An Analysis Of Thai Junior Students' Use Of Thai Phonetic Alphabet

In recent years, the scale of tourism, education, economic cooperation and cultural communication between China and Thailand has expanded and continues to grow rapidly each year. As a result, the popularity of Chinese language is growing in Thailand and consequently, a large number of Chinese teachers are being sent to Thailand to teach Chinese language every year.Chinese language teachers in Thailand will experience a wide range of teaching challenges due to different teaching situations. During the four months of teaching Chinese to Thai students, I have observed and experienced "Phonetic Notations in Thai" that many Thai students use generally and have concluded that there is still a lack of study about "Phonetic Notations in Thai".It can be clearly observed that many Thai students study Chinese with "Phonetic Notations in Thai", which means students use vowels and consonant tone of Thai to pronounce Chinese language. My personal research has concluded that large groups of both Thai students and teachers use "Phonetic Notations in Thai" when they study Chinese or other languages. Many papers focus on research that highlights pronunciation error Thai people make in the process of learning Chinese language, but limited research exists about the study of "Phonetic Notations in Thai" and examines if there are any benefits to both students and teachers.The aim of this paper is to examine theories of contrastive linguistics and education psychology using existing research and through personal teaching experience at Srisuvit School in Thailand in discussion of the topic“Phonetic Notations in Thai". This paper will aim to survey how Thai people use it, analyse the universality and particularity of “Phonetic Notations in Thai", examine why so many people in Thailand use“Phonetic Notations in Thai" when they study Chinese,and summarize the significance and value of it.Having discussed and examined these issues, this paper will propose corresponding suggestions of how“Phonetic Notations in Thai" can be used to provide a new way of thinking and learning for students and teachers, and how it can ultimately benefit the promotion of Chinese language in Thailand.