Thai Learners’ Problems in English Pronunciation
One of the most important language aspects in language learning is pronunciation as it is perceived as the foundation of speaking. Accurate pronunciation enhances the success of communication; nevertheless, acquiring accurate pronunciation of another language can be challenging and require a great amount of time. Despite the fact that the English language has been a compulsory subject in Thai formal education for over a century, Thai people have faced difficulties in acquiring the language, especially in pronunciation.
As pronunciation is perceived as the most important part of second language learning, accurate pronunciation allows learners to become intelligible when they speak a foreign language. When language learners can pronounce the language more accurately, the messages are more likely to be understood even if there are mistakes in other areas. Moreover, understanding accurate pronunciation and pronunciation instruction allows the language learners to improve their listening comprehension; thus, the communication is more likely to be successful.
There are many factors affecting the proficiency of pronunciation skills such as age, motivation, the quality of the target language input, anxiety, the native language background, and many others. Despite the fact that English is a foreign language in Thailand, it has been a mandatory subject in formal education for over a century. Thai people who receive education through formal regular programmes are required to take English classes from their kindergarten levels. Nonetheless, their English proficiency is below the sufficient level as Thai graduates cannot use English to communicate after more than fifteen years of learning English.
Learning another language’s pronunciation is a complex and difficult task, especially if the learner starts learning the language after puberty. Due to the fact that Thai people have opportunities to learn the English language from a young age and still cannot use the language, the starting age of learning the language may not seem to be the main reason interfering with the quality of Thai people’s English pronunciation. However, learning the English language in Thailand through formal education, learners are not dominantly encouraged to practice English pronunciation. Moreover, as in the EFL setting, the role of the English language in Thailand is a mean language in the economy and business world, rather than means of communication in daily life. So, not every person is motivated in developing their English skills.
Moreover, the input of the English language is very limited. Most English classrooms in Thai formal education are taught in the Thai language as the traditional teaching method is still dominant in Thai classrooms. It is portrayed that Thai teachers rarely have the proper knowledge and teach English phonetics and phonetic symbols. Some Thai teachers do not have sufficient English language skills, particularly speaking skills. In addition, it is also found that some Thai students are not willing to speak English because of their anxiety.
Among the factors affecting the proficiency of pronunciation skills mentioned above, the native language background seems to be the significant interfering reason. Firstly, Thai learners have problems pronouncing sounds that do not exist in the Thai language. These sounds include /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/. Secondly, some English sounds occurring in the final position do not occur in the Thai final position. When Thai learners encounter these sounds, they tend to substitute the sounds with other sounds. For instance, /l/ is often substituted by /n/ in the final position. /s/, /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, and /f/ are substituted by unreleased sounds. Thirdly, some English sounds are pronounced phonetically different from the equivalent Thai sounds. For instance, the retroflex /r/ is often pronounced as trill /r/ because the /r/ sound in Thai is a trill sound.
Since there are many sounds in English that do not exist in the Thai language, Thai learners often use sounds in the Thai language when pronouncing English words. For instance, in the Thai language, there is no /θ/ sound. Thai learners often use [t] or [th] when pronouncing the word, ‘three’. Similarly, the sound /r/ in English is often pronounced as ‘ร’ or ‘ro ruea’ in Thai in spite of the difference. In English /r/ is a voiced post-alveolar liquid consonant, but Thai learners often pronounce it as the closest sound in the Thai language which is ร or ro ruea (also often written as /r/), a voiced alveolar trill consonant. In addition, ‘ล’ or ‘lo ling’ in Thai is similar to English /l/ sound which is a voiced alveolar lateral liquid consonant; however, in Thai spoken language, ‘lo ling’ and ‘ro ruea’ as initial consonants can be used mutually interchangeably. For instance, the Thai word for ‘school’ which is ‘โรงเรียน’ should be pronounced as [rong reīyn]. However, it is often pronounced as [long leīyn] which is understandable in the Thai spoken language. In such a manner, Thai people tend to pronounce /r/ and /l/ interchangeably in the English language as well. To exemplify, Thai people often pronounce the word, ‘rain’ — /reɪn/ as *lain — /leɪn/. This problem has been a significant obstacle in English language learning. To mispronounce these two sounds, Thai people often face miscommunication when speaking in English.
One of the solutions to help Thai people overcome the problem sounds is to be provided with pronunciation training. Teachers should have sufficient knowledge of appropriate English pronunciation and confidence in speaking English. Adopting language learning strategies also creates positive impacts on pronunciation learning and increases speaking confidence. Another feasible approach is the use of contrastive analysis. Contrasting the differences between the native language and the target language facilitates the teachers and the learners to be aware of the potential problem language features. Highlighting the differences and the possible difficulties can be useful for pronunciation learning.
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