HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

GRADUATION PAPER

THE DIFFICULTIES AND THE
BENEFITS IN LEARNING PHONETICS AND
PHONOLOGY TO IMPROVE LANGUAGE SKILLS

Advisor: MS ĐỖ THỊ LAN, M.A.
Student: NGUYỄN HUỲNH THU HỒNG
Student’s number: 15DH710093
Class: BA1501
Major: English Translation and Interpretation

Ho Chi Minh City, May 15th, 2019


ACKNOWLEDGMENT
It is a great pleasure for me to undertake this graduation paper. I owe a great
debt of thanks to many people for their endless supports during the time when I
carried out this research.
Firstly, I am of course grateful to my advisor – Mrs. Do Thi Lan for providing
me good materials and spending a lot of time proofreading my paper carefully. She
has given me the most valuable advice since the beginning of this research. Without
her guidance, this research could not be developed in the right direction. Once again,
I am deeply thankful to her.
I would like to thank the teachers from the Department of Foreign Languages:
Ms. Bui Thi Thanh Truc for giving precious advice in the orientation day of doing

the research, to Mr. Tran Thanh Tu for his support in the administrative tasks, to Mr.
Vuu Tien Vi for allowing me to conduct the survey in his classes.
My heartfelt appreciation is also extended to the students of six classes
TA1504, TA1505, BA1503, TA1606, AT1701, TA1714 for their enthusiastic
participation in my survey.
I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to Mrs. Tran Thanh Truc and
Mr. Dang Minh Huy for inspiring my enthusiasm in learning Phonetics and
Phonology at HUFLIT. It is their instructions that help me gain basic knowledge of
the subjects and choose to develop this topic in my research paper.
Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family for encouraging me
throughout the process of writing this dissertation.

NGUYEN HUYNH THU HONG – BA1501| 2


ABSTRACT
Studying English Phonetics and Phonology is always essential for people who
learn English as a second language. Learners seem to be aware of the importance, but
unfortunately not all are willing to study this aspect effectively. Moreover, they also
lack application of Phonetics and Phonology knowledge in improving their
pronunciation and fluency in daily communication. The result is that many students
still experience major problems when they communicate in English and do not feel
confident when pronouncing English words.
This research was carried out at Ho Chi Minh University of Foreign Languages
and Information Technology to identify the difficulties of the participants and
benefits of learning Phonetics and Phonology to improve language skills. 170
students of the Department of Foreign Languages whose major is English were asked
to participate in the survey. The questionnaire aims at finding out the students’
attitude toward studying the subjects, the difficulties they often encounter during the
courses and the benefits brought about by studying of Phonetics and Phonology.

The results of this research indicated that a large number of HUFLIT English
major students found it difficult to study the two subjects and had trouble in
pronouncing almost all the group of speech sounds, especially diphthongs, affricate
and fricative consonants. They agreed the study at school was full of theory and
lacked adequate practices. In addition, they have gained basic knowledge of the
subjects, but few applications into daily communication make it harder for them to
improve the quality of their speech.
Based on the findings of the research, it is suggested that students should pay
more attention to practicing accurate pronunciation. Moreover, more practical
methods need to be applied to facilitate the study of the subjects. Teachers should
apply more activities in class to help students practice pronunciation. Besides, certain
tables and graphs as summaries of the key knowledge should also be introduced to
make it easier for students to learn the theoretical knowledge.

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BẢNG TÓM TẮT
Việc học Ngữ Âm học và Âm vị học Tiếng Anh là vô cùng cần thiết đối với
những ai học Tiếng Anh là ngôn ngữ thứ hai của mình. Dù có nhận thức được tầm
quan trọng của hai môn học này, nhưng không phải người học nào cũng sẵn sàng học
chúng hiệu quả. Hơn nữa, người học cũng thiếu áp dụng những kiến thức đã học được
về Ngữ âm học và Âm vị học vào trong giao tiếp hằng ngày để cải thiện phát âm cũng
như độ trôi chảy của bài nói. Kết quả là nhiều sinh viên vẫn gặp phải những vấn đề
lớn khi giao tiếp bằng và không tự tin khi phát âm tiếng Anh.
Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện tại Trường đại học Ngoại ngữ và Tin học
TPHCM với mục đích xác định những khó khăn và lợi ích của việc học hai mơn học:
Ngữ Âm học và Âm vị học để cải thiện khả năng ngôn ngữ. 170 sinh viên của Khoa
Ngoại Ngữ chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh đã tham gia khảo sát. Bảng khảo sát nhằm
xác định thái độ của các sinh viên đối với việc học hai môn Ngữ Âm học và Âm vị

học, đồng thời, tìm ra những khó khăn mà sinh viên thường gặp phải trong suốt quá
trình học và những lợi ích đạt được từ hai mơn học này.
Kết quả cho thấy đa số các bạn sinh viên chuyên ngành Ngôn Ngữ Anh tại
trường HUFLIT nhận thấy hai môn học này rất khó tiếp thu và gặp nhiều khó khăn
khi phát âm hầu hết các nhóm âm trong tiếng Anh, đặc biệt là nhóm nhị trùng âm,
nhóm phụ âm xát và phụ âm tắc xát. Các bạn đều đồng ý rằng việc học ở trường thiên
về lý thuyết và thiếu các hoạt động ứng dụng tại lớp. Mặt khác, dù sinh viên đều đã
có kiến thức cơ bản về hai môn học nhưng việc thiếu ứng dụng vào giao tiếp hằng
ngày khiến họ gặp khó khăn trong việc cải thiện chất lượng cuộc giao tiếp của mình.
Dựa vào kết quả của cuộc khảo sát, các bạn sinh viên cần phải chú ý hơn đến
việc luyện tập phát âm chuẩn. Ngoài ra, nhiều phương pháp nên được ứng dụng để
tạo điều kiện cho việc học hai môn học Ngữ Âm học và Âm vị học tại trường dễ dàng
hơn. Giáo viên nên áp dụng nhiều hoạt động hơn để sinh viên có cơ hội được thực
hành ngay tại lớp. Bên cạnh đó, nên cung cấp biểu đồ tóm tắt những kiến thức cốt lõi
của môn học để giúp sinh viên dễ dàng tiếp thu các kiến thức lý thuyết.

NGUYEN HUYNH THU HONG – BA1501| 4


TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ....................................................................................... 2
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... 3
I. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. 8
1.1 Background ........................................................................................... 8
1.2 Problem Identification .......................................................................... 8
1.3 Objectives .............................................................................................. 9
1.4 Scope ...................................................................................................... 9
1.5 Organization .......................................................................................... 9
II. LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................. 10

2.1 What are Phonetics and Phonology?.................................................. 10
2.2 The importance of Phonetics and Phonology knowledge .................. 10
2.3 Terminologies in Phonetics and Phonology ....................................... 11
2.3.1 Phonemes.................................................................................... 11
2.3.2 Syllables ...................................................................................... 12
2.4 Key aspects of Phonetics and Phonology learning ............................. 13
2.4.1 Phonetic transcription ............................................................... 13
2.4.2 Stress .......................................................................................... 14
2.4.3 Connected speech ....................................................................... 15
III. RESEARCH METHODOLODY ................................................................. 18
3.1 Research Approach ............................................................................. 18
3.2 Description of the Subjects ................................................................. 18
3.3 Description of the Materials ............................................................... 18
3.4 Procedure ............................................................................................ 19
3.5 Statistical Treatment ........................................................................... 19

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IV. RESULTS/FINDINGS .................................................................................. 20
4.1 Results of the multiple choice questions ............................................. 20
4.1.1 The attitude toward studying Phonetics and Phonology
(Appendix 1 – Question 1) ....................................................... 20
4.1.2

The

necessity

of


studying Phonetics and Phonology

(Appendix 1 – Question 2) ...................................................... 21
4.1.3 The frequency of applying Phonetics and Phonology knowledge
to improve language skills (Appendix 1 – Question 15) ......... 22
4.1.4

Difficulties

in

learning Phonetics and Phonology

(Appendix 1 – Question 3, 4, 9)............................................... 22
4.1.5 Improvements of certain skills thanks to Phonology knowledge
(Appendix 1 – Question 6) ....................................................... 25
4.1.6 Common improvements after studying Phonetics and Phonology
(Appendix 1 – Question 8) ....................................................... 26
4.1.7 Aspects of Phonology applied in daily communication by native
speakers (Appendix 1 – Question 10) ...................................... 27
4.1.8

Ability

to

recognize weak-forms in speech

(Appendix 1 – Question 11)...................................................... 28

4.1.9

The

level

of

understanding aspects of Phonology

(Appendix 1 – Question 13)...................................................... 30
4.1.10

The

importance

of

studying Phonetics and

Phonology (Appendix 1 – Question 18) ................................... 31
4.2 Results of the broad questions ............................................................ 32
V. DISCUSSION.................................................................................................. 34
5.1 The difficulty in learning Phonetics and Phonology .......................... 34
5.2 The benefits of Phonetics and Phonology knowledge ........................ 35
VI. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 37

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6.1 Limitations .......................................................................................... 37
6.2 Implications ......................................................................................... 37
6.3 Recommendations ............................................................................... 38
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 41
APPENDIX A: SURVEY QUESTIONS (ENGLISH VERSION) .................... 43
APPENDIX B: SURVEY QUESTIONS (VIETNAMESE VERSION) ............. 48

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1

Background

It is undeniable that the goal of learning a new language is the ability to
facilitate effective communication with native speakers. When speaking a language,
it is essential to make yourself understood. Therefore, it is important to learn how to
speak a language properly rather than just have a “good enough” attitude and to
reduce the tendency to use the native language’s pronunciation to pronounce
unfamiliar sounds in a new language.
Therefore, students in the Department of Foreign Languages at Ho Chi Minh
University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology have been introduced
to the courses Phonetics and Phonology as compulsory subjects. The goal of studying
the subjects is to help learners have a better understanding of the English speech
sounds as well as the underlying principles regulating the use of sounds in spoken
English.
As a matter of fact, students often found Phonetics and Phonology full of

theory and lack of practical activities, so they tend to skip classes and do not pay
much attention to study these subjects to better their language skills.
A survey was carried out at HUFLIT from March 29th, 2019 to April 2nd, 2019.
One hundred and seventy DFL students who had studied Phonetics and Phonology
before were asked about the difficulties and benefits of learning Phonetics and
Phonology. Among the questions in the questionnaire, the participants were asked
about the necessity of studying Phonetics and Phonology as well as the extent to
which they applied the knowledge to daily communication.

1.2 Problem Identification
English is complicated in its spelling system. When English learners who lack
Phonetics knowledge encounter a new word and don’t know how to pronounce it,
they have a tendency to replace the sounds by their own language pronunciation.

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Though DFL students had learnt of Phonetics and Phonology before, a large
majority of them are still unable to read phonetics transcription in the dictionary and
do not feel confident when speaking English both in and out of class.
Moreover, a lack of understanding aspects of phonology leads to poor fluency
and mispronunciation of many students.

1.3 Objectives
This research has the following aims:
(1) to determine the difficulties EFL students often encounter when learning
Phonetics and Phonology;
(2) to point out the benefits of studying these subjects to improve
learner’s language skills; and
(3) to give some recommendations to facilitate the learning of these two

subjects.

1.4 Scope
The focus of this paper is on the difficulties and the benefits in learning
Phonetics and Phonology of DFL students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign
Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT).

1.5 Organization
This paper opens with an introduction about the learning of English Phonetics
and Phonology among HUFLIT’s DFL students and the research questions. The next
chapter is devoted to the analysis of the previous research and the definition of
technical terms related to English Phonetics and Phonology. How the study was
carried out will be demonstrated in the third chapter. Chapter four will give a
highlight on the research findings and analysis. Answers to the research questions
and interpretations of the results will be discussed in chapter five. Finally, the last
chapter gives a conclusion including limitations, implications and recommendations
for effective learning of English Phonetics and Phonology.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Since this study aims at investigating the difficulties and the benefits in
learning Phonetics and Phonology to improve language skills of students, this chapter
reviews studies of Phonetics and Phonology learning. The definition and explanation
of some special terms related to the topic will also be introduced briefly.

2.1 What are Phonetics and Phonology?
Phonetics and Phonology are one of the four core areas of linguistics dealing

with pronunciation, or, more precisely, with speech sound and the sound system of a
language. (Skandera & Burleigh, 2005)
A more detailed definition of Phonetics and Phonology given by Davenport
and Hannahs (2005) stated:
“Phonetics deals with speech sounds themselves, how they are made
(articulatory phonetics, how they are perceived (auditory phonetics) and the physics
involved (acoustic phonetics). Phonology deals with how these speech sounds are
organized into systems for each individual language; for example: how the sounds
can be combined, the relations between them and how they affect each other”

2.2 The importance of Phonetics and Phonology knowledge
The goals of studying English Phonetics and Phonology is to help learners
develop a more standard and native-like pronunciation to permit effective
communication when speaking English, and to improve their listening
comprehension.
Firstly, learners can acquire standard pronunciation like native speaker of a
language thanks to Phonetics and Phonology knowledge. When learning to transcribe
speech sounds using symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet, learners can
improve their own pronunciation, feel confident in realizing small changes of sounds

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in different languages and develop the ability to produce accurate pronunciation like
native speakers (Johnson, J., & Kozikowska, M., 2009). Sharing the similar idea,
Collins & Mees (2013) quoted:
“If you’re a non-native learner, it will also assist in improving your
pronunciation and listening abilities. In either case, you will end up better able to
teach English pronunciation to others and possibly find it easier to learn how to speak
other languages better yourself.”.

Secondly, Phonetics and Phonology information is believed to facilitate the
ability to understand conversations of native speakers. Brown (1990) points out the
importance of teaching Phonetics to improve listening comprehension. He explains
that when learners listen to the sounds of the foreign language, they find it hard to
follow because the sound are organized differently from their own language.
Therefore, it is essential for students to figure out and distinguish different sound of
the foreign language and gain better performance in their listening comprehension.
Moreover, to understand fully how the sound of a language works, it is recommended
that learners should study both Phonetics and Phonology (Collins, 2003 & Roach,
2000)

2.3 Terminologies in Phonetics and Phonology
2.3.1 Phonemes
According to Skandera & Burleigh (2005), a phoneme can be defined as “the
smallest distinctive, or contrastive unit in the sound system of a language”. To
identify phonemes in a word, we must divide speech up into smaller pieces called
“segments”. (Roach, 2000)
For instance, with the word “man”, we can easily identify the three segments:
/m/, / æ/ and /n/. But it is not always easy to identify the number of segments in a
word. As a matter of fact, English has total 44 unique sounds, also known as
“phonemes” even though there are only 26 letters in the English alphabet. Therefore,
it is important to note that the spelling of a word may not appear exactly the way it is

NGUYEN HUYNH THU HONG – BA1501| 11


pronounced (Brown, 1990). For example, the phoneme /oʊ/ can occur in the
pronunciation of these words: go, snow, hope, goat, soul, dough, toe. As a result, it
is usually difficult for learners of English as a second language to write the correct
spelling of the word they hear. Learning phonemes of English properly can help

learners tell the difference of one word or meaning from another and select the correct
alternative for each word.
Roach (2000) suggested that it is essential for English learners to be aware of
the difference between phonemes and letters of the alphabet to practice pronunciation
better.

2.3.2 Syllables
Syllable in English is a term hard to define to most people. Native speakers of
English can easily tell the number of the syllables in a given word or sentence even
though they cannot give the exact definition of the term. (Roach, 2000; Skandera &
Burleigh, 2005)
Skandera & Burleigh (2005) define a syllable as “the smallest rhythmic unit
of spoken language, for example, a unit that is typically larger than a single sound
and smaller than a word”
Take the word “book” and “reading” for example, we can easily recognize that
when pronouncing these words, “book” has one “syllable” and “reading” has two
syllables.
Roach (2000) describes syllable as “consisting of a centre which has little or
no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this
centre, there will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound”. If syllable
is defined in this way, there would be a problem of how to decide the division between
them, which is agreed by many researchers.
For example, in the word “extra” / ekstrə/ , it is obvious that the word has two
syllables, but the possibilities of dividing the word into syllables can be various as
follows:

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1.


e+kstrə

2.

ek+strə

3.

eks+trə

4.

ekst+rə

5.

ekstr+ə

The most common ways to divide this word would be (2) and (3), but none of
them can be said to be the correct choice. We usually think that when encountering a
word, it is necessary to identify the number of its syllables, but it is only useful when
it comes to phonological point of view (Roach, 2000)
Roach (2000) stated many important findings when analyzing syllables as
follows:
“The word can begin with a vowel, or with one, two or three consonants. No
word begins with more than three consonants. In the same way, we can look at how
a word ends when it is the last word spoken before a pause; it can end with a vowel,
or with one, two or three or (in a small number of cases) four consonants. No word
ends with more than four consonants”

As a result, knowing how to divide words into syllables can help to speed the
process of decoding, pronounce new and hard words more accurately and fluently
and spell words properly.

2.4 Key aspects of Phonetics and Phonology learning
2.4.1 Phonetic transcription
Ogden (2009) has presented the need to use phonetic transcription to represent
the sounds of speech to make it available in a more permanent form. He defines
“phonetic transcription” as “the practice of using written letters to represent the
sounds of speech”.
Obviously, it is not an easy task to transcribe the sounds we hear, since
English has different phonetic values of letters. For instance, <g> in ‘get’ and ‘gem’;
<a> in ‘sofa’, ‘hat’ and ‘hate’ are pronounced completely differently although the

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sounds are presented by the same letter. Ogden (2009) also listed some common
mistakes when students learn to write correct phonetic transcription. Those are:
“transcribing the same sounds differently (or different sounds the same);
importing letters from spelling (like [c] for [k], or ‘silent’ letters like <k> in <kn->);
using strong vowels where weak ones are more usual (e.g. [fɔ_, fɔr] for [fə, fər] in
‘for’)”
Therefore, a number of writing systems built on phonetic principles have been
invented over the centuries. The most widely used is the alphabet of the International
Phonetic Association. Learning how to write phonetic transcription by using symbols
from the International Phonetic Alphabet will help learners get through trouble
pronouncing English words and become more aware of their own speech to improve
pronunciation.


2.4.2 Stress
Stress is frequently found when English native speakers communicate.
McMahon (2002) defines “stress” as follows:
“Stress is a culminative property, signalled by a number of subsidiary
phonetic factors which work together to pick out a stressed syllable from the
unstressed ones which surround it”
Dealing with stress is a major problem that non-native English speakers
usually find difficult to comprehend. Since English is known as a stressed language,
many speakers focus more on specific stressed words and glide quickly over the less
important words when they speak. This makes speakers of syllabic languages whose
syllable has equal importance and equal time difficult to understand. (Carmen, 2010)
Stress is categorized into word stress and sentence stress. While word stress is
the key to excellent English pronunciation, sentence stress plays an important role in
helping learners understand spoken English, especially dialogue with fast pace.
According to Brown (1990), it is necessary to pay more attention to stressed
syllable in a word and to the words in stream of speech when learning English.

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Carmen (2010) indicates the importance of “content words” when dealing with
sentence stress:
“If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still
understand the sentence. If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will
not understand the sentence. The sentence has no sense or meaning.”

2.4.3 Connected speech
According to Underhill (2005), “continuous connected speech consists of a
flow of sounds which are modified by a system of simplifications through which
phonemes are connected, grouped and modified”.

Indeed, in normal informal speech, native speakers tend to simplify
articulation process rather than pronouncing words with maximal clarity when they
attempt to get their message across to the listeners. They may reduce any words or
phonemes that are unnecessary to the overall comprehension of the conversation. As
a result, when ESL learners who previously were exposed to slowly and clearly
spoken language may not understand what native speakers said in normal speech.
(Brown, 1990)
In accordance with Brown’s viewpoint, Reed & Levis (2019) express that:
“In spoken language, frustrating misunderstandings in communication may
arise because native speakers do not pronounce English the way L2 learners are
taught in the classroom. L2 learners’ inability to decipher foreign speech comes from
the fact that they develop their listening skills based on the adapted English speaking
styles they experience in an EFL class.”
Therefore, learning aspects of connected speech is the key to comprehend fast
and natural speech of native speakers. If learners are unaware of the simplification
that native speakers make in normal speech, it may affect the learners’ listening
ability. As far as Brown (1990) concerned, teachers should aim to raise students’
awareness of reduced forms so that the can understand them in daily communication.

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Regular patterns of simplification that occur in normal speech include:
(1)

weak forms

(2)

link-ups


(3)

elision

(4)

assimilation

According to a definition given by The British Council - the UK’s international
organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, “weak forms are
syllable sounds that become unstressed in connected speech and are often then
pronounced as a schwa /ə/”. For example, the word “that” can be pronounced as
/ðət/ (weak form) or /ˈðæt/ (strong form)
Realizing the importance of weak forms in daily communication, Roach
(2000) pointed out two main reasons why English learners should learn how they are
used. Firstly, most learners tend to avoid “all-strong-form” pronunciation, as it will
make their language sounds foreign and over formalized. Secondly, it is difficult for
non-native speakers who are unfamiliar with the use of weak forms to understand
native speakers who normally use weak forms in their speech.
In terms of elision, Skandera & Burleigh (2005) defines it “the omission of
one or more sounds in spoken language”
For example:
(1) police: the word “police” can be pronounced as /pliːs/ instead of /pəˈliːs/
(2) correct: the word “correct” can be pronounced as /krekt/ instead of
/kəˈrekt/
(3) waste of money: the phrase “waste of money” can be pronounced as /weɪst
ə ˈmʌnɪ/ instead of /weɪst əv ˈmʌnɪ/
According to Roach (2000), it is more important for foreign learners to be
aware of missing phonemes which they expected to hear in the speech of native

speakers rather than learn to produce elisions in their own speech. However, learners

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should first identify the problems that they often face in listening to colloquial,
connected speech in order to find the best way to improve their comprehension skill.
On the subject of linking, Skandera & Burleigh (2005) refer it to “a transition
or link between sounds or words”. The most prominent example of linking which is
widely accepted is the use of linking r:
“The term refers to a link between words through the articulation of a
normally unarticulated word-final /r/, which is articulated only when preceded by a
vowel in the same word, and followed by an initial vowel in the next word”
For example:
(1)

“Four” /fɔː/ but “four eggs” /fɔːr egz/

(2)

“far: /fɑː/

but “far away” /fɑːr əˈweɪ/

Roach (2000) also comments on the practical importance of practicing
“linking”. He said that learning to produce linking in daily speech will contribute to
the acquisition of English fluency of language learners.
According to Collins & Mees (2013), assimilation is the process where
“one phoneme is effectively replaced by a second under the influence of a third”.
For example, the word “broadcast” can be pronounced as /ˈbrɔːgkɑːst/ in

connected speech instead of /ˈbrɔːdkɑːst/ in careful pronunciation.
ESL learners should notice that assimilation often occurs in fast, informal
speech rather than slow and careful speech. Though there is general agreement on the
value of studying aspects of connected speech, Roach (2000) suggested that it would
be insignificant for all English learners to study how to produce English assimilation.

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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLODY
3.1 Research Approach
Since the purpose of the study was to find out the difficulties and the benefits
of acquiring Phonetics and Phonology knowledge to improve language skills, it is
appropriate to carry out quantitative research that does not require experimental
approach to accomplish the most possible objectives of the research.

3.2 Description of the Subjects
The investigation was performed at Ho Chi Minh City University of
Foreign Languages and Information Technology from March 29th, 2019 to April 2nd,
2019. A group of 170 students in Foreign Language Department whose major is in
English were asked to participate in this survey. All of these students have studied
Phonetics and Phonology before.

3.3 Description of the Materials
The questionnaires were written in Vietnamese for participants to easily
understand including 18 multiple choice questions and 2 open questions at the end.
(Question 19 and question 20)
The open questions were designed to identify the difficulties as well as the
benefits in learning Phonetics and Phonology to improve language skills among

students. Firstly, they were asked to express their attitude toward the studying of these
two subjects. The next group of questions were about the difficulties they often have
when it comes to aspects of speech in English. Then the researcher asked the
participants’ opinions about the benefits of learning Phonetics and Phonology. There
was also a question asking participants about the frequency of applying the
knowledge acquired from the courses in their daily communication practice. Lastly,
the researcher measured the participant’s level of understanding Phonetics and
Phonology by giving out some specific questions related to the subjects.
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There were also two open questions asking students about their difficulties in
learning Phonetics and Phonology as well as their opinions and recommendations to
study the subjects better.

3.4 Procedure
Firstly, 20 questions were made with 18 close questions and 2 open questions.
Secondly, the questionnaire of 20 questions was distributed to 170 students of
six classes including 37 copies for TA1504, 25 copies for TA1505, 18 copies for
BA1503, 24 copies for TA1606, 39 copies for AT1701, and 27 copies for TA1714.
Then, the researcher clarifies carefully how to do the survey in Vietnamese to ensure
that all of the students honestly understand the content of the questionnaire. However,
the survey required students to answer genuinely to assure the reliability of the
findings. After 15 minutes, the researcher assembles the questionnaires from the
participants. The copies were then collected for data analysis.

3.5 Statistical Treatment
After much investigation, the data will be performed in Excel because
this tool is widely known for its data management. The processed data are shown in
Results.


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CHAPTER 4
RESULTS/FINDINGS
170 English Major Juniors from the Foreign Languages Department in Ho Chi
Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology were given
the questionnaire of 18 closed questions and 2 opened questions related to the
studying of Phonetics and Phonology. The results of the survey questionnaire will be
presented in the following pages.

4.1 Results of the multiple choice questions
4.1.1 The attitude toward studying Phonetics and Phonology
(Appendix 1 – Question 1)
Phonetics and Phonology are important subjects in the study of Linguistics.
Having a good background of the two subjects plays a significant role in making
speech intelligible. The need to figure out the attitude of EFL students toward the
studying of these two subfields relating to speech sounds of English is undoubtedly
necessary.
15 (8.8%)

72 (42.4%)

Easy

Rather difficult

10 (5.9%)


73 (42.9%)

Difficult

Extremely difficult

Figure 1: Students' attitude toward studying Phonetics and Phonology

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Figure 1 illustrates the extent how difficult learning Phonetics and Phonology
is. Overall, it can be seen that most HUFLIT English Majors found the study of these
two subjects hard to comprehend. 72 (42.4%) students said that it is difficult to learn
the two categories and 15 (8.8%) participants considered Phonetics and Phonology
“extremely difficult”. A majority of them (42.9%) were for “rather difficult”. Totally,
160 (94.1%) participants thought that the subjects were “challenging”. Only 10
(5.9%) believed that learning Phonetics and Phonology is easy. The results showed
that more efforts need to be done to facilitate the studying of these subjects at
university for EFL students.

4.1.2

The necessity of studying Phonetics and Phonology

(Appendix 1 – Question 2)

12.4%

8.2%


Unnecessary
Don’t know whether
it’s necessary or not

21.8%

Necessary
Absolutely necessary
57.6%

Figure 2: The necessity of studying Phonetics and Phonology

The graph above showed the need of acquiring Phonetics and Phonology at
university. The majority of students (70%) agreed on the necessity of studying
Phonetics and Phonology as ESL learners. 21.8% of the participants wondered if
studying these subjects is necessary or not. Only 8.2% claimed that it is needless to
understand English speech sounds as well as the underlying principles regulating the
use of sounds in spoken English.

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4.1.3 The frequency of applying Phonetics and Phonology knowledge
to improve language skills (Appendix 1 – Question 15)

7.1%

20.1%


19.5%

53.3%

Often

Sometimes

Seldom

Never

Figure 3: The frequency of applying Phonetics and Phonology
knowledge to improve language skills

Figure 3 illustrates how frequently students put the Phonetics and Phonology
theory into practice. Only 20.1% of the participants said that they often use what they
have learnt in English conversations. Although a large number of participants
(53.3%) claimed that they sometimes use the knowledge when speaking, 26.6% of
the students seldom or never applied what they had learnt in the course.
It explains that most of the students seem to be aware of the importance of
studying Phonetics and Phonology but not all are willing to study this aspect
effectively. As a result, many ESL students still face major problems when they
communicate in English.

4.1.4

Difficulties in learning Phonetics

and


Phonology

(Appendix 1 – Question 3, 4, 9)
Table 1 showed the data collected from question 3, 4 and 9 about the common
difficulty students may have when practicing pronunciation. When asked which
group of speech sounds they frequently had difficulties, 32.1% of the participants

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claimed that they often had trouble with pronouncing diphthongs. Participants who
struggled making the sounds of consonants accounted for 19.6% and a small number
of the subjects (5.4%) said that pronouncing vowels is difficult. Surprisingly, nearly
half of the students (48.2%) found it difficult to pronounce all 44 English phonemes.
These results can be explained by the fact that the English sounds system is
complicated and unfamiliar sounds that do not exist in Vietnamese language make it
harder for Vietnamese students to acquire.
Regarding consonants, it is not surprising that 50.3% of the participants found
fricative phonemes including labiodental / f-v /, dental / θ- ð /, alveolar / s- z / and
post alveolar / ∫- ʒ / difficult to pronounce since some of the phonemes are unfamiliar
to Vietnamese students. In addition to fricatives, 46.7% of the students struggle when
distinguishing affricate phonemes / t∫/ and /dʒ /. There are still a large number of the
participants (18%) stated that they encountered difficulty in pronouncing nasal
consonants /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ even though they have learnt how to pronounce these
phonemes regularly in the Vietnamese language. Only 16 among 167 subjects,
accounting approximately 9.6%, said that they had trouble with plosives including /
b-p /, / t-d /, / k-g /.
Another difficulty that students may encounter in the English language is
stress. As seen from the table, 51.5% of the students shared the similar point of view

that they had problem with sentence stress and found it difficult to master.
Meanwhile, 31 among 169 participants, accounting for 18.3%, said that word stress
is problematic. 30.2% participants of the survey did feel that both kinds of stress are
difficult to recognize and practice.

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Table 1: Difficulties in learning Phonetics and Phonology

Results
Category/Question
Number

Percentage(%)

(3) In which group of speech sounds do you have difficulty?
Vowels

9/168

5.4

Diphthongs

54/168

32.1

Consonants


33/168

19.6

All of the above

81/168

48.2

Plosives: / b-p /, / t-d /, / k-g /

16/167

9.6

Fricatives: / f-v /, / θ- ð /, / s- z /, / ∫- ʒ /

84/167

50.3

Affricates : / t∫- dʒ /

78/167

46.7

Nasals: / m, n, ŋ /


30/167

18

Word stress

31/169

18.3

Sentence stress

87/169

51.5

Both

51/169

30.2

(4) In which type of consonants do you have difficulty?

(9) What kinds of stress are more difficult in English?

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4.1.5 Improvements of certain skills thanks to Phonology knowledge
(Appendix 1 – Question 6)

FLUENCY AS NATIVE SPEAKERS

28 (16.5%)

TRANSLATION

48 (28.2%)

DICTATION

127 (74.7%)

53 (31.2%)

LISTENING AND COMPREHENSION

77 (45.3%)

COMMUNICATION

0

20

40

60


80

100

120

140

Figure 4: Improvements of certain skills thanks to Phonology knowledge

The graph above reveals how Phonology helps English learners improve
certain skills. From the data collected and analyzed, it is surprising that 74.7% of the
participants claimed their support toward the idea that Phonology can help them have
proper and clear dictation. The second skill that students believed they can benefit
from studying Phonology is communication. 45.3% of the students said that they
could improve their communication skill thanks to the knowledge. A large number
of the students (31.2%) believed that their listening and comprehension skill can be
improved and 28.2% believed their translation skill will be better when mastering the
subject. 16,5 % of the participants, however, disagreed with the statement that
Phonology will help them speak fluently as native speakers. The results indicate that
it takes a long way to be as fluent as native speakers, meaning it is not only Phonology
that improves fluency. In other words, fluency depends on different aspects beside
Phonology.

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