วารสารวิทยาลัยบัณฑิตเอเซีย ปีที่ 7 ฉบับพิเศษ (เดือนตุลาคม 2560) ED062 Interlanguage consonant production of Thai – Loei and Lao second language learners of English Dr. Prakorb Phon-ngam1 Abstract An individual’s distinctive use of language that has been developed by a learner of a second language is known as “Interlanguage.” Challenges for learners in the acquisition of a second language phonological system are to perceive and produce new sounds that do not exist in their first language. This paperpresents1) the interlanguage consonant pronunciation of Thai–Loei and Lao second language learners of English; 2) pronunciation exercises created for developing their pronunciation skills, 3) their learning achievements in consonant pronunciation before and after using the exercises, and 4) their satisfaction towards the appropriateness of the exercises developed. The subject used for surveying the interlanguageconsonant pronunciation of Thai – Loei and Lao second language learners of English was 40 students; 20 fromat LoeiRajabhat University (LRU) in Thailand and 20 fromNational University of Laos (NUOL) in Vientiane, Laos. The subject for the trail run was 30 students from LRU in the 2015 academic year, purposively selected from English majors who had attended the phonetic course but still had difficulties in pronouncing English consonants. The research tools comprised: 1) wordlists for investigating the interlanguage consonant pronunciation, 2) English consonant pronunciation exercises, 3) wordlists for studying their achievement, and 4) the appropriateness and satisfaction rating form. The qualitative content analysis and description was based on the of scope of the Articulatory Phonetics, and percentage, means, standard deviation and t-test for dependent samples were used in quantitative data analysis.The study found that Thai – Loei and Lao second language learners of Englishhad difficultiesand shared high ranked common pronunciation errors inpronouncing 10 English consonants that do not exist in their first language: [r]60%, [ð] 50%, []45%, [dӡ] 40%, [ӡ] 40%, [tʃ] 35%, [∫] 35%, [l] 35%, [z] 32.5% 1Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, LoeiRajabhat University, Thailand 372 วารสารวิทยาลัยบัณฑิตเอเซีย ปีที่ 7 ฉบับพิเศษ (เดือนตุลาคม 2560) and[s] 25%.Thepercentage shown in each type of consonants was: Approximant (60%),Affricates (37.5%), Lateral, (35%) and Fricatives (29.18%). They pronounced these 10 common problematic sounds with the interference of their native language phonological features in every position that these sounds occur. The pronunciation exercises developed for improving their pronunciation skills was the English pronunciation exercise book called “Trips to Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Thailand: English Consonant Pronunciation.” The exercise book was divided into 5 units: (1) [dӡ] [ӡ], (2) [s] [z], (3) [tʃ] [ʃ], (4) [] [ð] and (5) [r], [l]. Each unit provided meaningful words, sentences, and short constructions with the target consonant sounds arranged in Thai- Lao tourism situations for pronunciation practice. Overall, each unit met the E1/ E2 preset 80/80criterion of efficiency. The students’ learning achievement score on English consonant pronunciation after using the exercises was higher than that before using them with a statistical significance at the .05 level. The students’ satisfaction towards the appropriateness of the exercises developed was at the highest level, ( =4.57, SD=0.72). Keywords: Interlanguage, Consonant Production, Thai- Loei and Lao Second Language Learners of English 1. Introduction Southern China. Students in Thailand and Loei is a province in Northern Laos study English as a foreign language. Thailand; it borders Sainyaboli and Vientiane Phonological system of Thai – Loei and Lao Province of Lao PDR (Laos). Loei native are very similar. Urairat Thongphiw (1989) language is Thai - Loei which is carried out a comparative study of Lao in phonologically different from the Central Roi-Et and Laoin Vientiane; and Siwaporn Thai but very similar to Lao language spoken Hasonnary(2000) compared phonological in Laos. Both Thai- Loei and Lao belong to systems of Lao spoken by native speakers in the Tai language family which also includes Luang Prabang, Lao Dan Sai in Loei Province Thai, Shan and other dialects spoken by and Lao Khrang in Thachin river basin. Both other related ethnic groups in Thailand, researchers found that all dialects in the Myanmar, Laos, Northern Vietnam and studies had the same phonological systems. 373 วารสารวิทยาลัยบัณฑิตเอเซีย ปีที่ 7 ฉบับพิเศษ (เดือนตุลาคม 2560) There were 20 consonant phonemes: /b, p, developed by a learner of an L2. The h h h p , d, t, t , c, k, k , ʔ, f, s, h, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, l, w, j interlanguage can be fossilized or ceased /. All 20 phonemes could occur in the word- developing in any of its development stage. initial position, but only 9 phonemes could Fossilization may occur when learners have appear in the word – final position. Those adequate learning support or they could not phonemes were: /p, t, k, ʔ, m, n, ŋ, w, j/. overcome their goal of learning L2. Erickson, Blain. (2001) mentioned about the Talking about errors in using English as an L2 origin of labialized consonant in Lao which by Thai learners, particularly in speaking, can be concluded that Spoken Lao had only Supaalux Vongsiribhisan (2005:2-3) found the labialized consonants that similar to the that English had more than 14 phonemes in syllable-initial clusters [khw-]. word- syllable position that were different Mother tongue has a great influence on from Thai’s. Those phonemes were: /b, d, learning a second language. For those who g, f, , s, ∫, v, ð, z, ӡ, tʃ ,dӡ, l/. Thai learners start learning English as a second or a of English needed to practice seriously in foreign language (L2), interference of their order to be able to pronounce them mother tongue (L1) could make any errors at correctly. Also, Chusak Sarapol(1990: 60-74) any time, such as they may make their studied the problems of English consonant pronunciation different from what the native pronunciation of Mathayomsuksa3 students speakers do. In learning second language, at Kamalasai School in Karasin Province. He we believe that errors made by L2 learners found many errors as follows: 1) the /k/ in are very common. Such errors are caused by the word- syllable spelling with “c”,2) /f/ in the different system between L1 and L2. the words spelled with “gh” and “ph”, 3./z/ Selinker (1972) and Tar one (1979: 80-83) spelled with “x”, “se.”, “s”, 4) the /, ʃ, ӡ called such different language forms used and dӡ / in all positions of the word,5)/-v/, by L2 learners an “Interlanguage.” The /- ӡ / and /n/ atword-final position,6) /r/ and interlanguage is an utterance produced by /l/ in word – medial and word- final L2 learners which are different from those positions,7)/ ʔ/ in the words spelling with native speakers. It is an individual’s the letter “h”, 8) / ŋ / as in the word distinctive use of language that has been “singer”, 9) /j/ in “opinion” and “onion”, 10) 374 วารสารวิทยาลัยบัณฑิตเอเซีย ปีที่ 7 ฉบับพิเศษ (เดือนตุลาคม 2560) / t / that followed “- ed”, and 11) the initial In second language learning, it is important clusters /pr- /, /r- / and the final clusters for the learners to have a good grasp of the such as/-ks/, /-kst/,/-rt ʃ /, /-rt/, /-lm/, /-kt/, language and to be able to distinguish the /-nt/, /rd/, /re/, /-ns/ and /-r ʃ /.These errors distinctive features of the linguistic elements occurred because these sound clusters did between those of the mother tongue and not exist in their mother tongue. Beside, the L2’s in order to use such knowledge in Thirapit Thapornpard (1995) studied the practicing language skills. Practice can help English pronunciation problems L2 learners become proficient in using the Mathayomsuksa 3 students in Thai- Khmer correct language as well as native speakers speaking communities in Surin. He found do. Contrastive analysis of the L1 and L2can that the students had a high level of help learners know how both languages are difficulty in pronouncing the fricative / dӡ / similar or different. Knowing differences of in every position of the word. In addition, the two language scan help teachers Phommachan, K. (2006) studied English provide proper teaching and learning pronunciation problems of Lao National materials and activities for classroom as University students. The results showed that well. Second language learning is a change students had difficulties pronouncing all of state of knowing a single language to consonants that did not exist in Lao spoken become bilingual. However, to use a second language, those sounds were /, ð, z, ʃ, t rʃ, language as well as native speakers is ӡ, dӡ, r/. Lastly, Phinthip Thuaicharoen difficult, as James (1980: 22) stated that it (2001:8) discussed problem of was difficult to use a second language well pronunciation of Thai second language because of the cultural background and learners of English which could be knowledge of the first language has concluded that Thai learners of English had embedded for a long time. When the difficulties in producing /v, s, z, r, sh, ch / learner finds out that the second language and clusters / sp-, tr-, -ts, -ls /. Since such has some characteristics that are different sounds did not exist in Thai or they occur in from their mother tongue, learners often different word- position in their L1. use what exist in their mother tongue instead of using what really exist in L2 which 375 วารสารวิทยาลัยบัณฑิตเอเซีย ปีที่ 7 ฉบับพิเศษ (เดือนตุลาคม 2560) may be hard for them to perceive or Rajabhat University, and Lao students in produce. Therefore, it might be hard to use National University of Laos(NUOL) who the second language as well as native speak a dialect with a similar consonant speakers. Anyway, knowing how mother system in order to get real facts and tongue and second language different, it can information about their errors to provide help L2 learner achieve goal of studying the proper teaching and learning material to suit second language faster.