Developing English language skills

for Vietnamese learners of English

through raising their awareness of
the contrastive linguistic features

By Pham Huu Duc, PhD & Nguyen Cong Dan, MA

Department of English
International University – Vietnam National University HCM
 Introduction
- The knowledge of contrastive linguistic
features comes as the essential complementary
factor to the receptive skills and productive
skills.
- Understanding contrastive linguistic features is
closely associated with the use of a language,
especially when English is used by the great
number of non-native speakers in Southeast
Asian (Duong, 2012).
The purpose of the study
- To raise Vietnamese learners’
awareness of linguistic features of
English and Vietnamese through
comparison and contrast;
-To bring ideas from the conceptual
frameworks and approaches together
with contrastive aspects of English and
Vietnamese;

-To further research the second

language acquisition theory (SLA)
through contrastive analysis.
Limitations of the study
 Comparison and contrast are supposed to be
mainly phonological, lexical, and syntactical;
 Referring to the linguistic features of the
texts, excluding what forms of press, and
article titles are;
 Considering language structures in lexical-
grammatical aspects through the
metaphorical expression of grammar
(nominalization).
 2. Literature review
How people use language is the question of:

 How people interact naturally using the authentic

speech and writing in certain social contexts.

 How language is structured, language users

interact through sounds, words or sentences to
make themselves understood and understand
others. (Halliday, 1994; Martin,1992; Eggins,1993)
2. Literature review

CONTENTS Semantics
(meanings)
Lexical-grammar
(words & structures )
EXPRESSION Phonology (sounds /
letters)
Source: Eggins (1993: 27)
Contrastive linguistic features

Languages English Vietnamese

Inflectional language Isolating language
Linguistic Features

Subject Prominent Theme prominent

Contrastive

(S+V+O) (Theme/Rheme)
Stress Tonal
Grammaticalized (lexico- Non - grammaticalized
grammar)
Limited pronouns (7) Various pronouns
Contrastive linguistic features
 Krzeszowski (1991:10) indicated that
contrastive linguistics describes similarities
and differences in languages, which leads to
the results that are related to the linguistic
theory in the search for linguistic universals.
Contrastive linguistic features

Lado (1957) in his study also states

the comparisons and contrasts of
the systems of:
- sounds,

- vocabulary

- grammatical structures.
3. Methodology
Sample: the sample (N= 1000), 1000 English
news texts and 1000 Vietnamese news texts,
were compared and contrasted.
3. Methodology
Materials: The source of 1000 texts in English
and 1000 texts in Vietnamese covers the
recurrent themes in the press coverage of social
issues, culture to daily news.
The English texts were from the NBC, and the
Vietnamese texts from the Youth newspaper
including articles written in the years 2005, 2006
and 2007, and from VNExpress.
3. Methodology
Procedures: the analysis focuses on the
comparisons and contrasts of sounds,
vocabulary and grammar in the two languages.
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
Phonological contrastive analysis
From the phonological perspective,
contrastive study is carried out in two
aspects:
a) segmental
b) suprasegmental.
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
 Segmental

Phonemes English Vietnamese

Vowels 12 13
Semi-vowels 2
Diphthongs 8 3
Consonants 22 22 initial sounds & 9 final
sounds
Total 44 47
phonemes
(Cao Xuan Hao, 1998: 96-102)
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
b) Suprasegmental
- Contractive linguistics deals with the
suprasegmental phenomena such as: tone,
stress, intonation.
- Vietnamese is a tonal language with six tones
while English has stress or intonations.
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
English Vietnamese
Ghost Ma
Mother Má
Horse Mã
Young rice plant Mạ
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
Lexical contrastive analysis

Robert Lado (1957) identified three levels of

lexical contrasts: form, meanings, and
distribution.
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
1) Similar in form and meaning
These are usually the borrowings, for example,
“TV”, “radio”.

2) Similar in form and different in meaning

For example, “may (luck)” in English and “may”
in Vietnamese
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
3) Different in form and similar in meaning
both “eat” in English & “ăn” in Vietnamese means “to put
food into the mouth, chew it and swallow.”

4) Different in form and in meaning

“first floor” in American English & “tầng” in Vietnamese.

5) Different in morphological formation

“use up” ( verb + adverb) English, & “dùng hết” (verb +
modal particle) in Vietnamese.
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
6) Similar in original meaning and different in derivative
meaning
“cat” in English also means a “clever woman”, whereas
“mèo” in Vietnamese means “mistress”

7) Similar in meaning and different in geographical

meaning
“petrol” is used in English, and “gasoline” is used in
American English
 4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected
Syntactical contrast

- Deals with the units of a language: words,

sentences structures as well as other means of
expressing relationship and grammatical category.
- In written texts, the nominalization (turning a verb
into a noun) is often used to make the writing more
concise and exact. This is also considered
information packing.
4. Results: Analysis and
interpretation of data collected

English Vietnamese

Speech Bài diễn văn

(primary change)
Happiness Niềm hạnh phúc
(secondary change)
Study (Việc) học
5. Discussion
For the phonological contrastive analysis:
- Both English and Vietnamese have /t/ sound, but that of
English is pronounced either in an aspirated way /th/or not in
an aspirated way/t/ whereas that of Vietnamese is only
pronounced as /t/.
- Vietnamese learners of English pronounce /t/ or /k/ with a
closed mouth since Vietnamese has the sound:
uc /Ɯʊkp /, ôc / ɤwkp/, oc /ɑ wkp/.
- People whose native language is isolating and has such a
phoneme as /tu/ may pronounce /t/ and /u/ at the same time
Cao (1985: 164). They may pronounce that phoneme as /tu/
or /ut/ at the same time, not in a linear way. → Vietnamese
hardly pronounce the final sounds such as /t/ or /p/
5. Discussion
- The pronoun references in Vietnamese texts do
not sometimes use pronouns "he / him“, but use
“the title + name”. If learners want to refer to a
proper noun such as the leader's own name, then
“ title + name" must be used.

- The English pronoun "he" can be used to replace

the name of the national leader, or the synonym,
such as "the president", or just his/her name is
used.
e.g “(President) Bush".
 5. Discussion
For the syntactical contrastive analysis:
- In Vietnamese texts, the nominalization is formed:
putting “sự” or “việc" before an adjective or a verb“;
putting "cái" or "máy" before a noun.
Meanwhile, in English, the nominalization is formed:
a) through the primary change of a verb: "to give" into a
noun "gift", or "to speak" into "speech”, etc.
b) through the secondary change by adding the affixes
(prefixes and suffixes).
c) putting "the" before the adjective, for example “the +
poor” (poor people).
 CUP
COMMON
UNDERLYING
PROFICIENCY

L2 L1

CUP

Cummins (2000): "Conceptual knowledge developed in one language

helps to make input in the other language comprehensible."
 6. Conclusion
-The study forms a prototype related to the comparison
and contrast of the aspects of phonology, lexicology,
and syntax between English and Vietnamese.
-This greatly helps to improve the progress of
Vietnamese learners’ English language performance in
developing and in achieving their language
proficiency.
-The prototype indicates two features, each of which
reflects one of the three meta-function of systemic
functional linguistic theory - Interpersonal, Experiential
(using nominalization) and Textual, and also three
modes of communication - Interpretive, Interpersonal
and Presentational.
 Implications of the study
The study will significantly contribute to:
1. Working out the appropriate methods to
improve students’ weaknesses through the
awareness of the distinctions of linguistic
features, on which a system of language
performance is built.
2. The theoretical framework that supports the
processes of identifying language similarities
and differences in SLA ,
 Implications of the study
 The awareness of the distinctions of linguistic features
can allow teachers and students to get more access to
the solutions to language barriers while language
learners of different systems learn each other’s
languages

 The study may also serve as a model in exemplifying not

only how research on contrastive linguistics affects the
second language acquisition, but also how immersion
programs and non-immersion programs can meet to
form a seamless connection. It holds much promise for
the future as our profession continues to advance in
standards-based instruction and assessment.
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Thank you for listening