An interlanguage study of L2 perception and production of english word stress by L1 Thai learners.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate L1 Thai learners’ English word stress perception and production of two different groups of English words: English words with different suffixes (suffixes affecting stress shift and neutral suffixes) and compound words (compound nouns and compound verbs). Three objectives were 1) to compare and contrast the perception of English word stress focusing on words, 2) to compare and contrast the production of English word stress focusing on words and 3) to investigate whether there is a relationship between L1 Thai learners’ perception and production of English word stress. Two groups of L1 Thai first-year undergraduate learners participated in this study: 30 L1 Thai beginners and 30 L1 Thai intermediate learners from Srinakharinwirot University. They completed two tasks: “Marking English Word Stress in Sentences” and “Reading English Word Stress in Sentences”. The results showed the L1 Thai intermediate learners significantly outperformed the L1 Thai beginners in both perception and production. Moreover, a relationship between the learners’ perception and production of English word stress was observed from the L1 Thai beginners and the L1 Thai intermediate learners. It was assumed that the problems of English stress assignment were caused by both interlingual and intralingual factors (Ellis, 2003; Haryani, 2016). Word stress placement rules in English and Thai differ substantially. Based on the Interlanguage Hypothesis, strategies of second language learning possibly have a negative impact on the problems (Selinker, 1972; Corder, 1999). The results contributed to second language acquisition and provided pedagogical implications for teaching and learning English pronunciation with respect to English word stress by L2 learners.