The Thai Orthographical Forms Produced by the First Year of Undergraduate Students : Prince of Songkla University and Phuket Rajabhat University

Abstract

           The objective of the study was to analyze Thai orthographical forms produced by 218 Thai freshmen from two universities, namely Prince of Songkla University and Phuket Rajabhat University.  The data for analysis were from a Thai orthographical test took by 114 undergraduates studying at Prince of Songkla University and 104 undergraduates from Phuket Rajabhat University. The results showed that no statistical significance for Thai orthographical forms produced correctly by the undergrduates from two universities. Besides, eleven words were precisetly spelled less than 50%, namely ไตรยางศ์ /traj ja:N/ รถจี๊ป /rot@ cip@/ สมเพช /so&m pe:^t/ มุกตลก /muk@ ta$ lo$k/ แท็บเล็ต /ta@p le$t/ พัลวัน /phan la$  wan/ อลึ่งฉึ่ง /?a$ lµ$N chµ$N/ อะลุ่มอล่วยหรืออะลุ้มอล่วย /?a$ lu^m ?a$ lua$j/ or / ?a $lu@m ?a$ lua$j / สมุดโน้ต /sa$ mu$t no:@t/ ขะมุกขะมอม /kha$ mu$k kha$ m:m/ มารยาสาไถย /ma:n ja: sa:& tha&j/, especially the last two words spelled the most incorrectly.  The findings of the study reveal that most of students cannot spell transliterated words exactly. In addition, everyday-use words cannot be precisely spelled as well.