The study of intelligibility and attitudes of Thai employees who work in international companies towards English spoken by ASEAN people

The study aims to investigate the intelligibility and attitudes of Thai employees who work in international companies towards English spoken by ASEAN people namely Singaporean, Malaysian and Vietnamese. The participants of the study consist of 35 employees who work in 13 different positions in different international companies. All participants share different educational backgrounds and English proficiency, but all of them are required to use basic English at work. The study was conducted with 3 research tools which are 2 sets of questionnaires, a short interview and 18 speech samples. The results of the study reveal that English spoken by Vietnamese speakers received the highest intelligibility levels and a neutral attitude from the participants. English spoken by Malaysian speakers received the second highest intelligibility levels and a positive attitude from the participants. English spoken by Singaporean speakers received the lowest intelligibility levels but a high positive attitude from the participants. There were factors which affected the levels of intelligibility of the participants including the surrounding environments, the pronunciation, the loudness of voice and the pace of the speech. The attitudes towards language variations were affected by the friendliness, the personalities and the pronunciation of the speakers. The findings of the study can be beneficial to those who prepare themselves to work with colleagues from ASEAN community namely Singaporean, Malaysian and Vietnamese. English teachers are able to apply this information to English lessons in order to raise the awareness of different English variations in ASEAN among students.