AN INVESTIGATION INTO IUH ENGLISH MAJORS’ CAPACITY TO ARTICULATE ENGLISH FRICATIVES /s/ AND /ʃ/

Abstract

English is now a global language. Being aware of this, Vietnamese schools and students invest heavily in teaching and learning English. However, it is an undeniable fact that despite significant investment, Vietnamese students still struggle to utter English words and thus frequently encounter situations in which native speakers do not understand what they say or vice versa. Hence, it is of great importance to uncover the reasons behind this incompetence. As informants for the investigation, 200 IUH English-majored students, future English teachers and interpreters, were randomly and conveniently sampled for a pronunciation test centering on two English fricative /s/ and /ʃ/, which are seemingly mispronounced on a frequent basis. The investigation was conducted with the aim of finding out the explanation for the phenomenon and propose solutions to partially improve the students’ pronunciation, specifically that of English fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/, which hopefully will, in turn, contributes positively to the professional activities of those students after graduation.