An Error Analysis of Thai Writing of Third Year Thai-major Exchange Students from Department of Asian Languages and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in 2009.

Abstract

This research aimed to study errors in Thai writing of Third Year Thai-major Exchange Students from Department of Asian Languages and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, People’s Republic of China. The subjects of this study were 22 exchange students who had studied Thai at the Department of Thai and Eastern Languages, Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University in the second semester of the academic year 2009. Data for the error analysis were gathered from 132 pieces of Thai composition and the detailed research data would be shown in descriptive analysis format. The research showed that those students have problems in the following five areas: 1. Positions of Vowels and Tone Mark. Three types of mistakes were found. Displacement of vowel position only was most often found and it was followed by the tone mark displacement. Displacement of both vowel and tone marks was least commonly found. 2. Application of Silent Mark. Five types of common mistakes found in the use of silent mark (aka Ka-Ran in Thai) were listed in order of frequency: misuse of first character, misuse of last character, vowel misusage, tone mark misusage, and silent mark misusage. 3. Word Choice. Seven types of common mistakes found in word choice were listed in order of frequency: miscellaneous misusage, verb misusage, noun misusage, adjective misusage, preposition misusage, classifier misusage and conjunction misusage. 4. Sentence Formation. Four types of mistakes often found in sentence formation were listed in order of frequency: redundant words in sentence, foreign language-influenced sentence formation, lack of important words in sentence, and words ordering 5. Space and Paragraph. Three types of mistakes in space and paragraph were listed in order of frequency: hyphen misusage, spacing misusage, and incorrect paragraphing. วารสารศรีนครินทรวิโรฒวิจัยและพัฒนา (สาขามนุษยศาสตร์และสังคมศาสตร์) ปีที่ 3 ฉบับที่ 5 มกราคม-มิถุนายน 2554 25 Researcher would apply the research result to improve students’ writing skills so that they could proficiently write their research paper when they go back to study in their Thai-Major in the Department of Asian Languages and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, People’s Republic of China.