Problems in english pronunciation of freshmen at english faculty of thuong mai university and some suggested solutions

ABSTRACT This paper investigates what problems in English pronunciation are encountered by English-majored freshmen at Thuong Mai University and suggests the best solutions for their English pronunciation improvement To answer this question, the researcher needed the participation and cooperation of 30 students from class K54N2 of Thuong Mai University The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyze data from the participants The qualitative method was applied to collect and analyze the pronunciation errors in the recordings of the participants while the quantitative method was used to accumulate information relating to pronunciation levels, study methods and difficulties in pronouncing English sounds of those students The results of this paper shown that the freshmen’s pronunciation levels varied, but they all have encountered several problems in their English pronunciation The results revealed that they made a lot of mistakes or had troubles when producing consonants, vowels and ending sounds A number of strategies or techniques to improve pronunciation were proposed and their effectiveness was agreed by the participants It is hoped that this paper would help students recognize their pronunciation problems and have suitable strategies to improve their pronunciation ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of writing my graduate paper, I received many helps and supports First and foremost, I highly appreciate the assistance of my teacher, Ms Thanh Ha, for enthusiastically gave many significant instructions for my graduate paper Without her help, I cannot complete the paper accurately I am delighted to express my gratitude to English teachers at Thuong Mai University for giving helpful courses and invaluable knowledge in this field of the study Thanks to the cooperation of first-year students, especially those from N2 class, I collected sufficient data to conduct the research I look forward to your comments to improve my graduate paper and hope that it will help freshmen as well as the other students at Thuong Mai University to enhance their English Hanoi, March 7, 2019 Hoang Minh Giang TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previous studies 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research subjects 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Research of methodology .3 1.7 Organization of the study .4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .5 2.1 Definition of pronunciation 2.2 Standard English pronunciation 2.3 Aspects of pronunciation 2.3.1 Articulatory phonetics 2.3.2 English sounds 2.3.3 Ending sounds 12 2.4 Common problems in pronunciation of Vietnamese people 13 2.4.1 Problems with vowels 13 2.4.2 Problems with consonants 14 2.5 Techniques to improve English pronunciation 16 2.5.1 Doing pronunciation exercises 16 2.5.2 Listening and imitating .16 2.5.3 Reading aloud and clearly while recording produced sounds 17 2.5.4 Tongue twisters 17 2.6 Summary .18 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINGINDS 19 3.1 Participants 19 3.2 Setting 19 3.3 Data collection .19 3.3.1 Data collection instruments 19 3.3.2 Data collection procedure 21 3.4 Data analysis 22 3.4.1 Data analysis instruments 22 3.4.2 Data analysis procedure 22 3.5 Research findings and discussion 22 3.5.1 Results from recording 22 3.5.2 Results from survey questionnaire 25 3.5.3 Discussion 35 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS 37 4.1 Limitation of the study 37 4.2 Suggestion for further study 37 CONCLUSION 39 REFERENCE 40 APPENDIX 41 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AMEP: Adult Migrant English Program BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation CNN: Cable News Network ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English as a Second Language Etc: Et cetera IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet RP: Received Pronunciation TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages TMU: Thuong Mai University The UK: The United Kingdom LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURE Table 2.1: English consonants .12 Table 3.1: Vowel sound errors .23 Table 3.2: Consonant sound errors 23 Table 3.3: Ending sound errors 24 Table 3.4: The errors relating to vowels, consonants and ending sounds .24 Table 3.5: Students’ English learning experience 25 Table 3.6: Reasons for students’ erroneous pronunciation .32 Y Diagram 2.1: Articulators Diagram 2.2: English vowels Diagram 2.3: English diphthongs Diagram 2.4: The structure of English syllabus .12 Diagram 3.1: The mean daily time spent on pronunciation practicing of students .26 Diagram 3.2: Students’ levels of pronunciation .27 Diagram 3.3: Students’ views of pronunciation teaching at schools 28 Diagram 3.4: Students’ perspectives of English pronunciation 28 Diagram 3.5: The importance of native-like pronunciation to students 29 Diagram 3.6: Students’ feeling towards communicating with English-native speakers 30 Diagram 3.7: English-learning methods or programs used to learn English 31 Diagram 3.8: Students’ difficulties in English pronunciation 33 Diagram 3.9: Students’ solutions to correct pronunciation 34 Diagram 3.10: Students’ strategies to improve pronunciation .34 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale In the era of globalization and integration, foreign languages play a crucial role, serving as tools to connect people with people from different countries English is considered as an international language in many fields such as business, science, technology, etc The number of English learners has increased dramatically in recent years English becomes a requisite for schooling and job opportunities Unfortunately, to master English is quite challenging Most Vietnamese people cannot pronounce English properly, which is an obstacle in communication In many Vietnamese universities and colleges, teaching specialized subjects in English, as well as setting English requirements for graduates, is generally applied Thuong Mai University is not an exception However, nearly all freshmen of English faculty of Thuong Mai University face to problems in their pronunciation They tend to make a great number of pronunciation mistakes relating to vowels and consonants sounds; word stress; intonation; connected speech; etc The fact is that pronunciation makes up efficient conversations Therefore, these mistakes prevent students from achieving nativelike English and confidently speaking to native speakers or any good English users; and even put them in unexpected situations Besides, the first-year students of English faculty of Thuong Mai University will use English as the main tool in their occupations Enhancing their English skills is extremely important for them as they would have better career opportunities The foremost thing students should is recognizing their problems This paper with the title “Problems in English Pronunciation of Freshmen at English faculty of Thuong Mai University and some suggested solutions” is expected to help them to improve their pronunciation 1.2 Previous studies Pronunciation has been studied for a long time and has become a science field However, researches on pronunciation are not completed and there is still a great amount of work to carry on From the previous studies, it is pointed out that pronunciation problems faced by learners are not given much concern and studies on how to help learners correct their pronunciation have not been fulfilled yet In some periods, pronunciation was considered extremely important while at other times it did not draw much attention Not until 1890s when the International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA) was developed did pronunciation become a science study Although “Intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communicative competence” (Morley, 1991), Brown (1991) shown that pronunciation was still a minimal skill in many language programs He surveyed the number of documents written on pronunciation in Applied Linguistics, Language learning, TESOL Quarterly and ELT journal between 1975 and 1988 and concluding that only 11,9% of articles were written on pronunciation However, last decade saw the increase in the interest of teachers and scholars to pronunciation Surveys indicated the growth of pronunciation literature in language textbook (Orlando, 2013) Pronunciation is not only about the individual sound Intonation, stress, rhythm, connected speech should be emphasized (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010) In recent years, researches on pronunciation have been more practical Pronunciation problems of learners are identified, which makes English acquisitions more efficient The studies on English pronunciation problems of Vietnamese people also were conducted Pronunciation errors recognized are related to ending sounds, consonant sounds, stress (Ngo, 2009; Tuan, 2011; Thao, 2007) Researchers also found reasons for English poor pronunciation of most Vietnamese people Ha, C T (2005) pointed out that Vietnamese people encounter difficulties in learning English because “Firstly, the English sound system has several sounds foreign to Vietnamese speakers Secondly, the way English speakers pronounce the ending sounds is completely different from the one deeply rooted in Vietnamese speakers” In Ha, C T (2005), students from an examination room were surveyed There were about 20 English-majored students and most of them were female The researcher, also the examiner, collected data from students’ performance in the final oral exam The results shown that those students often omitted ending sounds and mispronounced /z/; /ʒ/; /dʒ/; /θ/; /ð/ Obviously, the main reason is the affection of mother tongue However, the study is not fulfilled and does not suggest any solutions Based on prior researches, the author carries on the study to investigate the most typical pronunciation problems facing English-majored freshmen at Thuong Mai University and suggests some solutions 1.3 Aims of the study This study is written to improve pronunciation of students at Thuong Mai University Generally, it aims at: - Determining pronunciation problems facing English-majored freshmen at Thuong Mai University - Suggesting some practical solutions to overcome these obstacles and enhance pronunciation 1.4 Research subjects The research subjects are problems in English pronunciation The participants of this study included the first-year students at English faculty of Thuong Mai University Those students have just left high schools and their pronunciation is weaker than others at English faculty 1.5 Scope of the study Pronunciation is a wide field including consonant sounds, vowel sounds, word stress, sentence stress, etc Regarding its wide scope, the research just focuses on identifying problems in some consonant sounds, some vowel sounds, and consonant clusters of English-majored freshmen at Thuong Mai University The other parts of English pronunciation are not investigated Due to the limitation of time and ability of the researcher, this study investigated pronunciation problems of only 30 students from N2 class They are both female and male from rural and urban areas These students took part in a survey and were required to answer questions and record their English 1.6 Research of methodology The research was conducted to gather data to answer the following question: - What are problems in pronunciation of English- majored freshmen at Thuong Mai University? - What are techniques or strategies to improve their pronunciation? This research is designed to apply both quantitative and qualitative methods It is because of its purposes to identify the problems in English pronunciation of freshmen based on collecting and analyzing data from the recording and the survey questionnaire The quantitative data was mostly collected from the survey questionnaire To answer the questions of this study, the author collects data from students As the survey questionnaire was created with the significant advice of the superior, it covered all issues needed to collect data The questionnaire sheets were handed out to the students from N2 class and latter were collected On the other hand, the recording provided qualitative data The researcher recorded English pronunciation of these students by giving them some pronunciation exercises and asking them to pronounce English words and sentences Meanwhile, the way the students did the exercises was observed carefully 1.7 Organization of the study This study is divided into chapters: Overview of the study, literature review, research findings, recommendations, and suggestions Chapter gives an overview of the study in which rationale, previous studies, aims of the studies, research questions, research subjects, scope of the study, research methodology as well as the organization of the study are briefly presented Chapter reviews literature relating to the study including definitions of pronunciation In this chapter, some pronunciation aspects are presented and common problems in English pronunciation of Vietnamese people are shown From that, some solutions are suggested Chapter discusses the methods used in the research It also concludes the results of the survey The common English pronunciation problems of Englishmajored freshmen and the most effective techniques to better pronunciation are pointed out Chapter is about the limitations of this research and gives some recommendations for the next studies Question 8: What language-learning method or program have you used to learn English? Others Tutor learning Learning at school Learning at English center Self-studying 30 15 28 Number of students Diagram 3.7: English-learning methods or programs used to learn English The researcher continued asking students the methods and programs that they used to learn English It is also important to know whether these methods or programs were effective in pronunciation learning or not From the diagram 3.7, every student said that they learned English at school In other words, learning English at school was the most used method The second most popular method is self-studying, applied by 28 students A half of students learned English at English center The least used methods or tutor learning and other method/ program with students and students applied respectively Part 2: Students’ opinions about problems in pronunciation and suggestions to improve their pronunciation Question 9: On the scale of 5, what you think is the main reason for your mispronunciation? (1 Extremely influential; Very influential; Influential; A little influential; Not influential) Reasons Mother tongue interference Lack of motivation The insufficient speech in English in terms of time and quality The lack of interaction with native speakers Insufficient technical support The priority of the other skills over pronunciation The side effect of the previous learning Number of students 12 10 11 11 The total score 120 122 10 13 124 90 7 82 94 101 Table 3.6: Reasons for students’ erroneous pronunciation The aim of this question is to figure out the causes of incorrect pronunciation of students Based on that, the researcher determined the pronunciation problems and proposed some solutions As shown on the table 3.13, mother tongue interference, lack of motivation and the insufficient speech in English in terms of time and quality ranked as the biggest reasons Their total scores were 120, 122 and 124 respectively Insufficient technical support was the smallest cause and was scored 82 points Other factors are the lack of interaction with native speakers, the priority of the other skills over pronunciation and the side effect of the previous learning, scored 90, 94 and 101, in turn Question 10: What are your difficulties when you pronounce English? Consonants Intonation Vowels Linking words Word stress Others 16 14 12 10 Al wa y s O f te n S o me time s Ra re ly Never Diagram 3.8: Students’ difficulties in English pronunciation This question helped the researcher find out the most problematic aspects of English pronunciation of students The number of students always had difficulties in consonants, vowels, word stress, intonation, and linking words was pretty high, with 3, 5, 7, students respectively Most students felt that they often had difficulties in word stress, intonation, and linking words, with 46.7%, 40% and 40% of students, in turn Meanwhile, most students considered that vowel and consonant were sometimes difficult, with 40% for both pronunciation aspects No one said that they never had troubles with consonants, vowels, word stress and linking words Only students said they never had problems with intonation No one commented on other aspects of pronunciation Question 11: How you correct your pronunciation errors? 18 16 14 12 10 Repeat the correct pronounced words Use dictionaries Number of students Diagram 3.9: Students’ solutions to correct pronunciation As shown on the diagram 3.9, the most popular solution to correct pronunciation was using dictionaries, applied by 17 students, nearly twice as many as those doing pronunciation exercise Repeating the correct pronounced words and asking teachers/ tutors/ friends were least used Both were used by the same number of only students Question 12: Have you ever tried or applied any strategy to improve your pronunciation? Imitating native speakers Attending English course Recording and listening to your voice Listening to authentic English voice Others 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 Alwa y s Often S o me time s Ra r e ly Never Diagram 3.10: Students’ strategies to improve pronunciation Diagram 3.10 presents the differences between the use of students’ strategies to improve pronunciation Every student attended English courses and listened to authentic English voices In fact, 30% and 23.3% students always attended English courses and listened to authentic English voices respectively On the contrary, 23.3% students often attended English courses while 30% students often listened to authentic English voices The percentages of students sometimes attending English courses and listening to authentic English voices are the same rate of 33.3% 13.4% students rarely attended English courses, the same rate with ones listening to authentic English voices As regards recording and listening to their own voice, 20% students always or sometimes used this strategy 13.3% students often applied this strategy 36.7% students recorded and listened to their own voice Only 10% students did not apply this strategy Regarding imitating native speakers, no one said that they always used this strategy The percentages of students sometimes imitating native speakers are 33.3%, twice as high as the percentage of students often using this strategy The percentage of students rarely imitating native speakers was the highest rate of 43.3% Only 6.7% students never used this strategy No one commented on other strategies 3.5.3 Discussion Based on the results of the study, the researcher concluded that the participants, as well as the students in English faculty, should put more efforts in learning pronunciation English plays an important role in English-majored students future and all of participants are aware of that They have a long period of studying English and spend a lot of time to practicing pronunciation However, they still make a great number of pronunciation errors as the recordings show that no one of them read words from the exercises without a mistake When the researcher asked students about their difficulties in English pronunciation, surprisingly, most of them had troubles with every aspect of English pronunciation They also said that the main causes of these difficulties were mother tongue interference; the lack of motivation; and the insufficient speech in English in terms of time and quality The researcher suggested some effective solutions and was agreed by students: - Imitating native-speakers: This strategy is among the most used ones This help students’ English accents sounds more similar to the native accents, which is favorable for their communication with English native-speakers - Attending English courses: This strategy is common but costly However, students would be taught by experienced English teachers They would have explanation for difficult knowledge and receive helpful guidance for better pronunciation - Recording and listening to their voice: This is the least applied strategy The process of recording and listening to their own voice may be tedious and timeconsuming but students can improve their pronunciation to a better level by using this strategy This is because recording and listening to their own voice help them recognize their mistakes and avoid those mistakes in the next time - Listening authentic English voice: Students can easily access authentic English voice as English movies and videos on the internet are various However, it is rated as the least effective strategy It requires students to have a high concentration and good listening skills which are also their other shortcomings CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Limitation of the study Due to various reasons, this study may contain several errors and limitations Firstly, the knowledge and skills of the researcher are limited The pronunciation is a big part of English, consisting of various aspects such as vowels, consonants, word stress, sentence stress, etc Many articles and books are written on pronunciation by famous scholars and researchers and some even are incomplete or erroneous The researcher is just a senior at TMU and have restricted access to documents As a result, the researcher may make many mistakes As the data analysis and data collected were mainly depended on the skills and perspectives of the researcher, the research may be objective Secondly, the number of participants was small Only 30 students from K54N2 among more than 200 English-majored freshmen at TMU took part in the survey The data collected were considerably affected by the perspectives and cooperation of the subjects The survey was also conducted in a limited time Consequently, the results of the study may contain many errors Thirdly, the recording may contain much interference and the sound tracks are not clear The researcher cannot check all of pronunciation errors carefully Last but not least, pronunciation is a wide field, including segmental and suprasegmental aspects This study only investigated pronunciation relating to segmental parts, including vowel sounds, consonants sounds and ending sounds Problems relating to suprasegmental features, such as connected speech, word stress, sentence stress, etc, were not investigated As a result, this study can not present fully pronunciation problems faced by students 4.2 Suggestion for further study As the limitation of the study, the researcher gives some suggestion for the further research Firstly, the scale of samples will be extended, with the number of participants of more than 100 students This would make the studies more accurate Secondly, the researcher will study on errors relating to other skills such as listening skills, writing skills, etc Belows are some topics for the further research on pronunciation suggested by the author: - A study on word stress errors made by first-year students at Thuong Mai University - The differences between English pronunciation skills of freshmen and seniors of English faculty at Thuong Mai University - The effects of mother tongue on English learning of students of hospitality management faculty at Thuong Mai University - The effects of online dictionaries on English pronunciation skills of Englishmajored students at Thuong Mai University - The differences between Vietnamese and English sounds CONCLUSION Apparently, English-majored students at TMU have encountered several problems when pronouncing English words First, the study revealed that vowel sounds are the most problematic for the first-year students in English faculty Students had difficulties in pronouncing tense vowel which were /i:/; /ɜ:/; /ɔ:/ sounds The main reason for this was the wrong mouth shape when pronouncing English vowel Second, the study also pointed out the problems in pronunciation relating to consonant sounds The most mispronounced consonants were silent consonant sounds and consonants having multiform letters The primary reasons were considered relating to the complicated English phonology system and the differences between Vietnamese and English Vietnamese sounds are pronounced as their spelling while English spellings does not present for their pronunciation This would confuse the learners’ mind and lead to the mispronunciation Third, the study indicated that students tended to omit ending sounds such as /s/, /d/, /z/ This is because the number and the types of ending sounds in Vietnamese are different from those in English Apart from that, unlike the English ending sounds, Vietnamese ending sounds are not produced clearly Finally, it was shown that students obviously need practice more to acquire competent English pronunciation The improvement in English pronunciation is constituted by the hard-working and the efficient strategies Therefore, the researcher suggested some solutions to improve English pronunciation such as imitating native speakers; attending English courses; recording and listening to your voice; and listen to authentic English voice The students should choose the most suitable strategies and constantly apply those strategies To sum up, this study is hoped to draw attention of the first-year students at English faculty at TMU and help them realize their pronunciation problems as well as improve their pronunciation skills REFERENCE Books: AMEP Research Centre (2000), What is pronunciation? The AMEP Fact sheets Avery, & Ehrlich (1992), Teaching American English pronunciation Oxford: University Press Brown, A (1991), Teaching pronunciation: A book of Readings, (ed.) London: Routledge Celce-Murcia, M., & Brinton, D M., & Goodwin (1996), Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages Cambridge University Press Ha, Cam Tam (2005), Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English, Journal of Science – Foreign Languages Retrieved March 28, 2009 from: http://news.vnu.edu.vn/Bai3.pdf Honey, P J (1987), Vietnamese speakers In M Swan & B Smith, Learner English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems (1st ed., pp 243-248) London: Cambridge University Press Kelly, G (2000), How to teach Pronunciation, Malaysia: Pearson Luu Trong Tuan (2011), Vietnamese EFL Learners’ difficulties with English Consonants Studies in Literature and Language, 3(2), 56-67 Morley, J (1991), The Pronunciation Component in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, TESOL Quarterly, 25(1), 51-74 10 Ngo, Nhu Binh (2005), The Vietnamese learning framework – Part one: Linguistics COTSEAL Journal 2005 11 Nguyen Tien Dung (2014), Some common pronunciation problems facing Vietnam learners of English, Tap san Khoa hoc va Dao tao, 1, 46-51 12 Oxford University Press (1992), Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic 13 Richards et al (2002), Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice Cambridge University Press, New York 14 Roach, P (2000), English Phonetics and Phonology, Cambridge University Press Websites: http://englishspeaklikenative.com/resources/common-pronunciationproblems/vietnamese-pronunciation-problems/ https://www.learnenglish.de/pronunciation/pronunciationpoem2.html/ APPENDIX Exercise 1: Read the paragraphs below I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough Others may stumble, but not you On hiccough, thorough, laugh, and through And cork and work and card and ward And font and front and word and sword Well done! And now if you wish, perhaps To learn of less familiar traps Beware of heard, a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead– For goodness sakes don’t call it deed Watch out for meat and great and threat, They rhyme with suite and straight and debt A moth is not a moth in mother, Nor both in bother, broth in brother And here is not a match for there, And dear and fear for bear and pear And then there’s dose and rose and lose– Just look them up–and goose and choose, And and go, then thwart and cart Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive! I’d mastered it when I was five Exercise 2: Pronounce these words Islands – coupons- abalone – sheep – slip – mechanic – clothe -cloth – police -college – colleague – education – pizza – chauvinism – cello –you- schedule – primer – breathe – sugar – develops-she APPENDIX Survey questionnaire for the English- majored freshmen at Thuong Mai University This questionnaire is created for my research into solutions to improve English pronunciation of students at Thuong Mai University Your assistance in participating in the survey is highly appreciated The data collected are used in the research paper only Thank you so much for your co-operation Part 1: Students’ background information about English pronunciation skills Put () in the box to choose the suitable answer(s) for the following questions: How long have you been learning English?  1-4 years  5-8 years  9-12 years  more than 12 years How much time you spend practicing pronunciation daily? 0-2 hours 2-4 hours 6-8 hours more than hours 5-6 hours In your opinion, how good is your pronunciation?  Excellent  Good  Average  Bad What you think about pronunciation teaching at schools?  Very effective  Effective  Not effective  It is not taught Average In your opinion, how important is English pronunciation to you?  Extremely important  Very important  A little important  Not important  Fairly important And why? Do you think having a native-like pronunciation is important?  Yes  No How you feel when you use English to communicate with native speakers?  Confident  Unconfident Why? What language-learning method or program have you used to learn English? The methods or programs you have used (You can tick more than one) Self-studying Learning at English center Learning at school Tutor learning Others (please specify): Part 2: Students’ opinions about problems in pronunciation and suggestions to improve their pronunciation On the scale of 5, what you think is the main reason for your mispronunciation? (1 Extremely influential; Very influential; Influential; A little influential; Not influential) Mother tongue interference Lack of motivation The insufficient speech in English in terms of time and quality The lack of interaction with native speakers Insufficient technical support The priority of the other skills over pronunciation The side effect of the previous learning 10 What are your difficulties when you pronounce English? (1 Always; Often; Sometimes; Rarely; Never) Consonants Vowels Word stress Intonation Linking words Others (please specify): 11 How you correct your pronunciation errors?  Repeat the correct pronounced words  Ask your teachers or tutors or your friends  Use dictionaries  Do pronunciation exercises 12 Have you ever tried or applied any strategy to improve your pronunciation? (1 Always; Often; Sometimes; Rarely; Never) Imitating native speakers Attending English course Recording and listening to your voice Listening to authentic English voice Others (please specify): ... reviews literature relating to the study including definitions of pronunciation In this chapter, some pronunciation aspects are presented and common problems in English pronunciation of Vietnamese... should is recognizing their problems This paper with the title Problems in English Pronunciation of Freshmen at English faculty of Thuong Mai University and some suggested solutions is expected... nearly all freshmen of English faculty of Thuong Mai University face to problems in their pronunciation They tend to make a great number of pronunciation mistakes relating to vowels and consonants