Most Common Pronunciation Errors for Vietnamese Speakers Learning English
Many Vietnamese English learners struggle beyond simply learning new words. Vietnamese is a tonal language with six tonal variations, all changing the meaning of a word. Vietnamese words are short, containing mostly one or two syllables. Many Vietnamese words end in consonants, but there are many English words that end in consonants that do not exist in Vietnamese.
For this reason, native speakers of Vietnamese often sound choppy with English pronunciation. They also have difficulty with words or tone that end in vowel sounds. There are fewer diphthongs in Vietnamese, which can make English difficult to learn for Vietnamese people. Let’s look at the most common challenges for Vietnamese English learners.
Vietnamese English Learners and Word Stress
Most Vietnamese words have two syllables. While each syllable is written separately, they are both needed to convey word meaning. Additionally, each syllable is given the same stress for an equal length of time.
Native speakers of English stress specific syllables when speaking multi-syllable words. To avoid getting the word meaning wrong, Vietnamese English learners tend to speak English stressing each syllable the same or without any stress at all.
Some examples: bicycle, education, engineer. In these multisyllabic words, the bold letters are the ones stressed.
Another challenge to pronunciation is regional dialects, but these regional American accents are familiar to native English speakers, so don’t pose much of a problem.
Missing Middle Sounds of Multi-Syllable Word
Because approximately 80% of Vietnamese words use two syllables, it is difficult for Vietnamese English learners to pronounce middle sounds of words with more than two syllables. Unfortunately, there are many English words with middle sounds, some of them complex containing silent letters, diphthongs, and consonant clusters.
Some examples: Wednesday (wens day), mischievous (mis cha vous), scientifically (sy en ti fic ly).
Again, you must listen if you want to pronounce these words correctly. Try breaking the word into its individual sounds and linking them more slowly than your normal speaking speed.
Final Consonant Sounds
Vietnamese English speakers struggle with pronouncing the English “z”, “s”, “t”, “v”, “ed”, “ks”, and “st” sounds because they have no equivalent in their native language. Unfortunately, these sounds often appear at the end of an English language word. As a result, English learners often delete the sound or substitute a more familiar one.
Some examples: belated (buh lay ted), coins (koynz), first (furst), strive (straiv)
Vietnamese English Learners and Grammar
Finally, there are a few grammatical issues which can cause problems for Vietnamese english learners.
The first relates to the verb “to be”. The Vietnamese equivalent of the verb to be is là, but là is not used in the same way. In English, we use “to be” to link the subject and a predicative adjective. For example: He is hungry. In Vietnamese, this same statement would be Nó đói which directly translates to He hungry. As a result, Vietnamese English learners will often omit the verb “to be”.
Another source of confusion are articles. In Vietnamese there are no articles, but in English we have definite and indefinite articles. Consequently, Vietnamese learners tend to make mistakes when using articles in English. For example: I want to be teacher instead of I want to be a teacher; or She went to the work this morning instead of She went to work this morning.
Finally, in terms of tenses, Vietnamese utilizes a much simpler method of denoting time than English does. Time is expressed by a particle in front of the main verb. Not surprisingly, Vietnamese learners can find tenses other than the simple tenses in English quite confusing and may avoid using them altogether.
The hardest things to learn in a new language are parts of speech that don’t exist in your own language. The best way to learn the flow of English is to mimic native English speakers. Sing along with American songs or copy an actor’s dialog when watching movies. The more often you speak English aloud the better you’ll get at remembering the correct pronunciation.
For help with your communication and pronunciation skills, check out Packard Communications’ services page for an initial assessment, small classes, individual training, or online training!
Related information
The above content relates to the following topics: Accent Modification, Accent Reduction, Speaking English, Speech Skills, Learning American English. Secondarily, it relates to: Speech Pronunciation, Intonation Vowels Consonants, Talking Communication, Spelling, Presentation Skills, Interviewing, Conversation, Speech-Language Pathologist. Finally, these topics are related: Online Training Coaching, Private Classes, Seminars, SLP, and Speech Therapist.
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