Suggested techniques to deal with ending sounds errors for students in class 10A2 at Ngoc Lac ethnic boarding high school

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF THANH HOA PROVINCE
NGOC LAC ETHNIC BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL
THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES TO DEAL WITH ENDING SOUNDS ERRORS FOR STUDENTS IN CLASS 10A2 AT NGOC LAC ETHNIC BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL
The writer: Vu Thi Hoa
The post: Teacher
The theme belongs to the aspect: English
THANH HOA, 2019
TABLE OF CONTENT
Part
Content
Page
Part A
Introduction
Rationales
1
Aims of the research
2
The researched subjects
2
Method of the study
2
Part B
Content
Theorical foundation of this research
3
The current situation of the issue.
5
The solutions to solve the matter.
8
1. Suggested tips to 5 common ending sounds errors /ð/, /θ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/ 
8
2. Suggested techniques for students to deal with ending sounds errors 
9
3. The result applying the research teaching.
16
Part C
Conclusion and suggestion
18
PART A: INTRODUCTION
RATIONALES
	English has become one of the most popular languages in all over the world and in Vietnam as well. Besides, English plays an important role in the period of intergration. Thus, it has become a second language in Vietnam. English has adopted as one of the most important subjects in many schools in Vietnam. While learning English, learners seem to focus on reading and writing rather than speaking. They spend a lot of time on learning grammar for their tests and examinations in each terms, meanwhile they are quite afraid of speaking English. In high school, speaking English seems to be less paid attention than others. That is the main reason why there is a large percentage of Vietnamese people who speak English making mistakes with pronunciation. 
	In fact, there are a number of problems relating to pronunciation errors that English learners tend to make: intonation, word, sentence stress, especially ending sounds. However, Vietnamese students who study English have their own problems. In order to study these problems in depth, this research will go into details of pronunciation errors concerning ending sounds of the 10th –grade- students at Ngoc lac ethnic boarding high school.
 	As can be seen, if the learners want to speak English correctly and fluently, it is necessary to pay attention to ending sounds. Vietnamese is a kind of language which has single words with no ending sounds while these sounds play a very important role in English. It is particularly difficult for native English to identify the words being spoken without pronouncing ending sounds. As a matter of fact, ending sounds errors are very typical and popular to Vietnamese students. Therefore, it was a motivation for the author of the reasons to choose the theme: “suggested techniques to deal with ending sounds errors for students in class 10a2 at Ngoc lac ethnic boarding high school” as my research. Hopefully, this study will help students grow awareness of problems that they might have not noticed before and raise some suggestions to correct errors. And, this theme would be shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this theme. 
AIM OF THE STUDY
	The purpose of this research is to help the students realize mistakes when pronouncing ending sounds. Besides, it will help them raise awareness of their pronunciation problems. Moreover, this research also aims to help these students improve speaking skill and ending sounds pronunciation. My work helps myself to have a good document to review for my students more effectively so that they are able to cope with the exercise relating to pronunciation in their tests or exams more easily. Last but not least, I can use this document for exchanging slight experiences to the other teachers in correcting ending sounds errors.
This study will focus on two issues: The first one is to find out the ending sounds errors of the students in class 10a2 at Ngoc lac ethnic boarding high school. The second one is to give out the suggestions for students to correct these errors.
Here are the two research questions of the study:
What are the ending sound errors that the students are likely to make?
What can they do to improve English pronunciation, especially ending sounds?
THE RESEARCHED SUBJECTS.
1. Scope: Scope of the study In English, there are many problems related to pronunciation errors. However, this study will not cover all problems in learners’ pronunciation and there are so many different material resources that require a lot of time and effort while abilities and experiences of the author are limited. Therefore, this research will focus on the ending sound errors. Researching in the process of teaching English in class 10a2 (2018-2019) including 30 students at Ngoc lac boarding high school. 
2. Object: This subject is concerned with the lessons in teaching pronunciation and speaking skill in the text book English 10.
IV. METHOD OF THE STUDY.
To achieve the above mentioned aims, the study employs the following methods of study:
Studying the documents dealing with the theme (mainly the information on the Google). Reference books and previous researches related to ending sounds are review to get background knowledge of English pronunciation, ending sounds.
Using analytic methods after collecting the data from survey through answer sheet. A survey is conducted for 30 students in classes (10a2) at Ngoc lac boarding high school with a view to finding out their problems, evaluations of the matter and the difficulties that they have as well as the expectations towards pronunciation. All the necessary information needed for the findings of the survey will be collected through the observation and interview with students.
Observing and asking colleagues for ideas and experiences
Practicing the application of the study
There are many problems related to pronunciation errors. However, this study does not aim to cover all problems with pronunciation errors of learners. Within the time limitation, the research just focuses on five common ending sounds errors, that is, /ð/, /θ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/.
PART B: CONTENT
THEORICAL FOUNDATION OF THIS RESEARCH.
	To every English speaking learner, the first thing they need to learn is pronunciation. They have to know how to pronounce a word exactly before they learn the other things. This part explains various aspects related to the topic of pronunciation, especially ending sounds. It is started with a brief description of pronunciation and its importance, general knowledge about English sounds, English ending sounds and then show some previous studies on some common mistakes about final consonants that English learners in Vietnam tend to make. 
1. English pronunciation 
1.1. What is pronunciation? 
Pronunciation is one of the subjects in English that each student has to learn at least one time. There are a lot of definitions of pronunciation and each one is different from each other. First of all, according to definition in Oxford Dictionaries, pronunciation was defined as: the way in which a word is pronounced. Besides, pronunciation was also put as “the way in which a language is spoken” (Oxford Advance Learner’s Encyclopedic, 1992:718). 
1.2. The importance of English pronunciation.
In order to speak English correctly and fluently, pronunciation should be paid more attention to. Right pronunciation can help with the process of acquiring new vocabulary. Pronouncing words is often a part of memorizing them in second language learning, so getting a strong, basic foundation in correct pronunciation early on will equate to more effective learning overall. Obliviously, no one can deny the importance of pronunciation. It is considered as one of the most significant factors in English speaking.
1.3. What is English pronunciation error?
When learning any language, making mistakes in pronunciation is unavoidable, especially for new English learners. Error can be defined “the flawed side of learner speech or writing “ which” deviates from some selected norm of mature language performance” by Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982:138).
Richards (1971) acknowledges two different kinds of errors: performance errors, caused by, such as fatigue and inattention, and competence errors resulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of the language. 
	In short, every English learner would make pronunciation mistakes at least once time while learning speaking and each one has their own problem. However, students should recognize and solve their pronunciation problem as soon as possible.
1.4. English ending sounds.
	The word “ending sound” is pretty popular in speaking. To understand easily, “ending sounds” are sounds that occur at the end of the word. It refers to the consonant sounds as the word can end with one or more consonant sounds 
Ghi chú: Mục 1,2 tác giả tham khảo từ TLTK [1], [2] [3],[4]
(consonant clusters). Ending sounds are called Codas: “the coda is the final consonant or consonant cluster”. There are 4 consonants in a coda. If there are no consonants at the end of the word, it has a zero coda. A single consonant is called the final consonant. Any consonant except “h, r, w and j” may be a final coda. When there are two or more consonants standing at the end of the word, the terms “pre-final” and “post- final” consonants are used.
Pre –final includes: /m/, /n/, / η /, /l/, /s/
Post- final includes : /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/
Two consonant clusters: 
Pre- final: /m/, /n/, / η /, /l/, /s/ followed by a final consonant
Consonant plus post –final /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/
Example: help, bank, books, blind, etc
Three consonant clusters:
Pre –final plus final plus post –final (eg : stopped, speaks)
Final plus post- final plus post final /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/,/θ/ (eg: next, thousand)
Four consonant clusters:
Most are pre-final plus final plus post-final (eg: twelfths, prompts). Occasionally, there is one final and three post final consonants (eg: sixths, texts) 
Ending sound errors
	According to Mark (2008), ending sound errors can be defined as “the inaccurate pronunciation of the final consonant in a word”. Here under is introduction about 6 types of ending sounds errors according to Treiman (1989)
Cluster reduction: this is the “deletion of one or more consonants from a target cluster so that only a single consonant occurs at syllable margins”
Cluster simplification: The error occurs when one or some elements of a cluster being is produced in a different manner from the target phoneme.
Epenthesis: this is the insertion of some vowel ( normally a schwa) between cluster elements
Coalescence: It occurs when the yeilded pronunciation contains a new consonant composed of features from the original consonants.
Omitting nasal and liquid sounds: In consonants cluster consisting of pre final+ final consonants with nasals (/n/, /m/) or liquids (/r/, /l/) as the first element, (/m, n, l, r/ + final consonant), nasals and liquid sounds are often omitted .
Phonetically possible spelling: In representing the first consonant of a
cluster, spellers tend to spell words in an inaccurate but phonetically plausible ways. 
 In sum, ending sound errors were divided into 3 groups:
Reduction is omitting the final consonant or one element of a cluster.
Insertion is inserting a consonant to the ending of word.
Substitution is replacing an English consonant by a phonetically similar
of Vietnamese sound. In current study, the findings of students’ tapes recorded and observation will be analyzed according to the three types of errors as mentioned above. 
Existing studies on some common mistakes about final consonants that English learners in Vietnam tend to make.
	To English learners such as Vietnamese, pronunciation errors with final consonants are extremely popular. As the research on difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English final consonants, she proved that Vietnamese does not have the same final consonants like English. There are many consonants that exist in English but do not in Vietnamese. Moreover, the way that English speakers pronounce the ending sounds is absolutely different from the one deeply rooted in Vietnamese learners.That is a big barrier to Vietnamese learners who are studying English. However, there were some study on this problem and the tips to overcome. According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992), they pointed out some common mistakes that Vietnamese students often make. Firstly, it was the word-final voiceless stop consonants problem: /p/, /t/, /k/. In Vietnamese, these three consonants occur at the end of a word, but the others are never released in final position and are much shorter than their English equivalents. It means that even when Vietnamese speakers pronounce these consonants in final position, English speakers find it difficult to hear. Secondly, it was the mistake of voiced and voiceless stops in word final position: /b/, /d/, /g/, vs. /p/, /t/, /k/ because Vietnamese has no voiced stops at the end of words. Last but not least, it was about word final fricative consonants: /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, and /d /. These fricatives occur in English but do not in Vietnam. It might be the reason why Vietnamese speakers often omit these fricatives at the ends of the sounds. Besides, according to Common pronunciation problems of Vietnamese learners of English by Ha Cam Tam, she classified consonants errors into three main types: Sound Omitted, Sound confusion and Sound redundancy. Of those, sound omission was the most common errors that Vietnamese learners tend to make. Here are sounds that were most frequently omitted by Vietnamese learners (Ha Cam Tam): /s, z, dʒ, t, l, k, ks, v/. From the above valuable and reliable information, the author intends to discuss the problem in details as well as make use the three criteria above for assessment and analysis. All the theoretical background of the study was presented in this chapter with the purpose of giving a general view to readers to get information about English pronunciation, ending sound, ending sounds errors and some previous studies on related topic. 
THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE ISSUE.
Method of the study
	The research is done qualitatively in the English class - Class 10 a2 (including 30 students) - At the beginning of school year 2018-2019 at Ngoc lac ethnic boarding High School. In this survey, I use the survey questionnaire for students. This survey is designed to collect information for the study on “An investigation into the reality of pronouncing the ending sounds with the students in grade 10 at Ngoc lac Ethnic Boarding High School. All related data which used to analyze for this study were collected from an English major class, 10a2 by survey questionnaires for 3 main following purposes:
To find out the student’s attitude about English pronunciation and its importance.
To get information of student’s pronunciation problem of ending sounds.
To inquire about students/s opinions on suggested techniques in order to solve the problems.
The reality of teaching and learning English ending sounds with the students in grade 12 at Ngoc lac boarding high school. 
The whole procedure of teaching and learning is implemented similarly to all students of the class after all of them give consent to be part of the research. However, due to the limit of the study, I only focus to collect information from the learning engagement of class 10 a2 during this process as the data for analysis. Below is the survey of the practical situation of learning English ending sounds in grade 10 at Ngoc lac Ethnic Boarding High School.
 Table 1: Practical Situation of learning English pronunciation of the students in 10 a2
Questions for students
A
B
C
D
1. Which factor do you consider the most important in English speaking?
Grammar and vocabulary
30 %
Pronunciation
40%
intonation
20 %
spelling
10%
2. How important pronunciation in speaking English?
Very important
50%
Important
26,67%
Normal
16,67%
Not important
6,66%
3. How often do you make pronunciation mistakes when speaking English in class?
always
30%
Often
60%
sometimes
10%
never
0%
Which pronunciation mistakes do you tend to encounter when speaking English?
Word and sentence stress
33,3%
Vowel misunderstanding
10%
intonation
10%
Ending sounds
46,7 %
5. Does your teacher give you any active activities to improve your pronouncing ending sounds?
Always
10%
Sometimes
30%
Rarely
40%
Never
20%
	From the table 1, we can see that teaching and learning ending sounds are not often improved at Ngoc lac Boarding High School. There are few activities and exercises about ending sounds in curriculum at 10th grade. This may not make it attractive to learners as a classroom activity. When being asked some questions, students answered that they often omit or pronounce wrong ending sounds while speaking English. It is because they often see learning ending sounds as hard work, confusing, unrewarding.
Some more questions are conducted to find out student’s most common ending sounds.
	Question 6: What are your ending sound mistakes that you often make when speaking English?
Ending sounds
Percentage (%)
Ending sounds
Percentage (%)
/p/
20
/k/
16,67
/b/
26,67
/g/
23,33
/t/
30
/f/
36,67
/d/
30
/v/
20
/θ/
66,67
/ʃ/
70
/ð/
80
/tʃ/
70
/s/
40
/dʒ/
80
	Table 2: The percentage of the ending sounds that students have difficulties 
	This table was completed by collecting results from the question 3 of the survey questionnaires. All the English ending sounds were given out for students to choose. Of those, the underlined sounds are the sounds that most of them find it hard to pronounce. They are: /ð/, /θ/, /tʃ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/. These five sounds had a high percentage (over 60%) chose by students. This finding proved that students have the same difficulties in pronouncing these ending sounds. For instance, the word “breathe”, “bathe” Students could not figure out how to pronounce this.
In order to find out the reason why students have difficulties with ending sounds, I carried out another question: 
	Question 7: What are your reasons for difficulties when pronouncing ending sounds? 
The answers are stated by some main reason following:
No perception of how to pronounce these sounds.
No existence of the sound in mother tongue.
No importance of pronouncing ending sounds.
Interference of friends’ pronunciation.
No habit of practicing English pronunciation.
Shyness in making mistakes when pronouncing.
Finding out the reasons of the students’ difficulties on pronouncing ending sounds can be considered as a key to give out the solutions.
	Question 8: which solution do you agree to use in order to avoid pronunciation mistakes?
Solutions
Agree
Disagree (%)
Interesting (%)
Not interesting (%)
Playing games
100
0
Sing English songs
90
10 
Doing pronunciation exercises in text books
30 
50 
20 
Tape recording
60 %
10%
30%
Practicing in pairs
50%
20%
30%
Table 3: Student’s opinion about solutions to cope with ending sounds
The table above presents that playing games and singing English songs are the most student’s favorite solutions. Besides, there are some great solutions agreed by students.
 To the students at Ngoc lac boarding school, their speaking skill seems to be pretty bad, especially in pronouncing ending sounds. The thesis is intended to point out the ending sounds errors that students tend to make and the solutions to solve the problems. The research is a useful reference for students to learn English pronunciation and correct ending sounds errors. Through studying myself, exchanging with my colleagues as well as observing and investigating the learning method of students in real lessons I would like to give solutions to the problems. I truly hope that this subject will be a meaningful document for readers 
THE SOLUTIONS TO SOLVE THE MATTER.
This part will introduce the readers some suggestions, some tips to correct ending sounds errors