Linguistic Analysis Project (RUBRIC): (50pts) Student will analyze and compare the marked and
similar lexographic, phonetic and grammatical features of a chosen language and English to
demonstrate an understanding of English as a language system (phonology, morphology, semantics,
syntax, and pragmatics) to support ELLs. (ESOL 2010 - Domain 2, Standard 1; 2.2.b., 2.2.d.)
Standard 1: Language as a System
Teachers will demonstrate understanding of language as a system, including phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics and pragmatics; support ELLs’ acquisition of English in order to learn and to read,
write, and communicate orally in English.
2.2.b. Recognize the importance of ELLs’ home languages and language varieties, and build on
these skills as a foundation for learning English.
2.2.d. Understand and apply knowledge of the role of individual learner variables in the process of
learning English as a second language.
Directions: Linguistic Analysis Project (Submit in LiveText)
You have interviewed someone from a different culture for your Cultural Interview Assignment,
for your Parent Connection Research Paper you will research cultural practices in regards to
schooling that may affect parental involvement for that culture. Now, using the language that
corresponds to the culture you chose for those two projects, you are going investigate the differences
between that language and English. This will give you a deep picture of that particular culture and its
language and allow you to plan culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate instruction for a
student from that place of origin and L1.
For this assignment you will complete the “Linguistic Analysis” worksheet .doc. In order to
complete it correctly you must complete independent research on your language. The websites below
will be helpful to jumpstart your research.
http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/index.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/non-native-pronunciations-of-english
http://accent.gmu.edu/
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/profile.aspx?menu=004
Also use google and keyword searches such as:
“Differences between English and ______”
“English vs. _______”
“Contrastive analysis of English and ______”
“Comparing English and _________ “
Note: When you are a teacher and have your own classroom these are the first questions in regards
to language differences you have to ask yourself to begin instruction. Remember L1 literacy transfers
to L2. We can facilitate this process when we understand the similarities between the L1 and L2 and
teach at the gaps. If we know what stumbling blocks and difficult points will be, we can react
proactively. However, Contrastive Analysis, the approach of predicting all learner errors based on the
L1 is no more than 30% effective. Therefore, this is only one consideration in language teaching. You
may want to save this worksheet in your "teacher resources" file for future use.
Your Name: Deanne Twite
LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS WORKSHEET (25 questions)
Directions: Fill in the blank with the correct answer or highlight/underline the correct choice
for each item.
1. Language of Investigation: Thai
2. What places of origin (countries, regions, cities) is this language primarily spoken? Thai,
sometimes referred to as Siamese, is spoken in the central plains of Thailand and in Bangkok,
the capital. Thai is the official national language in Thailand and is used in education, the
media, and government administration and bureaucracy.
3. This closest/ most similar language to this language is: Lao
4. Approximately, how many speakers are there globally of this language? 37 Million
Alphabet: Orthography
5. This language has which type of alphabet?
a. Latin (every sign has a single sound)
b. Syllabic (every sign represents a whole syllable)
c. Logographic (each sign represents and entire word)
6. This language reads in which directions:
a. LEFT to RIGHT, UP to DOWN (It is difficult to say because consonants are written horizontally
from left to right, with vowels arranged above, below, to the left or to the right of the
corresponding consonant or in a combination of those positions.)
b. RIGHT to LEFT, DOWN to UP
c. RIGHT to LEFT, UP to DOWN
d. LEFT to RIGHT, DOWN to UP
7. The letters/ characters of this alphabet are of which language family?
a. Indo-European
e. Uralic
b. Sino-Tibetan
f. Dravidian
c. Semitic
g. Austonesian
d. Bantu
h. Altic
8. Does this language depend primarily on tone or pitch?
a. Yes
b. No
Phonetics and Phonology:
9. What sounds are specific to this language, but are not present in English? As far as sounds are
concerned, not a whole lot of sounds transfer from Thai to English. The main reason that
English does not have a lot of sounds that relate to Thai is because English is not a Phonemic
Tone. When speaking in Thai, one word could have several different meanings based on pitch.
Thai has several different pitches when speaking. Each syllable is spoken either mid, low,
high, falling, or a rising pitch.
10. What sounds are found in English, but are not found in this language? When it comes to
vowels, the sounds are much more flexible in English than in Thai. Below is a small table of
the sounds that are found in the English language and not in Thai.
English
Thai
1) The following English consonant
sounds do not occur in Thai:
/g/ (as in) go, gate, game, rug, big
/O/ (as in) think, thin, bath, both
// (as in) that, they, breathe
/v/ (as in) van, vent, vine
/z/ (as in) zip, zinc, zero
/z/ (as in) garage, pleasure
/r/ (as in) rug, railroad, raw
1) Thai students substitute it with
the following sound:
/k/
/t/ or /s/
/d/
/f/ or /w/
/s/
/s/
/l/ or /rr/
2) All English consonant sounds occur in
the final position of the syllable.
2) Only eight consonant sounds
occur in the final position of the
syllable: /k/, /d/, /p/, /n/(ng), /n/,
/m/, /y/, /w/. Therefore, Thai
students may substitute the
following sounds:
/n/ for /l/ in “bill” and “table”
/p/ for /f/ in “tough” and “Jeff”
/d/ for /s/ in “class” and “miss”
/h/ for /r/ in “car” and “dear”
/t/ for /O/ as in “both” and “soothe”
A cluster of consonant sounds is
even a greater problem for the Thai,
i.e. film, films, disk, disks, cast, lands.
3) Many English symbols share the same
sounds:
/s/ pass, place, seat, ceiling
/z/ use, zip
/f/ photo, film, rough, ruff
/k/ cat, kid, rake, pack
4) Some English consonants represent
more than one sound:
c = cat, call, cinema, cell
s = see, said, sugar, sure
g = gage, garage, giant, geography
ch = church, chat, choir, chemistry
3) Only one- when /t/ and /r/ are
together, they sound like /s/
4) No sir, there’s nothing like that.
Thai consonants are monophonic.
11. What sounds do speakers of this language have difficulty pronouncing in English? Thais tend to
speak English with a particular accent which is affected by the way they pronounce Thai. For
instance, r often becomes l and final consonants may change in pronunciation.
When pronouncing English words with vowel clusters not found in Thai (dr, fr, fl, fj, tw, sl, sm,
sw, sp, sk, st) Thais insert a short vowel, so smoke becomes sa-moke, frown becomes farown, screw becomes sa-crew and strike becomes sa-trike.
In Thai, speakers drop the second segment of a two-segment consonant cluster at the
beginning of a Thai word, so khray (who) and plaa (fish) become khay and paa. When
speaking English, they may do the same, particularly with r, turning brake into bake and free
into fee. Fried rice may become fied lice. English final consonant clusters are often shortened,
pump becomes pum and perfect becomes perfec.
Thai is tonal and this can affect their pronunciation of English syllables. In Thai the stress is
on single syllables while in English the stress is on groups of syllables. One effect is for Thai
speakers of English to stress the final syllable in words, for example butter becomes but’ter,
coffee becomes cof’fee, and shopping becomes shop’ping.
Thai has a number of intonations which do not appear in English. So when Thai is translated
to English it loses the intonations and may become rather staccato.
Syntax and Grammar:
12. The word order of this language is
a. Verb, subject, object (VSO)
b. Subject, verb, object (SVO)
c. Object, verb, subject (OVS)
d. Verb, object, subject (VOS)
e. Subject, object, verb (SOV)
f. Lacks a dominant word order
13. Are there particular parts of speech that are represented differently (such as articles or
prepositions)? Thai verbs do not inflect to indicate tense, number, etc., so there are
no plural verb forms. There are no conjugations for grammatical person either. There is no
grammatical marker in Thai for the perfective/imperfective aspect. Past tense is expressed by
adding a separate time word. When a verb is reduplicated, the action indicated by the verb is
intensified.
Thai nouns do not have a grammatical gender. Thai does not have an associative plural. In a
noun phrase construction "and" is different from "with". Certain nouns are reduplicated to
form collectives, for example เด็ก dek (child) is often repeated as เด็กๆ dek dek to refer to a group
of children.
There is no morphological distinction between adjectives and adverbs in Thai. Many words
can function as either. Adjectives can function in two different ways. They can be attributive,
functioning to modify a noun to form a noun phrase. In this case they precede the noun they
modify. Adjectives can also serve as predicate modifiers.
There are no articles in Thai like "the" or "a" in English.
Possession in Thai is indicated by adding the word "kong" in front of the noun or pronoun,
but it may often be omitted.
 ex. ลูกของแม่ (look kong mae) = "child belonging to mother" English = mother's child
 ex. นาอา (naa aar) = "field uncle" English = uncle's field.
Thai does not possess a morphological case marker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_grammar
14. How are tense and aspect indicated? Thai language has no past tense. To indicate an action
which took place in the past, a time word is added. For Instance, Yesterday is translated with
moer-warn-nee. This word is added at the end of the sentence: "We learned Thai languages
yesterday", which becomes "rao rian par-sar Thai moer-warn-nee". To ask questions that help
to express time in Thai, what, when, where, and why are typically at the end of the sentence.
To express the Present Continuous Tense, Thai uses the word "gum-lang" (v + ing) in front of
verb in sentence. Ex."I am playing games" transaltes with "chan gum-lang lean games".
To express future tenses. it is used the word "ja" (will or shall) + verb, and with or without a
period of time word to indicate that we are referring to the future. Ex. "He will go to Hua - Hin
next Sunday" becomes “khao ja pai Hua-Hin wan ar-tid nar".
http://www.siamesisch.com/thai/grammar.asp
15. What are the punctuation forms used in this language? List using English comparisons. There is
no punctuation in Thai, including full stops. Brackets, speech marks and exclamation marks
can be used in the same way as in English.
http://www.hellosiam.com/html/thailand/thailand-language.htm
16. How does this language mark gender? Men will use 'phom' and women 'dee-chan' in formal
settings. However, it is common to drop these formal pronouns in face-to-face conversations
or to use kin terms (e.g., elder/younger sibling ; aunt uncle) or first names instead. Men will
also show deference by ending their questions and statements with 'khrap', a "polite particle"
to show respect and refinement. Women end their questions and statements with 'kha'.
http://www.hellosiam.com/html/thailand/thailand-language.htm
Morphology: Remember that cognates have the same origin; they are not simply words that sound
alike.
17. If there are some shared cognates between English and this language, what are they?
If not, why not? I did a lot research on the possible cognates between Thai and English and
I was not able to find any. I found a lot of information on Thailand’s rich system of Loan Words
but nothing on cognates. There was more information on False Cognates than anything.
English and Thai languages are very different in how the syllables and consonants are placed.
There are several cognates between Thai and Mandarin though.
18. If there are some FALSE cognates between English and this language, what are they?
If not, why not? Brother and Sister: In Thailand the word brother or sister is used to refer to
a person as a great or best friend. In native English countries, to refer to a best friend as a
brother would be considered slang. Brother and sister refer to varying levels of blood lines.
She is my sister, we have the same mother and father. She is my half-sister, we have the same
father or mother and she is my step sister, we do not share a common bloodline but one of
each of our parents is married together.
http://seekyt.com/different-words-mean/
I wouldn’t go that far: Firstly, this is an ideal pseudo-cognate:
 It is a long phrase
 It is composed of short, simple words most of us know already
 It has a subtle and nuanced meaning—a powerful communication tool
Both languages, Thai and English, use the metaphor of traveling some distance to mean
following one’s thought process. What a great phrase! Not just for Bangkok taxi drivers
anymore!
This phrase gives us all a polite way to tell somebody that we understand their thinking—
basically; however, we might not reach the same extreme conclusions as they.
http://jasoninthailand.wordpress.com/category/pseudo-cognates/
Semantics:
19. How is formality or respect expressed? One aspect of Thai culture evident from the language
is the emphasis on politeness. Using polite forms of language in Thai shouldn’t be thought of
as demeaning to the speaker. In its best form the politeness in Thai reflects mutual respect,
not a hierarchical social structure. Conversations in Thailand tend to be pleasant and fun.
Controversial subjects aren’t brought up and people usually don’t speak sarcastically or
abusively. In fact, talking loudly or rudely is taken seriously in Thailand and should be
avoided.
Thai like all languages has variations in degree of correctness and formality. “R”, for example,
is almost always pronounced “l” informally but on TV, in Thai language classes, and polite
situations people will try to pronounce “r” correctly. Vocabulary can also change and there
are formal and informal variations for “eat”, “drink”, and many other words. There are also
many pronouns that show different degrees of politeness and respect.
The particles are often untranslatable words added to the end of a sentence to indicate
respect, a request, encouragement or other moods (similar to the use of intonation in
English), as well as varying the level of formality. They are not used in elegant (written) Thai.
The most common particles indicating respect are ครับ (khrap, [kʰráp], with a high tone) when
the speaker is male, and ค่ ะ (kha, [kʰâ], with a falling tone) when the speaker is female; these
can also be used to indicate an affirmative, though the ค่ ะ (falling tone) is changed to a คะ (high
tone).
http://phuketnews.phuketindex.com/opinion/the-thai-language-187815.html
20. What is an informal expression in this language? What is the English translation/meaning?
Hey! Friend!
yai-puan ไงเพื่อน
Pragmatics:
21. What is the common expression for greetings? (In English, we ask “How are you?”) Below is a
very cool table that I found for the comparisons of English greetings and Thai greetings. I
thought that it was very interesting to see the phrase written out and how the greetings are
used in Thai conversations.
English Phrases
Thai Phrases
English Phrases
Thai Phrases
English Greetings
Thai Greetings:
Hi!
sa-was-dee สวัสดี
Good morning!
a-roon-sa-was อรุ ณสวัสดิ์
Good evening!
sa-yan-sa-was สายัณห์ สวัสดิ์
Welcome! (to greet someone)
yin-dee-ton-rab ยินดีต้อนรับ
How are you?
sa-bai-dee-mai สบายดีไหม
I'm fine, thanks!
sa-bai-dee, kob-kun สบายดี, ขอบคุณ
And you?
leaw-kun-la แล้ วคุณหละ
Good/ So-So.
kor-dee/ reauy-reauy ก็ด/ี เรื่อยๆ
Thank you (very much)!
kob-kun-(mak) ขอบคุณ(มาก)
You're welcome! (for "thank
you")
mai-prn-rai ไม่ เป็ นไร
I missed you so much!
chan/phom-kid-thung-kunmak ฉัน/ผมคิดถึงคุณมาก
What's new?
mee-a-rai-mai-bang มีอะไรใหม่ บ้าง
Nothing much
mai-mee-ar-rai-mak ไม่ มีอะไรมาก
Good night!
ra-tee-sa-was ราตรี สวัสดิ์
See you later!
leaw-jor-kan-mai แล้ วเจอกันใหม่
Good bye!
la-korn ลาก่ อน
I also did some more research on typical Thai greetings. The Thai greeting referred to as
the wai (Thai: ไหว้, pronounced [wâːj]) consists of a slight bow, with the palms pressed together
in a prayer-like fashion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_greeting
I checked another page and found more information on the typical Thai greeting.The most
common greeting you will hear in Thailand is "sawatdee". This is quite often used for both
hello and goodbye. With most of the phrases on this page you need to end with the polite
words: khrab for men and kaa for women. There are also a few phrases where I say "phom"
which is "I" for men. Women would normally say 'di-chun" in formal situations and "chun"
among friends.
22. Are there certain topics that are considered inappropriate or forbidden? When students that
come from Thailand first arrive, they are still unaware of the cultures that they will soon learn
within the United States. It is still important for teachers to respect their Thai culture and
refrain from bringing up certain topics or acting a certain way towards the student. Below is a
small table of some things that are considered forbidden or inappropriate.

Thailand
It is considered rude to look directly at someone for more than a few
seconds.
 Don't point your foot at someone (especially their head!).
 Don't pat students on the head (in Thai culture this is where the spirits live).
 If teaching children, don't crouch down beside them with your head lower
than theirs.
 Don't discuss or criticize the monarchy.
 Avoid talking about national security.
Speaking loudly and being abusive with language is also something that is always to be
avoided!
http://www.englishclub.com/teaching-tips/teacher-taboos.htm
Teaching Implications:
23. Through your research what have you found are the biggest difficulties of speakers of this
language learning English? Please provide specific examples. The mother tongue is also
important due to the fact that the learner has a specific mind set regarding languages. Take,
for example, Thai students who are not used to verb tenses, inflections, and the sentence
structure that the English language possesses. Therefore, due to the fact that the Thai
language does not have tenses, one major problem for thai students when learning English is
to understand the tense differences.
It is also very difficult for Thai students to understand the structure of different parts of
speech, such as the predicate. A common mistake is the misuse of auxiliary verbs. Thai
students would rather say “I eating now.” instead of “I’m eating now.” or “Where you go?”
instead of “Where are you going?”
It is also important to bear in mind the fact that the Thai language has a different writing
system, where there are no capital letters, no spaces between words, nor any kind of
punctuation marks. Thus, Thai students frequently spell proper nouns without a capital letter,
do not understand the role of comma, and do not use punctuation marks at the end of
sentences.
Due to the fact that Thai is a tonal language, Thai students pronounce English words highly
influenced by the way the Thai language sounds. A very common mistake is the way they
pronounce words that have been coined in Thai from English. For example, the word
‘chocolate’ is pronounced /cho-ko-let/ instead of /cho-klet/.
Another common mistake is the way Thai students stress words, again influenced by the way
the Thai language sounds. For example, the word ‘salary’ is pronounced /sal-la-ree/ instead of
/sal-la-ree/.
24. If you have an early production ELL who this language is their L1, what would be the most
important thing you will teach them in regards to the difference between their language and English?
Most importantly, I would model the beginning stages of conversation English. I mean that I
would scrape off a small chunk as to what is acceptable within certain parameters of an
English conversation. I would also explain to them what a conversation is and its informality
in English rather than its formality in Thai.
25. What would you expect to be ongoing difficulties for intermediate ELLs who this is there L1? What
areas would you still need to address even after they had mastered social English? After doing
some research on Thai, I realized how that language is so different in comparison to English.
For one thing, I believe that aspect and tense would be something that would continue to be
difficult for a student that speaks Thai who is learning English. I also believe that vowel
sounds will be something that is completely different and may pose as the hardest concept to
learn. Since students that speak Thai rely heavily on tone and pitch when speaking to others,
ELL’s from Thailand may take a great deal of time learning that tone and pitch are not nearly
as important in English.