Accentedness Perception in L2: An Investigation of Thai Monophthong Pronunciation of Chinese Students

This paper aims to investigate the Thai monophthong pronunciation of Chinese students speaking Thai as a second language (L2), and to examine how native Thai listeners perceived these Chinese-accented Thai monophthongs. This study involves an acoustic analysis targeted on the Thai monophthongs artic...

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Main Authors: Peng Hou, Sarawut Kraisame
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-01-01
Series:Languages
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/1/11
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author Peng Hou
Sarawut Kraisame
author_facet Peng Hou
Sarawut Kraisame
author_sort Peng Hou
collection DOAJ
description This paper aims to investigate the Thai monophthong pronunciation of Chinese students speaking Thai as a second language (L2), and to examine how native Thai listeners perceived these Chinese-accented Thai monophthongs. This study involves an acoustic analysis targeted on the Thai monophthongs articulated by Chinese students of Thai (<i>n</i> = 15) in a picture description task in terms of duration and quality. The participants exhibited varying proficiency levels in different monophthongs, with the greatest difficulty being with Thai back monophthongs and certain central monophthongs, including /ɔ, ɔː/, /o, oː/, and /ɤː/. Moreover, a perception experiment among 30 native Thai listeners proved that Chinese students’ pronunciation of Thai monophthongs had varying levels of impact on accentedness perception. Specifically, /ɯ/, /ɤ/, /o/, /ɔ/, and their long counterparts significantly influenced accentedness perception. Conversely, /i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /a/, /u/, and their long counterparts showed less robustness in predicting the level of accentedness. Among the whole Thai monophthong inventory, teachers should prioritize those monophthongs that significantly influence accentedness perception for teaching Thai pronunciation to Chinese students.
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-5ae2388df6f44db7b0cfed5c5f3363872025-01-24T13:38:22ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2025-01-011011110.3390/languages10010011Accentedness Perception in L2: An Investigation of Thai Monophthong Pronunciation of Chinese StudentsPeng Hou0Sarawut Kraisame1Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom 73170, ThailandResearch Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom 73170, ThailandThis paper aims to investigate the Thai monophthong pronunciation of Chinese students speaking Thai as a second language (L2), and to examine how native Thai listeners perceived these Chinese-accented Thai monophthongs. This study involves an acoustic analysis targeted on the Thai monophthongs articulated by Chinese students of Thai (<i>n</i> = 15) in a picture description task in terms of duration and quality. The participants exhibited varying proficiency levels in different monophthongs, with the greatest difficulty being with Thai back monophthongs and certain central monophthongs, including /ɔ, ɔː/, /o, oː/, and /ɤː/. Moreover, a perception experiment among 30 native Thai listeners proved that Chinese students’ pronunciation of Thai monophthongs had varying levels of impact on accentedness perception. Specifically, /ɯ/, /ɤ/, /o/, /ɔ/, and their long counterparts significantly influenced accentedness perception. Conversely, /i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /a/, /u/, and their long counterparts showed less robustness in predicting the level of accentedness. Among the whole Thai monophthong inventory, teachers should prioritize those monophthongs that significantly influence accentedness perception for teaching Thai pronunciation to Chinese students.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/1/11accentednessmonophthongssecond language acquisitionThai
spellingShingle Peng Hou
Sarawut Kraisame
Accentedness Perception in L2: An Investigation of Thai Monophthong Pronunciation of Chinese Students
Languages
accentedness
monophthongs
second language acquisition
Thai
title Accentedness Perception in L2: An Investigation of Thai Monophthong Pronunciation of Chinese Students
title_full Accentedness Perception in L2: An Investigation of Thai Monophthong Pronunciation of Chinese Students
title_fullStr Accentedness Perception in L2: An Investigation of Thai Monophthong Pronunciation of Chinese Students
title_full_unstemmed Accentedness Perception in L2: An Investigation of Thai Monophthong Pronunciation of Chinese Students
title_short Accentedness Perception in L2: An Investigation of Thai Monophthong Pronunciation of Chinese Students
title_sort accentedness perception in l2 an investigation of thai monophthong pronunciation of chinese students
topic accentedness
monophthongs
second language acquisition
Thai
url https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/1/11
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