Degree of Comprehensibility in Thai Accented English Rated by Native Speaker Judges

Authors

Rachada Pongprairat
Sudaporn Luksaneeyanawin

Publication Date

2013-01-01

Abstract

This study focuses on Thai accented English in one suprasegmental aspect—tonality (tone group chunking and rhythmic group division). Prior studies mostly compared the productions of learners at different proficiency levels with reference to native speakers as a norm. This study goes further by investigating the degree of difficulty in understanding Thai accented read speech by two groups of native speaker judges with different amounts of contact with Thai learners. The English read speech of two groups of Thai EFL learners representing slightly accented speakers (n = 5) and heavily accented speakers (n = 5) were randomised and presented to the judges for rating on a 5-point scale. It can be concluded that tonality production scores correlated highly with the degree of comprehensibility. The slightly accented speakers received higher rating scores as opposed to the heavily accented speakers from all judges. The experienced judges had less difficulty in understanding the read speech by both groups of speakers.

DOI

10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.45.1.3

First Page

35

Last Page

60

Recommended Citation

Pongprairat, Rachada and Luksaneeyanawin, Sudaporn (2013) "Degree of Comprehensibility in Thai Accented English Rated by Native Speaker Judges," PASAA: Vol. 45: Iss. 1, Article 3.
DOI: 10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.45.1.3
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol45/iss1/3