Running head: VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH, PHONOLOGICAL TRASNFERRING 1

Vietnamese and English

Cross-Linguistic Analysis in Phonology, Phonological Transferring, Pedagogical Implications

Lan Truong

TSOL 5310

Seattle University

June 10, 2015

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Abstract

The paper mainly discusses the similarities and differences in phonology between Vietnamese

and English. The comparison focuses on four basic phonological characteristics: tones,

consonants, vowels, and syllable structure. Based on the linguistic comparison in phonology and

the theory of language transferring, specifically phonological transfer, learners can acknowledge

difficulties they are encountering when learning English pronunciation. Then, implications for

teaching English pronunciation to learners with Vietnamese background are mentioned. The

comparison serves as a bridge to help Vietnamese English learners connect their Vietnamese

language knowledge with English to develop their L2 acquisition.

Key words: Vietnamese (L1), English (L2), consonants, vowels, syllable structures, implications,

language transfer
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Language Transfer

Introduction

There is a relationship between leaners’ first language (L1) and second language (L2), that

is, language transferring. In other words, the understanding of L1 can help learners develop their

L2 acquisition. Leaners can transfer their L1 knowledge to acknowledge the similarities and

differences in comparison with an unfamiliar language. In this way, they will know that they

should practice on the differences and take advantage of the similarities in order to acquire

another language.

Furthermore, according to her research on biliteracy, Hornberger (1989) illustrates that L1

and L2 relationship is complicated and that not all aspects of L1 knowledge can apply to support

L2 development. However, most studies suggest that adequate linguistic knowledge of the native

language can be transferred to aid the development progress of the second language. In regard to

this suggestion, the paper specifically analyzes how the understanding of phonological

Vietnamese language can support Vietnamese leaners of English to cognitively acquire English

pronunciation.

Consonants
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Figure1. English syllable1

The above figure from Yule (2010) is served to identify consonants of a word in English. As

seen from the figure, the position of consonants in English is either at the initial or at the ending

part of a word. This pattern can be also found in Vietnamese consonants. More interestingly, it is

impossible to find a Vietnamese word with two or three consecutive consonants (consonant

clusters) either at the beginning or at the end of a word. This will be discussed further in the

syllable structure.

Another concern is that what consonants in Vietnamese are in common and what are not in

common with those in English. According to the study of cross-linguistic of Vietnamese and

English, Giang Tang (2007) points out some onset consonants (consonants at the beginning of

words) that Vietnamese and English have in common are /p, b, d, k, m, n, f, v, s, z, h, l/.

However, Vietnamese people tend not to aspirate the consonant sound /p/. Instead, they

pronounce it as /b/ sound. Therefore, they have to practice aspiration when it comes to learning

aspirated sounds in English. Also, the consonants on coda position (consonants at the end of

words) that Vietnamese and English share are /p, t, k, m, n/ and “ng.” Nevertheless, the ending

consonants /p,t,k/ are not released in Vietnamese. Meanwhile, they are produced in English. This

is why Vietnamese leaners of English have to practice releasing ending consonant sounds since it

is not normally produced in their native language.

Despite the similarities in above consonant sounds, there are some sounds that exclusively

belong to Vietnamese. The English consonant sound /ʧ/ may sound the same to the Vietnamese

consonant –ch. However, -ch is palatal, stop and voiceless, while /ʧ/ is palatal, affricates and

1
Yule. (2010). The sound patterns of language. In The study of language (p. 45). Cambridge
University Press.
VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH, PHONOLOGICAL TRASNFERRING 5

voiceless. Another one is “th” consonant which is not articulated between the upper and lower

teeth in Vietnamese while it is articulated that way in English. Therefore, some learners have

hard time practicing articulating the /θ/ English consonant sound.

The below table is extracted from the study of cross-linguistic between Vietnamese and

English by Giang Tang (2007) indicates other consonants that Vietnamese and English share and
VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH, PHONOLOGICAL TRASNFERRING 6

do not share.

The table, however, does not illustrate why there are sounds that are and are not shared by

both English and Vietnamese. Even when sounds are not in common between the two languages,
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they can still be heard similarly. As exemplified above, the English sound /ʧ/ would sound quite

similarly to the Vietnamese consonant –ch even though they are not shared sounds. As a result,

some learners may substitute the –ch sound for the /ʧ/ sound. In fact, these two sounds are not

articulated in the same way, which is why they cannot be shared. Not looking at the differences

in how sounds are actually articulated, therefore, may cause confusion for learners. The two

following tables, respectively from Yule (2010) and Vietnamese language website, will give

more details into this point.

Figure 2. English consonant sounds

Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal

Nasal m [m] n [n] nh [ɲ] ng/ngh [ŋ]
Voiceless p [p] t [t] tr [ʈʂ~ʈ] ch [c~tɕ] c/k/q [k~q]
Stop Voiced b [ɓ] đ [ɗ]
Aspirated th [tʰ]
kh [x~kʰ]
Voiceless ph [f] x [s] s [ʂ] h [h]
Fricative
Voiced v [v] d [z~j] gi [z~j] g/gh [ɣ]
r [ʐ~ɹ]
Approximant u/o [w] l [l] y/i [j]

Figure 3. Vietnamese consonants2

Comparing Vietnamese consonant sounds to English, it is noticed that consonant sounds in

English is articulated in much more variation of places and manners. Manners of articulation

2
n.p. (n.d). Consonants of Vietnamese Language. Retrieved from VIETNAM LANGUAGE
CENTRE IN SINGAPORE: https://vietnameselanguage.wordpress.com
VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH, PHONOLOGICAL TRASNFERRING 8

such as affricates, liquids, and places of articulation such as dental, labiodental are much more

common in English rather than in Vietnamese. Another point is that the two tables indicate the

reason why English consonant sounds such as /m, n, p, t, s, k, h, f, d, j, ŋ/ share with Vietnamese

sounds, which is that these sounds have articulatory characteristics in common. For example, /p/

is labial, stop and voiceless in both English and Vietnamese. Furthermore, to those learners who

may hear English sounds such as /ʧ, g, ʃ, r/ respectively similar to Vietnamese consonants “ch, g

(gh), s, r” will acknowledge that even though these sounds sound quite the same, they are in fact

articulated differently. This awareness will prevent them from substituting such English sounds

to Vietnamese sounds, enhancing their accuracy in pronunciation.

Vowels

Back to English syllable by Yule (2010), vowels are also an important part of a word,

together with consonants. The CV (consonant-vowel) pattern is common both in English and

Vietnamese. However, English vowels are in greater number than Vietnamese vowels. As

claimed by Nguyen Dinh Hoa (1997), there are eleven vowels in Vietnamese, while there are

thirteen in English stated by Yule (2010)

Front Central Back

Front i (y) u
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ư Front Central Back

Mid ê â ô Front i u

ơ ɪ ʊ

Low e a o Mid e ə o

à ɛ ʌ ɔ

Low æ

a ɑ

Figure 5. English vowels

Figure 4. Vietnamese vowels

Vietnamese vowels only – English vowels only

The vowels that are in bold can only be found in Vietnamese, while those are in blue bold

belongs to English only. English vowels seem to be greater than Vietnamese vowels, but the

charts do not include diphthongs which have two vowels. Vietnamese diphthongs are much more

complicated than English. Not only do they have 20 possible two-vowel combinations, but they

also have seven three-vowel combinations such as -ia, -iê, -ua, -uô, -ưa, -ươ, -oe, -oi, -iu, -eo, -ao,

-ay, -iêu, -yêu, -uây, -uya, -ươu, -uôi, -oai and so on (Giang Tang, 2007). Meanwhile, there are

only five main diphthongs in English which are /aɪ, aʊ, eɪ, oʊ, ɔɪ/. Also, it should be noted that

Vietnamese vowels are produced in one utter or one “beat” whether they have two or three

vowels combinations.

Although several vowels are only found in English, the ways to pronounce them are quite

similar to Vietnamese vowels to some extent. In other words, there are some vowels shared by

both English and Vietnamese. For example, as seen from the below charts, /ə/ would sound like

“ơ” in Vietnamese, while /ʌ/ sounds like /â/. Another example is /ɔ/ would be heard as “o”. The
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following table is extracted from Giang Tang (2007) in her analysis of cross-linguistic of

Vietnamese and English, providing a more detailed picture of Vietnamese and English vowels.
VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH, PHONOLOGICAL TRASNFERRING 11

From the table, it is observable that Vietnamese has far more diphthongs and combinations

of two to three vowels than English does. On the other hand, consonant clusters can only be

found in English, not in Vietnamese (Table 1). The finding implies that Vietnamese learners of

English may perceive English vowels more comfortably than English consonants.

Tones

The major phonological difference between Vietnamese and English is tones. Vietnamese

shares some consonant and vowel concepts with English, but what English do not have is lexical

tones. Tones in Vietnamese can be used to change a meaning of a word, while it is that the

distinct articulation of sounds in English changes the meaning. For example, the Vietnamese

word “tôi”(I) has a different meaning from “tô ̣i”(guilt), “tố i”(dark), or “tồ i”(bad) when different

tones is added into the steam word, “tôi”. Otherwise, in English, the word “tip” does not carry

the same meaning with “dip” since the initial sound is distinctively pronounced. Basically, there

are six tones in Vietnamese: rising, falling, dipping rising, creaky, constricted, and level. Creaky

tone is spoken as dipping rising tone in southern region of Vietnam. Below is a diagram of the

six tones in Vietnamese by Nguyen Dinh Hoa (1997)

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Figure 6. Diagram of the six tones3

Besides, not all Vietnamese tones can be added into a word. The word “tổi” or “tỗi” does

not have meaning. This is quite similiar to English stress. An English word with two or more

than syllables will not make sense to listeners if it is stressed in the wrong way. For instance,

“happy” is stressed on the first syllable “HAPpy”. Listeners would have difficulty recognizing its

meaning if it is stressed on the second syllable “hapPY”. This implies that Vietnamese learners

of English can refer the stress in English to their rising tone in Vietnamese. They are supposed to

rise their voice on the stressed part of a word. This implies that “adult listeners’ linguistic

experience in using tones from their native languages facilitates their perception of non-native

tones across the board.” (Connie & Katherine, 2010)

Syllable structure

As it is mentioned above in the consonant part, although the pattern CV can be found in

both Vietnamese and English, it is impossible to find a Vietnamese word that has three

consonants in a row such as CCCVCCC or CCVCC, which is otherwise common in English. In

3
Hoa, N. D. (1997). London Oriental and and African language library: Vietnamese. John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH, PHONOLOGICAL TRASNFERRING 13

other words, there are no consonant clusters in Vietnamese. This explains why the learners find it

hard to pronounce the words “spring, string, strength, scrunched” and why most Vietnamese

beginning learners of English may find a way to memorize the pronunciation of these words by

adding vowels between the consonants. For example, they may transcribe the word “spring” in

Vietnamese way as “sỜ-pỜ-ring” which may turn into a different word to English native

listeners.

Furthermore, Vietnamese syllable structure is not only featured by consonants and vowels,

but also by tones; while English syllable structure is a sequence of consonants and vowels (see

figure 1. English syllable). The chart below is from Giang Tang (2007) illustrating Vietnamese

syllable structure.

The table shows that there are two types of vowels in Vietnamese: medial and principal

vowel. Principal vowel is the one carrying tone, so it is called the main vowel and always

appears in the vowel part of a word, while medial vowel can be absent. When a word has

medical vowel, speakers have to pronounce with their lips rounded; /u/ and /o/ are two common

medial vowels in Vietnamese. Furthermore, Vietnamese syllable structure also has final
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consonant sound which can be found in English. However, final sounds in Vietnamese are not

released, while they are in English. This can explain why most beginning learners tend not to

produce ending sounds in English words.

Phonological transfer: Advantage or disadvantage?

The study of Evidence for language transfer leading to a perceptual advantage for non-

native listeners by Charles B. Chang and Alan Mishler suggests that “cross-linguistic transfer is

capable of boosting speech perception by non-natives beyond native levels.” The three

experiments in this study were carried on to test Korean learners of English whether they are

better than Americans at identifying unreleased stops in English. The finding showed that native

Korean learners significantly outperformed Americans in perceiving unreleased stops due to

their experience with unreleased stops in their native language.

In another study carried by Luu Trong Tuan (2011), Vietnamese students were found to

have difficulty pronouncing these following English sounds: /ʃ, ʤ, ʒ, ʧ/, especially when these

sounds are in middle or at the end of a word. They tend to substitute similar Vietnamese sounds

for these English sounds without noticing that the way of articulation for these consonant sounds

in English is significantly different from Vietnamese. This seems to be a negative impact of

mother tongue’s interference.

These two studies suggest that the phonological patterns of foreign language learners’

mother tongue have a noticeable impact on them (Luu Trong Tuan, 2011). Also, “each language

has a different inventory of sounds, different rules for combining these sounds into words, and

different stress and intonation patterns.”(Avery and Elrlich, 1995) Therefore, phonological

transferring can result in both advantaged and disadvantaged effect on learners. They may

encounter difficulties when there are some patterns or rules in English that do not have in their
VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH, PHONOLOGICAL TRASNFERRING 15

native language. On the hand, when their native language shares some commons with English,

they may find it at ease to perceive these commons, especially if they already experience

linguistic commons in their native language.

The theory indicating that phonological awareness in first language can be transferred to

learn another language serves as a background to help Vietnamese language learners explain

themselves why they have to deal with some difficulties in learning English pronunciation and

how they can perceive these phonological differences. However, it should be noticed that letting

their mother tongue significantly interfering with second language learning may push them to

twist some English sounds, that is, they pronounce them in Vietnamese way. For this reason,

phonological transfer can encourage learners to practice and overcome obstacles in English

pronunciation if they are instructed on to what extent knowledge of their native language can

transfer and interfere with English as a second language (Hornberger, 1989).

Pedagogical implications

Based on the idea of how phonological knowledge of L1 can be transferred and adjusted to

help learners perceive similarities and differences in L2, there are some suggestions for teachers

who would like to improve their students’ pronunciation.

First, teachers need to know major phonological differences between Vietnamese and

English. The knowledge can help them understand why some students are struggling with

English pronunciation and explain their struggles. As a result, not only students can feel less

stressed and not blame themselves for their weakness, but teachers will be more patient and

consistent to help their students since they know that learning another language is a process of

learning all the differences.

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Second, teachers should be patient if their students keep making the same mistake again.

The problem of mother tongue’s interference is that students may transfer their L1 knowledge

which is not right in L2. Vietnamese and English have a great number of alphabets in common.

For example, some students may pronounce the word “me” in English as /me/, not /mɪ/ since in

Vietnamese “e” is pronounced as /e/. Over time, when students are exposed more to English

pronunciation rules, they will correct themselves. Therefore, teachers should not criticize their

students for making mistakes, instead they should perceive making mistakes as a step to learn.

Last but not least, teachers should not put pressure on beginning students by asking them to

follow English transcription. Instead, they should let their students approach in their own way

first, and then adjust their perception by talking and practicing. For example, most beginning

students may transcribe the word “school” as /sờ-cun/ and this is Vietnamese sound, not English

sound. The reason is that they hear it with their L1 knowledge. Teachers should have them listen

and practice several times to help them realize the difference themselves. When they reach a

higher level, teachers can introduce some rules in English pronunciation for the sounds that their

students tend to substitute with Vietnamese sounds.

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References

Bell, J. S. (1995). The Relationship between L1 and L2 Literacy: Some Complicating Factors.

TESOL Quarterly, 687-704.

Connie K. So, C. T. (2010). Cross-language Perception of Non-native Tonal Constrasts: Effects

of Native Phonological and Phonetic Influences . LANGUAGE AND SPEECH, 273-293.

Hoa, N. D. (1997). London Oriental and and African language library: Vietnamese. John

Benjamins Publishing Company.

Mishler, C. B. (2012). Evidence for language transfer leading to a perceptual. Acoustical Society

of America, 2700-2710.

n.p. (n.d). Consonants of Vietnamese Language. Retrieved from VIETNAM LANGUAGE

CENTRE IN SINGAPORE: https://vietnameselanguage.wordpress.com

Tang, G. (2007). Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Vietnamese and English with Implications for

Vietnamese Language Acquisition and Maintenance in the United States. Southeast Asian

American Education and Advancement, 1-33.

Tuan, L. T. (2011). Vietnamese EFL learners’ Difficulties with English Consonants. CS Canada

Studies in Literature and Language, 56-67.

Yule. (2010). The sound patterns of language. In The study of language (p. 45). Cambridge

University Press.