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Pronunciation Problems in ThailandPronunciation is fundamental while learning a new language. There are a lot of advantages to speak with an intelligible pronunciation. For instance, speaking with a standard pronunciation and a slight accent improves considerably communication either with native or non-native english speakers. It helps listening comprehension abilities. Pronunciation can also have an influence on the way people perceive the speaker. A bad pronunciation can be assimilated to lack of education or lead the listener to develop some prejudices about the speaker?s personality. For example, people with a strong accent are often viewed as ?low class?. Nevertheless, it seems that this part of the English teaching has been under estimated by the educational system for years. The important role seems to be given to grammar or vocabulary while, actually, surveys prove that students are more interested in learning pronunciation and find the hardest part in learning English language. Hopefully, it appears that recently professionals and teachers have realized the importance of pronunciation in the communicative process and efforts are made to give it more credit. Though, it is not a simple task to understand where the pronunciation problems come from and how to solve them. I live in thailand and have witnessed the difficulties thai people have with English pronunciation. I have made a few researches trying to find the reasons of this issue. There are a few reasons why the English pronunciation is extremely hard for thai people. First of all, thai language doesn?t use the same alphabet and has complete different consonants and vowels, and the rules that apply to them are also different. - A lot of consonants put in the final position in a sentence are unvoiced or unaspired in thai, - thai language rarely has 2 consonants next to each other (street, park, spaghetti?). It is hard for thai people to pronounce them. Their vocal cords and tongues haven?t been taught to use those sounds, - A lot of sounds in English are not familiar to thai people like ?r? that are always confounded with ?l?, ?s? with ?z?, ?th? with ?v? or ?w?, ?f? with ?v?, ?sh? with ?s?? Second of all, thai is a tonal language (5 tones + short and long vowels) while English is rather mono tonal. Tone is not significant in the meaning of a sentence in English language, while it changes everything in thai. English language uses intonations and stresses. Intonations give life to the speech and help the listener to follow the speaker. Stresses are put on certain syllables according to specific rules, but they are put on certain words in the sentence to highlight their importance. In English tone is rather mono and stresses varies, while in thai tone is changing and stresses remain the same. Third of all, those pronunciation issues may also come from the influence of English language on thai language itself. ? Some English words have been integrated in thai language and are used in the daily life. Though, the pronunciation of those words has been altered. For example, computer becomes computaa with the stress on the last syllable. Cream becomes ?ca-ream?, ice cream ?eye ca-ream?. ?lotus? becomes ?lota? and many more. Then, it turns out that thai students keep pronouncing those words with the same accent and not with the correct and intelligible pronunciation. ? The introduction of the Roman alphabet in thailand also have a strong influence on pronunciation as some thai letters do not exist in the Roman Alphabet, it?s common to see the same thai word spelled in very different way in English (Kai/Gai.. Branee/Pranee?). Hence, students are confused with phonetics and are not sure how to pronounce a specific letter in English. Finally, pronunciation problem in thailand is also a result of the cultural and educational environment. In fact, some teachers are using the ?thai style English pronunciation? which gives a bad example to the students who usually imitate their teacher, seen as a model. Besides, thai people are very scared of losing face. They are usually shy and afraid of doing mistakes or showing-off in front of an audience and then they don?t try to use the correct pronunciation and intonation in English. I strongly reckon that it is possible to teach thai students correct pronunciation while keeping the communication within the class strictly in English, lecturing only in English, exposing the students to English language as much as possible (videos, lectures, tapes?), correcting the pronunciation of the English words that have been borrowed by thai language and practicing drilling. In order to succeed in that process the teacher has to create a relaxed, friendly and active atmosphere within the class. As thai students are, in general, shy, it is important to make them feel at ease then they can communicate and learn.
