L1 INFLUENCE ON VIETNAMESE ACCENTED ENGLISH

Abstract

‘Each variety of English in the world has its own distinctive features which are associated with various reasons. The research aims primarily at discovering whether L1 strongly influences Vietnamese accented English or not. In order to meet this aim, the research focuses on: (1) identifying phonological similarities and dissimilarities between Vietnamese and English vowels and consonants based on both acoustic and articulatory features; (2) investigating acoustic features of Vietnamese English vowels; (3) answering the question of whether the pronunciation of the speakers is influenced by the phonological differences and similarities. This research is of descriptive type and the method adopted is a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approach. Acoustic data are gleaned from 6 recordings made by six Vietnamese informants. The measurements of sounds are figured out by means of Wave-surfer program. The result of the study shows that Vietnamese accented English is strongly influenced by the dissimilarities between Vietnamese and English. Keywords: Vietnamese English, Segmental and Supra-segmental errors, vowels/ consonants similarities and dissimilarities