As observed from the speaking tests, there are certain aspects that should be taken into consideration. First, although
pronunciation is focused and practiced a lot in class during the lesson, a number of learners could not perform on
reading aloud. It was found that their articulation was problematic, leading to misunderstanding by the listeners. It
seemed that there were a lot of sounds that were difficult for them to pronounce correctly. For example, as was always
the case, the letter h and s are problematic for most Thai learners due to their absence in the Thai language. Therefore,
the initial sounds in the words “think, although, them, and the” are often mispronounced in the tests. As for the final
sound, the word “How much” is often pronounced “*How mud”.
Taken together, most of the learners could not pronounce or mispronounce a series of words, resulting in
misunderstanding in conversation. As noticed, most of the learners read a paragraph from a slip without understanding
the meanings of what they were reading. That is, most of them read word by word without intonation, pauses or stress.
Therefore, the knowledge of phonetics is a must and is needed in the instruction at the beginning of the course. Thai
teachers should focus on pronunciation or on word level before going beyond communication in English. Moreover,
the teachers have to raise learners’ awareness and the importance of pronunciation both in word and sentence level in
order to avoid communication breaks down or misunderstanding as a result of mispronunciation, inappropriate lexical
items, and lack of pragmatic knowledge as conceived by the interlocutor.