L1 Transfer in the Production of Fricatives and Stops by Pattani-Malay Learners of English in Thailand

Abstract

This study investigated the English fricative and stop pronunciation errors produced by Pattani-Malay learners of English. The participants, speaking L1 Malay, were recruited from fifth and sixth graders at Thamwittaya Mulniti School, Yala province, Thailand. The major research instruments used to examine the errors were the word list reading task and the sentence reading task. The findings of this research demonstrate that Pattani-Malay learners of English seemed to have difficulty in producing errors in some specific English fricative sounds in particular positions. The medial voiced labiodental fricative /v/ and the medial voiced interdental fricative /ð/ were apparently the most problematic. The errors in pronouncing the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ and the voiced interdental fricative /ð/ in the initial and final positions were ranked second, followed by the final voiced palato-alveolar fricative / / errors and the final voiceless interdental fricative / / errors respectively. The results revealed that the learner's problems in pronouncing English fricatives and stops are mainly attributed to first language transfer.

The Variability in Phonology of Indonesian Learner’s Interlanguage: A case study on English marked-fricatives

“…They also substituted the [t] or [d] sounds for the target sound in the initial and medial positions. This is in line with Jehma and Phoocharoensil (2014) investigating the acquisition of English fricatives among Thai Pattani-Malay learners. The findings show L1 Pattani-Malay had difficulty in pronouncing the voiced interdental fricative [ð] where all the participants wrongly pronounced the target sound [ð] in the medial position.…”

“…This study decided to find out sound variants in interlanguage by opting foursound fricatives namely [θ], [ð], [ʃ], and [ʒ]. The reason to select these sounds is that several studies of interlanguage in English phonology show serious problems with those sounds pronounced by the learners of English since those sounds are absent in the learners' native language (Jehma and Phoocharoensil, 2014); (Tiono & Yostanto's, 2008); Djajadiningrat's (2011); Azizi, et. al, (2013).…”

The Acquisition of L2 Fricatives in Thai Learners’ Interlanguage

“…For example, a Thai learner may produce /s/ available in his or her NL for English initial /z/ as in the word zoo. Jehma and Phoocharoensil (2014) also point out that L2 phonological errors are mainly attributable to interference from the NL. The notion that L1 transfer produces an effect on the acquisition of L2 phonology has been supported by several scholars.…”

“…In second language (L2) phonology, a number of studies (Bada 2001, Dickerson 1975, Jehma & Phoocharoensil 2014, Flege 1995, Shahidi, Aman & Kechot 2012, Tarone 1979) have been conducted through various approaches to explain how learners acquire phonological structures in their interlanguage. The first modern approach investigating such an issue is the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH), initially proposed by Lado (1957).…”

“…It is likely that most previous related studies have not taken into account a certain criterion level of acquisition to identify the relative degree of difficulty and an order of phonological acquisition necessary for research on variability in L2 sound segments. Jehma and Phoocharoensil (2014), for example, investigated the acquisition of English fricatives to see whether L1 transfer was the major source of errors among Thai Pattani-Malay learners. Another relevant study was conducted by Chunsuvimol and Ronnakiat (2001), who determined whether different styles of tasks (conversation, reading text, and minimal pairs) affected the correct use of initial and final /v/ among Thai undergraduates.…”