HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
–––––––––––––––––––––––––
Nguyen Dang Nguyet Huong
PRONUNCIATION CHARACTERISTICS OF CONSONANT COMBINATIONS
ENGLISH IN VIETNAMESE ENGLISH SPEAKERS
Major: Linguistics
Code: 62 22 02 40
SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS IN LINGUISTICS
Hanoi - 2020
Project completed at:
University of Social Sciences and Humanities,
Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Instructor: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Lam Quang Dong
Introduction 1:................................................................................
Introduction 2:................................................................................
The thesis will be defended before the basic-level doctoral thesis evaluation council meeting at: University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU
At………hour……..day……..month……..year 2020.
Thesis can be found at:
- National Library of Vietnam
- Information Center - Library, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
INTRODUCTION
1. Urgency of the topic
Nowadays, when every country in the world is facing the trend of globalization, Vietnam is not an exception when it is gradually opening up and integrating in all aspects of economy, politics, culture and society. That requires Vietnamese people to use foreign languages in general and English in particular widely to communicate and integrate. The two most common forms of communication of people in general are speaking and writing, in which speaking is the activity that plays a larger role in life. Because Vietnamese and English are two different languages in terms of type, when communicating in English, Vietnamese people often encounter many problems with phonetics, grammar, vocabulary, etc. In the process of learning and teaching this foreign language to students, we realize that Vietnamese students have difficulty in perceiving and using the language in accordance with the standards of native speakers. Some of these difficulties can be solved by practice, some are very difficult to overcome due to the differences between the two languages. These difficulties can probably only be overcome by diligent training based on a scientific study, analysis and comparison of the essential similarities and differences that represent the meaningful characteristics of the two languages in terms of phonemic systems and syllable structures. Therefore, it is always necessary to understand the problems that learners encounter, classify them, find their causes and find solutions.
Up to now, there have been some studies on the pronunciation characteristics of Vietnamese people learning English, but they are quite scattered, often only on small aspects such as studying pronunciation errors, stress errors and intonation errors of Vietnamese people speaking English. The studies mainly focus on learners, rather than on people who are using English after the training process. Moreover, due to the small number of participants in the studies, plus the assessment of errors is often based on auditory perception, so some research results are still subjective, inaccurate or not reliable enough. These are the basic reasons why we chose this topic and focused on the pronunciation characteristics of English consonant combinations of Vietnamese people.
2. Purpose and tasks of nresearch
2.1. Purpose
This study has three main purposes:
a) Point out the characteristics of English pronunciation of Vietnamese people, including all the characteristics of a personal, temporary nature at a time of speech (phonetics) or abstract, general characteristics (phonology) to study and analyze the phonetic and phonological characteristics of English consonant combinations pronounced by Vietnamese people;
b) explain the causes of these phenomena; and
c) Propose solutions and methods. This is the scientific basis for the thesis to propose pronunciation correction methods to improve the quality of teaching and learning English for Vietnamese people.
2.2. Tasks
To achieve the above objectives, the thesis sets out the following scientific tasks to be solved:
3. Scope and object of the thesis
3.1. Scope
The thesis studies the English consonant clusters pronounced by Vietnamese speakers with English proficiency level C1 (according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CEFR). The selected Vietnamese speakers are those with the Northern dialect, and the native speakers used for comparison are those of New Yorkers.
3.2. Subject
The research object of the thesis is the pronunciation of English consonant combinations of 48 Vietnamese test takers, both male and female, using the Northern dialect, with English at level C1. In addition, there are 12 American test takers, using General American English/Standard American English.
4. Research methods
To solve the above tasks, in the process of implementing the thesis topic, the following methods were carried out:
5. Structure of the thesis
In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion, References and Appendix, the thesis consists of 3 chapters:
Chapter 1: Overview of research situation and theoretical basis of the topic
In this chapter, the thesis presents two main issues. Firstly, the thesis reviews previous works related to the topic, specifically studies on English pronunciation in the world and in Vietnam. Secondly, the thesis presents theoretical foundations on the characteristics of English - Vietnamese syllables, consonants and consonant combinations, comparative linguistics and error analysis. In this chapter, the thesis also focuses on presenting an overview of Vietnamese and English phonetics at the level of syllable structure, because the author believes that English pronunciation errors of Vietnamese people in general have deep roots in the differences in syllable structure as well as the types of the two languages, Vietnamese and English.
Chapter 2Research methods
In this chapter, the author focuses on describing the methods and steps of the research. The author goes into detail about the reasons for choosing the vocabulary board, choosing the researcher, recording methods and steps for processing the recorded materials. The explanations in this chapter will provide a deeper insight into the methodological choices as well as the research tools in the thesis.
Chapter 3. Vietnamese pronunciation characteristics of English consonant combinations at the beginning and end of syllables
The characteristics of English consonant combination pronunciation in Vietnamese speakers of English in general will be presented in the case of single words and words in the flow. The author also goes into depth to describe the pronunciation of English consonant combinations in different positions, by different groups of test subjects. In this chapter, the author focuses on describing and comparing the pronunciation of double consonant combinations and triple consonant combinations in the initial position of syllables. Based on the collected data, the standard deviations in the pronunciation of English consonant combinations at the beginning of syllables by Vietnamese speakers are classified and described, and then, based on the analysis results, which standard deviations can be overcome will be identified and corrective measures will be proposed to achieve a more standard pronunciation. This chapter also focuses on describing and comparing the pronunciation of English consonant combinations by Vietnamese speakers in the final position of syllables, including double combinations, triple combinations, and quadruple combinations; Then go into classifying the deviations and suggest measures to overcome those deviations.
CHAPTER 1. Overview of research situation AND THEORETICAL BASIS
1.1. Overview of research situation
1.1.1. Overview of research on pronunciation characteristics of English consonants and consonant combinations in the world
The textbooks studying the basic pronunciation characteristics of English consonants by Peter Roach (2009), Ladefoged and Johnson (2010), and Henry Rogers (2013) are considered the guidelines for consonant pronunciation.
Studies on English varieties have been reviewed in the European region with Allen (2011) on Spanish English; in the Asian region, with Fachun Zhang and Pengpeng Yin (2009), Liang Enli (2014) on Chinese English consonant varieties; Kota Ohata (2004) on Japanese pronunciation of English; Jalal Ahmad and Mohammad Muhiburahman (2013), Jalal Ahmad (2011), Idriss Hassan and Elkhair Muhammad (2014) on consonant errors of Saudi Arabian students; Ingrid Mathew (2005) on Indonesian English; Sarmah, Gogoi and Wiltshire (2009) on Thai English varieties. Hung (2005), Deterding, Wong and Kirkpatrick (2008) studied the Hong Kong English variant and Deterding (2003), Lim (2004) studied the Singapore English variant. The Vietnamese English variant was also mentioned by Hoang Thi Quynh Hoa (1965), Giang Tang (2005), Lan Truong (2005).
Regarding consonant combination errors, Fangchi-Chang (2004) studied Chinese combination variations; Khanbeki and Abdolmanafi-Rokni (2015) studied Iranian variations; Yuliati (2014) studied Indonesian English when pronouncing consonant combinations.
1.1.2. Overview of research on pronunciation characteristics of English consonants and consonant combinations in Vietnam
Studies on the pronunciation characteristics of English consonants in Vietnam mostly focus on the phonetic interference between the two languages. Miller (1976) studied and predicted the pronunciation errors of Vietnamese people in English, focusing on consonants. Pham Dang Binh (2003) "Survey of linguistic-cultural interference errors in the discourse of Vietnamese people learning English", Duong Thi Nu (2009) and Le Thanh Hoa (2016) all focused on some English consonant variations of Vietnamese people.
Research on non-standard variations and solutions for application in foreign language teaching are also quite common in master's theses such as Nguyen Tan Loc's (2009) study on consonants /θ/ and /ð/ of students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport; Vu Doan Thi Phuong Thao (2011) study on correcting common English consonant pronunciation errors of second language students, University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi; Tran Thi Mai Dao (2003) study on English consonant pronunciation errors of Vietnamese students; Dao Thuy Mai (2012) study on some common mistakes of Vietnamese students in Quang Ngai when pronouncing final consonants in English; Dao Thi Thuy Chi (2015) study on common mistakes in pronouncing English consonants of first-year students from Nghe An and some solutions; In addition, Nguyen Tho Phuoc Thao also studied common pronunciation errors of non-language major students at Quang Binh University.
1.1.3. Evaluation of existing studies
It can be said that these research works have initially established a theoretical basis system on the characteristics of English consonant pronunciation of Vietnamese people through language contact and interference. However, these studies have only stopped at the subjects who are in the learning process and do not have many results on phonetic parameters but only focus on recorded errors due to auditory perception. Northern dialects also seem to receive little attention in studies on pronunciation variations. Researching the pronunciation characteristics of people who have achieved a high level of foreign language proficiency by recording their pronunciation and evaluating through phonetic parameters and then finding ways to overcome variations (if any) is a new research direction that has not been focused on by many researchers. A rather big drawback of the studies mentioned here is that the studies on pronunciation only mention a small aspect of phonetics - phonology, with a rather modest number of participants, less than 20 participants. The research results also do not have many experimental factors for comparison and contrast, but are mostly based on auditory perception. Recent studies have used experimental methods, but they mainly focus on learners at training institutions, and there has been no research focusing on people with high foreign language proficiency after school training. Moreover, the number of participants in these studies is quite limited, not creating a significant database to represent the English characteristics of Vietnamese people in general. This also hinders the generalization of the phenomena mentioned in the study. Therefore, the researcher chose this topic with the desire to systematically and in-depth research on the pronunciation characteristics of English consonant combinations of Vietnamese people, pronunciation variations, the causes of those variations, and from there propose solutions for them.
1.2. Theoretical basis
To establish the theoretical basis for our research, we relied on the theory of English-Vietnamese syllable characteristics, the theory of consonants and consonant clusters, the theory of pronunciation in comparative linguistics, the theory of errors and error analysis. These are all basic theories to conduct the research steps.
1.2.1. Theory of syllable characteristics of American English and Vietnamese
1.2.1.1Vietnamese syllables
The theory of Vietnamese syllables focuses on the basic phonetic-phonological characteristics of Vietnamese syllables; Vietnamese syllable structure; and Vietnamese syllable types.
1.2.1.2.English Syllables
The difference between TV syllables and TA-US syllables is summarized as follows:
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TV Syllable |
TA-American syllables |
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Characteristic |
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Structure |
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1.2.2. Theory of consonants and consonant combinations
1.2.2.1.Concept of consonantsand speech production
In terms of phonetics, consonants are considered as “sounds produced by the complete or partial closure of the articulatory organs, causing the air passage to be completely or partially obstructed” (David Crystal, 2008: 103). In terms of phonology, this author also believes that consonants are “units that function as initial or final sounds, including single consonants and consonant combinations”. From these definitions, consonants are often described based on three characteristics including the method of articulation, place of articulation and vocalic characteristics.
There are three basic elements that can be mentioned in the process of speech production in general and consonants in particular, including the air flow structure, the sound production mode and the articulation.
1.2.2.1.1. English consonants
In this study, we rely on the view of Lagefodge (2010), and consider that the total number of English consonants consists of a total of 25 consonants in the initial and final positions of syllables.
1.2.2.1.2. Vietnamese consonants
In this study, we rely on the research of Doan Thien Thuat (1980) and Kirby (2011), inheriting the knowledge of syllable-initial consonants, medials and final consonants.
1.2.2.1.3. English-Vietnamese consonant interference
The interference between the two phonemic systems is shown in the initial and final sound systems. It can be seen that the difference in consonants at the final position of syllables between English and Vietnamese is much larger than the difference in consonants at the initial position of syllables, so one of the researcher's assumptions is that pronouncing consonants at the final position of syllables in general and pronouncing consonant combinations at the final position of syllables in particular will cause more difficulties for Vietnamese people using English.
1.2.2.2. Consonant combinations
JC Catford (1988) defines consonant clusters as “sequence of consonants occurring at the beginning or end of a syllable”. Ladefoged & Johnson (2011) give a more specific definition that consonant clusters are groups of consonants that are adjacent to each other and do not have any vowel in between. Consonant clusters in English can occur in syllable-initial, mid-syllable and syllable-final positions, but for monosyllabic sounds, there are only two positions: initial and final.
1.2.3. Theory of Contrastive Linguistics
1.2.3.1. Concept and role of Contrastive Linguistics
Contrastive linguistics is a branch of linguistics that studies languages in comparison to determine their similarities and differences.
1.2.3.2. Source Language (original language) and Target Language
Source language, also known as original language, is often understood as mother tongue, the first language that people come into contact with and use during their lives; considered the first language and denoted as L1. Target language is defined by Nguyen Thien Giap (2012:288) as “the language that people are learning, different from the first language or mother tongue of the learner”, often denoted as L2.
1.2.3.3. Language interference
Interference is a term originating from physics, used to refer to the phenomenon of two or more waves strengthening or weakening each other when they meet at the same point. When this term is used in linguistics, it refers to the interaction in the process of contact and cultural-linguistic exchange between two or more communities. Thus, although interference is not always due to the influence of the mother tongue, the most basic foundation for the interference phenomenon is still knowledge of the source language. Many linguists have applied the theory of contrastive analysis to the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Lee (1968) affirmed that the contrastive analysis method is the most effective way to teach language; and today's teachers need to have an understanding of the contrastive analysis method to find similarities and differences between languages.
1.2.4. Theory of Error Analysis
Error analysis is based on contrastive analysis to find out the differences, thereby predicting the difficulties in learning on the basis of comparison with L1. The theory of error analysis is the basic theory to find ways to overcome errors in second language acquisition. The study focuses on the unique points of high-level Vietnamese people in pronouncing English combinations, or in other words, I focus on studying the phenomena of standard deviations, from which to propose methods to overcome them. In fact, this is the theory of error analysis, error correction and error prevention in the process of teaching language; and this theory determines the assessment of the standard and standard deviation of the variants.
1.2.4.1. Concept and steps of error analysis
There are two biases related to errors: Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis.
1.2.4.2. Definition and classification of errors
There are many different definitions of errors, but in this study, we use the definition of Richards and Schmidt (2013: 2001) in the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics: “An error (in the spoken or written form of a foreign or second language learner) is the phenomenon of using a linguistic unit (such as a word, a sentence, a grammatical unit, a speech act, etc.) in a way that is considered incorrect or incompletely learned by a native or proficient speaker of that language”. With many different views on classifying errors, we choose the view of Richards and Schmidt (2002) to classify them into transfer errors, target-language errors, and developmental errors.
1.2.4.3. Types of phonetic interference errors
Weinreich (1953) classified them into subdistinct interference, supradistinct interference, distinctive stroke reconstruction interference, and phoneme substitution interference.
1.2.4.4.Leach pronunciation
There are two main types of pronunciation errors: phonetic pronunciation errors and phonological pronunciation errors. Phonetic pronunciation errors are errors that do not correctly represent the phonetic characteristics of phonemes in the target language, making it easy for native speakers to recognize the foreign accent of the speaker but not misunderstand the lexical meaning and the content of the utterance. Phonological pronunciation errors are errors that do not correctly represent the phonetic criteria of phonemes in the target language, leading to misunderstanding the meaning of the word and the content of the speaker's message.
1.2.4.5. Cause of error
When conducting surveys, studies have shown that learners make errors due to many reasons. Odlin (1989) divided the causes of errors into two groups including errors due to structural factors and errors due to non-structural factors.
1.3. Summary
An in-depth study of the overall research situation as well as the theoretical basis has pointed out the research gaps that this thesis should focus on. Most of the comparative studies focus on written text errors and do not have any experimental comparison with native speakers, but rely mostly on the subjective feelings of the researchers. This has created a gap in language research in general, especially with pronunciation errors. Studies on pronunciation only mention a small aspect of phonetics - phonology, with a rather modest number of participants. The research results do not have many experimental factors for comparison, but are mostly based on auditory senses. Recent studies have used experimental methods, but mainly focus on learners at training institutions, and there has been no research focusing on people with high foreign language proficiency, after the training process at school. The number of participants in these studies is quite limited, not creating a significant database to represent the English characteristics of Vietnamese people in general. This also hinders the generalization of the phenomena mentioned in the study.
CHAPTER 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To conduct the research, the researcher chose a research direction that combined two methods including the method of analysis by direct observation (from auditory articulations, direct observation notes and classical phonological analysis) and the method of experimental research (instrumental phonological analysis). These two methods are not substitutes for each other, but complement each other, and thanks to them, the researcher can verify and authenticate the hypotheses he has put forward, as well as the things he has analyzed by the methods of observation and direct analysis using auditory articulations. These are the two key methods of the research, and then in the process of error analysis, the researcher uses the method of comparison to analyze errors, compare to find out the phenomena of deviation from the standard, and at the same time prove the proposed statements.
2.1. Method of describing phonetics and phonology by auditory perception
2.1.1. Building a word table
The words selected in the survey vocabulary list are monosyllabic words. This study only focuses on the pronunciation of consonant combinations in a syllable and does not delve into multisyllabic cases. The vocabulary list is constructed with monosyllabic words to test the pronunciation of consonant combinations in syllable-initial and syllable-final positions, in two cases: single words and words in the flow. In the syllable-initial position, the consonant combinations have two cases including 2-consonant combinations and 3-consonant combinations. In the syllable-final position, the consonant combinations have three cases including 2-consonant combinations, 3-consonant combinations and 4-consonant combinations.
2.1.2. Selection of testers
The native speakers included 12 Americans, 4 males and 8 females, born, raised and currently living in New York City, USA. This group of speakers is group 1, consisting of 12 speakers, coded as EM01, EF02, EM03, EF04, EF05, EM06, EF07, EF08, EF09, EM10, EF11, EF12 (where E stands for native speaker, F stands for female, M stands for male).
To investigate the variations of consonant combinations, Vietnamese participants were selected who had a C1 level of English proficiency according to the European CEFR. Of the 48 participants, 18 were male and 30 were female. 24 had spent at least 2 years studying abroad and had achieved the minimum level required for admission to a master's or doctoral program, of which 12 used English daily at work (5 hours or more) and the rest used it less often (less than 5 hours). The remaining 24 participants were also C1 level but only studied domestically and were also grouped by the amount of time they used English daily. The subjects were selected using a "convenient sampling" method due to the conditions and objective limitations in the data collection process. In this group, the participants were divided into 4 small groups including 48 participants, coded from VF01 to VF48 (in which V is the symbol for Vietnamese, F is the symbol for female, M is the symbol for male).
2.1.3. How to record
The participants were scheduled for recording according to their time and work conditions. Each participant was given a vocabulary board before recording, and was asked to pronounce each single word slowly three times, while the words in the flow of speech were read only once, in a relatively quiet environment.
2.1.4. Processing recorded materials using auditory perception
The processing of recorded materials by auditory perception is conducted in 2 steps: direct observation while the examiner records and listening back after recording.
2.2.Real phonetic methodtest
2.2.1. Practical software
The utterances were recorded using a ZOOM H2n Handy Recorder, then digitized using the Praat program at a sample size of 22,050 Hz, 16 bits, in the form of .wav files. The acoustic parameters of the consonants were extracted from speech analysis programs, specifically in this study the Praat software.
The audio files were then de-sampled in stereo, and converted to mono before analysis. For each audio file, Praat software was used to split it into single word and sentence files. For single words, each pronunciation was denoted from 1 to 3, corresponding to 3 pronunciations. Accordingly, the wordblackFor example, when pronounced by American male examiner number 1, they will be denoted as EM01_black_1, EM01_black_2, EM01_black_3 respectively; and words in sentences will be given additional symbols.Sfor sentence to EM01_Sblack_1. The recorded materials will be listened to again and pronunciation variations will be determined by auditory perception. Then, the results obtained by auditory perception will be compared with the results from speech analysis software to measure the intensity and duration for each case and then come to a conclusion about the standard deviation level of the testers.
2.2.2.Boardparameterexperimental phonetics
The study was based on the parameters of intensity, duration and onset time of VOT sound.
2.2.3. Experimental processing of recorded materials
The pronunciations, after being cut into files of each pronunciation token, will be analyzed, divided into components including consonant and vowel combinations, and the time of sound onset will be found. Based on this process, the parameters for the pronunciation of consonant combinations will be measured, especially the parameters of average intensity, duration and VOT.
2.3 Comparison method
The method of comparing Vietnamese pronunciation with native English pronunciation (in this study, the New Yorker accent of American English) was used to find Vietnamese pronunciation variations of English consonant combinations.
2.4 Statistical techniques
In addition to the above methods, during the thesis implementation process, some statistical techniques were used to describe and classify, thereby providing results to demonstrate the arguments in each chapter of the thesis.
2.5. Summary
In this study, the author used a combination of the auditory phonetic-phonological description method and the experimental phonetic method. These two methods cannot replace each other, but complement each other, showing the most complete perspectives on pronunciation characteristics in general.
Chapter 3. CHARACTERISTICS OF VIETNAMESE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH CONSONANT COMBINATIONS AT THE BEGINNING AND FINAL POSITIONS OF SYLLABLES
3.1. Vietnamese pronunciation of English consonant combinationsin general
3.1.1. Pronouncing English consonant combinations in single words
For single words, the group of initial three-syllable consonant combinations is the group with the lowest standard deviation rate (0.7% in the case of the combination /skw-/), proving that Vietnamese people pronounce these combinations closest to native speakers; meanwhile, the group of final four-syllable consonant combinations is the group with the highest standard deviation rate (92.4% in the case of the combination /-lpts/).
In the group of two-consonant combinations at the beginning of a syllable, /mw-/ is the combination that causes the most difficulty for Vietnamese people with 84.7% of pronunciation deviations, followed by /ʃm-/ (75.7%), /bl-/ (60.4%), /lj-/ (42.4%) and /sv-/ (29.9%). The group of three-consonant combinations is the group with the lowest overall standard deviation rate, in which the combination /str-/ is the combination with the highest standard deviation rate at 34.7%, followed by /smj-/ (33.3%), /spl-/ (8.3%) and /skw-/ (0.7%). For combinations in the final position of a syllable, the group of four-consonant combinations is the group with the highest standard deviation rate, respectively /-lpts/ (92.4%), /-ntθs/ (82.6%), /-ksθs/ (70.1%). The 3-consonant combination group had the second highest standard deviation rate (/-lnz/ 78.5%, /-kts/ 77.1%, /-fθs/ 63.9%, and /-ntʃt/ 54.2%) and the 2-consonant combination group had the lowest standard deviation rate among the combinations in syllable-final position (/-ðd/ 88.2%, /-lm/ 74.3%, /-tʃt/ 47.2%, /-pθ/ 42.4%, /-ndʒ/ 20.1%).
3.1.2. Pronunciation of English consonant combinations in conversation
Similarly, with words in the flow, /skw-/ is also the combination that Vietnamese people pronounce closest to the native pronunciation standard, and /-lpts/ is the combination that causes the most difficulty for Vietnamese testers (95.8% pronunciation deviates from the standard).
3.1.3. Pronouncing English consonant combinations according to word group position
According to the research results, the initial syllable and final syllable combinations have quite similar standard deviation rates, in which the 3-consonant and 4-consonant final syllable combinations have much higher standard deviation rates than the remaining groups.
3.1.4. Pronunciation of English consonant combinations by group of testers
The survey results showed that, among the 4 groups of participants, group 4 (the group of participants who studied domestically and spent a lot of time using English) had the highest rate of pronunciation closest to native speakers, and group 3 (the group of participants who studied abroad and spent little time using English) had the highest rate of pronunciation deviation.
3.2.Pronunciation characteristics of English initial syllable combinations by Vietnamese people
3.2.1. Length of initial consonant combination of syllable
Through the survey, it can be seen that the duration of the initial consonant combination of American syllables ranges from 80 ms to 175 ms for the first consonant in a pair; 82 ms to 122 ms for the second consonant in a pair.
The duration of Vietnamese initial consonant combinations ranges from 67ms to 200ms for the first consonant in a pair, and 48ms to 124ms for the second consonant in a pair. In the case of combinations beginning with stops and fricatives, it can be clearly seen that Vietnamese pronunciations have longer durations than native pronunciations, but in the case of combinations beginning with lateral syllables and nasals, American pronunciations have longer durations than Vietnamese pronunciations. Similarly, looking at combinations beginning with lateral syllables and nasals, there is also a phenomenon of pronunciation in the flow having shorter durations than pronunciation of single words.
Through the survey, among the 4 groups of Vietnamese participants, the group of Vietnamese who studied in the country and used English a lot (group 4) had the highest standard deviation rate in terms of duration, followed by the group of Vietnamese who studied abroad and used English a lot (group 2). Group 3 and group 5, which were participants who used English less, both had higher standard deviation rates than the two groups above.
When considering the duration of single words and words in a flow, we can also notice the difference: the duration of a two-consonant combination in a flow is usually shorter than the duration of a single word, while the duration of a three-consonant combination in a flow is usually longer.
3.2.2. Intensity of initial consonant combination of syllable
It can be seen that, between duration and intensity, duration is more stable and has a more definite value than intensity. From this, it can be concluded that in the case of pronouncing consonant combinations, the parameters of duration will have a higher distinct value than the parameters of intensity.
Accordingly, the group of participants who had time to train abroad and used English a lot (group 2) was the group with the pronunciation intensity ratio closest to native speakers.
3.2.3. Common mistakes in pronouncing English initial syllable combinations by Vietnamese people
3.2.4. Variations in the pronunciation of English initial syllable combinations by Vietnamese people
These variations will be presented according to each consonant combination designed in the word table. For each case, the variations will be listed, compared and evaluated to see whether it is a phonological or phonetic error, affecting actual communication or not.
The difference in the highest ratio of sounds according to the sinusoidal graph above is due to the main causes of the influence of the mother tongue (transfer), of the learner applying his knowledge of English to expand his pronunciation with new words (target vocabulary).
3.2.5. Deviant variations in pronunciation of English initial syllable combinations by Vietnamese speakers according to the group of testers
The standard deviation ratio in the pronunciation of English initial syllable combinations by Vietnamese speakers calculated by groups of testers gave results similar to the results of measuring parameters in terms of duration and intensity. Tester group number 4 was the group with the lowest standard deviation ratio, meaning that their pronunciation was most similar to that of native speakers. Meanwhile, tester group number 3, who studied abroad, had the highest standard deviation ratio, followed by tester groups number 5 and number 2.
3.3. Characteristics of Vietnamese English final syllable combinations
3.3.1. Length of final consonant combination of syllable
Through the survey, it can be seen that there is a huge difference in the length of pronunciation of final consonant combinations between native speakers and Vietnamese speakers. All groups of Vietnamese test takers tend to pronounce final consonant combinations of syllables longer than native speakers. The standard deviation rate in the group of test takers who study in the country and use English for a long time is still the lowest compared to the other 3 groups.
For example, in the case of a four-consonant combination at the end of a syllable, the average duration of single word pronunciation ranges from 69ms to 162ms, and the duration of word pronunciation in the flow ranges from 48ms to 160ms.
However, when comparing with the pronunciation of Vietnamese test takers, it is easy to see that the duration of pronunciation of both single words and words in the flow is larger than that of native speakers. The average duration of pronunciation of single words of Vietnamese test takers ranges from 94ms to 235ms, the duration of pronunciation of words in the flow ranges from 96ms to 157ms.
3.3.2. Intensity of final consonant combinations in syllables
We found that there was not much difference between the intensities of the pronunciations of syllable-initial consonant combinations. The average intensity of the pronunciations of words in the flow was generally greater than the average intensity of the pronunciations of single words. The intensity range of the pronunciations of single words for the American participants ranged from 55dB to 68dB. That index for the pronunciations of words in the flow ranged from 59dB to 69dB.
When compared with the pronunciation of Vietnamese speakers, this difference is not much. The average intensity of single word pronunciation of Vietnamese speakers ranges from 61dB to 69dB, the duration of word pronunciation in the flow ranges from 62dB to 74dB. Most of the native speaker group pronounces at a lower intensity than Vietnamese speakers with high English proficiency.
3.3.3. Common mistakes in pronouncing English final syllable combinations by Vietnamese people and solutions to overcome them
Compared to the initial syllable combinations, the error rate of the final syllable combinations of Vietnamese test takers is quite similar. In addition, Vietnamese also have some standard deviations as follows:
3.3.4. Variations in the pronunciation of English final syllable combinations by Vietnamese people
These variations are presented according to each consonant combination designed in the word table. For each case, the variations will be listed, compared and evaluated to see whether it is a phonological or phonetic error, and whether it affects actual communication or not. It can be seen that at the end of the syllable, the number of variations of the combinations is much larger. In this study, the author only briefly mentions a few cases of combinations with many variations. For the remaining cases, please see the appendix.
3.3.5. Deviant variations in pronunciation of English final syllable combinations by Vietnamese speakers according to the group of test takers
Through the chart, we see that the distribution of standard deviations in the pronunciation of consonant combinations is relatively even, concentrated in groups 2, 3 and 5; group 4 accounts for a small proportion.
3.4. Explain the cause
In addition to the reasons mentioned in the section on intensity and duration of the consonant combination at the beginning and end of the syllable, through a quick survey and interview with the test takers, the author of the thesis also found some specific reasons including:
3.5. How to fix
Based on the analysis results in the previous sections combined with English teaching experience, we propose some error correction methods as follows:
CONCLUDE
To study the pronunciation characteristics of English consonant combinations in advanced Vietnamese speakers, I have applied the theoretical foundations of comparative linguistics at the phonetic-phonological level, error theories (such as positive transfer, negative transfer, phonetic-phonological interference types), and described some basic concepts of phonetic-phonological analysis. To analyze and describe errors, I have applied descriptive analysis methods using perception combined with speech analysis methods using phonetic analysis software such as Praat and Speech Analyzer. From there, we have drawn some conclusions as follows:
1. The differences in phonetics and phonology between the second language (in this study, English) and the mother tongue (with Vietnamese as the participants) give rise to transfer patterns and interference at the phonetics and phonology level, leading to variations in the pronunciation of English that deviate from the standard of Vietnamese people.
2. The differences between English and Vietnamese are reflected in the structure and function of syllables, the system of segmental and suprasegmental units. However, in this study, I focus on the differences in the pronunciation of consonant combinations of 4 groups of test takers compared to the group of native test takers in the case of consonant combinations at the beginning and end of syllables.
For single words, the group of initial three-syllable consonant combinations is the group with the lowest standard deviation rate, proving that Vietnamese people pronounce these combinations closest to native speakers; meanwhile, the group of final four-syllable consonant combinations is the group with the highest standard deviation rate.
Similarly, with words in the flow, /skw-/ is also the combination that Vietnamese people pronounce closest to the native pronunciation standard, and /-lpts/ is the combination that causes the most difficulty for Vietnamese testers.
According to the research results, the initial syllable and final syllable combinations have quite similar standard deviation rates, in which the 3-consonant and 4-consonant final syllable combinations have much higher standard deviation rates than the remaining groups.
Among the 4 groups of participants, group 4 (the group of participants who studied domestically and spent a lot of time using English) had the highest rate of pronunciation closest to native speakers, and group 3 (the group of participants who studied abroad and spent little time using English) had the highest rate of pronunciation deviation.
3. In the case of pronouncing the initial consonant combination of a syllable
Through the survey, it can be seen that, among the 4 groups of Vietnamese test takers, the group of Vietnamese who studied in the country and used English a lot (group 4) had the highest standard deviation rate in terms of duration, followed by the group of Vietnamese who studied abroad and used English a lot (group 2). Group 3 and group 5, which were test takers who used English less, both had higher standard deviation rates than the two groups above.
There was not much difference between the intensity of the pronunciation of initial consonant combinations. Accordingly, the group of participants who had spent time training abroad and used English a lot (group 2) had the pronunciation intensity ratio closest to that of native speakers.
In addition to the differences in the duration and intensity of consonant combinations, based on auditory perception, we found that Vietnamese people, even at a high level of English proficiency, still have some pronunciation deviations in consonant combinations such as consonant substitution, vowel addition, and consonant simplification.
4. In the case of pronouncing the final consonant combination of a syllable
Through the survey, it can be seen that there is a huge difference in the length of pronunciation of final consonant combinations between native speakers and Vietnamese speakers. All groups of Vietnamese test takers tend to pronounce final consonant combinations of syllables longer than native speakers. The standard deviation rate in the group of test takers who study in the country and use English for a long time is still the lowest compared to the other 3 groups.
There was not much difference between the intensity of the pronunciation of initial consonant combinations. Accordingly, the group of participants who had spent time training abroad and used English a lot (group 2) had the closest pronunciation intensity ratio to native speakers. Most of the native speaker group pronounced with a lower intensity than the Vietnamese participants with high English proficiency.
In addition to differences in the duration and intensity of pronunciation of consonant combinations, Vietnamese people, even at high English levels, still have some pronunciation deviations in the case of final consonant combinations of syllables such as consonant omission, consonant substitution, and inversion of the order of the combination.
5. With the above variations, I also provide solutions to problems in pronouncing consonant combinations such as providing knowledge of phonetics and phonology for learners; using articulatory drawings to compare the differences between English and Vietnamese phonemes; using pronunciation software; and building exercises through activities specific to pronunciation.
LIST OF AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORKS
RELATED TO THE THESIS
1. Nguyen Dang Nguyet Huong (2018), “Standard English or Global English in English Teaching and Learning”,Language and Life Magazine(270), pp.60-65
2. Nguyen Dang Nguyet Huong (2019), “Fossilization – the case of Vietnamese English intermediate language”,Language and Life Magazine(283), pp.54-60
3. Nguyen Dang Nguyet Huong (2019), “Consonant clusters simplification – the case of Vietnamese speakers of English”,Language Magazinelanguage and life(291), pp.78-82
4. Nguyen Dang Nguyet Huong (2020), “Initial consonant clusters with 's'- the case of Vietnamese speakers of English”,Language Magazinelanguage and life(298), pp.135-140
5. Nguyen Dang Nguyet Huong (2020), “Characteristics of Vietnamese pronunciation of English consonant combinations – The case of four consonant combinations”,Journal of Lexicography and Encyclopedia(65), pp. 119-125
Author:ussh
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