Name: Nguyễn Thu Hằng

Student ID: 207220201022

TOPIC 17: Some common pronunciation errors by first-year English major students at
Hanoi Pedagogical University 2
ABSTRACT:
English has become a common language of communication in the world in all areas of life.
English learners have a common goal of being able to communicate fluently with native
speakers or foreigners. To do that, learners must master the sound system in the English
language. Therefore, pronunciation skills are the most important factor. In fact, it can be seen
that English learners still make many pronunciation mistakes, creating a language barrier that
makes it difficult for them to integrate with the outside world. Many of the English
department's students at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 are dealing with similar issues.

Many English Faculty students at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 still make mistakes with
weak pronunciation despite learning English in primary, secondary, and high school. This
severely hinders their ability to learn their specialized subjects and creates many difficulties in
interacting with native speakers.

In order to help the first-year students in particular and all students in the English department in
general improve their pronunciation, the author of this study looked at some common
pronunciation mistakes made by first-year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical
University 2. The study's results are expected to be useful not only to students majoring in
English at Hanoi National University of Education 2 but also to all students who are interested
in improving their pronunciation, skills and learning sense.

INTRODUCTION

I. Rationale
In the current process of globalization integration, in most countries around the world, English
is the most commonly used language after the mother tongue, becoming a global language.
International events, global organizations, and multinational corporations all regard English as
the universal language of communication. Our own country, Vietnam, is one of those that
speaks English as a second language. Without a solid foundation in English, future generations
will struggle to keep up with global trends, technological advancements, and lost job
opportunities. As a result, English plays an important role in education and is a required subject
in many Vietnamese schools. This demonstrates the significance of English in all aspects of
society.

However, Vietnamese young people are learning English as a main subject in school but still
mostly lack the initiative when communicating with foreigners. Many students after graduating
from school still cannot communicate fluently and only say simple sentences such as greetings
and introducing themselves. The reason is that they cannot pronounce English words correctly,
making them self-deprecating and arrogant to communicate. In English, we often only pay
attention to the 4 skills of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, but forgetting that
pronunciation is also one of the important skills in learning English. The skills are closely
related and support each other. Learners who want to listen to English well must first speak
correctly and pronounce correctly. That requires learners to have a knowledge of vocabulary
and the learning process, practice pronunciation, and understand the rules of word and sentence
stress. If learners mispronounce a word, when listening to native speakers say that word, they
will not understand because they feel that the word is strange, do not recognize and as a result
do not understand what the speaker wants to say. Besides, if the learners say the wrong thing,
the person talking to them can't understand what they are saying or cause misunderstandings
about the meaning of the sentence.
 At Hanoi Pedagogical University 2, a number of first-year English majors still have many
pronunciation errors. To communicate fluently, English learners must correct pronunciation
errors as soon as possible, especially in the first year of university. There are many
pronunciation errors that learners need to pay attention to such as word and sentence stress,
intonation, vowel length, consonant, ending sound, etc. This is one of the biggest concerns of
English majors who want to pursue careers related to English in the future if they don't try to
change and overcome it. From the above reasons, the author decided to research the topic to
find out the common mistakes in pronunciation that students encounter, and at the same time
find suitable solutions to improve students' pronunciation.

II. Research objectives

The study aims to achieve the following two objectives:
1. Identify common pronunciation mistakes that HPU2's first-year English majors often
encounter.
2. Find out and survey whether first-year English majors have an effective way to fix English
pronunciation errors and then propose the best solutions to the problem being studied.
III. Research subjects
The main object of the study is first-year student English majors in HPU2. Most of the new
students in the region come from different provinces, so the regional language has a big impact on
how they pronounce words, especially those from Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and the central
provinces.
IV. Research scope
The general research direction of the article is to find out common mistakes in pronunciation of
first-year English majors at HPU2. Identify the types of errors that students often make, analyze
the causes of errors and give appropriate remedial directions.
Subjects of the study are first-year students of HPU2. Specifically, 50 freshman of classes
participated in this study and completed the survey research form. The research topic is to serve
the teaching of teachers as well as the learning of English and communication of students.
V. Research Methods
With the aim of pointing out the common mistakes in English pronunciation and finding the best
solution to the research problem, the research method is information collection, in which
document research is the main method. The support method is to create a survey and set up a
google form. There are also information processing methods and comparison methods.
VII. Meaning of research proposal
This study identifies common errors in pronunciation of English words, and with the help of a
survey it is possible to identify common types of errors.
The first implication of this study is that any English learner can refer to the solution the study
provides and they can reduce errors in pronunciation.
The second implication is that with the aid of research, English teachers are provided with more
information about types of pronunciation errors and solutions to problems. Therefore, in the
process of teaching, teachers find ways to overcome difficulties and effective methods to help
students pronounce and communicate better.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Pronunciation is definitely the first aspect that people can notice in second language learners when
they speak English. There have been many previous research articles that have studied the
common pronunciation mistakes of students and English learners, such as:
The first is the research paper “Some common pronunciation problems facing Vietnamese
learners of English”, Nguyen Tien Dung, MA, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ba Ria - Vung Tau
University has shown that Vietnamese people have many difficulties when learning English
pronunciation. The complexity of vowels, especially between tense and loose vowels in English
can be difficult to learn. In addition, the difference between consonant positions, consonant
clusters, words and tones makes Vietnamese students learning English encounter many
difficulties. As a result, Vietnamese speakers often have problems with pronunciation.
Following Shak, P., Siew Lee, C., & Stephen, J. (2016). Pronunciation Problems: A Case Study
on English Pronunciation Errors of Low Proficient Students. has shown the sounds that students
often mispronounce are vowels (pure shortened vowels, pure long vowels and diphthongs),
consonants (initial, grinding and consonant), the letters camera and '-ed' format.