MAJOR PROBLEMS IN PRONOUNCING ENGLISH: A CASE STUDY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DALAT

Abstract

Seeing that pronunciation is one of the most important factors influencing learners’ speech intelligibility, this study investigated the sounds performed by English-majoring students at the University of Dalat. In an attempt to figure out main pronouncing errors as well as possible reasons for the students’ problems, 210 English freshmen were chosen randomly to participate in the study. The data collected from pronunciation tests and students’ recordings were analyzed descriptively with the application of Wavesurfer software version 1.8.8p5, 2013. Based on the finding results, the study highlighted four major pronunciation errors: the omission of final consonants, the mispronunciation of consonant clusters, the substitution of certain sounds, and the mispronunciation of English vowels. These errors were considered to originate from the learners’ lack of phonetic knowledge, the incompatibleness between the two languages, and a negative transference to balance with Vietnamese learners’ speech organs.