The differences observed in the pronunciation of final consonants among the main groups of Vietnamese dialects (northern central and southern) have immediate effects on how heritage students associate the phonetic forms of various sets of words with their spelling forms. Specifically the final consonants under consideration are the stops /t k/ and the nasals /n ŋ/ and the phonological processes that affect these sounds are labialization and velarization. Of the two processes final consonant labialization occurs in a number of cases as a general phenomenon (obligatory for all speakers) and in other cases as a regional one (obligatory only for dialect speakers). On the other hand final consonant velarization occurs only as a regional phenomenon. Both processes however share one thing in common: they are conditioned by the structure of the syllable nucleus in which certain vowels diphthongs or triphthongs can trigger one of the two processes. The phonological phenomena resulted from those two processes present conflicts between pronunciations and spellings for language learners especially heritage students. This also calls for pedagogical methods of teaching pronunciation and spelling effectively and at the same time offering some insights of Vietnamese phonology to those who are interested in further studies of the language.

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