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Introduction
Thai language is very different from English and, hence, Thai students often have various problems when reading, writing and speaking English. There are issues with pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. It is necessary to note that Thai students tend to speak with a distinct accent and use grammar of their first language (Smith, 2001). It is possible to note that interference is one of major causes of the mistakes made by Thai students. Notably, Thai students are exposed to Roman alphabet from early years but they still make spelling mistakes and can have difficulties when reading. As far as punctuation is concerned, Thai language has no punctuation marks and this leads to numerous mistakes in English made by EFL Thai students. More so, sentences in Thai are written with almost no spaces as a space is equivalent to English commas or full stops (Smith, 2001). The present paper provides a brief analysis of mistakes made by Thai students when reading, writing and speaking.
Mistakes When Writing and Speaking
Spelling
As has been mentioned above, interference is seen as one of major causes of mistakes made by Thai students. Bennui (2008) stresses that interference is one of the main reasons why Thai students make mistakes in writing, reading and speaking. Admittedly, the Thai language is different from English and lack of knowledge makes students seek for variants in their own language and transfer them into English.
When it comes to writing, Thai students make most mistakes in grammar and vocabulary with fewer occasions of mistakes in spelling. As seen from table 2, spelling mistakes can have two reasons. In the first place, there is interference as Thai students try to accommodate English spelling with words pronunciation. It is noteworthy that Thai students have difficulties with pronouncing sibilant and fricative sounds (Bennui, 2008). These difficulties appear in writing as students try to write words in the way they have memorized them.
The other reason is the lack of morphological knowledge which often leads to such common mistake as wrong consonants doubling. In other words, students simply fail to learn and memorize words properly. Such mistakes have little to do with the first language. It is noteworthy that Smith (2001) states that Thai students are acquainted with the Roman alphabet from their childhood and this contributes to their learning. More so, the languages are very different in terms of spelling and interference is unlikely to occur. These can be two central reasons why Thai students make fewer spelling mistakes compared to the ones made in grammar or vocabulary use.
Grammar
As far as grammar mistakes are concerned, interference plays a major role as well. Thai students tend to employ grammar models of their first language when writing or speaking in English. Watcharapunyawong and Usaha (2013) stress that interference results in common mistakes in such areas as verb tense, word order, comparison structure, subject-verb agreement, the use of nouns, articles, auxiliaries. It is necessary to note that omission is a common mistake especially when it comes to the use of auxiliaries and articles (see table 1). This can be explained by the fact that there are no articles or auxiliaries in Thai and Thais simply use the structure of their first language.
Another common mistake is the wrong word order. Thus, Sersen (2011) claims that Thai students often put adjectives after the noun as it is common for their first language. Smith (2001) also notes that Thai students tend to put question words in two positions, at the beginning and at the end of the sentence as it is possible in the Thai language.
The use of tenses is also a difficulty for Thai students as in the Thai language the verb does not change and it is enough to put an adverbial modifier to create the necessary context and understand time reference. Thus, in English Thai students may put an unchanged verb form and add a time reference. Notably, mistakes associated with the use of tenses are similar to the ones related to the use of noun forms. In Thai, nouns remain unchanged as there are no plural and singular forms. Thais add numerical descriptions or other contexts to make it clear that the noun is used in plural.
Therefore, Thai students often fail to use the plural form of the noun. It is also important to add that the case with nouns is associated with grammar and pronunciation. Grammatical peculiarities have been mentioned above and the use of plural forms of nouns is a difficulty for Thais as they tend to omit the last consonant, which is common for their first language. This is done to put the stress on the last syllable. Notably, when it comes to the use of present and past tenses the same omission occurs since the endings s and ed are omitted.
Substitution is also a result of interference. For instance, there is one word mây used for negation in the Thai language. It is put before a word without any auxiliaries. Hence, Thai students may often put not or no (as they confuse these negations since they have only one in their first language) before a verb (see table 1). Similar substitution appears when it comes to comparison as the Thai language has an equivalent to more and the most and, hence, irrespective of the number of syllables, Thai students use these words to form comparisons without adding endings (see table 1). Clearly, these are all examples of interference.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary mistakes are caused by interference and lack of knowledge. At that, Smith (2001) stresses that Thai students are diligent and pay specific attention to learning new words. In many cases, they have extensive vocabulary but can make mistakes due to the interference. Literal translation is one of the forms of this interference. As seen from table 1, students tend to misuse words failing to take into account collocations (Tse, 2014).
There is a peculiar mistake made by Thai students. Substitution in the use of vocabulary is specific as Thai students use words borrowed from English and which were somewhat changed in Thai (see table 1). Thus, numerous borrowings from English are accommodated to the Thai language (consonant clusters are usually changed, for example, ) pám pump.
Speaking and Reading Mistakes
As far as speaking and reading are concerned, such mistakes as omission and substitution are common among Thai students. Since consonant clusters are not common for Thai, students tend to substitute them with additional syllables, for example, fa-rown instead of frown (see table 3). Again, the substitution occurs as a result of interference. Students pronounce the word in a way which is more suitable for them. Omission is also associated with characteristics of the Thai language. Thus, Thai students tend to omit sounds /r/ and /l/ in their first language and this is transferred to their speech when they speak English.
As has been mentioned above, the stress is put on the last syllable in Thai. This is transferred to English by Thai students who change the stress and sometimes fail to pronounce last consonants to make the stress on the last syllable (see table 2 and table 3). The latter case is common when Thai students use verbs in present or past tense and omit the endings s, -ed.
Conclusion
On balance, it is possible to note that there are two major reasons for mistakes Thai students make when writing, reading and speaking in English. These are interference and lack of knowledge. Admittedly, lack of knowledge is a reason common for all learners of any foreign language. When it comes to interference, Thai students have numerous difficulties associated with it. Notably, Thai students have more issues with grammar and vocabulary than with spelling. This can be accounted for little interference in spelling due to the difference between the two languages. At the same time, interference is the major reason of grammar and vocabulary mistakes. This is an important finding which can have a variety of implications. Thus, educators have to take this into account while developing strategies to help Thai students learn English.
Reference List
Bennui, P. (2008). A study of L1 interference in the writing of Thai EFL students. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 4(1), 72-102.
Sersen, W.J. (2011). Improving writing skills of Thai EFL students by recognition of and compensation for factors of L1 to L2 negative transfer. US-China Education Review, 3(1), 339-345.
Smith, B. (2001). Thai speakers. In M. Swan & B. Smith (Eds.), Learner English: a teachers guide to interference and other problems (pp. 343-357). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Tse, A.Y.H. (2014). A case study of grammatical errors made by Malaysian students. International Journal of Science Commerce and Humanities, 2(5), 154-160.
Watcharapunyawong, S., & Usaha, S. (2013). Thai EFL students writing errors in different text types: The interference of the first language. English Language Teaching, 6(1), 67-78.
Table 1
Writing and Speaking Mistakes Analysis
Table 2
Writing Mistakes Analysis
Table 3
Speaking and Reading Mistakes Analysis
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