VACANA
School of Liberal Arts
Mae Fah Luang University
School of Liberal Arts
Mae Fah Luang University
ISSN: 2287-0903
The primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Minimal Contrast Approach (MCA) in enhancing the pronunciation of English error sounds among Thai native parents and guardians. Employing a multistage sampling method, fifteen actively engaged Thai native parents in the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) were selected, adhering to specific inclusion criteria. The instruments were the pretest and posttest with a total of 2,520 minimal contrast tokens and 7 Minimal Contrast Approach (MCA) lessons along with corresponding learning materials for the common English error phonemes among Thais, e.g., /r/, /v/, /z/, /Ɵ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/, and /ʧ/. The Pronunciation Percent of Correct (PPC) was set at 66.67% as the benchmark for accurate pronunciation. The PPC scores from both pretest and posttest underwent analysis using the Paired Sample T-test. The findings revealed a statistically significant difference (p < .05) in improvement among the participants’ productions. This indicates the potential of being a beneficial approach to improve pronunciation skills at the phoneme level of Thai parents and adults, not solely among children or students. This study serves as preparation for Thai parents and guardians interested in operating a home English literacy environment for their young children.
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