You Understand I Na Ka?: A Study of Comprehensibility of Thai English to Foreign Tourists

Authors

Kukiet Phuengpitipornchai, Prince of Songkla University, ThailandFollow
Adisa TEO, Prince of Songkla University, ThailandFollow

Publication Date

2021-01-01

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to explore foreign tourists’ responses to Thai English, a variety of English emerging in Thailand, in terms of comprehensibility, and to identify the linguistic features that made Thai English incomprehensible. One hundred international tourists in Bangkok from four regions including East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America were surveyed after they listened to a set of five authentic speech samples from four speakers in Thai tourism industry. The data were collected and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to yield multidimensional results. The results show that Thai English was comprehensible to most of the tourists from all four regions. While syntactic and morphological features of Thai English were well understood, the phonological features were a major hurdle for the comprehensibility of Thai English. This study not only proposes pedagogical implications of prioritizing those linguistic features, especially phonological features which mainly impede comprehensibility of Thai English, but also suggests Thais to be more confident in communicating in English for their specific needs and purposes.

DOI

10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.61.1.1

First Page

1

Last Page

32

Recommended Citation

Phuengpitipornchai, Kukiet and TEO, Adisa (2021) "You Understand I Na Ka?: A Study of Comprehensibility of Thai English to Foreign Tourists," PASAA: Vol. 61: Iss. 1, Article 1.
DOI: 10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.61.1.1
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol61/iss1/1