HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No.2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - - HA THI KIM ANH A STUDY OF COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING A GROUP OF FRICATIVE SOUNDS EXPERIENCED BY 11 th GRADE STUDENTS IN YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL (SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS OF ENGLISH) B.A THESIS IN ENGLISH SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI MINH PHUONG M.A DR WILLIAM H SALAZAR Ha Noi, 2018 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mrs Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong, my research supervisor, for her patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work I am truly grateful to her ideas, comments and instructions as well as constant support Without these, the thesis could not have been completed I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr William H Salazar my researcher supervisor for his great contribution to my study He helped me whenever I met a trouble or had a question about my research or writing He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but drove me in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it Without his invaluable contribution and input, the survey could not have been successfully conducted I would also like to thank many beloved students in Yen Lac High School who took part in my research inquires enthusiastically and completely If I had not received their support, I would have not been completed my research on time My special thanks are expressed to my friends in Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 for their great help and comments They inspired and encouraged me a lot when I have trouble during my research process Finally, I wish to thank my parents for their support and encouragement throughout my study i ABSTRACT This research was conducted to explore the fricative sounds which students in Yen Lac High School frequently mispronounce Then researcher suggested some techniques and solutions to improve their pronunciation skills in terms of fricative sounds The scope of the study was done with the participant from two classes included forty 11 th grade students Questionnaire, recorded test and classroom observation were employed as the data collecting instruments The results of the research revealed the problematic sounds and the ways that Yen Lac High School students made mistakes when pronouncing fricative sounds The study, based on the findings, would help students and teachers recognize the limitation of learners in pronouncing English Hence, teachers and students could find appropriate ways to teach and correct English pronunciation ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Tittle: A STUDY OF COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING A GROUP OF FRICATIVE SOUNDS EXPERIENCED BY 11 th GRADE STUDENTS IN YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL I certify that I am the sole author of this bachelor of art thesis and this study has not been copied by me from any other person‘s work than sources listed in the bibliography as references I further declare that this work is written by my best under the instruction from my supervisor Date submit: May, 9th 2018 Student Ha Thi Kim Anh Supervisor Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong M.A iii Supervisor Dr William H Salazar TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale .1 Aims of the study Research question Scope of the study Significance of the study .2 Overview of the study PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Pronunciation 1.1.1 Definitions of pronunciation 1.1.2 The significance of pronunciation .4 1.1.3 Aspects of pronunciation 1.1.3.1 Phonemes 1.1.3.1.1 Vowels 1.1.3.1.2 Consonants .6 1.1.3.2 Stress 11 1.1.3.2.1 Word stress 12 1.2 Fricative sounds 12 1.2.1 Definitions of fricative sounds 12 1.2.2 Classification of fricative sounds 13 1.2.3 Descriptions of “/θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/, /f/, /v/” sounds 14 1.3 Pronunciation errors 16 iv CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOG Y 2.1 Participants 19 2.2 Data collection instruments 19 2.2.1 Questionnaire 19 2.2.1.1 Rationale of questionnaire 19 2.2.1.2 Procedure of questionnaire 19 2.2.2 Recorded Test 20 2.2.2.1 Rationale of recorded test 20 2.2.2.2 Procedure of recorded test 20 2.2.3 Classroom observation 20 2.2.3.1 Rationale of the classroom observation 20 2.2.3.2 Procedure of the classroom observation 21 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Findings 23 3.1.1 Results of the questionnaire 23 3.1.2 Results of the recorded test and classroom observation 25 3.2 Discussion 29 CHAPTER 4: PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION 4.1 Suggested solutions 31 4.1.1 Suggested solutions for teachers 31 4.1.2 Suggested solutions for learners 31 PART III: CONCLUSION Summary of the study 34 Limitations of the study 34 Suggestions for further studies 35 REFERENCES 36 APPENDICES 38 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Vowels in English .5 Table 2: English vowel chart Table 3: Consonants in English Table 4: Classification of NAE Consonant Phonemes Table 5: Place of articulation of plosive phonemes .9 Table 6: Place of articulation 13 Figure 1: Students' attitudes toward the importance of pronunciation skills 23 Figure 2: Students’ self-evaluation of pronunciation 24 Figure 3: Students' difficulties in pronouncing English 25 Figure 4: Mispronounced fricative sounds 25 Table 7: Errors that students made when pronouncing some fricative sounds 26 Table 8: Errors with /f/ sound 27 Table 9: Errors with /θ/ sound 27 Table 10: Errors with /ð/ sound 28 Table 11: Errors with /s/ sound 28 Table 12: Errors with /z/ sound 28 Table 13: Errors with /h/ sound 28 Table 14: Errors with /v/ sound 28 Table 15: Errors with /ʃ/ sound 29 Table 16: Errors with /ʒ/ sound 29 vi PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale As a developing country, Vietnam currently has an urgent need to use the international language English, to promote economic investment, especially after becoming a member of World Trade Organization (Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, 2007) English has been a compulsory subject in school for many years, from primary school to higher education Nowadays, people are aware of the significant role of English and take it as a mean to develop other career like Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology Pronunciation is the most important skill in spoken language; however, many of English language learners find it difficult to master English pronunciation (Gilakjiani, 2011) Hinofotis, 1981 stated “Problems in pronunciation weaken their communicative competence” Moreover, though many of students have learnt English as Second Language they still lack sufficient competence in pronunciation skills (Charity and Mallision, 2011) That is because of many factors The first reason is the impact of mother tongue on English Like some other languages, Vietnamese has phonotactic features that keep native learners from pronouncing English like native speaker (Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, 2007) The second reason is that high school students likely to focus on grammar and vocabulary instead of speaking skills There are extremely limited opportunities for learning listening and speaking of English in Vietnam In fact, the pronunciation of English challenges Vietnamese learners; however students were not trained on how to pronounce English phonetics accurately and how to correct their mispronunciations at the beginning stage of learning English Kelly (2004), pointed out two problems concerning teaching pronunciation: “First, it tends to be neglected And secondly when it is not neglected, it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in the classroom rather than being strategically planned” Therefore, this paper will investigate and find out the common errors in the pronunciation of fricative sounds mostly faced by students in high school and give some suggestions for this phenomenon Aims of the study This study was conducted to achieve the main following aims: To investigate fricative sounds (/θ/, /s/, /f/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /h/, /v/) which students frequently make mistakes in pronouncing To investigate the factors that cause the poor pronunciation of Yen Lac High School students To investigate the most effective ways to help learners minimize the difficulties in pronunciation Research question To fulfill these purposes mentioned above, this paper seeks answers to the following question: What are some common mistakes in pronouncing a group of fricative sounds experienced by 11 th grade students in Yen Lac High School? Scope of the study The research was conducted to investigate the common errors in pronouncing a group of fricative sounds “/θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/, /f/, /v/” The research was carried out on a group of forty 11 th grade students from two classes in Yen Lac High School, they accounts for ten percent of the total population Significance of the study After the research, it is hoped that the results will be helpful to provide: Input for English learners to minimize their difficulties in pronouncing fricative sounds which they mostly pronounce wrongly Then they can self-correct their incorrect pronunciation Input for English teachers some methods to help students pronounce better Overview of the study The research work has three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion Part I: The “Introduction” consists of the rationale, aims of the study, research question, scope of the study, significance of the study and overview of the study Part II: The “Development” consists of four main chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review This chapter reviews previous studies of some well-known researchers to give the reader a theoretical background of English pronunciation and fricative sounds Chapter 2: Methodology This chapter describes how to the study by presenting the techniques and procedures of the research Chapter 3: Findings and discussion This chapter presents the result of research and the analysis of the data Chapter 4: Pedagogical implication This chapter gives some suggested solutions for learners to enhance their pronunciation Part III: In the “Conclusion” part the researcher gives a brief summary of the study, the limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies Table 10: Errors with /ð/ sound Errors Sound that students Sound that students Sound made made /ð/ /θ/ /z/ (29,75%) (46,5%) Example: /θoʊ/ Table 11: Errors with /s/ sound Errors Sound that students Sound that students Sound made made /s/ /z/ X (omitted) (18,75%) (35%) Example: /ɪnˈkriːz/ Example: /ɪnˈkriː/ Table 12: Errors with /z/ sound Errors Sound that students Sound that students Sound made made /z/ /s/ X (omitted) (13,5%) (52,75%) Example:/reprɪˈsent/ Example: /bɑːn/ Table 13: Errors with /h/ sound Errors Sound that students Sound that students Sound made made /h/ X (omitted) (32,5%) Table 14: Errors with /v/ sound Errors Sound that students Sound that students Sound made made /v/ X (omitted) (40%) 28 Table 15: Errors with /ʃ/ sound Errors Sound that students Sound that students Sound made made /ʃ/ /s/ /t/ (72,75%) (17,25%) Example: /ˈsuːtɪŋ/ Example: /əˈkɑːmplɪt/ Table 16: Errors with /ʒ/ sound Errors Sound that students Sound that students Sound made made /ʒ/ /s/ /ʃ/ (47,5%) (25%) Example: /ˈeɪsn/ Example:/ˈtelɪvɪʃn/ 3.2 Discussion From the questionnaire, the recorded test and the classroom observation It was concluded that students could be aware of the importance of English pronunciation; however, they did not practice pronouncing Consequently, they made many mistakes in pronouncing fricative sounds There are five sounds which were frequently pronounced incorrectly (/ʃ/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/) Students were are likely to turn /ʃ/ sound into /s/ and /t/ when it appeared at the end of the word They also changed /ʒ/ sound into /z/ To explain for their incorrect pronunciation there are some reasons First, they were supposed to be lack of knowledge of the manner and the place of articulation and they are unable to be aware of the transcription of the words even though the transcription for the words were designed at the end of their textbooks In the real class, teacher wrote down the transcription of the new words then asked students to read after teacher; however students cannot pronounce correctly Secondly, because of the influence of the mother tongue (Vietnamese), Vietnamese does not have /s/ or /ʃ/ or /θ/ as ending sounds, therefore students likely to omit them For example the word “increase”, “accomplish”, “wildlife” in the recorded test Students had a tendency to omit them when they read them out loud Thirdly, student had insufficient drills so it is easily for them to forget the 29 pronunciation of words In the class, teacher had to focus on the grammar exercises in the textbook and because of the time pressure, teacher cannot design activities for students to practice pronunciation Finally, according to Duong Thi Nu (2008) most people only focus on “the what”, it means that they just pay attention to what is conveyed in a sentence not “the how”, the way words are said and the stress and intonation of the sentence In many English classes in Vietnam, teachers is likely to focus on the ideas (what) rather than the way (how) the ideas are spoken out This negative influence toward pronunciation more or less indulges people with pronunciation mistakes, therefore, it degrade d the English level learners in Vietnam 30 CHAPTER 4: PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION 4.1 Suggested solutions It can be seen from the results in this research, there are many difficulties and errors of the 11 th grade students in Yen Lac High School in pronouncing a group of fricative sounds Here are some suggested solutions to minimize the difficulties of students in pronunciation and some ways to enhance their speaking skills in general and pronouncing fricative sounds in particular 4.1.1 Suggested solutions for teachers 4.1.1.1 Give learners enough practice both inside and outside classroom According to Duong Thi Nu (2008) teachers should encourage students to practice both inside and outside classroom This may help them become more fluent and automatic in pronouncing the sounds Some recommended books are Pronunciation Tasks, English Pronunciation in Use, Understanding English pronunciation, Three or Tree, Ship or Sheep, students can learn themselves by doing the exercises given in these phonetic books There are many types of exercise ranging from repetition, recognition and substitution exercises to more complicated ones Here are some examples Repeat fricative and affricatives pairs Complete the conversation using words from the box Circle the correct word you hear Transcribe the underlined part of the word Complete the conversation using words from the box Teachers should also make the best use of the course book such as English Pronunciation Elementary by Jornathan Marks, 4.1.1.2 Design games in teaching pronunciation in class With the view to making the classroom atmosphere more relaxing and pronunciation learning more interactive and communicative, it is advisable that students should be given pronunciation games so that they feel more interested in learning pronunciation (Duong Thi Nu, 2008) Teacher also can give the articulation pictures at the beginning of each unit for students to have an imagination of the sound which they will be taught 4.1.2 Suggested solutions for learners 4.1.2.1 Try to learn the English phoneme first 31 It was stated that “ Correlation studies have identified phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as the two best school-entry predictors of how well children will learn linguistics during their first two years of school” (NRP, 200) It means that when a language is introduced, we all have to learn from the root of the language – phoneme and the same to English As can be seen that written English has twenty six letters that we all know such as a, b, c, o, p, q However, there are over forty phonemes in English for example: /θ/, /ʒ/, /k/ which maybe are unfamiliar to high school students Therefore, pupils can use the Internet to look for English consonant table and go to some Youtube channels to listen to the correct pronunciation of each sound When learners can read the individual sound correctly, they will be confident to speak English In addition, learners also can learn to identify how to put tongue, lips with hard palate, alveolar correctly and how to control those articulator to produce each sound by films, video and pronunciation software 4.1.2.2 Practice pronouncing regularly Learning languages takes time, therefore students should keep studying regularly for a longtime for a good result Besides learning pronunciation in the class, students are encouraged to pronunciation exercises at home and record their own voice and listening again for checking themselves By doing this way, learners can somehow self-estimate their pronunciation ability Look up the words which you are not sure about their pronunciation 4.1.2.3 Talk to a native speaker First, speaking to a native speaker is also supposed to be an effective way to learn pronunciation Russell (2007) claimed that “The most effective way to improve speaking skill is to talk to a native speaker” This is a good way to train learners pronunciation and reaction Then if learner have a chance to expose themselves to English speaking people, they might will get benefits Therefore, learners are suggested to attend some class with foreign teacher because such a foreign teacher only use the language being learnt in the class and they not speak any other Consequently, learner will become more familiar with the language they are studying In addition, speaking offers opportunities for study of the links between spelling and pronunciation, of stress and intonation, and of the linking of sound between words in connected speech However, it is better if students speak English aloud because speaking is an output skill Speaking in silence does not bring the effect as much as speaking aloud 32 4.1.2.3 Use a variety of techniques Students can take advantage of some useful apps such as: ELSA, Monkey Junior, Duolingo which is free to install in smartphones It is not only cheap, but also portable and convenient for learners to learn every time and everywhere In addition, dictionary plays an essential role in helping people learn a new language However, students have to choose for themselves an appropriate dictionary apps When learners get good dictionaries (e.g Oxford, Longman, Cambridge, Collin…) making sure that it has pronunciation keys 33 PART III: CONCLUSION Summary of the study The study aims at finding out the most common errors in pronouncing a group of nine fricative sounds experienced by Yen Lac High School students From this study, the researcher gives more effective solutions and strategies to help students minimize their errors in pronouncing English in general and fricative English sounds in particular This study is useful for both students and teachers in school Students can identify the pronunciation errors that they often make unconsciously Hence, they can find ways to enhance their pronunciation skills as well as speaking skills Teachers can refer this study to know which fricative sounds students frequently make mistakes Thus, teacher could design more suitable activities or methods in the class to improve the situation Teacher can recognize the specific mistakes of students Thus, design more suitable activities or methods in the class to improve the situation In the first section, the study provided an overview about pronunciation and some aspects of pronunciation such as vowels and consonants After that, the researcher explained the fricative sounds which is one of the main object of the study In addition, readers will see some different opinions about pronunciation skills of some prestigious researchers In the second section, the research discussed clearly how to conduct this research by explaining the procedure In the result section, the statistics were given by analyzing the recording, questionnaires and classroom observation checklist In conclusion, the researcher’s experience in designing and carrying out this study indicates the need for some method to minimize the errors in students’ pronunciation Limitations of the study In order to find some common mistakes which students frequently made when they pronounced fricative English sounds, the researcher decided to conduct this study However, there are some limitation in this study First, because of the limited time, the researcher could not have a chance to study all of the 11 th grade students in Yen Lac High School to build up a more comprehensive assessment Instead the researcher did the survey on 40 students which accounted for 10% of the total population Moreover, the limited time also prevented the researcher from preparing a separated room for students to record Therefore, students sometimes spoke quickly and might not focus 34 on their words so they made some minor mistakes in pronunciation In this situation, it should have much more time for students to pay more attention to their recordings Suggestions for further studies There are some recommendations for further researchers First, the studies should be conducted with students at other levels of English in high school as well as university level When doing the recorded test method, they had better equip them with a separated room with the aim of giving the record the best sound quality If researchers have more time, they can use more methods to amass higher valuable data and information Overall, the researcher hopes that this study will be a helpful reference for further studies 35 REFERENCES Ann, M (2013) Stress Higher Education Language and Presentation Support Atwel, E (2001) Interactive Spoken Language Education London Brown, Gillian Listening to Spoken English London: Longman, 1990 Print Charity, H A H., & Mallinson, C (2011) Understanding English language variation in U.S schools New York, NY: Teachers College Press Elkhair Muhammad, H., 2014, Pronunciation Problems: A case study of English Language Students at Sundan University of Science and Technology,4 , 31-44 Fuying, B (2013) The Influence of Chinese Stress on English Pronunciation Teaching and Learning Vol 6, 119 Gilakjani, A (2011) A Study on the Situation of Pronunciation Instruction in ESL/EFL Classrooms Journal of Studies in Education, 1(1), 1-15 Gilakjani, A (2011) The significance of pronunciation in English Language Teaching (96) Gilakjani, A (2016) What Factors Influence the English Pronunciation of EFL Learners? Modern Jounal of language Teaching Methods (MJLTM), 6(2), 314326 Hinofotis, F B., & Bailey, K M (1981) American undergraduates’ reactions to the communication skills of foreign teaching assistants On TESOL ’80: Building Bridges: Research and practice in teaching English as a second language , pp 120-33 Washington, D.C.: TESOL Jack C, R (2010) Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics Person Education Limmited, London 31 Kelly, G (2004) How To Teach Pronunciation England: Longman Kuiper, K., & Allen, W S (1996) An introduction to English language London: Macmillan Ladefoged, Peter (1975) A course in Phonetic Loa Angeles: University of California Liang- Chen, L (2014) Understanding pronunciation variations facing ESL students Internationaln Journal of Humanities and Social Science McCarthy, M (1991) Discourse analysis for language teacher (p 191) Cambridge Universiry Press National Reading Panel (2000) Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction Chaper 2: Aphabetics, Part I: Phonemic awareness 36 instruction https://www1.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf Nu, Duong Thi (2008) Mistake or Vietnamese English VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 25 (2009) Vietnam 46 Otlowski, M (1998) Pronunciation: What Are the Expectations? The Internet TESL Journal 5(1) Retrieved From June 26, 2016 Paulston, C B., & Burder, M N (1976) Teaching English as a Second Language Techniques and Procedures Cambridge: Winthrop Puplishers, Inc Richards, J & Rodger, T, (1992) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: A description and analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Richards, C (1994) Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics , Hong Kong 10 http://www.fileblogs.com/How-To-Improve-Speaking-Skills-In-A-NewLanguage&article_26525-48k Richards, J C., & Richard, S (2002) Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics 3rded.UK: Pearson Education Limited Roach, P (1991) English Phonetics and Phonology A practical Course Roach, P (2009) Fricatives and Affricatives A practical Course Rusell, M (2007) How to Improve Speaking Skills in a New Language Retrieved January 20, 1010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.fileblogs.com/How-ToImprove-Speaking-Skills-In-A-New-Language&article_26525-48k Tam, Ha Cam (2005) Phonetics and Phonology Hanoi: Vietnam National University, Hanoi Press Tam, Ha Cam (2005) Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English Hanoi Thao, N (2007) Difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English final consonants Engelska C Uppsats 38 Willing, K 1989 Teaching how to learn Sydney: NCELTR Yates, L., & Zielinski, B (2009) Give It a Go: Teaching Pronunciation to Adults Sydney, Australia: AMEPRC Available: http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/resources/classroom_resources/give_it_a_go Yoshida, M (2003) Understanding of teaching the Pronunciation of English (28) 37 APPENDICES APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES This survey is designed for my research in examining the common errors of pronouncing fricative sounds experienced by 11 th grade students in Yen Lac High School Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciate You can be confident that the data collected are only for the study purpose Thank you for your cooperation! I Personal information Which is your gender? A Male B Female What grade are you in? ………………………… How long have you been studying English? ……………………years II Your opinions on English pronunciation skills: Do you think that pronunciation skills are important to speaking skills? (Bạn có nghĩ phát âm khía cạnh quan trọng kĩ nói khơng?)  Very important  Important  Pretty important  Not important How you rank your English pronunciation skills at the moment? (Bạn đánh giá trình độ phát âm  Excellent  Good  Pretty good  Poor nào?) How often you practice pronouncing English? (Bạn có thường xuyên luyện tâp phát âm Tiếng Anh không?)  Always  Sometimes  Seldom  Never What are your difficulties in pronouncing English? Choose more than one answer (Theo bạn, đâu khó khăn việc phát âm tiếng anh? Bạn chọn nhiều đáp án) A Because you are lack of interest (Bởi bạn thiếu đam mê với mơn học này) B Because pronunciation rules are too difficult to remember (Bới quy tắc phát âm q khó để nhớ.) C Because you cannot put the tongue and mouth correctly (Bởi bạn khơng thể đặt 38 lưỡi chỗ phát âm.) D Because you not have enough time to practice in the class (Bởi bạn khơng đủ thời gian luyện tập lớp.) How you often practice pronouncing English? (Bạn thường luyện phát âm cách nào?)  Speak and record to check yourself (Nói ghi âm lại để kiểm tra phát âm thân)  Read the transcription ( Đọc phiên âm từ)  Listen and repeat native speakers on TV (Nghe nhắc lại người ngữ tivi)  Use technique applications (Sử dụng ứng dụng thông minh)  Other ways (Cách khác) 39 APPENDIX OBSERVATION CHECKLIST Name of observer: Class: Name of teacher: Lesson: Date of observation: Length of lesson: The fricative sounds students have learnt in the lesson Number of students made mistakes and how they made it wrong Factors that affects students’ pronunciation 40 APPENDIX OBSERVATION CHECKLIST SAMPLE Name of observer: Ha Thi Kim Anh Class: 11A3 Name of teacher: Lesson: Speaking - Unit 11 Le Thi Thuy Nga Date of observation: 26/2/2018 Length of lesson: 45 minutes The fricative sounds students have learnt in the lesson - /ʃ/ in /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/ (consumption, short, pollution) - /s/ in /rɪˈliːs/ (release, increase, place, house) - /θ/ in /deθ/ (death, earth) - /z/ in /ɪɡˈzɑːst/ (exhaust, use, fertilize) Number of students make mistakes and how they made them wrong - out of 10 students made mistakes with /ʃ/ sound in consumption They changed /ʃ/ into /s/ - out of students made mistakes with /s/ sound in release, increase They omitted /s/ sound when it appears at the end of the word - out of % students made mistakes with /θ/ sound in death, earth They omitted /s/ and /θ/ sound when it appears at the end of the word - out of students made mistake with /z/ sound in exhaust, use They changed /z/ into /s/ Factors that affects students’ pronunciation - Students cannot be aware of the transcription of the words - Students not have enough time to practice pronouncing fricative English sounds in the class - Students not pay much attention to the English lesson 41 APPENDIX RECORDED TEST WORDS official 10 represent wildlife 11 prohibit athlete 12 host enthusiasm 13 survive those 14 venture than 15 accomplish increase 16 shooting spirit 17 Asian bronze 18 television 42 ... Tittle: A STUDY OF COMMON ERRORS IN PRONOUNCING A GROUP OF FRICATIVE SOUNDS EXPERIENCED BY 11 th GRADE STUDENTS IN YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL I certify that I am the sole author of this bachelor of art... mistakes in pronouncing a group of fricative sounds experienced by 11 th grade students in Yen Lac High School? Scope of the study The research was conducted to investigate the common errors in pronouncing. .. place of articulation and manner of articulation The place of articulation is the location of the obstruction of air stream in the articulation of the consonants Here is the classification of