Teaching English to Thai Students: Understanding Their Struggles (Part I)

In order to fix or improve something, you first need to understand it. In this article, I’d like to provide some background and insights into Thai learners’ struggles when it comes to learning English. This is for any teachers who wish to have a better understanding of their students’ background and be able to accommodate their needs.

Let’s cut to the chase. I had categorized the main contributors that are linked to the struggles of Thai learners into two categories. (1) The difference in language structures and (2) their experience during formal education. We will discuss the first one in this article.

The Difference in Language Structures

Thai and English are from different language families. This means the English alphabet, phonological systems, grammar, etc. are mostly foreign to beginner Thai learners. The differences result in them using the nearest Thai equivalents or directly translated phrases from Thai, giving some Thai finishing touches that sometimes aren’t understood well by English speakers.

Some prominent examples are:

• The misuse of tenses. In Thai, there are no tenses; instead, everything is understood in context or by the use of adverbs relating to time. Thus, when speaking English, Thai learners often rely on the present simple tense and then add markers to indicate time.
• No conjugation, no plurals. Inflections don’t exist in the Thai language. They use the same verb form for everything and again add markers to indicate the singular and plural forms of words. Furthermore, they also don’t have auxiliary verbs or articles. This means Thai learners would sometimes forget to conjugate, add ‘s’ or use articles in English. This happens both in writing and speaking.
• The reduced final clusters. In the Thai language, consonant clusters hardly appear at the end, so when pronouncing those clusters in English, they tend to only choose one and leave out the rest. For example, pronouncing ‘jum’ instead of ‘jump’ or ‘perfec’ instead of ‘perfect’.
• The very stressed syllables. In the Thai language, every syllable is stressed. So when Thais speak English, they tend to pronounce every syllable equally or choose to stress the final syllable of every word. We would often hear ‘agenda’ instead of ‘agenda’ or ‘computer’ instead of ‘computer’. Consequently, when listening to English speakers, Thai learners would have a hard time distinguishing the words because they sound different from their Thai versions.

Their pronunciation is also reinforced by the typical English loan words in the Thai language which of course come with Thai finishing touches. As a result, learners instinctively pronounce things their way even when the words are used in English conversations. This happens even with students who major in English or study English programs.

These are only a few examples of Thai learners’ favorite mistakes that stem from the confusion and unfamiliarity with the structure of a new language. With less relatable elements, it is harder for them to adopt English into their daily life. It is important to remind your students that slipping and falling back to the beaten path is somewhat expected. It is part of the process.

Luckily, with the internet and the rising trend of online learning, practicing English with actual English speakers has become more accessible to Thai learners.

The next contributor, learners’ experience during formal education, will be quite a lengthy one and thus it will be discussed in a future article. Please stay tuned. :)

References

Anyan, J. (2006, April). Different families, not distant cousins: comparing Thai and English. MED Magazine. http://macmillandictionaries.com/MED-Magazine/April2006/37-Thai-English-false-friends.htm#6

Packard, D. J. (2019, November 24). Most Common Pronunciation Errors for Thai Speakers Learning English. Packard Communications. https://packardcommunications.com/most-common-pronunciation-errors-for-thai-speakers-learning-english/

StudyCorgi. (2020, November 29). Thai and English Phonetic Comparison | Free Essay Example. StudyCorgi. https://studycorgi.com/thai-and-english-phonetic-comparison/