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ABSTRACT Thisresearchwasasurveyresearchdesignwhichfocusedon thedifficulty inpronunciationofcertainEnglishconsonantsoundsbyMatthayom1studentsofBangpakongBorvornwittayayonSchoolinChachoengsaoProvince,Thailand. There were 11 problematic consonantsoundswith2wordsforeachsound.Eachinitialconsonant sound had 16 occurrences from 16studentsandeachfinalsoundhadalso16occurrencesfromthesamenumberofstudents.Therewere22wordsand16students.Sointotaltherewere22X16=352occurrencesofwords.Participantshadbeengiventhelistofwordswithtargetedsoundsbeforehand and asked to pronounce each wordonly once. Each studentwas given 22words toread having 11 different consonant soundswith2words for each sound – initial and final. Theconsonantsoundsofthewordswerelistenedandcheckedbytheexperttotickcorrectandincorrectpronunciation in the boxes while students hadpronouncedthesoundsinthetargetedwords. The result was based on the number ofoccurrencesofcorrectlyandincorrectlypronouncedconsonant sounds that were analyzed and thenpresentedbydescriptivestatisticsoffrequencyandpercentage,andalsotheremarksfromtheEnglishteacher-expert. Itwas found that individualEnglishconsonantsoundswerenotproblematicforThai

*Lecturer:EnglishforBusinessCommunicationDepartment,SchoolofLiberalArts,SripatumUniversity

ChonburiCampus

studentshowever,wheneverthesoundsoccurredinthebeginningandendofthewordsthestudentshad difficulties in pronouncing them and theysubstitutedthemwithotherlikelysounds.Keywords: mothertongue,consonants,phoneme,correctpronunciation,incorrectpronunciation.INTRODUCTION Nowadays,allregionsoftheworldarecoming

closertoeachotherandtheworldisglobalizing.For

example,many countries have business agreements

amongthemselvesandasaresulttheyaredependent

oneachotherinbusiness,manycountrieshavemutual

understandinginthefieldofeducation,andexchange

ofstudentsandeducationalexpertstakeplaceatlarge

thanearliertimes.Also,becauseofthedevelopment

of telecommunication and internet people from

differentpartsof theworldcaneasilycommunicate

with eachother and it hasmadeuspossible to feel

closewitheachothersocially.Obviouslyinallthese

cases English language plays an important role.

Naturally,allthemassesandpeoplearegettingmore

familiar and nearer to each other. This way, they

collectively affect each other in all aspects of life.

Specially,itisthelanguage,whichiseffectedmore.

AsitissaidthatEnglishislocallanguageoftheworld

so,ithasimmensenumberofpeoplearoundtheglobe

tospeakitup.Everyoneofthemhasitsownwayto

DIFFICULTY IN PRONUNCIATION OF CERTAINENGLISH CONSONANT SOUNDS

Sukarna Chakma*

111

dealwithitbutit'squitesurethatLanguageisnotthat

kindofabstractartwhichbedealtinone'sownway

likeanyabstractpainting.Languageishumankind's

distinctive feature.Whether we think of rationality

or sociability, we are thinking of languages. It is

languagethatmakesusdifferentfromotherspecies.

And especially when one talk about speaking of

English or learning to speak English, he/she must

replacethesaying:"Seeingisbelieving"with"Hearing

is believing" because speech is therefore the basic

formof language.This leads to the conclusion that

speech should be emphasized accurately. It is

confirmed that without some degree of accuracy,

speaker could end up producing unrecognizable or

incomprehensiblelanguage.

The role of English in Thailand is quite

importantasitisinmanyotherAsiancountries.New

technology and the adoption of the Internet have

resulted in a major transition in terms of business,

education,science,andtechnologicalprogress,allof

which demand high proficiency in English. For

example,thesedaysmanycompaniesdobusinessand

reachtheircustomersthroughinternet,quitealotof

distance education programs and other courses are

providedbymanyuniversitiesandothereducational

institutes through internet. We can get almost all

kindsofinformationfromtheinternetandEnglishis

widelyusedinallthesecases.

Amongthefourskillsoflanguage(i.e.,reading,

writing,listeningandspeaking),speakingskillseems

toattractalotofEnglishlearners’attention.ForEnglish

learners,thespeakingskillisveryimportant;especially,

theaccuracyofEnglishpronunciation.Many times,

nativespeakersconfuseormisunderstandwordmeaning.

Among many factors are the errors in English

pronunciation. Generally, people do not know and

cannotexplainwhataforeignaccentisbutarefully

awareofitspresenceoritsabsencewhenforeigners

speaktheirlanguages.

Moreover, it is found that Thai students

have difficulties in pronouncing certain English

lettersmostlyconsonants.ItisbecauseThailanguage

doesn’t have final consonant clusters. The major

problemforThailearnersisthedifferenceofsounds.

ManysoundsdonotoccurinThaiandThaispeakers

substitutethosesoundswiththeclosestvoicing.Most

ThaispeakersdecideEnglishpronunciationbasedon

thephonologicalpattern infirst languageormother

tongue.Usually,whennewlanguagesareencountered,

the existing representations of first language are

applied and reshape target language incoming

information. In language transfer, complex factors

interact,includinglanguagedistance,cognitiveload,

attention,sociolinguisticfactors,etc.Languagetransfer

isaphenomenonthatexistsinsecondlanguagelearning.

It doesn’t need to try to turn people into

soundinglikenativespeakers,butitdoesneedtoget

themtobecapableofbeingunderstoodbyavariety

oflisteners,whichinvolvesadegreeofapproximation

tothecoresounds.So,itisquiteimportanttoteach

therightpronunciationofEnglishtothelearners,so

that they may communicate exactly what and how

theywanttocommunicate.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The current debate about the phonology of

Englishasaninternationallanguageshouldencourage

teachersandlearnerstothinkabouttheaimsinteaching

andlearningofEnglishpronunciationinthecontext

of English for speakers of other languages. The

objectivesofthissurveyresearchare:

1. to identify the difficulty of pronouncing

certainEnglishconsonant soundsbyM1students

andtoencouragethemtoimprovetheirpronunciation

2. to compare the pronunciation of correct

andincorrectsounds

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RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS Thefollowingsweretheresearchhypothesis

ofthisstudy:

1.IndividualEnglishconsonantsounds/ch/,

/d/, /g/, /l/, /r/, /sh/, /s/, /th/, /v/, /w/, /x/were not

problematicforMatthayom1studentsofBangpakong

BorvornwittayayonSchool.

2.However,whenevertheseconsonantsounds

/ch/,/g/,/l/,/r/,/sh/,/th/,/v/,/w/,/x/occurredinthe

beginningandendofawordthestudentshaddifficulties

pronouncing them and substituted them with other

sounds/s/,/sh/,/k/,/n/,/l/,/s/,/ch/,/t/,/w/,/v/,/c/.The

soundsof/d/and/s/wereusuallyleftunpronounced

intheendofawordsuchas‘find’waspronouncedas

‘fine’and‘tears’waspronouncedas‘tear’.

SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH Thestudyaimedatidentifyingthedifficulties

ofpronouncingcertainconsonantsoundsinwordsby

Matthayom1studentsofBangpakongBorvornwittayayon

SchoolwhohadmoreorlesslearnedEnglishinprimary

schools.Eachparticipanthadpronouncedall the22

wordsconsistingof11differentconsonantsounds /

ch/,/d/,/g/,/l/,/r/,/sh/,/s/,/th/,/v/,/w/,/x/.Students’

pronunciations were listened and checked by one

English-teacher expert. The results were analyzed

from the variations that the students pronounced. METHODOLOGY This chapter described the procedure of the

studycontainingresearchmethodology,participants,

variables, instruments and pronunciation test with

datacollectionanddataanalysisintheend.

Population:Thepopulationwasconsistedof

16studentsfromthesixroomsofMatthayomSuksa

1,whowerestudyinglisteningandspeakingenglish

insemester1/2010atBangpakongBorvornwittayayon

School in Chachoengsao Province. The population

hadmoreor lessstudiedEnglish inprimaryschool.

TheresearcherhadassumedthatThailearnerscould

readthegivenwords.

Sample:Byusingsimplerandomsampling,

the 16 participants were selected from six rooms

ofMatthayom1.Thesewere 7 students fromM1/1,

2 fromM1/2,3 fromM1/3,1 from1/4,2 from1/5

and1from1/6.Whileselectingforthepronunciation

test-thestudentshadbeenaskedtopickupnumbers

fromabox.Forexample,whileselecting7students

fromM1/1allstudentsofthisroomhadbeenasked

topickupanumber fromaboxonebyoneand in

the end students who had picked up numbers 1-7

had been selected for the test. The same procedure

hadbeenfollowedforselectingstudents fromother

roomsofMatthayom1.Studentsweregiventhelist

ofwordswithtargetedsoundsbeforehandandasked

topronounceeachwordonlyonce.Eachstudentwas

given22wordstoreadhaving11differentconsonant

soundswith2wordsforeachsoundinitialandfinal.

TheresearcherhadassumedthatThailearnerscould

readthegivenwords.

Thepronunciationsurveyoftheparticipants

was done in an English classroom of the school

fromAugust16-20,2010.

Variables:Theindependentvariablewasthe

list of 22 words with 11 consonant sounds. The

dependentvariableswerethestudents’pronunciation

ofconsonantsoundsinthegivenwords.

DATA COLLECTION Therewere11problematicconsonantsounds

with2wordsforeachsound.Eachinitialconsonant

soundhad16occurrencesfrom16studentsandeach

final sound had also 16 occurrences from the same

number of students. There were 22 words and 16

students. So in total there were 22 X 16 = 352

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occurrencesofwords.Participantsweregiventhelist

ofwordswithtargetedsoundsbeforehandandasked

topronounceeachwordonlyonce.Eachstudentwas

given22wordstoreadhaving11differentconsonant

soundswith2wordsforeachsound–initialandfinal.

The consonant sounds of the words were

listenedandcheckedbytheexperttotickcorrectand

incorrect pronunciation in the boxeswhile students

hadpronouncedthesoundsinthetargetedwords.

It was found that individual consonant sound was

notaproblemforthelearnershowever,whereverthe

consonantsounds/ch/,/d/,/g/,/l/,/r/,/sh/,/s/,/th/,/v/,

/w/and/x/occurredintheinitialandfinalposition,

the learnerssubstituted themwith thesounds /s/sh/,

/k/,/n/,/l/,/s/ch/,/t/,/w/,/v/and/c/respectively.The

soundsof/d/and/s/wereusuallyleftunpronounced

intheendofawordsuchas‘find’waspronouncedas

‘fine’and‘tears’waspronouncedas‘tear’.

DATA ANALYSIS Theresultbasedonthepercentageofcorrectly

and incorrectlypronouncedwords, and the remarks

fromtheEnglishteacher-expert.Forhavingmorein

detail the researcher also talked to the English

teacher-expert about her opinion on Thai learners’

pronunciationandsomethingthatsheobservedwhile

Thailearnersproducedeachconsonantsound.

Basedonthefollowingcriteria,all11consonant

soundswereclassifiedinto3groups.Highlevel(H)

was from80%-100%Medium level (M)was from

50%-79%Lowlevel(L)wasfrom0%-49%

SUGGESTIONS Nowadays,therearemanyteachingmaterials,

which help learners to practice and improve their

abilities in learning English such as CD, DVD,

English news channels on TV and radio, Internet,

Textbooks,etc.Theresearchersuggeststhelearners

tomakegooduseofdifferentmaterials or tomake

gooduseofmaterialsthatarewithinthereachofthe

learnerstoimprovepronunciation.

Further, the success of learning English for

Thai learners largely depends on their attitude and

motivationinlearning.Theyshouldspendmoretime

inpracticingnotonlyEnglishpronunciation,butthey

should also spend more time in learning four

importantskills;reading,writing,listeningandspeaking.

In researcher’s opinion, learners’ motivation or

self-motivation is a significant factor that helps

learnerssucceedinlearningtargetlanguage,andalso

the learners should practice English outside the

classroomwhichcanhelpalearnerbecomeamaster

andinacquiringthetargetlanguage.

RESEARCH RESULTS The results from this study showing the

occurrenceofconsonantsoundsthatThailearnershad

pronouncedatinitialandfinalpositionareasfollows:

Table 1 Theresultofconsonant/ch/showed

thatthereare16occurrencesatinitialandfinalposition.

It had been pronounced correctly by 68.7% and

pronounced incorrectlyby31.3%at initialposition.

Atfinalpositiontheresultofconsonant/ch/isithad

beenpronouncedcorrectlyby56.3%andpronounced

incorrectlyby43.7%.

Theresultfromtable1hadindicatedthat/ch/

sound,bothatinitialandfinalpositionwereproblematic,

but the /ch/ sound at the initial position was more

problematicthanthe/ch/soundatfinalposition.

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Table 4 Theoccurrencesof/l/bothatinitial

andfinalpositionhadshowedthat81.2%Thailearners

had produced correct pronunciation and 18.8% had

producedincorrectpronunciation.

Theresultof/l/soundbothatinitialandfinal

position had showed that Thai learners had fewer

problems inpronouncing thesound /l/at initialand

finalposition.

Table 5 The result of /r/ had showed that

therewas56.3%correctpronunciationandincorrect

pronunciation was 43.7% at initial position. There

were81.2%correctpronunciationofatfinalposition

and18.2%incorrectpronunciation.

Fromtable5itwasfoundthattheparticipants

had problemwith the pronunciation of /r/ sound at

initialposition,buttheyhadfewerproblemswith/r/

soundatfinalposition.

Table 6 The participants had pronounced

62.5% correct pronunciation and 37.5% incorrect

pronunciationatinitialpositionofthesound/sh/.At

finalpositionequalpercentagesofThailearnershad

pronouncedcorrectandincorrectpronunciation.

AlthoughthissoundwasnotoccurredinThai

consonant,thepercentageofcorrectpronunciationat

initial positionwas quite ok.However, they had to

improvetheirproductionof/sh/soundatfinalposition.

Table 2The resultof theconsonant /d/had

showed that the participants had produced 100%

correct pronunciation at initial position and 0%

incorrectpronunciation.Correctpronunciationof/d/

at final positionwas43.7%and incorrect pronunciation

was56.3%.

The result had showed that the participants

hadnoproblemofpronouncing/d/atinitialposition.

However, the final position has indicated that the

participants had difficulty in pronouncing the final

position of /d/. The correct pronunciation of /d/ at

initialpositionwassatisfactory.

Table 3Thailearnershadproduced100%correct

pronunciationoftheconsonant/g/atinitialposition

and 68.7% at final position. The occurrence of

incorrectpronunciationwas0%atinitialpositionand

31.3%atfinalposition.

Thepercentagehadshowedthattheparticipants

had no problem in their production of /g/ sound at

initialposition,but theyhadproblemsat finalposition.

The percentage of correct pronunciation at initial

positionwasuptosatisfaction.

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Table 7 Theresulthadshowedthat75%of

Thai learners had produced correct pronunciation

and25%hadproducedincorrectpronunciationofthe

sound/s/.Theoccurrenceof/S/atfinalpositionhad

showedthat37.2%hadproducedcorrectpronunciation

and62.5%incorrectpronunciation.

Theresultof /s/at initialpositionwasquite

satisfactory.However,Thailearnershadtoimprove

thefinalpositionof/s/.

Table 8 18.8%Thailearnershadpronounced

correctly and 81.2% had pronounced incorrectly of

thesound/th/atfinalposition.Theoccurrenceofcor-

rectpronunciationwas31.3%andincorrectpronun-

ciationwas68.7%atfinalposition.

Thepercentageshadshowedthattheparticipantshad

problemsintheirproductionof/th/soundbothatini-

tialand finalpositionmostlyat initialposition,and

theyhadtoimprovethepronunciationofthissound.

Table 9The result had showed that 37.5%

participantshadproducedcorrectpronunciationand

62.5% had produced incorrect pronunciation of the

sound/v/atinitialposition.Ontheotherhand62.5%

had pronounced correctly and 37.5% had produced

incorrectlyatthefinalposition.

The result had showed that the participants

had less problem of /v/ at final position.However,

they had problem at initial position, and needed to

improveofthissoundatinitialposition.

Table 10 75% Thai learners had produced

thesoundof/w/correctlyand81.2%hadpronounced

incorrectlyatfinalposition.Theoccurrenceofcorrect

pronunciationwas18.8%andincorrectpronunciation

was68.7%atfinalposition.

The percentages had showed that the

participantshadproblems in theirproductionof /w/

soundatfinalposition,andtheyhadtoimprovethe

pronunciation of this sound.However, they had les

problematinitialposition.

Table 11 Theresulthadshowedthat18.8%

ofThailearnershadproducedcorrectpronunciation

and81%hadproducedincorrectpronunciationofthe

sound/x/.Theoccurrenceof/x/atfinalpositionhad

showedthat93.8%haveproducedcorrectpronuncia-

tionandonly6.2%hadpronouncedincorrectly.

Theresultof/x/atfinalpositionwasquitesatisfac-

tory.However,Thailearnershadtoimprovetheini-

tialpositionof/x/.

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Table 12 Theresulthadshowedthearrangement

ofpercentagesofcorrectpronunciationoftheconsonant

sounds of Thai learners from highest percentage to

lowestpercentage.

At initial position the sounds of /d/ and /g/

had the highest percentage, that is, 100% correct

pronunciationforboththesounds.

Atfinalpositionthesoundof/x/hadthehighest

percentage,thatis,93.8%correctpronunciation.

The participants had no problem with the

sounds of /d/ and /g/ andfewer problems with the

soundsof/l/,/s/and/w/atinitialposition.Theyhad

fewerproblemswiththesoundsof/x/,/l/and/R/at

finalposition.

Thelearnershadthemostproblemswiththe

soundsof /v/and/x/at initialpositionandwith the

soundsof/s/,/th/and/w/atfinalposition.

Grouping and Ranking

Basedonthefollowingcriteria,all11consonant

sounds are classified into 3groups and also ranked

accordingtothepercent.Highlevel(H)isfrom80%-

100%Mediumlevel(M)isfrom50%-79%Lowlevel

(L)isfrom0%-49%

From table 12, the ranked data showed the

followingdata:

1.Initialposition,correctpronunciationwere

3 consonant sounds /d/, /g/, /l/ at the High level ,

6 consonant sounds /s/, /w/, /ch/, /sh, /th,/ /r/ at the

Mediumleveland2consonantsounds/v/and/x/at

theLowlevelrespectively.

2.Finalposition,correctpronunciationswere

3 consonant sounds /x/, /l/, /r/ at the High level,

4 consonant sounds /g/, /v/, /ch/ and /sh/ at the

Medium level and 4 consonant sounds /d/, /s/, /th/,

and/w/attheLowlevelrespectively.

The examples from the above table showed

thatThailearnerspronounce/k/, /t/and/ch/instead

/g/, /t/ and /sh/becauseThai languagedoesn’thave

voicedvelarstopandfricatives.Asitisverydifficult

topronouncetheaccuratesoundsso,quiteoftenThai

learnersuseclosest/k/,/t/and/s/inThailanguageto

pronounce.

RECOMMENDATIONS 1.This survey research is to investigate the

Thailearners’difficultyinpronouncingcertainconsonant

sounds. Although this study has not focused the

pronunciationofproblematicconsonantsoundsdeeply

however, the result canstillbeusedby theEnglish

teacherstofindouttheweaknessesofthestudentsin

pronouncingEnglishwordsandaccordinglypreparing

lessonstoshortoutthedifficultiesandalsobyshowing

students different techniques as to how to improve

theirpronunciation.

Further,itcanhelptheEnglishteacherstobe

aware of their ownweaknesses in pronunciation as

a result they can try to overcome it by attending

in-service training programs and English seminars.

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sound by sound orword byword. In addition, this

study was focused on the occurrence at initial and

finalpositionofconsonant.Theoccurrenceinminimal

pair,vowel,andstressshouldbeincluded.

ThisstudywasjustasurveyonThailearners’

pronunciation.Thereshouldbeacomparativestudy

oftheinterferencefromEnglishtoThailanguageor

anexperimentalstudybyhavingpretestandposttest

tocomparetwogroupsofstudents.Otherresearchers

mightgetfurtherinformationiftheyhaveaquestionnaire

to conduct learners’ attitude and levels of learners’

thinking.

The teachers and students canalso try toovercome

their weaknesses themselves through internet, CD,

DVD,Englishnewschannels,radio,etc.

2.The result of this studyhad indicated that

Thailearnershadmoreorlessprobleminpronunciation.

However, there are certain weak points that the

researcherhastoimproveaswellwhichareasfollows:

Theparticipantswereawareoftheirproblem

whenpronouncedeachEnglishconsonant.Therefore,

they had produced less natural speech for each

consonant.Otherstudiesshouldcreatecomplex test

by using sentences or reading text not pronouncing

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