HEIS Newsletter - July 2012 (Plain Text Version)
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THAI ENGLISH MAJORS' PERSPECTIVES ON ENGLISH WITH AN ACCENT
Walailak University is located in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Thailand, and has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 1,300 students. The university was founded in 1992, and although it is a state-run university, it is considered to be somewhat autonomous. The English department currently accepts students of all levels of English ability to enter as first-year students, but efforts are underway to phase out what amounts to an open admission policy. Fourth-year students at Walailak University have the opportunity to participate in the Cooperative Education Program, which is essentially an internship program whereby students acquire valuable work experience while using the skills they have learned in the classroom. Typical internship positions for English majors include working as translators in government offices, front desk clerks in hotels, tour guides, and various other positions in which English language skills would be a benefit. Quite often students are offered employment with these same organizations after graduation. I have been teaching at Walailak University since 2009, and one of my greatest challenges is getting students to speak English in class, which makes certain classroom activities quite challenging. Occasionally I have asked students why they are hesitant to speak English, and the responses (from students of all different skill levels) invariably include concerns about their Thai accent while speaking English—both inside and outside of class. Several years ago I also taught at Chiang Mai University, which is regarded as one of the best universities in Thailand and has a much more stringent admission policy, and English majors there often expressed the same sentiment. These similar responses from students of different proficiency levels suggested to me that this feeling might be universal among Thai English majors. As it has long been established that there are more nonnative speakers of English than native speakers, I have long believed that instructors of English pronunciation to Thai learners should focus on intelligibility rather than nativeness. In my experience, many English language instructors seem to place an inordinate amount of significance on imitating the native-speaker accents as closely as possible, and this perceived importance of sounding like a native speaker is soon adopted by the students themselves, possibly causing them to lack confidence when speaking English. Jennifer Jenkins (2006 and elsewhere) advocates that teachers of English pronunciation change their focus on what constitutes achievement to improving mutual intelligibility among nonnative speakers. By extension, learners too, will benefit from focusing on the elements that figure most prominently in ELF communication. This is particularly true for the many English majors who take internship positions on the nearby islands of Phuket and Koh Samui, where they use English as an international language with nonnative speakers from Asian countries. And according to Bert Van Walbeek, chairman of the Thailand chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, there has been “a shift in global economics [which] has prompted a trend for visitors to Phuket to be more likely to come from within the Asia Pacific region” (Mulloy, 2011).The time spent on attempting to change their accent to imitate a native speaker could be better spent on improving other areas such as fluency and vocabulary. On the basis of my previous interactions with students at Chiang Mai University and currently at Walailak University, I was of the belief that these students were hesitant to speak English because of concerns about their Thai accent. Thus, the purpose of this study was to attempt to determine the perspectives of Thai English majors on speaking English with a Thai accent. Specifically, it aimed to investigate their acceptance of and confidence in speaking English with a Thai accent, with demographic factors in consideration. In other words, the study was to examine if Thai English majors of different demographic backgrounds considered speaking English with a Thai accent to be acceptable and if they were confident about speaking English even with a Thai accent. In this research study, I chose Thai English majors at Walailak University as my sample group because I directly experienced their concerns about a Thai accent, and as I currently work there, the research results could be beneficial to my students after completing the research. The sample of the research study is the 213 undergraduate Thai English majors at Walailak University in the 2010-2011 academic year. To collect the data (including demographic information), I distributed a Thai language questionnaire. The questionnaire was originally written in English and then translated into Thai by Thanikarn Temrat before being distributed to the students. The original English version is in the Appendix. The first part of the questionnaire collects demographic data: gender, year of study, home province, and average grade in English classes. This part of the questionnaire was included because this research study aims to investigate (a) whether or not concerns about accent and confidence are related to gender; (b) whether Thai English majors from different years of study have different opinions on accent; (c) if geographic origin might be a factor in students’ opinions on accent; and (d) whether there is a relationship between their opinions on accent and their level of confidence, and if this might be related to the grades that they earn in their classes. The second question asks respondents to determine the importance of sounding like a native speaker of English or the acceptance of speaking English with a Thai accent, and give reasons in order of significance. The third and final question deals with confidence levels when speaking English with a Thai accent, and respondents were again given the option of supplying reasons in order of significance. For data analysis, I first used percent distribution to display the results and applied content analysis to the reasoning answers. I then used chi-square to examine the demographic information as factors in the Thai English majors’ acceptance of and confidence in speaking English with a Thai accent. In doing so, the alpha level of 0.05 was used to determine significant differences because the data was taken from a large group of people via a survey. With a 100 percent response rate and all questionnaires returned, the results from the first part of the questionnaire show that the Thai English majors at Walailak University are overwhelmingly female (164 of the 213were female, 28 were male, and 21 were unspecified). Figure 1. Acceptability of Thai accent, by gender Figure 2. Confidence speaking English with Thai accent, by gender Figure 1 indicates that nearly two thirds of both male and female respondents believe that English majors should make every effort to sound like a native speaker when speaking English or that it is unacceptable to speak English with Thai accent. More than half of the unspecified respondents also believe that students should speak like native speakers of English. In addition, the largest numbers of all three groups agree on the unacceptability of speaking English with a Thai accent. The relationship between gender and the Thai English majors’ acceptance of speaking English with a Thai accent is not statistically significant (p>0.05). Figure 2 shows that nearly two thirds of male respondents to the questionnaire expressed concern about speaking English with a Thai accent, but less than half of female respondents had the same concern. More than two thirds of the unspecified respondents indicated that they had confidence about speaking English even with a Thai accent. The relationship between gender and the Thai English majors’ confidence in speaking English with a Thai accent is not statistically significant (p>0.05). With regard to year of study, more first-year and fourth-year students responded than did second-year and third-year students. Among the respondents, 71 were first year, 35 second year, 31 third year, and 76 fourth year. Figure 3. Acceptability of Thai accent, by year of study Figure 4. Confidence speaking English with Thai accent, by year of study Figure 3 shows that nearly 90percent of first-year English majors feel that they should make every effort to sound like a native speaker when speaking English. A little more than half of the second-year and third-year students think that speaking English with a Thai accent is unacceptable. Less than half of fourth-year students believe that they should try to speak English like native speakers. The relationship between year of study and the Thai English majors’ acceptance of speaking English with a Thai accent is statistically significant (p<0.05). It is worth noting this result is not longitudinal. In other words, the cohort is different for each year; that is, not one group of students answered four years in a row. Therefore, at this time I am unable to determine with any certainty whether students changed their views. Figure 4 indicates that about half of all four groups of students do not feel confident speaking English with a Thai accent, dropping slightly in number with each year. The relationship between year of study and the Thai English majors’ confidence in speaking English with a Thai accent is not statistically significant (p>0.05). With regard to geographical background, 199 were from the South, 8 were from the Central region, and 6 were from the Northeast. The overwhelming majority of respondents to this questionnaire come from just a handful of southern provinces, and therefore it was impossible to determine whether or not their home province was a significant factor in the respondents’ attitudes toward speaking English with a Thai accent. In terms of average grade in English classes, the majority of the students earned a B+ to C. Among these students, 6 earned an A, 192 earned a B+ to C, 8 earned a D+ to D, and 7 were unspecified.
Figure 5. Acceptability of Thai accent, by average grade in English classes
Figure 6. Confidence speaking English with Thai accent, by average grade in English classes Figure 5 shows that more than four fifths of students receiving average grades of B+ or higher believe that they should sound like a native speaker when speaking English. And quite interestingly, all of the respondents with lower grades apparently have this same belief, yet for those with grades of B and C, the percentage is considerably lower. Further research will be required to determine what these particular responses indicate. The relationship between the average grade in English classes and the Thai English majors’ acceptance of speaking English with a Thai accent is statistically significant (p<0.05).As seen in Figure 6, two thirds of students with an average grade of A expressed that they were not confident when speaking English with a Thai accent. About half of the students with average grades of B+, B, or C+, who are the majority, feel confident speaking English with a Thai accent. The relationship between the average grade in English classes and the Thai English majors’ confidence in speaking English with a Thai accent is statistically significant (p<0.05). The most interesting result of this study was that88 percent of freshmen indicated that they should try to sound like native speakers, but this figure dropped dramatically to 47 percent for seniors. The comments for the open-ended questions in this section showed that many fourth-year students have come to the realization that intelligibility far outweighs the importance of nativeness. The results indicate to me that fourth-year students have had the “ear-opening” experience that speaking English like a native speaker is not essential and that they should be focusing their efforts on improving their English language skills on areas other than accent and pronunciation. In addition, many of the fourth-year students who indicated that they felt confident when speaking English with a Thai accent also expressed a strong sense of their Thai identity. The results suggest that many fourth-year English majors have a decidedly different perspective on accent than do first-year students. It seems that the fourth-year students have reached the conclusion that imitating a native speaker is not as important as their first-year counterparts think it is. Fully half of the fourth-year respondents indicated that they do not need to sound like native speakers and that it is fine to speak English with a Thai accent. This result may be attributable to their real-world work experience they had conversing with other nonnative speakers during their Cooperative Education Program internships. The results from this questionnaire serve as a reminder of the importance of remembering to whom students will actually be speaking English. Kubota’s (2001) project with U.S. high school students on the need to be able to communicate effectively with people of different accents could prove to be quite useful for English language instructors and learners in this context. The results of this study support Jenkins’ and others’ claims that native-speaker pronunciation is not required or even desired by the students in this context. However, the Lingua Franca Core does meet the practical goal of mutual comprehensibility. These results should be of considerable interest to English teachers in this context because they determine the focus of the curriculum. Furthermore, I believe that use of the Lingua Franca Core would be a more practical means of instruction for learners in this context, because there are now more nonnative speakers of English than native speakers, and as noted above, some Thai tourism experts believe increased interaction with other nonnative speakers is precisely what the students in this context will be encountering in the future. Shortcomings of this study include that the respondents were not equally divided across the four years of study. Furthermore, due to the gender breakdown of English majors at Walailak University, the overwhelming majority of respondents were female. Despite these shortcomings, this study is nevertheless useful to teachers of English pronunciation in this context because it provides an insight into the English-speaking realities that English majors will face after graduation. REFERENCES Jenkins, Jennifer. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca. Tesol Quarterly 40(1):157–81. Kubota, R. (2001). Teaching World Englishes to native speakers of English: A pilot project in a high school class. World Englishes, 20(1), 47-64. Mulloy, M. (2011, October 5). PATA: Phuket Should Brace For A “New Breed of Tourist.” Phuket Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/detail.asp?id=11131 QUESTIONNAIRE Circle the appropriate choice or write the information in the space provided.
With which of the following do you most agree regarding your own English accent? Choose A. or B. and give reasons ranging from the most significant to the least significant.
With which of the following do you most agree regarding your confidence in speaking English with a Thai accent? Please provide reasons in the space provided. Choose A. or B. and give reasons ranging from the most significant to the least significant.
John Zinck is a lecturer in the School of Liberal Arts, Walailak University, in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Thailand. He holds an MA in TESL and has been teaching EIL for 18 years. His research interests include perspectives on accent, CALL, and SLA. |
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