Abstract:
This research aims to study the relationship between metalinguistic knowledge and the pronunciation of Thai vowel length by Chinese learners before and after praxis intervention. A total of 30 participants were divided into three groups. The first subject group (CH1), composed of ten Chinese learners, was given only exercises; the second subject group (CH2), also composed of ten Chinese learners, was given exercises and also taught pronunciation rules. The control group (TH), composed of ten Thai native speakers, provided a base of comparison for the subject groups. The first experiment addressed the production of Thai vowel length by measuring the duration of short and long vowels of Chinese learners and native speakers before and after praxis intervention. The results show statistically significant differences between Chinese learners and native speakers in the production of vowels before praxis intervention. However, after praxis intervention, the vowel production of Chinese learners was closer to that of native speakers, especially among the CH2 group, who had learned rules in addition to completing exercises. The second experiment focused on identification of Thai vowel length among Chinese learners and native speakers, with analysis of their identification test scores and reasonings before and after praxis intervention. The results show that, before praxis intervention, Chinese learners applied only the default phonemic value in identifying vowel length. After the praxis intervention, on the other hand, CH1 learners attempted to summarize rules and apply them, though statistically significant differences in the identification scores of the CH1 group and native speakers did remain. However, no such differences existed among the CH2 group, who had been taught pronunciation rules, and native speakers. In sum, though there were statistically significant differences in the pronunciation of Thai vowels between Chinese learners and native speakers before praxis intervention, after praxis intervention, the pronunciations of CH2 learners were closer to native speakers than were those of CH1 learners. This suggests that learning metalinguistic knowledge has a clearly positive effect on the pronunciation of Thai vowels for Chinese learners. The current research, with its focus on the relationship between metalinguistic knowledge and the pronunciation of Thai vowel length, has shown that metalinguistic knowledge plays an essential role in L2 acquisition. As such, it may serve as a guideline for further study of metalinguistic knowledge of pronunciation of Thai vowels as well as prove useful when applied to Thai language instruction for Chinese learners.