ helps the students identify their problems in pronunciation of these sounds and quickly find some effective ways of solving these problems for themselves Moreover, the students reduce their errors to improve their English speaking skills and achieve a high level of pronunciation competence Although these errors in pronouncing final sounds not influence very much on intelligibility, sometimes the interlocutor, especially a native speaker confuses the way pronunciation and the meaning of words For this reason, the students should concentrate on solution to their difficulties with more practice speaking and listening to native speakers Since then, they are used to pronounce English final consonants more easily and clearly Besides, the teachers pay more attention to student’s pronunciation and try to correct them any time possible Nguyen and Ha (2015) wrote that teachers should guide students to correct English sounds when they learn pronunciation lessons, even speaking lessons Furthermore, teachers should check students’ pronunciation regularly and help them to make strategies in learning to reduce their incorrect pronunciation Additionally, Wei and Zhou (as cited in Ma, 1995) found that the teachers should be prepared in English phonology and the teaching of pronunciation because if the teachers can pronounce intelligible English pronunciations, the students’ 42 pronunciation should be intelligible, too By the same token, Hassan (2014) recommended that teachers have to have good knowledge of English phonetics and phonology because this will support the teachers to pronounce a word correctly and find instructions which help students correct pronunciation errors As Nguyen and Nguyen (2014) suggested that the students should read newsletter and then record their reading for first time After students listen to their recording carefully again, they should make corrections themselves with teachers’ guidance Finally, the students continue to record for second time or read loudly in their classroom and other students or the teachers give comments on their performance (English translation) According to Binturki (2001), “knowledge of the exact environments of difficulty with these sounds will assist teachers to target the problem at its roots When instruction is required, teachers will be able to concentrate on specific sounds and environment and address them accordingly.” (p.71) Finally, from having experience in this field, the researcher advises that students must look at the dictionary carefully for checking the correct pronunciation of English words before It is very worth keeping information in their brain so that they can pronounce exactly and speak more fluently Moreover, students should participate many English clubs to have more chances of practice their pronunciation with the native speakers or the foreigners who can listen and speak English well 5.3 Limitation Despite the positive findings identified in this study to investigate students’ common errors with final consonants /s/, /z/ and /iz/, some limitations of the present study might be noted First, the researcher could not explore and analyze deeply because the time was limited Second, a few of students did not give the response that the researcher would expect in the questionnaire, they only answered the questions in questionnaires based on their own ideas Third, two of the recordings were not good quality because the speakers read lowly; therefore, all the final 43 consonants are very hard to recognize exactly These experiences should be avoided in later researches 5.4 Suggestions for the further research Based on the findings of this study, the following suggestions were offered for further researches This study was carried out on English-Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University, so the researcher hopes that similar studies should be done at other universities in order to state that these results are definitely true Moreover, the research was carried out in the major students only For this reason, this study should be conducted a survey with other people who are non - English major students so as to determine that the findings hold in all aspects 5.5 Conclusion In conclusion, this research has identified, analyzed and synthesized errors of pronouncing the English consonants /s/, /z/ and /iz/ The researcher found the reasons causing the students’ problems Between two types of mistakes were omission and substitution, omission was the most common errors Students did not pronounce consonants which appeared in the final words Besides, substitution errors came after omission errors Students pronounced words including required three consonants incorrectly by replace other consonants; for example, the sounds /z/ and /iz/ was substituted by the sound /s/ Finally, regarding three reasons led to pronunciation errors were that no final sounds in Vietnamese language, the learners have little chance of talking with native speakers and students’ ineffective methods of practicing English final consonants 44 45 REFERENCE Al-Aqlobi, M.O (2013) Difficulties in pronouncing and perceiving English wordfinal consonant clusters among Saudi ESL learners Ann Arbor: ProQuest Information and Learning Alkhuli, M.A (1983) English as a Foreign Language Riyaud: King Abdul Aziz Public Library Binturki, A.T (2008) Analysis of pronunciation errors of Saudi ESL learners Ann Arbor: ProQuest Information and Learning Centerman, S & Krausz, F (2011) Common L2 pronunciation errors [Online] Available: http://muep.mau.se/handle/2043/11660 Chavangklang, P (2013) Enhancing final consonant pronunciation skill of the first year students at Nakhonratchasima Rajabhat university through E-learning Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences Journal, 91, pp 437-443 Çimenli, B (2015) On pronunciation teaching and semiotics Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences Journal, 199, pp 634-640 Ha, C.T (2005) Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English Journal of Science – Foreign Languages, 21(1), 35-46 Hassan, E.M.I (2014) Pronunciation problem: A case study of English language students at Sudan University of Science and Technology English Language and Literature Studies, 4(4), 31-44 Hinofitis, F & Baily, K (1980) American undergraduate reaction to the communication skills of foreign teaching assistants Building Bridges: Research and Practice in TESL, TESOL, 80, 120-133 Hoang, K.Y (2016) The effects of pronunciation instruction on L2 learners’ speech fluency and intelligibility Can Tho: Can Tho University Jones, D (1950) The pronunciation of English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Kelly, G (2000) How to teach pronunciation England: Pearson Education Limited Le, T.H (2014) Common English pronunciation errors of final consonants and consonant clusters by Dong Nai university students Language & Life Magazine, 10(228), 76-80 Ly, H.L (2007) Acquisition of English pronunciation: A study of Vietnamese EFL learners United States: ProQuest Information and Learning Ma, L (1995) Production of Five American English Front Vowels By Adult Mandarin Chinese Speakers United States: Texas A & M UniversityKingsville McArthur, T (1992) The oxford companion to the English language New York: Oxford University Press Mealings, K.T., Cox, F and Demuth, K (2013) Acoustic investigations into the later acquisition of syllabic –es plurals Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56(4), pp 1260-1271 Ngo, N.B (2005) The Vietnamese Language Learning Framework [Online] Available:http://www.seasite.niu.edu/jsealt/past%20issues/volume%2010/VN %20LLF%20Part%20I.pdf Nguyen, T.H.M & Nguyen, V.P.T (2014) An investigation into measuring freshmen’s production of reading English final sounds Journal of Science, 5(38), 105-111 Nguyen, T.T.H & Ha, T.H (2015) An investigation into errors of pronouncing some English consonants made by English major students Journal of Science – Technology, 145(15), 41-50 Nguyen, T.T.H (2013) Pronunciation problems: A case study of ethnic students analyzing errors of pronunciation in speaking English Journal of Science – Technology, 103(3), 91-96 Nguyen, T.T.T (2007) Difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English: Final Consonants [Online] Available: http://www.diva- portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A518290&dswid=9052 O’Neal, G (2015) Segmental repair and interactional intelligibility: The relationship between consonant deletion, consonant insertion, and pronunciation intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca in Japan Journal of Pragmatics, 85, pp 122-134 Richards, C.J & Schmidt, R (2002) Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics England: Longman Publishing Group Roach, P (2010) English phonetics and phonology Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Schilippe, T., Ochs, S and Schultz, T (2013) Web-based tools and methods for rapid pronunciation dictionary creation Speech Communication Journal, 56, pp 101-118 Shak, P., Chang, S.L and Stephen, J (2016) Pronunciation problems: A case study on English pronunciation errors of low proficient students International Journal of Language Education and Applied Linguistics, 4, 25-35 Tran, T.T.T (2002) Consonant cluster in the English of Vietnamese learners Australia: La Trobe University Trieu, M.M (2016) Problems Kmer EFL learners face in pronouncing English consonants Can Tho: Can Tho University Ueno, N (1995) Teaching English Pronunciation to Japanese English Majors: A comparison of a Suprasegmental-Oriented and a Segmental-Oriented Teaching Approach Japan: Temple University Wei, Y & Zhou, Y (2002) Insights into English pronunciation problems of Thai students [Online] Available: https://eric.ed.gov/ ... investigate common errors with final consonants of English- Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University as well as their reasons of these errors 3.5 Participants The participants in this study were 50 English. .. questions: Do sophomores often make mistakes of pronouncing the final consonants? What are English – majored sophomores errors in pronouncing the final consonants /s/, /z/, /iz/? What are causes of English. .. English – majored sophomores errors when they pronouncing the final consonants? 3.2 Research aims This research aims to investigate whether English- Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University often