1 Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE Every language learner has a wish of achieving the most efficiency in communication To that, learners have to pay much attention to using the language as well as pronouncing them correctly As far as the aspect of connected speech is concerned, it is not easy for Vietnamese learners to perform English sounds, especially English stops as well as to perceive and to comprehend them in conversations They meet so many difficulties in pronunciation One of those is caused by the influence of their mother tongue on their language learning because each language has its own rules and phonetic system which may cause a lot of obstacles to learners in practicing and performing them correctly More importantly, most of the learners not pay attention to how to pronounce English stops in the initial, middle or final positions, i.e devoicing them in the initial position, releasing them in final position, connecting them, lengthening or shortening the vowels followed by an English stop, etc Accordingly, they may get trouble with speaking and listening to native speakers Besides, the learners and teachers’ method as well as attitude towards pronunciation teaching and learning are not good enough From my own experience and observation in classrooms of English in Tuy Hoa Industrial College, the students are found to have few opportunities of practicing to improve their pronunciation skill because the teachers tend to equip them with knowledge of grammar and vocabulary without paying much attention to practicing pronunciation They tend to de-emphasize pronunciation in language courses Furthermore, their tests and examinations focus mainly on writing and reading skills As a result, the students not concentrate their time and energies on practicing pronunciation As a teacher of English, I would like to conduct this research to identify the factors that cause problems which Vietnamese learners encounter when producing English stops to give awareness not only to Vietnamese learners of English, but also to the teachers of English about in learning and teaching English stops to help learners of English improve their competence of communicating efficiently with native speakers Therefore, it is essential to carry out an investigation into the pronunciation of English stops experienced by the students at Tuy Hoa Industrial College I hope that this study could provide a fresh perspective on pronunciation as a curriculum area in language learning and teaching 1.2 AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY 1.2.1 Aims This study has been developed with the aim of helping students at Tuy Hoa Industrial College in particular and learners of English in general improve their pronunciation of English stops with the solutions to overcome their common pronunciation mistakes of these sounds 1.2.2 Objectives This study is intended to: - Describe and compare the English and Vietnamese stops - Discover the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese stops - Find out some causes and common mistakes made by students at Tuy Hoa Industrial College in performing the English stops - Suggest some solutions to mistake correction in pronunciation of English stops experienced by the students as well as activities to enhance their performance of these sounds 1.2.3 Questions of the study To achieve the aims and objectives mentioned above, this study tries to answer the following questions What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese stops? What are common mistakes made by students at Tuy Hoa Industrial College in performing English stops? What causes those mistakes? What are the effective ways and activities that teachers of English at colleges can apply to correct and improve students’ pronunciation of English stops? 1.3 THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study just focuses on examining the perception and production of English stops / p, b, t, d, k, / by students In this study, the students at Tuy Hoa Industrial College would be chosen as the representative informants 1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS Stops or plosives are consonant sounds produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract then separating rapidly The term “plosive” is reserved for oral (non- nasal) stops Plosives include / p, b, t, d, k, 20:130] / [6:7, 1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY Chapter 1, Introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope of the study, research questions and definitions of terms and also the organization of the study Chapter 2, Literature and Theoretical background, provides a brief literature review and theoretical knowledge for the matters of study Chapter 3, Research design and Methodology, presents the research method, the hypotheses and the procedure of data collection and analysis Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, discusses in the result of the data analysis, then draws causes of making mistakes In this chapter, the activities which can be applied to improve students’ pronunciation are also included Chapter 5, Conclusion and Recommendations, gives brief conclusion of the study Besides, it also includes recommendations for improving students’ pronunciation Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES According to Lightbown and Spada (1996), a child’s language acquisition is mainly based on imitation, practice and innate capacities without paying attention to the knowledge of phonetics In contrast, adolescence and adult learners’ process of second language learning is not the same due to their developmental changes in the brain In order to achieve the goal of pronouncing as closely as native speakers, the learners need to be provided good knowledge of the English sounds This may possibly contribute to the fact that apart from the course-books designed for only speech training with little information on how a speech sound is produced, most writers have discussed the articulation of speech sounds with details, especially the issues of English stops In an early study of English speech sounds, Connor (1973) dealt with the stops by starting with the English phonemes rather than concrete sounds In his study, the phonemes were focused on the variety of sounds by which they are realized In a practical view, Roach (1983) made a contrast between the minimal pairs of English stops which can help the learners have distinction between /p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, and / k/ and / / He also studied their distribution and variants In a view of error analysis, Ladefoged (1982) introduced some important general phonetic notions of English stops He analyzed specific mistakes of English stops which foreign learners often encounter and showed how to produce these sounds correctly in particular cases In the aspect of teaching pronunciation, Kenworthy (1992) focused on the specific problems encountered by speakers of Arabic, Chinese, French, German, etc And he also examined the areas of difficulty in terms of learning and teaching strategies However, in this study, he has not addressed the problems which Vietnamese learners often meet in pronouncing English stops Research on phonetics and phonology by Carr (1999) described English stops and gave the detailed distinction between aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops which is phonemic in Korean but allophonic in English The distinction is also held true for Vietnamese, although he did not give any concern to Vietnamese More specifically, Gimson (1970) carefully described how to pronounce English stops The highlights of his study were the advice giving parts to foreign learners This material is not only useful for learners of English but also for my study as the reference and guideline Martha C Pennington (1993), in research “Realizations of English final stops by Chinese speakers in Taiwan” discussed problems that learners may have with the pronunciation of English stops, and proposed some pedagogical implications concerning this group of sounds All in all, those studies have mostly examined production of English stops and a few of them have mentioned about the contrastive information concerning Vietnamese Only in a recent cross-linguistic study, Giang (2003) investigated the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese stops and discussed the problems of English stops encountered by the students at Danang University This research was really valuable for me to help shaping my hypotheses and for reference Accordingly, we seek more solutions to help the Vietnamese learner of English to perform their speaking as close to native speakers as possible In this study we did not require the students to produce the sounds sequences with exact pronunciation as native speakers, but in somewhat like native speakers’ pronunciation and intelligible 2.2 THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE 2.2.1 The production mechanism of stops in English and Vietnamese All languages have pulmonic stops and the normal mechanism is pulmonic egressive, that is, with air flowing outward from the lungs The complete articulation of a pulmonic egressive, plosive or stop consonant consists of three stages: The closing stage, during which the articulating organs move together in order to form the obstruction; in this stage, there is often an on-glide or transition audible in a preceding sound segment and visible in an acoustic analysis as a characteristic curve of the formants of the preceding sound The holding or compression stage, during which lung action compresses the air behind the closure; this stage may or may not be accompanied by voice, i.e., vibration of the vocal cords The release or explosion stage, during which the organs forming the obstruction part rapidly, allowing the compressed air to escape abruptly; if stage (2) is voiced, the vocal cord vibration may continue in stage (3); if stage (2) is voiceless, stage (3) may also be voiceless (aspiration) before silence or before the onset of voice ( as for a following vowel), or stage (3) may coincide with the onset of vocal cord vibration, as when a voiceless plosive is followed without intervening aspiration by a vowel; again, an off-glide or transition associates the plosive with a following sound [8:150] The description of the production mechanism above is just a general one because each sound in this group will have different phonetic variants when it is distributed in different positions in a word 2.2.2 Contrastive analysis of stop consonants in English and Vietnamese Apart from using knowledge of our students and our ears in order to be aware of their pronunciation problems, it is also useful to have some prior knowledge of what elements of English phonetics and phonology are likely to cause problems to the Vietnamese learners of English 2.2.2.1 Similarities As we have mentioned above, all languages in the world have stops In English and Vietnamese, the consonant system of stops consists of six members: /b/, /p/, /t/, /d/, /k/, / / and each of them has different places of articulation (see Table 2.1 below) Table 2.1 The articulation of stops MANNER OF ARTICULATION STOPS Bilabial Alveolar Velar VOICELESS /p/ /t/ /k/ VOICED /b/ /d/ / / Basically speaking, both English and Vietnamese stops have the same production mechanism They are divided into three pairs, as we have seen, according to the manner of articulation Members of each pair can be distinguished on voiceless and voiced features 2.2.2.2 Differences As mentioned above, the production mechanism of the stops in English and Vietnamese is similar in general; however when distributed in different contexts of words or in connected speech, English stops are affected by the surrounding sounds and undergo some changes As a result, each stop in English has it own phonetic variants, which foreign learners of English, especially Vietnamese learners hardly recognize in speaking and listening Firstly, in Vietnamese, final stops neither have a release burst nor have a nasal release whereas English final stops are often produced with these phonetic features (with audible or no audible release) Secondly, the English and Vietnamese stops are distributed differently due to the phonetic systems of both languages as described in Table 2.2 and Table 2.3 Examine Table 2.2 and Table 2.3 below we can have some comments as follows: English stops are distributed in different positions in words, while Vietnamese does not have a voiceless stop [p] in the initial position Therefore, Vietnamese learners may fail to correctly pronounce the voiceless stops [p] in this position They may produce the word “pen” like “Ben” because they might not pay attention to the force of articulation /p/ is produced with a stronger breath effort than /b/ Table 2.2 The distribution of English stops [8:151] Stops /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ / / initial pole bowl toll dole coal goal middle lopping lobbing bitter bidder postcard beginning final rip rib writ rid risk rig Position 10 Table 2.3 The distribution of Vietnamese stops [3:153, 226] stops /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ / / initial - bóng tắt kẹo gắng middle - - - - - - final đập - tắt - tắc - position In Vietnamese /p/, /t/, and /k/ appear at the end of words without releasing The learners often have tendency of dropping these sounds in the final positions in English words So they may perform words ending with both voiced and voiceless stops identically For example, they may perform the two words “tend” and “tent” the same If they pay attention to pronounce these sounds they may insert /ʋ/ with the finals For example, “cart” may be produced like “carter” [ka:tʋ] Furthermore, /p/, /t/, /k/ in English have the phonetic variants [p ], [t ], [k ] in the initial position as “the fortis series /p, t, k /, when initial in an accented syllable, are usually accompanied by aspiration.” [8:151], whereas [p ], [t ], [k ] in Vietnamese are not allophones of /p/, /t/, /k/ That is, in Vietnamese, [p], [t] and [k] are realization of the /p/, /t/ and /k/ morphemes and [p ], [t ] and[k ] are realization of the distinct /p /, /t and /k / morphemes If the learners not pay particular attention to this phonetic feature, they may raise a risk of causing misunderstanding For example, instead of pronouncing [p n] for the word “pin” Vietnamese learners pronounce [pin], which listeners may understand as “bin” 81 appeared and told Cinderella she could go to the ball but to return home by midnight So she went to the ball in a beautiful dress She danced with the prince but at midnight, she ran back home, leaving one of her shoes on the dance floor The prince wanted to see her again and went to every house in the capital until he found that the shoes were the right size for Cinderella She and the prince married and live happily every after I live in Ho Chi Minh city Ho Chi Minh city is a young lively city which was built nearly 300 years ago with its initial population some thousand people But in early 20th century HCM developed very fast, its population increased up to more than one million and has become a big city in Southeast Asia HCM city is an industrial, cultural, tourist and international relation center of the country Its has twenty thousand industrial , small handicraft enterprises, 70 theaters and movie houses museums , along with cultural center and foreign consulates HCM city is an ideal place of render- vous, a young city , a city of the future years I have a girlfriend Her name is Hanh She is 21 years old She is about one fifty eight meters tall and she is very handsome She is a student, she isn’t married She always wears jeans and shirts When she goes to school She likes going for a walk She likes working with computers because it’s very helpful for her study My friend name is Thuy Tien She is a student in TuyHoa Industrial College She is 19 years old She comes from Tuy hoa She is rather tall She’s 1.6 metres tall She is thin She weighs 44 kilos She is good looking and rather [d d :l] [b :l t] [ʋp ʋ n] [b̚t t] [m r d n ] -Dropping all the final stops - No linking [ nkr z ̚p] [sa t e sʋ] [tʋ r t n ntʋn nl] [ a sʋn ndʋstr ʋl] [d d :l] [b :l t] [ʋp ʋ dʋn] [b̚ t t] [m r dʋn ] [ nkr z d̚p] [sa s te sʋ] [tʋ r s tʋn d ntʋn nl] [ a sʋn d ndʋstr ʋl] -dropping all the final stops - No releasing of final stops - Dropping the final stops - No linking [stju:dn n] [stju:dn t n] 82 10 11 beautiful She is rather intelligent, generous, easy going and very warm My house I live in a house near the hill It’s an old house, about 10 years old It’s small There are three bedrooms upstairs The bathroom is downstairs next to the kitchen and there’s a living room There’s a garden in front of the house In spring, there are flowers everywhere I love my parents and my young brother called Duc We often had the party and there are many of my friends I love my house because of the garden, the flowers in spring, and it’s a house beautiful but the best is the view of the hill from my bedroom window I have a friend His name is Thao He has black hair , black eyes and tall nose, as tall as me He always wears trousers and shirt Sometimes he wears jeans and T-shirts We like wearing the same things and doing the same things He and I are crazy about football We go to football matches every Sunday We work hard at school He and I play football I have many friends, but Thao is the best friend I think it is fun to have my friend My young sister’s name is Loan She’s She comes from Khanh Hoa province She’s pupil in the first grade in Ninh Xuan, She’s small She has got long-hair and black eyes Especially she has got very white complexion She often wears dresses She likes a plastic doll In her free time, she often go for walk with doll She is crazy about music and she sings well She learns hard So she is the best pupil in her class She could paint very well When she doesn’t go to school, she paint pictures of family, school, act She’s very intelligent and -Dropping all the final stops - No linking [frʋn tʋv] [frʋn ʋv] [bes t n] [bet n] -Dropping and not releasing the final stops - No linking [bl ka ] [ na ] [ha: t] -Inserting schwa [pʋle ] [bl k a ] [ʋn da ] [ha: d t] [ple ] -Dropping and not releasing the final stops - No linking [ re d n] [bl k ] [ ntel nt n] [ re d n] [bl k ] [ ntel n tʋn] 83 12 13 funny I love my young sister very much My city I was born and grew up in Tuyhoa city This is the place where I had a lot of memories of my childhood Tuyhoa is in the central part of Vietnam It is a small city the population is about eighty thousand people Mostly the people are farmers, so the condition of living is not high But the people are very nice and friendly, open-hearted to strangers There was a lot of beautiful places such as Nhan tower, Chopchai mountain, Bao Tinh pagoda, Darang bridge is the longest in the central part of Vietnam The food is very cheap and coffee is very good The main street is Tran Hung Dao street There are many shops, restaurants along this street Now I’m learning in Tuy Hoa city where I’m going to work I love it very much I have an older sister, her name’s Vy She’s 28 years old and she’s married At the moment, she’s living overseas with her husband and working in a company there My sister has got long, black hair and brown eyes She has a beautiful complexion and white as snow She likes cooking and listening to music but she hasn’t much time to perform her hobby, because her work is too busy At weekends, she usually goes for a walk with her husband Sometimes, I chat with her (on) internet My sister is a friendly and pleasant person every body likes very much I love, too -No releasing of the final stops - No linking [h d ʋ l t ʋv] [p :t ʋv] [ t z] [ʋba t e t ] [l t ʋv] [f d z] [t p n] [h dʋ l tʋv] [p : tʋv] [ t z] [ʋba te t ] [l tʋv] [f d z] [t p n] -Dropping and not releasing the final stops - No linking [ʋ l n] [h̚dbʋn n] [wa s] [w :k z] [ʋ l dʋn] [h̚dbʋn dʋn] [wa tʋs] [w : k z] 84 14 15 16 17 My holiday Last summer I had an exciting holiday with my friend in Nha Trang city I went to the seaside at weekends We went to sunbathed on the beach every morning After that we had breakfast and drink coffee We went for a walk and shopping In the afternoon I went swimming At night we went to the cinema and went for walks I like the holiday very much because the seaside was very beautiful and very exciting My name is Hieu I’m a girl I live in Binh Dinh I have a family I like music and films I don’t like golf My sisters are small We like children songs Our family is very happy At the moment, I’m studying in Tuy Hoa Industrial College I live a small flat near the school and I live with my friends They are good We live far from home, so we always miss our families We still have hopes and dreams that once day, we will be successful in life I live in a small house It’s in Dong Hoa district There are four rooms in my house They are the living room, the bedroom, the kitchen and the toilet I like the bedroom best because I can relax comfortably there The house’s green and 21 years old I love living there because it is the place where I was born and grew up I think it is small but very beautiful The people here are friendly and helpful Dalat is the most beautiful city which I’ve ever been to I often go on a holiday in Dalat Let me tell you about Dalat As you know Dalat is beautiful, the weather is cool, every body is friendly There are many vegetables, roses, sunflowers, - Dropping and not releasing the final stops - No linking [h dʋn [fren d n] [s sa t] [s̚nbe n] [wak n] [h dʋn] [fren d n] [s sa dʋt] [s̚n be d n] [w l k n] -no releasing of the final stops - No linking [ na ] [ʋn da ] -Dropping, not releasing the final stops - No linking [ nk t z] [ -Dropping, not releasing the final stops - No linking [dalat i] [dala tiz] n k t z] 85 18 19 20 21 tulips… In summer, the weather is very cool and pleasant I was there with my family about two weeks ago We visited many interesting places and I took many photographs and bought many souvenirs I felt very interesting when I was there It’s a wonderful place to relax Have you ever been there? I live in a house near the field It’s an old house, about 15 years old and it’s small There are two bed rooms and one bathroom The bathroom is simple The kitchen is next to the bedroom The living room is beautiful There are many pictures and a TV (where) we usually watch it There is a garden in front of the house We plant green vegetables and flowers in the garden I live with my family: grandmother, father, mother and my sister In the summer, we have a family reunion We are very happy I love my house for many reasons, the living room is beautiful, especially, I feel comfortable and happy when I stay here I was born in Binh Kien I grew up and studied (at) there My house is small but it looks very beautiful It’s was blue There are three rooms in my house They are : living room, bed room, the kitchen I like the bedroom best because I feel comfortable when I feel stressed I love it very much My friend is a pretty girl Her name’s Phuong She is always happy and outgoing, especially she always helps everybody We both have same hobbies such as : shopping, chatting…We had some good days when we lived very happy I and Thanh were born in Quy Nhon city We were together nearly every day until we left school one year ago Then I went to college and Thanh went to university I study [let m ] [ na ] [lep m ] [ʋn a ] -Dropping all the final stops - No linking [frʋn ʋv] [frʋn tʋv] -Dropping, not releasing the final stops - No linking [st :d t] [b̚t t] -Dropping and not releasing the final stops -Dropping and not releasing the final stops [st :d dʋt] [b̚ t t] 86 22 23 24 25 for three years and want to be an accountant I has a lot of new friend, so I don’t see Thanh very often Sometimes we don’t meet for months, but we often talk on the telephone or send email I have a good friend, his name’s Minh He is 20 years old His hobby is playing games All the day, he always sits in front of the computer to play games He is very happy and often talk the story for me to hear But now, he is studying at a college in Ho Chi Minh city, and he didn’t meet me anymore years I have an older sister Her name’s Thao She is very beautiful She is 22 years old She is a student at Tuyhoa industrial college, she is about one point sixty meter tall, she always wears jeans and T-shirts when she goes to school She likes swimming and playing volleyball in her free time She is not married I love her very much I live in house in village near the sea It’s an old house about 20 years old There are two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom, downstairs next to the kitchen I live with my family We live happily in the house I like it very much though it’s small The thing I like best is the view of the sea every morning Hello every body I’m Hien (Nowadays), I would like to talk about my village My village is small It’s located in the river bank with a population of about 500 people Many years ago, my village was very poor The villagers had to work hard (in) the fields all day and could hardly make ends meet - No linking [l t ʋv] [t :k n] [sen me l] -Dropping, no releasing of the final stops - No linking [frʋnt ʋv] [ t ʋ] -Insertion of schwa [pʋle ] -Dropping the final stops - No linking [stju:dʋn t] [l tʋv] [t : k n] [sen d me l] [frʋn tʋv [ʋ tʋ] [ple ] [stju:dʋn tʋt] -No linking [la t] [bet iz] [la k t] [bes tiz] -Dropping, not releasing the final stops - No linking [lʋ keit d n] [lʋ keit d n] 87 26 27 28 29 30 All their lives were simple they very humorous and helpful But now, my village has changed It’s better than before I have a beautiful girl friend I met her in the day when I moved to Tuy Hoa city months ago She always helps me when I feel sad and she makes me happy when I live here I love her very much I live in a house near the field It’s an old house, about 100 years old, and it’s very small There are two bedrooms, a bathroom The bathroom is next to the kitchen and there is a living room There is a garden in front of the house The garden goes out to the field and in spring and summer there are flowers everywhere I live with my family, father, mother and two younger I love them very much I also love my house I have a twin My sister has a long hair, she is tall and big However, my sister is the most beautiful in my family She likes reading newspaper, magazine in her free time Besides, my sister also likes listening to music It’s soft music My sister study worse than me My sister is more difficult than me so she likes living alone My house was built five years ago It’s blue There are rooms in my house They are the living room, the two bedrooms, the kitchen and the toilet I like the living room best because It’s the most beautiful room in my house, there are many things in the room such as a TV, a sofa, a telephone , pictures…Behind my house has a small garden where I plant some flowers I love my house because It was the place where I was born and grew up I spent a holiday last summer in Nha Trang city I went to the seaside, with my grandfather and my young brother, at my [t :k ʋba ] [ha:d n] -Dropping and not releasing the final stops - No linking [s d n] -Dropping, not releasing all the final stops - No linking [frʋn ʋv] [f l n n] -Dropping the final stops -Dropping, not releasing the final stops -Dropping the final stops - No linking [t : kʋba t] [ha: d n] [s dʋn] [frʋn tʋv] [f l dʋn d n] 88 uncle’s house for weeks Every morning, I often went to [spen ʋ] sunbathe on the beach Then we went for a walk I like this [s sa z] holiday very much because the seaside is very beautiful, wonderful and very exiting [spen dʋ] [s sa d z] 89 APPENDIX G First, practice /t/ and /d/ - /t/: Put the front of your tongue behind your top teeth Push air forward in your mouth Then move your tongue away - /d/: Put the front of your tongue behind your top teeth Push air forward in your mouth Then move your tongue away and use your voice to make /d/ Then, listen and practice the difference tore - door tarts - darts cart - card write - ride train - drain trunk - drunk Now, tick the words you recognize in the sentences you hear a I don’t like writing / riding b That’s a nice cart / card c He bought a bat / bad, racquet and some balls d I send / send all the parcels by air mail e you like tarts / darts f I want to try / dry this shirt Practice saying the sentences 90 APPENDIX H First, practice /t/ and /d/ - /k/: Touch the back of the roof of your mouth with the back of your tongue Push air forward in your mouth Then move your tongue away - /g/: Touch the back of the roof of your mouth with the back of your tongue Push air forward in your mouth Then move your tongue away and use your voice to make /d/ Then, listen and practice the difference cold - gold coat - goat curl - girl class - glass back - bag clock - clog Now, tick the words you recognize in the sentences you hear a That man looks like a cold / gold fish b There’s fly on your back / bag c My grandfather bought a Dutch clock / clog d What a beautiful curl / girl! e There a green frock / frog in the garden f The detective was looking for a good clue / glue Practice saying the sentences 91 APPENDIX I Listen to the conversation and fill the missing words in the blanks Then practice the conversation with a partner Be careful with clusters [ tr, dr ] A How are you (1)………., Trevor? B By (2)……… The twelve twenty A Shall I (3)………… you to the station? B In all this (4)………… (5)…………? Oh, no I’ll try to get a taxi A It’s no trouble Of course, if you don’t trust my (6)………… B Oh, I trust your (7)………… , all right A Fine Twelve at your flat, then? B Thanks But Tricia, the (8)………… really is (9)…………… important and… A Mm? B Well, the train really does leave at twelve twenty Keys: traveling train drive dreadful traffic driving driving trip tremendously 92 APPENDIX K Listen to the conversation and fill the missing words in the blanks Then practice the conversation with a partner Be careful with clusters [k , l, kr, gr] A You’re back quickly Didn’t you go to the (1)……… (2)…………? B yes, I went A Was it (3)………….? B Quite (4)………… A Was Greg there? B (5)…………… was there, yes, and Quentin A But surely Quentin hates (6)………… B That’s why they had a slight disagreement today A They quarreled? B (7)………… threw a (8)………… of beer at Quentin A Oh dear B He missed, however A Mm Shall I take tour (9)………… to the (10)…………? Keys: cricket club crowded crowded Greg criket Greg glass clothes 10 cleaners 93 APPENDIX L Read the conversation and mark the links between /t/ or /d/ and a vowel Next listen to the tape or to the teacher to check Then practice the conversation with a partner A I’m call ‘Pat’, and I don’t like my name It isn’t attractive B But ‘Pat’ isn’t as bad as some names What about ‘Dot’? Dot isn’t attractive A Oh, no Dot isn’t at all nice, no … Even Pat isn’t as bad as Dot… What are you called by the way? B You’ve guessed it Read the conversation and mark the links between /k/ or / / and a vowel Next listen to the tape or to the teacher to check Then practice the conversation with a partner A I’d like a walk – I think I’ll take the dog out, Betty B I’d like a drink – I think I’ll go to the Duck of York’ and drink a cool lager A You’d like a drink, Betty? You’d like a drink? Oh, well… Let’s both take the dog out, then! B Fine A No, dam it Let’s leave the dog at home! Read the advices and mark the links between one of the stop sounds, [p, b, t, d, k, ], and a vowel Next listen to the tape or to the teacher to check Then practice asking and giving advices with a partner - My neck aches Wrap it in a scarf 94 Drink a cup of tea Take an aspirin Don’t think about it Rub it - I’ve got a big emerald ring Put it on Keep it safe Lock it up Take it to the bank Put it in a big envelope, and hide it under the bed - I’ve got a week off What shall I do? Make a dress Knit a jumper Read a book Paint a picture Sit and relax - What would Ann like for Christmas? A big umbrella A bag and some gloves A book on music A red and white scarf What would you advise? Discuss with other students 95 APPENDIX M Tick the words that have longer vowels in the following minimal pairs Listen to the tape or the teacher to check Listen carefully and practice the difference bat - bad cat - cad seat - seed neat - need cart - card bright - bride cot - cod Tick the words that have longer vowels in the following minimal pairs Listen to the tape or the teacher to check Listen carefully and practice the difference back - bag snack - snag pick - pig brick - brig frock - frog luck - lug [...]... All the data were then analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively Qualitative information consists of kinds of mistakes made by the students and quantitative information is frequency of making mistakes, the number of the students making mistakes and the rates of the number of the students to be tested 3.2 HYPOTHESES Based on the comparison of the phonetic systems between English and Vietnamese, the. .. learning and acquisition 4.1.1.2 Students attitude toward English learning and pronunciation learning The analysis of data from the questionnaires helps us sketch a descriptive picture of the practice of teaching and learning of the students in Tuy Hoa Industrial College Table 4.2 Information about students attitude toward English learning and pronunciation Information Frequency of using English to... (hp) The recordings would make it possible for the students performance to be transcribed, and then be collated with the version produced by the English model tape as the baseline data In addition, the study took advantage of effective software “Goldwave” and “Speech Analyzer 2.2 and 2.7” which can measure the phonic production of students The test and transcription were completed at the end of June... population from which the sample was drawn was the first year students with groups of different levels and different backgrounds of learning English For the convenience of recording and analysis, the researcher limited the number of the students on the diagnostic test This was also the limitation of the study The sample in this study is the response and instances of students actual performance of English. .. process and their background) 2 Students attitude toward learning English (their interest and attention to the skill as well as their energy of pronunciation practice) 3 Teachers’ method and course books (the teacher and material roles in teaching and learning English pronunciation) 4 Students knowledge of English stops and difficulties (students difficulties and causes to the problem) The data collected... Actually, most of the students hardly recognized the role of the course books in pronunciation practice We can see the results in table 4.3; 19% of the students agreed that course books help them a lot to practice pronunciation, 58% did not appreciate the role of course books, but 23% of them denied the presence of course book in their process of learning pronunciation In addition, pronunciation is not... hypotheses relating to the objectives mentioned in chapter one In order to improve the current situation, the facts and figures of pronunciation learning and teaching as well as the students actual performance of English stops will be showed in detail with the help of the information collected from the questionnaires and the diagnostic test 4.1 PRESENTATION OF THE RESULTS 4.1.1 Data collected from the. .. (18 students) of the students come from the city, and the rest are from the countryside and start living in the urban when they enter the college From the data collected the majority of the students from the country in some way did not have chances of getting acquaintance with the modern facilities and technology to study However, there is a large number of the students started learning English from primary... serve the purpose of the study: how to teach students of different levels to learn and practise pronunciation of English stops effectively Thirdly, the subject was chosen in order to help the students overcome the problems of stops pronunciation as soon as they begin their English lessons at colleges Last but not least, the subject of the study would help provide some necessary information about students ... limitation 25 of the study Nevertheless, the research was carried out objectively on the data collected without the researcher’s interference So the results of the findings and recommendations might meet the demand of pronunciation teaching and learning at colleges 26 Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS This chapter presents the results of the research statistically and discusses them to verify the ... All the data were then analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively Qualitative information consists of kinds of mistakes made by the students and quantitative information is frequency of making... picture of the practice of teaching and learning of the students in Tuy Hoa Industrial College Table 4.2 Information about students attitude toward English learning and pronunciation Information... ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY Chapter 1, Introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope of the study, research questions and definitions of terms and also the organization