Pronunciation Challenges for English Learners

By Dr. Linh Phung

✨ From my personal experience and recent work with Vietnamese students, I've noticed that certain syllables and consonant clusters are particularly challenging for Vietnamese speakers. This is also evident in the fact that Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems frequently misinterpret them in Vietnamese learners’ speeches. 🗣️ Some problems apply to learners of other language backgrounds, too.

📌 I compiled a summary for some students of mine and subsequently created practice exercises on the Eduling app within the course Pronunciation for English Learners. My previously written article outlines other common areas of difficulty for Vietnamese learners.

1️⃣ Word-final -ive sound

⚠️ Students often pronounce this with a rising tone (like a sharp Vietnamese accent mark) and fail to hold the /v/ sound, causing listeners to perceive it as incorrect.

📝 Practice examples:

✔️ perspective

✔️ relative

✔️ active

✔️ creative

✔️ live

✔️ positive

✔️ negative

2️⃣ The /l/ sound and consonant clusters containing /l/

⚠️ The /l/ sound, as in help, is very difficult. Additionally, many consonant clusters containing /l/ pose pronunciation challenges.

🔹 -lp group: help, pulp, scalp

🔹 -lt group: culture, result, adult, ultrasound, difficult, insult, fault, salt, halt, vault, bolt, revolt, melt, felt, guilt, spelt

🔹 -ld group: child, wild, mild, cold, gold, hold, told, sold, bold, fold, scold, build, guild, shield, field, yield, world

🔹 -lk group: milk, silk, bulk, sulk

🔹 -lm group: film, overwhelm, realm

🔹 -lf group: self, shelf, elf, gulf, wolf

3️⃣ The -ar- sound in heart

⚠️ Students often mispronounce this sound as /ɜː/ (like in hurt).

📝 Practice examples: hard, card, yard, barn, park, dark, shark, spark, heart

4️⃣ Word-final -nd sound

⚠️ This sound is relatively tricky. Speakers (and even I, occasionally when feeling lazy) tend to pronounce it imprecisely, causing ASR to register find as fight. 😅

🔹 -ind group: kind, mind, blind, behind, find, grind

🔹 -and group: hand, band, land, sand, grand, strand, stand, command, expand

🔹 -end group: end, send, bend, lend, spend, blend, trend, depend, defend, attend

🔹 -ond group: pond, fond, bond, blond, beyond, respond, correspond

🔹 -und group: fund, refund, thunder, under, blunder

💡 My teaching approach: When teaching pronunciation, I do not cover every single phoneme, as there are many sounds and features that students already handle well, making mechanical practice unnecessary. Moving from "knowing/mechanically practicing" to "speaking naturally" takes a long time, so I focus exclusively on common errors or the most critical features. 🎯🚀

Interested learners can sign up for the Pronunciation for English Learners course. Teachers are also welcome to join Pronunciation for Teachers to learn effective pedagogical techniques. Eduling enables the creation of engaging and flexible practice activities for various pronunciation features—feel free to explore it on the app!