QUESTION 1

a. What is the difference between Contrastive Linguistics and Comparative

Linguistics?
b. In light of Contrastive Analysis, which English vowels may possibly be
problematic for Vietnamese EFL learners?

A. The difference between Contrastive Linguistics and Comparative

Linguistics is compared according to three categories:

Contrastive Linguistics Comparative Linguistics

1. Object Any two languages Two cognate languages
 Belongs to applied linguistics  Belongs to historical/ general
and pure/ theoretical linguistics
linguistics
2. Methodology Synchronical method ( at the same Diachronical method
time)
3. Goal Finds the differences to assume Finds the similarities to focus on
the learners’ problems or focus on genetic relations (the originals of
implications of languages for languages).
foreign language teaching.

B. English vowels may possibly be problematic for Vietnamese EFL learners

Vowels are determined by length of sound, mouth openness or tongue height, tongue
position and lip rounding. Some English vowels which are non-existent in Vietnamese
include short /ʊ/, short /ɪ/, and /æ/. Hence, students will fail to recognize as well as
produce English short /ɪ/, /æ/ and short / ʊ/. Vietnamese students cannot hear or
distinguish these vowel sounds appropriately. They can make mistakes on producing
these sounds or hearing the contrast between the English sounds such as /a/ and / æ/, /æ/
and /e/, long /i:/ and short /ɪ/, and long /u/ and short /ʊ/. This can make them have
difficulties in communication. For example: food vs foot, beat vs bit, heat vs hit. They
cannot hear the contrast between /a/ and / æ/, /æ/ and /e/. a Vietnamese would say /ket/,
/kat/ instead of / /kæt/ for cat. In addition, Vietnamese students can have problems with
vowel sounds /a:/, /ɔː/ and long /з:/ because of the domination of their mother language.
For example, Vietnamese students also struggle with /ɜː/ and / ɔː/ like work and walk.
When /ɔː/ in the words ‘door’ or ‘horse’ is pronounced, Vietnamese students would
pronounced like đo or đô, hos or hôs in Vietnameses. In Vietnamese sound system, vowel
sound /a/is pronounced less rounded, long, backwards but higher whereas long sound

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/a:/in English is more rounded, lower, longer and more backwards. When learning these
sounds above, Vietnamese students should pay attention to the description and
distribution of these vowels carefully so that they can practice and recognize these sounds
effectively.

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 QUESTION 2
a. Do you agree with Z. Harris’s formula: Rsl + (Rtl – Rsl) = Rtl?
b. In light of Contrastive Analysis, which English consonants may possibly be
problematic for Vietnamese EFL learners?

Câu 2a:

RSL: rules of source language

RTL: rules of target language

 RLT : are not completely new – contains rules that can be found in your mother
tongue (source language)
Eg: give teacher evident: in English and Vietnamese are the same : b, m, n, s, h

 RTL: contains rules that cannot be found in RSL

Eg: /f/, /tʃ/, /θ/

Eg grammar: the, a

This- That

These- Those

 Tiếng việt biến thể không có

Câu 2b

According to CAL: /ʃ/,  /θ/, /dʒ/

Final sounds: b, d, g, ʃ, θ

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 QUESTION 3
a. What is Contrastive Phonology?
b. Describe some English consonants that are phonetically similar to their
Vietnamese counterparts but have different distribution.

a. What is Contrastive Phonology?

Contrastive Phonology means:

- A phonological contrastive analysis

- How to compare 2 sounds systems (R.Lado)
- A systematic comparision of 2 sound systems

Procedures of C.A:

1. Describing the structures of two languages involved independently on the

same modal.
2. Establishing comparabilities (should be similar ranks/classes/meaning.
Translation is also one of the methods of finding out the equivalence.)
3. Identifying the similarities (use linguistic terms)
4. Pinpointing the relevant dissimilarities (by juxtaposing units/
structures/system with each other)
5. Analyzing the implications of these similarities and dissimilarities (both
theoretically and pedagogically)

b. Describe some English consonants that are phonetically similar to their

Vietnamese counterparts but have different distribution.
Five steps for systematic comparision and contrast of two languages:

Selection – description – comparision – predictation – verification

1.Selection:

- In this step you should decide what to ve compared with what.

- Two elements to be compared in two languages should be similiar in some extent.

2. Description:

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- The selected materials will be linguistically described

- Two languages should be described within the same theory

- Using structural phonology for describing the sound systems of two languages

- There is no specific theory for studying and describing syntax and morphology

- The focus is on differences not similiarities

3. Comparision:

- The similarities and differences are compared in three levels:

+form

+mean

+distribution of items in 2 languages which has been collected

- The basic elements and structures should be compared with each other.
4. Predictation:

The contrastive analysist can:

- Predict the differences and similarites of two languages

- Judge whether these similarites and differences are problematic or not

- Sometimes deviants reflect the structures of mother tongue

5. Verification:

- To find out if the predictations made in the forth step is true in reality or not

*An example of contrastive analysis at phoneme rank:

English /p/ pin and Vietnamese /p/ bin

- Similarities: bilabial, stop/plosive, voiceless

- Dissimilarities: E /p/ has an aspirated allophone at the initial position, v /p/ doesn’t
They have different distribution . E /p/ can occur intially, mediality, and finally in various
clusters.

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V /p/ occurs only finally and never joins a cluster.

- Learning problems:

V.students tend to pronounce E initial /p/ without aspiration and may have difficulty in
listening perception.

They may also have a trouble with some clusters with /p/, those end at the final position
e.g.: chopped, stamped

- Teaching solutions: how to produce a strong pull of an practice with minimal pairs.

English ch /tʃ/ and Vietnamese /ch/

- English:
+Voice: voiceless
+ Manner of articulation: affricative
+ Place of articulation: alveo-palatal
-Vietnamese:
+Voice: voiceless
+ Manner of articulation: stop
+ Place of articulation: Palatal
- Similiarities: voiceless
- Differences: E /ch/ affricative, aleveo-palatal
V /ch/ stop, palatal
- Learning problems: church /tʃ/, cho /ch/
V.students find difficulty to pronounce the manner of articulation affircates /tʃ/

- Teaching solutions: To make this sound, begin to make /t/, then move your tongue back
and away from the roof of the mouth as you say /ʃ/.
Don't use your voice to say /tʃ/......./tʃ/. 

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 QUESTION 4

a. Briefly explain some main grammatical devices described by Robert Lado in

Linguistics across Cultures.
b. Which type(s) of English morpheme might be problematic for Vietnamese ESL
learners? Why?

Answer:

a.

 Word order: the position of linguistic elements on the axis of chain.

E.g. “play fair” (verb phrase) vs. “play fair” (Noun phrase)
“race horse” vs. “horse race”
 Inflection: the use of inflectional morphemes/word forms to express grammatical
meanings.
E.g. act (v) + ive -> active (adj)
act (v) + ion > action (n)
9 categories of Inflectional morphemes
1. The noun plural morpheme {S plural}
2. The noun possessive morpheme {‘S singular possessive}
3. The noun possessive morpheme{S’ plural possessive}
4. The verb third person singular present tense morpheme {S 3rd person}
5. The verb past tense morpheme {D past tense}
6. The verb past participle morpheme{D past participle}
7. The adjective comparative morpheme{er _ comparative}
8. The adjective superlative morpheme{est _ superlative}
9. The verb present participle morpheme {ing _ verb}
 Correlation of form: agreement/concord
E.g.

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 The list of the books which is good
The list of the books which are good
 Function words: mainly refer to grammatical meanings
E.g. function word (hư từ)
o Must/will/shall/can
o Very/too/and/but
 Intonation: The use of pitch
E.g. black bi’rd :nominal group
black bi`rd: a type of bird
 Stress:
 Pause: “Are you in, Love?” Vs. “Are you in love?”
=> Intonation, stress, pause is called “supra segmental elements”

b. Which type(s) of English morpheme might be problematic for Vietnamese ESL

learners? Why?

 Inflectional morphemes might be problematic for Vietnamese ESL learners.

Inflectional morphemes
o express grammatical meanings/categories
o generally non-recursive (except possessive)
o not change the word-class
o their number is limited
o come last in word structure
9 categories of Inflectional morphemes (a/c chọn khoảng 2-3 cái dưới đây rồi
cho ví dụ là được)
1. The noun plural morpheme {S plural}
2. The noun possessive morpheme {‘S singular possessive}
3. The noun possessive morpheme{S’ plural possessive}
4. The verb third person singular present tense morpheme {S 3rd person}

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 5. The verb past tense morpheme {D past tense}
6. The verb past participle morpheme{D past participle}
7. The adjective comparative morpheme{er _ comparative}
8. The adjective superlative morpheme{est _ superlative}
9. The verb present participle morpheme {ing _ verb}
 Also, derivational morphemes might be difficult for Vietnamese ESL learners.
Derivational morphemes: operate at (p), (s), b
o Meaning and function are mainly lexical
o May be recursive, but order must be fixed
o Always precede inflectional morphemes
o Number is relatively large
o Normally changing word-class
E.g.
act (v) + ive -> active (adj)
in + active (adj) -> inactive (adj)

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 QUESTION 5
a. Define the key terms/concepts in SFL.
b. Which subclass of English nouns may possibly cause difficulty for Vietnamese
EFL learners?

a. Define the key terms/concepts in SFL

- Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is an approach to linguistics that considers
language as a social semiotic system.
Definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_functional_linguistics

- Axis of chain (Syntagmatic axis/Vertical axis): sequence of elements in time/place,

relating to the way different words or language elements can be combined to
make language structures.
- Axis of choice (Paradigmatic axis/Horizontal axis): potential associated elements
speaker can select, relating to the way different words or language items can
be chosen to play a particular part in a language structure.
- Ranks: units organized from low to high
- Pattern/Structure: particular order of element (Trục ngang)
- Contract/System/Class: generalization of set of choices (Trục dọc)
E.g 2:

E.g. 2:

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b. Which subclass of English nouns may possibly cause difficulty for Vietnamese
EFL learners?
- A large number of English summation nouns may pose a problem for students
(trousers, scissors, glasses, spectacles, clippers, jeans, tights, shorts, pants, briefs…)
- Collocation of non-counts and quantity words (research, furniture, information,
advice…)
- Sharp count vs non-count opposition may cause an obsession which hampers
communication.
 Abstractions: advice, courage, enjoyment, fun, help, honesty, information,
intelligence, knowledge, patience…
 Activities: chess, homework, housework, music, reading, singing, sleeping, soccer,
tennis, work…
 Food: beef, bread, butter, fish, macaroni, meat, popcorn, pork, poultry, toast…
 Gases: air, exhaust, helium, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, pollution, smog, smoke,
steam…

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