A study on some common pronunciation problems of first year english major students at thuongmai university

ABSTRACT Nowadays, there is no doubt that English has become an international language spoken in almost every corner of the world Besides, English actually plays an irreplaceable role in the period of integration, it not only allows us to broaden our knowledge around the world, but also brings us many opportunities to connect with foreigners from different countries Thus, English has become a second language in Vietnam Among four skills in English, speaking seems to be paid great attention of English learners Nevertheless, there is a large percentage of Vietnamese students who speak English making mistakes with pronunciation Therefore, understanding the difficulty of Vietnamese students about learning English in general, and pronouncing English in particular This study will go into of some common pronunciation problem encountered by freshmen of English faculty at Thuongmai University In other words to find out the problematic sounds and the factors that cause these problems, then find some techniques that help improve their pronunciation The data from this survey are conducted by the freshmen of English faculty at Thuongmai University through questionnaire to collect essential information The results of the study revealed that common pronunciation problems encountered by the first year English major students at Thuongmai University were how to accurately pronounce common ending sounds /dʒ/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ð/ and /ʒ/ The causes of such errors that are also indicated that factors such as the interference, the differences in the sound system or cultural background between two languages.Besides, The study also provides the techniques, solutions and suggestions completely for both students and teachers Based on these findings, teachers are suggested to increase students’ awareness on these errors and provide sufficient remedies to prevent students from internalizing such errors ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of completing my graduation paper, I received a lot of guidance and encouragement, support from my teachers and friends and my family 2 First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and gratefulness to all teachers of English Faculty at Thuongmai University who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis Especially, I would like to express my my sincere thanks to my supervisor - Ms Pham Thi Phuong Lien for her guidance to the thesis in a effective way and precious comments she gave throughout my research I really appreciate all her help and suggestions on various drafts of the thesis Without her valuable advice and support, my graduation paper would have been impossible to be done on schedule Additionally, I owe my deepest gratitude to my dear friends for their support and warm encouragement throughout my hard times Without them, I could not have overcome such times and concentrated on my study Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my loving parents for their continuous encouragement during my study Thanks to their intense devotion, I have overcome all difficulties and challenges and completed this thesis Hanoi, 23th April, 2020 Student Phung Thi Diem TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviated words TMU ESL L1 L2 Full phrase Thuongmai University English as a second language First language Second language LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS AND TABLES 4 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale In 4.0 technology era, English has become a extremely popular language all around the world Up to now, there are out of approximately 7.5 billion inhabitants in the world, and 1.5 billion speak English that occupy 20% of the overall population on the Earth However, most of those people aren’t native English speakers, only 360 million people speak English as their first language This demonstrates this language is widely used for communicating among people from different countries throughout the global Especially, with the rapid booming age of information and technology in Vietnam ,English also plays an essential role in the period of integration, as well as in the industrialization and modernization process of our country As a result, it has adopted as one of the most important subjects in many schools with the aim to improve English skill as well as to get advantageous opportunities to develop in strongly competitive economy Since English is one of the core subjects at school, more and more schools are teaching English to their pupils, and English centers an be found popular in any cities in Vietnam, especially big cities However, we all perceive that if learners want to learn English well, four English skills are essential for every English learners.However, Vietnamese students seem to focus on reading and writing rather than speaking.At school, they are taught about vocabulary and grammar by teachers, and they spend a lot of time on doing homework for examination Meanwhile speaking english seems to be less paid attention than the others, which is the main reason why they get difficulties with speaking In fact, there are many other factors that affect speaking English such as intonation, grammar, linking, rhythm, context and so on … and pronunciation is considered the most important one After long time of observing and investigation, I found that Vietnamese learners encounter great difficulties in learning English pronunciation for several reasons because the English sound system has several sounds that Vietnamese not have Or the way English speakers pronounce the ending sounds is completely different from the one deeply rooted in Vietnamese speakers, making it more difficult for them to pronounce English appropriately Moreover, Vietnamese is kind of language which has single words with no ending sounds while those play an important role in English pronunciation Consequently, English learners have difficulties with English pronunciation, especially ending sounds And ending sound errors are also typical and popular to first year of English faculty at Thuongmai University For these reasons, the writer made a decision to prefer the topic : “A study on some common pronunciation problems of first year English major students at Thuongmai University” in an attempt to find out their common pronunciation problems Hopefully, this study will help students understand deeply about the issues that they have not noticed before and suggest some solutions to solve the problems and help them improve their pronunciation 1.2 Previous study Understanding the importance of English in general, as well as English pronunciation skill in specific and variety of pronunciation problems faced by learners , many studies have been carried out to help them recognized their common problems and will be the useful reference with the solutions suggested which help the students be able to selfcorrect their common mistakes and find out their own effective ways in leaning in order to improve their pronunciation skill Furthermore, it helps the students not only improve their language learning but also have a great advantage for their future ideal job These studies have been written by experienced translators or teachers who clearly understand the issues related to pronunciation Thus, I would like to rely on these studies as references materials for my graduation paper According to the study by Ms.Afsana Begum with the title : “A case study about English Pronunciation Problems of the Tertiary Level Students in Bangladesh” This study has been conducted with 35 students of various districts from different departments of five universities in Bangladesh Presentation of 10 students has also been observed by the researchers This paper analyzes some problems concerning pronunciation of English learners in Bangladesh Ten teachers specialized in language and linguistics from five universities have also been provided with a structured questionnaire to have complementary information and to know their opinions regarding pronunciation problems of the students A mixed method methodology has been adopted by the researchers for this research Using mixed methods methodology, the paper provides some problematic English vowel and consonant sounds the tertiary students make, on the basis of sources like interview of students and recording it for collecting pronunciation samples, questionnaire distributed to the teachers for collecting opinions regarding students‟ English pronunciation, reading a passage that contains some words of problematic pronunciation and presentation of some selected tertiary students The data collected from above sources have been analyzed following the Standard Pronunciation system of English On the basis of findings, there are some outstanding factors which are responsible for poor pronunciation of English From interaction with the teachers and students the factors that this study brings out are: social factors, such as- students are not motivated by the friends or the family members or even by the teachers to produce correct English; lack of efficient teachers in phonetics and phonology; lack of using modern technology at the educational institutions; economic factor; lack of motivation; students‟ lack of exposure to the target language; poor pronunciation standard of the teachers; massive first language interference and pre-established systems of English pronunciation After pinpointing the common errors and the causes leading to these errors, some pedagogical implications and recommendations have been presented for the students and the teachers to improve existing English pronunciation problems of students gradually There are some factors which are responsible for poor pronunciation of English From interaction with the teachers and students the factors that this study brings out are: social factors, such as- students are not motivated by the friends or the family members or even by the teachers to produce correct English; lack of efficient teachers in phonetics and phonology; lack of using modern technology at the educational institutions; economic factor; lack of motivation; students‟ lack of exposure to the target language; poor pronunciation standard of the teachers; massive the first language interference and pre-established systems of English pronunciation Another study which is also about pronunciation problems was written by Elkhair Muhammad Idriss Hassan The tittle of her study is : “Pronunciation Problems: A Case Study of English Language Students at Sudan University of Science and Technology” This study investigates the problems in English pronunciation experienced by learners whose first language is Sudanese Spoken Arabic In other words to find the problematic sounds and the factors that cause these problems In this study, the data has been collected from 50 students (first year) of SUST, College of Education after they have completed a whole year at the university Samples of their pronunciation were recorded in addition to the observation in which some notes were written about their pronunciation A structured questionnaire to be answered by the university teachers to write their opinions and ideas about the exact reasons that make SSEs mispronounce some English sounds, and suitable ways that help them improve their pronunciation All the data were analyzed later on statistical and descriptive basis.For calculating the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire different methods were used e.g Split-half using Spearman-Brown equation For the reliability and the validity of the findings of the whole study sample some statistical instruments were used such as mean, median and Chi-square Test, and this is described in detail in the discussion section of the whole study The findings of the study revealed that Sudanese Students of English whose language background is Sudanese Spoken Arabic, had problems with the pronunciation of English vowels that have more than one way of pronunciation in addition to the consonant sound contrasts e.g /z/ and /ð/, /s/ and /θ/, /b/ and /p/, /ʃ/ and /tʃ/ Based on the findings, the study concluded that factors such as Interference, the differences in the sound system in the two languages, inconsistency of English sounds and spelling militate against Sudanese Students of English (SSEs) competence in pronunciation Then, some recommendations and techniques were suggested that the Sudanese Students of English can apply to improve their pronunciation In the study of Sawsan Mohamed Ali Mabyou with the title : “ Investigating Pronunciation Problems among 8th Level Basic Schools “.The study aims at investigating the problems of pronunciation for 8th level of basic schools students in Khartoum Locality, Sahafa Basic Schools, and also finding the relationship between pronunciation errors and factors such as mother tongue interference differences in sound system between first languages a second language inconsistency between spellings and sound especially Arabic and English The study employed test research method where the researcher used English language such as vowels and consonants in pronunciation words in the experimental group to help explaining things when they were not clear The findings of the research support the hypothesis that mother tongue interference, inconsistency, spelling and sound system differences between two languages that affect pronunciation and lead the learners of other languages to mis pronunciation After pinpointing the common errors and the causes leading to these errors, the researcher gives some suggestion for students to improve their pronunciation skill as well as some teaching strategies for teacher to apply to classroom teaching and learning The forth study is researched and written by Sattra Sahatsathatsana The title of this study is: ” Pronunciation Problems of Thai Students Learning English Phonetics: A Case Study at Kalasin University ” The purposes of this study were: to investigate the students’ opinions on problems in phonetics learning, and to find out factors causing the problems in phonetics learning of students The samples were 12 undergraduate English for International Communication students studying an English Phonetics course of which of them were purposively selected for an interview The research instruments used were a questionnaire and a semi-interview form The results from the students’ opinion reflected that some sounds especially [θ], [ð], and [ʤ] caused students’ serious problems of phonetics learning in the segmental level Linking was also reported that it caused serious problems of phonetics learning in suprasegmental level Besides, phonetic ability was reported as the factor mostly caused problems in phonetics learning It could be concluded that the opinion of difference of sound system between English and Thai and some factors including phonetic ability, native language, prior English pronunciation learning, instruction, and motivation caused the students’ problem in phonetics learning as well This study has been conducted with 35 students of various districts from different departments of five universities in Bangladesh Presentation of 10 students has also been observed by the researchers Ten teachers specialized in language and linguistics from five universities have also been provided with a structured questionnaire to have complementary information and to know their opinions regarding pronunciation problems of the students A mixed method methodology has been adopted by the researchers for this research 1.3 Aims of the study My study is about to find out common pronunciation problems of the first year English faculty students at Thuongmai University as well as suggest solutions to improve their pronunciation skill To summarize the above, the study is implemented to two main aims : • The first one is to figure out the common pronunciation problems encountered by the freshmen of English faculty at Thuongmai University • The second one is to provide techniques possible solutions to help them overcome the problems and improve their own pronunciation skill I hope this study can help them to see the problem and self-correct for themselves 1.4 Research subjects In the study, the research subjects are various pronunciation problems made by the first year English faculty students at Thuongmai University Particularly, below are the research problems to handle in the study: • • • Various main difficulties English-majored freshmen faced as pronunciation in English Some common problems in pronouncing English of freshmen in English Department Some solutions and suggestions to enhance pronunciation skill of freshmen as well as develop the appropriate methods for educators 1.5 Scope of the study There are many mistakes of English pronunciation that first years students encounter when speaking However, this study does not aim to cover all problems with 10 For instance: Shoes, crush, shell, finish, fish, show, shoot, wish, emotion, fashion, mission… The fourth difficult ending sound is /ð/ In order to pronounce this sound, you should practise the sound /θ/ first Then add voice to it to produce the target sound You can see image below to know more about how to pronounce this sound: Figure 4.4: Production of sound /θ/ Here are some words to practise this sound: Father, clothes, feather, brother, mother, without… The final sound /ʒ/ has lowest percentage ( 72%) This sound seems to be easier than four sounds above If you want to produce this sound, you need to first practise the sound /ʃ/, then use your voice to make /ʒ/ Figure 4.5 Production of sound /ʒ/ Some suggested to practise this sound: Television, garage, measure, treasure, casual, collision, pleasure… 40 4.2 Suggested solutions to avoid ending sound errors and have good pronunciation 4.2.1 Suggested tips As mentioned above, many students at are afraid to speak English, even they spent many years for learning grammar at schools They just learn for passing the regular tests and examinations while they can not use English in reality In fact, there are many students have good results from tests and examinations, they can only write grammatical sentences while they are bad at communicating in English That is problem of not only students at HPU but also many other Vietnamese students They are bad at speaking because they are afraid of making mistakes, especially with pronunciation or stress Therefore, in order to help students with this problem, some suggested tips would be provided for improving their pronunciation and speaking skill First tip: Listen to yourself If you can not hear your pronunciation problem, it is hard to correct it Therefore, recording your speech and comparing it to native speakers, you will recognize your problem and change it Second tip: Learn to talk like a baby In order to pronounce ending sounds, you need to following three stages: initial, intermediate and final stage For example: With the word “look”, you should pronounce it “lúc kờ” as two individual sounds in initial stage Then you could pronounce first sound louder than the second one Finally, you would pronounce “u” consonant longer and to second sound, “ ờ” in “kờ” would disappear and “look” should be pronounced as “ lu k” Third tip: Copy native speakers One of the greatest ways to have good pronunciation is copy native speakers Listen foreigner’s programs, movies and repeat what you are hearing even if you are not sure what they are saying yet You can also sing a song in English What you need to is imitate the lyric which you are hearing Singing a song helps you relax as well as improving your intonation and your rhythm Fourth tip: Speak slowly 41 Many English learners say that speaking too quickly reinforces their bad habits Practice a few basics each day Start with single sounds, then move on to words, and finally, string several words together Fifth tip: Be poetic Good pronunciation is more than just mastering individual sounds It's also understanding intonation (the rise and fall of the voice) and stress (some sounds in words and some words in sentences are louder or clearer than others) Reading poems, speeches and songs aloud, concentrating on the word stress and intonation will help you improve your pronunciation and speaking 4.2.2 Games and exercises In order to have good pronunciation, students should not only remember the suggested techniques mentioned above, but also practise pronouncing ending sounds and vowels many times However, if they just pronounce without passion, they will feel bored and disappointed little by little Therefore, playing pronunciation games is a perfect solutions for this problem It can help students have better pronunciation and also makes them feel interesting and animated Indeed learning and playing games usually create a exciting atmosphere for students They will have motivation to learn more These following games are provided to have better pronunciation and English speaking also Game IPA Game IPA Bingo works well with both large and small classes to encourage students to learn the IPA symbols used for transcribing American English or to reinforce their knowledge of articulatory descriptions This game can be used best in an introductory linguistics course, or early in a phonetics or phonology course In order to solve phonology problems, students need to be comfortable with the IPA and be able to match symbols to articulatory descriptions IPA Bingo is a fun way for students to practice using the IPA symbols, and some simple variations help teach distinctive features and natural classes 42 You can get the Avery business card stock for laser printers or for inkjet printers from office supply stores Business card stock from companies other than Avery is sometimes laid out differently on the page, which would not work with the layout for the caller cards Note that when you're printing from a pdf file, there is a "shrink to fit" option which you may need to turn off Otherwise the page is printed at a slightly reduced size and the layouts will not fit properly Try printing a single page first onto regular paper to see if the cards look like they line up with the business card stock You can also print the caller cards onto cardstock and simply cut them apart along the dashed trim lines Game 2: Rhyming Pairs This is one kind of pronunciation game Many words are prepared and mixed up Students need to find the words that rhyme and drag them side- byside It is 43 another fun way to improve English pronunciation and spelling For instance: somesum, mouse- house, lake- break, cook- book… This is an rhyming pairs exercise for students With this exercise, they can practise pronunciation, especially vowels and they also learn more new words via pictures Exercise : Match the pictures that rhyme 44 Game : Spelling game This game is easy to play and useful It helps students practise not only their pronunciation but also their listening 45 In order to play this game, firstly, class is divided into groups with columns on the board Then, three students in each group will be chosen to be the first players Teacher will prepare some words and when the teacher start the game and speak words out First students will run to the board and write the words on letter Members of group will alternate their turns until the game finishes After completing the game, which group having more correct the answers would be the winner 4.2.3 Tongue twisters Tongue twister is a sentence or phrase that is difficult to articulate clearly and quickly, such as Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper… Here are some tongue twisters to practice: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? Betty Botter bought some butter But she said the butter’s bitter If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter But a bit of better butter will make my batter better So ‘twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood As a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood She sells seashells by the seashore How can a clam cram in a clean cream can? I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop Susie works in a shoeshine shop Where she shines she sits, and where she sits she shines Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he? 46 10 Can you can a can as a canner can can a can? 11 I have got a date at a quarter to eight; I’ll see you at the gate, so don’t be late 12 You know New York, you need New York, you know you need unique New York 13 I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen 14 If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose? 15 I thought I thought of thinking of thanking you 16 I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch 17 Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear 18 Eddie edited it 19 Willie’s really weary 20 A big black bear sat on a big black rug 4.2.4 English songs Obviously, students of all ages have strong interest in music and nobody can deny how powerful music is or that it affects our feelings and energy levels Music creates desired moods- to make us feel happy, enjoy movements and dance, to help us relax and focus Therefore, it is a resource that should be taken into account Songs have become an integral part of our language experience, and as such are a very useful tool in the foreign language classroom They provide an excellent way to improve language skills, especially speaking skill Hence, learning and singing English songs is a perfect way to practice pronunciation as well as learn more vocabulary and structures In addition, singing songs will make students feel interested in lessons There are some activities based on song’s lyrics that help students focus on sounds and improve pronunciation Activity 1: Firstly, we replace some of the rhymes in the song, with a gap Students listen and fill the gaps, using the song to guide them More analytically minded students can then categorize the words according to sounds Alternatively, we highlight differences between sounds, using the lyrics to show how changing one sound can alter meaning (minimal pairs) 47 For example: / ɔ:/ : talk – New York – walk / eɪ /: day – say / / : one – sun – run (From An Englishman in New York by Sting) Activity 2: We choose six words from a song from which minimal pairs can be created We write the pairs separately on cards and give out one set per group of four or five students The students then match the pairs They then listen to the song and 'grab' the correct one Choices are then checked against the lyrics For instance: o heaven - even o hunger - anger o man- mad (From Imagine by John Lennon) In short, using English songs to practice pronunciation is a good way and receive many supports from students Therefore, the song below will be a perfect example to practice pronunciation including sounds /dʒ/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ð/ and /ʒ/ 4.2.5 Using books, magazines, newspapers For example, here are some reference books which can help students to have more knowledge about English speaking 48 It will be very useful and interesting if students have chances to read some English newspaper to get information and practice speaking skill When having difficulty in learning and understanding the meaning of the text, or the meaning of the new words, students can ask each other, even ask the teacher for help Reading newspaper and magazines written in English will improve student’s reading and speaking as well 49 CONCLUSION To summarize, this graduated paper has been conducted with the aim to investigate the English common pronunciation problem faced by first year English majors at Thuongmai University The rationale, the aim of the research, the scope of the study and the design of the paper are present, some related background such as definitions of English pronunciation, consonants, ending sound errors… are presented Especially, in order to find out what common pronunciation mistakes of first year students are, the survey questionnaire is carried out Finally, ending sound mistakes are the answer There are common ending sounds that students tend to make when speaking English in class The author analyzes the information and data from survey questionnaire for further understanding Besides, some suggestions to deal with problems are also provided in this part However, due to limitations of time, experience and knowledge, the research can not cover all problems and it concerns a small part of English pronunciation mistakes, it is ending sound Besides, some solutions are provided for further practise English pronunciation Therefore, the author is glad to receive comments from readers Finally, the author hopes this study can be useful material for students who concerns ending sound and suggested solutions to encounter with pronunciation problems as well 50 REFERENCES Barbara A H., Brian B (1997) The Status of Final Consonant Clusters in English Syllables: Evidence from Children Journal of Experimental Child Psychology Volume 64, Issue 1, p 119-136 University of New England, New South Wales, Australia Retrieved January 16, 2009 Harper Collins, Collins English Dictionary, 2003 Dulay, Burt and Krashen, Language Two, Oxford University Press, 1982 Ellis, Second Language Acquisition, Oxford University Press, (1997) Ha Cam Tam, Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English http://123doc.vn/document/1032608-tai-lieu-bao-cao-commonpronunciationproblems-of-vietnamese-learners-of-english-docx.htm Marianne, Donna and Janet, Teaching Pronunciation, Cambridge University Press, 1996 Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic, Oxford University Press, 1992 Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2008 Rachael- Anne Knight, Understanding English Variation, Week , 2003 10 Peter Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology, Cambridge University Press, 2000 11 Richards, Error analysis and second language strategies, International Center for Research on Bilingualism, 1971 12 Pham Cam Chi, Errors 1st year students at E.D., HULIS, VNU make with ending sounds and strategies to overcome using communicative teaching 13 Rebecca Treiman, The internal structure of the syllable, Kluwer Academic Publisher, 1989 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE 51 Hi, my name is Phung Thi Diem I am the senior at Thuongmai University The aim of this questionnaire is to collect information to contribute to my graduation study I hope to be helped by your cooperation Thank you so much! Survey Questionnaire Question 1: What is English skill you like most? A: Listening B: Speaking C: Reading D : Writing Question : Do you often speak English ? A Rarely B Sometimes C Often D Always Question 3: Do you think what is the most important factor when you speak English ? A:Grammar B: Vocabulary C: Pronunciation C: Intonation E: Others Question 4: How important pronunciation in speaking English you think ? A: Very important C:Normal B: Important D: Not important Question 5: Have you ever learnt any pronunciation course? A: used to attend pronunciation course B: have ever attended any course Question 6: How often you make pronunciation mistakes when speaking English in class? A: Always C:Sometimes 52 B:Often D: Rarely E: Never Question 7: Which pronunciation mistakes you tend to encounter when speaking English? A:Word stress B:Vowel misunderstanding D: Ending sounds Question 8: Do you often have difficulty in ending sound ? If have, what is the mistake ending sounds you get difficulty ? A.Yes B No Write your own answer : Question 9: What are your reasons that make you get difficulties when pronouncing ending sounds? Write your own answer : Question 10: Do you have any solution to improve ending sound mistake ? Write your own answer : APPENDIX 2: PASSAGE FROM CNN NEWS (audio record) (CNN)You are what you eat, the saying goes, and that's definitely true for the brain A diet full of green leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains and fish -known as the Mediterranean diet has been linked to a lower risk of dementia 53 Studies on similar diets, such as the MIND diet, have also shown a benefit in boosting cognitive function Now a new study has found that it's not just what you eat, but the foods you eat together in a sort of food "network" that may increase your risk for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia "People with dementia were more likely, when they ate processed meat, to accompany it with potatoes, and people without dementia were more likely to accompany meat with more diverse foods, including fruit and vegetables and seafood," said study author Cécilia Samieri, an epidemiologist from the University of Bordeaux in France "We found that more diversity in diet, and greater inclusion of a variety of healthy foods, is related to less dementia," Samieri said The study was published Thursday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology "In this study, the food 'network' linked with dementia was characterized by deli meats as the main 'hub', with connections to high-starchy foods like potatoes, as well as other meats and alcohol," said neurologist Dr Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine "When it comes to diet and brain health, variety is the spice of life," said Isaacson, who was not involved with the study 54 ... written by Sattra Sahatsathatsana The title of this study is: ” Pronunciation Problems of Thai Students Learning English Phonetics: A Case Study at Kalasin University ” The purposes of this study. .. chance Based on the explanation of finding and evaluation above, the researcher concluded that: There are four common pronunciation problems encountered by a group of first year English major students. .. this graduated paper has been conducted with the aim to investigate the English common pronunciation problem faced by first year English majors at Thuongmai University The rationale, the aim of the