Participants The participants were Thai learners of English (N=90), studying in the field of sciences, from the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science, Engineering, and Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Thailand. All of them, at the time of study, were second year students, and were randomly selected to participate in this study. These participants were ideal for this study for several reasons. First, they were a homogeneous group of students studying in mixed-ability class. Second, Thai was their mother tongue, and they had no formal exposure to the spoken variety of the language other than that in the classroom. Finally, they were studying English courses, which contribute positively to the study, allowing certain generalizations to be made.