Articulatory phonetic errors and patterns in Thai BIPA speakers: A study at SWM School Thailand

Abstract

The tendency for Bahasa Indonesia bagi Penutur Asing (BIPA) or Indonesian as a Foreign Language (IFL) speakers' pronunciation errors makes specific patterns from an articulatory phonetic perspective. This approach is still limited, and the competence in pronouncing language is challenging. This study analyzes articulatory phonetic errors of vowels and consonants of BIPA Songserm Wittaya Mulniti (SWM) School Thailand speakers to find their reasons and patterns. This type of qualitative research used the listening-involved-conversation data collection technique as well as the equivalence and distributional analysis methods. The results showed 671 pronunciation errors; 184 vowels and 389 consonants. The majority of vowel errors are double vowels [u_wa], open front [a], and near-close near-back [ʊ] based on the proximity of the tongue positions, movements of the tongue, lip position, and English interference. The majority of consonant errors are apico-alveolar trill [r] and lateral [l], lamino-palatal [ɲ], and dorso-velar [ŋ] based on the articulator and points of articulation, the similarity of the air passages, movement of the vocal cords, interference of air currents, and the interference of another language. The patterns formed were tendencies based on most errors, replacements, omissions, additions, omissions-replacements, replacements-additions, cutting of syllables, and phoneme errors that change the morpheme. Therefore, many errors formed a series of similarities and structured patterns, especially for consonants that had different pronunciation rules from the mother tongue. Practically, this research can help BIPA teachers develop appropriate learning materials and strategies according to the error patterns and characteristics of learners when pronouncing the language.