1. Full name: Nguyen Dang Nguyet Huong                     2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: 05/11/1985                                            4. Place of birth: Nam Dinh

5. Admission decision number: 1745/2017/QĐ-XHNV, on 13/07/2017 by Rector of USSH, VNU Hanoi.

6. Changes in academic process:

- Decision number 1042/QĐ-XHNV on 22/06/2020 on modifying the topic from “Pronunciation features of English consonants performed by Vietnamese speakers of English” to “Pronunciation features of English consonant clusters performed by Vietnamese speakers of English”

7. Official thesis title: Pronunciation features of English consonant clusters performed by Vietnamese speakers of English.

8. Major: Linguistics                                                      9. Code: 62 22 02 40

10. Supervisors: Associate Prof. Lam Quang Dong, PhD.

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

The thesis has applied the instrumental phonetic method with a remarkable number of informants who are at advanced level of English, and has come up with the following results:

- For isolated words, the three-consonant clusters are the group with the lowest standard deviation ratio. Meanwhile, the four-consonant clusters are the group with the highest standard deviation ratio. Similar results appear with the pronunciation of consonant clusters in utterances, but the standard deviation rate for those in utterances is higher than that of isolated words.

- Both initial and ending consonant clusters have similar standard deviation rates, in which the combination of 3 consonant clusters and 4-consonant ending clusters are the cases that have a much higher standard deviation rate than other groups.

- Among the four informant groups, group 4 (the group of learners studying in Vietnam and having much time using English in their job) is the group with the pronunciation ratio being closest to that of native speakers, and group 3 (the group of learners studying in foreign countries and have limited English use time) is the group with the highest standard deviation rate.

- With the case of consonant clusters at the beginning of syllables, among 4 Vietnamese informants groups, the group whose members studied in Vietnam and had time to use English much (group 4) is the group with the highest quasi-standard ratio in terms of duration, followed by the group of Vietnamese who study abroad and have a lot of time using English (group 2). Group 3 and group 5 are the informants who have little time to use English and have a higher standard deviation than the two groups above. Intensity does not have much defined value. Some common variations include: replacing consonants, adding vowels, adding consonants, and simplifying consonants.

- With the case of consonant clusters at the end of syllables, all groups of Vietnamese informants tend to pronounce the consonant clusters at the end of syllables longer than native speakers. The standard deviation rate for the group who studied in Vietnam and used English for a long time was still the lowest compared to the other three groups. Intensity does not have much defined value. Some common variations include: simplifying consonants, replacing consonants, and reversing consonants (changing their order) in clusters.

12. Practical applicability, if any:

The results of the thesis will contribute positively to the teaching as well as the development of English teaching materials for Vietnamese. At the same time, the results of the thesis may also be useful references for figuring out a branch of Vietnamese English, or comparing Vietnamese and other languages.

13. Further research direction, if any:

The dissertation limits the scope of the study as the features of consonant clusters pronunciation only and resulting in four groups of participants. The study on other fields of phonetics and phonology, such as vowel pronunciation, word stress sentence stress, etc., will open new research directions in other studies.

14. Thesis-related publication:

Nguyễn Đặng Nguyệt Hương (2018), “Standard English versus World Englishes in teaching and learning English”, Language and Life Journal (270), pp.60-65

Nguyễn Đặng Nguyệt Hương (2019), “Fossilization – the case of interlanguage between English and Vietnamese”, Language and Life Journal (283), pp.54-60

Nguyễn Đặng Nguyệt Hương (2019), “Consonant clusters simplification – the case of Vietnamese speakers of English”, Language and Life Journal (291), pp.78-82

Nguyễn Đặng Nguyệt Hương (2020), “Initial consonant clusters with ‘s’- the case of Vietnamese speakers of English”, Language and Life Journal (298), pp.135-140

Nguyễn Đặng Nguyệt Hương (2020), “Pronunciation features of English consonant clusters performed by Vietnamese speakers of English – the case of 4-consonant clusters”, Journal of Lexicography and Encyclopedia (65), pp. 119-125