Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến dạy và học phát âm tiếng Anh

78 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰSố 14 - 7/2018
v LÝ LUẬN CHUYÊN NGÀNH
NGUYỄN TRÍ DŨNG*, NGUYỄN THỊ BIÊN**
*Học viện Khoa học Quân sự, braveman20083@gmail.com
**Học viện Khoa học Quân sự, bien_khanh2008@yahoo.com
Ngày nhận bài: 06/6/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 14/6/2018; ngày duyệt đăng: 20/6/2018
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the complaints teachers and learners 
of English make about English pronunciation is 
that they have trouble dealing with pronunciation 
which is considered one of the most complicated 
but significant features of second language 
teaching and learning. Indeed, good pronunciation 
can promote language learning whereas poor 
pronunciation can result in a great hindrance in the 
second language learning. Many learners, though, 
seek to master native-like pronunciation and want 
to speak English accurately and fluently, they have 
trouble with pronunciation on account of a wide 
range of influencing elements. 
Brown (2007) states that the influencing 
elements of pronunciation not only include 
CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN
DẠY VÀ HỌC PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH
TÓM TẮT
Phát âm giống như người bản ngữ là một trong những nhiệm vụ rất quan trọng nhưng cũng khá 
phức tạp đối với cả người dạy và người học. Do đặc tính phức tạp của ngôn ngữ, phát âm đang 
được xem là một kỹ năng cần được chú trọng nhiều hơn trong việc giảng dạy ngôn ngữ ở các 
trường học và cơ sở đào tạo. Trong phạm vi bài báo này, người viết sẽ nhấn mạnh tầm quan trọng 
của phát âm tiếng Anh. Bên cạnh đó, dựa trên một số nghiên cứu cũng như lý thuyết liên quan về 
phát âm, người viết sẽ phân loại các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến quá trình dạy và học phát âm tiếng Anh, 
đồng thời đưa ra một số đề xuất nhằm cải thiện chất lượng dạy và học phát âm hiện nay. 
Từ khoá: dạy và học phát âm, ngôn ngữ bản địa, phát âm
phonetic symbols and rules, but also involve the 
articulation of individual sounds and the distinctive 
features of sounds like voice and aspiration, voice-
setting features and stress, intonation, and rhythm. 
Meanwhile, Pennington and Richards (1996) 
points out that there are a range of elements that 
should be considered as part of pronunciation, such 
as native language interference, age influence, etc. 
So as to, therefore, make pronunciation teaching 
and learning effective, it would be worthwhile to 
take these elements into account. 
This article addresses the elements that 
influence English pronunciation acquisition 
in ESL situation. Specifically, it first and 
foremost emphasizes the importance of English 
pronunciation, and reviews some researches and 
theories relevant to pronunciation. The influencing 
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elements of English pronunciation acquisition are 
categorized into two domains named as internal 
and external ones. 
2. THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH 
PRONOUNCIATION
Learning a language means dealing with the 
performance of sounds, utterances, and words 
properly and precisely. One of the general goals 
in the second language learning (L2), perhaps the 
most important one, is speaking the target language 
as accurately and fluently as native speakers. 
When people communicate in English, the very 
first thing to be noticed, which can make a good 
impression on our language competence, is the 
way in which English is pronounced. Indeed, poor 
and incomprehensible pronunciation will surely 
result in unpleasantness and misunderstanding 
for both speakers and listeners. What’s more, 
it is apparent that limited pronunciation skills 
will lessen learners’ self-confidence and lead to 
negative influence for learners to estimate their 
credibility and abilities (Morley, 1998).
Lund (2003, p.16) argues that pronunciation 
is the only aspect of language calling for a 
close interaction between the cognitive and 
physiological processes. In acquiring new sounds 
we are also coping with a complex reorganizing 
of the articulatory processes. Good English 
pronunciation will make oneself easily understood; 
contrarily, poor English pronunciation may confuse 
people and result in unpleasant conversations 
and misunderstandings even when someone uses 
advanced English grammar or vocabulary. 
Pronunciation has an important social value, 
which is relevant to prestige, such as intelligence, 
professional competence, persuasiveness, 
diligence, and social privilege. Pronunciation 
can provide information about the speaker’s 
geographical and social origin, and in most cases 
it is the most salient characteristic of non-native 
speakers (Kenworthy, 1997). 
Pronunciation, in addition, is vocalized in 
communication and can be considered as a kind 
of culture. In the process of communicating, the 
speaker’s expression, describing or explaining 
can build up their individual cultural space modus 
vivendi, which the cultural space contains the 
system and hierarchy of values and the individual 
world view.
In conclusion, pronunciation in general and 
English pronunciation in particular plays a very 
important part in English language teaching and 
learning. Its importance has been recognized by 
many learners, teachers and researchers, but it 
should be noted that language learners always have 
difficulties with pronunciation. In fact, there are a 
lot of researchers who have made contribution to 
seek the elements affecting pronunciation teaching 
and learning from various perspectives such as 
physiology, psychology and linguistics. 
3. PREVIOUS STUDIES ON ENGLISH 
PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND 
LEARNING
Kenworthy (1997) states that the history of 
teaching English pronunciation is known as a study 
in extremes. Some teaching approaches such as the 
Reformed Method and Audio-lingual focused on 
pronunciation and considered them as a pinnacle 
of the English teaching and learning process, 
while others such as the cognitive movement and 
early communicative language teaching seemed to 
ignore pronunciation. 
According to Brown (2007), the Direct Method 
which became popular in the late 1800s and early 
1900s was described as follows: pronunciation 
was taught through intuition and imitation. In the 
Naturalistic Methods, learners had to learn solely 
by listening prior to any speaking was allowed. 
The first linguistic or analytic contribution to 
pronunciation teaching transpired in 1890s as part 
of the Reform Movement in language teaching. 
This movement was so much influenced by 
phoneticians such as Henry Sweet, Wilhelm Vietor, 
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and Paul Passay who developed the International 
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). They advocated the 
notions and practices suggesting that learners 
should be given phonetic training to set up good 
speech habits and the spoken form of a language 
and should be taught first. 
In 1940s and 1950s, teachers used both Audio-
lingual and Oral approaches their pronunciation 
teaching classrooms in which the IPA and charts 
demonstrating the articulation of sounds were 
exploited. They also applied the minimal pair drill 
which using words that differ by a single sound 
in the same position. In addition, in the 1960s, 
the Cognitive Approach, which used sound color 
charts and Fidel word charts, were introduced. 
(The Fidel is known as a set of rectangle charts 
organized along articulatory lines and presenting 
all the possible spelling patterns for each sound 
in the language using the color code. Sounds 
are seen in the same color and the same location 
on each rectangle). In the color word charts, the 
words which are grouped semantically in a way 
allowing teachers to silently dictate or tap out 
phrases, are then practised orally or written down 
as a dictation. This silent way seemed to have a 
special focus on teaching pronunciation, and many 
language educators agree that the principle of 
sound-color correspondence, which the silent way 
invoked, provided learners with an “inner resource 
to be used” (Nation and Newton, 2009).
The Communicative Approach took hold in 
the 1980s and is currently dominant in language 
teaching. According to Cele-Murcia, Brinton, 
& Goodwin (1996), the primary purpose 
of language is communication, the use of 
language to communicate should be central in 
all classroom instructions. Cenoz (1999) claims 
that pronunciation has traditionally been taught 
with a goal of “speaking like a native speaker, 
but this is not practical. In fact, it is a recipe for 
discouragement of both teachers and students. 
This has been referred to “the perfection trap”. 
A more practical approach is to aim to “listener-
friendly pronunciation”. 
Currently, the following techniques and practice 
materials are being used to teach pronunciation: 
Listen and Repeat (a technique from the Direct 
Method, e.g., She sells seashells on the seashore), 
Phonetic Training (a technique from the Reform 
Movement, e.g., using the correct IPA symbols 
when identifying the correct vowel: leg [e] – lag 
[æ], Minimal Pair Drills (a technique introduced 
during Audio-lingual area, e.g., beg-bag/ ten-tan, 
and Recording of learners’ production. Morley 
(1998) supports the idea of critical listening; that is 
to say, it is ideal if learners can listen to recordings 
of their own voices, and especially if they can be 
recorded saying similar things several times, and 
then listen again to see if they can pick the various 
pronunciation.
4. ELEMENTS AFFECTING THE 
ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TEACHING 
AND LEARNING AMONG ADULT 
LEARNERS
Based on reviewing previous studies and 
theories about pronunciation teaching and learning, 
the article will categorize the influencing elements 
of English pronunciation teaching and learning 
into two areas: internal and external.
4.1. Internal elements
4.1.1. Age
Widely recognized by many researchers, age is 
known as an element of great importance in SLA 
field. There is general consensus that the younger 
the better when acquiring a new language and the 
more accurate their pronunciation will be in the 
target language. Biologically, it has determined the 
period of life when language can be acquired more 
easily and beyond the period language, learning is 
increasingly difficult to acquire. 
Proposed by Lenneberg (1997) Critical Period 
Hypothesis claims that there is a critical age period 
for language learning (around puberty). If learners 
do not learn a foreign language before a certain 
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age, they cannot obtain a better pronunciation than 
those who learn a foreign language at a proper 
age. If a learner begins to speak a second language 
before the age of six, there will be little or no 
accent. If the learner begins to speak it between 
at the age of 7-11, the learner is likely to have a 
slight accent. If the learner begins to speak after 
the age of 12, the learner almost always has an 
accent (Nation and Newton, 2009, p.78). 
4.1.2. Brain 
It seems that children have an advantage over 
adults in language learning. A child’s brain is 
plastic to compare with an adult’s, but after nine 
years old the brain is growing mature and some 
functions are assigned to left and right hemispheres 
and it will be difficult to approach native-like 
pronunciation. 
Some researchers and neurologists have 
claimed that there is a strong relationship between 
language learning and lateralization. Lenneberg 
(1997) hypothesizes that lateralization is a slow 
process, and it begins at the age of about two and 
will be completed when reaching puberty. Before 
two years old, the brain has not developed but 
after puberty it develops so much and will lose 
its plasticity and finish the lateralization of the 
language function. 
However, some researchers hold the opponent 
point indicating that plasticity survives puberty 
even till to twenties; they still have the possibility 
to achieve native-like pronunciation (Lund, 2003). 
4.1.3. Ear-perception
Ear perception is always ignored by many 
people during the process of teaching and learning 
pronunciation. There is a common sense that 
different people have different levels of hearing 
abilities (Hamers, 1994). Some people have a 
better ear capacity for language learning than 
others. Those who have good ear capacity can 
easily discriminate two sounds more accurately 
and be able to imitate different sounds better than 
others and lead to their pronunciation approach to 
native speakers. 
It is noteworthy that ear capacity relates to 
learners’ age. That is to say, learners may gradually 
lose some of their abilities when they grow older, 
and it might be difficult for them to pronounce the 
target language with a native or native-like accent.
4.1.4. Aptitude
Some learners, indeed, have an aptitude for 
language learning and seem to acquire a better 
pronunciation than others. According to Carroll 
(1992), four traits constitute language aptitude, 
namely, phonetic coding ability, grammatical 
sensitivity, inductive language learning ability and 
memory. The first trait refers to “the capacity to 
discriminate and code foreign sounds which can 
be recalled”. Grammatical sensitivity concerns 
“the ability to analyze language and figure out 
rules”. Inductive language learning ability relates 
to “the capacity to pick up language through 
exposure”. The last component, memory, involves 
“the amount of rote learning activity needed to 
internalize something” (Cele-Murcia, Brinton, & 
Goodwin, 1996, p.17).
In reality, aptitude plays a essential part in 
learners’ pronunciation development. Though 
many people have language aptitude ability, its 
degree is variable. Some people have more ability 
but some have less. It, however, does not mean 
that learners who have higher aptitude will be 
successful while others will not (Cele-Murcia, 
Briton, & Goodwin, 1996).
4.1.5. Personality (extraversion and 
introversion)
Learners’ personalities relating to extraversion 
and introversion also influence their pronunciation 
learning. The consensus seems that extroversive 
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characteristic plays a positive role in learning native-
like pronunciation; meanwhile, introversive one 
does not. Learners, who are sociable, courageous, 
talkative and like to make friends, tend to express 
themselves and take part in activities actively. 
Therefore, they have more opportunities to use the 
target language and improve their pronunciation. 
In contrast, a typical introverted person who is shy 
and likes to stay alone and prefers reading books to 
talking with people, cannot find any opportunities 
to speak the target language and practise their 
pronunciation.
4.1.6. Attitude, motivation and identity
Pronunciation learning is also affected by 
learners’ learning identity and attitude. According 
to Buranavityawut (2000), the accuracy of 
lear ... ian 
gains such as getting a better job, going to a good 
university, passing an exam. The latter involves 
positive attitudes toward the target language and 
target language community. Carroll (1992) claims 
that instrumental motivation and integrative 
motivation can promote language learning. 
4.1.7. Individual efforts and goal setting
For many EFL and ESL learners, classrooms are 
the only learning setting for L2 learning. However, 
teaching never causes learning, but creates the 
conditions in which learning can occur. Therefore, 
individual efforts become a crucial factor for L2 
learning. Having good pronunciation is not easy 
for many learners and it needs persistence and a 
long time to practise, just like making muscles. 
The more time learners spend in pronunciation, 
the better pronunciation they will get. 
Most studies demonstrated that L2 learners’ 
goal is to produce and perceive the native-like 
speakers. Nation and Newton (2009) argues that 
there continues to be a debate about whether the 
model for foreign language learners should be a 
native speaker or non-native speaker, and if it is 
an English native speaker, it should be British or 
American or some other regional pronunciation. 
Therefore, we should bear in mind that good 
pronunciation does not mean perfect American 
or British accent but sounds native-like and 
intelligible pronunciation. 
4.2. External elements
4.2.1. Native language
There is a general consensus that learners’ 
native language plays a central role in the precise 
acquisition of pronunciation in a new language. 
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That is to say, learner’s first language is a 
significant factor to account for foreign accents 
and influence the pronunciation of the target 
language. It often relates to interference from the 
mother tongue to errors in aspiration, stress, and 
intonation in the target language. For instance, 
Chinese is a tone language while English is highly 
stressed language.
Brown (2007) points out all learners had 
experiences that they met a great difficulty in 
understanding what foreigners said. This is not 
because of their lack of knowledge of vocabulary, 
language structures or grammar, but the sounds 
they produced seems peculiar and their voice rose 
and fell in unexpected places.
Most teachers’ experiences and studies show 
that the learners’ first language has a major 
influence on learning the sound system of another 
language (Nation and Newton, 2009). That is to 
say, every language in the world has different 
varieties and accents. “Needless to say, learners of 
a language speak the target language in a different 
way; sometimes slightly different and sometimes 
highly different rather than native speakers do, 
which we call foreign accents, the nature of which 
is determined to a large extent by a learner’s native 
language” (Avery & Ehrlich, 1997, p.18).
4.2.2. Exposure
It is not easy to define exposure (Brown, 2007). 
Generally, it relates to the length of time that the 
learners live in a target language environment. It 
does not matter the place or country the learners 
stay, but depends on how much they use English 
in their daily life. The more time they spend in 
listening and speaking English, the better their 
English pronunciation will be. According to 
Krashen (1992), learners acquire a L2 primarily 
from input, which learners receive a large amount 
of comprehensive input before speaking.
However, it does not simply mean that learners 
who live in the target language country will have 
good native-like pronunciation. On one hand, 
the key point is whether the learners grasp every 
opportunity to use the target language and take full 
advantage of the environment. If the learners live 
in an English-speaking country, then the learners 
will have many opportunities to listen to and use 
English since they are surrounded by the English 
speaking environment. On the other hand, it should 
bear in mind that there are many people who live 
in an English speaking country, but spend much 
time with a non-English speaking environment 
or stick to their native speaking groups. For this 
reason, it is not merely exposure that matters, 
but how the learners respond to the opportunities 
(Senel, 2006).
4.2.3. Education elements
Educational system is an implicit but 
indispensable element for L2 learning. It is affected 
by national social politics, economic development 
and national traditions. If a country implements 
positive educational policies or creates a good 
learning environment, the learners will benefit 
greatly from it. Good educational conditions can 
provide learners with opportunities to contact the 
target language or the target language community.
It seems that if learners live in a non-English 
speaking country, there will be no advantage for 
them because they do not have opportunities to 
use the target language in a real environment, 
except their classrooms and they are only 
exposed to focused-listening. On one hand, 
schools should provide space and conditions for 
students to practise. On the other hand, teachers 
should encourage students to practise and create 
opportunities for them to practise (Cele-Murcia, 
Briton, and Goodwin (1996). 
In EFL settings, especially where students 
have little opportunity to surround themselves 
with native input in the target language, the 
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burden will fall more on the teachers to provide 
an adequate model of the target language, and to 
ascertain that students have opportunities outside 
the class (e.g, in the language laboratory or foreign 
language learning centers) to experience samples 
of the authentic oral discourse of native speakers 
(Cele-Murcia, Briton, and Goodwin, 1996, p.17). 
Teachers’ teaching methods have a big influence 
on learners’ capability to absorb knowledge from 
the teachers (Kenworthy, 1997). Good teaching 
methods can inspire learners greatly during their 
learning process. They seem to be excited to take 
lessons rather than do them reluctantly. On the 
contrary, poor teaching methods may discourage 
or depress learners. That is to say, teachers’ 
performance in class plays a decisive part in 
learners’ learning. 
Many EFL teachers think pronunciation 
is too complicated and difficult to teach and 
ignore the importance of teaching students good 
pronunciation. There is a fact that, however, the 
students’ pronunciation mostly depends on the 
teachers’ pronunciation. Therefore, it is important 
and necessary that teachers should improve their 
pronunciation first.
Apart from teacher-related elements, other 
objectives ones such as classroom facilities, 
curriculum, etc. may affect pronunciation teaching 
and learning (Brown, 2007). Indeed, teachers 
find hard to deliver their lectures if the teaching-
supported facilities do not work properly and 
learners might feel depressed as a result of this 
interruption. Furthermore, learners may get 
confused if the curriculum is not suitable for their 
levels which might be too difficult or too easy. 
5. SUGGESTION FOR ENGLISH 
PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND 
LEARNING
It is very necessary for teachers and learners 
of English to identify and deal with the elements 
affecting the English pronunciation teaching and 
learning. In reality, teachers play a crucial role 
in students’ learning because pronunciation is 
one of the significant aspects of foreign language 
teaching. It must be also borne in mind that 
teachers are the models for their students. Thus, 
first of all, they should have good pronunciation; 
otherwise they can mislead their students. That 
is to say, the teachers should spend more time on 
teaching pronunciation. 
Besides, during the pronunciation teaching, 
teachers should always come up with different 
teaching methods that are suitable for different 
groups of students who might differ in age, 
aptitude, personality, and motivation. Also, 
teachers should take much notice of how to help 
learners overcome the influences of their mother 
tongue which may take a long time to be improved. 
Creating opportunities for learners to increase 
their exposure to English pronunciation should be 
teachers’ regular job. 
In the overall process of pronunciation 
teaching, it is difficult to teach without practice, 
but students may feel bored and depressed for 
drilling an individual sound for a long time. 
Therefore, it is important to combine practice 
pronunciation exercises with more interesting 
ones. Apart from equipping learners with 
knowledge, teachers should help students 
establish an appropriate goal of pronunciation 
and try to improve their learning motivation, 
which are important parts in language teaching. 
Learners should find the most suitable learning 
method for themselves under the guidance of 
teachers and have enough exposure to the target 
language. Moreover, learners can learn from 
each other, outside the class or without teachers’ 
presence. So as to make learners become more 
efficient at learning pronunciation, they should 
set themselves specific goals and have definite 
motivation in learning as well.
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6. CONCLUSION
This article emphasized some important 
elements influencing the English pronunciation 
teaching and learning from a comprehensive 
perspective. In the case of internal elements, the 
writer believes that the younger the learners start to 
learn L2, the better they can master the language, 
and this also relates to the brain development, 
ear perception, and innate phonetic ability. Many 
researchers suggest that, positive attitudes and 
opened-mind will promote learners’ pronunciation 
development and let them have a native-like accent. 
Also, if learners have high motivation to learn 
pronunciation and set up an appropriate goal for 
pronunciation, they will master the target language 
pronunciation much better. For external elements, 
native language is seen as the key factor which 
has a big influence on the acquisition of English 
pronunciation. The learners will more easily 
pronounce the target language sounds if their native 
language has the similar sounds with the target 
language. Exposure is another important affecting 
element that includes the attitude the learners 
respond to opportunities to use the target language.
 Excelling at pronunciation benefits us loads 
in communication, particularly intelligibility. The 
better we pronounce the better people understand 
us. It is unquestionable that these affecting elements 
have different influences in pronunciation. Some 
of these elements are unchangeable, for example, 
it is impossible for us to change the age and 
phonetic ability of the learners. It is apparent that 
the influence of age is undeniable in language 
learning process. However, some elements are 
changeable such as some educational factors./.
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86 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰSố 14 - 7/2018
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ELEMENTS THAT AFFECT THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
TEACHING AND LEARNING
NGUYEN TRI DUNG, NGUYEN THI BIEN
Abstract: Sounding like native speakers when studying a foreign language seems to be one of 
important but rather complicated tasks for both teachers and learners. Due to the complexity of 
languages, pronunciation has been considered as a skill which needs to be paid special attention 
to in language teaching in schools and training centers. In the scope of this article, the writer will 
emphasize the importance of English pronunciation teaching and learning. Besides, based on 
previous studies as well as theories concerning pronunciation, the writer will categorize elements 
that influence the English pronunciation teaching and learning as well as make some suggestions 
on the issue.
Keywords: pronunciation teaching and learning, native language, pronunciation 
Received: 6/6/2018; Revised: 14/6/2018; Accepted for publication: 20/6/2018
dk/onfodok/spogforum/Espr26/Lund-eng.
PDF>.
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serious speech/pronunciation instruction back 
in the TESOL equation, ESL Magazine, 1, 20-
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