UNIT 4 PHONOLOGICAL CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

I. Levels of CA
Contrastive linguistics is a very broad field of linguistics, since it embraces all its
major levels: phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics, the latter including text studies
and some aspects of the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspective. Especially
pragmatics, which portrays language as a social-cultural phenomenon intertwined with the
subjective reality as perceived by the speakers, is the essential ingredient that was until
recently missing.
II. Phonological CA
The aim of contrastive phonology is to contrast the phonetic sets of both languages
and establish the differences. These may lie in the pronunciation of a phoneme that occurs in
both languages, for example, English and Vietnamese both have the phoneme / / but only
English has the aspirated [ ] as its phonetic variants whereas this phonetic form is absent in
Vietnamese; or in the absence of certain phonemes in one of the languages. A further aim is to
compare the rules for the position of word-stress, if there are any – Vietnamese, for instance
doesn’t have such rules and word-stress must simply be learned individually, which is a great
difficulty for the learners of Vietnamese.
1. Procedures of CA
Two languages could be compared in terms of their phonological systems, syntactic
systems, vocabulary, writing systems, and cultural behavior. Below is the outline that is
usually followed while doing CA. This following outline is based on readings of Gass and
Selinker’s (1993 and 1994).
1. Description of the two languages;
2. Selection of certain areas or items of the two languages for detailed comparison;
3. Comparison, i.e. the identification of areas of difference and similarity;
4. Prediction, i.e. determining which areas are likely to cause errors; and
5. Testing the predictions.
In the field of phonology, Lado suggested that “at least three checks” should be
provided when comparing each phoneme.
The most important three checks are:
(1) Does the L1 have a phonetically similar phoneme?
(2) Are the variants (all allophones) of the phonemes similar in both languages?
(3) Are the phonemes and their variants similarly distributed?
Contrasting Sound Systems
According to James (1980) there are 4 steps involved in executing a CA of the sound
systems of two languages:
 - draw up a phonemic inventory of L1 and L2;
- equate phonemes interlingually;
- list the phonemic variants (allophones) for L1 and L2;
- state the distributional restrictions on the phonemes and allophones of each
language.
Some other linguists add a fifth step: a statement of the frequency of each phonemic contrast
within L1 and L2. Stockwell and Bowen point out that there are many minimal pairs, within
English, exploiting phonemic contrast between /p/ and /b/, whereas there only very few
centred on the contrast between / / and / : pleasure/pledger, lesion/legion, etc, The latter
contrast has a low functional load. One might object that such intralingual contrasting is
excessively time-consuming, since one has to take every possible pairing of the phonemes in
the inventory, and that the comparison they make between /p/ and /b/ and / / and / is
arbitrary, since while the first pair contrast by the feature of voicelessness vs. voice, the
second contrast does not hinge on the same feature: fricative / / is compared to an affricate
/ /. A more systematic contrast would be the voiced/voiceless pair / /: / /. Indeed, the [ ]:
[ ] contrast may be in English the a case of free variation, as in [ ]/[ as
alternative realizations of ‘garage’.
We shall now consider each of the four steps in turn:
STEP 1 AND 2: INVENTORISE THE PHONEMES OF L1 AND L2

This first - descriptive step, by Carl James, is not really part of CA. In fact, for most
languages, a phonemic inventory will already have been made available by the phonologist.
The contrastivist’s task consists in equating phonological categories across the two languages.
It is suggested that the categories of IPA chart can be adopted for this purpose. The
consonants of L1 and L2 can conveniently be classified according to the place and manner of
articulation and placed in the appropriate cell of the chart, with voiceless/voiced pairs (e.g.
/p/:/b/) appearing in this order consistently. IPA symbols can be used to represent the sounds.
For the vowels, the conventional vowel-diagram can be used, which allows a specification of
any vowel according to the tongue position during articulation. Rounded or unrounded
variants can be inserted in brackets, and there are diacritics available to indicate any special
extra features, such as nasality (-) or length (:). The two vowel diagrams may be used, one for
monophthongs, the other for diphthongs. The following two figures illustrate how a class of
English teachers handled the inventories of the consonants and the pure, nonnasal vowels of
English and Vietnamese using an adaptation of the IPA charts:
 The vowel can be described in terms of articulatory & auditory parameters:
Tongue positions
Tongue part (Advancement)
Shapes of lips 1. front: e.g. [ ], [ ]
2. central: e.g. [ ], [ ]
Mouth aperture 3. back: e.g. [ ], [ ]

Front Central Back Tongue height (Jaw opening)

1. high: e.g. [ ], [ ]
i: u: 2. mid: e.g. [ ], [ :]
close I High
3. low: e.g. [ ], [ ]

Shape of lips (Lip rounding)

1. rounded: e.g. [ ], [ ]
half close e : Mid
: 2. unrounded, e.g. [ ], [ ]
e
Length (Duration)
1. long: e.g. [ ], [ ]
half open 2. short: e.g. [ ]

Low Tenseness
(Effort with tongue & jaw)
open :
1. tense: e.g. [ ], [ ]
2. lax: e.g. [ ]
Cardinal Vowel Scale

Like other Southeast Asian languages, Vietnamese has a comparatively large number of
vowels. Below is a vowel chart of Hanoi Vietnamese.

Front Central Back

High i u
Upper Mid ê â / ô
Lower Mid e[ ] o
Low /a

Front, central, and low vowels (i, ê, e, , â, , , a) are unrounded, whereas the back vowels
(u, ô, o) are rounded. The vowels â and are pronounced very short, much shorter than
the other vowels. Thus, and â are basically pronounced the same except that is long
while â is short — the same applies to the low vowels long a and short .
Vowel Diphthong Diphthong Diphthong Triphthong Triphthong
nucleus with front with back with centering with front with back
offglide offglide offglide offglide offglide
i – iu~yu ia~iê~yê~ya – iêu

ê – êu – – –
e – eo – – –
i u a~ i u
â ây âu – – –
i – – – –
ay au – – –
a ai ao – – –
u ui – ua~uô uôi –
ô ôi – – – –
o oi – – – –

The contrastive analysis of English sound system and Vietnamese sound system yields the
initial result:

Languages English Vietnamese

Systems of phonemes

Vowels 20 33

Semi-vowels (2) 0

Consonants 24 25

Total of phonemes 44 58

The number of phonemes is determined by the number of distinctive features.

Therefore, the contrastive analysis of distinctive features, phonological relations in the
systems of phonemes in 2 languages is an important task of phonological contrastive analysis.
In the contrastive analysis of the system of phonemes of two languages, apart from the
situation where a number of phonemes in Language A have the equivalent phonemes in
Language B, there is a situation where a number of phonemes are present in Language A but
absent in Language B, and vice versa. If some phonemes exist in the Target language (the
foreign language that we are learning, say, English) but absent in the Mother Tongue
(Vietnamese), these phonemes are considered an obstacles for the learner’s pronunciation, e.g.
/ / (thing, thought), / / (they, then), / / (chair), / / (jam). On the other hand, those
phonemes found in the Mother Tongue but absent in the Target Language are said to be no
difficulty to the learners, e.g. / /(nhanh), / (b , nh ) only occur in Vietnamese but not
in English.
In practice we rely heavily on the criterion of minimal pairs: we mentally search the
lexicon for pairs of words that are differentiated by a single phonological segment. This is
what the Vietnamese students did: in establishing the status of [ ], for example, in ba ba
/ /, bi / / and bin / !/, the following contrasting lexical items were cited: like pa pa
/ /, pi / / and pin / !/, etc. Likewise, for the vowels, minimal pairs like sit /" #/: seat
/" #/ and bed / /: bad / / were cited. The allophonic status of [$] and [% ] was established
by noting that [$] occurred word-initially and medially, but not finally, where [% ] occurred.
This brings us to the next step in the CA.
STEP 3: STATE THE ALLOPHONES OF EACH PHONEME OF L1 AND L2

At this step, we identify the allophonic forms of phonemes (phonetic variants of

phonemes) in each language and look for the similarities and differences between the two
languages. It is possible that a phoneme in Language A has its allophonic variants whereas the
equivalent phoneme in Language B does not.
We have already seen examples of this procedure: the aspirated and unaspirated pairs
[ ; & &] occurring in English, but not in Vietnamese, except for [# #]. Another example
was the allophonic variants of the lateral phoneme in English, as contrasted with the
phonemes / ; # #; & &/ in Vietnamese. Politzer (1972:129) has identified a number of
ways in which pairs of languages can exhibit contrasts over the respective statuses of their
speech sounds:
a) For two equated phonemes, one of L1 and one of L2, allophonic variants occur for
one but not for the other. For example, we equate the laterals /$/ of Vietnamese and English.
We now discover that the Vietnamese lateral is always realized by a clear [$] while in English
there are two allophones in complementary distribution. The Vietnamese thus says [$ &] for
‘lake’ and [' $] or [' $ ] for ‘I’ll’, while the Englishman says [$ &] for ‘lake’ and [' %] for
‘I’ll’.
b) What is an allophone in L1 is a phoneme in L2, where the sounds concerned are
physically very similar. Our example of this type of contrast was the ‘clear’ [$] of English,
equated with the [$] in Vietnamese: the former has allophonic status, the latter phonemic
status.
In fact, category b) is conflated with category a): instead of saying that the aspirated
stop is phonemic in Vietnamese but allophonic in English we could have said that Vietnamese
/p/, /t/ and /k/ have no allophonic variants, while English /p/, /t/ and /k/ have.
c) This category of contrast applies to pairs of L1 and L2 sounds that stand in a one-to-
one relationships, not the one-to-many relationships characteristic of category b). Here, the
two equated segments have different absolute statuses in their respective phonological
systems.
STEP 4: STATE THE DISTRIBUTIONAL RESTRICTIONS ON THE ALLPHONES AND PHONEMES
OF L1 AND L2

We already embarked on this operation, when we identified the allophonic variants in

the two languages. What is called for now is a detailed and fully explicit account of the
environments in which typical allophones occur. It is possible for the two languages to have
corresponding phonemes with phonetically very similar allophones, but where the
environment for these allophones are not identical. Both Vietnamese and English for instance
have the two sounds [!] and [(]. The former, [!], occurs before vowels and voiced stop [ ]
as well as word-initially in both languages. However, [n] can also occur before dental or
alveolar in English but it cannot in Vietnamese. Also, the environments determining the
occurrence of [(] are different in English and Vietnamese. In English, [(] can occur as an
allophone of [!] before velars, as in [" (&] (sink), [$ ( "#] (longest). In Vietnamese, [(] can
occur word-initially before a vowel as a phoneme, as in [( ] (nga). In English, [(] cannot
occur in this position. This phenomenon, the contrastive distribution of phonetically similar
allophones, is probably the most formidable one that faces both the contrastivists and foreign
–language learners. (79)
The relative absolute distribution of equated phonemes of L1 and L2 is a less complex
analytical problem. Although Brière (1968) suggested the syllable to be the proper unit within
which to conduct distributional investigation for CA, most contrastivists have continued to
take the word as the relevant unit: so we speak of sound distributional restriction familiar to
most British teachers of French concerns / / in the two languages. In French it can occupy all
three positions within the word: compare [ ] ‘yellow’ [$ ] ‘light’, [ ) ] ‘throat’. In English
/ / occurs only medially and finally as in [* ] ‘measure’ and [ ] ‘rouge’. Consequently
the English learner of French will have difficulty with the pronunciation of French words
having / / initially. For similar reasons, the Vietnamese will experience difficulty with words
where English stops, affricates and fricatives may be released at the final position.
We have just discussed what is called absolute distribution of sounds. Another type of
distribution contrast concerns the combination of sounds: one language may permit certain
sequences of sounds at one or another position in the word. This is what is called the
phonotactics (ways of combining sounds) of the language. Contrastive phonotactics is an
important part of phonological CA. In In English, the combinations /" /, /"#/, /" /, /"# /, /"&/,
/"& / … occur in word-initial and syllable-initial positions [" +t] ‘spot’, ["# ] ‘stay’, [" (]
‘spring’, ["&' ] ‘sky’, ["& , ] ‘screw’ …These phonotactic sequences are impossible in
Vietnamese.
2. A contrastive analysis of Sound System in English vs Vietnamese
2.1. Consonant System in English
The English consonant system consists of 24 consonants: 20 main consonants (/p/, /t/,
/k/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /f/, /v/, / /, / /, /s/, /z/, / /, / /, /d /, / /h/, /m/, /n/, / /) and 4 approximants:
two glides [w], [j] and two liquids [l], [r].
Have a look at consonant /l/: it can appear at the beginning as well as the end of
syllables as in long [l ], hall [h :l].
 The sound [j] can be recognized in the following examples:
[j] : yes [jes], young [j ], tune [tju:n], fume [fju:m].
Table 3 Classification of English consonants

Place Bilabial Dental Labio- Alveolar Palato- Palatal Velar Glottal

Manner dental alveolar

Stops
- voice # & -
+ voice
Affricate
- voice #
+ voice
Fricative
- voice . "
+ voice / 0
Nasal * ! (

Lateral $ %

Appro- 1 , 1
ximant
2.1.2. Consonant system in Vietnamese
The Vietnamese consonant system has 23 consonants (/p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /f/, /v/,
/ /, / /, /s/, /z/, /c/, / /, /l/, / , /h/, /r/, /m/, /n/, / /, / /, / /). The consonant /l/ only appears at
the beginning of syllables as in: lúa, lung linh.
The consonants that occur in Vietnamese are listed below in the Vietnamese
orthography with the phonetic pronunciation to the right.

Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal

voiceless p [p] t tr ch c/k
Stop aspirated th
voiced b d
voiceless ph x s kh h
Fricative
voiced v gi r ! " g/gh #

Nasal m $ n % nh & ng/ngh '

Approximant u/o ( l ) y/i *

 (adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)
2.2. Distribution of consonants in English and Vietnamese
In English, consonant sounds are usually distributed in three positions: initial, medial
and final. These are about twenty-one consonant sounds distributed at final position. They are
[p, b, t, d, k, , f, v, , , s, z, , , t , d , m, n, , l, r].
The Vietnamese final sound system, except for zero, has 8 positive final sounds: /p/,
/t/, /m/, /n, /k/, / /, / /, / /. Thuat (1980) [3, p.226], in his study about Vietnamese
phonology, introduced some rules of the Vietnamese final sound distribution as follows:
Table 2.6: Vietnamese Final Sound Distribution

Place of articulation Alveolar

Bilabial
Manner of articulation
Tip Back

Voiced p t n

Released Nasal m n

Not nasal

( oàn Thi n Thu t (1998), p.226)

It is clear that every language is composed of a limited number of sounds which a
native speaker can distinguish without difficulty. But languages differ in the number and
nature of these sounds. If a sound does not exist in one’s own language, it can be difficult to
recognize it in another language. In the case of sound [%], it does not exist in the Vietnamese
final sound system. That’s a problem for Vietnamese learners in perceiving and performing it
in many English words which ended by [$].
In addition, there is no sound [j] in the Vietnamese consonant system, According to
C s Ti ng Vi t [1], the sound [j] only appears in Central and Southern Vietnamese by the
letters d or gi while these are pronounced by [z] in Northern Vietnamese. Hence, the sound [j]
exists in Central and Southern Vietnamese rather like English, but in Northern Vietnamese, it
doesn’t [46]. Besides, the people from the South have orientation to produce [j] instead of [v]
(mentioned in section 2.4.2), so the sound [j] is not a problematic one for them to perform at
all. That’s the reason why so many English learners who are from the North of Vietnam find
more difficult in pronouncing this sound than the others who are from the other areas in
Vietnam.
In English as well as Vietnamese, the codas play a crucial role in writing because they
distinguish the meaning of the word. For examples, in English the word “rib” is different from
“rip”, in Vietnamese, the word “càn” is different from “cành”. The codas in English are
pronounced clearly when spoken to the listeners to avoid misunderstanding, but in
Vietnamese, the codas are not pronounced as clearly as English. All of the Vietnamese codas
are unreleased/ closed consonants.
2.3. Contrastive analysis of stop consonants in English and Vietnamese
Apart from using knowledge of our students and our ears in order to be aware of their
pronunciation problems, it is also useful to have some prior knowledge of what elements of
English phonetics and phonology are likely to cause problems to the Vietnamese learners of
English.
2.3.1. Similarities
As we have mentioned above, all languages in the world have stops. In English and
Vietnamese, the consonant system of stops consists of six members: /b/, /p/, /t/, /d/, /k/, / /
and each of them has different places of articulation (see Table 2.1 below)
Table 2.1 The articulation of stops

MANNER OF ARTICULATION Bilabial Alveolar Velar

VOICELESS /p/ /t/ /k/
STOPS VOICED /b/ /d/ / /
Basically speaking, both English and Vietnamese stops have the same production
mechanism. They are divided into three pairs, as we have seen, according to the manner of
articulation. Members of each pair can be distinguished on voiceless and voiced features.
2.3.2. Differences
As mentioned above, the production mechanism of the stops in English and
Vietnamese is similar in general; however when distributed in different contexts of words or
in connected speech, English stops are affected by the surrounding sounds and undergo some
changes. As a result, each stop in English has it own phonetic variants, which foreign learners
of English, especially Vietnamese learners hardly recognize in speaking and listening.
Firstly, in Vietnamese, final stops neither have a release burst nor have a nasal release
whereas English final stops are often produced with these phonetic features (with audible or
no audible release).
Secondly, the English and Vietnamese stops are distributed differently due to the
phonetic systems of both languages as described in Table 2.2 and Table 2.3. Examine Table
2.2 and Table 2.3 below we can have some comments as follows:
English stops are distributed in different positions in words, while Vietnamese does
not have a voiceless stop [p] in the initial position. Therefore, Vietnamese learners may fail to
correctly pronounce the voiceless stops [p] in this position. They may produce the word “pen”
like “Ben” because they might not pay attention to the force of articulation. /p/ is produced
with a stronger breath effort than /b/.
 Table 2.2 The distribution of English stops

Stops
/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ / /
Position

initial pole bowl toll dole coal goal

middle lopping lobbing bitter bidder postcard beginning

final rip rib writ rid risk rig

Table 2.3 The distribution of Vietnamese stops [3:153, 226]

stops
/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ / /
position
initial - bóng t t úng k o g ng
middle - - - - - -
final p - t t - t c -
In Vietnamese /p/, /t/, and /k/ appear at the end of words without releasing. The
learners often have tendency of dropping these sounds in the final positions in English words.
So they may perform words ending with both voiced and voiceless stops identically. For
example, they may perform the two words “tend” and “tent” the same. If they pay too much
attention to pronounce these sounds they may insert / / with the finals. For example, “cart”
may be produced like “carter” [ : ].
Furthermore, /p/, /t/, /k/ in English have the phonetic variants [p ], [t ], [k ] in the
initial position as “the fortis series /p, t, k /, when initial in an accented syllable, are usually
accompanied by aspiration.” [8:151], whereas [p ], [t ], [k ] in Vietnamese are not allophones
of /p/, /t/, /k/. That is, in Vietnamese, [p], [t] and [k] are realizations of the /p/, /t/ and /k/
morphemes and [p ], [t ] and[k ] are realization of the distinct /p /, /t and /k / morphemes. If
the learners do not pay particular attention to this phonetic feature, they may raise a risk of
causing misunderstanding. For example, instead of pronouncing [p n] for the word “pin”
Vietnamese learners pronounce [pin], which listeners may understand as “bin”.

/p/ /t/ /k/

Phonemes

Allophones [p] [p ] [t] [t ] [k] [k ]

Figure 2.1 English voiceless stop phonemes

 Another feature that makes English stops different from Vietnamese stops is
consonant cluster. “Consonant cluster is a group of consonants with no intervening
vowel”[10]. In English consonant clusters such as [pl], [bl], [dr], [ l] … are very popular. It is
quite difficult for Vietnamese learners of English to pronounce English consonant clusters
because of no habit of pronouncing these sounds in their mother tongue. They tend to insert
the vowel / / after / p, b, d, k, / followed by / l, r /. For example, they may pronounce the
word “class” [klas] like [k las].
Last but not least, Vietnamese learners of English hardly recognize the influence of
English stops on the length of the preceding sounds. The vowels and even consonants closed
by lenis / b, d, / are often produced longer than those closed by fortis / p, t, k /. For example,
the words “bad” and “bat” are transcribed as [b d] and [b t]. Look at the transcriptions of
the two words, the vowel / / seems to be pronounced the same, but the vowel / / in “bad” is,
in fact, longer than the one in “bat”. “We could not symbolize the length difference in a
phonemic transcription because it is a conditioned difference: whenever a fortis consonant
follows in such words the preceding vowel is shorter than when a lenis follows” [20:189].
Accordingly, Vietnamese learners may perform these sounds incorrectly.
2.4. Syllable structure in English and Vietnamese
A word contains at least one syllable. Most speakers of English have no trouble
dividing a word up into its component syllables. Sometimes how a particular word is divided
might vary from one individual to another, but a division is always easy and always possible.
For example, the word “tomato” is divided into three syllables [t a.t ].
A syllable is a unit of sound composed of a central peak of sonority (usually a vowel),
and the consonant that cluster around this central peak.
A syllable (σ) has its own internal structure: it can be divided into sub syllabic parts as
onset (O) and rhyme (R) within the rhyme we find the nucleus (N) and coda (Co). Not all
syllables have all parts; the smallest possible syllable contains a nucleus only. A syllable may
or may not have an onset and a coda.
The general structure of a syllable consists of the following segments which are shown
in Figure 2.1.

O R
N Co

c(consonant) v (vowel) c (consonant)

Figure 2.2 Internal structure of a syllable

Onset (obligatory in some languages, optional or even restricted in others) is the
beginning sounds of the syllable; the ones preceding the nucleus. These are always
consonants in English. The nucleus is a vowel in most cases, although the consonants [ r ], [ l
], [ m ], [ n ], and the velar nasal (the 'ng' sound) can also be the nucleus of a syllable. In the
following words, the onset is in bold; the rest underlined: card, drop, strain. If a word
contains more than one syllable, each syllable will have the usual syllable parts: win.dow,
to.ma.to, pre.pos.te.rous, fun.da.men.tal .
Rhyme (or rime) is the rest of the syllable, after the onset. The rhyme can also be
divided up: Rhyme = nucleus + coda. Nucleus is obligatory in all languages. Coda (optional
in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others)
Vietnamese syllables are constructed as other languages. However, it has a very strict
structure with the presence of tone (T).

O R T

N Co

c v c T

Figure 2.3 Internal structure of a syllable in Vietnamese

Unlike English, Vietnamese is a monosyllabic language. Syllables often coincide with words.
They consist of two mandatory components: a tone and a nuclear vowel. The syllables may
also contain two optional components: an initial consonant and a final consonant or
semivowel. The initial consonant may or may not be accompanied by a secondary labial
articulation. Furthermore, O consists of only one consonant, whereas in English, O may
consists of more than one consonant (clusters). In addition, there are clear-cut borderlines
between words and each syllable ends without releasing the final sounds, which could raise
difficulties to Vietnamese learners of English. They may tend to delete the final sounds and
may forget connecting words in natural speech. The possible negative transfer of the phonetic
features stops in Vietnamese syllabic structure is one of the serious causes which make
Vietnamese learners of English take no notice of the assimilation and the liaison i.e. the
linking of a final consonant in the preceding word to the initial vowel of the following word.
In term of fluency, they may not be successful in performing as well as perceiving sounds in
connected speech.

HYPOTHESES
 Based on the comparison of the phonetic systems between English and Vietnamese,
the study sets forth the following hypotheses:
1. The students may fail to pronounce English stops correctly because they do not pay
much attention to the manner of articulation and the positions of English stops in a
word.
2. They may fail to pronounce English stops correctly by transferring habits of
pronouncing Vietnamese stops in Vietnamese words.
3. They may fail to correctly pronounce vowels followed by a voiced or voiceless
English stops.

SUMMARY
UNIT 4 PHONOLOGICAL CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
Aim:
• to contrast the phonetic sets of both languages and establish the differences
E.g. Vietnamese English
/p/ /p/

[p] [p] [p ]

• to compare the rules for the alternation of sounds in L1 & L2 (if any)
E.g. Devoicing rule: English [+] – Vietnamese [-]
[bi:] [bi:]
1. Procedures of CA
Gass and Selinker’s (1993, 1994)
1. Description of the two languages;
2. Selection of certain areas or items of L1 & L2 for detailed comparison;
E.g. articulation features
3. Comparison, i.e. the identification of areas of difference and similarity;
E.g. performance of English stops
4. Prediction, i.e. determining which areas are likely to cause errors;
E.g. performance of aspiration
5. Testing the predictions
E.g. Test learner’s performance
3 important checks
1. Does the L1 have a phonetically similar phoneme?
2. Are the variants (all allophones) of the phonemes similar in both languages?
3. Are the phonemes & their variants similarly distributed?

James (1980):
• draw up a phonemic inventory of L1 & L2;
E.g. consonants in English & Vietnamese
• equate phonemes interlingually;
E.g. English Vietnamese
/p/ /p/
/b/ /b/
• list phonemic variants (allophones) for L1 & L2;
E.g. English Vietnamese
/p/ /p/
• state distributional restrictions on the phonemes & allophones of each language
E.g. English Vietnamese
/(/ /(/
4 steps in conducting a phonological CA (by Carl James)
Steps 1 & 2: Inventorise the phonemes of l1 and l2
Initial result of CA of English sound system and Vietnamese sound system:
English Vietnamese
Language
System of phoneme
Vowels 20 33
Semi-vowels 2 0
Consonants 24 25
Total of phonemes 44 58
Step 3: Equate phonemes interlingually
Vowels can be described in terms of articulatory parameters:
Tongue positions
Shapes of lips
Mouth aperture
E.g. Front vowels in English & Vietnamese

Ø
 ê

â
Ø

Front Central Back

Close i: u:
I High

Half close :
e : Mid

Half open
Low

Open :
Cardinal Vowel Scale

The INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ASSOCIATION

u
i

ê ô

e o

a
â
Cardinal Vowel Scale

Step 4: List phonemic variants (allophones) for L1 & L2

English Vietnamese
/p/ /p/ phoneme

[ ] [ ] [ ] allophone
Pin spin pin

/ b/ /b/ phoneme

[b] [ ] [b] allophone

About be bi

The distribution of English stops

Stops /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ / /
Position
initial pole bowl toll dole coal goal
middle lopping lobbing bitter bidder pocket beggar
final rip rib writ rid risk rig
The distribution of Vietnamese stops

Stops /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ / /

Position
initial - bóng t t úng k o g ng
middle - - - - - -
final p - t t - t c -

Similarities & Differences of stops & their distribution

in English vs. Vietnamese
Stops English Vietnamese
Position
p, t, k, b, d, g p, t, k, b, d, g
initial only th
ph, th, kh
(allophone) (phoneme)
p, t, k, b, d, g no occurence
middle
[-] release

p, t, k, b, d, g only p, t, k
final [+] release [-] release
[+] moved to [-] be moved to
become Onset become Onset

Step 4: Generating Hypotheses

1. The Vietnamese students may fail to pronounce English stops correctly because they do
not pay much attention to the manner of articulation and the positions of English stops in a
word.
2. They may fail to pronounce English stops correctly by transferring habits of pronouncing
Vietnamese stops in Vietnamese words.
3. They may fail to correctly pronounce vowels followed by a voiced or voiceless English
stops.
Step 5: Testing the Hypotheses
DIAGNOSTIC TEST
Performance of production
1/ Please say these pairs of words loudly
1. /b-p/
pin - bin
pen - Ben
...
2/ Please say these sentences loudly
How much is that map? –Ninety- five pence.
Do you go to bed before ten?
…
3/ Choose a topic you like best and talk about it
Describe the house or the flat where you live.

Testing the hypotheses

DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR SOUND PERCEPTION
Listen to the sentences on the cassette. For each one, underline the word you hear.
/ p-b/
1. Have you got a pet / bet?
2. What does ‘tripe’ / ‘tribe’ mean?
…
/ t-d/
1. There was something wrong with the trains / drains.
2. She tied / dyed the scarf
…
/ k-g/
1. One of the cards / guards is missing.
2. I could see her back / bag in the crowded train

Testing the hypotheses

DIAGNOSTIC TEST
Performance of production
1/ Please say these pairs of words loudly
1. /b-p/
pin - bin
pen - Ben
...
2/ Please say these sentences loudly
How much is that map? –Ninety- five pence.
Do you go to bed before ten?
…
3/ Choose a topic you like best and talk about it
Describe the house or the flat where you live.
DISCUSSION OF THE RESULT OF TESTING
With the result of the diagnostic test of the learner’s performance of perception and
production of English stops, the researcher can determine whether the result (qualitative &
quantitative evidence) significantly support or reject his/her hypotheses
The discussion should focus itself on the qualitative information (categories or types of errors
made by the learners) and the quantitative information (the frequency of the occurrence of the
learner performance of the stops at various positions)
Please consult tables of result of the diagnostic test *
Conclusions:
Perception:
- Vietnamese students failure to discriminate between minimal pairs of sounds (/p/ - /b/ in
every position, /t/ - /d/, /k/ -/ /) in final position
Production:
Students tend to make common errors when pronouncing English stops:
At word level, most learners mispronounce the phonetic variants of /p/ and /b without
aspiration at initial position
Failure in releasing English stops
Tendency of deleting the stops in the final position
Tendency of inserting schwa / / after /p, b, d, k, / followed by /l, r/
Failure of differentiating vowel length ended with stops

Words & Expressions

1. phoneme (n) âm v
n v nh nh t c a âm c a m t ngôn ng , có th phân bi t 2 t khác nhau v i ý
ngh a khác nhau. Ví d :
A. trong ti ng Anh các t pan và ban ch khác nhau âm u: pan b t u v i / / và
ban b t u v i / /
B. ban và bin khác nhau ch các nguyên âm c a chúng: / / và / /
Vì v y, / /, / /, / / và / / là các âm v khác nhau c a ti ng Anh. Con s các âm v c a
các ngôn ng là khác nhau. Ti ng Anh c xác nh có 44 âm v : 24 ph âm và 20
nguyên âm
2. Allophone (n phonetic variants) âm t / bi n th phát âm c a âm v
B t k bi n th phát âm khác nhau c a m t âm v . Các âm t khác nhau c a m t âm v
c nh n bi t khác nhau v m t phát âm nh ng t ng t nh nhau v m t ng ngh a
c a m t t . Các bi n th âm này xu t hi n trong các môi tr ng/b i c nh ng âm khác
nhau c xác l p theo các qui lu t âm v h!c. Ví d , âm v /p/ trong ti ng Anh là b t
h i (aspirated) khi âm này v trí u m t t hay âm ti t (nh trong pan), nh ng l"i
không b t h i khi b #ng tr c b i âm /s/ (nh trong span), và có th không
nh /buông âm khi xu t hi n v trí cu i c a m t phát ngôn (nh trong “he’s not her
type”). Nh ng âm không buông, b t h i, không b t h i này c nghe và nh n di n
 nh cùng m t âm v /p/ mà không ph i là /b/; chúng u là các âm t / bi n th phát âm
c a c a cùng m t âm v /p/ trong t i$n.

/p/ phoneme

pan [ !] span [" !] he’s not her type [#' ] allophone

3. phonemic inventory (n) v n âm v

S l ng âm v có trong h th ng c a m t ngôn ng , ví d : trong h th ng âm v ti ng
Anh có 24 âm v ph âm và 20 âm v nguyên âm

4. distributional restrictions (n) Các ch nh phân b

Kh n%ng xu t hi n c a m t n v (có th là m t âm t hay m t t ) các v trí dành
cho chúng trong các môi tr ng/b i c nh nh t nh. Ví d : âm t b t h i [ ] ch xu t
hi n v trí u t hay âm ti t (nh trong [ !]). Trong khi ó, âm t không b t h i
có th xu t hi n các v trí sau âm [s] (nh trong [" !]), và v trí cu i t (nh
trong [#' ])

5. Hypothesis (n) Gi thuy t

Gi nh c t ra v m t v n ng âm hay âm v h!c d a trên k t qu i chi u
s b gi a 2 ngôn ng L1 và L2 (vd: các t ng &ng hay d bi t gi a các âm v ti ng
Anh và ti ng Vi t).
K t qu s b i chi u các âm v t c b t (stop plosives) /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/ trong
ti ng Anh và ti ng Vi t có th xác l p m t s t ng &ng và d bi t nh sau:
T ng &ng:
1) Ti ng Anh và ti ng Vi t u có các âm v / /, / /, /#/, / /, /&/, / /
2) Ti ng Anh và ti ng Vi t u có các âm v t ng &ng v v trí c u âm:

V trí c u âm Môi L i Ng"c

Ti ng Anh / /, / / /#/, / / /&/, / /

Ti ng Vi t / /, / / /#/, / / /&/, / /

3) Phân b (v trí xu t hi n)
Table 2.2 The distribution of English stops
Stops
/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ / /
Position
initial pole bowl toll dole coal goal
final rip rib writ rid risk rig

Table 2.3 The distribution of Vietnamese stops [3:153, 226]

 stops
/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ / /
position
initial - bóng t t úng k o g ng
final p - t t - t c -
D bi t:
Trong ti ng Anh, v trí u các âm v /p/, /t/, /k/ c th hi n thành âm t b t h i
[p ], [t ], [k ] trong khi ó ti ng Vi t ch có âm t [t ] xu t hi n v trí này.
T k t qu i chi u s b này có th a ra gi thuy t v ng âm nh sau:
Ng i Vi t h!c ti ng Anh có th g p khó kh%n do không có thói quen phát âm các âm
t b t h i v trí u.

Questions:
1. English has at its disposal palato-alveolar / / and / /. Does Vietnamese as the L1 have a
phonetically similar phoneme?
2. English and Vietnamese have at their disposal the stops # & . Are the
variants (all allophones) of their phonemes similar in both languages?
3. Are the phonemes # & and their variants similarly distributed?
4. State the TC (comparison criteria) for a contrastive analysis of the stops in English and
Vietnamese?
5. Design a diagnostic test to support a hypothesis about the Vietnamese learner’s difficulty in
pronouncing the stops # & in English.