Pronunciation issues of Thai learners

[steamtrain]

Hello All.

Having been living and teaching primary aged learners in Thailand for 7 years now, I still wonder after many, many, hours of classroom instruction, “why the pronunciation of many English words spoken by Thai learners is still so poor?”.

To give some background information relating to myself and reasoning behind this question, I’m a Native speaker from the UK, and I’m currently in my final year of a Masters in education (M. Ed) which requires research and a written dissertation relating to a current / relevant issue within my own personal environment (in my case a primary school teaching primary aged learners). Thus I’m hoping for some valid opinions, responses, information from other primary level teachers within Thailand as to the issues they face, have faced, overcome in dealing with mispronunciation of English words.

I’m predominantly focusing on the non pronunciation of “s” when it’s in the final position (ending of the word), I’m fully aware this is an issue at all levels of learners & speakers, however, I’m only concerned with primary age learners.

I have been teaching primary ages learners for 7 years now, and this issue confronts me on a daily basis, some examples; 1 cat, 2 cat(s), french frie(s) = non pronunciation of the plural, Starbuck(s), Philippine(s), six = sick, fox = fok non pronunciation of the final “x/s” sound, ice = i, nice = ni, non pronunciation of the final ce (s) sound.

So, the questions are;

a) Do other primary teachers in Thailand face the same issue(s)? What words do your students have problems with? c) Is the problem when speaking? reading? OR both? d) Do you believe your students are aware of their mispronunciation or not? e) How do you overcome this, or tried to overcome this? f) Any personal beliefs / academic beliefs / reasons why or though on why these mispronouncing exist in Thai learners?

Please state the following in you reply, the province your teaching in (so I get evidence if this is widespread or localised),the level primary 1, 2, 3, etc, the class environment (English / normal program). I would also be very appreciative for any individual that is willing to assist further by completing a questionnaire with related information contact me privately at email removed per forum rules

Any input, regardless of amount would be greatly appreciated, Thanks in advance.

Regards Wag

PS. Pls no Thai bashing as none of us are perfect, and my Thai pronunciation is far from perfect!

[Morden]

Perhaps they are just not able to manipulate their mouths to pronounce some of the words correctly.

Also, many learn from teachers who have strong regional accents , are not fully competent and who also drop letters when speaking English.

[Crossy]

Flame removed

[bifftastic]

I'm not a primary school teacher, but I feel that I can answer the issue as to why this is such a problem for Thai speakers in general.

In Thai, there are no word endings that are emphasised. All word endings are very quietly pronounced. None of them end with 'S'

Another issue is that there is usually a vowel sound between consonants, so 'start' would be pronounced 'sa-tart' and if you wanted it to be 'starts' it would be 'sa-tart-???????' nothing really fits does it?

I've tried to get my step-daughters (10 and 12) to work on this, using the word 'cat' and 'cats' but the best they seem to be able to do is 'cat<pause>suh'

[Richard W]

My teaching is basically limited to teaching my wife, but my comments may be helpful.

This problem is classic L1 interference. There are two aspects to the problem.

1) Final /s/ may be difficult anyway - Thai traditionally doesn't have it, and Thais would utter /t/ (or /d/ - same fact, different notation) instead. The /s/ does appear fairly widely in the loan words derived from English 'gas', so I don't know how much of a problem this is. This is only a contributory factor.

2) Thai only allows a syllable to end in one consonant - to Thai brains, 'Thai' already ends in a consonant, the palatal semivowel /j/. You should also be encountering a problem with 'mine' being pronounced like 'my'.

This pattern also applies to English loanwords in Thai - I'm not sure how much of a problem you're encountering because of their influence.

For older English learners, when some Thai books transcribe the words you mentioned, they actually mark these extra final consonants as silent!

I'm afraid I don't have much to contribute on how to start your pupils pronouncing the clusters. For clusters with initial /s/ I'd recommend starting with /sa/ and reducing the vowel, but Thais do this any way. This was how I learnt to say German Knabe, which has an initial combination that the English have forgotten how to say (think or 'knave' and 'knight').

[Scott]

Here is a link to another thread with a similar theme. You might find some helpful information.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/642158-english-words-that-are-difficult-to-pronounce-words-for-thais/

[zeichen]

Native language interference is a factor in all second language aquisition for those not raised in a multi lingual environment.

As far as pronunciation goes, if that is really your interest, I think that you are short changing your students. Annunciation is more important. The accent and pronunciation can be forgiven if the content is understood.

Some of my students have Aussie, American and British teachers and some of them have various educational backgrounds. So they are bombarded with such differences, how could you expect them to pronounce everything one way?

Also the other thing you need to ask yourself is how many hours a week are they studying and in that time how much is devoted to actual pronunciation or phonics?

There is no chance that they will improve their pronunciation without more emphasis on the skills that go into it. I use mouth models and we do mirror activities for them to practice. I also have used dual track listening software that allows the student to listen to something and record their voice at the same time and listen to them simultaneously.

The other thing to consider is that not all native speaking children produce perfect grammar structure when talking either. I tired instead of I am tired isn't that uncommon for kids under 5-6.

[Somtamnication]

What I do with my students, both primary, secondary and older, is to exhale when speaking.

For some reason, that is difficult for them.

However, the two words that all my students have to memorize is "exhale" and "enunciate". When they hear me say that, they know they have made a mistake and try again.

For the primary students, say something funny like "ow nam lai". I want to see spit. They always laugh and eventually, among all the water leaks, the S comes out brilliantly.

TH is another lesson...

Edited November 27, 2013 by Somtamnication

[SlyAnimal]

I teach English to Mattayom students in RoiEt, both Thai and bilingual program.

I think the problem you're having stems from most Thai students haven't trained their vocal chords to say some of the English sounds.

Particularly Sh, Th, and either S or L as a final constant, as these sounds aren't possible in Thai. Although some loanwords use them, and so they can say some of them, sometimes. Although most of the loanwords are still incorrectly pronounced e.g. Central Plaza.

This is very similar to how most English speakers have difficulty saying ng at the start of a word and some of the euah sounds which the Thai language uses (Likewise they've trained themselves to recognise/pronounce the various tones correctly, when often we can barely tell the difference and sometimes also find it difficult to imitate the tones). The bP and Dt and Gk sounds in Thai we can usually get with just a little bit of practice though, as they're quite similar to some English sounds (Even though they aren't in our alphabet).

If the students practice the correct words/sounds regularly, they'll learn to pronounce the words correctly. But most students don't get many opportunities to practice their English, and when they do, there usually isn't going to be an emphasis on correct pronunciation, as they can only really learn this from their NES teacher, as their Thai teachers often also don't have correct pronunciation. When we, we NES, are teaching the students, we usually have a lot more to worry about then working on an individual's pronunciation (As with 35-40 students to control, and only a couple of hours per week with each class, we'll usually focus on correct communication, rather than pronunciation of individual words).

If the students had more hours per week with teachers who have correct pronunciation (e.g. NES or very good non natives), as well as smaller class sizes, then the Thai students would have a better chance of correcting their pronunciation. But I think the only way this will happen, is if students speak English at home and/or have good tutors.