Error analysis of -ia and -ie for Thai students learning Chinese at Walailak University

Abstract

To day in Thailand, learning Chinese receives tremendous attention is regarded as important as learning English.  It follows that the development of teaching and learning Chinese is equally important as it is for learning English.   Currently, there exists many issues relating to teach and learn the Chinese language that have not been studied or even addressed for example, listening and pronunciation should be a priority issue.  Phonetics in the Chinese language are many.  So many in fact that Thai students’ pronunciation is generally incorrect for example -ia and -ie vowels are one of the common vowels that Thai students get wrong, because they sound quite similar and this causes Thai students to feel confused to the point of mispronunciation.Therefore, this research is conducted to learn if the mispronunciation of vowels -ia and -ie is a result of the students’ inability ability to distinguish these two vowels sounds only by listening.  A listening test was conducted using 14 questions, with 83 first-year Chinese language students of Walailak University to identify whether the vowel sound is -ia or -ie. The result was all students passed the test, which means the students can distinguish the different between -ia and -ie. Therefore, the research found the error in Chinese phonetics among Thai students is not caused by listening, but caused by mispronouncing unfamiliar vowels that are not used or found in the Thai language. The technique to pronounce -ia correctly is to open mouth as o and when pronouncing -ie correctly as in smiling, with the wide mouth. It was found that these two techniques do help to reduce confusion, while overcoming any mispronunciation; to an acceptable degree.