ERRORS ANALYSIS IN ENGLISH ENDING SOUNDS MADE BY FINAL-YEAR STUDENTS OF EDUCATION PROGRAM, YALA RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) Study the errors in the pronunciation of English ending sounds made by final-year students of the Education Program at Yala Rajabhat University and
2) Investigate the causes and factors that lead to these errors. The sample consisted of 216 final-year students of the Education Program at Yala Rajabhat University, selected through quota sampling. This research employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative data were used to analyze pronunciation errors, while qualitative data were used to study the causes and factors leading to these errors. The research tools included ending sounds pronunciation test and a questionnaire. The research findings indicated that the ending sounds /ð/ /ɡ/ /ʒ/ /n/ /ʃ/ and /ʧ/ were the most frequently mispronounced sounds by the students. The pronunciation errors included 1) Substitution: Students substituted voiceless ending sounds for voiced ones and pronounced ending sounds similarly to Thai ending sounds. 2) Alteration: Students replaced English ending sounds with sounds that have different places and manners of articulation, which stemmed from language interference caused by the similarities between Thai and English and the students' inability to distinguish these differences. 3) Omission: Students omitted ending sounds and did not pronounce all sounds in clusters, caused by the inherent difficulty of the language, negative transfer and lack of knowledge in pronouncing English ending sounds.