IMPROVING KOREAN LOANWORD TRANSCRIPTION SKILLS THROUGH LEARNING THE KOREAN ROMANIZATION SYSTEM FOR THAI LEARNERS

Abstract

Abstract—Korean loanword transcription poses challenges for Thai learners when they rely on Roman letters, because Korean and Thai employ different Romanization conventions that can cue different consonant categories . This study examined whether learning the Korean Romanization system improves Thai learners ’ ability to transcribe English -origin loanwords into Hangul, with particular attention to the choice of initial stop consonants . Nineteen Thai learners who completed a 60-hour Korean 1A course participated in a one -week study . Participants completed a Google Survey task involving ten English words and were evaluated only on the correctness of the initial consonant, categorized as correct (aspirated) or incorrect (tense or lax ). Group A received Romanization -rule instruction prio r to transcription, while Group B first attempted transcription using prior knowledge and then repeated the task after receiving the same instruction. Results showed that instruction improved performance, but the highest accuracy emerged when learners atte mpted the task first and received instruction afterward: accuracy increased from 72.9% (prior-knowledge attempt) to 87.1% after instruction, compared with 79.2% when instruction was provided before the first attempt . The findings suggest that a “try-first, then teach” sequence may enhance the effectiveness of Romanization - based instruction for Korean loanword transcription among Thai learners.