Phát âm dễ hiểu: Dạy tiếng Anh cho người học Việt Nam

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D. A. Tuan / VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 176-182

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INTELLIGIBLE PRONUNCIATION:

TEACHING ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE LEARNERS

Do Anh Tuan*

University of Da Nang - Campus in Kon Tum

704 Phan Dinh Phung Street, Kon Tum City, Kon Tum, Vietnam

Received 15 May 2020

Revised 11 September 2020; Accepted 25 January 2021

Abstract: L1 (first language) phonological transfer in L2 (second/foreign language) learning appears

unavoidable; concerns are whether it is positive or negative and which strategies could help to deal with negative

transfer. This paper discusses the exploitation of an innovative approach to English pronunciation teaching

named the L1 point of reference (L1POR) approach, in which L1 phonological impacts on L2 pronunciation are

taken into account in the teaching process. Teaching points and strategies to improve the intelligibility of

Vietnamese-accented English are recommended with reference to the L1POR and literature in teaching English

as an international language.

Key words: English, Vietnamese, pronunciation, vowel, consonant

1. Introduction^*

impediment is tackled by emphasizing

descriptions of L2 sound articulations and

imitation of L2 sounds, but Cunningham (2009)

suggests that international intelligibility is a

more useful target for teaching English

pronunciation to Vietnamese L2 learners. For

this reason, this paper discusses the utilisation

of an alternative approach for pronunciation

teaching to Vietnamese learners: the L1 point of

Unintelligible pronunciation containing

native-like features of the target language does

not make any sense; it is intelligible

pronunciation, not native-like pronunciation,

which essentially contributes to communicative

competence. This is particularly true in the

present-day context where non-native speakers

of English have outnumbered native

counterparts and this number will certainly

increase in the coming years. In this context,

shared non-standard features (e.g. the use of full

vowels in function words and the clear bi-

syllabic pronunciation of triphthongs) actually

enhance intelligibility among non-native

speakers (Deterding & Kirkpatrick, 2006). This

actuality is challenging the traditional nativist

approach and encourages the intelligibility

principle to L2 pronunciation teaching, which

maximizes communicative potentials rather

than attempts to reach native-like productions

of the target language.

reference

(L1POR)

approach,

which

‘acknowledges English as an international

language (EIL) by making native speaker

dialects optional as models’ (Carey et al., 2015)

and where L2 teachers could use their

intelligible, comprehensible English as models

for pronunciation instruction.

2. The L1 Point of Reference (L1POR)

Approach

The L1POR is a non-nativist, learner-

centered approach, which exploits language

learners’ L1 phonology as a scaffold to teach an

L1 negative phonological transfer in the L2

acquisition harms learners’ L2 speech, whereas

L2 learners tend to modify their L2 productions

towards their L1 (Rogerson-Revell, 2011). The

problem is worse to Vietnamese learners whose

L1 sound system is greatly different from that

of the English language. Traditionally, this

L2,

appreciates

learners’

becoming

metalinguistic about their pronunciation needs,

and involves initially developing an acceptable

approximation of the target speech sounds

(Carey et al., 2015). Its features include:

(a) L1 sounds are exploited as the cognitive

points of reference for L2 ones.

(b) Speech production needs to precede

perception. (Deterding & Kirkpatrick, 2006)

_______

^*Tel.: 0905002426

Email: [email protected]m

VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 176-182

177

possible.

sound the same as the English one hit; phút

‘minute’ sounds the same as ‘foot’, and hót

‘sing’ and cót ‘a bamboo mat’ sounds like ‘hot’

and ‘cot’ respectively. Similarly, Vietnamese

/ɛ/ could be positively transferred to English /e/.

For instance, the Vietnamese word men ‘yeast’

is pronounced exactly the same as the English

one ‘men’. Also, Vietnamese /æ/ and its

English counterpart /æ/ can be categorised as

identical thanks to their adjacency in the vowel

space, and the English /æ/ may present no

problems to Vietnamese learners of English.

Actually, Vietnamese /æ/ only exists in some

dialects such as the Binh Dinh accent, a

Vietnamese accent in Central Vietnam. English

/æ/ may, therefore, be perceived as Vietnamese

/æ/ to some dialects but Vietnamese /a/ to the

others. Vietnamese L2 learners from other

regions can imitate the Binh Dinh /æ/ and

produce the Vietnamese word hang ‘cave’ with

the Binh Dinh accent, then articulate the word

the English word ‘hang’. However, it seems

that English /æ/ is a bit longer than the

Vietnamese dialectal /æ/. In short, Vietnamese

/i, u, ɔ, ɛ, æ/ could be positively transferred into

English /ɪ, ʊ, ɒ, e, æ/, so no requirements for

modifying these vowels might be needed.

Explicit instruction of phonology has

significant impacts on L2 speech intelligibility

(Saito, 2011), enables language learners to

notice the difference between their own L2

productions and those of proficient speakers

(Derwing & Munro, 2005), and develops their

phonological awareness (Venkatagiri & Levis,

2007). The L1POR furthers all these advantages

by establishing a linkage between language

learners’ L1 and an L2, providing them with

reliable and long-standing points of reference

for their L2 learning, and enabling them to

notice and avoid L1 negative transfer to their

L2 production. Besides, it supports L2

instructors by enabling them to predict their

students’ phonological difficulties, reflect on

their own English learning experiences as

successful L2 learners, and integrate the

approach with many other teaching techniques

easily (Carey et al., 2015). This allows L2

instructors to notice the phonological aspects

that need to be emphasized and provide their L2

learners with effective strategies to modify their

L2 productions, and so L2 teachers can see

themselves as multicompetent language users in

their classroom.

In contrast, Vietnamese /i, u, ɔ/ and English

/i:, uː, ɔ:/ can be negatively transferred owing to

their great difference in quantity because vowel

length is not linguistically significant in

Vietnamese. Hence, teaching English vowel

pairs /ɪ/ and /iː/, /ʊ/ and /u:/, /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/ to

Vietnamese L2 learners needs a focus on

quantity rather than quality to improve the

intelligibility of Vietnamese-accented English.

Even an overemphasis on vowel lengthening

would be better than shortening since the latter

results in a much larger drop in vowel

intelligibility than the former (Hillenbrand,

Clark & Houde, 2000). Bilingual minimal pairs,

whose examples are listed in Table 1, could be

helpful for Vietnamese L2 learners to be able to

distinguish the difference in length of these

vowels in the two languages. Further, the pairs

could be inserted into sentences such as ‘I ít mít

(eat jackfruit) every day.’ and ‘I eat meat every

day.’ so that students could see their difference

in the sentence context.

3. Teaching points and strategies

3.1. Focus on length

Figure 1 shows that Vietnamese /i, u, ɔ/ and

their BBC English counterparts occupy nearly

the same region in the vowel space; however,

they slightly differ in roundedness and

closeness. Besides, they all have two English

equivalents: a long vowel and a short one.

Vietnamese L2 learners could use their /i/ for

both English /ɪ/ and /iː/; /u/ for /ʊ/ and /u:/; and

/ɔ/ for /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/. Rounding and tongue

advancement are, in fact, virtually identical in

terms of acoustic quality (Lindblom &

Sundberg, 1971; Lisker & Rossi 1992);

therefore, Vietnamese /i, u, ɔ/ are likely to be

positively transferred to English /ɪ, ʊ, ɒ/

respectively. For example, the Vietnamese

word hít ‘breathe’ pronounced by certain

speakers of the Southern Vietnam dialect may

D. A. Tuan / VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 176-182

178

diphthongs. Samples of these pairs are provided

in Table 2. The dissimilarity between these

Figure 1

English and Vietnamese Monophthongs

(Adapted from Maddieson & Sandra, 1984 and

Rogerson-Revell, 2011)

words is that English diphthongs are

pronounced longer than these Vietnamese 2-

vowel combinations. English diphthongs could,

therefore, be achieved by articulating these

Vietnamese 2-vowel combinations containing

the ngang (level) tone with an extra length.

Table 2

Bilingual Minimal Pairs for Diphthongs

Vietnamese English

hay (good)

lâu (long)

sai (wrong)

ai (who)

hay

low

sigh

eye

hao (waste)

toi (die)

how

toy

bia (target)

beer

3.2. Focus on centrality

Table 1

Vietnamese has no central vowels, so

familiarising L2 Vietnamese learners with this

new tongue movement is vital. English central

vowels /ɜ:, ə, ʌ/ can, however, be negatively

affected by Vietnamese back vowels /ɤ/ and /ʌ/.

Vietnamese /ɤ, ʌ/ can be exploited to teach

Vietnamese L2 learners English central vowels.

Articulating Vietnamese /ɤ/ with the tongue tip

hung down which results in the centre of the

tongue slightly rising would sound like English

/ə/. This modification with an extra length

would make Vietnamese /ɤ/ sound like English

/ɜ:/. For example, the Vietnamese words hớt

‘cut’ and phớt ‘ignore’, modified as above, will

sound like the English words ‘hurt’ and ‘first’.

The English central vowel /ʌ/ can be also

acquired in this way with bilingual minimal

pairs listed in Table 3. The tongue movement

for these central vowels can be visualised by

using one hand as the plate with the figures

being the teeth, and the other is the tongue.

Vowels’ Bilingual Minimal Pairs

/i/ vs /i:/

tim (heart)

ít (little)

team

eat

hít (breathe)

heat

mít (jackfruit) meet or meat

/u/ vs /u:/

Mun (ebony)

Tu (meditation)

/ɔ/ vs /ɔ:/

moon

two or too

lo (worried)

co (shrink)

so (compare)

law

core

saw

English /ɑ:/ and its Vietnamese counterpart

/a/ differ in frontness and length; however, the

latter can be exploited to teach the former.

English /ɑ:/ can be acquired by asking students to

pronounce the Vietnamese words like ca ‘a mug’

or pha ‘mingle’ with their tongue being pulled

back and again with an extra length, which results

in the English words ‘car’ and ‘far’.

Vietnamese has three true diphthongs (Dinh

& Nguyen, 1998), including /ie/ as in biển

‘sea’, /uo/ as in cuốn ‘roll’ and /ɯɤ/ as in ướt

‘wet’, whereas English has six diphthongs

(Rogerson-Revell, 2011): /eɪ/ as in ‘hay’, /əʊ/

as in ‘hoe’, /ai/ as in ‘high’, /aʊ/ as in ‘how’,

/ɔɪ/ as in ‘toy’, and /ɪə/ as in ‘here’. Actually,

Vietnamese 2-vowel combinations (Dinh &

Nguyen, 1998) which have the ngang (level)

tone are pronounced similar to the English

Table 3

Bilingual Minimal Pairs for /ʌ/

Vietnamese

mâm (tray)

gân (sinew)

sân (yard) or săn

(hunt)

English

mum

gun

son

VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 176-182

179

Vietnamese and English also share /p, t, k/,

but they are unaspirated in Vietnamese. It is,

therefore, of significance to teach Vietnamese

L2 learners the rules of aspiration of English /p,

t, k/ and show them how to aspirate these

sounds. The aspiration can be visualised by

putting an A4-sized paper in front of the mouth

when such a word like ‘people’ is pronounced.

After the successful acquisition of English /p, t,

k/, their voiced counterparts /b/, /d/, and /g/, can

be gained by adding voicedness to the English

/p/, /t/, /k/, that is, by attempting to make vocal

cords vibrate when producing these consonants,

which could be checked by putting fingertips on

the Adam’s apple.

3.3. Focus on aspiration

Table 4 shows that Vietnamese and English

share /m, n, ŋ, f, v, s, z, h, l, j/. Besides, the

Vietnamese alveolar flap /ɾ/ as in rắn ‘snake’

could be positively transferred to the English

approximant consonant /r/. For example, the

two consonants as in the Vietnamese word ria

‘moustache’ and the English word ‘rear’ sound

the same. Mispronunciations of the /r/ and /l/, in

fact, have little potential for confusion in

communication (Schairer, 1992). Hence, no

modifications are probably required for these

consonants.

Table 4

Vietnamese and BBC English Consonants

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar

Palatal

Velar Glottal

Plosive

Nasal

Fricative

Affricative

Approximant

Lateral

Approximant

Notes: Where symbols appear in pairs, the one on the right represents a voiced consonant.

Adapted from Maddieson and Sandra (1984) and Rogerson-Revell (2011).

tongue position. It is noteworthy that

Vietnamese learners of English could

mispronounce their retroflex /tr/, as in trâu, to

the English /ʧ/ (Hwa-Froelich, Hodson &

Harold, 2002). This could be prevented by

inserting the /ʧ/ into a Vietnamese word like

trâu as in ‘/ʧ/âu’ so that learners can notice the

auditory differences. The movement of the

tongue and its position for the English

postalveolar consonants can be visualised by

using one hand as the plate with the fingers

being the teeth, and the other is the tongue.

Several studies found that Vietnamese L2

learners tend to substitute English /θ/ and /ð/ for

/s, z, t, d/ owing to their adjacency. My teaching

experience, however, witnesses a common

practice that Vietnamese learners of English

mispronounce the /θ/ to their Vietnamese

aspirated dental /tʰ/ and the English /ð/ to their

voiced alveolar implosive /ɗ/; many even add

3.4. Start with /ʃ/ and /θ/

English /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /ʤ/, /ʧ/ do not exist

in Vietnamese, so they are potentials for

communication breakdowns resulting from

negative phonological transfer.

For the

postalveolar consonants, the /ʃ/ should be dealt

with prior to any others and can be taught

through the Vietnamese fricative /s/. First,

teachers should enable students to notice their

tongue position when they articulate their /s/ by

asking them to say a Vietnamese word

containing the /s/ like sáng ‘morning’ slowly.

Then show them the manner of articulation of

the English /ʃ/. Finally insert the /ʃ/ into a

Vietnamese word like ‘/ʃ/áng’ to help students

recognise the auditory difference between the

phonemes. Students, producing the /ʃ/

successfully, could work with the manners of

articulation of /ʧ/, /ʒ/, and /ʤ/ with the same

D. A. Tuan / VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 176-182

180

the schwa /ə/ after these consonants, which

makes them produced as t^hə˨ thờ ‘worship’ and

/ɗə˨/ đờ ‘motionless’. Vietnamese /tʰ/ can be

exploited to teach English /θ/. Firstly show

students the place of articulation for English /θ/.

Then, ask them to pronounce the Vietnamese

word thờ /t^hɤ˨/ using that teeth and tongue

position. Next, clarify the manner of

articulation for the /θ/. Finally, put an A4-sized

paper in front of the mouth and pronounce the

Vietnamese word /t^hɤ˨/ without the /ɤ/ blowing

the paper without any aspiration and noise

causing by friction. The /ð/ could be achieved

by adding voicedness to the /θ/ and can be

checked as done with the previous voiced

consonants.

Table 5), but Vietnamese syllable-final

consonants are produced unreleased (Hwa-

Froelich, Hodson & Edwards, 2002). Hence,

ending sounds are problematic to Vietnamese

L2 learners, and so they tend to substitute their

L1 existing sounds for the L2 ending sounds or

completely omit them (Flipsen, 1992). As a

result, teaching rules of pronouncing English

consonants in a sentence is helpful so that

Vietnamese learners know when a final ending

sound is needed to be pronounced. Also, it is

crucial to teach Vietnamese learners the rules of

pronouncing the final consonant and endings,

e.g. native English speakers also frequently use

strategies of consonant deletion to simplify

rapid, natural speech when the central

consonant in

three consonant cluster

3.5. Focus on consonant endings and clusters

(Rogerson-Revell, 2011) so that learners know

that when it is and it is not appropriate to make

such deletions. This can also help prevent the

overgeneralisation of the rules of pronunciation

of ending sounds in English.

Vietnamese and English share six syllable-

final consonants: /p/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ (see

Table 5

Vietnamese and English Syllable Structure

Pre-

initial

(C)

Post-

initial

(C)

Pre-

final

(C)

Post-

final 1

(C)

Post-

final 2

(C)

Initial

(C)

Vowel

Final

(C)

/l/,

/r/,

/w/,

/j/

/m/,

/n/, /ŋ/,

/l/, /s/

Any (except /s/, /z/,

/s/, /z/,

/t/, /d/

/s/

/p/, /t/, /k/

/h/, /j/, /r/,

/w/)

/t/, /d/,

/θ/

Any (except

/p/, Hanoian

/j/)

/p/, /t/, /k/,

/m/, /n/, /ŋ/

Notes: 1. “-” means “impossible”

2. Adapted from Maddieson and Sandra (1984) and Rogerson-Revell (2011).

their L1. Vowel insertion can be avoided by

dividing clusters into smaller units to practise

like /s…s…s...stri:m/ for ‘stream’.

Vietnamese does not have any pre- and

post-initial and final consonants. Thus, both

initial and final consonant clusters, including

those formed by the closeness between words,

are new categories to Vietnamese L2 learners.

They tend to add a schwa between the two

consonants (Flipsen, 1992) and omission of

final consonants or endings together (Hwa-

Froelich, Hodson & Edwards, 2002). Therefore,

Vietnamese L2 learners should be informed that

both adding vowels and deleting consonants

impede intelligibility and sometimes sound

ridiculous. For instance, mispronouncing

/stri:m/ to /sətri:m/ sounds quite impolite in

3.6. Focus on consonant-to-vowel linking

Language instructors might avoid teaching

this feature of connected speech since it might

make English pronunciation become more

complicated to their students. However,

teaching appropriate linking of word-final

consonants and vowels is particularly helpful to

Vietnamese learners of English since this can

be considered as a good strategy for restricting

their habits of omitting final endings.

Moreover, teaching this feature of connected

VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 176-182

181

Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2005). Second language

accent and pronunciation teaching: A research‐based

approach. TESOL quarterly, 39(3), 379-397.

speech facilitates comprehensibility (Schairer,

1992).

Deterding, D., & Kirkpatrick, A. (2006). Emerging

south‐east Asian Englishes and intelligibility. World

Englishes, 25(3‐4), 391-409.

Flipsen Jr, P. (1992). Considerations for the assessment of

phonology in second language learners. Journal of

Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 16(3),

211-216.

4. Conclusion

In case L2 pronunciation instruction targets

the approximation of L2 sounds, not imitation,

then learning L2 pronunciation is L2 learners’

effort to modify their personalised L2 speech in

the manner in which it is understandable to

other L2 speakers. Thus, teaching L2

pronunciation should develop students’

capacity to modify their L2 productions. To this

end, the L1POR approach for pronunciation

instruction can help L2 instructors do their job

well. Nevertheless, empirical data on how

effective the L1POR approach is for

pronunciation teaching or how the approach

could be modified to be better applied in an

actual classroom is recommended.

Hillenbrand, J. M., Clark, M. J., & Houde, R. A. (2000).

Some effects of duration on vowel recognition. The

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 108(6),

3013-3022.

Hwa-Froelich, D., Hodson, B. W., & Edwards, H. T.

(2002).

Characteristics

Vietnamese

phonology. American Journal of Speech-Language

Pathology, 11(3), 264-73.

Lindblom, B. E., & Sundberg, J. E. (1971). Acoustical

consequences of lip, tongue, jaw, and larynx

movement. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of

America, 50(4B), 1166-1179.

Lisker, L., & Rossi, M. (1992). Auditory and visual cueing

of the [± rounded] feature of vowels. Language and

speech, 35(4), 391-417.

References

Maddieson, I., & Disner, S. F. (1984). Patterns of sounds.

Cambridge University Press.

Vietnamese

Rogerson-Revell, P. (2011). English phonology and

pronunciation teaching. Continuum.

Dinh, L. T., & Nguyen, V. H. (1998). Cơ cấu ngữ âm

Saito, K. (2011). Examining the role of explicit phonetic

instruction in native-like and comprehensible

pronunciation development: An instructed SLA

tiếng

Việt

[Structure

Vietnamese

phonetics]. Education Publishing House.

approach

phonology. Language

awareness, 20(1), 45-59.

English

Schairer, K. E. (1992). Native speaker reaction to non-

native speech. The Modern Language Journal, 76(3),

309-319.

Carey, M. D., Sweeting, A., & Mannell, R. (2015). An L1

point of reference approach to pronunciation

modification: Learner-centred alternatives to ‘listen

and repeat’. Journal of Academic Language and

Learning, 9(1), A18-A30.

Venkatagiri, H. S., & Levis, J. M. (2007). Phonological

awareness and speech comprehensibility: An exploratory

study. Language awareness, 16(4), 263-277.

Cunningham, U. (2009). Models and targets for the

pronunciation of English in Vietnam and

Sweden. Research in Language, 7, 113-128.

D. A. Tuan / VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 176-182

182

PHÁT ÂM DỄ HIỂU:

DẠY TIẾNG ANH CHO NGƯỜI HỌC VIỆT NAM

Đỗ Anh Tuấn

Phân hiệu Đại học Đà Nẵng tại Kon Tum

704 Phan Đình Phùng, Thành phố Kon Tum, Kon Tum, Việt Nam

Tóm tắt: Sự chuyển di âm vị từ ngôn ngữ thứ nhất (L1) khi học ngôn ngữ thứ hai hoặc ngoại ngữ (L2) là

dường như không thể tránh khỏi; mối quan tâm là liệu các âm được chuyển di mang tính tích cực hay tiêu cực và

các chiến lược sư phạm nào có thể giúp người học điều chỉnh các âm chuyển di tiêu cực. Bài báo này thảo luận

việc khai thác một cách tiếp cận mới trong dạy phát âm tiếng Anh, trong đó các âm ở L1 được dùng làm tham

chiếu (L1POR) và các ảnh hưởng âm vị học của L1 đến phát âm L2 được tính đến trong quá trình giảng dạy.

Khuyến nghị về các điểm cần lưu ý trong giảng dạy và các chiến lược giảng dạy nhằm cải thiện mức độ hiểu tiếng

Anh của người Việt được đề xuất dựa trên L1POR và các tài liệu về dạy tiếng Anh như một ngôn ngữ quốc tế.

Từ khóa: tiếng Anh, tiếng Việt, phát âm, nguyên âm, phụ âm

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