I. Phonology
English contains two types of phonemes (smallest units of sound that carry a distinction in meaning): consonants and vowels. Similarly to English, Vietnamese has both vowels and consonants; however, Vietnamese also has a third phoneme: tone. Unlike English, a change in tone indicates a change in the meaning of the speech. An example of tone attached to meaning is the word con, meaning “child.” When pronounced as còn, the word’s meaning changes to “also” (Tang, 2007). Tonal changes make Vietnamese language acquisition for English speakers challenging because English is lacking in tone and its correlation to meaning. At Pure Organic Nail Salon, a manicurist taught me the phrase chào buổi trưa meaning “good afternoon.” I attempted to say the phrase to a different manicurist, and due to my failure to use the correct tones, the manicurist did not understand me.
II. Vowels & Consonants
According to Tang, there are many similarities in English and Vietnamese consonants such as: /p, b, d, k, m, n, f, v, s, z, h, l/ (2007). Some differences in Vietnamese consonants include the voiceless “s” as in sáng “morning” which is pronounced similarly to the English /sh/. For this reason, Vietnamese English learners may pronounce /s/ with a /sh/ sound. Vietnamese and English both share the consonant /ŋ/; however, Vietnamese often places this consonant in the beginning of words while English speakers do not. Vietnamese does not contain the vowel ʌ, so a Vietnamese speaker may pronounce the English word “cut” as [kət].
III. Morphological Structures
The English language uses bound morphemes such as -s and -ed to pluralize or to mark tense. To mark past tense in Vietnamese, tense is represented with words that precede the verb; however, these words do not need to be in the sentence to be grammatically correct and can be left out and suggested in the context of the phrase (Tang, 2007). English also requires plural markers like -s and -es whereas Vietnamese uses numerals that do not change the grammatical structure of the sentence. An example is listed below:
một con bò - "one cow"
năm con bò - "five cows"
một con bò - "one cow"
năm con bò - "five cows"
IV. Vietnamese to English Transfer
Second language learners (L2) may carry certain sounds from their native language (L1), especially adult learners like those in the Pure Organic Nail Salon. Some sounds appearing in English, but not in Vietnamese may be difficult for second language learners to acquire. For example, consonant clusters such as /t/ and /r/ in string, may be oversimplified by a vietnamese speaker. The L2 learner may pronounce it [siŋ] (Tang, 2007). The final /r/ in English, which we see in the word far may be omitted by a Vietnamese speaker, and they may pronounce it [fa] (Tang, 2007).