Description:
Abstract
This paper reported the improvement of teaching English Pronunciation. As a
teacher of English, the researcher of the present investigation wanted to learn more
about aspects that may influence language learners when they learn to speak English. In
this respect, the consonant clusters are not very common in the Vietnamese language.
As a result, some common difficulties that Vietnamese students encounter when they
learn to pronounce English sounds need to be investigated. This may enable the
researcher to teach effectively and help them communicate more effectively. To be
precise, the problems of pronunciation of English initial consonant clusters performed
by first-year non-English major students at Ton Duc Thang University have been
investigated. The subjects of the study were students majoring in electrical engineering
and business administration at Ton Duc Thang University. These students have studied
English for seven years at the high school level. The paper only focused on initial
clusters such as: /pr/, /θr/, /fr/, /spr/ in isolated words and sentences. The results showed
two common mistakes: 1) omitting one or two consonants in the cluster and 2) changing
one consonant to another one. Based on the analysis results, some suggestions were
proposed for teaching and practicing methods of the problematic initial consonant
clusters pronunciation.