Nguyen Ngoc Vu
Contrastive Analysis
Abstract
This study is to help Vietnamese students pronounce English precisely and English
comparison between English and Vietnamese phonology. Much vocabulary has been
borrowed from Chinese, especially words that denote abstract ideas in the same way
European languages borrow from Latin and Greek, and it was formerly written using the
Chinese writing system, albeit in a modified format and was given vernacular
pronunciation. The Vietnamese writing system in use today is an adapted version of the
Latin alphabet, with additional diacritics for tones and certain letters. The speakers of
each language develop their mouth muscles to adapt to their language. There are many
speaker of Vietnamese can not speak English as exactly as they can speak Chinese or
phenomenon in which non-native users of any language tend to carry the intonation,
phonological processes, and pronunciation rules from their mother tongue into their
English speech. They may also create innovative pronunciations for English sounds not
found in the speaker's first language. In addition, non-native English speakers tend to
substitute their native sounds in place of difficult English sounds or they may even
simply delete those difficult English sounds. This is more common when the distinction
English learners pay attention to those difficulties and have better pronunciation.
Nguyen 2
There are two main dialects in Vietnamese, a northern one centered around
Hanoi and a southern one centered around Ho Chi Minh City. The northern dialect of
Vietnamese was chosen as the main comparison because it is considered the official
First, we look at the difference of sounds and symbols between English and
Vietnamese. There are many sounds that are similar between English and Vietnamese,
such as [t, b, m, n…]. However, there are also some sounds that exist in English but not
in Vietnamese, and vice versa, such as /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /æ/, /θ/, /ð/, /ʒ/ … in English, and tones
in Vietnamese.
Now let’s move to the distinction between English and Vietnamese phonemes. A
comparison of Vietnamese and English may begin at the smallest unit of language: the
Dictionary, 2000). Vietnamese has three types of phonemes: tones (sometimes referred
vowels; this language does not have lexical tones. (Giang M. Tang 6)
– 6 consonants: p, t, k, m, n, ŋ
• Má, lá, chợ, thơ: no change in final phoneme’s timbre -> zero ending consonant
• Mai, tai, đau, thau: change in final phoneme’s timbre (closing) -> ending consonants
• Less categorizing criteria for place of articulation in Vietnamese (“CA of English and
Flat Dental
Retroflex Alveolar
Voiceless
Voiced
Lateral
English:
/ʧ/ & /ʤ/: difficult for Vietnamese to pronounce (“CA of English and Vietnamese
Consonants” 14)
Here are some mistakes that Vietnamese learners of English may have.
Speakers may not produce final consonants since there are fewer final
consonants in Vietnamese and those that do exist differ in their phonetic quality:
The Vietnamese phonetic system contains 23 initial consonant phonemes: /b/, /f/
(ph), /v/, /m/, /t/, /d/ (đ), /th/ (th), /s/ (x), /z/ (d), /n/, /l/, /_/ (tr), /ʃ/ (s), /_/ (gi, r), /c/ (ch), /_/
(nh), /k/ (c, k, q), /γ/ (g), /χ/ (kh), /N/ (ng), /h/, /p/, /r/6 The possible Vietnamese
consonants are represented in the following chart based on the place and manner of
consonant sounds: /p, b, d, k, m, n, f, v, s , z, h, l/, the r-flap in “utter” and “y” in “yard.” It
should be noted that /p, k/ in Vietnamese are unaspirated (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998) and
may sound like “b” and “g” to an English speaker. In English, /p, k/ may be aspirated
and English share the following consonant sounds: /p, t, k, m, n/ and “ng.” In
Vietnamese, syllable-final /p, t, k/ are unreleased or “held in,” whereas these sounds
Although Vietnamese and English share certain sounds, there are multiple
consonants include the dental “t” as in to “big” (much like a Spanish “t”) and the dental
aspirated “t” as in thoû “rabbit,” which is similar to the English “t” but produced between
the teeth. The Vietnamese “g” in gaø “chicken” and “kh” in khoâng “no” are produced
with continuous air flow (fricatives) much like a Spanish “g” in lago “lake” and “j” in jaula
“cage.” Other fricatives include the “r” in raén “snake” (in southern dialects and certain
northern dialects), and its voiceless counterpart “s” as in saùng “morning” (in the
Table 1
–Final Position
Vietnamese Shared Sounds English Only
Only
Syllable- t̪ (to), t̪ h (thỏ) p (pin or pie), t (time), g (go), Ɵ (thing), ð
h (hết or hair),
l (làm or love)
j (dì1 or yard)
ɾ (rắn3 or utter)
Syllable- p (lớp or hop) b (lab), d (sod), g (bag), Ɵ
(walked),
(lisp),
-lf (elf),
(belch),
(bump),
(lens),
-lpt (helped),
(bumps)…
Vietnamese has many consonant sounds that are produced with the tongue tip
curved upward and towards the back of the mouth (retroflex) such as the “tr” in trôøi
“sky,” and “ch” in chôi “to play” (similar to the English “ch”). In addition, Vietnamese has
a glottal stop before words that are written with an initial vowel as in “ng” in ngu û “to
sleep” found in final position of English words such as “song” as well as the Vietnamese
“nh” in nhoû “small” found in the middle of English words such as “ny” in “Kenya”
are produced with the tongue tip retroflexed (3 of 11) as in ga ø”chicken” – two
articulatory places that are considered relatively complex (or “marked,” following
Jakobson, 1968).
English also has consonant sounds not found in Vietnamese. In the initial
position, English-specific sounds include /w/ in “water,” /t/ in “toy” (generally aspirated;
Harris, 1994), /g/ in “girl,” “ch” in “chair,” “dg” in “judge,” “sh” in “shoe” and its rare voiced
counterpart in “measure.” Possibly the most well known consonant sounds specific to
English which are very difficult for second language learners include the English “r,”
“soft th” as in “thing,” and “hard th” as in “this.” In addition to single consonants, English
has numerous consonant clusters (two or more consonant combinations) that involve /s,
r, l, w/ (Harris, 1994; see Table 1). Since Vietnamese only has six consonant sounds at
the end of words (syllable-final position including /b, d, g, f, v, s, z, l/, “soft th,” “hard th”
“sh,” its voiced counterpart in “measure,” “ch” “dg” in “judge,” and consonant clusters
that involve /p, f, t, d, k, l, m, n/. English appears to have a wider variety of more
complex consonant sounds and sound sequences across syllable positions (see Table 1
for examples).
According to Binh N. Ngo, in English the unaspirated /t/ and the aspirated /th/
are the allophones of the phoneme /t/. The aspirated /th/ occurs at the beginning of a
stressed syllable, the unaspirated /t/ in the other positions. In other words, they are in
complementary distribution. For example, in the word taskmaster, the first consonant t
is aspirated /th/, the second one is unaspirated /t/. The unaspirated /t/ and aspirated
/th/ are different phonemes in Vietnamese that distinguish the meanings of words: ta
(we) ≠ tha (to forgive), tơ (silk) ≠ thơ (poetry), tư (private) ≠ thư (letter). On the other
hand, the Vietnamese aspirated consonant /th/, which is indicated by the combination
of the two characters th, should not be confused with the English consonants /θ/
and /ð/.
The voiceless consonant /t/ should not be mixed up with its voiced
Learners should not confuse the three nasal consonants /n/, /_/ and /ŋ/. The
Vietnamese alveolar consonant /n/ is similar to the English /n/. The English
consonant /ŋ/ occurs only at the end of a syllable, for example: sang, long, thing,
single. The Vietnamese /ŋ/ functions both as an initial consonant, e.g. ngà, nghe,
ngủ, and as a final consonant, e.g. ngang. The consonant /_/ rarely occurs in English.
Learners may have trouble producing the initial consonants /_/ and /ŋ/. Their attention
should be focused on the distinctive features of the consonants in terms of the place
of articulation: /n/ is an alveolar consonant made with the contact of the tongue tip
against the alveolar ridge, /_/ is a palatal consonant produced with the back of the
tongue rising toward the hard palate and touching it, /ŋ/ is a velar consonant, which is
created with the blade of the tongue moving backwards and the back of the tongue
production of this consonant the tongue tip is down near the back of the lower teeth
and contact is made by the tongue blade against the hard palate. The combination of
the characters ch represents the Vietnamese consonant /c/. The sound that
represents /c/ should not be mixed up with the English consonant /t∫/, e.g.
Vietnamese
1•Mostly centering:
English
2•Closing
0 –ei, ai, ɔi
1 –əʊ, aʊ (10)
Vowel contrasts
1 –Other examples: noa, noãn, góa, hóa, khoa, quý (“CA of English and
Vowel contrasts
A glottal stop [ʔ] is inserted before words that begin with a vowel or the
glide /w/:
These words are really difficult for an American to pronounce easily. They have to
practise a lot.
Here are some difficulties that Vietnamese learners of English may have
(wikipedia):
Speakers may not aspirate initial /t/ and /k/, making (American)
McMahon 86).
Binh N.
Ngo explains that when the vowel and final systems are introduced, the attention of
changing the meaning of the word, e.g. the rounded syllable on in the sentence The
computer is on. may have an element of the unrounded sound [αn]. This is
and unrounded vowels (ư, ơ) seem to be confusing, since the characters ư and ơ
introduced to the sounds before seeing the characters. Minimal pairs containing the
oppositions ư/u, ơ/ô and ưa(ươ)/ua(uô) are very helpful, e.g. thư (letter)/thu
(autumn), cớ (reason)/cố (make efforts), mưa (rain)/mua (buy), mượn (borrow)/muộn
(late).
The final consonant following a vowel in some cases significantly changes the
quality of the vowel. As a result, there are several specific types of syllables in
Vietnamese.
When one of three rounded monophthong vowels /u/, /o/ and /ɔ /is followed by
one of two final consonants /N/ or /k/, the rounding of the vowel does not start until
the middle of the articulation, and the lips come together at the end of the articulation,
When one of the three front vowels occurs before the same final
consonants /N/ and /k/, they are produced shorter than when they precede the other
finals or when they are not followed by any final. The vowel /ε/ is denoted by the
character a, the final /N/ is represented by nh, and ch indicates the final /k/, e.g. kinh,
kênh, canh, kịch, kệch, cạch. The production of canh as \ka_] and cạch as \kạc]
should be avoided.
The "long" and "short" features of vowels are phonologically relevant in both
English and Vietnamese. In Vietnamese there are only two pairs of vowels which
differ from one another as long and short vowels: /a:/ ≠ /a/ and /ə:/ ≠ /ə/. The spelling
rules should be introduced so that learners can recognize the short vowels in written
texts and distinguish the short and long vowels when producing them. In addition,
some exceptions should be highlighted in order to distinguish the short vowels from
their long counterparts. For instance, the short vowel /a/ is represented by :/ in tai,
cao.
A picture of the organs of speech would be of great use, especially for those
students who rely on visual information. The vowel triangle is very helpful in
explaining many spelling rules, e.g. when labialization is denoted by the character u
and when by the character o, or when the consonant /k/ is represented by the
character c and when by the character k. (These rules are certainly inconsistencies of
grammar, otherwise a learner may lose the phonetic skills she/he learned at the
Front, central, and low vowels (i, ê, e, ư, â, ơ, ă, a) are unrounded, whereas the
back vowels (u, ô, o) are rounded. The vowels â [ə] and ă [a] are pronounced very
short, much shorter than the other vowels. Thus, ơ and â are basically pronounced the
same except that ơ [əː] is long while â [ə] is short — the same applies to the low vowels
shorter semivowel offglide to a high front position [ɪ], a high back position [ʊ], or a
e – eo [ɛʊʊ] – – –
â ây [əɪʊ] âu [əʊʊ] – – –
ơ ơi [əːɪʊ] – – – –
ă ay [aɪʊ] au [aʊʊ] – – –
a ai [aːɪʊ] ao [aːʊʊ] – – –
ô ôi [oɪʊ] – – – –
o oi [ɔɪʊ] – – – –
The centering diphthongs are formed with only the three high vowels (i, ư, u) as
the main vowel. They are generally spelled as ia, ưa, ua when they end a word and are
spelled iê, ươ, uô, respectively, when they are followed by a consonant. There are also
restrictions on the high offglides: the high front offglide cannot occur after a front vowel
(i, ê, e) nucleus and the high back offglide cannot occur after a back vowel (u, ô, o)
nucleus.
For example, the offglide [ɪʊ] is usually written as i however, it may also be represented
with y. In addition, in the diphthongs [aɪʊ] and [aːɪʊ] the letters y and i also indicate the
pronunciation of the main vowel: ay = ă + [ɪʊ], ai = a + [ɪʊ]. Thus, tay "hand" is [taɪʊ] while
tai "ear" is [taːɪʊ]. Similarly, u and o indicate different pronunciations of the main vowel:
au = ă + [ʊʊ], ao = a + [ʊʊ]. Thus, thau "brass" is [tʰaʊʊ] while thao "raw silk" is [tʰaːʊʊ].
The four triphthongs are formed by adding front and back offglides to the
front nucleus cannot have a front offglide (after the centering glide) and a triphthong
With regards to the front and back offglides [ɪʊ, ʊʊ], many phonological
descriptions analyze these as consonant glides /j, w/. Thus, a word such as đâu
Tang M. Giang also compares the vowel systems of Vietnamese (Dinh &
Nguyen, 1998; D.H. Nguyen 2001) and English (erickson, 2001; Harris, 1994). As with
table 1, orthographic letters that correspond to speech sounds are underlined in the
words in parentheses. Vietnamese and English share even single vowels: /i/ as in “see,”
/æ/ as in “had,” /ε/ as in “egg,” /Ɔ/ as in “caught,” /α/ as in “cot,” /ʊ/as in “could” and /u/
as in “blue.” Apart from these shared sounds, Vietnamese contains five additional single
“warm” and /ă/ as in naêm, “year;” and three true diphthongs (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998):
/ie/ as in bieån “sea,” /uo/ as in cuoán “roll” and /ɯɤ/ as in öôùt “wet.” In addition,
there are 20 possible two-vowel combinations in which the principal vowel is combined
with either a medial vowel /-u-/, or a syllable-final semi-vowel “-y” or “-w” and seven 3-
vowel combinations that include all three vowel slots: medial, principal, and final (Dinh &
Nguyen, 1998; see Table 2 for examples). These two- and three-vowel combinations
maintain the overall syllable structure (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998) and are produced in one
“beat.” The vowel sounds specific to Standard American English include three single
vowels: /ɪ/ in “kid,” /ʌ/ in “cut,” and unstressed /ə/ in “attack.” In addition, English has
two rhotacized (r-rounding) vowels /ɝ/in “bird” and its unstressed counterpart /ɚ/ in
“thunder.” There are five English-specific diphthongs: /oʊ/as in “oh,” /aʊ/ as in “cow,” /ai/
Table 2
(urgent)
ʊ (tư or wood)
u (tu or blue)
ɛ (chết2 or egg)
Diphthongs ie (biển, mía, yên) oʊ (oh), aʊ
uo (cuốn) (how)
(boy), eɪ (bake)
2-Vowel Combinations ui (suy), oe (Huế)
ɔe (khoe), ɔa (hoa)
ɔj (voi), ɜj (cây), ɐj
(cay)
iw (xíu), ew (kêu)
ɛw (leo), ɯw (lưu)
ɐ:w(áo, rau), ău
(lâu)
3+ vowel combinations iew (nhiều, yêu) aɪæ (Diana)
(uây)
The IPA vowel chart of monophthongs (i.e., simple vowels) below is a composite
of the phonetic descriptions of Nguyễn (1997), Thompson (1965), and Han (1966).[2]
This is a vowel description of Hanoi Vietnamese (i.e., other regions of Vietnam may
Fro Centr Ba
nt al ck
Close i ɨ u
Close-mid e əː o
Open-mid ɛ ɜ ɔ
Open a aː
All vowels are unrounded except for the three back rounded
/ɜ/ and /a/ are pronounced short — shorter than the other vowels.
differ in both height and length, but that the difference in length is probably
/ɨ/ is close central unrounded and backed and lowered: [ɨɨɨ]. Many
indicates that it is more central than back. Brunelle (2003) and Pham (2003) also
offglides: [ɪj, ɨɰ, ʊw, ej, əːɰ, ow], particularly in open syllables:
c'elder q'countrysid
/ci/ →[cɪj] /kwe/ →[kwej]
hị sister' uê e'
t m
'fourth' /tɨ/ →[tɨɰ] 'to dream' /məː/ →[məːɰ]
ư ơ
t c'paternal
'autumn' /tʰu/ →[tʰʊw] /ko/ →[kow]
hu ô aunt'
Most of these consist of a vowel followed by /j/ or /w/. Below is a chart listing the
Triphthongs Triphthongs
/iɜ/ /əːj/ /iw/
/ɨɜ/ /ɜj/ /ew/
/uɜ/ /aːj/ /ɛw/
/aj/ /əːw/
/ɨj/ /ɜw/
/uj/ /aːw/
/oj/
also important to understand how these sounds combine together to form a syllable.
consonants (C) and vowels (V). For instance, in English, there are numerous syllable
structures that are plausible such as CV, CVC, CCVC, CCCVC, (Erickson, 2001) as in
the words “me,” “bat,” “stop,” and “scratch,” respectively. In contrast, linguists in Vietnam
have poisted that representing the Vietnamese syllable using consonant and vowel
sequences inaccurately portrays its structure since CV sequences would not account for
tones, a compulsory element that contributes to lexical meaning, nor the adjustments in
vowel length that contribute to the preservation of the syllable structure and length (H. T.
Table 3 displays the syllable structure of Vietnamese (Doan, 1999; see also Dinh
& Nguyen, 1998). Double lines delineate the three main syllable components: tone,
syllable-initial sound, and the rime. Tone is present throughout the syllable and carries
lexical meaning (see the lexical-semantic position consists of a medial vowel, principal
vowel, and final sound, of which the principal vowel is the only required vowel in the
syllable (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998). Table 3 displays four word examples that illustrate
possible syllable structures: toaùn “math,” toøa “court,” tan “to melt” and ta “we” or “I.”
Note that the smallest possible syllable, ta, is produced with an initial consonant sound,
principal vowel, and a tone (level tones are not marked orthographically).
Table 3
Tone
Syllable- Rime
initial sound
Medial Principal Final sound
/u/ vowel
T o á n
T o à
T a n
T a
Compared to English, Vietnamese has a wider variety of single vowel and vowel
American English (see Table 2). A complex vowel system may be related to the
Vietnamese syllable structure that allows three possible slots for vowel sounds and two
possible slots for consonants (see syllable structure in Table 3). Correspondingly, the
relatively limited number of consonants may be related to their limited role in a syllable.
A relatively larger vowel inventory may counterbalance a more limited number of
consonants in Vietnamese.
while certain speech sounds are common to both languages, there are many
differences to be noted. First, tones in Vietnamese carry lexical meaning and are
obligatory in the syllable structure. Second, Vietnamese has a more complicated vowel
system, while English has a larger consonant inventory with greater distribution across
relatively marked retroflex and velar consonant sounds, while English contains complex
Here is the comparison between the English stress and Vietnamese stress.
Native speakers of English are intuitively aware that certain syllables in each word, and
one syllable in particular, will be more phonetically prominent than others. In father, the
first syllable seems stronger than the second; in about, it is the other way around; and in
syllable, the first syllable stands out from the rest. These more prominent syllables are
approximately the same amount of time to produce each foot (as opposed to syllable-
timed languages, like French, which devote about the same amount of time to each
syllable regardless of stress), cat in a hat and cat flap will have much the same phonetic
duration.
Binh N. Ngo finds that one of the phonetic typological differences between
about the same duration and force as any other; English is a stress-timed language in
which stressed syllables recur at intervals. Another key difference is that Vietnamese is
a tone language in which the pitch levels are used to distinguish words; English is a
non-tonal language.
in which words in a phrase or in a sentence are in most cases pronounced with the
same duration and force. However, they should be careful with pauses in a sentence
Nhiều người nói / tiếng Ý hay lắm. (Many people say Italian sounds very
beautiful.) versus Nhiều người / nói tiếng Ý hay lắm. (There are many people who
speak Italian very well.) That is, the two syllables of a two-syllable compound should
should be pronounced together with one another. It is a good idea to split a long
sentence into phrases between which short pauses are made, whereas there should
reduplicative etc.).
Tones:
in meaning. For example, ma “ghost” and maù “cheek” are two distinct words that only
differ in tone, the level (khoâng daáu) tone and rising (saéc) tone, respectively. D. H.
Nguyen (2001) describes the six tones of the northern Vietnamese dialect: level
(khoâng daáu), falling (huyeàn), creaky (ngaõ), dipping-rising (hoûi), rising (saéc),
and constricted (naëng). In the southern dialect, the creaky (ngaõ) and the dipping-
rising (hoûi) tones are both produced as the dipping-rising tone (hoûi). Therefore, there
are only five tones produced in the southern regions (Tang Giang 6).
Vietnamese is a tonal language and speakers may try to use the Vietnamese
tonal system or use a monotone with English words. They may also associate tones
onto the intonational pattern of a sentence and becoming confused with such
The six tones in Vietnamese cause a variety of difficulties for learners, both in
producing and maintaining the tones in speech flow.” (Binh N. Ngo 12)
Linguists distinguish register tones and contour tones. The pitch of register tones
hardly goes up and down during the production of a particular tone. In contrast, contour
“In the Vietnamese language, the syllable is the smallest meaningful unit that
form questions. If an assertive statement ends in a word with the high-rising tone, the
voice should be raised at the end of the sentence, for example: Hôm nay trời nóng
lắm. (It is really hot today.) On the other hand, if a question ends in a word with the
low-falling tone, the voice should be lowered at the end of the question, for example:
Hôm nay trời nóng lắm à? (Is it really hot today?) In many European languages the
the meanings of the sentences Ông ấy đi tu. (He has become a Buddhist monk.) and
Ông ấy đi tù. (He has been sent to prison.) are completely different. Learners'
attention should be drawn to the fact that the Vietnamese language uses certain
Discussion
The problem is that whereas a totally new and unfamiliar sound simply has to be
learned from scratch, an old sound in a new role requires further processes of
adjustment (April McMahon 31). For example, our Vietnamese learners of English have
to suppress her instinctive and subconscious division of the aspirated and unaspirated
sounds ([t] and [th]), and learn to produce both in the same context.
There are some features that we should pay more attention in English because
this feature does not exist in Vietnamese, such as the rule for aspiration sounds.
For an English learning child, it is quite important that voiceless stops are
aspirated at the beginning of syllables, and there are no sequences of [s] plus a voiced
stop; consequently, English speakers will rank these constraints high. However, for
children learning a language without aspiration like Vietnamese, these constraints will
not match the linguistic facts they hear, they will therefore be ranked low down in the
list, so they have no obvious effect. That’s why we have much difficulty learning English
consonant clusters.
Adult L2 learners often transfer L1 skills onto their L2 (McDonald, 200). Transfer
speakers may have difficulty. Obviously not all Vietnamese adult L2 learners will
sounds not found in Vietnamese such as consonant clusters, affricates, vowels with r-
rounding /ɚ,ɝ/, and lax vowel /ɪ/ see Tables 1 and 2). Consonant clusters may be
simplified or deleted depending on the word position (D.L.Nguyen, 1970b; Riney, 1988).
For instance, the initial consonant cluster /str-/ in “string” may be simplified and
produced without the /t/ as “string” [sriŋ], with a tense high vowel [i] instead of the lax
vowel /ɪ/, which is not present in Vietnamese. A consonant cluster in the word-final
sounds with Vietnamese sounds or sounds shared between both languages (McDonald,
2000; Riney, 1988). For instance the English “hard th” in “the” may be approximated
with [d], a shared sound, as in [də]. In the final position, a “hard th” may be produced as
the shared sound /t/ as in [smut] for /smuð/ “smooth.” The English “soft th” may be
approximated with the Vietnamese dental aspirated “t” as in [t hɔt] for /θɔt/ “thought.” The
English “r” in “run” may be produced as the r-flap (an acceptable allophone for the
Vietnamese “r”) or as /z/ (from the northern Vietnamese dialect): “run” or “zun.” English
final “r” may be omitted as in [sta] for “star.” English final /l/ may be produced with the
semivowel [w] such as [snew] for /sneil/ “snail” (D.L.Nguyen, 1970b). Since tones are
obligatory in every Vietnamese word, Vietnamese speakers may add tones into English,
Table 6
consonant clusters
Substitute with Dental aspirated “t” for
Vietnamese vowels
Intonation pattern Rising and falling on
Semantic (Word level) that do not have direct “to make” are all one word in
class c
Syntax Omit word endings for walk for “walked”
(Grammar) tense
Omit word endings for two dollar for “two
plurality dollars”
Omit word endings for she walk for “she
you hungry?”
Place adjectives after car big for “big car”
nouns
Difficulty with word order You want eat what? for
Vietnamese dental
“rabbit”
Tone errors Says cu “penis” for
cú “owl”
Rising intonation added to May affect tones
semantics (Word do not have direct English xách, bưng are translated
classifiers “pen”
Omission of classifiers1 hai chó* for hai con
to same-aged peers
Difficulty understanding eduplications
r
Morpho-Syntax Overuse of function words Use đã, đang, sẽ
possession
Difficulty with word order in Đâu đi anh? for Anh
questions đi đâu?
Omission of classifiers1 See above
Place adjectives before đẹp bướm for bướm
nouns đẹp
sound, word, and grammatical aspects of English not found in Vietnamese. For
instance, they may have difficulty producing consonant clusters, affricates, and syllable-
final consonant sounds as well as using English intonation patterns due to the influence
of lexical tone. They may have difficulty using English vocabulary that make lexical-
semantic distinctions not found in Vietnamese and they may depend on the sentence
context (rather than morphology) to express and/or interpret words as different word
classes. These learners may have difficulty producing English word inflections such as
the past tense -ed as well as using English subject-verb inversion and auxiliary verbs
learners (e.g., McDonald, 2000; Sato, 1988). Recent studies have also shown that L2
skills may influence L1 performance (Hernandez, Bates, & Avila, 1994; Su, 2001). Table
Table 7
analysis. Future empirical evidence is needed to refute or support these patterns. At the
phonological (sound) level, the tone production of these students may be affected since
language environment may have difficulty perceiving and/or producing tones correctly.
“American accent” and tease them for tonal errors that change lexical meaning. For
instance, a child may want to say con cú “an owl” but may drop the rising (sắc) tone and
say con cu “penis.” A related difficulty is the influence of English intonation patterns. In
English many questions are asked with a rising intonation at the end of the sentence.
Students who are acquiring both languages may have a rising intonation in Vietnamese,
“rabbit” and the velar fricative “kh” as in không “no” may be produced as an English “t”
and “k,” respectively. In addition, Vietnamese final consonant sounds, which are
typically unreleased (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998), may be produced with some aspiration (or
at least an audible release) since English final consonants can be released (Harris,
with the vowel /o/ being produced as the English diphthong /oʊ/. Vietnamese two- or
three-vowel combinations may be simplified due to the relatively few number of vowel
students across the sound. For instance, children may have difficulty with consonant
and vowel sounds not shared in English (see tables 1 and 2) as well as misuse or omit
These are the differences and difficulties for Vietnamese learners of English and
vice versa. As teachers, we should pay attention to these differences and try to correct
the mistakes made by our students. Anyway, because we can not achieve the perfect
pronunciation of foreign speakers, we should not pay too much attention to those
mistakes. Otherwise, our students will become ashamed of making mistakes and they
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