Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam Thai Speakers of English: Interference and Remediation

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has been compulsory at all levels of Thai education since 1996, and yet proficiency pales in comparison to other countries such as Malaysia and The Philippines (Varasarin, 2007, p. 14). Critics point to students use of Thai sounds and speech patterns when speaking Standard American English (SAE) as a cause for concern, a consequence of curricular inattention to speaking skills, poor modeling from Thai teachers lacking in phonology training, and reliance on a convoluted system of transliteration in lieu of phonetic teaching of the English alphabet (Wei & Zhou, 2002). Interference issues are identified with six representative problems selected for remediation: (1) Sounds absent from Thai- remediating [t] substitution for [] via repetition of minimal pairs; (2) Phonemes with differing pronunciation- distinguishing [l] / [r] using minimal pairs in Thai with SAE homophones; (3) Phonemes with disparate distribution- repairing replacement of final [l] for [n] through communicative use of SAE words starting and ending with [l]; (4) Stress interference- remediating habitual stress by relearning pronunciation of multisyllabic borrowed words; and (5) Intonation interference- repairing overgeneralization of SAE rising tone for questions using a collaborative question-answer dialog game. Phonemic Analysis Thai Consonants The establishment of Thai script is attributed to King Ramkhamhaeng the Great in 1283. It is a unique writing system adapted from on Old Khmer which has roots in the Brahmic script of India (Thai Language, n.d.). The Thai alphabet has 44 consonants representing 21 distinct sounds (see Table 1). Duplicate consonants correspond to phonemes in Old Thai which have evolved into allophones or characters retained to reflect original Sanskrit and Pali spellings. Consonants belong to any of three classes indicative of the historical phonology, influencing intonation (Thai Alphabet, n.d.). As Thai phonemically distinguishes between aspirated and unaspirated consonants, IPA aspiration markings [] are provided. Not all Thai consonants

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

appear in final position, but those that do often have differing pronunciation and are typically unreleased as indicated with IPA [] markings (Becker, 2009). Table 1: Thai Consonants Articulation Thai Plosives Initial (IPA) [p] [p] [b] [t] [t] [d] [k] [k] [] [t] [t] [f] [s] [h] [m] [n] [ ] [l] [r] [w] [y] [m] [n] [ ] [n] [n] [w] [y] [t] [t] [p] [t] Final (IPA) [p] [p] [p] [t] [t] [t] [k] [k]

Affricate

Fricative

Nasal

Liquid

Glide

Aspiration differentiation of Thai consonants is a source of confusion for speakers of languages that lack phonemic distinction, such as English. This is evident in the ineffective system of transcribing Thai using Latin letters, for which no standard has emerged. is often written bp and as dt reflecting their unaspirated features in contrast to English p and t. is

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

as g even though they are unvoiced. And it is evident that in order to distinguish it from its unaspirated partner, is written th as in the spelling Thai.
often written j and Thai Vowels There are more than twenty symbols to indicate Thai vowels and they may be positioned above, below, before, or after the initial consonant(s) (Thai Alphabet, n.d.). In order to focus on contrastive analysis, an abridged list of Thai vowels corresponding to SAE vowels is provided in Table 2 (Becker, 2009). Where no equivalent exists the most probable substitute is indicated (Silpachai, 2011). Table 2: Thai Vowels Corresponding to SAE English (IPA) [i] [] [e] [] [] [a] [] [] [o] [] [u] Diphthongs [ay] [y] [aw] Thai Long Vowels Thai Short Vowels

substitute with [i]

substitute with []

substitute with [a]

substitute with [u]

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

While some NAE vowels have a certain amount of glide, e.g. [iy ey ow uw] (CelceMurcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010, p. 451), their Thai equivalents do not have this quality as Thai only makes use of true diphthongs (Varasarin, 2007). Interference Analysis 1. Phonemes absent from Thai Table 2 identifies four SAE vowels absent in Thai [ ] and their likely substitutes. The subsequent Table 3 lists missing consonant phonemes and their predicted substitutions (Briere & Chiachanpong, 1980; Varasarin, 2007; Wei & Zhou, 2002). Table 3: Thai Substitution of unique phonemes English Phoneme (IPA) [] [] [] [] [d] [v] [z] Thai Substitution (IPA) [t] [d] [t] [t] [t] [f] [s]

2. Phonemes with differing pronunciation SAE diphthongized vowels [iy ey ow uw] have no glide in their monophthong Thai equivalents as typically transcribed. However, the sounds can recreated as true diphthongs if explicitly written as such in Thai Script:

[r] / [l] discrimination

is pronounced as an alveolar trill [r] comparable to SAE when not produced as a

prevocalic alveolar approximant (Celce-Murcia, et. al., 2010, p. 452). Interference is not a concern as trilled and approximant [r] are allophones of the same phoneme in SAE. The source

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

of confusion lies in interference from Thai regional dialects that differ from Standard (Central) Thai in the realization of [r], whereby it is produced as an alveolar flap [] or alveolar lateral [l] or is omitted altogether (Briere & Chiachanpong, 1980; Varasarin, 2007). 3. Phonemes with disparate distribution Consonants in final position As indicated in Table 1, Thai has only 8 consonant sounds in final position [p t k m n w y], and all of the plosives are unaspirated. An anticipated zone of interference is the unaspirated pronunciation of all plosives in final position. Biere and Chiachanpong (1980) accurately predicted that while [f s] do not appear in final position in Thai, speakers will invoke Thai equivalents (albeit unvoiced). Researchers have also projected transfer of the Thai phonemic rule changing [r] and [l] to [n] in final position (Varasarin, 2007, p. 15). Evidence of overgeneralization is clear in the borrowed word for bill which is pronounced [bin]. Thais have difficulty hearing SAE [l] in final position, and according to Yangklang (2006) may substitute approximate consonants with similar distribution in Thai such as [w y]. English invokes a velarized [] syllable-finally (Celce-Murcia, et. al., 2010, p. 84), which is another source of confusion as no Thai equivalent exists. Voiced consonants in final position are often omitted or pronounced as a glottal stop [] resulting in the words fine find file all being pronounced the same (Varasarin, 2007; Wei & Zhou, 2002; Yangklang, 2006) and can lead to grammatical errors, such as saying He go instead of He goes (Thep-Ackrapong, 2005). Consonant clusters While Thai lexicon includes some consonant clusters, such as [pl] and [kr], the second consonant is often deleted in common speech, resulting in [pla] fish being pronounced

is omitted or reduced to a flap [kep]. In consonant clusters where it occupies the second position, is often silent, therefore the world for truth is not pronounced as written [tri] but rather pronounced correctly
[pa] (Kuehn, 2012). The [r] in the borrowed word for crepe, [ti]. Vowel epenthesis is a common feature in Thai consonant groups according to MarieHlne Brown in her now out-of-print text, Reading and Writing Thai (cited in: Slayden, 2008).

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

Clusters with a sonorant second consonant invoke an inherent [a], thus the word for fun is pronounced with the syllabic vowel [a] inserted after the first character, resulting in resyllabification: [sanuk]. If the two consonants in the cluster belong to the same syllable, an inherent [o] is inserted. Take for instance the word for candy which appears to have no vowels but is pronounced with an invoked [a] in the first syllable and an invoked [o] in the second syllable: [kanom]. The dearth of true consonant clusters in Thai language causes some to simply drop trailing consonants in English as an avoidance tactic (Wei & Zhou, 2002, p. 5). 4. Stress Interference Thai is an analytic S-V-0 language with no bound morphemes, and with the exception of borrowed and compound-words is primarily monosyllabic (Thep-Ackrapong, 2005). The rule in Thai is even stress on every word and to always stress the final syllable (Becker, 2009). Transference of this rule is revealed in the pronunciation of words borrowed from English:
COMPUter

is pronounced compuTER. BASKETball is pronounced basketBAN (note the change

from [l] to [n]). DOLLer is pronounced dollA (with the [r] omitted). 5. Intonation Interference Thai is a tonal language, realized in the vowels. There are four tones in addition to the monotone or mid range: high, low, rising, falling (Smyth, 2003). Unlike English, Thai does not use pitch to indicate prominence as is typically illustrated in yes/no questions (Celce-Murcia, et. al., 2010, p. 237). Thais will often overgeneralize this rule (Wei & Zhou, 2002) and use a rising tone with w-questions and closed-choice-or questions resulting in the following errors:
WHATS YOUR HOW ARE

NAME?

YOU? TEA?

DO YOU WANT WATER OR

The effect combines with Thai stress tendency to create ambiguous non-question statements:
THIS IS MY

compuTER apartMENT

I LIVE IN AN

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

Remediation What follows are remediation techniques for sample problems taken from each of the six identified areas of interference. Activity 1. Phonemes absent from Thai: repairing [t] substitution for [] 1). As a warm up and to establish context, ask students about situations where quiet is enforced. Possible answers include: a test, the hospital, the library, etc. 2). Show a video of patrons being quieted in a library, e.g. Mr. Bean Visits the Library. 3). Ask students: how do Americans say be quiet? Prompt for the response: ssssh. 4). Present shaping approaches to learning []. Instruct students to: Elongate [t] by maintaining airflow and holding the tongue and jaw still. Say [s] and pucker the lips and move the tongue back until you hear [].

5). Have students practice telling each other to be quiet. 6). Help students distinguish between [t] and [] using a minimal pairs exercise: Introduce the words chin and shin. Students take turns reading from the list of minimal pairs in Table 4. Upon hearing initial [t] they touch their chin. Hearing initial [] they touch their shin. Note: the teacher may alter the word pattern to reduce predictability. Table 4: [t] / [] minimal pairs chair/share chi/she cheap/sheep cheer/shear cheat/sheet cheese/shes chip/ship chew/shoe chop/shop chore/shore

7). Have the students practice the following tongue-twister: She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore. Im sure she sells seashore shells.

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

Activity 2. Phonemes with differing pronunciation: [r] / [l] discrimination The problem here lies not with unfamiliarity as experienced by much of Asia, but rather with habitual reduction and omission more akin to Boston or London. This exercise leverages the distinction of [r] / [l] in Standard Thai by practicing rhotic [r] in minimal pairs using native language. Samples were selected for commonality in tone as well as phonemic features. IPA pronunciation and English definitions are provided for those unfamiliar with Thai. 1). Write the Thai symbols and their IPA designation on the board:

[r] [l]
2). Model the words in Table 5 for students to repeat. The teacher may provide Thai script on cue cards or a computer screen to reinforce the native pronunciation pattern. Table 5: [r] / [l] minimal pairs in Thai Thai [r]

IPA [ra] [ray] [rt] [rp] [rm] [rp] [r] [r] [rum] [rt]

definition mold person bind seize umbrella war wait assistant hit slide

Thai [l]

IPA [la] [lay] [lt] [lp] [lm] [lp] [l] [l] [lm] [lt]

definition donkey design shortcut apart capsize delete handsome try lowland lute

3). Reinforce the distinction by introducing English homophones for the Thai words: Table 6: Homophones for Thai [ray] and [lay]

rye

[ray] [ray]

person

lye

[lay] [lay]

design

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

4). Transfer the practiced distinction to English by identifying the sounds practiced in Table 5 as English homophones. Spellings may be shown on cue cards or a computer screen. Table 7: [r] / [l] minimal pairs in English English [r] rye rot reap roam rope raw wrong room root IPA [ray] [rat] [rip] [rom] [rop] [r] [r] [rum] [rut] English [l] lye lot leap loam lope law long loom lute IPA [lay] [lat] [lip] [lom] [lop] [l] [l] [lum] [lut]

Activity 3. Phonemes with disparate distribution: [l] in final position. Thai speakers need to relearn not to replace [l] in final position with [n]. This is accomplished by having students reduplicate [l] in English words where it appears in first and final position. This is a phonic, not a lexical exercise. Figure 1: Practicing [l] Instructions: choose words to fill in the blanks to make an original story, then read it to your partner. There are many possible combinations. legal level local loyal lethal liberal lawful literal logical

My __________ pal Laurel and I went to a _____________ store to buy some _____________ goods. The label said it was ____________ but I dont know if the shop was _____________ or if Laurel was ____________. So I decided to be _____________ and leave rather than do something ____________. I hope my pal Laurel doesnt think Im too _______________.

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

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Activity 4. Stress Interference: habitual ultimate stress. To correct interference from habitual Thai stress on the ultimate syllable, English words borrowed in Thai that have opposing SAE stress are relearned. This is predicted to produce positive productive and affective outcomes. 1). Demonstrate voicing stress on syllables formatted in CAPS. Write on the board: final stress carTOON initial stress SANDwich medial stress comPUter

2). Form groups of 3-4 and distribute the word list in Table 8. The first student chooses an item on the list and says: I bought (a) _______. The next student repeats and adds another item to the list, e.g.: I bought a computer and (a) _______. Continue until the list is exhausted. 3). Monitor production of non-ultimate stress and encourage peer feedback. Table 8: Multisyllabic English words borrowed in Thai aPARTment APple BAloon BASEball BATtery BURger CHRISTmas HAMster HELIcopter KEYboard LAser LEmon LOtion RIBbon SEAfood SKATEboard COOKies COPies DInosuar DISco DOnut FRENCH fries NECKtie PANda piAno PING pong PIZza POSter PRINter TAXi TRUMpet VOLLEYball

Activity 5. Intonation Interference: overgeneralization of rising tone. 1). Demonstrate to students the final rising tone of closed questions and final falling tone of responses. Write on the board: Q: Do you have a comPUter? A: Yes, I HAVE a comPUter. A: No, I DONT have a comPUter. 2). Confirm understanding by asking the question to random students. Provide feedback on their stress patterns.

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam

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3). Distribute the list of multisyllabic English words borrowed in Thai shown in Table 8. Students secretly circle ten items on the list, then form study pairs. Circled items are things they have. Students play a game similar to the card game Go Fish: a) Student A asks B if he has an item on the list by forming the question: Do you have a ___________? b) If the item is circled on student Bs list, he answers in the affirmative: Yes, I HAVE a ___________? student A checks the correct guess on his list and may ask again. c) If the item is not circled on student Bs list, he answers in the negative: No, I DONT have a _________? and the turn passes to student B. d) Repeat until all ten items are discovered. 4). Optionally, to add more variety and speed up the game, students can ask about two items at a time, thus forming a closed-choice alternative-or question with falling tone as shown: Q: Do you have a comPUter or a BASketball? 5). Provide feedback on stress production and encourage peer correction. Conclusion Many of the phonemes prevalent in English are also present in Thai, presenting a dilemma: students have fewer sounds to master, yet close proximity to Thai makes retaining old pronunciation habits all too convenient. Negative transference is clearly evidenced by the highly altered pronunciation of English words borrowed into Thai. Poor habits translate into poor proficiency exasperated by lack of formal instruction in phonetics. Intervention at an early stage using some of the remedial activities outlined in this paper can have a positive effect on both comprehensibility and attitudes towards spoken English. These are areas of growing concern if Thailand is to ascend in the international marketplace through literacy in the global lingua non franca.

Thai Interference and Remediation Chris Khonngam References

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Becker, B.P. (2009). New Thai-English, English-Thai compact dictionary for English speakers with tones and classifiers. Berkeley: Paiboon Publishing. Briere, E. J., & Chiachanpong, S. (1980). An investigation of Thai interference in selected American English phoneme, Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics, 11, 101-117. Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D.M., & Goodwin, J.M. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: a course book and reference guide. New York: Cambridge University Press. Kuehn, P. (2012, October 5). Native language interference in learning a second language in English as a foreign or second language. Retrieved from http://paulkuehn.hubpages.com/hub/ Difficulties- In-EFL-Learning-Interference-FromThe-Students-Native-Language/ Silpachai, A. (2011, February 28). English vowel sounds that Thai speakers can't produce. [Web log entry]. Retrieved from http://alif-shinobi.blogspot.com/2011/02/english-vowelsounds-that-thai-speakers.html Slayden, G. (2008, January 22). Consonant clusters. Retrieved from http://www.thailanguage.com/ref/double-consonants/ Symth, D. (2003). Teach yourself Thai. Blacklick, OH: McGraw-Hill. Thai Alphabet. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2012 from Wikipedia: http:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Thai_alphabet/ Thai Language. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2012 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Thai_language/ Thep-Ackrapong, T. (2005). Teaching English in Thailand: an uphill battle, Journal of Humanities, 27(1), 51-62.

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Varasarin, P. (2007). An action research study of pronunciation training, language learning strategies and speaking confidence. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Victoria University, Australia. Wei, Y, & Zhou, Y. (2002). Insights into English pronunciation problems of Thai students. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED476746) Yangklang, W (2006). Improving English final /-l/ pronunciation of Thai students through computer assisted instruction program. (Unpublished masters dissertation), Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand.