Explicit pronunciation instruction to improve Thai Vocational College students intelligibility

Abstract

The importance of intelligible pronunciation cannot be overemphasized now with the ASEAN integration being  the norm. Thus, Thai learners have to be taught pronunciation explicitly to improve their overall communication skills. This study determinedwhether explicit pronunciation instruction is more effective in improving learners’ intelligibility as compared to non-explicit pronunciation instruction. Second, it assessed the extent to which explicit instruction improves intelligibility. Third, it identified the learners’ attitudes towards the instruction. A sequential mixed methods research design was used. The quantitative phase employed per-and post-tests to answer the first research question of the study. For the qualitative phase, the researcher’s personal journal and the students’ weekly reflective reports were kept, and semi-structured interviews were undertaken to answer the second and third queries. The population consisting 36 vocational college students were purposively put into two groups: the experimental group (explicit pronunciation instruction) with 18 subjects and the control group (non-explicit pronunciation instruction) also with 18 subjects. Among the findings, the post-test results of the experimental group were significantly higher than that of control after five weeks of intervention, indicating that explicit instruction is more effective than the non-explicit instruction. In addition, there are three ways by which the explicit instruction improves intelligibility. It greatly increases students’ self-confidence; it greatly helps students possess positive attitudes while increases students’ motivation; and it greatly increases students’ awareness regarding the correct production of English sound. With the help of explicit pronunciation instruction, there is a great chance that Thai students’ pronunciation will noticeably improve.