Student’s name: Nguyen Thi Thanh Hong

Supervisor’s: Nguyen Dinh Luat, MA.

Course: 2008 - 2012

Abstract

Pronunciation plays an important part in helping others understand what we are saying clearly and accurately. Dropped or missing sounds can change the meaning, which may cause serious problems in communication. The study focused on identifying common pronunciation mistakes made by English -majored juniors at HUI in producing word-final consonants and reasons for these mistakes. Questionnaires were distributed to 48 students and 20 out of 48 students were selected for interviews. Findings indicated that most participants were not able to pronounce the sounds /θ/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /l/ and devoicing. In addition, participants did not know how to produce final consonant clusters of three or four. Reasons for the pronunciation problems included the nature of the Vietnamese language, the lack of listening practice of such consonants and students’ limited knowledge of English consonants. The study suggested that teachers should help students to distinguish the linguistics differences between the Vietnamese and English language. They can use some techniques such as minimal pairs or timely feedback to help students overcome the above-mentioned pronunciation problems. In addition, students should be exposed to native speakers to practice word-final consonant problems more frequently.