A study on mistakes commonly commited by the 10th grade students at kim thanh high school, hai duong in the pronunciation of english fricative and affricative consonants and some possible pedagogical solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ******************** NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG A STUDY ON MISTAKES COMMONLY COMMITED BY THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS AT KIM THANH HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH FRICATIVE AND AFFRICATIVE CONSONANTS AND SOME POSSIBLE PEDAGOGICAL SOLUTIONS NGHIÊN CỨU LỖI PHÁT ÂM THƯỜNG GẶP LIÊN QUAN TỚI ÂM SÁT VÀ TẮC SÁT TRONG TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG KIM THÀNH, HẢI DƯƠNG, VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP TRONG THỰC TẾ GIẢNG DẠY M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2017 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ******************** NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG A STUDY ON MISTAKES COMMONLY COMMITED BY THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS AT KIM THANH HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH FRICATIVE AND AFFRIVATIVE CONSONANTS AND SOME POSSIBLE PEDAGOGICAL SOLUTIONS NGHIÊN CỨU LỖI PHÁT ÂM THƯỜNG GẶP LIÊN QUAN TỚI ÂM SÁT VÀ TẮC SÁT TRONG TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG KIM THÀNH, HẢI DƯƠNG, VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP TRONG THỰC TẾ GIẢNG DẠY M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisior: Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh HANOI - 2017 DECLARATION I, Nguyen Thi Phuong, hereby certify that my thesis submitted for the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, apart from the help recognized, is my own work The substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been summited for a degree to any other formal course of study Hanoi, 2017 Signature Nguyen Thi Phuong i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my special and sincere thanks to my supervisors, Dr Do Tuan Minh, who gave me enthusiastic instructions, precious support and critical feedback on the construction of the study This has always been one of decisive factors in the completion of this thesis Second, I also express my profound gratitude to all doctors, lectures and staff members of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures and useful advice that are a great help to fulfill the study Next, I would like to send my deep sense of thanks to the teachers and the 10th grade students at Kim Thanh High School, Hai Duong for their cooperation and the valuable information they provided in my research field Furthermore, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude to my family and all of my friends who have great source of endless care and support Last but not least, I am also thankful to many writers whose important ideas and notions are exploited and developed in the study ii ABSTRACT In the light of communication oriented language teaching, pronunciation is affirmed to be as vital as other fields of language such as grammar and vocabulary However, the teaching and learning pronunciation situation at Kim Thanh High School, Hai Duong is somehow troublesome This minor thesis aims at identifying the most common mistakes when producing English affricative and fricative sounds by the 10 th grade students at Kim Thanh High School, as well as investigating the main causes of these mistakes and the possible pedagogical solutions to assist them correct their mistakes This study is to investigate practices and challenges of teaching pronunciation by two survey questionnaires, one for 200 eleventh- form students and the other for teachers teaching English for grades 10 Class observation and informal interview are also carried out to elicit hidden reasons behind participants‟ answers in the questionnaires and to help the researcher draw a vivid picture of a pronunciation lesson as well From the results inferred in the analysis, the study suggests some feasible techniques and activities to make pronunciation teaching and learning English fricative and affricative sounds more effective iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LISTS OF TABLES .vi LISTS OF FIGURES vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of study and research questions Significance of the study .2 Scope of the study .3 Method of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 The description of English fricatives 12 1.1.2 The description of English affricates / tʃ/& /dʒ/ 1.3 Some similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese consonants in terms of affricatives and fricatives 14 1.4 Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis 15 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 24 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 28 3.1.Data analysis 28 3.1.1 The result collected by means of recordings 28 3.2 The result collected by means of questionnaire 33 iv 3.2.1 Students‟ opinion on the importance of pronunciation 33 3.2.2 Students‟ purposes of learning English 34 3.2.3 Student‟s frequency in practicing English pronunciation 35 3.2.4 Students‟ knowledge of reading phonetic transcription 35 3.2.5 Causes of the students‟ mispronunciation 36 CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMENDATION .41 4.1 Using IPA Chart 41 4.2 Making the lessons more interesting 42 4.2.1 Phonetic hangman .43 4.2.2 IPA symbol card game 43 4.2.3 Bingo 44 4.3 Equipping facilities 44 4.4 Motivating the students 45 PART C: CONCLUSION 46 Concluding remarks 46 Significance of the study 47 Limitations of the study 47 Suggestions for further studies 48 References .49 Appendix .I Appendix III v LISTS OF TABLES Table 1: Vietnamese initial and final consonants 15 Table 2: Sounds mispronounced by Vietnamese students (Tam,2007) 16 Table 3: Mistakes in producing the sounds /f/ and /v/ 17 Table 4.1: Mistakes in producing the sounds/θ/ -/ð / 17 Table 4.2: Mistakes in producing the sounds/θ/ -/ð / (2) .18 19 21 Table 5: Mistakes in producing the sounds /ʃ/ -/ ʒ/ Table 6: Mistakes in producing the sounds /tʃ/ - /dʒ/ Table 7: Common pronunciation mistakes committed by the students 30 Table 8: Number of students producing sound omission 31 Table 9: Number of students producing sound deviation 32 Table 10: Students‟ purposes of learning English grammar 34 Table 11: Causes of the students‟ mispronunciation 38 vi LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 1: Consonant chart according to Place and Manner of articulation of the sound Figure 2: Place and manner articulation of the sound /f/ Figure 3: Place and manner articulation of the sound /v/ Figure 4: Place and manner articulation of the sound / θ / Figure 5: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ð / Figure 6: Place and manner articulation of the sound / s / Figure 7: Place and manner articulation of the sound / z / Figure 8: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ∫ / 10 11 Figure 9: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ʒ / Figure 10: Place and manner articulation of the sound / h / 11 Figure 12 Students‟ opinion on the importance of pronunciation .34 Figure 13: Students‟ frequency in practicing English pronunciation 35 Figure 14: Students‟ response to the pronunciation course attendance 36 Figure 15: Students‟ knowledge of reading phonetic transcription 36 Figure 16: Causes of the students‟ mispronunciation 39 Figure 17: The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) 42 vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study When discussing the role of English language in current society, it is believed that a guy can get promotion in the management ladder only if he can speak English fluently If your English is poor, even though you may have well- qualified qualifications, and brilliant brain and can come up with brilliant business ideas, you may still find yourself languishing at the bottom of the management ladder since you will find difficulty in expressing your brilliant ideas That is an important and needless- to- question matter in our society However, when observing and basing on the real teaching, the researcher has found out that many students, otherwise most of them, feel discouraged towards English just because they can not, or in another word, not know how to pronounce English words appropriately The reason is explained by Gerald Kelly (2000) that a learner who consistently mispronounces words can be extremely difficult for the listener to understand In the way round, the situation will also become very frustrating for himself/ herself even though he/ she has very good knowledge of grammar and vocabulary Therefore, in the English book for students in high school, pronunciation lessons are designed with the hope of giving both teachers and learners some basic cues of English pronunciation matters The reality of teaching pronunciation in general, and teaching pronunciation for students of grade 10 at Kim Thanh high school in particular, however, seems not to be as ideal as hoped From the real experience in teaching, the researcher attempts to carry out a research to make the problem clear In this study, the researcher has presented a brief description of some features of English affricate and fricative consonants as well as the mistakes 4.2.3 Bingo This is an activity which concentrates on noticing a distinction among sounds For example, the teacher says the following to the students: think, thing, thin and asks them to repeat the words after him or her which makes them aware of the sounds that they will practice After that the teacher hands out a blank grid and a list of the words to the students and tells them to fill in the words randomly onto the grid Then the teacher reads out words, which contain the sounds /θ/ and /ð/ they have to cross off the words that they hear The first person to get a line of either horizontally touching boxes or vertically touching boxes wins birthday /bɜ:θdei/ theme /θi:m/ mother /mΛðə/ 4.3 Equipping facilities In designing and selecting materials for teaching, it is important to consider the purpose of learners‟ language study, whether it is to acquire a native like accent or for intelligibility in international communication There should be regular workshops, programs to exchange experiences and train teachers‟ methodology among English staff The knowledge of how to record each sound in English will be needed for learners to be able to work with some of the following activities The results of the questionnaire showed that this is not taught much to students at high schools Therefore, it is necessary to equip classroom with modern lab and facilities such as computers, projectors and recorders as well 44 4.4 Motivating the students The teachers should assist students to build up their self- confidence; encourage them to practice freely and frequently because there is no problem if they say right or wrong because “ practice makes perfect” In addition, the teachers should motivate students themselves to find their most suitable ways to improve their pronunciation They can: Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them; repeat what they say and practice the intonation (the way they say it), to gain a greater understanding of the rhythm and flow of the English language and improve English accent Slow down the speech and pronounce the endings of each word Pay attention to the "s" consonant at the endings The English language has many "voiced and unvoiced" sounds and it will take dedication and practice to learn correct English pronunciation Record voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes This is a very important exercise because doing it will help learners become conscious of the mistakes they are making Make a comparison or contrastive analysis of the phonetic features of confusing sounds in English and with those of the Vietnamese is a good way to avoid mistakes As teachers, we should pay attention to these differences and try to correct the mistakes made by our students To sum up, this chapter has made some pedagogical suggestions to correct the students‟ pronunciation mistakes to some extents, and to have better pronunciation These suggestions including using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), making the lessons more interesting by using some techniques, equipping modern facilities and motivating the students to build up the self- confidence and practice English sounds freely and frequently 45 PART C: CONCLUSION Pronunciation is an aspect of teaching English, which is currently paid attention to at high schools The goal of this thesis was to explore pronunciation mistakes students often make when producing the system of the fricative and affricative sounds Because English sounds are quite distinct from those of Vietnamese language, the students have problems with pronouncing them Moreover, the goal is not only to assist students to correct their pronunciation mistakes but also encourage them and make them more interested in the language, so they will continue and continue to practice the language, which can help them in future life Concluding remarks A questionnaire and an analysis of recordings of students‟ speeches are two methods of research used for purposes of this thesis and from the results and finding, it can be drawn that: Vietnamese learners of English were found to have a tendency to replacement, deletion of affricative and fricative sounds both in syllablemiddle and final positions They tend to carry their own phonemic habits into English and fail to imitate a proper pronunciation However, if learners are able to aware of these problems, they will avoid miscommunication problems and embarrassing situations because good pronunciation practice brings confidence to the EFL speakers Most Vietnamese learners make mistakes in producing consonants listed above; they often confuse these sounds with others by the following main reasons: - Failure in distinguish the differences between sounds due to lack of the knowledge of the manner and the place of articulation of English fricative consonants and English affricatives 46 - Negative influence of the mother tongue: the learners are too much affected by the way they pronounce Vietnamese - Lack of consciousness of being standard: the learner only pronounce these sounds correctly in the classroom environment, but not in real communication - Insufficient practice: despite some knowledge about these sounds, many learners have no opportunities to use them in real situation Learning a foreign language is a long term process which requires a lot of learners‟ effort to be successful and to have a good pronunciation, both teachers and students should be aware of its great importance and try to discover effectively innovated methods to overcome the difficulties and acquire the knowledge in the fastest and most precise way Significance of the study Theoretical significance: The research assists both teachers and learners to review phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds It is a solid foundation in teaching and learning English pronunciation Practical significance: The study identifies students‟ mistakes in producing affricative and fricative sounds in English and supplies English teachers with the understanding and practical view to have pedagogical suitable solutions to these kinds of established mistakes Limitations of the study Although this thesis has answered the research questions mentioned before, it still has some limitation Due to the limited time, the survey was only carried out in four classes of the 10th grade students, Some proposed suggestions to correct students‟ 47 mistakes in producing fricative and affricative sounds are likely to be subjective and incomplete In addition, regarding the sounds recorded, there may be some unavoidable factors such as anxiety or atmospherics Moreover, the researcher did not have time to conduct the interview to have more and deeper information about their difficulties that caused their mistakes Suggestions for further studies Based on the results and limitations of the study, further researches can be conducted as the following recommendations: According to the findings, the students often have a thought of learning pronunciation that is really important and the issue put by most teachers is how to integrate teaching pronunciation with other English skills in a more interesting and effective way so that students‟ pronunciation can be improved It is definitely worth exploring, how Vietnamese students see the way they are taught at high schools and how they feel about their abilities to pronounce a foreign language To get a good pronunciation, the learners also should pay attention to not only English sounds but also other factors of phonetics such as stress, intonation, rhythm or common phonological processes such as assimilation, linking, and elision In addition, it is hoped that further researches would be conducted in verify the practical effect of some proposed solutions given 48 REFERENCES Dao Thi My Hanh (2007) A study on pronunciation of some English consonants by Vietnamese learners MA minor thesis Vietnam National University, Hanoi Duong Thi Nu, Mistake or Vietnamese English, Journal of Science, Foreign Language, Mistakes of Vietnamese English Retrieved on September 27th, 2013 from www.js.vnu.edu.vn/nn_1_09/b6.pdf Ha Cam Tam, Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English Journal of Science - Foreign Languages, T.XX1, No.1, 2005 Hismanoglu, M (2006) Current Perspectives on Pronunciation Learning and Teaching Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2(1) M Hancock, English Pronunciation in Use-Intermediate, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000 Nguyen Thi Thu Huong (2010) Difficulties encountered by second year students at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry in producing some English consonants MA minor thesis Vietnam National University, Hanoi Roach ,P., English Phonetics and Phonology, (2nd edition), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991 Richards,J.,Platt,J., and Platt,H (1992) Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics Longman Singapore Press 10 Tiono, A Study of English Phonological Errors Produced, No1, English Department, Faculty of Letters, Petra Christian University, 2008 49 11 with Luu Trong Tuan (2011) Vietnamese EFL learners’ difficulties English consonants Studies in Literature and Language 3(2), 56-67 CS Canadian Research and Development Center of Sciences and Cuture 12 Luu Trong Tuan (2010) Teaching English discrete sounds through minimal pairs Journal of Language teaching and Research,1(5),540561 13 Retrieved on September 27th , 2013 from 14 http://www.academypublisher.com/jltr/vol01/no05/jltr0105.pdf 15 http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html 16 13.http://nlpdotnet.com/Linguistics/Phonetics/ConsonantChart.aspx 50 APPENDIX RECORDING Task 1: Read out the following words /f/ & /v/ /s/ & fine victim slim /z/ prison /θ/&/ thunder ð/ themselves she /ʃ/ &/ʒ/ massage /h/ he check /tʃ/,/dʒ/ job Task 2: Read out the following sentences Frank found four fogs laughing on the floor Vera drove to Vence in a van I got a good prize for that painting I‟m going to advise you You never take my advice The train went through the tunnel A bath is more relaxing than a shower There was an explosion in the garage on Leisure Road She wished she had gone shopping He didn‟t shave at all last year 10 Do you want to change jackets before we go out? 11 Foxes sometimes come to the farm and catch chicken? I Task 3: Read out the following text about the recycling instructions First, soak some old newspapers in a bucket of water overnight Then use a wooden spoon to mash the paper Next, mix the mashed paper and the water together in another bucket Place a wire mesh in the mixture then pull it out Then put the mesh with mixture on the cloth and press it down firmly Take the mesh off the cloth Wrap some heavy books in a plastic bag and put them on the cloth Wait about minutes Finally, out the books away and take the paper out of the cloth to dry in the sunlight II APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE This survey questionnaire is designed to collect the information or data for my MA study , titled “A Study on Pronunciation Mistakes Commonly Committed by the 10th Grade Students at Kim Thanh high School, Hai Duong Related to English Fricative and Affricative Sounds and Some Possible Pedagogical Solutions” Would you like to tick on the answers that you think is the most appropriate Your assistance is highly appreciated and the results will be intended solely for this study but not for other purposes How long have you been learning English? A Less than years C - years B - years D More than years A How many English periods you have a week? 1-2 B 3-4 C 5-6 D more than Have you ever attended any pronunciation course? Yes/No How you rate the role of pronunciation in communication? A Very important B Important C Neutral D Unimportant What are your purposes of learning English pronunciation? (You can choose more than one option) A to pass the phonetic exams B to understand English language C to improve your communication skills D to be more confident in speaking English How often you practice pronouncing English words? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Rarely E Never Do you know how to read the phonetic transcription? Yes/ No III For each of the items in questions 8, please put a tick in the box provided which best describes your opinion of the causes of your making mistakes when producing English fricative /f/,/v/,/s/,/z/, /θ/,/ ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/and affricative sounds /tʃ/, /dʒ/ No Causes of mistakes I don‟t know how to pronounce these sounds These sounds are strange to me so I not pay attention to these sounds Vietnamese are not mentioned in the final position of a word, so I ignore them I pronounce these sounds as I perceive I pronounced these sounds in the same way in English and Vietnamese I not think that bad or wrong pronunciation sounds communication No Causes of mistakes I not practice pronouncing these sounds frequently I am afraid to ask for help from teachers pronounce correctly THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION V ... mentioned above have studied further on ? ?A study on mistakes commonly commited by the 10th Grade students at Kim Thanh High School, Hai Duong in the pronunciation of English Fricative and Affricative. .. finding out the most typical mistakes made by the 10 th Grade students at Kim Thanh High School, Hai Duong in the pronunciation of English Fricative and Affricative consonants sounds Method of. .. COMMONLY COMMITED BY THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS AT KIM THANH HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH FRICATIVE AND AFFRIVATIVE CONSONANTS AND SOME POSSIBLE PEDAGOGICAL SOLUTIONS NGHIÊN CỨU