A Comparison of Stylistic Variation of the English Consonant Clusters Production between Speakers of Three Ethic Groups in South East Asia

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to study and compare 1) an ability of producing English initial consonant cluster between Khmer, Thai and Lao speakers in minimal pair, wordlist and sentence styles. 2) attitude to English of  three ethnic groups. 3) the influence of mother tongue language to English initial consonant cluster production.  Sample of the study consisted of 30 Khmer,Thai and Lao students who were studying in International Program of the Master degree, at AIT institute and Kasetsart University. The data were collected through English consonant cluster test and questionnaire. Analyses of the data were performed with statistical software SPSS version 11.5 in percentage, One –Way ANOVA and t-test and the attitude was analyzed with IOC.  The study results revealed that 1) the sound production varied according to styles and ethnic groups 4) all three ethnic groups had a negative attitude toward English. 6) mother tongue language had the influence on English initial consonant cluster production for all 3 groups.