Abstract:
The purposes of this study were to compare four methods in learning similar Thai letters, namely, ม, น, ภ, and their rela¬tive difficulties in learning tasks. The four methods were as follows. Firstly, learning the first paired - associate list (list A) that had separated letters as stimuli and the names of those letters as responses before learning the second paired - associate list (list B) of normal letters as stimuli and the names of those letters as responses; subjects learned both lists by paired - associate study - test procedure. Secondly, cards of letter as stimuli in list A and its pronunciation were presented one by one before each trial of learning task in list B, list B was learned by paired - associate study - test procedure. Thirdly, illustration and construction of each letter were explained before learning each trial of list B by paired - associate study - test procedure. Fourthly, list B was learned by paired - associate study - test procedure. One hundred and twenty pre-school children of 2.6 to 6 years of age randomly divided into 4 groups were used as subjects for the four method employed. Means were computed; chi-square teat and analysis of varience were conducted, followed by Newman-Keuls test. The results of the study were as follows: 1. The number of trials to criterion by using method 1 was higher than that used in method 4 at significant level .05. 2. The number of trials to criterion by using method 4 was higher than that used in method 2 at significant level.01. 3. The number of trials to criterion by using method 2 was higher than that used in method 3 at significant level .05. 4. There were more errors in learning ม and น compare to learning ภ and ถ