L1 transfer in the production of fricatives and stops by Pattani-Malay learners of English in Thailand

Abstract

This study investigated the English fricative and stop pronunciation errors produced by Pattani-Malay learners of English. The participants, speaking L1 Malay, were recruited from fifth and sixth graders at Thamwittaya Mulniti School, Yala province, Thailand. The major research instruments used to examine the errors were the word list reading task and the sentence reading task. The findings of this research demonstrate that Pattani-Malay learners of English seemed to have difficulty in producing errors in some specific English fricative sounds in particular positions. The medial voiced labiodental fricative /v/ and the medial voiced interdental fricative /{eth}/ were apparently the most problematic. The errors in pronouncing the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ and the voiced interdental fricative /{eth}/ in the initial and final positions were ranked second, followed by the final voiced palato-alveolar fricative /3/ errors and the final voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ errors respectively. The results revealed that the learner's problems in pronouncing English fricatives and stops are mainly attributed to first language transfer.