1. RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Thesis
Researcher’s name:
Azahalia Berenice Santana Pool
Sandy Amairani Chi Blanco
Working Title
Factors that influence the English Language students’ pronunciation
of the final consonants sounds.
General Line of Research
Applied linguistics
Nature of Research
Descriptive

2. Abstract
 This research project is concerned with one of
the sub-skills that is included in the English
Language learning, pronunciation. We will work
especially with the final consonant sounds and
attempt to find the factors that influence the
students’ pronunciation development. The aim of
this project is to describe those factors and to
what extent they affect the students’ proficiency
on this aspect. Therefore, we expect to provide a
basis for further research which deals with this
phenomenon. In terms of the method, there will
be 12 participants studying English Language at
the University of Quintana Roo. They will be
interviewed and audio-recorded. Then they will
be given pronunciation tasks. Finally, for the data
analysis, we will apply the variability technique
and central tendencies.

3. INTRODUCTION
 Pronunciation is one of the most
important features in a language. In
our experience as students, we
noticed that some students still have
difficulties when trying to pronounce
certain sounds, especially the ones
who come at the end of a word such
as the simple past forms.

4.  That is why we decided to do this
research project and focused on this
specific phenomenon regarding final
consonant sounds. We want to know
why students who are conscious
about the standard pronunciation of
words still have problems when trying
to produce them.

5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES
 What is the relationship between
students’ English level and their
proficiency on the pronunciation of the
final consonant sounds?
 How is proficiency on the
pronunciation of the final consonant
sounds influenced by the mother
tongue of the students?

6.  To what extent does consciousness of
the accurate pronunciation of the final
consonant sounds help in the
pronunciation of these?
 The more learning strategies students
use, the higher their pronunciation
proficiency becomes.

7. OBJECTIVE
 The main objective of this study is to
look for and describe the different
factors that may influence on the
English Language students’
proficiency of the final consonant
sounds pronunciation. In this way, we
may elaborate a basis of the more
relevant aspects of the final consonant
sound pronunciation which can be a
starting point for further research.

8. LITERATURE REVIEW
 Aliaga-Garcia and Mora (2009) report that phonetic
training and perceptual training in particular, has been
shown to result in improved performance by L2 learners
in the discrimination and identification of L2 sounds, as
well as in L2 speech production.
 School English lessons in most Spanish-speaking
countries also tend to focus much more on reading and
grammar than speaking and listening, and so
pronunciation work will both help redress the balance
and be considered worthwhile by students
(Case, 2012.)
 MacDonald (2008) states that because of some
disparities between two languages, the potential exists
for Spanish interference in the phonological system of
Hispanic English.

9.  Hernandez and Murrieta (2009) state
that it is evident that the learners’
production problems are due to the lack
of training and practice in terms of
perception.
 Ruiz (2011) claims that communicative
strategies are very important in the
language learning field and as they are
part of the learning strategies, a training
in how they are used must be taught.

10. METHOD
 Participants
 12 participants studying English
Language at the University of Quintana
Roo:
4 second semester students
4 sixth semester students
4 from tenth
 Age average: 20 years old
 Gender: 8 women and 4 men
 Proficiency level: between intro and
advanced

11.  Instruments
 Interviews:
-Participants will be asked to talk about
what they did last Christmas for two
minutes. In this part, participants are free
to say any kind of comment related to
their last Christmas.
 Production tasks:
-A set of twenty isolated words such as
think, thing, peace, peas

12. DATA ANALYSIS
 We might use the variability technique
as we expect to find differences in the
students’ pronunciation proficiency
according to their semester. We
assume that English Language
students improve their final consonant
pronunciation while they go further the
major.

13.  Moreover, central tendencies might be
useful for looking at the average of
how accurate students pronounce the
final consonant sounds in the tasks
given. Hence, we will apply them in
order to obtain results statistically so
the process of analyzing data
becomes easier.

14. REFERENCES
 Aarts, B., and McMahon, A. (2006). The
Handbook of English Linguistics. Blackwell
Publishing.
 Brinton, L. (2000). The Structure of Modern
English: a Linguistic Introduction.
Philadelphia, USA: John Benjamins B.V.
 Case, A. (2012). Pronunciation Problems for
Spanish-Speaking Learners of English.
Retrieved from
http://edition.tefl.net/articles/teacher-
technique/spanish-speaker-pronunciation-
problems/
 Colli, D. (2010). Language Learning
Strategies Used by English Language
Student at the University of Quintana
Roo, Cozumel Campus (Master dissertation).

15.  Collins, B. & Mees, I. (2008). Practical
Phonetics and Phonology.
Routledge, NY.
 Dalton, C. & Seidlhofer , B. (2004).
Pronunciation. Oxford University
Press, NY.
 Finegan, E. (2008). Language: its
Structure and Use. Boston, USA:
Thomson Wadsworth.
 Hewings, M. (2004). Pronunciation
Practice Activities. Cambridge
University Press, UK.

16.  Katamba, F. (1995). An Introduction to
Phonology. Longman, NY.
 Ladefoged, P. (2001). A course in
Phonetics. Heinle & Heinle, USA.
 McDonald, M. (2008). American
Spanish Pronunciation: Theoretical
and Applied Perspectives. Retrieved
from
http://www.netlibrary.com.ezproxy.lib.u
h.edu/Reader/
 Parker, F. & Riley, K. (1999).
Linguistics for Non-Linguists: A Primer
with Exercises. Allyn and

17.  Watkins, M., Rauber, A. & Baptista, B.
(2009). Recent Research in Second
Language: Phonetics and Phonology.
Perception and Production.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK.
 Whitley, M. (2002). Spanish/English
Contrasts. Georgetown University
Press.
 Yule, G. (2006). The Study of
Language. New York: Cambridge
University Press.