15
The author of the discussed investigation stated that pronunciation
of both segmental and suprasegmental English
language aspects has
always been a serious problem for Thai EFL learners. The researcher
pointed out that some students would escape from classes because of
their embarrassment they experienced while speaking English. Moreover,
the English teachers confessed that they tried to avoid including
pronunciation practice into the classroom due to lack of their proficiency
in this topic.
The results of various studies dedicated to the problem of mother
tongue interference among Thai learners show that the principal reasons
for unintelligibility are as follows: the absence of many English
sounds in
the Thai sound system; phonetical difference between some Thai
language sounds and English language sounds. For instance, even
though, the sound /r/ exists in the Thai language system, there is
phonetical difference between the pronunciation of the English /r/ and the
Thai /r/. In English the sound /r/ is retroflex and in Thai it is just a trilled
/r/. Therefore, without special pronunciation training and assistance from
the
part of an English teacher, most Thai learners experience serious
problems when speaking or reading aloud in English.
The author of the discussed study applied action research as the
main methodology of the investigation. The data was collected by means
of observations, reflective reports,
group interviews, critical friends and
tape recording. Framework for teaching pronunciation proposed by
Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996
)
was applied as a plan for
creating pronunciation lessons and activities to improve the participants´
pronunciation. The framework was used first with a group of volunteer
teachers and then with volunteer school students.
The results of the study demonstrated that
after the pronunciation
training and language learning strategies were applied to the group of
teachers and school students, all the participants of the investigation
demonstrated significant improvement in pronunciation of segmental and
suprasegmental aspects of the English language. Moreover, in the
research questionnaire the subjects stated that
they started feeling more
confident about themselves and realized the importance of improving
their pronunciation skills in order to be understood.
16
Thus, the research done by the author Patchara Varasarin
influenced the development process of the present investigation. First of
all, the study proved the importance of applying a framework for
pronunciation training. The idea of using framework for teaching
pronunciation
by Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996
)
was
borrowed by the author of the given study and applied to the context of
her investigation. The framework helped the author gradually introduce
the activities and instruction in the sample group with Peruvian learners
with the purpose of improving the pronunciation of the target problem
sounds.
Additionally, the study demonstrated that English learners all over
the world struggle with phonological interference of their mother tongue,
and some learners even give up their studies after being misunderstood
and not being able to improve. However, with the help of efficient
training provided by a teacher, motivation and hard work, it is possible to
cope with any difficulties, improve intelligibility in speaking English and
feel more confident during communication.
To make a general conclusion here, it is important to state that the
three mentioned researches were taken into
consideration by the author
of the given paper as useful resources in the field of mother tongue
interference among EFL students of different levels. Mother tongue, let it
be Spanish, Arabic or Russian, always interferes and causes difficulty in
pronunciation of the target language. Undoubtedly, the representatives of
different cultural and linguistic backgrounds have diverse issues in
sounds pronunciation; however, there is always an interest and need from
the part of teachers and investigators about the reasons for pronunciation
problems and how to solve these problems in the classroom. Therefore,
these researches gave valuable ideas to the author of the given paper
about such aspects of investigation as data collection methods, planning
the process of the development of the study, searching for materials and
resources, planning the strategy in order to gain
the overall objective of
the investigation.
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