Linguistic differences and first language interference

In the interviews, twelve out of 16 of the teachers and six out of ten of the learners claimed that the linguistic difference between English and Thai is one of the crucial problems within English language education. There are many different linguistic aspects involved in using English in daily life. Speaking and writing are considered to be two of the most difficult skills with regard to linguistic problems, especially for Thai learners due to the linguistic differences and pronunciation. Only little attention is paid to listening skills. Interestingly, none of the participants noted that reading is the most difficult skill to practice.

In the interviews, four out of twelve of the teachers and five groups out of ten of the students argued that speaking skills were very problematic, due to the various aspects involving pronunciation and grammar. Moreover, when Thai learners translated Thai to English when they were speaking English, the sentences were sometimes wrongly constructed, since the linguistics of Thai and English are different, for example in terms of the pronunciation, use of the past tense, and use of the plural.

“I found it difficult when speaking English because the linguistics of Thai and English are different. For example, in Thai you do not have to conjugate a verb when using the past simple tense; therefore, I am not familiar with conjugating verbs, meaning I am more likely to use an infinitive verb in the past simple tense.”

(Teacher six)

“I think pronunciation is very difficult since the sounds of Thai and English are very different. I found it very difficult to pronounce some English words. Moreover, I always forget to pronounce the ‘s’ with plural nouns, because there is no need to put ‘s’ or ‘es’ when nouns are plural in Thai. Consequently, I think different linguistics between Thai and English are problematic.”

(Student group ten)

4.8.4.2. Writing skills

In the interviews, five out of 16 of the teachers and three groups out of ten of the students claimed that the different linguistic aspects of Thai and English caused significant difficulties in terms of English writing. The problem was that Thai learners often translated Thai to English directly, or sometimes used karaoke language when they did not know how to write English properly. Thus, their English writing was full of mistakes since it was not exactly what they wished to write. Moreover, participants also noted that punctuation was a problem in writing, since there was no punctuation in Thai; therefore, sometimes it was confusing for Thai learners to use punctuation correctly.

“The biggest problem in English writing is that Thai learners always translate directly from Thai to English and the meaning is mostly wrong. It is not easy for them to write correct English.”

“I found it difficult for me to use punctuation in English writing. I am always confused and do not know how to put punctuation into the right position because there is no punctuation in Thai. There is a difference in linguistics between Thai and English.”

(Student group eight) 4.8.4.3 Listening skills

In the interviews, only one out of 16 of the teachers and one group out of 10 of the learners claimed that they experienced problems with listening skills in English language education. One teacher claimed that Thai learners had difficulties in listening skills especially with audio, although there was no critical listening problem with face-to-face communication. The teacher also noted that there was more audio listening in daily life, such as announcements, telephones, and radios. Interestingly, a group of students maintained that they had difficulties with foreigners’ accents, since there were many different accents, depending on where the foreigners came from. It was difficult for them to understand a conversation, due to the fact that they were not familiar with the accents.

“Listening skills are considered the toughest of the English skills. Nowadays I think listening to audio such as announcements and telephones is vitally important. Thus, Thai learners should practise listening with audio more. Personally, I think face-to- face communication is not as difficult as audio listening.”

(Teacher sixteen)

“I think the most difficult part of listening skills is that there are many different English accents. It is hard for me to understand when listening to different accents.”

(Student group ten)

From the second interviews, all sixteen teachers and ten students confirmed that first language interference and linguistic difference were problems of English language education in the upper secondary level. All participants pointed out the problem of how the Thai language interfered with each English skill. However, some issues emerging from the second interview were pointed out. Three teachers pointed out that with regard to the claim of Thai learners being good at grammar, most mistakes found in the piece of writing were directly related to grammar

such as using fragments and run ons. Furthermore, two students pointed out that listening and speaking had an effect on each other; thus, it was beneficial to practice these two skills together. Additionally, two students noted the problem of speaking skills, namely that some learners were not shy to speak but they had limited knowledge of vocabulary; therefore, it was difficult for learners to communicate in English.