Babkina, V. (2018). Phonological interference of mother tongue over the English

An Action Research Study of Pronunciation Training, Language 
Learning Strategies and Speaking Confidence.
Retrieved January 1, 2015 from 
http://vuir.vu.edu.au/1437/1/Varasarin.pdf 

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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.

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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.