English Speaking Difficulties Encountered by Thai Wives and Communication Strategies Used by Them upon Communicating with Their Foreign Spouses

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to investigate English speaking difficulties encountered by Thai wives upon communicating with their foreign spouses and to study communication strategies used by Thai wives while communicating with their husbands. The population of this study were the Thai wives who had foreign husbands in Buriram province. The samples consisted of three Thai women who were five foreigners’ wives in Buriram province. They were selected via a purposive sampling method. The research tool was a semi-structured interview. The instrument was examined by three experts in order to meet its validity. Its index of item-objective congruence (IOC) was between 0.67 and 1.00. The data obtained from the interview were analyzed by using the content analysis. The research results revealed that English speaking difficulties encountered by the samples were as the following: 1) They did not understand the English pronunciation and accents spoken by their husbands. 2) They lacked self-confidence of speaking English with their spouses. 3) They could not pronounce many English sounds correctly. And 4) they could not use correct English structures, etc. Moreover, the following communication strategies used by Thai wives while communicating with their husbands: 1) use a body language or facial expressions or, 2) paraphrase, 3) borrowing, 4) avoidance, and 5) appealing for assistance.