A contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese vowels: applications in English language teaching and learning in Vietnam

Abstract

This paper focuses on presenting the results of comparing and contrasting Vietnamese and English vowels to find out language interferences and explain the causes of Vietnamese people's errors in pronouncing vowels when learning English. We first describe the phonological characteristics of the vowel system of the two languages. Then, based on the comparison criteria, identify the similarities and differences in the vowel systems in the two languages. Based on these differences, the study focuses on describing and analyzing the negative influences of learners on the pronunciation of English vowels that are not found in Vietnamese to help Vietnamese learners learn English to overcome the negative influences from the mother tongue. We hope that this article can help Vietnamese students recognize the differences in phonological and phonological characteristics of Vietnamese and English vowels, thereby minimizing negative pronunciation errors from the language mother in the process of learning foreign languages.