An investigation on common errors in pronouncing english consonants made by 6 to 10 year old students at linkinworld english skills center dong anh hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************************** TRẦN THỊ PHƢƠNG THẢO AN INVESTIGATION ON COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH CONSONANTS MADE BY TO 10 YEAR OLD TUDENTS AT LINKINWORLD ENGLISH SKILLS CENTER, DONG ANH, HANOI Tìm hiểu lỗi phát âm phụ âm tiếng Anh thƣờng gặp học sinh từ đến 10 tuổi trung tâm kĩ Anh ngữ Linkinworld, Đông Anh, Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.0111 Ha Noi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************************** TRẦN THỊ PHƢƠNG THẢO AN INVESTIGATION ON COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH CONSONANTS MADE BY TO 10 YEAR OLD TUDENTS AT LINKINWORLD ENGLISH SKILLS CENTER, DONG ANH, HANOI Tìm hiểu lỗi phát âm phụ âm tiếng Anh thƣờng gặp học sinh từ đến 10 tuổi trung tâm kĩ Anh ngữ Linkinworld, Đông Anh, Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.0111 Supervisor: Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Ph.D Ha Noi, 2014 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation on common errors in pronouncing English consonants made by to 10 year old students at Linkinworld English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi” is a result of my research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi This thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution Signature Trần Thị Phương Thảo i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Do Tuan Minh, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study Also, thanks are sent to my colleagues and students at Linkin‟world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi, without whose support and encouragement it would be never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment to this academic work ii ABSTRACT This minor thesis aims at identifying the most common mistakes of students aged from to 10 years old at Linkin‟world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi” when they pronounce English consonants as well as investigating the main causes of these mistakes and the possible pedagogical solutions to assist them to correct their mistakes In the course of fulfilling this study, the researcher used data collection instruments: tape recording of the informants‟ pronunciation of selected words and words within sentences and dialogues to find out the most common mistakes in pronouncing English consonants and questionnaire for teachers to investigate the causes of these mistakes and some possible solutions teachers use to help their students improve these mistakes The data analysis reveals the following major findings The most common mistakes of students when pronouncing English consonants are sound omission and sound deviation The main causes of mispronunciation are as follow: (1) Students not know how to use their mouth, tongue, lip to pronounce (2) Negative influence of the mother tongue: the students are too much affected by the way they pronounce Vietnamese (3) Students are not confident to pronounce English sounds These results are taken into account and lead to some pedagogical suggestions to deal with these found problems iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Consonants in English Table 2: Number of students with trouble of English consonants Table 3: Number of students pronouncing sound omission Table 4: Number students making mistakes of sound deviation Figure 1: Teachers‟ perceptions of causes of students‟ mistakes Figure 2: Teachers‟ methods used to help students correct mistakes iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and objectives Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theory background 1.1.1 The role of pronunciation in language teaching 1.1.2 English consonants 1.1.3 Mistakes in language learning 12 1.1.3.1 Types of mistakes 13 1.1.3.2 Possible causes of mistakes in language learning 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17 2.1 The informants of the study 17 2.2 Research method 17 2.2.1 Data collection instruments 17 2.2.2 Data collection procedures 18 2.3 Data analysis 19 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 20 3.1 Findings and discussions 20 3.2 Some suggested activities for students to improve their mistakes in pronouncing English consonants 29 PART C: CONCLUSION 33 Summary 33 Pedagogical Implication 34 Limitation and suggestion for further research 35 REFERENCES 36 v PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Our world is developing every hour and international cooperation is one of the important strategies of each country to promote its socio-economic development To integrate successfully into the global economy, foreign language is considered to be indispensable Understanding the importance of foreign language in general and of English in particular, the Vietnamese government has set up a curriculum for English learning for children from years old onwards The number of English language centers has been remarkably increasing during the past two decades Thus, many Vietnamese, especially the young people can speak English; however, many foreigners have commented “many Vietnamese speakers can speak English, but only a few have intelligible English pronunciation so that they can be understood easily in direct communication with foreigners.” It is true that learners can not succeed in studying English without mastering English pronunciation because pronunciation is one of the most important components of a language It is really important for learners to have communication of the target language as correct possible right from start While I teach English to students age from to 10 years old at Linkin’world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi, I find that they make many mistakes when they pronounce English sounds, especially English consonants It is very necessary to find out students‟ mistakes in pronouncing English consonants and help them correct those mistakes as soon as possible With the expectation to help students pronounce English consonants correctly when they start to learn English, I decided to conduct the study “ An investigation on common errors in pronouncing English consonants made by to 10 year old students at Linkin’world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi” It is hoped that this study will contribute to the goal of enhancing students‟ performance in teaching and learning foreign language Aims and objectives 2.1 Aim: - Improving students‟ pronunciation of English consonants 2.2 Objectives of the study - Identify what English consonants that are often mispronounced by to 10 year old students at Linkinworld English skills centre, Dong Anh, Hanoi - Identify what common mistakes students make in pronouncing those English consonants - Find out causes of mistakes made by students in pronouncing those English consonants - Suggest some possible solutions to help students improve their pronunciation of English consonants Research questions - Question 1: What are English consonants that are often mispronounced by to 10 year old students at Linkin‟world English skill centre, Dong Anh, Hanoi - Question 2: What common mistakes students make in pronouncing those English consonants? - Question 3: What are the causes of those mistakes? - Question 4: What are teachers‟ possible solutions to those mistakes? Scope of the study There are many problems in Vietnamese students‟ pronunciation However, because of limited time and the scale of the minor thesis, I only focus on common mistakes in pronouncing some English consonants and causes of those mistakes as well as possible solutions to eliminate them And I only focus on students aged from to 10 years old at Linkin‟world English skill center, Dong Anh, Hanoi Significance of the study Theoretical significance: The research provides both teachers and learners with revision of phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds It is a basic foundation in teaching and learning English pronunciation Practical significance: The study identifies young students‟ mistakes in pronouncing English consonants Therefore, it supplies teachers with the understanding and practical view to have pedagogical suitable solutions to help students improve their pronunciation as soon as possible Organization of the study To achieve the aims of the study, this paper is divided into five chapters: Part A: “Introduction” includes the reasons of choosing the thesis, the aims, the objectives, the research questions, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study Part B: Development Chapter “Literature review” is devoted to the presentation of the theoretical background relevant to the research Firstly, the review of pronunciation as well as factors affecting pronunciation learning is introduced Then the literature related to mistakes is given Chapter 2: “Methodology” describes in detail the research methodology which comprises the principles based on which the study is carried out Chapter 3: “Findings and discussions” presents the findings and discussions from the data analysis Part C: “Conclusion” summarizes the findings and gives limitations and suggestions for further research very commonly used activities in any English lesson Tongue twister and playing game are also used by teachers but less frequently with 43% often use, 28.5% sometimes or seldom use) In general, different methods helping students improve their pronunciation are used by all teachers at Likin‟world English skills center However, they just usually use familiar methods such as listening and imitating, reading aloud, Visual aids, phonetic training and minimal pair drill; they use other methods tongue twister and playing game less frequently Therefore, the teachers should pay more attention to activities and use many different methods in pronunciation lesson in order to encourage students to learn better 3.2 Some suggested activities for students to improve their mistakes in pronouncing English consonants In order to improve these mistakes, it takes students a great deal of time to learn about the way these sounds are produced Beside activities that are usually used by teachers in lesson, these activities below can be used to help student practice pronouncing English sounds Hopefully, they will be extra materials for teachers Activity 1: Using tongue twisters This is an excellent way of teaching pronunciation Tongue twisters allow students to practice the language without fear of making mistakes and improve fluency in language Many tongue twisters contain similar sounding words with different meaning, and not always make sense but students will try to say them and learning about these sounds more quickly Students will feel very funny when using tongue twisters For example, we give students some sentences containing sounds then ask them to read aloud them 29 Sounds / s /and / ∫ / Sentences She sells sea shells on the sea shore Susie‟s shirt shop sells shirts /dʒ / and / t∫/ Joy to see your chin, jaw and cheek” /z/ Zizi‟s zippy zipper zips /h/ Harry Hunt hunts heavy hairy hares Activity Playing game  Pronunciation maze This game also allows them to use a little bit of logical problem solving to help with a pronunciation task In a grid, write a string of words with a common sound, e.g the same vowel sound, between the top left corner and the bottom right corner In all the other squares, write in words that people might think have the same sound but don‟t Students then have to get from the starting point to the end by the right route After they have finished, drill the words on the right route, and then all the surrounding ones with different sounds For example, to help students practice pronouncing sound / θ / , the teacher gives students a table of words containing sound / θ / then tells to find the way from START to FINISH by going through the words containing sound / θ / 30 START Thursday Clothes Those Weather Thousand Thick Tooth Them They Bathroom Throw Thirsty Three Although Brother Healthy These Thing Thin Than Through Theme Their Thank Mouth Path Think Mother Then Teeth This Either rather that the Birthday FINISH  Bingo This is an activity which concentrates on noticing a distinction among sounds For example, the teacher says the following to students: think, thing, thin and ask 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 words to students and tells them to fill in the words randomly onto the grid Then the teacher reads out words, which contain 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 bathroom mouth teeth three them father thump mother this thin thick These are some activities that the researcher would like to introduce with the hope that they will make the pronunciation lessons more interesting and effective How to use these activities effectively depends on teachers Each teacher need to identify how, when and where to use them to get their 31 purposes Beside above activities, there are many different useful and interesting activities that teachers can use to help their student practice pronouncing better More importantly, teachers should assist students to build up their self- confidence, encourage them to practice frequently and motivate students to enjoy the lessons by making interesting and attractive lessons and making the classroom atmosphere more relaxing 32 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary Pronunciation is an important aspect of teaching English, which is especially important to teaching to young learners who start to learn English The goal of this study is to explore pronunciation mistakes that students often make when pronouncing English consonants Moreover, the aim of this study is not only to assist students to correct their pronunciation mistakes but also encourage them and make them more interested in learning English In addition, the study discovered the causes of the students‟ mistakes as well as gave the possible suggestions to help them to improve their English pronunciation It can be said that this research is quite a useful reference for those who are interested in teaching English pronunciation Questionnaire and recordings of students‟ pronunciation are two instruments to collect data for the research From the results and findings, it can be drawn that: Students aged from to 10 at Linkinworld English skill centre, Dong Anh, Hanoi produce pronunciation mistakes of two types: sound omission at both middle and final positions and sound deviation Sounds / θ /, / ð/, /dʒ /, / f /, / ∫ /, / t∫/ were made mistake by most students Basing on the discussions, it can be concluded that students make pronunciation mistakes because of some main reasons: (1) Students not know how to use their mouth, tongue, lip to pronounce They lack of knowledge of the manner and the place of articulation of English consonants (2) Negative influence of the mother tongue: the students are too much affected by the way they pronounce Vietnamese (3) Students are not 33 confident to pronounce English sounds They are afraid of making mistakes when they learn pronunciation Some practical suggestions to over come these mistakes are mentioned in the study: using visual aids, phonetic training, minimal pair drill, tongue twister, playing game In general, 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 importance and try to discover effective innovated methods to overcome the difficulties and acquire the knowledge Pedagogical implication Teaching a foreign language is considered as a hard job Therefore, there are great deals of requirements for the teachers Especially, pronunciation is one of difficult aspects in English because of difference between systems of sounds in English and Vietnamese That is the reason why English pronunciation is paid more attention to This study can be a reference for any teacher who concerns about students‟ pronunciation Firstly, this study can be use as supporting material providing the basic knowledge of the pronunciation, role of pronunciation in language teaching as well as factors affecting pronunciation learning Secondly, the results of the study about students‟ common mistakes in pronouncing English consonants, causes of these mistakes as well as some possible solutions to improve the situation are clearly presented so the teachers can have more understanding about Vietnamese learners‟ English pronunciation then have application the appropriate methods to their students 34 Limitation and suggestion for further research 3.1 Limitation of the study Although the researcher has great effort to carry out the study, there still remain some inevitable shortcomings The first limitation is the scope of the study Due to the limited time, the researcher only focuses on the most common mistakes when students pronounce consonants And the researcher just studies the small number of students at English skill centre, Dong Anh, Hanoi They are not enough to present for the whole students Secondly, the findings of the research and suggested solutions are based only on the opinions of the teachers and students at English skill centre, Dong Anh, Hanoi 3.2 Suggestion for further research Later researchers who have the same interest of the research field can benefit from the current study with recommendation for further research In terms of scope, future researchers can explore other fields of pronunciation like vowels, stress, and intonation Students‟ problems of these aspects could be identified and then handled with different techniques, which makes a comprehensive picture of correcting learners‟ pronunciation troubles In addition, it is hoped that further researches would be conducted in verifying the practical effect of some proposed solutions given Due to the limited time and knowledge, mistakes are inevitable so all the comments and suggestion are highly appreciated so that the quality of the study can be improved 35 REFERENCES Adrian, U, Sound founds – Learning and Teaching Pronunciation, London: Macmillan Alan, M (1995), Pronunciation, Oxford University Press Chan, A.Y.W & Li, D.C.S (2000), English and Cantonese Phonology in Contrast, Language, Culture and Curriculum 13 Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 12th January, 2008 at http:// chhs.sdsu.edu/slhs/publications/barlow478.pdf 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 Ellis, R (1997), Second language Acquisition, OUP Ha Cam Tam, Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English Journal of Science – Foreign Languages, T.XX1, No.1, 2005 Hewings, M (2004), Pronunciation practice activities: a resource book for teaching English pronunciation, Cambridge Press Kelly, G (2003), How to teach Pronunciation Edinburgh, the UK: Pearson Education Limited Kenworthy, J (1988), Teaching English pronunciation, London: Longman Group UK Limited 10.Richards,J.Platt,J and Platt,H (1992), Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics Longman Singapore Press 11.Tran Thanh Phuc (2006), An action research on the use of continuous feedback to improve the first year students’ English pronunciation at 36 the English Department, College of Foreign Language, Vietnam National University, Hanoi 12.Vu Doan Thi Phuong Thao (2011), Correcting English consonants commonly mispronounced by second year non English majors at UlisVNUH 37 APPENDIX 1: EXERCISES FOR TAPE RECORDING Read aloud these sounds and words Sounds Words Initial Middle Final /p/ pen happy hop /f/ fig afternoon giraffe / θ/ three bathroom teeth / t/ teddy Between aunt / s/ sofa ice cream dress / ∫/ short T-shirt fish / t∫/ chair teacher sandwich / k/ kite /b/ bike cupboard crab /v/ van seven five / ð/ this father clothe /d/ date Friday bed /z/ zebra cousin arms book /ʒ / vision /dʒ / jam orange /g/ goat tiger fig /m/ music farmer home /n/ nurse dinner man /l/ lion balloon doll singer sing /η/ I /h/ house /j/ yellow yoyo /r/ ruler bedroom /w/ window Read aloud these sentences There‟s an egg with a yellow hat Look! The goat‟s got a fig The lion‟s got some jam Mum‟s got an orange and a pen I can see a zebra in a van and a yoyo on a box The sheep is white and the fish is red My teacher‟s on a chair and she‟s got a sandwich Baby Theo‟s in the bath Read aloud these dialogues Dialogue (Story - Unit 7) Mum: Help! The clothes Look, this is Rosy‟s dress Dad: Are these her socks? Mum: Yes, they are Dad: Is this Billy‟s T- shirt? Mum: Yes, it is Put it in his basket Are these his trousers? Dad: No, they aren‟t his trousers They‟re my shorts Dialogue (Story - Unit 9) Tim: It‟s lunchtime Get our lunch boxes Rosy: Oh no! I haven‟t got my lunch box Tim: I‟ve got two sandwiches and I‟ve got an apple and a banana Choose one Rosy: Thanks! The apple, please Look! Now I‟ve got ten sandwiches and six drinks Please share my lunch! II APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE This survey questionnaire is designed to collect the information or data for my MA study, titled “ An investigation on common errors in pronouncing English consonants made by to 10 year old students at Linkin’world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi” Your assistance is highly appreciated and the results will be intended solely for this study but not for other purposes Decide your answer by putting a tick (v) or filling in your own opinion in blanks How long have you taught English? ……… How often have you taught your students pronunciation? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Seldom You think pronunciation is … A very important in studying English B important in studying English C neutral in studying English D not very important in studying English E not important in studying English You think your students’ frequency of making mistakes in pronouncing English consonants A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Seldom III Which sounds you think your students often mispronounce? Sounds Often mispronounce Sounds /p/ /z/ /f/ /ʒ / / θ/ /dʒ / / t/ /g/ / s/ /m/ / ∫/ /n/ / t∫/ /l/ / k/ /η/ /b/ /h/ /v/ /j/ / ð/ /r/ /d/ /w/ Often mispronounce Answer the questions by putting a tick into the box which is the best of your representative of your answer Causes of mistakes Strongly agree Agree Students not know how to use their mouth, tongue, lip to pronounce English consonants are strange to students students pronounce English consonants in IV Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree the same way in Vietnamese Students not practice English consonants frequently Students feel shy to pronounce English consonants Dialect affects on students‟ pronunciation Your opinion: How often you use following methods to help your students pronounce English consonants? Methods Always Often Sometimes Seldom Never listening and imitating phonetic training minimal pair drill visual aids tongue twister reading aloud playing game 8.other methods (please specify) THANKS FOR YOUR COOPERATION! V APPENDIX 3: LIST OF STUDENTS’ MISTAKES EVALUATORS Trần Thị Phƣơng Thảo ( the researcher ) Nguyễn Thị Loan - Nationality: Vietnamese - Occupation: English teacher - Position: Director at Linkin‟world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi - Experience: teaching English for years Oduola Taye Teslim - Nationality: Nigerian , English - Occupation: Engineer, teacher - Experience: teaching English for more than year VI ... “ An investigation on common errors in pronouncing English consonants made by to 10 year old students at Linkin’world English skills center, Dong Anh, Hanoi? ?? Your assistance is highly appreciated... to learn English, I decided to conduct the study “ An investigation on common errors in pronouncing English consonants made by to 10 year old students at Linkin’world English skills center, Dong. .. 2014 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I hereby certify that the thesis entitled ? ?An investigation on common errors in pronouncing English consonants made by to 10 year old students at Linkinworld English skills