In this study, the acquisition of the English stress system by native Thai speakers was
examined. The results from the production experiment (experiment 1) indicated that, like
late Spanish–English bilinguals, this group of L2 learners possesses some knowledge of
patterns of stress placement based on lexical class. More importantly, they seem to possess
native-like knowledge of the relationship between syllabic structure and stress pattern placement.
In their production of the English non-words, a syllable with a long vowel attracted
stress more often than those with a short vowel or coda consonant(s). As mentioned, this may
have been due to a relationship that exists between vowel length and lexical tone distribution
in Thai. Number of coda consonants, on the other hand, did not appear to influence stress
assignment, possibly due to the non-existent relationship between number of coda consonants
and lexical tone distribution in Thai.