Correlations in Frequency of Coda Voiceless Stop Variants with Phonological and Stylistic Factors in Vietnamese-Accented English

Abstract

This study investigates how Vietnamese-accented English speakers articulate coda voiceless plosives (/p, t, k/), influenced by L1 phonology and sociolinguistic factors. Since Vietnamese only allows unreleased /p, t, k/ in coda positions and forbids consonant clusters, the learners often adapt English coda plosives using modifications such as glottalisation, deletion, and vowel insertion. Using Labov’s sociolinguistic interview framework, speech data were gathered  from 22 Vietnamese speakers across different ages, regions, and English proficiency levels in four speech styles. Ten allophonic variants were identified, with unreleased and/or glottalised forms being the most common (49.3%). The study found that speech style, place of articulation, and cluster position significantly influenced pronunciation, glottalisation and deletion increased in informal contexts, especially for /t/ and /k/, whereas /p/ remained more stable. The findings suggest some VE variants mirror native English usage, offering insights for improving English pronunciation instruction in Vietnam through context-sensitive, evidence-based approaches.