Tài liệu A study on pronunciation errors made by fourth year students of english at vinh university and suggested solutions=nghiên cứu tìm lỗi phát âm tiếng anh của sinh viên năm thứ tư khoa ngoại ngữ đại học vinh và gợi ý một

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT ********** NguyÔn thÞ hång anh A STUDY ON PRONUNCIATION ERRORS MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT VINH UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (NGHIÊN CỨU TÌM LỖI PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ TƯ KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ- ĐẠI HỌC VINH VÀ GỢI Ý MỘT SỐ BIỆN PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC) GRADUATION THESIS Field: Linguistics Vinh 2010 1 VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT ********** A STUDY ON PRONUNCIATION ERRORS MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT VINH UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (NGHIÊN CỨU TÌM LỖI PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ TƯ KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ- ĐẠI HỌC VINH VÀ GỢI Ý MỘT SỐ BIỆN PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC) GRADUATION THESIS Field: Linguistics Student: NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG ANH, 47B Supervisor: PHAN THỊ HƯƠNG, M.A. Vinh 2010 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT To complete the research, I have been lucky to receive invaluable contributions from many people. First of all, I should like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Phan Thi Huong, M.A for her indispensable supports, suggestions, advice and detailed comments, without which the research would not have been completed. In addition, I would also like to extend my deepest thanks to teachers of phonetics – Ms. Mindy Schott, Mr. Tran Ba Tien, MA and Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, MA for their materials of phonetics , my close friends - Oanh and Sơn for their reading my first draft as well as their invaluable suggestions, and comments and to all of my classmates for their various kinds of help and encouragement. My warmest thanks are due to my loving parents and my siblings for their absolute unconditional love, support and forbearance. Finally, I am all too aware that despite all the advice and assistance, I feel that the research is far from perfect; it is, hence, my sole responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings that thesis may be considered to have. Vinh, May, 5th , 2010 Nguyen Thi Hong Anh 3 4 ABSTRACT Nowadays, when English is used in larger and larger scale as an international language, it is an essential duty of education that users of English should communicate successfully with the target language. It is a common knowledge that phonetics is a subject which helps students of English to pronounce well in learning and communicating in English. However, many teachers of English have complained and many learners have self- criticized about their pronunciation. So have students of English at Vinh University. Indeed, in spite of being taught basic phonetics right in the first year of learning English, many of fourth year students of English at Vinh University are weak at pronouncing in English. This has much influence on their learning other subjects such as: listening, speaking, reading, interpreting etc as well as creates many limitations in their talking with native- speakers of English. In this research, the author studied typical pronunciation errors made by fourth year students of English at Vinh University, then suggested the students of English in general and fourth year students of English in particular some ways to improve their pronunciation as much as possible. Questionnaire data was collected from 61 students from two classes 47A and 47B, then among them, 22 students were asked to record their pronunciation at their own home. The findings point out that fourth year students tend to make pronunciation errors with vowels and consonants. Yet, they have not had any real effective method to improve their pronunciation errors yet. Therefore, the author, as a fourth year student, somehow, hopes that this paper will partly help fourth year students to be better at pronouncing in English. 5 ABBREVIATIONS FLD: Foreign Languages Department VU: Vinh University CD: Compact disc EFL: English as a Foreign Language RP: Received English E.g.: exampli gratia Etc: et cetera L1: Language one SL: Second language FL: Foreign language PR.: Public Relation 6 TABLE OF CONTENT Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................i ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................ii ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................iii TABLE OF CONTENT..................................................................................iv ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES .........................................................vii ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. PART I: INTRODUCTION...........................................................................1 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 1. Justification of the Study.............................................................................1 ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... 2. Aims and Objectives of the Study...............................................................2 ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... 3. Scope of the Study.......................................................................................2 ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... 7 4. Methods of the Study ..................................................................................3 ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... 4.1. Subjects of the Study............................................................................3 .............................................................................................................. 4.2. Data collection instruments of the Study..............................................3 4.3. Data analysis procedure of the Study...................................................4 5. Format of the Study ....................................................................................4 ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... PART II: DEVELOPMENT..........................................................................5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND......................................5 1.1. English pronunciation ..........................................................................5 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 1.1.1. Standard English Pronunciation.................................................5 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 1.1.2. Aspects of pronunciation............................................................6 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 1.1.2.1. Articulatory phonetics...................................................6 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 8 a. The articulators..........................................................6 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. b. The process of producing sounds..............................7 ............................................................................................................................. c. The working of the vocal cords.................................7 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 1.1.2.2. English sounds...............................................................8 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. a. Pure vowel Sounds ...................................................8 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. b. Consonant sounds....................................................11 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 1.2. Pronunciation errors: ..........................................................................16 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. CHAPTER 2: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS...........................18 2.1. Subjects...............................................................................................18 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 2.2. Data collection procedure....................................................................18 9 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 2.3. Data analysis procedure......................................................................20 2.4. Findings and Discussion on Pronunciation Errors made by fourth year students of English.....................................................20 2.4.1. Errors concerned with vowel sounds........................................21 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 2.4.1.1. Description of vowel sounds errors.............................21 ............................................................................................................................. 2.4.1.2. Error analysis...............................................................21 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. a. /ɪ/ sounds error analysis .........................................21 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. b. /æ/ sound error analysis...........................................22 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. c. /ʊ/ sound error analysis...........................................23 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 2.4.1.3. Typical vowel sounds errors collected from the recordings..............................................................24 2.4.2. Errors concerned with consonant sounds.................................25 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 2.4.2.1. Description of consonant sounds errors......................25 ............................................................................................................................. 2.4.2.2. Error analysis...............................................................25 10 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. a. /∫/ sound error analysis.............................................25 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. b. /ð / sound error analysis...........................................26 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. c. /dʒ/ sound error analysis..........................................27 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 2.4.2.3. Typical consonant sounds errors collected from the recordings..............................................................28 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ......................................29 3.1. Possible Causes...................................................................................29 ........................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................ 3.1.1. Making myths about who can teach students pronunciation ...29 3.1.2. Lack of awareness of the importance of pronunciation............30 ............................................................................................................................. 3.1.3. Teachers’ neglect of pronunciation...........................................31 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 3.1.4. Lack of knowledge of pronunciation rules...............................32 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 3.1.5. Mother tongue interference......................................................32 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 11 3.2. Suggested solutions.............................................................................33 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 3.2.1. Suggested solutions for individuals..........................................33 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 3.2.1.1. Practice pronouncing regularly...................................33 a. Doing pronunciation exercises................................33 b. Recording your own voice and listening again.......34 3.2.1.2. Talking, listening to native speakers and trying to imitate their voice..........................................................35 3.2.1.3. Creating tips in pronouncing in English......................35 3.2.2. Suggested activities for groups/ pronunciation club.................37 3.2.2.1. Model for a pronunciation club...................................37 3.2.2.2. Pronunciation activities...............................................39 a. Activity 1.................................................................39 b. Activity 2.................................................................41 c. Activity 3.................................................................42 PART III: CONCLUSION............................................................................46 1. Recapitulation and Implication....................................................................46 2. Suggestions for further study.......................................................................47 REFERENCES APPENDICES 12 LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES Diagram 1: IPA articulators...............................................................................7 Diagram 2: English vowels (John, 1998:23).....................................................9 Table 1: Characteristics of pure vowel sounds................................................10 Table 2: English consonant phonemes............................................................13 Table 3: Characteristics of pure consonant sounds..........................................16 Table 4: Description of vowel sounds errors...................................................21 Table 5: Typical vowel sounds errors collected from the recordings..............25 Table 6: Description of consonant sounds errors............................................25 Table 7: Typical consonant sounds errors collected from the recordings........28 Table 8: Model for Pronunciation Club...........................................................39 13 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Justification of the Study It is commonly recognized that during the time of studying English, there are many pronunciation errors that fourth year students of English tend to make such as word and sentence stress, intonation, length of vowel sounds, ending sounds and linking sounds, etc. To help better English pronunciation for students of English at VU, it is essential to do a research on most typical pronunciation problem of Vietnamese students, which is, in this research, errors with vowel and consonant sounds. Secondly, although they are common errors made by learners, not all the teachers pay attention to them. The above conclusion results partly from personal observation supporting this research. It is possibly because the final consonants, for example, are not pronounced so clearly as other sounds in an utterance so they are less noticed by both learners and teachers. Added to this, there have not been many studies on these particular pronunciation errors so far at department level. Only studies about general speaking and pronunciation errors were carried out, which appears to have failed to emphasize the main pronunciation problem of Vietnamese students of English at Vinh unviversity. Last but not least, for fourth year students in FLD of VU who will use English as their main occupation, or become future teachers, it is extremely significant to realize their pronunciation errors. In accordance with that, they can self-correct their English pronunciation so as to be confident enough to do jobs relating to English or teach their students in the future. It is obvious that a number of students notice their pronunciation errors 14 when they pronounce erroneously, other students, on the other hand, do not recognize their problem with pronouncing English words. We believe a study on English pronunciation errors will help students become well aware of their pronunciation problems to which they might not have paid any attention before. It also is also help of some teachers in teaching pronunciation at university if the study can suggest some solutions to help students practice pronunciation individually and in groups. From the reasons mentioned above, we have decided to carry out this study entitled “A study on English errors made by fourth year students of English at VU and suggested solutions”. 2. Aims and Objectives of the Study English phonetics is of great importance as it lays basis for effective oral communication. As far as we know, students of English at FLD of VU are taught phonetics in the first term of their English program, and mostly taught by native- English teachers. That is a good luck for the students who specialize in English. However, as a fourth year student of English, we have realized that there are still many students of 47B and 47A who are weak at pronouncing English. For that reason, we decided to do a study on pronunciation errors made by fourth year students of English at VU to analyze the errors, their possible causes and then suggest some solutions based on our own experiences in learning English to help students of English improve their pronunciation as well as to present to teachers of English a realistic picture of the pronunciation errors made by their students so that they can find the suitable and effective methods to teach this subject. Apart from that, this research also suggests the first, second and third year students of English some ways to learn phonetics successfully so that they can learn the skills of English more effectively. 3. Scope of the Study 15 The research focuses on English errors made by fourth year students of English at VU. Any topic relating to teaching other subjects or other skills of English would be beyond the scope of this research. Moreover, within the scope of a graduation paper, we do not have an ambition to cover all the students’ problems with English pronunciation. Only the pronunciation errors with some typical vowels and consonants made by the students are investigated. 4. Methods of the Study 4.1 Subjects of the study There were 61 fourth year students from two classes – 47A and 47B at FLD, Vinh university participating in this study. They are about the same age and of both genders. Because most students in the two classes are female, the number of female subjects in the research was much bigger than male ones. These students are from both rural and urban areas of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Thanh Hoa, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh provinces. 4.2. Data collection instruments of the study For any research, information is usually required to be collected in a natural way. In order to analyze the pronunciation errors that students make in their utterances, observation should have been used in their lessons in class. However, the time planned to carry out this work and the time for fourth year students to go to different high schools to practice teaching are at the same time, we could not have the opportunity to observe and record their pronunciation in class. So, survey questionnaire and home- recording were applied to analyze fourth year students’ pronunciation errors. In addition, any record was clearly recorded to analyze at home with the help of the attached CD and tapescripts in the course book “Pronunciation Made Simple” provided by an American teacher Ms.Mindy. 16 To collect data, at first, a survey questionnaire was created. It was designed carefully with reference to earlier researches and the supervisor. It was then brought to class and delivered to fourth year students of English at FLD, VU. Then, a recording plan was created with assistance of supervisor and some other teachers of English. After collecting the recording data, we, based on the characteristics of vowel and consonant sounds, checked and took notes of their errors, then classified and put them in different categories, and then made a table of typical errors collected from the data. 4.3. Data analysis procedure of the study Firstly, for the data collected through survey questionnaires, the author, after collecting the result of survey questionnaire from fourth year students, checked the different opinions of students about the information included in the questionnaire, counted how many students selected each idea, and then concluded them in statistics. Secondly, for the data got from recordings, after listening and checking the students’ pronunciation, a list of common pronunciation errors relating to vowels and consonants made by students was made by the author. Then, the data was analyzed and summarized into tables and charts. 5. Format of the Study The research paper includes three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. In part one- Introduction, we have presented the justification, aims, objectives, scope, methods and format of the Study. Part two- Development is divided into three chapters. Chapter one reviews the theoretical issues concerning English pronunciation and pronunciation error. Chapter two consists of four main parts: Subjects, Data collection procedure, Data analysis procedure, and Findings and Discussion on Pronunciation Errors made by fourth year students of English at FLD. 17 Chapter three discusses the possible causes of the pronunciation errors and suggests some solutions to help the students improve their pronunciation. Part three- Conclusion presents a summary of the thesis and provides suggestions for further study. 18 PART II: CHAPTER 1: DEVELOPMENT THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This first chapter provides readers with the related theoretical background of the study by introducing some key concepts necessary for the best perception of this research, as well as the review of previous studies related to the topic. Central concepts chosen to be clarified in this part are English pronunciation, Standard pronunciation, English Pronunciation Errors Aspects of pronunciation such as the articulators and English sounds. 1.1 English pronunciation Since the researchers have a strong desire to investigate the pronunciation errors in English, the definition of English pronunciation is especially important. Commonly speaking, pronunciation is simply put as “the way in which a language is spoken” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992: 718). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 4th ed. (2007) defines pronunciation as “a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood” (as cited in Nguyen, 2008:06). 1.1.1. Standard English Pronunciation In order to do errors analysis, a Standard English pronunciation should also be defined. Standard English is the most preferable accent in any social setting and to teach students. It is considered to be neutral, easier to remember and imitate as compared to regional accents and it is heard on radio and TV. In 1914, H.C. Wyld introduced the term "Received English" (RP) to cover the meaning of generally accepted English words in the best society. Until now, this term has been widely used to convey the meaning "accepted and approved" (Nguyen, 2008:07). Sometimes RP is referred to as the English of English people, which is used by BBC TV broadcasting channels. However, nowadays English has become the common mean of communication. It is no longer the own property of British people. Hence, pronunciation of English 19 varies from place to place, and therefore, a standard pronunciation in one place may not be as much standard in others. It seems that the goal Standard English has been somewhat changing to a universally intelligible language as English is becoming international (Nihalani, 1997, as cited in Mehmet, 2008). However, it can not be denied that a native-like English pronunciation is still what non-native learners are looking forward to. In their research, Streven in Larry Smith’s edition (1983: 88) defines Standard English as “a particular dialect of English, being the non-localized dialect, of global currency without any significant variation, universally accepted as the appropriate educational target in teaching English; which may be spoken with an unrestricted choice of accent”. So Standard English pronunciation can be any dialect of English that is widely used and accepted in the world. It is a common knowledge that there are two major varieties (or dialects) of English that command respect in their countries and in another place in the world: RP in the United Kingdom and General American (GA) English in the United States. They are the two main dialects for international broadcasts and in social and business settings. However, Vietnamese people tend to follow non-rhotic accent (like RP English) in which the /r/ sound is not pronounced at the end of words, so it is more reasonable to choose RP English as the standard one. In this study, RP English will be used as the criteria for students’ pronunciation analyzing. The International Phonetic Alphabet will also be used to transcribe the speech sample throughout the research. 1.1.2 Aspects of pronunciation 1.1.2.1 Articulatory phonetics a. The articulators Dale and Poms (2005:4) stated that the articulators are different parts of the mouth area that we use when speaking, such as the lips, tongue, teeth and jaw, etc. 20