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Pronunciation problems in ThailandAll cultures have different pronunciations of the english language which is based on their home language. There are actually many different pronunciations of the english language amongst people where english is their first language. These variances are caused by cultural differences and are called accents. There are many that range from the new yorker accent to the southern twang to the california surfer accent. There are so many different accents and pronunciations within America that it shouldn?t be a surprise that other counties have their own pronunciation variances and problems. This is no different for Thai people. There are a variety of pronunciation problems that Thai people run into when learning the english language. Issues such as consonant clusters, words with a certain pronunciation pronounced differently, intonation and stress problems are the most common. There are many reasons behind the issues with these but are mostly derived from how their home language was formed. Consonant clusters is an issue that all Asian cultures struggle with including Thai. The english language uses two or more consonants consecutively without an intervening vowel more than most other languages. These are words such as: spade, street, risked parks, fifth and watched. This causes issues for non-native english speakers who are not exposed to this very often like all the Asian speakers including Thai. Their language does not use consonant clusters often if at all and is why they struggle to learn and grasp this. Certain words have specific pronunciations in the english language that are pronounced quite differently from native Thai speakers. The most common of these words are the ones with /r/ which is pronounced as /l/. Words such as wrong, berry, and grass sound more like long, belly, and glass which can be very confusing to most. The other really common pronunciation issue are words with "th" which is pronounced /?/ in english but is pronounced more like an "s". This is seen in words like birth, think, thin and feather. Intonation is another feature in the english language that is unusual to most other languages especially Thai. The Thai language does not use intonation to differentiate questions and statements where the english does. Intonation is used like a navigation guide for the listener to help them follow. Different pitches can help the listener determine if someone is asking a questions or making a statement. Because the Thai language does not differentiate statements and questions with intonation, it can be very confusing for the english learner to use statements as questions without changing pitch voice. This is noticeable in yes-no type questions. The last main part of the english language that Thai people struggle with pronunciation is stress of words. This is because the Thai language is a tonal language. Thai students have difficulty knowing where the stress belongs within the words and often put the stress on the last syllable when it belongs somewhere else. Words like yesterday, tomorrow, pretty, and video are great examples of words that Thai students will put the stress on the last syllable where it doesn?t belong. There are a few main reasons where these issues come about. One of the main reasons is that the Thai language does not always translate directly into english and vice versa. Many words are borrowed from english into the Thai language but are pronounced in Thai ways. All these words are borrowed directly without actually noticing they are not in the Thai vocabulary, thus, Thai native speakers often mispronounce these words because they originally thought they knew the pronunciation when in reality they were never taught the correct way to speak these borrowed words. The other main cause for pronunciation issues with the english language is the Romanization influence of the Thai language. This is where you see words with "ph" pronounced with a hard "p", "th" into "t", "kh" into "k", "p" into "b", "t" into "d", "k" into "g" and the most common "l" into "r" in the Thai language.
