VIETNAMESE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUITICS AND LITERATURE AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH CONSONANTS PROBLEMATIC TO NON-ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AT VIEN DONG COLLEGE OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY A thesis submitted in a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master Of Arts (TESOL) By NGUYEN THI XUAN CHI Supervised by NGUYEN HUYNH DAT, M.A. Ho Chi Minh City, 2012 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “An investigation into English consonants problematic to non-English majored freshmen at Vien Dong College of Advanced Technology” is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any institutions. Ho Chi Minh City, July, 15th, 2012 NGUYEN THI XUAN CHI i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THI XUAN CHI, being the candidate for the degree of the Master of TESOL at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and the use of Master’s thesis deposited in Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of the study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by Library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis Ho Chi Minh City, July, 15th, 2012 NGUYEN THI XUAN CHI ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, NGUYEN HUYNH DAT, M.A., who offered me valuable guidance and comments to the completion of the thesis. Without his encouragement and assistance, this work would not have been done. I would like to send sincere thanks to all my colleagues at Vien Dong College of Advanced Technology for their help with support and encouragement for my study as well as all my students who were willing to answer the questionnaire and to take part in the diagnostic tests. I would particularly like to thank to Ms. Duong My Tham and Mr. John Smith who helped me with the assessment of the data from the students’ recordings. Last but not least, my special thanks go to my mother, who has taken good care of my young baby and to my husband, who has given me great support so that I could have time to concentrate on my work. iii ABSTRACT This thesis aims at (1) investigating contrast pairs of English word-initial and word-final consonants problematic for non-English majored freshmen at VIDOCAT to perceive aurally; (2) identifying English discrete word-initial and word-final consonants difficult for the students to produce orally. A questionnaire was delivered to 104 non-English majored freshmen to get information on the reality of the learning and teaching English pronunciation at their previous schools. Two diagnostic tests were carried out with 24 students chosen randomly from the population of 104 students. The purpose of the listening test was to figure out what contrast pairs of English word-initial and word-final consonants problematic for the students in aural perception while the oral test aimed at diagnosing what English word-initial and word-final consonants difficult for the students in oral production. The study revealed that (1) the contrast pairs, namely word-initial /d/- /ð/; word-final /k/-/g/, /t/-/d/, /f/-/v/, /s/-/z/; word-initial and word-final /ʧ/-/ʤ, /θ/- /t/, /s/-/ʃ/, /p/-/b/ were considered to be difficult for the students to perceive aurally; (2) the discrete consonants such as initial and final voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /k/; final voiced plosives /b/, /d/, /g/; final alveolar sibilants /s/, /z/; initial and final alveo-palatal sibilant /ʃ/; initial and final dentals /ð/, /θ/; final labio-dentals /f/, /v/; initial and final affricates /ʧ/, /ʤ/ and final lateral /l/ proved to be the group of consonants problematic for the students to produce orally. Based on the findings of the thesis and the researcher’s own teaching experience, some recommendations were made to help the students foster their ability in perceiving and producing these problematic consonants. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY .................................................................................. i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS .....................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 1.1. Background to the study ........................................................................................... 1 1.1.1. English consonants: the role and problems in communication ........................... 1 1.1.2. English consonants in the syllabus for non-English majors at VIDOCAT ......... 2 1.2. Rationale for the study ............................................................................................... 4 1.3. Aims of the study ...................................................................................................... 5 1.4. Limitation .................................................................................................................. 5 1.5. Delimitation .............................................................................................................. 6 1.6. Organization of the study ........................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................... 8 2.1. Pronunciation of English consonants ......................................................................... 8 2.1.1. Pronunciation acquisition of English consonants: perception and production ................................................................................................................... 8 2.12. Factors affecting EFL learners’ intelligibility in pronunciation of English consonants .................................................................................................................. 9 2.2. English and Vietnamese systems of initial and final consonants ............................. 12 2.2.1. English initial and final consonants ................................................... . ... ........ 12 2.2.2. Vietnamese initial and final consonants ........................................................... 13 2.2.3. Vietnamese and English initial and final consonants in comparison ................ 15 v 2.2.3.1. Contrast pairs of English initial and final consonants predicted possibly difficult in aural perception .................................................................... 15 2.2.3.2. English initial and final consonants predicted possibly problematic in oral production ................................................................................................. 20 2.3. Sources of pronunciation errors of English initial and final consonants ................... 24 2.4. Guidlines for pronunciation error diagnosis ............................................................. 25 2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 27 3.1. Research question .................................................................................................... 27 3.2. Research design ....................................................................................................... 27 3.2.1. The characteristics of the subjects ................................................................... 27 3.2.1.1. The student subjects ................................................................................ 27 3.2.1.2. The researcher ......................................................................................... 28 3.2.2. The instruments ............................................................................................... 29 3.2.2.1. The questionnaire for students ................................................................. 29 3.2.2.2. The tests .................................................................................................. 29 3.3. Data collection procedure ........................................................................................ 31 3.3.1. Data collection of the sample .......................................................................... 31 3.3.2. The process of assessing the tests .................................................................... 32 3.4. Summary ................................................................................................................. 33 Chapter 4: DISCUSSIONS AND FINDINGS............................................................. 34 4.1. Students’ responses to questionnaire ........................................................................ 34 4.1.1. Students’ comparison in the pronunciation teaching and the teaching of other skills at their high schools ................................................................................ 34 4.1.2. Students’ confirmation on the situation of pronunciation teaching and learning at their previous schools .............................................................................. 36 4.2. Students’ diagnostic tests ......................................................................................... 38 4.2.1. The listening test ............................................................................................. 38 4.2.1.1. Misperceived contrast pairs of English initial consonants......................... 38 vi 4.2.1.2. Misperceived contrast pairs of English final consonants........................... 40 4.2.1.3. Summary ................................................................................................ 43 4.2.2. The oral test .................................................................................................... 44 4.2.2.1. Mispronounced English initial and final consonants and the errors in their production ................................................................................................ 44 4.2.2.2. Summary ................................................................................................ 70 4.3. Summary of the findings .......................................................................................... 72 4.4. Summary .................................................................................................................. 74 Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND TEACHING IMPLICATIONS ......................... 75 5.1. Conclusions.............................................................................................................. 75 5.2. Implications for teaching ........................................................................................ 77 5.2.1. The syllabus .................................................................................................... 77 5.2.2. The supplementary/reference materials ........................................................... 80 5.2.3. Techniques in teaching English initial and final consonants ............................ 81 5.2.3.1. Minimal pairs and related activities ......................................................... 81 5.2.3.2. Visual aids ............................................................................................... 82 5.2.3.3. Sound-spelling correspondences of English consonants .......................... 82 5.2.4. Teachers of English ......................................................................................... 86 5.3. Suggestions for further studies.................................................................................. 87 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 88 Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version)..................................... 92 Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (English version) ........................................... 95 Appendix 3: Listening test........................................................................................... 98 Appendix 4: Reading for Recording Test................................................................... 100 Appendix 5: Error Diagnosis Profile ......................................................................... 101 Appendix 6: Feedback Sheet for the Reading Test..................................................... 103 Appendix 7: Distinction between English /ð/ and /d/ ................................................. 105 Appendix 8: Distinction between English /θ/ and Vietnamese /tʰ/ ............................. 106 Appendix 9: Distinction between English /θ/ and /t/ .................................................. 107 vii Appendix 10: Distinction between English /s/ and /ʃ/.................................................. 108 Appendix 11: Distinction between English /f/ and /p/, /v/ and /p/ ................................ 109 Appendix 12: Distinction between English /ʤ/ and /z/ ................................................. 110 Appendix 13: Distinction between English /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ ................................................. 111 Appendix 14: Distinction between English /l/ and /n/ .................................................. 112 Appendix 15: Sound-Spelling Correspondences of English Consonants .................... 113 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Apportion of pronunciation aspects in Know How Student Book 1................ 3 Table 2.1: The system of English initial consonants ................................................... 12 Table 2.2: The system of English final consonants ...................................................... 13 Table 2.3: The system of Vietnamese initial consonants .............................................. 14 Table 2.4: The system of Vietnamese final consonants ................................................ 14 Table 2.5: Test contrast pairs of English initial and final consonants ........................... 16 Table.2.6: Common pronunciation errors with English consonants.............................. 22 Table 3.1: Personal information of the students .......................................................... 28 Table 3.2: Tested contrast pairs of English initial consonants ...................................... 30 Table 4.1: Misperceived contrast pairs of English initial consonants and their misperception frequencies ............................................................................................. 38 Table 4.2: Misperceived contrast pairs of English final consonants and their misperception frequencies .............................................................................................. 41 Table 4.3: Types of errors in the production of /p/ and their frequencies...................... 45 Table 4.4: Types of errors in the production of /t/ and their frequencies ...................... 47 Table 4.5: Types of errors in the production of /k/ and their frequencies...................... 50 Table 4.6: Types of errors in the production of /b/, /d/, /g/ and their frequencies ......... 51 Table 4.7: Types of errors in the production of /ʃ/ and their frequencies ..................... 53 Table 4.8: Types of errors in the production of /s/ and their frequencies ...................... 54 Table 4.9: Types of errors in the production of /z/ and their frequencies...................... 56 Table 4.10: Types of errors in the production of /f/ and /v/ and their frequencies........... 57 Table 4.11: Types of errors in the production of /θ/ and their frequencies...................... 59 Table 4.12: Types of errors in the production of /ð/ and their frequencies ..................... 61 Table 4.13: Types of errors in the production of /ʧ/and their frequencies ...................... 63 Table 4.14: Types of errors in the production of /ʤ/ and their frequencies ..................... 65 Table 4.15: Types of errors in the production of /l/ and their frequencies ..................... 68 Table 4.16: Types of errors in the production of /m, /n/, /ŋ/ and their frequencies.......... 69 Table 5.1: Supplements of pronunciation aspects into English teaching ..................... 77 ix Table 5.2: Hierarchy in misperception of contrast pairs of English initial and final consonants .............................................................................................................. 79 Table 5.3: Hierarchy in mispronunciation of English initial and final consonants ....... 79 Table 5.4: Learner-friendly explanations ................................................................. 85 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: The skill most focused in teaching .............................................................. 36 Figure 4.2: The skill least focused in teaching ............................................................... 36 Figure 4.3: The language used to give instruction in English classes ........................... 37 Figure 4.4: Frequency percentage of misperceived contrast pairs of English initial consonants....................................................................................................................... 38 Figure 4.5: Frequency percentage of misperceived contrast pairs of English initial consonants....................................................................................................................... 41 Figure 4.6: Frequency percentage of misperceived contrast pairs of English initial and final consonants ...................................................................................................... 43 Figure 4.7: Frequency percentage of mispronounced English initial consonants............ 70 Figure 4.8: Frequency percentage of mispronounced English final consonants.............. 70 Figure 4.9: Frequency percentage of mispronounced English initial and final consonants....................................................................................................................... 70 xi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background to the study 1.1.1. English consonants: the role and problems in communication It is thought that pronunciation partially shapes the success of a speaker. There is, however, a fact that not too much attention has been paid to pronunciation learning and teaching in classes. Actually, it is treated as a low priority area of study, especially for non-English majors (Hewings, 2004: 10). As a result, the insufficient attention in pronunciation teaching inevitably leads to various pronunciation problems among EFL1 learners, one of which is the failure in perception and production of English consonants. The situation of non-English majored freshmen at Vien Dong College of Advanced Technology (VIDOCAT in short) is a good case in point. In fact, the researcher has noticed that those students in the first year fail to perceive and produce English word-initial & word-final consonants properly. Words with similar sound forms such as tap and tab can not be distinguished at a high frequency or those ‘foreign sounds’ /θ/, /ð/, /ʤ/, /ʧ/, etc., can not be articulated correctly. Consequently, the misperception and mispronunciation of English initial and final consonants not only leads to the misunderstanding of others’ speech but also makes frustrating and unpleasant for both learners and listeners as “a learner who consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand” (Kelly, 2000: 11). That implies learners of a second language should acquire a certain pronunciation level in general and that of consonants in particular which is intelligible enough. According to Murcia-Celce et al (1996: 7) “there is a threshold level of pronunciation for nonnative speakers of English; if they fall below this threshold, they will have oral communication problems no matter how excellent and extensive their control of grammar and vocabulary might be”. In other words, we 1 English as a Foreign Language 1 can live without advanced vocabulary – we can use simple words to say what we want to convey – and we can live without advanced grammar – we can use simple grammar structures instead. However, there is no so-called simple pronunciation as learners need to acquire a level of pronunciation which is understandable enough in communication. 1.1.2. English consonants in the syllabus for non-English majors at VIDOCAT VIDOCAT was established in 2007. Currently, the college assumes two main training functions at two levels: college training and vocational one. The former consists of six sectors: Mechanical Engineering Technology, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technology, Automotive Engineering Technology, Accounting, Business Administration and Information Technology. The latter offers four main training programs: Information Technology programming, Repair and Operation of Mechanical Equipment, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technology, and Business. The school is particularly interested in teaching and learning English and considers English an indispensable skill for the students in preparation for their future jobs. Actually, much importance is placed on the language training at this school. At VIDOCAT, the students of all faculties at the college level are required to take English as a compulsory subject in five semesters. They are to learn general English in the first two semesters, then they are trained to achieve TOEIC of 350 and above in the last three semesters. The general English program is especially designed for the students to improve four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – as the requirements of Communicative Approach in Know How Student Book 12. Together with the four skills, pronunciation is also considered a fairly significant one since the learners are expected to not only achieve TOEIC scores of 2 This is the main textbook used for general English in the first two semesters. 2 350 and above but also be good enough at English communication after graduation. In 120 periods of the first two semesters, 16 units of Know How Student Book 1 are scheduled to be covered. Time supposed to be allotted for each pronunciation part is about 15 to 20 minutes. The pronunciation of consonant sounds, however, does not seem to be sufficient for practice (see table 1.1). Actually, the textbook does not provide much with sound practice and drills. English sounds in general and English consonants in particular are thinly and insufficiently mentioned. Besides, there are a few exercises and activities for the learners to reinforce what they have just studied about pronunciation of these sounds. Moreover, no supplementary materials on pronunciation in addition to the textbook are included in the syllabus for the general English. Consequently, these above mentioned reasons could lead to the students’ failure in perceiving and producing consonant sounds correctly. Pronunciation aspects mentioned in Know How Student Book 1 1. Sentence stress 2. Pronunciation of –s endings 3. Sentence stress (unstressed word) 4. Pronunciation of –ing endings 5. Pronunciation of –ed endings 6. Word stress 7. Intonation in questions 8. Intonation pattern 9. Pronunciation of contractions with will 10. Pronunciation of /s/ and /ʃ/ Table 1.1: Apportion of pronunciation aspects in Know How Student Book 3 1.2. Rationale for the study When teaching pronunciation, it is very crucial that the teacher should be aware of possible difficulties for the learners with a particular aspect of pronunciation to prepare activities for these problems. According to Hewings (2004:16), “though we might generally give work on consonants a high priority, it is also useful to know which consonants are problematic and which are not for a particular first- language group we are teaching, so that we can focus work accordingly” Generally, it is believed that mistakes in pronunciation of consonants are more likely to result in misunderstanding in communication than those in pronunciation of vowels. Specifically, “in most circumstances, substituting a consonant with another is more likely to lead to communication breakdown than when a wrong vowel is used” (Hewings, 2004:15). If a learner of English wants to ask permission to open a window, for example, he pronounces window as /vɪdəʊ/, it is unlikely to get in the way of the message. In contrast, if he wants to dance and pronounces dance as /dæns/ or /dɑ:ns/, the message is understandable to the listener. Therefore, it is very essential to investigate consonants problematic for the learners in terms of aural perception and oral production so that the teacher can prepare the activities and materials focusing on these problematic sounds. However, concerning mispronunciation in consonants, it is believed that pronunciation errors with initial and final consonants more common than those in medial position since “errors with consonants in medial position were found in some cases to be the same as errors in initial position, in other cases the same as errors in final position” (Mathew, 2003: 31). Vietnamese learners, for example, often produce English initial and medial /ʧ/ in choice and teacher like Vietnamese /c/[ch] in cho (give) or substitute English medial and final /ʃ/ in words such as washing and wish with English /s/. Hence, only English word-initial and word-final consonants are taken into consideration for investigation in this study. Hopefully, the study’s findings concerning pronunciation problems of English initial and final consonants and its recommendations may serve as reference to the 4 course designer to determine which initial and final consonants should be supplemented to the non-English program and to English teachers who are interested in teaching pronunciation in general and English initial and final consonants problematic in particular to EFL learners. 1.3. Aims of the study The research reported in this thesis aims at (1) investigating contrast pairs of English word-initial and word-final consonants problematic for non-English majored freshman at VIDOCAT to perceive aurally, (2) indentifying English initial and final consonants problematic for the students to produce aurally through the analysis of the errors made in the production of these consonants. 1. What contrast pairs of English word-initial and word-final consonants are problematic for non-English majored freshmen at VIDOCAT to perceive aurally? 2. What English word-initial and word-final consonants are problematic for the students to produce orally? 1.4. Limitation It took much time and energy to carry out this thesis; there were some limitations to it though. The population to the questionnaire was limited to 104 non-English majors. The participants of the diagnostic tests were rather small with only 24 students from the population. The findings must be more complete and more reliable with a larger population. Thus, it can hardly generalize the findings to many other circumstances. 1.5. Delimitation As mentioned earlier, errors with consonants in medial position found in some cases to be the same in initial position and in other cases the same as errors in final position was another reason for which the investigation was limited into only the 5 consonants in initial and final position. It is suggested that there should be other studies done on investigation into vowels, consonant clusters and other aspects regarding supra-segmental features in order to help improve the pronunciation ability of the students at VIDOCAT. Though the study reveals some remarkable findings in which English initial and final consonants are hierarchically problematic in perception and in production through the statistical analysis, it is strongly recommended that the technique of using spectrographs3 which focuses the linguistically relevant acoustics properties of speech sounds4 should be taken into consideration to give a clear analysis. 1.6. Organization of the study There are 5 chapters in this thesis. Chapter one describes the background of the study, states the aim of the study, points out some limitations and delimitations, makes some recommendations for further research and presents the organization of the study. Chapter two is to do with a review of literature on some topics related to the study which gives the theoretical background to the research. It presents some general views on pronunciation of English consonants and provides a brief look at English and Vietnamese initial and final consonants in comparison. Also included in this chapter are possible sources of pronunciation of English consonants and Guidelines for Pronunciation Error Diagnosis. 3 To analyze the kinds of properties of sounds, phoneticians often uses a machine called spectrograph which helps to measure and analyze the frequency, duration and transitions between speech sounds, and the like. The output of a spectrograph is a spectrogram, either printed or displayed on the computer screen (Davenport, 1998: 59, cited in Cao Thien Ai Nuong, 2012: 9). 4 Vocal sounds are produced in the human body by the organs of what is called the vocal tract. Vocal sounds which are organized to communicate information are called speech sounds (Buchanan, 1963: 18). 6 Chapter three presents methodologies employed in this study. This chapter focuses on the research questions, the research design with the description of the subjects and the instruments and the data collection procedures. Chapter four is about data discussion and findings. This chapter analyzes the data from the student’s responses to the questionnaires and from the diagnostic tests. It also presents the findings from the data analysis. Chapter five shows the conclusions of findings of the study and draws out some teaching implications regarding considerations on the syllabus for English with the adaptation of the recommended supplementary materials. The suggestions for English teachers as well as teaching techniques which could be employed in teaching English initial and final consonants problematic to the learners are also included in this chapter. 7 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Chapter 2 will review the literature relevant to the aim of the study which attempts to identify contrast pairs of English initial and final consonants problematic for the Vietnamese students in aural perception and to investigate English word-initial and word-final consonants problematic in oral production. Hence, it is very necessary to take into consideration the followings: some general views on pronunciation of English consonants, summary of English and Vietnamese consonant systems in comparison, sources of pronunciation errors of consonants as well as Guidelines for Pronunciation Error Diagnosis of English consonants. 2.1. Pronunciation of English consonants 2.1.1. Pronunciation acquisition of English consonants: perception and production Generally, pronunciation is perceived as “a way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced” (English Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, seventh edition). Richards and Platts (1992: 296) define pronunciation as “the way a certain sound or sounds are produced. Unlike articulation, which refers to the actual production of speech sounds in the mouth, pronunciation stresses more on the way sounds are perceived by the hearer”. However, Reed and Michaud (2005: viii) combine the two above definitions of pronunciation and draw out a conclusion that pronunciation is related to not only the perception of sounds but also the production of sounds. In fact it is a process of perceiving and producing speech sounds. It is generally assumed that students need to distinguish features of pronunciation before they can produce their own speech. They, for example, need to be able to hear a difference between /s/ and /ʃ/ before they can pronounce correctly Sue and shoe. This connection is not always true, Lado (1961) 5, Valette (1967)6, Avery & 5 Cited in Ashton Timothy (2006) 6 Cited in Ashton Timothy (2006) 8