VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TÔN THỊ THUỲ DƯƠNG A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES COMMITTED BY VIETNAMESE LEARNERS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH WORD-FINAL CONSONANTS “L, ʃ, T, D, K, G” AT ESPEED ENGLISH CENTER Nghiên cứu lỗi thường gặp học viên Việt Nam trung tâm anh ngữ Espeed phát âm phụ âm cuối “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” tiếng Anh M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Hanoi – 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TÔN THỊ THUỲ DƯƠNG A STUDY ON COMMON MISTAKES COMMITTED BY VIETNAMESE LEARNERS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH WORD-FINAL CONSONANTS “L, ʃ, T, D, K, G” AT ESPEED ENGLISH CENTER Nghiên cứu lỗi thường gặp học viên Việt Nam trung tâm anh ngữ Espeed phát âm phụ âm cuối “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” tiếng Anh M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor : Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang Hanoi – 2016 DECLARATION This is to certify that the thesis entitle, “A study on common mistakes committed by Vietnamese learners in pronouncing English word-final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” at Espeed English center”, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Degree of MA in English Teaching Methodology I have provided documented references to the works or others and I am fully responsible for the content of the thesis The research reported in this thesis was approved by the University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Hanoi, 2016 T n Th Thu Dư ng i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gratefully acknowledge my deep indebtedness to a number of people who helped me in this study First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deep appreciation to my advisor, Associate Professor Võ Đại Quang (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), for his help and his insightful comments on my work from the beginning to the end of my study In addition, my sincere thanks also go to Mr David (an ESL native Teacher who comes from London) for supporting me in the data collection I also would like to convey my thanks to all of my teachers who gave me knowledge in my life The completion of this study would not have been possible without the cooperation from all 120 students at Espeed English Center who participated in this study Finally, I wish to deeply thank my best friends and beloved family for their continuous encouragement during my study ii ABSTRACT In Vietnam, English language has played a significant role as a result of globalization trend Despite being increasingly facilitated in learning English from very young age, many learners of English as second language have major difficulties with pronunciation The aim of this thesis is to identify the common problems related to pronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center when pronouncing English word-final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g”, as well as to investigate the causes of these problems and the possible solutions to the above mentioned problems In order to fulfill the study, data was collected through tape recordings and questionnaires While the former aimed at finding out the common problems related to pronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center when pronouncing English word-final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g”, the latter was applied with a view to figuring out the causes of these problems and discussing some solutions to these problems The findings reveal that the most common problems related to pronunciation mistakes in the final position were sound omission and sound deviation The causes contributing to these problems were mainly the lack of understanding how to pronounce English sounds, the lack of exposure to real English environment and little practice To help students overcome these problems, some pronunciation teaching techniques are being applied effectively such as recoding and giving feedback; listening and using “shadowing” techniques; applying mirror techniques/making Vlog This study concludes by considering the implications of these findings for the students and teachers to deal with these problems found iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the research 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the research 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Design of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of theoretical background 2.1.1 General descriptions of English consonant sounds 2.1.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sounds “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” 2.1.2.1 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound / l / 2.1.2.2 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /ʃ/ 2.1.2.3 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /t/ 2.1.2.4 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /d/ 2.1.2.5 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /k/ 2.1.2.6 Phonological characteristics and articulation of the sound /g/ 2.1.3 English final consonants 10 2.1.3.1 Definition 10 2.1.4 Pronunciation errors 11 2.1.4.1 Errors and mistakes 11 2.1.4.2 Ending sound errors 12 2.1.5 Teaching and learning pronunciation 12 2.1.5.1 Teachers’ role 12 2.1.5.2 Learners’ role 14 2.1.5.3 Pronunciation goals 14 2.1.5.4 Factors influencing learner’s pronunciation 14 2.1.5.5 Techniques used in pronunciation class 16 2.2 Review of previous studies 18 2.3 Summary 21 iv CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 Research questions 22 3.2 The participants of the study 22 3.3 Research design 22 3.4 Research method 23 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25 4.1 Reports on the results collected by means of recordings 25 4.2 Reports on the results collected by survey questionnaires 29 4.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards English ending sounds pronunciation 29 4.2.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards the importance of English ending sounds 29 4.2.1.2 Students’ frequency in pronouncing ending sounds 30 4.2.2 Students’ perceptions about the possible reasons for their problems of pronunciation 31 4.2.3 Teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation in class 33 4.2.4 Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class 34 4.3 The possible solutions to these pronunciation problems 35 4.3.1 IPA transcript lesson 36 4.3.2 Using pronunciation videos 37 4.3.3 Saying it aloud 37 4.3.5 Recording yourself 39 4.3.6 Role-play 40 4.3.7 Applying poems, raps, songs 40 4.4 Summary 41 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 43 5.1 Recapitulation 43 5.2 Concluding marks 43 5.3 Pedagogical Implication 45 5.4 Limitation and suggestion for further study 46 REFERENCES 48 APPENDIX I APPENDIX II v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Place and articulation of the sound / l / Figure 2: Place and articulation of the sound /ʃ/ Figure 3: Place and articulation of the sound /t/ Figure 4: Place and articulation of the sound /d/ Figure 5: Place and articulation of the sound /k/ Figure 6: Place and articulation of the sound /g/ Figure 7: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of English ending sounds Figure 8: Students’ frequency in pronouncing ending sounds Figure 9: Students’ perception about the possible reasons for their problems of pronunciation Figure 10: Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class Figure 11: The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: English consonants Table 2: Vietnamese initial consonants Table 3: Vietnamese final consonants Table 4: Common pronunciation mistakes committed by students Table 5: The number of students producing sound omission Table 6: The number of students producing sound deviation Table 7: Students’ perception about the possible reasons for their problems of pronunciation Table 8: The frequency of teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation Table 9: The effectiveness of teachers’ techniques in teaching pronunciation Table 10: Students’ opinions of their preferred techniques in pronunciation class vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale As a result of globalization trends in every field all over the world, foreign languages in general and English in particular have played a greater role The Vietnamese government, than ever before, is concerning and investing in the education system, particularly on teaching English English is now officially taught for learners from very young age – six years old, gradually becoming the second language in Vietnam In addition, there is an increasingly big demand of studying English at all ages in big cities; English centers, therefore, are rising more and more to satisfy this Despite being facilitated those education programs, English learners remain being the victims of a traditional education that haven’t paid much attention to listening and speaking although they can read and write pretty well The fact has shown that there is a large percentage of Vietnamese people who have been learning English for many years but cannot freely speak out or may find it hard to get involved in conversation as most of them encounter pronunciation problems It could be seen that pronunciation is the key factor to maintain successful oral communication If speakers pronounce clearly and properly, their listeners could easily understand what they are trying to express On the other hand, when words are inaccurately pronounced, misunderstanding may occur These sometimes bring unexpected effects or even lead to miscommunication Therefore, the emphasis on teaching correct pronunciation (recognizing errors in pronunciation and correcting them), is necessary for an improvement of student’s pronunciation ability There are a number of problems relating to pronunciation errors that ESL learners tend to make: intonation, word or sentence stress, linking words, ending sounds… Of those mentioned pronunciation problems, ending sounds seem to be the hardest one for Vietnamese people to learn They in particular encounter difficulties in pronouncing some English consonants due to the differences between the Vietnamese and English phonological systems Vietnamese is a kind of much as possible, practice in front of a mirror One of the most important parts of correct pronunciation is the shape of your mouth and the position of your lips, teeth, and tongue First, you need to know what the correct mouth shape looks like Once you know what the correct mouth shape looks like, you need to find out if you are doing it correctly To this, sit in front of a mirror and watch your mouth to see if you are moving in the right way Once you have the correct position, practice making the sound at least 20 times This is one of the best ways to improve The more times you speak aloud, the more confident you are Keep practicing aloud everyday! 4.2.4 Using the “Shadowing” techniques The “shadowing” technique refers to copying someone or something, to something the same way, or to the same things as someone else, which helps learners speak more like a native Because it helps you learn the correct pronunciation with your ears (hearing and imitating), not with your eyes (seeing the word and reading it aloud) This activity can be practice all the time The learners should get an audio recording and transcript of a native speaker talking at normal speed, listen to the first sentence (or phrase) of the audio, then pause it and try to repeat it exactly, try to copy the exact rhythm of the speaker Does their voice go up and down? Which part of the word or sentence they emphasize? Is it a question or a statement of fact? Just keeping listening, pausing, and repeating after each phrase Finally, it will be more effective if learners can try to this without looking at the text The more that you practice copying the way that native speakers speak, the more it will come naturally when you are speaking There are some useful websites as following: American accent: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/ http://edition.cnn.com/studentnews 38 http://www.talkenglish.com/ British accent: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en http://spotlightenglish.com/ Teacher Luke: http://teacherluke.co.uk/ 4.2.5 Recording yourself Record yourself reading out loud on a tape recorder or a computer This is something that people find very difficult, but it can be very helpful To find out where are your troubles, it’s a great idea to record yourself and then listen to your own voice and hear the parts that are incorrect or not clear It’s a necessary step in developing the self-awareness to improve You could even record yourself reading the same reading passage every day or every week as you implement these techniques You could record native speakers in the audios, podcasts, which facilitates your process Using a camera is much better to record; because it’s important to see how you speak, not only hear it It is advisable to plan a video of yourself Ask a friend or watch a video to check If your pronunciation doesn’t sound the same, ask yourself some questions: Are you moving your mouth the right way? Is your tongue in the right place? Are you stressing the right part of the word? For those who haven’t got a tape recorder, here are some suggested websites for students to record themselves http://vocaroo.com/ http://online-voice-recorder.com/vi/ https://soundcloud.com/ 39 4.2.6 Role-play One of the reasons that leads to students’ pronunciation problem was psychological factor They rarely had chances to speak out ESL teachers should take this into consideration, giving them more chances to practice speaking Role-playing refers to the changing of one's behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role, which is seen as an effective way to motivate students to speak out Each week, teachers should give their students topics and ask them to work in group of or A multitude of scenarios can be activated and practiced through role-play 'At the restaurant', 'Checking in at the airport', 'Looking for lost property' are all possible role-plays So that they can bring situations to life, keep it real and relevant They can prepare at home or even in class, then have 10-15 minutes to present in front of the class Teachers could give feedbacks to their pronunciation or students could be asked to listen out and correct mistakes for their peers Practicing with friends will give learners a chance to try everything they learned, and learn new things from each other It helps to reduce the stress that accompanies oral production in a foreign language They are fun, entertaining and relaxing Moreover, they also increase learner confidence, because they help learners to speak clearer, louder and in a variety of tones 4.2.7 Applying poems, raps, songs The focus of these techniques has been generally on accuracy of sounds and stress at a word level Teachers can find the materials on the internet For poems: http://www.poemhunter.com/ For songs: http://www.isabelperez.com/songs.htm The first thing to consider when teachers are selecting a poem for the class is the level of language Then, teachers have students listen first without the lyrics, ask them to write down all words and phrases that they hear and share them with the 40 class After that, all together listen again with the lyrics and go over vocabulary and pronunciation It is more interesting and effective to have students plan a video for the songs (raps) or poems afterwards 4.3 Summary In terms of pronunciation mistakes, due to the fact that ending sounds are swallowed in Vietnamese language, most Vietnamese students tended to transfer this habit to English Furthermore, they tended to make English sounds easier for them to pronounce, which means they pronounced English sound just like the sounds in Vietnamese Those are the unaspiration of /t/, /k/, the switch from /t/ to /tʃ/, the simplification of /l/ into /n/ or /u^/ Also, voiced stops /d/ and /g/ were occasionally pronounced with minimal aspiration and respectively sounded like voiceless stops /t/ and /k/ When looking at words that end in /ʃ/, the participants were found to omit the sound, pronounce the word incorrectly, or replace the sound with the fricative /s/ and affricate /tʃ/ The survey questionnaires to students had shown various causes of their mistakes in producing word final sounds (l, ʃ, t, d, k, g) Through the results, it was clear that there were problems in learning English pronunciation The results seemed to indicate that language teachers in Vietnam didn’t take it serious enough to give their students a look on pronunciation, students just repeated after their teachers or what they perceived It is very dangerous, because they will make more errors In addition, there exists a problem in Vietnam as Vietnamese learners rarely had chances to expose to authentic English environment, particularly in small towns; they mostly speak Vietnamese in English class with their teachers and classmates Plus, little they practice speaking English in class or even at home This may cause their passive learning and inaccurate pronunciation, being afraid of speaking out In addition, specific solutions to the problems were also discussed Due to the fact that learners often had no ideas of what they were right or wrong when pronouncing or speaking English Even when they recorded their voice and 41 found out the mistakes they had made, they couldn’t know how to fix it Thus, there must be teachers to help them get better understanding of IPA chart, form the sound in a correct way and pronounce the words again until they could it correctly Besides, learning English is not just writing, learners find themselves need to read aloud, listen to dialogues and then use shadowing technique By this way, they can adopt the pronunciation, rhythm and intonation more properly according to what native speakers say Sometimes, teachers should integrate role play, poems, and songs into pronunciation class to make the lesson more interesting and productive 42 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation As the researcher has been teaching students in many English courses and working with native-English teachers who have always claimed that Vietnamese learners make a great number of pronunciation errors, particularly the errors in word-final sounds, which sometimes causes some unexpected misunderstanding in communication Perceiving that point, the researcher was motivated to conduct this study It was conducted on 120 learners at Espeed English Center with the aim of figuring out some frequently occurring mistakes when they produced English sounds at final position Furthermore, the factors that caused the problems will be identified, so that possible solutions to solve the problems will be proposed The instrument of this study included tape records and survey questionnaires 5.2 Concluding marks What are the ending sound mistakes that Vietnamese learners at Espeed English center are likely to make? The answer to this question is the identification of pronunciation that participants encountered The sound omission and the sound deviation were reported to be the most common mistakes The final /g/ was obviously seen to be not omitted by most participants However, the most frequently omitted sounds were /l/, /d/, /ʃ/ It can be clearly seen that because of the unfamiliarity of Vietnamese speakers of these sounds at the ends of words, learners tended to skip them in their speech By comparison, as mentioned in the theoretical background, the sound /k/, /t/ could appear at the end of Vietnamese words, some learners are in the habit of pronouncing it, but some others unreleased or “held in” as their tendency to swallow the ending sound in Vietnamese Furthermore, another mistake made by learners was the replacement of the final consonant sound Of those sounds (l,ʃ, t, d, k, g), /l/ was the most frequently mispronounced sound Learners tended to substitute /l/ with /n/, /r/ and semi vowel 43 /w/, /û/ There was also confusion between /ʃ/ → /s/, /tʃ/; /t/ →/t’/ (voiced), /tʃ/; /d/ →/t/; /k/ →/k’/ (voiced), /g/ → /k/ It is likely that learners couldn’t distinguish the difference between these sounds Besides, this may be because of the fact that Vietnamese people hardly pronounce these sounds with all of their characteristics What are the reasons for students’ problems of pronunciation? Of all the causes of mispronunciation, the lack of understanding how to pronounce English sounds is chosen to be the most prevalent obstacles that 68% of the participants agreed on This means they did not have chances to be exposed to English phonetics and phonology in class or practice English pronunciation at home or their teacher hadn’t introduced them the manner of articulation Equally important, the two causes which were the lack of exposure to real English environment and little practice were shared by many of students with 65% and 62% in turn Some students, despite well perceiving the way to pronounce the sounds, couldn’t come out with proper pronunciation It is due to the fact that they rarely had themselves practice at home Also, as far as we know, English learners in Vietnam are not facilitated very good education programs, particularly in remote areas or even small cities (provinces) They hardly had opportunities to have access to authentic English like native-speakers who are believed to inspire them and offer real conversation in English, which gradually leads to their weak speaking skill in general and pronunciation in particular When they have much talk to English speakers, they will realize their problems with pronunciation, or be much more deeply inculcated There were some other essential factors that cause their mispronunciation For example, they were no existence of ending sound in mother tongue (60% agreed), feeling unconfident (58% agreed), much confusion in pronunciation rules (53% agreed), the influence of Vietnamese habit (50% agreed) Apart from those common reasons, there was an opinion that nearly haft asked informants thought to add to their mistakes, which was wrong teaching methods of teachers This reason is really serious as the teachers who play very important role in helping English learners In some parts of Vietnam, teachers are not well updated 44 the teaching methods with the worlds They just focus on reading, writing, and grammar while the ultimate goal of teaching English is to let learners fluently speak out That’s also a reason why students are afraid of speaking What are appropriate techniques to correct their problems? Obviously, it’s crucial for teacher to apply more useful methods when teaching pronunciation so as to help learners’ speaking The researcher listed some strategies in teaching pronunciation and asked informants to give their opinions in survey questionnaire Over 70% of asked respondents noted that their teachers always ask them to read aloud and practice in pairs Meanwhile, the percentage of student affirming that their teachers sometimes applied dictation and games shows a figure of more than 60% By comparison, there are three techniques (recoding and receiving feedback; using shadowing technique; applying mirror techniques/doing Vlog) which are believed to be the most effective ways to lean proper pronunciation were not favored by their teachers It can be inferred that English teachers in Vietnam keep using traditional methods which may lead them to passive learners It is recommended that they asked their learners to record or make Vlog, then gave concise feedback to as where their problems lie in these areas and how to repair them By that way, learners will perceive mistakes and pay much attention As well, using shadowing technique then is a very productive way to learn pronunciation As a result, they have more sense of English rhythms when speaking the language 5.3 Pedagogical Implication Based on the result of this study, several recommendations are proposed in hope of bettering the teaching pronunciation to students It’s common to see that students often make pronunciation mistakes when they produce English final consonant sounds, which causes some unexpected misunderstanding in communication Thus, it should be made clearly to students to be aware of the importance of correct pronunciation in general and ending sounds in particular so that they spend more time on pronunciation 45 As clearly stated above, one of the reasons that leads to students’ mispronunciation was having insufficient knowledge of the English phonemes, combined with the fact that they had little chance to practice in authentic English Thus, it is necessary for teachers to bestow upon detailed descriptions of consonant sounds such as their manner and places of articulation, the variants of each phoneme, ensuring the provision of high quality language input Also, it will be ideal if the teachers ask them to practice many times and provide as much authentic input as possible by inviting native English speakers to join in Only by that way, they can have a full picture of how those sounds are formed, which helps them correct sounds As shown from the finding and discussion, the amount of recording and receiving feedback from teachers was very limited Therefore, it is highly recommended that teachers of English should apply this technique more often It has proved to be very effective in the way that the students could see their voices and how they mispronounced certain English sounds Due to the fact that almost students are too lazy to practice English, teachers can help student achieve better pronunciation by making them spend more time at home practicing English sounds Each week, all students in the class will be given a wordlist or a passage to read at home The students record it and bring it to the class the next week The recordings can be played back for the whole class to listen to and teachers give feedback In this way, the students will pay more attention to their accuracy of English For practicing, it is suggested that learners listen to English sounds regularly and words, use audio aids like cassettes, CDs and sound dictionaries These tools are very useful for practicing pronunciation 5.4 Limitation and suggestion for further study In spite of the findings in this study, it should be admitted that a thorough understanding of it has not been achieved due to several following reasons 46 Firstly, the number of the subjects selected could have been larger, hindering a complete and thorough generalization to the Vietnamese population In future research, more subjects could be recruited Secondly, it is not enough to reveal all pronunciation errors made by a small number of the subjects (30 participants) Besides, the informants were asked to record reading words and sentences only The results could be much better if the data analysis was based on natural and informal conversations Furthermore, due to the limited time, the researcher couldn’t manage to conduct the interview to get more and deeper understanding about their difficulties that lead to their mistakes Thirdly, this study is limited to the study of common mistakes when pronouncing English consonants ((l, ʃ, t, d, k, g) in final position Thus, the rest of consonants or intonation, stress, rhythm, assimilation, elision and linking sections of the recording are disregarded 47 REFERENCES Avery and Ehrlich (1992).Teaching American English pronunciation Oxford University Press Borg,W R.and Gall,M.D (1989) Educational Research: An Introduction 5th.edn NewYork:Longman Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D & Goodwin, J M (1996) Teaching pronunciation – A reference for teachers of English to speakers of others languages (1sted.) Cambridge: CUP Collins English Dictionary (2003) HarperCollins Dulay, Burt and Krashen.(1982) Language Two Oxford University Press Duong Thi Nu (2009), Mistake or Vietnamese English, Journal of Science, Foreign Language Dao Thuy Mai (2012), A study on common mistakes made by Vietnamese learners of English when pronouncing English final consonants MA minor thesis Vietnam National University, Ha Noi Đoàn Thiện Thuật (1999), Ngữ âm tiếng Việt, Hanoi: NXB Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội Ellis, R.(1997) Second Language Acquisition Oxford University Press 10 Fraser, H (2001) Teaching Pronunciation: A Handbook for Teachers and Trainers 11 Giang M Tang (2007) Cross-linguistics analysis of Vietnamese and English with implications for Vietnamese language acquisition and maintenance in the United States, Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement Volume 12 Ha Cam Tam (2005) Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese Learners of English, Journal of science –Foreign languages Vietnam National University, Hanoi 13 Hancock, M (2003) English Pronunciation in Use, Cambridge: CUP 48 14 Joanne Kenworthy (1987) Teaching English pronunciation, Longman 15 Kelly, G (2000) How to teach pronunciation, England, Person Longman Education 16 Lewis, M & Hill, J (1992) Practical Techniques for Language Teaching,England: Commercial Colour Press 17 Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching Cambridge University Press 18 Nguyen Thi Thu Huong (2010) Difficulties encountered by second year students at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry in producing some English consonants MA minor thesis Vietnam National University, Hanoi 19 Nguyen Thi Thu Thao (2007) Difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English final consonants, MA minor thesis Vietnam National University, Hanoi 20 Osburne, Andrea G (1996) Final cluster reduction in English L2 speech: A case study of a Vietnamese speaker Applied Linguistics 17 21 Oxford Advance Learner’s Encyclopedic Oxford University Press 22 Rachael-Anne Knight.(2003) Understanding English Variation, Week University of Surrey – Roehampton 23 Richards, J.C.(1971) Error analysis and second language strategies International Center for Research on Bilingualism 24 Roach, P.(2000) English Phonetics and Phonology- A practical course, Cambridge University Press 25 Tran Than Phuc (2006) An Action Research on the Use of Continuous Feedback to Improve the First Year Students’ English Pronunciation at the English Department, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam 8ational University, Hanoi, Hanoi 26 Treiman, R (1989) The internal structure of the syllable 27 Yule, George (2006) The Study of Language: Cambridge University Press 49 APPENDIX READING ALOUD TASKS FOR INFORMANTS Task1: Read aloud the following words l ʃ t d k g All Cash Cat Lend Speak Bag Full Wash Hot Understand Drink Dog Tell Fish Confident World Work Leg Girl English Coat Bird Cook Egg Beautiful Brush Fact Friend Traffic Pig Feel Fresh First Kind Like Hug Control Toothbrush Translate Overload Cheque Dig Fail Vanish Important Add Chopstick Frog Travel Harsh Comment Bird Music Rug People Push Airport Improved Headache Catalog Task 2: Read aloud the following sentences I saw a beautiful dog in the bag Most people in the world speak English We always get stuck in traffic in rush hour I am not confident when I speak in front of crowd They all had an egg and some milk for breakfast yesterday Every morning, I eat breakfast, brush my teeth and wash my face Spring roll and hotdog are sold by the lake He got a good mark on the test They intend to drag me down in public 10 I push him away and then beg him to come back I APPENDIX Survey questionnaire Please answer these following questions by putting a tick ✓ What is your view on the essence of pronouncing English ending sounds? o Very important o Important o Not important at all Are you often aware of pronouncing ending sounds when speaking English? o Always o Often o Sometimes o Rarely o Never What is the reason for your mispronunciation when pronouncing these consonants: Reasons Agree  No existence of ending sound in mother language  The lack of understanding of how to pronounce these sounds  Much confusion in pronunciation rules  The influence of pronunciation habit in Vietnamese (different accent)  Inappropriate teaching methods of teachers  The lack of exposure to real English environment  Little practice  The hesitation to express yourself (psychological factor of feeling unconfident when pronouncing) II Neither agree nor disagree Disagree What are teaching techniques that your teachers often use in pronunciation class? ( in terms of frequency and effectiveness) Frequency Techniques Always Sometimes Effectiveness Never Very effective Normal Not very effective Applying mirror techniques Applying dictation techniques Listening to dialogue/stories and shadowing Recording and giving feedbacks Reading aloud Practicing in pairs Applying games (Minimal pairs slap / odd one out / tongue twister, Of those techniques, which one you think to be the most useful to your learning of English pronunciation? o Applying mirror techniques / making Vlog o Applying dictation techniques o Listening to dialogue/stories and shadowing o Recording and giving feedbacks o Reading aloud o Practicing in pairs o Applying games (Minimal pairs slap / odd one out / tongue twister, whisper) Thanks for your cooperation! III ... former aimed at finding out the common problems related to pronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center when pronouncing English word- final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k,. .. the common problems related to pronunciation mistakes made by Vietnamese learners at Espeed English Center when pronouncing English word- final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g”, as well as to investigate... that the thesis entitle, ? ?A study on common mistakes committed by Vietnamese learners in pronouncing English word- final consonants “l, ʃ, t, d, k, g” at Espeed English center? ??, submitted in partial