English pronunciation errors of final consonants by 10th graders at tran phu high school, tay ninh province

THE PEOPLE‟S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LE MINH DAT ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION ERRORS OF FINAL CONSONANTS BY 10TH GRADERS AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL, TAY NINH PROVINCE MASTER THESIS MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 8220201 BINH DUONG - 2020 THE PEOPLE‟S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LE MINH DAT ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION ERRORS OF FINAL CONSONANTS BY 10TH GRADERS AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL, TAY NINH PROVINCE MASTER THESIS MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 8220201 SUPERVISOR: LE THANH HOA, PhD BINH DUONG - 2020 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis, entitled “English pronunciation errors of final consonants by 10th graders at Tran Phu High School, Tay Ninh Province”, is my work Except where references are made in the text of the thesis, it does not contain materials published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person‟s work has been used without acknowledgment in the main text of this thesis LE MINH DAT i ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who have supported, encouraged and assisted me in my thesis completion First of all, I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to Mr Le Thanh Hoa (Ph.D), my supervisor, for his great patience, careful guidance, insightful advice, and constant encouragement through the whole research process Without his support and guidance, this thesis would never have been completed Secondly, I would like to express my thanks to Mr Tran Quoc Thao (Ph.D) and Mr Tran Thanh Du (Ph.D) who proofread my final I thank all of the research participants, my students, who contributed to this study Thirdly, I am grateful for the assistance and support of Prof.Dr Nguyen Van Khang, the Editor - In - Chief of Journal of Linguistic Society of Viet Nam, who has helped me greatly to edit my paper in the magazine “Journal of Language and Life” and given me important materials for the study Last but not least, my deepest and sincerest gratitude goes to my family, including my wife, my mother, my daughter, my son and my sister for their love I would like to dedicate this thesis to my beloved wife for her enthusiastic support for the thesis ii INDEX CONTENTS Page CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.2 Practical background 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.3 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3.1 Aims .6 1.3.2 Objectives 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Summary CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of related terms 2.1.1 Pronunciation 2.1.2 Consonant 2.1.3 Pronunciation norm 2.1.4 Pronunciation errors 2.1.4.1 Definition of error .9 2.1.4.2 Error analysis 10 2.1.4.3 Types of phonetic interference errors 11 2.1.4.4 Significance of error and error analysis 13 2.1.5 Pronunciation mistakes 15 2.1.6 The difference between an error and a mistake 15 2.2 Review of previous study 16 2.3 Theoretical background 20 2.3.1 Background to English final consonants 20 2.3.1.1 Final single consonants 20 2.3.1.2 Final clusters of two consonants 22 iii 2.3.1.3 Final clusters of three consonants 23 2.3.1.4 Final clusters of four consonants 23 2.3.2 Background to Vietnamese final consonants 23 2.3.3 Similarities and differences in English and Vietnamese final consonant systems… 24 2.3.3.1 Manner of articulation 25 2.3.3.2 Place of articulation 25 2.3.3.3 Voice quality 25 2.3.3.4 Similarities 26 2.3.3.5 Differences 27 2.3.4 Waveform and spectrogram analysis 28 2.4 Conceptual framework 28 2.5 Summary CHAPTER 29 METHOD AND PROCEDURE 30 3.1 Introduction 30 3.2 Research design 30 3.3 Sample and sampling 31 3.3.1 Sample 31 3.3.2 Sampling procedures 31 3.4 Data collection procedures 31 3.4.1 Date collection instruments 32 3.4.2 Voice recording wordlists 33 3.5 Data analysis procedures 34 3.5.1 Final one-consonants .34 3.5.2 Clusters of the final two-consonants 35 3.5.3 Clusters of the final three-consonants .38 3.5.4 Clusters of the final four-consonants 40 3.5.5 General evaluation 40 3.5.6 Group classification 41 3.6 Validity and reliability .41 3.7 Summary …… 42 iv CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 43 4.1 Introduction 43 4.2 Findings………… 43 4.2.1 Data analysis findings .43 4.2.1.1 Errors of final single consonants 43 4.2.1.2.Errors of final two consonant clusters .56 4.2.1.3 Errors of three final consonant clusters 58 4.2.1.4 Errors of four final consonant clusters .60 4.3 Discussion 62 4.3.1 Participants’ attitudes about English final consonants… 62 4.3.2 Overview of the participants’ records 62 4.3.3 Factor of participants’ difficulties in English pronunciation 62 4.3.4 Participants’ knowledge about English final consonants 63 4.3.5 Difficulties faced by by participants in producing English sounds 63 4.3.6 English pronunciation errors of final consonants by the participants 65 4.4 Summary ……………………………………………………………… 66 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 67 5.1 Conclusion 67 5.2 Pedagogical implications 68 5.2.1 Recommendations for teaching the pronunciation of English final consonants 68 5.2.1.1 Pronunciation training for teachers 69 5.2.1.2 Pronunciation training for students 69 5.2.2 Recommendations for further pronunciation activities 70 5.2.2.1 Activities 1: Pronunciation diagnosis .70 5.2.2.2 Activities 2: My favourite songs 71 5.2.2.3 Activities 3: Misunderstanding conversation 72 5.2.2.4 Activities 4: Describing activities .73 5.2.2.5 Activities 5: How much you know about English and Vietnamese final consonants? 73 v 5.3 Limitations 74 5.4 Suggestions for further study 74 THE AUTHOR’S RELATED ARTICLE 75 REFERENCES 76 APPENDICES .77 vi ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations Full forms EFL English as a foreign language EP English pronunciation ESL English as a second language EVFCS English and Vietnamese final consonant system FL Foreign language IPA The International Phonetic Alphabet L1 First language L2 Second language TPHS Tran Phu High School vii LIST OF TABLES Order Contents Page Table 2.1 English final consonants 21 Table 2.2 Vietnamese final consonants 23 Table 2.3 English and Vietnamese final consonants 26 Table 3.1 Information about students‟ background 31 Table 4.1 Errors of consonant /-p/ 45 Table 4.2 Errors of consonant /-ð/ 47 Table 4.3 Errors of consonant /-θ/ 48 Table 4.4 Errors of consonant /-ʤ/ 49 Table 4.5 Errors of consonant /-ʧ/ 49 Table 4.6 Errors of consonant /-ʃ/ 50 Table 4.7 Errors of consonant /-ʒ/ 51 Table 4.8 Errors of consonant /-z/ 52 Table 4.9 Errors of consonant /-s/ 52 Table 4.10 Errors of consonant /-l/ 53 Table 4.11 Errors of consonant /-b/ 53 Table 4.12 Errors of consonant /-d/ 54 Table 4.13 Errors of consonant /-g/ 55 Table 4.14 Errors of consonant /-f/ 55 Table 4.15 Errors of consonant /-v/ 56 Table 4.16 Errors of final two-consonant cluster /-nd/ 57 Table 4.17 Errors of final two-consonant cluster /-st/ 58 Table 4.18 Errors of final three-consonant cluster /-lmd/ 59 Table 4.19 Errors of final three-consonant cluster /-mpt/ 60 Table 4.20 Errors of final four-consonant cluster /-ksts/ 61 Table 4.21 Errors of final four-consonant cluster /-lkts/ 61 viii Figure 136 Female 1‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife – f/ – /-ø/ Figure 137 Female 2‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife – f/ - /-ø/ - 146 - Figure 138 Female 3‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife – f/ - /-i/ Figure 139 Female 4‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife – f/ - /-/ - 147 - Figure 140 Male 6‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife – f/ - /-f/ Figure 141 Male 7‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife – f/ - /-f/ - 148 - Figure 142 Male 8‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife – f/ - /-f/ Figure 143 Male 9‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife - f/ - /-i/ - 149 - Figure 144 Male 10‟s waveform and spectrogram of /knife – f/ - /-i/ Appendix 17 Figure 145 Waveform and spectrogram of /prove - v/ (Cambridge Pronunciation) - 150 - Figure 146 Female 1‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove – v/ – /-ø/ Figure 147 Female 2‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove – v/ - /-ə/ - 151 - Figure 149 Female 3‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove – v/ - /-ʊ/ Figure 150 Female 4‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove – v/ - /-ə/ - 152 - Figure 151 Male 6‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove – v/ - /-v/ Figure 152 Male 7‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove – v/ - /-t/ - 153 - Figure 153 Male 8‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove - v/ - /-ə/ Figure 154 Male 9‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove - v/ - /-u/ - 154 - Figure 155 Male 10‟s waveform and spectrogram of /prove - v/ - /-ʊ/ Appendix 18 Figure 156 Waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /nd/ (Cambridge Pronunciation) - 155 - Figure 157 Female 1‟s waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /-n/ Figure 158 Female 2‟s waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /-n/ - 156 - Figure 159 Female 4‟s waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /-ə/ Figure 161 Male 6‟s waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /-n/ - 157 - Figure 162 Male 7‟s waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /-nd/ Figure 163 Male 8‟s waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /-n/ - 158 - Figure 164 Male 9‟s waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /-n/ Figure 165 Male 10‟s waveform and spectrogram of /wound/ - /-ə/ - 159 - Appendix 19 - 160 - ... COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LE MINH DAT ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION ERRORS OF FINAL CONSONANTS BY 10TH GRADERS AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL, TAY NINH PROVINCE MASTER THESIS MAJOR: ENGLISH. .. BINH DUONG - 2020 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis, entitled ? ?English pronunciation errors of final consonants by 10th graders at Tran Phu High School, Tay Ninh Province? ??, is my... this study: What English pronunciation errors of final consonants are made by 10th graders at Tran Phu high school? What are the causes of students‟ errors in pronouncing English final consonants?