Thai Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of the Postvocalic /r/ in English
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Abstract
This study examined Thai private university students’ perceptions towards postvocalic /r/ in English. While previous studies focused on the error analysis of Thai EFL learners’ articulations, such as the fricative sounds /f/ and /v/, this study contributes something new to the field by studying Thai undergraduate students’ perceptions toward the postvocalic /r/ in English. The study followed convenience sampling method as the participants were 100 Thai private university students, majoring in English. The instrument of the study was a closed-ended questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three experts who are university lecturers. The data analysis followed an inferential statistical analysis SPSS29. The results in this study showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between Thai undergraduate students and their perceptions of difficulty to articulate the postvocalic /r/ in English. The p-value was reported at 0.043. The results in this study were explained in terms of principle of least effort, stigmatization and non-standard pronunciation. As the postvocalic /r/ is a variant of pronunciation in English varieties, it is recommended that a study of EFL learners’ articulations of the postvocalic /r/ with different vowels, such as car and floor is recommended for the future study.
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