Thai Language Books, Audio CDs for Self Study, Textbooks
1. Teach Yourself Thai, Complete Course by David Smyth, Book + Audio CD pack, McGraw-Hill
Begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including: Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues; Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises; Step-by-step guide to pronunciation; Practical vocabulary; Regular and irregular verb tables; Plenty of practice exercises and answers; Self-assessment quizzes to test progress; Bilingual glossary.
2. Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker, Paperback: 262 pages
Designed for either self-study or classroom use. Teaches all four language skills speaking, listening (when used in conjunction with the cassette tapes), reading and writing . Offers clear, easy, step-by-step instruction, building on what has been previously learned. Used by many Thai temples in America.
3. Thai for Beginners CD by Benjawan Poomsan Becker, Audio CD, Publisher: Paiboon Publishing
This set contains two CDs which follow the book "Thai for Beginners". It can help you to rapidly improve your speaking and listening skills in Thai. They are approximately two and a half hours long in total. There are 19 tracks for each CD including a Guide to Pronunciation, Vocabulary, Conversations and Sentences for Lessons One through Ten, Consonants, Vowels, Tones and Other Punctuation Marks.
4. Improving Your Thai Pronunciation by Benjawan Poomsan Becker, Audio CD: 50 pages, Publisher: Paiboon
This booklet and CD is designed to help foreigners maximize their potential in pronouncing Thai words and enhance their Thai listening and speaking skills. Students will find that they have more confidence in speaking the language and can make themselves understood better. The book and the CD are made to be used in combination. The course is straight forward, easy to follow and compact.
5. Thai: An Essential Grammar by David Smyth, Paperback: 240 pages, Publisher: Routledge
Concise and user-friendly, Thai: An Essential Grammar is the ideal guide to the basic structures of the language for both students on taught courses and independent learners. Grammatical forms are explained in clear, jargon-free style and illustrated by examples, given in both Thai script and romanization. As well as grammar, it includes guidance on pronunciation, speech conventions and the beautiful Thai writing system.
6. Thai Reference Grammar: The Structure of Spoken Thai by James Higbie, Snea Thinsan, Paperback, Publisher: Orchid Press
This book is a serious and comprehensive study of Thai. The authors change the Thai spelling of some words, given in their examples, to show the way the words are pronounced (kao, for he, has a high tone in spoken Thai but rising tone in written Thai) in cases where this differs from the written version. The book does not confine itself to spoken Thai, however; for any given word ('so', for example, in the sense of consequently or therefore) it will give you the six or seven Thai words in use, and show you how they are deployed; and will tell you which are in every-day use and which you're likely to encounter mainly in writing ie the formal ones you can avoid.
7. Thai-English English-Thai Dictionary for Non-Thai Speakers by Benjawan Poomsan Becker, Paperback: 658 pages
This practical dictionary is designed to help English speakers communicate in Thai. It is equally useful for those who can read the Thai alphabet and those who can't. Most Thai-English dictionaries either use Thai script exclusively for the Thai entries (making them difficult for westerners to use) or use only phonetic transliteration (making it impossible to look up a word in Thai script). This dictionary solves these problems by dividing the entries into three sections: Section One (English-Phonetic-Thai), Section Two (Phonetic-Thai-English) and Section Three (Thai-Phonetic-English). The transliteration system is the same as that used in Paiboon Publishing's other books. You will find most of the vocabulary you are likely to need in everyday life, including basic medical, cultural, political and scientific terms. Consistent and accurate phonetic transcription of Thai sounds for those unable to read the Thai alphabet.
8. Rough Guide to Thai Dictionary Phrasebook 2 by Lexus, Paperback: 288 pages.