Sunaisah Doloh. Relationships of learner's factors and intelligibility and comprehensibility levels of Thai EFL students towards varieties of English. Master's Degree(Applied Linguistics). Mahidol University. Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. : Mahidol University, 2020.
Relationships of learner's factors and intelligibility and comprehensibility levels of Thai EFL students towards varieties of English
Abstract:
This study aimed: 1) to investigate levels of intelligibility of Thai undergraduate students at Homeland University, 2) to examine the relationship between intelligibility and learners' variables: accent familiarity, language proficiency, attitude, overseas experience, and length of time learning English, 3) to examine the relationship between intelligibility and comprehensibility scores of Thai undergraduate students at Homeland University, and 4) to examine the relationship between self-report of comprehensibility and standardized comprehensibility test of Thai undergraduate students at Homeland University. The participants in the study were 75 English major students at Homeland University. A stratified sampling technique was used for selecting the participants. The research instruments consisted of a questionnaire, intelligibility test, accent familiarity judgment, comprehensibility test, self-report of comprehensibility, attitudinal test, and speech samples. The quantitative data were analyzed employing standard deviation, and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results showed that Thai EFL learners received high scores on intelligibility test on every speaker, and Thai was the most intelligible speaker while American was the least intelligible speaker. The study also found the correlation between intelligibility with only three learners' factors: accent familiarity, language proficiency, and attitude while overseas experience and length of time learning English were found no correlation. In addition, there was a significant correlation between intelligibility scores and comprehensibility scores. Standardized comprehensibility scores were significantly correlated with a comprehensibility rating scale for three speakers: British speaker, Chinese speaker, and Thai speaker while no correlation was found in American speaker