“SHE DON’T STUDY. SHE RUNNING AND WALKINGâ€: ENGLISH AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THAI TEACHERS AND FOREIGN TEACHERS IN THAILAND

Abstract

Teachers in Southern Thailand, especially in Miftahudeen School, Na Thawee, Songkhla, Southern Thailand, communicate with various languages; Thai language, Malay, and English. English as an International language becomes first priority of communication everywhere and every time, unlimited to different background of the speakers. In this case, English is used as a bridge to cummunicate between the Thai teachers and the foreign teachers at Miftahuddeen School.  However, since English is used by minority of people in Thailand, they tend to apply their native language (L1) structure and rule, Thai language, to English as the target language (L2). By this, somehow they have their own rule and pattern in producing English utterances becoming different English spokenby Thai people, such as English prosody, grammatical rule, pronunciation, and vocabularies they use. Therefore, the researchers tended to observe how English was spoken by Thai teachers considered asunique English in global communication and the effects of their English in oral communication with foreigners. The data were taken from the recorded daily conversation between an Indonesian Teacher and two female Thai Teachers of Miftahuddeen School who were able to speak in English for about three months. The researchers analyzed the data using qualitative descriptive method. From the analysis, the researchers are able to draw a conclusion that English used by Thai teachers was different from the Standard English. It was indicated from how they produced English utterances, pronunciation, and vocabularies which always involved their native language (L1).

 

Keyword:  Thai-English, English as foreign language