Identification of Thai students’ level of phonetic sensitivity in the imitation of Russian syllables

St. Petersburg State University, 199034, 13B Universitetskaya Emb., St. Petersburg, Russia

^* Corresponding author: natcheewan@gmail.com

Abstract

The article deals with the role of phonological sensitivity in the development of skills in a foreign language. In psycholinguistic terms, verbal communication in non-native language is a language contact. It is important that, in learning environments, the interaction of contacting languages should not be spontaneous, it should be taken into account in the modeling of verbal communication. Since the formation of mechanisms that ensure the speech activity of an individual in the language under study occurs under the influence of interference, it is necessary to study the manifestation of the specifics contacting linguistic systems in the perception of speech in a non-native language. To make the right decision – whether or not an incorrect perception of the phonemic composition of words occurs in the natural conditions of communication in a foreign language – is not possible. This requires a special phonetic experiment. The authors describe the results of an experiment aimed at revealing the phonetic sensitivity of native speakers of Thai. The material of the experiment was 260 syllables having the structure CV (consonant + vowel). Subjects who had not previously studied the Russian language had to listen to audio recordings of syllables pronunciation and reproduce them. Thus, the implementation of Russian vowels and consonants in the composition of syllables was analyzed. The authors succeeded in revealing the similarity and difference in the articulatory characteristics of the interacting languages’ sounds. It was found that when imitating Russian syllables the Thais are not aware of the opposition of consonants on the grounds of “hardness-softness” and “voiceless-voiced”. In this connection special work is required to produce soft sounds and to develop skills for distinguishing sounds from voiceless-voiced. During the study, it was confirmed that the influence of the native language is clearly manifested if it is functionally prevalent.